Gregory of Nyssa — Commentary on Scripture

John 1:1

[John] declares, “And the Word was with God.” Once more the Evangelist fears for our untrained state, once more he dreads our childish and untaught condition. He does not yet entrust to our ears the appellation of “Father,” in case any of the more carnally minded, learning of “the Father,” may be led by his understanding to imagine also by consequence a mother. Neither does he yet name in his proclamation the Son, for he still suspects our customary tendency to the lower nature and is concerned that if someone hears of the Son, that person might humanize the Godhead by an idea of passion. For this reason, resuming his proclamation, he again calls him “the Word,” making this the account of his nature to you in your unbelief. For as your word proceeds from your mind, without requiring the intervention of passion, so here also, in hearing of the Word, you shall conceive that which is from something and shall not conceive passion.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 4.1

John 3:6

We know too that the flesh is subject to death because of sin, but the Spirit of God is both incorruptible and life-giving and beyond death. As at our physical birth there comes into the world with us a potentiality of being again turned to dust, plainly the Spirit also imparts a life-giving potentiality to the children begotten by himself. What lesson, then, do we learn from this? We learn that we should wean ourselves from this life in the flesh, which has an inevitable follower, death; and that we should search for a way of life that does not bring death along with it.

ON VIRGINITY 13

John 8:34

“Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin,” that is, turning to evil in any matter and situation somehow enslaves a person and puts the stigma of a runaway slave on the person, with scars and brands inflicted by the blows of sin.

ON VIRGINITY 18

John 10:9

Where do you pasture your sheep, O good Shepherd who carries all your flock on your shoulders? For the one lamb that you took up is the entire human race, which you raised on your shoulders. Show me then the place of pasture, make known to me the waters of rest, lead me out to the good grass, call me by name that I, your sheep, may listen to your voice and may your call be the gift of eternal life.… “Show me, then,” she says, “where you feed,” so that I may find the pasture of salvation and be filled with the food of heaven which all people must eat if they would enter into life.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 2

John 10:18

He foretells that at the time of his passion he would voluntarily detach his soul from his body, saying, “No one takes my soul from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” … For his Godhead, alike before taking flesh and in the flesh and after his passion, is immutably the same, being at all times what it was by nature and so continuing forever. But in the suffering of his human nature the Godhead fulfilled the dispensation for our benefit by severing the soul for a season from the body, yet without being itself separated from either of those elements to which it was once for all united. And it did so by joining again the elements that had been parted in this way so as to give to all human nature a beginning and an example that it should follow of the resurrection from the dead, that is, that all the corruptible may put on incorruption and all the mortal may put on immortality, our firstfruits having been transformed to the divine nature by its union with God.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.13

John 11:3

One of the Lord’s companions and friends is ill (Lazarus is the sick man’s name). The Lord refuses any visiting of his friend, though far away from the sick man, that in the absence of the Life, death might find room and power to do his own work by the agency of disease.

ON THE MAKING OF MAN 25.11

John 11:43

Here we have a man past the prime of life, a corpse, decaying, swollen, in fact, already in a state of dissolution, so that even his own relatives did not want the Lord to draw near the tomb because the decayed body enclosed there was so offensive. And yet, he is brought into life by a single call, confirming the proclamation of the resurrection, that is to say, that expectation of it as universal that we learn by a particular experience to entertain. For as in the regeneration of the universe the apostle tells us that “the Lord himself will descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,” and by a trumpet sound raise up the dead to incorruption—so now too he who is in the tomb, at the voice of command, shakes off death as if it were only sleep. He rids himself of the corruption that had come on his condition of a corpse, leaps forth from the tomb whole and sound, not even hindered as he leaves by the bonds of the grave cloths round his feet and hands.

ON THE MAKING OF MAN 25.11

John 12:35

The one who is stupid looks downward and hands his soul over to pleasures of the body, as cattle to pasture, living only for the stomach and the organs nearby, being alienated from the life of God. He is a stranger to the promise of the covenants, considering nothing else to be good than pleasing the body. This one, and everyone like him, is the one making his way “in darkness,” as the Scripture says.

ON VIRGINITY 4

John 13:35

It is true, indeed, that the divine beauty is not adorned with any shape or endowment of form, by any beauty of color, but it is contemplated as excellence in unspeakable bliss. As then painters transfer human forms to their pictures by means of certain colors, laying on their copy the proper and corresponding tints so that the beauty of the original may be accurately transferred to the likeness, so I would have you understand that our Maker also, painting the portrait to resemble his own beauty, by the addition of virtues, as it were with colors, shows in us his own sovereignty. There are also many and varied tints, so to say, by which his true form is portrayed: not red or white or the blending of these, whatever it may be called, nor a touch of black that paints the eyebrow and the eye and shades, by some combination, the depressions in the figure, and all such arts that the hands of painters contrive. But instead of these, purity, freedom from passion, blessedness, alienation from all evil and all those attributes of a similar kind that help to form in men and women the likeness…

It is true, indeed, that the divine beauty is not adorned with any shape or endowment of form, by any beauty of color, but it is contemplated as excellence in unspeakable bliss. As then painters transfer human forms to their pictures by means of certain colors, laying on their copy the proper and corresponding tints so that the beauty of the original may be accurately transferred to the likeness, so I would have you understand that our Maker also, painting the portrait to resemble his own beauty, by the addition of virtues, as it were with colors, shows in us his own sovereignty. There are also many and varied tints, so to say, by which his true form is portrayed: not red or white or the blending of these, whatever it may be called, nor a touch of black that paints the eyebrow and the eye and shades, by some combination, the depressions in the figure, and all such arts that the hands of painters contrive. But instead of these, purity, freedom from passion, blessedness, alienation from all evil and all those attributes of a similar kind that help to form in men and women the likeness of God. With such hues as these did the Maker of his own image mark our nature.And if you were to examine the other points also by which the divine beauty is expressed, you will find that to them too the likeness in the image that we present is perfectly preserved.… God is love and the fount of love: for this the great John declares that “love is of God” and “God is love,” the Fashioner of our nature has made this to be our feature too. For “in this,” he says, “shall all know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” And so, if love is absent, the whole stamp of the likeness is transformed.

ON THE MAKING OF MAN 5

John 14:6

[Eunomius] speaks of God as “without beginning, eternally without end, alone.” Once more “understand, you simple ones,” as Solomon says, “his subtlety,” in case you might be deceived and fall headlong into the denial of the Godhead of the only-begotten Son. Whatever is devoid of death or decay is that which is without end. That, likewise, is called everlasting that does not exist only for a time. That, therefore, which is neither everlasting nor without end is surely seen in the nature that is perishable and mortal. And so, the one who predicates “unendingness” of the one and only God and does not include the Son in the assertion of “unendingness” and “eternity” maintains by such a proposition that he whom he thus contrasts with the eternal and unending is perishable and temporary. But we, even when we are told that God “alone has immortality,” understand by “immortality” the Son. For life is immortality, and the Lord is that life who said, “I am the Life.”

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.4

John 14:10

The Lord speaks the truth who says, “I am in the Father and the Father in me”—plainly, the one in his entirety is in the other in his entirety. The Father does not have an overwhelming presence in the Son. The Son is not deficient in the Father. And the Lord also says that the Son should be honored. And, “The one who has seen me has seen the Father,” and, “No one fully knows the Father except the Son.” In all of this, there is no hint … of any variation in glory or of essence or anything else between the Father and the Son.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.4

John 17:10

For if the Son were not of the same nature as the Father, how could he have had in himself that which was different? Or how could he have shown in himself what was dissimilar if the foreign and alien nature did not receive the stamp of what was of a different kind from itself? But [Eunomius] says, “Neither does he have a divider of his glory.” Here he speaks truly even though he does not know what he is saying. For the Son does not divide the glory with the Father but has the glory of the Father in its entirety, even as the Father has all the glory of the Son. For this is what he said to the Father, “All mine are yours and yours are mine.” Notice how Christ also says that he will appear on the judgment day “in the glory of the Father,” when he will render to every one according to his works. And by this phrase he shows the unity of nature that subsists between them. For as “there is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon,” because of the difference between the natures of those luminaries (since if both had the same glory we would think there was any difference in their na…

For if the Son were not of the same nature as the Father, how could he have had in himself that which was different? Or how could he have shown in himself what was dissimilar if the foreign and alien nature did not receive the stamp of what was of a different kind from itself? But [Eunomius] says, “Neither does he have a divider of his glory.” Here he speaks truly even though he does not know what he is saying. For the Son does not divide the glory with the Father but has the glory of the Father in its entirety, even as the Father has all the glory of the Son. For this is what he said to the Father, “All mine are yours and yours are mine.” Notice how Christ also says that he will appear on the judgment day “in the glory of the Father,” when he will render to every one according to his works. And by this phrase he shows the unity of nature that subsists between them. For as “there is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon,” because of the difference between the natures of those luminaries (since if both had the same glory we would think there was any difference in their nature), so he who foretold of himself that he would appear in the glory of the Father indicated by the identity of glory their community of nature.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.6

John 17:17

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit alike give sanctification, life, light, comfort, and any other similar graces. And let no one attribute the power of sanctification in a special sense to the Spirit when he hears the Savior in the Gospel saying to the Father concerning his disciples, “Father, sanctify them in your name.” So too all the other gifts are produced in those who are worthy alike by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: every grace and power, guidance, life, comfort, the change to immortality, the passage to liberty, and every other boon that exists, which descends to us.

ON THE HOLY TRINITY

John 17:22

In giving “all power” to his disciples by his blessing, in his prayer here to the Father he grants many other favors to those who are holy. And he adds this, which is the crown of all blessings, that in all the diversity of life’s decisions they should never be divided greatly in their choice of the good. And so he prays that all “may be one,” united in a single good so that linked “in the bond of peace,” as the apostle says, through “the unity of the [Holy] Spirit,” all might become “one body and one spirit,” through the “one hope” to which they have all been called.But it would be better here if we would quote the actual words of the Gospel. “That they all may be one,” he says, “as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us.” Now the bond of this unity is glory, and no one who would consider seriously the Lord’s words would deny that this glory is the Holy Spirit. For he says, “The glory that you have given me, I have given to them.” He gave his disciples this glory when he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And he himself received this glory when h…

In giving “all power” to his disciples by his blessing, in his prayer here to the Father he grants many other favors to those who are holy. And he adds this, which is the crown of all blessings, that in all the diversity of life’s decisions they should never be divided greatly in their choice of the good. And so he prays that all “may be one,” united in a single good so that linked “in the bond of peace,” as the apostle says, through “the unity of the [Holy] Spirit,” all might become “one body and one spirit,” through the “one hope” to which they have all been called.But it would be better here if we would quote the actual words of the Gospel. “That they all may be one,” he says, “as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us.” Now the bond of this unity is glory, and no one who would consider seriously the Lord’s words would deny that this glory is the Holy Spirit. For he says, “The glory that you have given me, I have given to them.” He gave his disciples this glory when he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And he himself received this glory when he put on human nature, though he had indeed always possessed it since before the beginning of the world. And now that his human nature has been glorified by the Spirit, this participation in the glory of the Spirit is communicated to all who are united with him, beginning with his disciples.

HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 15

John 20:13

His body too is called “the Lord” on account of the inherent Godhead.

LETTER 17

John 20:17

He becomes the firstborn of the new creation of men and women in Christ by the twofold regeneration, reborn by holy baptism and by that birth that is the consequence of the resurrection from the dead. In both alike he becomes for us the Prince of life, the firstfruits and the firstborn. This firstborn, then, also has brothers. This is who he is referring to when he says to Mary, “Go and tell my brothers, I go to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” In these words he sums up the whole aim of his dispensation as man. For humanity rebelled against God and “served those that by nature were no gods.” And even though they were the children of God, they became attached to an evil father falsely so called. Therefore, the mediator between God and man, having assumed the firstfruits of all human nature, sends to his brothers the announcement of himself not in his divine character but in that which he shares with us. He says, “I am departing in order to make that true Father, from whom you were separated, to be your Father; and to make that true God from whom you had rebelled…

He becomes the firstborn of the new creation of men and women in Christ by the twofold regeneration, reborn by holy baptism and by that birth that is the consequence of the resurrection from the dead. In both alike he becomes for us the Prince of life, the firstfruits and the firstborn. This firstborn, then, also has brothers. This is who he is referring to when he says to Mary, “Go and tell my brothers, I go to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” In these words he sums up the whole aim of his dispensation as man. For humanity rebelled against God and “served those that by nature were no gods.” And even though they were the children of God, they became attached to an evil father falsely so called. Therefore, the mediator between God and man, having assumed the firstfruits of all human nature, sends to his brothers the announcement of himself not in his divine character but in that which he shares with us. He says, “I am departing in order to make that true Father, from whom you were separated, to be your Father; and to make that true God from whom you had rebelled to be your God. And I am doing this in my own person. For by those firstfruits that I have assumed, I am in myself presenting all humanity to its God and Father.”Since, then, the firstfruits made the true God to be its God and the good Father to be its Father, the blessing is secured for human nature as a whole, and by means of the firstfruits the true God and Father becomes Father and God of all men and women. Now “if the firstfruits are holy, the lump also is holy.” But where the firstfruits, Christ, is—and the firstfruits is none other than Christ—there also are those who are Christ’s, as the apostle says.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.8

John 20:17

Now that the words addressed to Mary are not applicable to the Godhead of the Only Begotten, one may learn from the intention with which they were uttered. For he who humbled himself to a level with human littleness is the one who spoke these words. … He from whom we were formerly alienated by our revolt has become our Father and our God. Accordingly in the passage cited above the Lord brings the good news of this benefit. And the words are not a proof of the degradation of the Son but the good news of our reconciliation to God. For that which has taken place in Christ’s humanity is a common boon bestowed on humankind generally. For as when we see in him the weight of the body that naturally gravitates to earth ascending through the air into the heavens, we believe according to the words of the apostle that we also “shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” Even so, when we hear that the true God and Father has become the God and Father of our Firstfruits, we no longer doubt that the same God has become our God and Father too, inasmuch as we have learned that we…

Now that the words addressed to Mary are not applicable to the Godhead of the Only Begotten, one may learn from the intention with which they were uttered. For he who humbled himself to a level with human littleness is the one who spoke these words. … He from whom we were formerly alienated by our revolt has become our Father and our God. Accordingly in the passage cited above the Lord brings the good news of this benefit. And the words are not a proof of the degradation of the Son but the good news of our reconciliation to God. For that which has taken place in Christ’s humanity is a common boon bestowed on humankind generally. For as when we see in him the weight of the body that naturally gravitates to earth ascending through the air into the heavens, we believe according to the words of the apostle that we also “shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” Even so, when we hear that the true God and Father has become the God and Father of our Firstfruits, we no longer doubt that the same God has become our God and Father too, inasmuch as we have learned that we shall come to the same place where Christ has entered for us as our forerunner.

AGAINST EUNOMIUS 12.1

John 20:19

He did not remain in death’s power. The wounds that his body had received from the iron of the nails and spear offered no impediment to his rising again. After his resurrection he showed himself whenever he wanted to his disciples. When he wished to be present with them, he was in their midst without being seen, needing no entrance through open doors.… All of these occurrences, and whatever other similar facts we know about his life, require no further argument to show that they are signs of deity and of a sublime and supreme power.

THE GREAT CATECHISM 32

John 20:27

Once he had accustomed people to seeing the miracle of resurrection in other bodies, he confirmed his word in his own humanity. You already received a glimpse of that word working in others—those who were about to die, the child who had just ceased to live, the young man at the edge of the grave, the putrefying corpse, all alike restored by one command to life.… Now look at him whose hands were pierced with nails, look at him whose side was transfixed with a spear. Pass your fingers through the print of the nails, thrust your hand into the spear wound. You could surely guess how far within your hand would reach by the breadth of the external scar since the wound that gives admission to the hand shows to what depth the iron entered. If he then has been raised, well may we utter the apostle’s exclamation, “How do some say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” Since, then, every prediction of the Lord is shown to be true by the testimony of events—in fact, we not only learned this from his words but also received the proof in his deeds from the very same people who returned to lif…

Once he had accustomed people to seeing the miracle of resurrection in other bodies, he confirmed his word in his own humanity. You already received a glimpse of that word working in others—those who were about to die, the child who had just ceased to live, the young man at the edge of the grave, the putrefying corpse, all alike restored by one command to life.… Now look at him whose hands were pierced with nails, look at him whose side was transfixed with a spear. Pass your fingers through the print of the nails, thrust your hand into the spear wound. You could surely guess how far within your hand would reach by the breadth of the external scar since the wound that gives admission to the hand shows to what depth the iron entered. If he then has been raised, well may we utter the apostle’s exclamation, “How do some say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” Since, then, every prediction of the Lord is shown to be true by the testimony of events—in fact, we not only learned this from his words but also received the proof in his deeds from the very same people who returned to life by resurrection—what other occasion is left for those who do not believe? Let us rather bid farewell to those who pervert our simple faith by “philosophy and vain deceit.” Let us instead hold on to our confession [of the resurrection] in its purity, a confession that we have learned through the gracious words of the prophet, “You shall take away their breath, and they shall fail and turn to dust. You shall then send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.”

ON THE MAKING OF MAN 25.12-13

John 21:25

Holy Scripture omits all idle inquiry into substance as superfluous and unnecessary. And I think it was for this reason that John, the son of thunder, who with the loud voice of the doctrines contained in his Gospel rose above that of the preaching that heralded them, said at the close of his Gospel, “There are also many other things that Jesus did, so many that, in fact, if all of them were written, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” He certainly does not mean by these the miracles of healing, for of these the narrative [in general terms] leaves none unrecorded, even though it does not mention the names of all who were healed. For when he tells us that the dead were raised, that the blind received their sight, that the deaf heard, that the lame walked and that he healed all kinds of sickness and disease, he does not in this leave any miracle unrecorded but embraces each and all in these general terms. But it may be that the Evangelist means this in his profound wisdom: that we are to learn the majesty of the Son of God not by th…

Holy Scripture omits all idle inquiry into substance as superfluous and unnecessary. And I think it was for this reason that John, the son of thunder, who with the loud voice of the doctrines contained in his Gospel rose above that of the preaching that heralded them, said at the close of his Gospel, “There are also many other things that Jesus did, so many that, in fact, if all of them were written, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” He certainly does not mean by these the miracles of healing, for of these the narrative [in general terms] leaves none unrecorded, even though it does not mention the names of all who were healed. For when he tells us that the dead were raised, that the blind received their sight, that the deaf heard, that the lame walked and that he healed all kinds of sickness and disease, he does not in this leave any miracle unrecorded but embraces each and all in these general terms. But it may be that the Evangelist means this in his profound wisdom: that we are to learn the majesty of the Son of God not by the miracles alone that he did in the flesh. For these are little compared with the greatness of his other work.… For since God has made all things in wisdom and to his wisdom there is no limit, … the world that is bounded by limits of its own cannot contain within itself the account of infinite wisdom. If, then, the whole world is too little to contain the teaching of the works of God, how many worlds could contain an account of the Lord of them all? For perhaps it will not be denied even by the tongue of the blasphemer that the maker of all things that have been created by the mere fiat of his will is infinitely greater than all. If, then, the whole creation cannot contain what might be said respecting itself—for this is, according to our explanation, what the great Evangelist is testifying to—how should human shallowness contain all that might be said of the Lord of creation?

ANSWER TO EUNOMIUS’S SECOND BOOK