Gregory of Nyssa

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500

406 passages across 37 books of the Bible · Who was this?

On Philippians

11 of 11
  1. Philippians 2:6
    The form of God is absolutely the same as the essence. Yet when he came to be in “the form of a slave,” he took form in the essence of the slave, not assuming a naked form for himself. Yet he is not thereby divorced from his essence as God. Undoubtedly when Paul said that he was “in the form of God,” he was indicating the essence along with the form.

    AGAINST EUNOMIUS 3.2.147

  2. Philippians 2:6
    He did not say “having a nature like that of God,” as would be said of [a man] who was made in the image of God. Rather Paul says “being in the very form of God.” All that is the Father’s is in the Son.

    ANTIRRHETICUS AGAINST APOLLINARIUS

  3. Philippians 2:7
    He “emptied himself,” as the Scripture says, so that as much as nature could hold it might receive.

    AD THEOPHILUM ADVERSUS APOLLINARISTAS 3

  4. Philippians 2:7
    The Godhead is emptied so that the human nature may accommodate it. What is human, on the other hand, is made new, becoming divine through mingling with the divine.

    AGAINST EUNOMIUS 3.3.67

  5. Philippians 2:7
    He says of the Son that he has “come to be in the likeness and form of men.” If he “came to be” in this likeness, this obviously implies that he was not invested with it from the beginning. Before coming to be in that likeness he was not fashioned according to some corporeal pattern. For no embodied form could become the pattern for what is previously not embodied.

    ANTIRRHETICUS AGAINST APOLLINARIUS

  6. Philippians 2:7
    The Word who appeared in the flesh was the same as the Word that was with God. But the earthly flesh he assumed was not the same as the Godhead until this too was changed into Godhead, so that necessarily some attributes belonged to God the Word, others to the form of a slave.

    AGAINST EUNOMIUS 3.3.62

  7. Philippians 2:7
    The one who says that he “took the form of a slave”—and this form is flesh—is saying that, being himself something else according to his divine form, something else in his nature, he assumed the servile form.

    ANTIRRHETICUS AGAINST APOLLINARIUS

  8. Philippians 2:9
    It is obvious that the highest is in need of no exaltation. Only what is lowly can be lifted to the exalted state, becoming now what it was not before. Being united to the Lord the human nature is lifted up to share in his divinity. What is exalted is that which has been lifted up from lowliness.

    ANTIRRHETICUS AGAINST APOLLINARIUS

  9. Philippians 2:9
    God is “above every name.” The only proper way to name God is as above every name. God exceeds every operation of the intellect. God cannot be contained in any nominal definition. This is a sign to us of God’s incommunicable greatness.

    AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.587

  10. Philippians 2:10
    This name has become superior to every name. His divinity is such that it cannot be adequately manifested merely through verbal signs, no matter how exalted they are. As the exalted One comes to be in the lowly, so the lowly One may receive in return the properties of the exalted.

    ANTIRRHETICUS AGAINST APOLLINARIUS

  11. Philippians 2:10
    The One who once came into the world has now become the Firstborn from the dead, both of brothers in faith and of all creation. He will return to the world as judge of all the world in righteousness, as the prophet declares, when it will become clear. The name of Firstborn, which he assumed first on our behalf, will not be cast away in in those last days. Every knee will bow at the name of Jesus. He is above every name. The whole company of angels worships this One who has been called the Firstborn. They all rejoice in the restoration of humanity, whom he has restored to their original grace by becoming the Firstborn among us.

    AGAINST EUNOMIUS 3.2.48

All writers