Gregory of Nazianzus De Filio (Orat. 29) 7

ed. Arthur James Mason

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De Filio (Orat. 29). Gregory of Nazianzus. ed. Arthur James Mason. Germany. 2014.

Sponsored by University of Leipzig.

Funding provided by European Social Fund Saxony.

Current edition First1KGreek

De Filio (Orat. 29) (Greek) (Gregory of Nazianzus. The Five Theological Orations. Mason, Arthur James, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1899.)

Notes on the current edition

De Filio (Orat. 29)

1. 1 μεθύωμεν b ΙΙ 5 γεννῶντος cdefg || 7 δεξ̣ͅομεθα deg ‘Or. 1’
2. 1. τὰ μέν] i.e. the series θέλων, γεννῶν, λέγων; τὰ δέ, i.e. the series θέλησις, γέννησις, λόγος.
3. 3. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἕπεται πάντως] Gr. is using ἕπεται in its logical sense. He does not mean that in the order of facts the act of will sometimes fails of its effect; he means that it does not ‘follow’ that, because a thing has been willed, that thing is the result of will. It is the result of the personal force lying behind the will.
4. 5. τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ δέ] All this holds true even in the experience of our limited personalities; much more may we suppose it to be so in regard to the divine nature. With God, so far as we know ἴσως), will and action are identical, and there is no medium whatever.
5. 7. καὶ τοῦτο] i.e. the proposition that γέννησις = ἡ τοῦ γ. θ. Gr. evidently inclines rather to the view that ‘the generation ὁ the Son of God is even above and beyond will.’
6. 7. Gr. retaliates by asking how God comes to be God. If by His will, when did He first will it? is one portion of His being the result of the will of another portion? is He not in this case as much a child of will as the Son? If He is God without willing to be so, then He is under compulsion.
7. ‘How then, is the Son begotten?’ asks the Eunomian. ‘How is He created?’ οἱ. replies. Men do create in the way which it is to assume was ’s way.
8. 9. βούλει τι κτλ.] ’Do you wish me to make sport awhile with the Father also? ’ Hitherto the ‘sport’ has been with the Son. Gr. intentionally uses a shocking expression.
9. 11. καὶ ὅπως ἀποφ.] ’and in order that you may escape: The main verb is the imperative implied in the question πότε. . . ἠργμένος μόνος — ‘tell me when.’
10. 12. πρὶν εἶναι] sc θεός; ‘not befpre He was so; for He tvas never anything before.’
11. 13. τὸ μὲν αὐτοῦ] ‘or did one part of Him will it, while the other part was the result of that will?