Gregory of Nazianzus De Spiritu Sancto (Orat. 31) 10

Arthur James Mason (Translator)

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De Spiritu Sancto (Orat. 31). Gregory of Nazianzus. Arthur James Mason (Translator). Germany. 2014.

Sponsored by University of Leipzig.

Funding provided by European Social Fund Saxony.

Current edition First1KGreek

De Spiritu Sancto (Orat. 31) (Greek) (Gregory of Nazianzus. The Five Theological Orations. Mason, Arthur James, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1899.)

Notes on the current edition

De Spiritu Sancto (Orat. 31)

1. 2 τὸ γεγεννησθαι] το γεγενῆσθαι a: om καὶ τὸ γεγεννῆσθαι f || 3 εκπεπορευσθαι αἰ ’Reg. Cypr.' || 6 αξια] εξουσια e || 7 ὑίος] ο ὑίος a || 8 o ὑίος] om ο d || om τὰ f || 9 om τῆ bed || 10 νυν] σου νυν b ’Reg. Cypr.' : om νυν c : νυνι e
2. 4. προσηγόρευσεν] The abovementioned facts ’proclaim Them ’ respectively Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The aor. takes us back to the moment when these titles were first assigned in Scripture.
3. 5. ποστάσεων] here used in the recognised ’personal’ sense.
4. 7. δπερ ὁ πατήρ] He is not the Father, but He is all that the Father is.
5. ib. δτι ἐκ τοῦ θ.] The fact that He is of the Father's essence (1 Cor. ii 12) does not make Him Son.
6. 8. ἐν τὰ τρία τῆ θ.] The Three (Gr. again avoids the masc.) are One — an undivided unit — in their nature; the One is Three — a Trinity — in the ineffaceable distinction between the persons. The latter observation removes the Sabellian conception of the unity ; the former removes the Eunomian division of the natures. In the construction of the last clause, τῆς π. ν. διαιρέσεως is the predicate after ἦ understood, like οὐκ ἐλλείψεως above.
7. 10 You are surprised at our calling Him God, consubstantial with the Father. He must be so if there is only God God and one Godhead. I am ashamed to use earthly illustrations; but even in natural history there are very different modes of reproduction which it might help you to consider.
8. 12. δὸς οὖν μοι] The word διδόναι is not used here in its frequent sense of a logical concession ; for it would be no concession to the Eunomians to ’give’ what is here required. It means rather, ’shew me’ ‘convince me that it is so.’ The Eunomian offers, if convinced that two consubstantial persons issue from the same Divine Source, to acknow- ledge each of them to be a God. Gr. illustrates the illogical character of the offer by a counter-paralogism. ‘Shew me,’ he says, ‘that there is than one sort of God, and I will shew you the same Trinity that we now believe in, name and thing.’ It is as unreasonable to deduce ditheism or tritheism from the Catholic doctrine of the relation of the Son and Spirit to the Father, as it would be to deduce the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity from a belief in Godheads of varying quality.
9. 10. 1 δεχομαι] + καὶ c || 2 ἄλλον θέον dfg || 4 εἰς θεὸς μία φυσις] εἰς ο θεὸς καὶ μία φύσις b ’Reg. Cypr.’: εἰς θεὸς καὶ μία φύσις f ‘ plures Reg. et Colb.’: εἰς θεὸς τε καὶ μία Φυσις de || 6 η] εἰ ’δε ‘ Reg. Cypr.’ || το τα ζωντα] τον ὄντα ‘Or. 1’
10. 9. ῤευστῆς] ‘changeable,’ ‘transitory’ tory’; cp. ii 22 πῶς κάτω μῶ.
11. 10. ἐκζητεῖσθαι τὰ ζ.] Is. viii 19; cp. Luke xxiv 5.
12. 13. ἡμῖν γνώριμα] known to us all by direct observation; opp. to what only few have had the opportunity of noting. Gr.’s lore on subject is derived from Aristotle.
13. 16. ἐξ ἑτέρων τὰ αὐτά κτλ.] instance given by Elias is that of frogs, some of which are the off- spring of frogs, and others the spontaneous product of the marsh, and yet equally frogs. His instance of the converse is more true to nature, but a less exact illustration of his subject.
14. 19.δαπανώμενον] ‘consumed,’ cp. iv 6. The ref. of course is to the phoenix (Herod, ii 73); see Lightfoot's note on Clem, ad cor. § 25. Gr. himself evidently does not quite believe the fable.