Gregory of Nazianzus De Spiritu Sancto (Orat. 31) 6

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. 5 νομιζοντας] -τες b 6. 7 ουδεις] ουδεις ο b: ουδε εις ce ‘duo Reg.’ || 9 διαλεξωμεθα b
2. 2. ἄλλον τρόπον μιμ.] ‘imitating, though in a somewhat different form, those,‘ etc. He seems to mean Arius.
3. 4. τάξιν καὶ χάριν] The word χάρις appears to be used in the sense which Lidd. and Scott put as iv 2 viz. ‘homage due,’ ‘majesty’; and τάξις accordingly will be, not exactly the order in which the names stand in the Bible, but the rank which is inherent in each. ‘Who think that the rank and dignity of the respective names denotes a gradation of the realities which they represent.’ The πράγματα, of course, are the three Blessed Persons themselves.
4. 6. Against Sadducee and Greek I shall not indulge myself to argue, but only against the others. The Holy Ghost is either a contingent or a substantive existence. If contingent, He must be a Divine operation or influence; but this does not agree with the personal language of Scripture. If He is a substantive existence, He is either God or a creature; there is no betwixt and between. If He is a creature, how can we ‘believe in’ Him? He must be God.
5. 8. ἁμαρτ. ἐλαίῳ] Ps. cxl (cxli) 5. It may be asked, why it would be an anointing of himself with the oil of sinners for his oration to enter into controversy with such persons, while he feels himself at liberty to argue with the Macedonians. The answer is, that the ἁμαρτωλοὶ are not opponents (as the Donatists might have said) too bad even to be argued with. He means that, although it might add a richness and profusion to his discourse, there would be a kind of sinful self-indulgence in demolishing opinions with which he was not practically confronted.
6. 9. τῶν καθ’ ἑατυτὸ ὑφ.] ‘either an independent subsistence, or a thing observed in something else.’
7. 12. συμβεβηκός] something contingent, ‘a contingency’; a thing which happens to be so, but might have been otherwise.
8. 13. ἐνέργεια τοῦτο ἂν εἴη θ.] ‘it (the Holy Spirit so conceived of) will be an operation of God’— an influence, an inspiration, or the like—‘for what else could it be, or from whom besides could it come?’
9. 1 και ει] om ει b || 2 τω] το b || 7 υπολειφθησεται ‘Or. 1’
10. 1. φεύγει σύνθεσιν] It is assumed that all will agree that the simpler the account, the better.
11. 2. ἐνεργηθήσεται . . . παύσεται] The fut. is logical, not temporal. It is of the very nature of an ‘operation ’ to be incapable of independent action, or to continue when the operator stops.
12. 3. πῶς οὖν ἐνεργεῖ] The Bible, however, attributes to the Holy Spirit operations of His own, such as ‘saying’ this and that (τάδε), ‘separating’ (an inexact reminiscence of Acts xiii 2).
13. 4. λυπεῖται] Eph. iv 30.
14. 5. παροξύνεται] Is. lxiii 10.
15. ib. κινουμένου] middle voice. These are notes, Gr. says, not of a motion in the abstract (such as an ἐνέργεια is), but of the thing which is in motion.
16. 6. τῶν περὶ τὴν οὐ.] ‘an existence, and not an attribute of existence.’
17. 9. τραγελάφους] the typical fabulous compound.
18. 10. τελειούμεθα] in baptism; cp. § 29.
19. ib. οὐ γὰρ ταὐτόν] ‘it is not the same thing to believe in anything, and to believe statements about it; the first is peculiar to God, the second can be done with any thing.’ See Pearson on the Creed I believe in God; who rightly says that the distinction is more characteristic of Western than of Eastern theology.
20. 13. οὐδὲ ποίημα] sc. ἐστί. The apodosis begins at this point, not at ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κτίσμα.
21. 7. Now it is your turn. ‘Is He begotten, or unbegotten? If begotten, of whom ? If of the Father, there are two Sons; if of the Son, He is a grandson.’ Your names do not terrify me. Because we are obliged to speak of ‘Sonship’ in the Godhead, it does not follow that all earthly nomenclature would apply; or at that rate you will have to say ali manner of strange things.