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Translated by W. Moore and H. A. Wilson
St Gregory of Nyssa Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 87
But though they think fit to make this a subject for their insolence, though they make the dispensation of the Cross a reason for partitioning off the Son from equality of glory with the Father, we believe, as those "who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word [717] " delivered to us by the Holy Scriptures, that the God who was in the beginning, "afterwards", as Baruch says, "was seen upon the earth, and conversed with men [718] ," and, becoming a ransom for our death, loosed by His own resurrection the bonds of death, and by Himself made the resurrection a way for all flesh [719] , and being on the same throne and in the same glory with His own Father, will in the day of judgment give sentence upon those who are judged, according to the desert of the lives they have led. These are the things which we believe concerning Him Who was crucified, and for this cause we cease not to extol Him exceedingly, according to the measure of our powers, that He Who by reason of His unspeakable and unapproachable greatness is not comprehensible by any, save by Himself and the Father and the Holy Spirit, He, I say, was able even to descend to community with our weakness. But they adduce this proof of the Son's alienation in nature from the Father, that the Lord was manifested by the flesh and by the Cross, arguing on the ground that the Father's nature remained pure in impassibility, and could not in any way admit of a community which tended to passion, while the Son, by reason of the divergence of His nature by way of humiliation, was not incapable of being brought to experience the flesh and death, seeing that the change of condition was not great, but one which took place in a certain sense from one like state to another state kindred and homogeneous, because the nature of man is created, and the nature of the Only-begotten is created also. Who then is fairly charged with being ashamed of the Cross? he who speaks basely of it [720] , or he who contends for its more exalted aspect? I know not whether our accuser, who thus abases the God Who was made known upon the Cross, has heard the lofty speech of Paul, in what terms and at what length he discourses with his exalted lips concerning that Cross. For he, who was able to make himself known by miracles so many and so great, says, "God forbid that I should glory in anything else, than in the Cross of Christ [721] ." And to the Corinthians he says that the word of the Cross is "the power of God to them that are in a state of salvation [722] ." To the Ephesians, moreover, he describes by the figure of the Cross the power that controls and holds together the universe, when he expresses a desire that they may be exalted to know the exceeding glory of this power, calling it height, and depth, and breadth, and length [723] , speaking of the several projections we behold in the figure of the Cross by their proper names, so that he calls the upper part "height," and that which is below, on the opposite side of the junction, "depth," while by the name "length and breadth" he indicates the cross-beam projecting to either side, that hereby might be manifested this great mystery, that both things in heaven, and things under the earth, and all the furthest bounds of the things that are, are ruled and sustained by Him Who gave an example of this unspeakable and mighty power in the figure of the Cross. But I think there is no need to contend further with such objections, as I judge it superfluous to be anxious about urging arguments against calumny when even a few words suffice to show the truth. Let us therefore pass on to another charge.
[717] S. Luke i. 2
[718] Bar. iii. 37.
[719] See Note 2, p. 104, sup.
[720] Reading autou (for which Oehler cites good ms. authority), for heautou (the reading of his text, as well as of the Paris editions).
[721] Gal. vi. 14 (not verbally).
[722] Cf. 1 Cor. i. 18
[723] Cf. Eph. iii. 18
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/nyssa/against-eunomius-2.asp?pg=87
