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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: 32 Pages
Page 4
But our pious opponent will not allow of God's using our language, because of our proneness to evil, shutting his eyes (good man!) to the fact that for our sakes He did not refuse to be made sin and a curse. Such is the superabundance of His love for man, that He voluntarily came to prove not only our good, but our evil. And if He was partaker in our evil, why should He refuse to be partaker in speech, the noblest of our gifts? But he advances David in his support, and declares that he said that names were imposed on things by God, because it is thus written, "He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names [1173] ." But I think it must be obvious to every man of sense that what is thus said of the stars has nothing whatever to do with the subject. Since, however, it is not improbable that some may unwarily give their assent to his statement, I will briefly discuss the point. Holy Scripture oftentimes is wont to attribute expressions to God such that they seem quite accordant with our own, e.g. "The Lord was wroth, and it repented Him because of their sins [1174] "; and again, "He repented that He had anointed Saul king [1175] "; and again, "The Lord awaked as one out of sleep [1176] "; and besides this, it makes mention of His sitting, and standing, and moving, and the like, which are not as a fact connected with God, but are not without their use as an accommodation to those who are under teaching. For in the case of the too unbridled, a show of anger restrains them by fear. And to those who need the medicine of repentance, it says that the Lord repenteth along with them of the evil, and those who grow insolent through prosperity it warns, by God's repentance in respect to Saul, that their good fortune is no certain possession, though it seem to come from God. To those who are not engulfed by their sinful fall, but who have risen from a life of vanity as from sleep, it says that God arises out of sleep. To those who steadfastly take their stand upon righteousness,--that He stands. To those who are seated in righteousness,--that He sits. And again, in the case of those who have moved from their steadfastness in righteousness,--that He moves or walks; as, in the case of Adam, the sacred history records God's walking in the garden in the cool of the day [1177] , signifying thereby the fall of the first man into darkness, and, by the moving, his weakness and instability in regard to righteousness.
[1173] Ps. cxlvii. 4.
[1174] Ps. cvi. 40.
[1175] 1 Sam. xv. 35.
[1176] Ps. lxxviii. 65.
[1177] Gen. iii. 8.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/nyssa/against-eunomius-4.asp?pg=4
