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In sextum Psalmum

OF GREGORY BISHOP OF NYSSA ON THE SIXTH PSALM CONCERNING THE EIGHTH

Those who go from strength to strength according to the prophetic blessing and set the good ascents in their own hearts, whenever they grasp some good thought, are led by it to a higher thought, by which the ascent to the height is made for the soul. And so, always straining forward to what is ahead, he will never cease from the good ascent, always being guided by lofty thoughts toward the understanding of the things that lie beyond. I have said these things to you, brothers, applying my mind to the sixth psalm and seeing the necessary sequence of the order, how after "for the inheritance" the discourse concerning the eighth was added for us. Surely you are not ignorant of the mystery of the eighth. For it is not likely that anyone's mind would be carried away to Jewish assumptions; those who reduce the sublime mystery of the eighth to the unseemly parts of our body, speak of the law of circumcision and the purification after childbirth and such things as being indicated by the number 5.188 of the eighth. But we, having been taught by the great Paul that the law is spiritual, even if this number is contained in the aforementioned laws, legislating both circumcision for the male and the sacrifice for purification for the woman, we neither reject the law nor do we receive it in a base manner, knowing that truly on the eighth the true circumcision takes place, performed by the knife of stone. And you surely understand by the rock that cuts away the unclean, the Rock itself which is Christ, that is, the word of truth, and that then the defiling flow of the things of life ceases, human life having been transformed toward the more divine. And so that what is understood in such things might be clear to all, I shall set forth the discourse more clearly, as I am able. The time of this life was completed in the first creation of the cosmos through one week of days. For the creation of beings began from the first and on the seventh it concluded the limit of creation.

For there was one day, it says, in which the first things came to be; and so on the second the second things, and consequently everything up to the six. But the seventh, having become the limit of creation, circumscribed in itself the time coextensive with the structure of the world. As, therefore, neither another heaven came to be from that time, nor anything else of the world's parts was added to what had been from the beginning, but creation stood on its own, wanting nothing and undiminished, remaining within its own measures; so also no other time came to be besides that which was revealed with the preparation of the world, but the nature of time was confined to the week of days. And 5.189 for this reason when we measure time by days, beginning from the one and closing the number with the seventh we return again to the one, always measuring out the whole interval of time by the cycle of weeks, until, when the things in motion have passed and the fluid motion of the world has at some point ceased, as the apostle says, the things which can no longer be shaken come, which change and alteration no longer touch, that creation remaining in the same things likewise always for the ages to come, in which the true circumcision of human nature takes place in the removal of the bodily life and the true purification of the true defilement. But the defilement of man is sin, which is brought forth together with human nature (for *In sins did my mother conceive me*), which he who made purification for our sins

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In sextum Psalmum

ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΝΥΣΣΗΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΟΝ ΕΚΤΟΝ ΨΑΛΜΟΝ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΟΓ∆ΟΗΣ

Οἱ ἐκ δυνάμεως εἰς δύναμιν πορευόμενοι κατὰ τὴν προφητικὴν εὐλογίαν καὶ

τὰς καλὰς ἀναβάσεις ἐν ταῖς ἑαυτῶν καρδίαις διατιθέμενοι, ὅταν τινὸς ἀγαθοῦ νοήματος δράξωνται, χειραγωγοῦνται δι' ἐκείνου πρὸς ὑψηλότερον νόημα δι' οὗ γίνεται τῇ ψυχῇ ἡ ἐπὶ τὸ ὕψος ἀνάβασις. καὶ οὕτως ἀεὶ τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ἐπεκτεινόμενος οὐδέποτε τῆς ἀγαθῆς ἀνόδου παύσεται ἀεὶ διὰ τῶν ὑψηλῶν νοημάτων πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὑπερκειμένων κατανόησιν ὁδηγούμενος. ταῦτα εἶπον, ἀδελφοί, πρὸς ὑμᾶς, τῷ ἕκτῳ τῶν ψαλμῶν προσέχων τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ βλέπων τὴν ἀναγκαίαν τῆς τάξεως ἀκολου θίαν, πῶς μετὰ τὴν κληρονομοῦσαν ὁ περὶ τῆς ὀγδόης ἡμῖν προσετέθη λόγος. πάντως δὲ οὐκ ἀγνοεῖτε τὸ τῆς ὀγδόης μυστήριον. οὐ γὰρ δὴ πρὸς Ἰουδαικὰς ὑπολήψεις εἰκός ἐστιν ὑποφέρεσθαί τινων τὴν διάνοιαν· οἱ περὶ τὰ ἀσχήμονα τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν τὸ μεγαλοφυὲς τοῦ μυστηρίου τῆς ὀγδόης κατάγοντες τὸν τῆς περιτομῆς νόμον καὶ τὸ μετὰ τὴν λοχείαν καθάρσιον καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα λέγουσι τῷ ἀριθμῷ 5.188 τῆς ὀγδόης καταμηνύεσθαι. ἡμεῖς δὲ διδαχθέντες παρὰ τοῦ μεγάλου Παύλου ὅτι ὁ νόμος πνευματικός ἐστι, κἂν ἐν τοῖς μνη μονευθεῖσι νόμοις ὁ ἄριθμος οὗτος ἐμφέρηται νομοθετῶν καὶ τῷ ἄρρενι τὴν περιτομὴν καὶ τῇ γυναικὶ τὴν ἐπὶ καθα ρισμοῦ θυσίαν, οὔτε ἀποβάλλομεν τὸν νόμον οὔτε ταπεινῶς ἐκδεχόμεθα εἰδότες ὅτι ἀληθῶς τῇ ὀγδόῃ γίνεται ἡ ἀληθινὴ περιτομὴ διὰ τῆς πετρίνης μαχαίρας ἐνεργουμένη. νοεῖς δὲ πάντως διὰ τῆς τεμνούσης τὸ ἀκάθαρτον πέτρας αὐτὴν τὴν πέτραν ἥτις ἐστὶν ὁ Χριστός, τουτέστι τῆς ἀληθείας ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὅτι τότε παύεται ἡ ῥυπῶσα τῶν τοῦ βίου πραγμάτων ῥύσις, τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ζωῆς μεταστοιχειωθείσης πρὸς τὸ θειότερον. ὡς δ' ἂν πᾶσι γένοιτο δῆλον τὸ ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις νοούμενον, σαφέστερον, ὅπως ἂν οἷός τε ὦ, τὸν λόγον ἐκθήσομαι. ὁ τοῦ βίου τούτου χρόνος ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ δημιουργίᾳ τῆς κτίσεως διὰ μιᾶς ἑβδομάδος ἡμερῶν συνεπληρώθη. ἤρξατό τε γὰρ ἀπὸ τῆς πρώτης ἡ τῶν ὄντων δημιουργία καὶ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ συγκατέληξε τὸ πέρας τῆς κτίσεως.

Ἐγένετο γὰρ ἡμέρα μία, φησίν, ἐν ᾗ τὰ πρῶτα ἐγένετο· καὶ οὕτως ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ τὰ δεύτερα, καὶ ἀκολούθως ἕως τῶν ἓξ ἅπαντα. ἡ δὲ ἑβδόμη πέρας γενομένη τῆς κτίσεως ἐν ἑαυτῇ περιέγραψε τὸν συμπαρεκτεινόμενον τῇ κατασκευῇ τοῦ κόσμου χρόνον. ὡς τοίνυν οὔτε οὐρανὸς ἐξ ἐκείνου γέγονεν ἄλλος οὔτε τι ἕτερον τῶν τοῦ κόσμου μερῶν προσετέθη τοῖς ἐξ ἀρχῆς γεγονόσιν, ἀλλ' ἔστη ἐφ' ἑαυτῆς ἡ κτίσις ἀπροσδεὴς καὶ ἀμείωτος ἐν τοῖς μέτροις ἑαυτῆς διαμείνασα· οὕτως οὔτε χρόνος ἄλλος παρὰ τὸν τῇ παρασκευῇ τοῦ κόσμου συναναδειχθέντα ἐγένετο, ἀλλὰ περιωρίσθη τῇ ἑβδομάδι τῶν ἡμερῶν ἡ τοῦ χρόνου φύσις. καὶ 5.189 τούτου χάριν ὅταν ἐκμετρῶμεν ταῖς ἡμέραις τὸν χρόνον, ἀπὸ τῆς μιᾶς ἀρχόμενοι καὶ τῇ ἑβδόμῃ τὸν ἀριθμὸν κατακλεί οντες πάλιν ἐπὶ τὴν μίαν ἀναποδίζομεν, ἀεὶ διὰ τοῦ κύκλου τῶν ἑβδομάδων ἀναμετροῦντες ὅλον τὸ τοῦ χρόνου διάστημα, ἕως ἂν παρελθόντων τῶν κινουμένων καὶ παυσαμένης ποτὲ τῆς ῥοώδους τοῦ κόσμου κινήσεως, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, ἔλθῃ τὰ μηκέτι σαλευόμενα, ὧν μεταβολὴ καὶ ἀλλοίωσις οὐκέτι ἅπτεται, ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς ὡσαύτως ἀεὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἐφεξῆς αἰῶνας διαμενούσης ἐκείνης τῆς κτίσεως, ἐν ᾗ γίνεται ἡ ἀληθινὴ περιτομὴ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως ἐν τῇ τῆς σωματικῆς ζωῆς περιαιρέσει καὶ τὸ ἀληθινὸν καθάρσιον τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ ῥύπου. ῥύπος δὲ ἀνθρώπου ἡ ἁμαρτία ἡ συναποτικτομένη τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει (ὅτι Ἐν ἁμαρτίαις ἐκίσσησέ με ἡ μήτηρ μου), ἣν ὁ τὸν καθαρισμὸν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν ποιησάμενος