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Antirrheticus adversus Apollinarium

ANTIRRHETICUS OF GREGORY, BISHOP OF NYSSA, AGAINST APOLLINARIUS

A good introduction to our discourse would be the Lord's voice commanding us to beware of false prophets, who come, he says, to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves; by their fruits you will know them. If, therefore, the fruit distinguishes both the true sheep and the destroyer of the sheep who, in a tame guise, slips unguardedly into the system of the flock, and brings into the open the hostile mouth hidden by the tame exterior, it is fitting to seek the fruits, both the good and the worse, by which the form of deceit is uncovered; for he says that By their fruits you will know them. Therefore, of every teaching, the good fruit, at least in my judgment, is the addition of those who are being saved according to the church, while the destructive and poisonous fruit is the dissolution of those who are gathered together. If, then, someone should increase the flock through his words and extend the vine into all parts of the house and plant around the Master's table new shoots, transforming those from the error of the wild olive into olive trees, and cast the mystical rods into the sweet and potable stream of teaching, by which the flocks become prolific, so that Laban's possession is diminished, but Jacob's portion thrives and is multiplied by the 3,1.132 marked offspring—if someone should show such a fruit of teaching (for fruit, as has been said, is the increase of the truth), he is truly a prophet, prophesying to the Spirit according to the divine purpose; but if someone should pluck off the vine-shoots from the vine and lay waste the divine table by uprooting the planting, and plot against the spiritual watering place so that the sheep no longer conceive according to the patriarch's rods nor multiply the flock with the marked offspring, but are driven away from the nourishing pasture, that is, of the patristic traditions, and are stabled outside the fold and scattered to alien pastures—when such is the fruit of the teaching, the wolfish form hidden by the sheep's skin would become manifest.

Let us then examine what the teaching of Apollinarius the Syrian has produced for us: an increase of the flocks or a decrease, a gathering of the scattered or a dissolution of those who are gathered, an advocacy for or an overthrow of the ancestral doctrines. If, then, the zeal of the aforementioned one looks to the better, he is certainly a sheep and not a wolf; but if the opposite—Beware of false prophets, says the Lord—let not the mouth escape our notice that is sharpened with the teeth of innovation for the outrage and destruction of the body that approaches it, and tears apart the healthy body of the church of God. And so that what is said might not seem to be reviling, we will set forth one of the discourses circulated by him, the title of which is this: A Demonstration, he says, concerning the divine incarnation which is according to the likeness of man. Perhaps someone, having laid bare with precision the meaning of the title, would not need to refute the absurdity of the doctrine through the treatise itself. 3,1.133 A Demonstration, he says, concerning the divine incarnation which is according to the likeness of man. But it would be better to set forth the divine words for a refutation of this new coining of a name. The Word, it says, became flesh and Glory dwelt in our land and God was manifested in the flesh, so that through each of these sayings we might learn that the Divine, being always immutable in essence and unchangeable, comes to be in a mutable and changeable nature, in order that by its own

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Antirrheticus adversus Apollinarium

ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΝΥΣΣΗΣ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΑ ΑΠΟΛΙΝΑΡΙΟΥ ΑΝΤΙΡΡΗΤΙΚΟΣ

Καλὸν ἂν γένοιτο προοίμιον ἡμῖν τοῦ λόγου ἡ τοῦ κυρίου φωνὴ κελεύουσα

προσέχειν ἀπὸ τῶν ψευδοπροφητῶν, οἵτινες ἔρχονται, φησί, πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐν ἐνδύμασι προβάτων, ἔσωθεν δέ εἰσι λύκοι ἅρπαγες· ἀπὸ τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν ἐπιγνώσεσθε αὐτούς. εἰ οὖν ὁ καρπὸς διακρίνει τό τε ἀληθινὸν πρόβατον καὶ τὸν τῶν προβάτων φθορέα τὸν ἐν ἡμέρῳ τῷ σχήματι πρὸς τὸ σύστημα τῆς ποίμνης ἀφυλάκτως παραδυόμενον καὶ τὸ ὑποκεκρυμμένον τῷ ἡμέρῳ πολέμιον στόμα εἰς τοὐμ φανὲς ἄγει, ζητεῖν προσήκει τοὺς καρποὺς τούς τε καλοὺς καὶ τοὺς χείρονας, δι' ὧν τὸ σχῆμα τῆς ἀπάτης ἀνακα λύπτεται· φησὶ γὰρ ὅτι Ἐκ τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν ἐπιγνώσεσθε αὐτούς. πάσης τοίνυν διδασκαλίας ὁ μὲν ἀγαθὸς καρπὸς κατά γε τὴν ἐμὴν κρίσιν ἡ προσθήκη τῶν κατὰ τὴν ἐκ κλησίαν σῳζομένων ἐστίν, ὁ δὲ φθαρτικὸς καὶ δηλητήριος ἡ τῶν συνεστώτων διάλυσις. εἰ τοίνυν τις αὔξοι διὰ τῶν λόγων τὸ ποίμνιον καὶ εἰς πάντα τὰ κλίτη τῆς οἰκίας ἐκ τείνοι τὴν ἄμπελον καὶ περιφυτεύσειε τῇ δεσποτικῇ τραπέζῃ τοὺς ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγριελαίου πλάνης εἰς ἐλαῶν μεταποιούμενος νεόφυτα καὶ τὰς μυστικὰς ῥάβδους ἐμβάλοι τῷ γλυκεῖ καὶ ποτίμῳ νάματι τῆς διδασκαλίας, δι' ὧν πολυγονεῖται τὰ ποίμνια ὥστε τοῦ μὲν Λαβὰν ἐλαττοῦσθαι τὴν κτῆσιν, εὐθηνεῖσθαι δὲ τὸ μέρος τοῦ Ἰακὼβ καὶ πληθύνεσθαι τῇ 3,1.132 ἐπισήμῳ γονῇ εἰ τοιοῦτόν τις τὸν καρπὸν τῆς διδασκαλίας ἐπιδεικνύοιτο (καρπὸς γάρ ἐστι, καθὼς εἴρηται, ἡ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐπαύξησις), ἀληθῶς ἐστι προφήτης κατὰ τὸν θεῖον σκοπὸν ὑποφητεύων τῷ πνεύματι· εἰ δέ τις ἀποτίλλοι τῆς ἀμπέλου τὰς κληματίδας ἐρημοίη δὲ τὴν θείαν τράπεζαν ἀναρριζῶν τὴν φυτείαν, ἐπιβουλεύοι δὲ τῷ πνευματικῷ ποτιστηρίῳ ὡς μηκέτι τὰ πρόβατα κατὰ τὰς ῥάβδους τοῦ πατριάρχου κισσᾶν μηδὲ ταῖς ἐπισήμοις γοναῖς πληθύνειν τὸ ποίμνιον, ἀλλ' ἀποβουκολεῖσθαι τῆς τροφίμου νομῆς του τέστι τῶν πατρικῶν παραδόσεων καὶ ἔξω τῆς μάνδρας αὐλίζεσθαι καὶ πρὸς ἀλλοτρίας νομὰς διασκίδνασθαιὅταν τοιοῦτος ὁ τῆς διδασκαλίας καρπὸς ᾖ, πρόδηλον ἂν γένοιτο τὸ λύκειον σχῆμα τὸ ἀποκεκρυμμένον τῇ τοῦ προβάτου δορᾷ.

Οὐκοῦν ἐξετάσωμεν, τί ἡμῖν ἡ Ἀπολιναρίου τοῦ Σύρου διδασκαλία ἐβλάστησε, προσθήκην τῶν ποιμνίων ἢ μείωσιν, συναγωγὴν τῶν διεσκορπισμένων ἢ τῶν συνεστώτων διάλυ σιν, συνηγορίαν ἢ ἀνατροπὴν τῶν πατρῴων δογμάτων. εἰ μὲν οὖν πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον ἡ σπουδὴ τοῦ προειρημένου βλέπει, πρόβατον πάντως καὶ οὐχὶ λύκος ἐστίν· εἰ δὲ τὸ ἔμπαλιν Προσέχετε ἀπὸ τῶν ψευδοπροφητῶν, φησὶν ὁ κύριος, μὴ λανθανέτω τὸ στόμα τὸ ἐπὶ λώβῃ καὶ ἀφανισμῷ τοῦ προσεγγίζοντος σώματος τεθηγμένον τοῖς τῆς καινοτομίας ὀδοῦσι καὶ κατασπαράσσον τὸ ὑγιὲς σῶμα τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησίας. ὡς δ' ἂν μὴ δοκοίη λοιδορία τὸ λεγόμενον εἶναι, ἕνα τῶν παρ' αὐτοῦ περιφερομένων λόγων προθήσομεν, οὗ ἡ ἐπιγραφή ἐστιν αὕτη· Ἀπόδειξις, φησί, περὶ τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως τῆς καθ' ὁμοίωσιν ἀνθρώπου. τάχα δ' ἄν τις δι' ἀκριβείας τὸν τῆς ἐπιγραφῆς νοῦν ἀπο γυμνώσας οὐκ ἂν δεηθείη δι' αὐτῆς τῆς λογογραφίας ἐλέγξαι τὴν ἀτοπίαν τοῦ δόγματος. 3,1.133 Ἀπόδειξις, φησί, περὶ τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως τῆς καθ' ὁμοίωσιν ἀνθρώπου. κρεῖττον δ' ἂν εἴη τὰς θείας παραθέσθαι φωνὰς εἰς ἔλεγχον τῆς καινῆς ταύτης ὀνοματοποιίας. Ὁ λόγος, φησί, σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ Ἡ δόξα κατεσκήνωσεν ἐν τῇ γῇ ἡμῶν καὶ Ὁ θεὸς ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί, ὡς ἂν δι' ἑκάστου μάθοιμεν τῶν εἰρημένων ὅτι ἀεὶ ἄτρεπτον ὂν τὸ θεῖον τῇ οὐσίᾳ καὶ ἀναλλοίωτον ἐν τῇ τρεπτῇ καὶ ἀλλοιουμένῃ γίνεται φύσει, ἵνα τῷ ἰδίῳ