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On the Deity, Against Evagrius

OF GREGORY BISHOP OF NYSSA, TO EVAGRIUS ON HIS OWN ORDINATION, CONCERNING THE DEITY

The ministry of the spiritual feast has come even upon us, who are more suited to partake from others than to offer ourselves to others. And yet I, for my part, thought I should be completely exempt from such contributions on account of my poverty in speech, according to a certain law of the symposium; for I hear that those of a more refined lifestyle, when they in turn prepare feasts for the common meal, if anyone from the list of diners should be poorer, by common agreement they have this man as a fellow-diner exempt from contribution. So I myself also wished to be a partaker of the luxury of the rich. But since this good and rich host spares not even us, but commands us to serve, I will say to him: Friend, lend me some of your loaves; and by loaves I mean the alliance of your prayers. For how is it possible for your hearing, having feasted on these spiritual honeycombs, to be greeted with a poor and beggarly discourse? And perhaps it would be well, as in the athletic contests (for the arena is only for the strong in those, while the rest become a theater for the contestants), so also in this spiritual 9.332 arena only those who are vigorous in the power of words should strip for the contest, but if one should be such as I, whose hair is gray, whose strength is sluggish with age, whose speech is trembling and limping, to let him rejoice in the sweat of the combatants. Therefore let us not prolong the preface for you, brothers, by dwelling on the marvel of those who preceded. You are already sated, you have already become rich, and satiety comes from sweetmeats; for with these the preceding discourse has nursed you. Perhaps, then, it is useless to add satiety to satiety, burdening the memory upon golden words as with leaden coins; except that often even inferior material, when mixed with the superior, contributes to a synergy of beauty. The proof is near: do you see this roof above our heads, how beautiful to behold, how gracefully the gold blossoms on the carvings? This, being entirely golden on its surface, is traced beneath with certain polygonal circles anointed with blue. What then does the craftsman intend by the blue? So that, I suppose, by the alternating color the gold might shine forth more. If, then, the blue mixed with the gold makes the gleam more beautiful, perhaps it is not untimely for our own black ink to be inscribed alongside the splendor of the aforementioned words. Still we prattle on to you in preliminaries, but listen. 9.333

I hear that Moses the great, when he was setting up the tabernacle for the Israelites, and that Bezalel, who by a divine spirit had the wisdom of architecture self-taught, proposed the contribution in common to rich and poor, selecting from the rich gold and purple and precious stones, and from the poor not rejecting wood and skins and goats' hair. But perhaps the memory of this story is not untimely; for the thought that has run through my heart, I wish to set before the community also. By a divine spirit Bezalel became wise from being an ordinary person; for so the story says. Let the adversary of the Spirit hear, therefore: he who called the Holy Spirit divine, whose descent impresses the grace of wisdom on the soul like a footprint, does he by the appellation 'divine' insult the dignity of the Spirit? Does he suggest that we should think something small and lowly about Him, or is something in creation signified by this name? Does he think that divinity is acquired by the Spirit? Does he conceive of a certain duality and composition concerning that which is simple and uncompounded? Perhaps it is not for the

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De deitate adversus Evagrium

ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΟΥ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠΟΥ ΝΥΣΣΗΣ ΕΙΣ ΤΗΝ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ ΧΕΙΡΟΤΟΝΙΑΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΕΥΑΓΡΙΟΝ ΠΕΡΙ ΘΕΟΤΗΤΟΣ

Ἦλθε καὶ ἐφ' ἡμᾶς ἡ τῆς πνευματικῆς ἑστιάσεως λειτουργία μετέχειν

μᾶλλον ἑτέρων ἢ ἑαυτοὺς παρέχειν ἄλλοις ὄντας ἐπιτηδείους. καίτοι γε ἔγωγε καὶ παντελῶς ἠξίουν ἀτελὴς εἶναι τῶν τοιούτων φόρων διὰ τὴν τοῦ λέγειν πενίαν κατά τινα νόμον συμποτικόν· ἀκούω γὰρ τοὺς ἁβροτέρους τὴν δίαιταν ὅταν ἐκ περιόδου τῷ κοινῷ συσσιτίῳ τὰς εὐωχίας παρασκευά ζωσιν, εἴ τις ἐκ τοῦ καταλόγου τῶν δαιτυμόνων πενέστερος εἴη, τοῦτον ἐκ κοινῆς συνθήκης ἀτελῆ σύνδειπνον ἔχειν. οὕτω καὶ αὐτὸς ἐβουλόμην ἐπισίτιος εἶναι τῆς τῶν πλουσίων τρυφῆς. ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ὁ καλός τε καὶ πλούσιος ἑστιάτωρ οὗτος οὐδὲ ἡμῶν φείδεται, διακονεῖν δὲ προστάττει, ἐρῶ πρὸς αὐτόν· Φίλε, χρῆσόν μοι τῶν σῶν ἄρτων· ἄρτους δὲ λέγω τὴν διὰ τῶν εὐχῶν συμμαχίαν. πῶς γὰρ ἔστι τοῖς πνευματι κοῖς τούτοις κηρίοις τὴν ἀκοὴν ὑμῶν ἐντρυφήσασαν πενιχρῷ καὶ πτωχεύοντι δεξιώσασθαι λόγῳ; καὶ τάχα καλῶς εἶχεν ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τῶν γυμνικῶν ἀγώνων (μόνων γὰρ τῶν ἰσχυόντων ἐν ἐκείνοις ἐστὶ τὸ στάδιον, οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ θέατρον γίνονται τῶν ἀγωνιζομένων), οὕτω καὶ εἰς τὸ πνευματικὸν τοῦτο 9.332 στάδιον μόνους τοὺς σφριγῶντας ἐν τῇ δυνάμει τῶν λόγων πρὸς τοὺς ἀγωνιστὰς ἀποδύεσθαι, εἰ δέ τις εἴη τῶν οἷος ἐγώ, ᾧ πολιὰ μὲν ἡ θρίξ, νωθρὰ δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ χρόνου ἡ δύναμις, ὑπότρομος δὲ καὶ ὑποσκάζων ὁ λόγος, τοῦτον ἐᾶν τοῖς ἱδρῶσι τῶν ἀγωνιστῶν ἐπευφραίνεσθαι. οὔκουν μηκύνωμεν ὑμῖν, ἀδελφοί, τὸ προοίμιον ἐνασχολούμενοι τῷ θαύματι τῶν προλαβόντων. ἤδη κεκορεσμένοι ἐστέ, ἤδη ἐπλουτήσατε, ὁ δὲ κόρος ἀπὸ γλυκασμάτων ἐστί· τούτοις γὰρ ὑμᾶς ὁ προλα βὼν λόγος ἐτιθηνήσατο. τάχα οὖν ἄχρηστον κόρον ἐπιβάλλειν τῷ κόρῳ ἐπάνω τῶν χρυσῶν λόγων οἷόν τισι μολυβδίνοις νομίσμασι τὴν μνήμην ἐπιφορτίζοντα· πλὴν ὅτι συντελεῖ πολλάκις εἰς συνεργίαν κάλλους καὶ ἡ χείρων ὕλη καταμι χθεῖσα τῇ κρείττονι. ἐγγὺς ἡ ἀπόδειξις· ὁρᾷς τὸν ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς τοῦτον ὄροφον, ὡς καλὸς ἰδεῖν, ὡς γλαφυρῶς ταῖς γλυφαῖς ἐπανθεῖ τὸ χρυσίον; οὗτος χρύσεος ὢν ὅλος τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν κύκλοις τισὶ πολυγώνοις κυάνῳ διακεχρισμένοις ὑποκεχάρακται. τί οὖν δὴ βούλεται τῷ τεχνίτῃ ἡ κύανος; ὡς ἄν, οἶμαι, τῷ ἐναλλάσσοντι τῆς χρόας ὁ χρυσὸς πλέον ἐκλάμ ποι. εἰ οὖν ἡ κύανος ἐμμιχθεῖσα τῷ χρυσῷ περικαλλεστέραν τὴν αὐγὴν ἀποδείκνυσιν, οὐκ ἄκαιρον ἴσως τῇ λαμπηδόνι τῶν προρρηθέντων λόγων καὶ τὴν ἡμετέραν παρεγγραφῆναι μελά νην. ἔτι ὑμῖν ἐν προοιμίοις ἀδολεσχοῦμεν, ἀλλ' ἀκούσατε. 9.333

Ἀκούω Μωυσέα τὸν μέγαν ὅτε τὴν σκηνὴν τοῖς Ἰσραηλί-ταις ἐπήγνυτο καὶ τὸν Βεσελεὴλ ἐκεῖνον, ὃς πνεύματι θείῳ τὴν σοφίαν ἔσχε τῆς ἀρχιτεκτονικῆς αὐτοδίδακτον, κοινῇ προθεῖναι τὴν φιλοτιμίαν πλουσίοις καὶ πένησι τῶν μὲν πλουσίων χρυσὸν καὶ πορφύραν καὶ τοὺς τιμίους τῶν λίθων ἐκλέγοντας, τῶν δὲ πενήτων ξύλα καὶ δέρματα καὶ τὰς τῶν αἰγῶν τρίχας οὐκ ἀποβάλλοντας. ἀλλ' οὐκ ἄκαιρος τῆς ἱστορίας ἴσως ἡ μνήμη· ὃ γάρ μου τὴν καρδίαν ὑπέδραμε νόημα, βούλομαι καὶ τῷ κοινῷ παραθέσθαι. πνεύματι θείῳ ὁ Βεσελεὴλ σοφὸς ἐξ ἰδιώτου ἐγένετο· οὕτω γὰρ ἡ ἱστορία φησίν. ἀκουέτω τοίνυν ὁ πνευματομάχος· ὁ θεῖον εἰπὼν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, οὗ ἡ ἐπίβασις οἷόν τι ἴχνος τὴν τῆς σοφίας χάριν τῇ ψυχῇ ἐνσημαίνεται, ἆρα καθυβρίζει τῇ τοῦ θείου προσηγορίᾳ τὴν ἀξίαν τοῦ πνεύματος; ἆρα μικρόν τι καὶ ταπεινὸν περὶ αὐτοῦ νοεῖν ὑποτίθεται ἤ τι τῶν ἐν τῇ κτίσει τῷ ὀνόματι τούτῳ σημαίνεται; μὴ ἐπίκτητον οἴεται τῷ πνεύματι τὴν θειότητα; μὴ διπλόην τινὰ καὶ σύνθεσιν περὶ τὸ ἁπλοῦν καὶ ἀσύνθετον ἐννοεῖ; τάχα οὐκ ἔστι ταῖς