De Theologia (Orat. 28)

Gregory, of Nazianzus

Gregorius Nazianzenus, The Five Theological Orations, Mason, Cambridge, 1899

Ἡλία δὲ οὔτε πνεῦμα βίαιον, οὔτε πῦρ, οὔτε συσσεισμός, ὡς τῆς ἱστορίας ἀκούεις, ἀλλ’ ἡ αὔρα τις [*](3 ἀλειφθέντα] αλειφεντα aedf: αλιφεντα e || 4 Ειδος] οἶκος El: ἴσω f || 9 γενητης] γεννήτης def ǁ I4 η ὄψιν ὅλην] ὅλην ὄψις (om 77) e: om ὅλην df) [*](1. κλίμακα] Gen. xxviii 12. ib. ἐφαντάσθη] ‘saw in a vision.’) [*](3. λίθον] Is. xxviii 16 etc.; ἀλειφθ. Is. lxi 1 ἔχρισεν) etc.) [*](4. Εἶδος Θ] Gen. xxxii 30 (31). This reading has better authority than οἶκος θ., i.e. Bethel. On the other hand τοῦ ὀφθ. seems more like a reminiscence of Gen. xxxv 1,9 (in u. 7 the word is ἐπεφάνη); and perh. it might have been more natural to mention the name of Penuel after the mention of the wrestling.) [*](6. ἥτις π. ἐ.] The whole clause forms a cogn. ace. after προσπαλ., ‘wrestles whatever wrestling that of God with man may be.’) [*](7. ἢ τάχα] ‘or perhaps (it would be best to say) the trial,’ etc. He this turn, because God was not ’wrestling’ for the mastery, but to try the ἀρετή of Jacob.) [*](8. σύμβολα] Gen. xxxii 31 (32).) [*](12. ἐκεῖνο δέ] refers to what follows, lows, ὅτι θ. φύσιν κτλ. The δὲ the apodosis to κλίμακα μέν.) [*](ib. ὑπὲρ αὐτόν] Jacob was excelled by some of his descendants, but none of them could ’make room for’ (χωρεῖν), ‘take in,’ or perh. ‘bear,’ the whole of God.) [*](19. Elias, Esaias, Ezekiel, and others, were unable to receive the revelation of the Divine nature in itself.) [*](16. ἢ αὔρα τις ὁ] 1 Kings xix 12 φωνὴ αὔρας λεπτῆς. The τις hints that there was something more than usual in ‘that breeze.’ Gr.’s agrument implies that if the presence had been discerned in the mightier movements of nature, God might have been thought to manifest self wholly in them, but that it was impossible to imagine this in connexion with the ‘small breeze.’)

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ὀλίγη τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ παρουσίαν, καὶ ταῦτα οὐ φύσιν, ἐσκιαγράφησεν· Ἠλίᾳ τίνι; ὃν καὶ ἅρμα πυρὸς ἀνάγει πρὸς οὐρανόν, δηλοῦν τοῦ δικαίου τὸ ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον. Μανωὲ δὲ τὸν κριτὴν πρότερον, καὶ Πέτρον τὸν μαθητὴν ὕστερον, πῶς οὐ τεθαύμακας; τὸν μὲν οὐδὲ ὄψιν φέροντα τοῦ φαντασθέντος θεοῦ, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο, Ἀπολώλαμεν, ὦ γύναι, λέγοντα, θεὸν ἑωράκαμεν· ὡς οὐ χωρητῆς οὔσης ἀνθρώποις οὐδὲ φαντασίας θείας, μὴ ὅτι γε φύσεως· τὸν δὲ καὶ τὸν φαινόμενον χριστὸν τῷ πλοίῳ μὴ προσιέμενον, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἀποπεμπόμενον. καίτοιγε θερμότερος τῶν ἄλλων εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν Χριστοῦ Πέτρος, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μακαριζόμενος, καὶ τὰ μέγιστα πιστευόμενος. τί δ’ ἂν εἴποις περὶ Ἠσαίου, καὶ Ἰεζεχιὴλ τοῦ τῶν μεγίστων ἐπόπτου, καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν προφητῶν; ὧν ὁ μὲν τὸν κύριον Σαβαὼθ εἶδε καθήμενον ἐπὶ θρόνου δόξης, καὶ τοῦτον ὑπὸ τῶν ἑξαπτερύγων σεραφὶμ κυκλούμενον καὶ αἰνούμενον καὶ ἀποκρυπτόμενον, ἑαυτόν τε τῷ ἄνθρακι καθαιρόμενον, καὶ πρὸς τὴν προφητείαν καταρτιζόμενον· ὁ δὲ καὶ τὸ ὄχημα τοῦ θεοῦ τὰ Χερουβὶμ διαγράφει, καὶ τὸν ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν θρόνον, καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ στερέωμα, καὶ τὸν ἐν τῷ [*](19. 2 ἐσκιαγράφησεν] εσκιογρ. a || 6 om καὶ f || 10 καίτοιγε] καίτοι c || 16 om ἑξαπτερύγων d || 17 ἀποκρυπτόμενον] κρυπτομένων c: κρυπτόμενον f ‘Colb. 1 Or. I’ || 19 ἀυτῶν] αὐτοῦ ‘Reg. Cypr.’) [*](1. καὶ ταῦτα] used like καὶ τοῦτο, ‘and that without shadowing forth His nature.’ If Gr. had meant ταῦτα = τὴν παρουσίαν, he must have said ταύτην.) [*](2 Ἠλ. τίνι;] ‘and what Elias?’ i.e. what was he?) [*](4. τὸν κριτήν] M. is not so styled in the book itself.) [*](6. ἀπολώλαμεν] Judg. xiii 22—a a free version. But as Gr. quotes the words in precisely the same form in Or. ix 1, it is possible that he may have found them so in some text.) [*](8. μὴ ὅτι] Cp. ἑ 11.) [*](9. τῷ πλοίῳ μὴ προσι.] Luke v 8. Gr. seems to have forgotten that Christ was in the boat.) [*](11. μακαριζόμενος] Matt, xvi 17 foil.) [*](15 καθήμενον ἐπὶ θ. δ] Is. vi 1 (δόξης seems to come from Matt. xxv 31).) [*](17. ἀποκρυπτόμενον.] This is Gr.'s addition to the narrative, unless he means ‘hidden from themselves’ the Seraphim. It is indeed possible that he understood πρόσωπον, πόδας, in Isaiah, to be those of the Lord.’) [*](ib. ἑαυτόν τε] ‘and saw himself.’) [*](18. τὸ ὄχημα] Ezek. i 4. It is not actually described by that name.)
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στερεώματι φανταζόμενον, καἰ φωνὰς δή τινας, καὶ ὁρμάς, καὶ πράξεις, καὶ ταῦτα εἴτε φαντασία τις ἢν ἡμερινή, μόνοις θεωρητὴ τοῖς ἁγίοις, εἴτε νυκτὸς ἀψευδὴς ὄψις, εἴτε τοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ τύπωσις συγγινομένη τοῖς μέλλουσιν ὡς παροῦσιν, εἴτε τι ἄλλο προφητείας εἶδος ἀπόρρητον, οὐκ ἔχω λέγειν· ἁλλ’ οἶδεν ὁ τῶν προφητῶν θεός, καὶ οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἐνεργούμενοι. πλὴν οὔτε οὗτοι περὶ ὧν ὁ λόγος, οὔτε τις ἄλλος τῶν κατ’ αὐτούς, ἔστη ἐν ὑποστήματι καὶ οὐσία κυρίου, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, οὐδὲ θεοῦ φύσιν ἢ εἶδεν ἢ ἐξηγόρευσεν.