Sophia Scriptura

To Ablabius: That There Are Not Three Gods

Ad Ablabium quod non sint tres dei · Πρὸς Ἀβλάβιον ὅτι οὐ τρεῖς θεοί

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  1. 1Gregory takes up Ablabius's question: if Peter, James, and John are called three men because they share one nature, why should Father, Son, and Spirit, who share one Godhead, not be called three Gods?
  2. 2Gregory argues that calling those who share one nature "many men" is a loose habit of speech, since the nature is one and undivided, and that in speaking of God such looseness is dangerous; he adds that "Godhead" names not the divine nature itself, which is unnameable, but something understood about it.
  3. 3Divine names signify what God does or is not, not what he is; Gregory derives "Godhead" (θεότης) from "beholding" (θέα) and shows from Scripture that seeing belongs equally to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  4. 4Gregory states the objection that if "Godhead" names an activity, the three should be called three Gods as three orators are, and answers that men in one occupation each act separately, whereas every divine activity goes out from the Father, proceeds through the Son, and is perfected in the Holy Spirit, as with the one gift of life.
  5. 5Since the one life and every divine work is worked by Father, Son, and Spirit together, as one movement of the good will from the Father through the Son to the Spirit, they are not three life-givers or three Gods; Gregory illustrates this from the Father who judges all through the Son.
  6. 6All providence is one work of the Trinity, not cut three ways; as the one God is called Saviour of all though the Son saves in the grace of the Spirit, so there are not three Gods; and since the divine nature is infinite and above every name, "Godhead" cannot name it.
  7. 7What has no outline cannot be counted, as gold made into many coins is still one gold; Scripture follows common usage in saying "men," but keeps "God" in the singular; the persons are distinguished only by cause and caused (the Son directly from the Father, the Spirit from the Father through the Son), which names how they are, not what they are.

About this work

Author
Gregory of Nyssa
Attribution
authentic · Accepted as Gregory's.
Standing
Honoured by the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions. Honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant.
Date
ca. 380–385 (approximate) · Usually placed after the Council of Constantinople (381); not securely dated.
Written at
Cappadocia (disputed)
Addressed to
Ablabius
Language
Greek
Genre
letter
Reference system
Migne prints no chapter numbers: parts are consecutive stretches of about 450 words, broken at the end of a sentence, numbered in order (provisional; replace by a standard division if one is adopted).
SBL abbreviation
Abl.Not yet checked
Clavis
CPG (number not yet checked)
Text from
J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Graeca 45 (Paris: Migne, 1863), cols. 115–136 (Printed edition in the public domain; Greek text from the Internet Archive OCR of a library scan (Greek lines only; Migne's Latin translation not used))
Critical editions
Friedrich Müller, ed., Gregorii Nysseni Opera Dogmatica Minora 1, Gregorii Nysseni Opera 3.1 (Leiden: Brill, 1958) (cited only; not reproduced) (cited, not reproduced)