1Against those who say the Son once was not and is created, Gregory argues from the commands against a "new" or "foreign" god that such a Son could not be worshipped, and explains "The Lord created me" (Prov 8:22) of the humanity the Word became for our sake.
2Christ is both divine by nature and human by the economy; the Son is eternal as the radiance of the Father's glory is never without the lamp, and as the express image of the Father's hypostasis he cannot be less than the Father, since the Word was in the beginning and wholly with God.
3Being unbegotten or begotten makes no difference of nature, as Adam and Abel are both human; the Holy Spirit too is uncreated, giving what creation receives and sharing every divine name except Father and Son; Amos 4:13 speaks not of the Holy Spirit but of the spirit God creates in believers through the "thunder" of the gospel.
Honoured by the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant traditions. Honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant.
Date
ca. 380–394 (approximate) · Not securely dated.
Written at
Cappadocia (disputed)
Addressed to
Simplicius
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
Simpl.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. 135–146 (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)