Gregory of Nyssa, In Canticum canticorum homiliae

The translation of the Song of Songs by our holy and God-clad father Gregory, Archbishop of Nyssa, I have undertaken, as befits your honorable life and your pure soul, the zeal for the Song of Songs, concerning which you have entreated us both in person and in writing, that we might, by a fitting translation, reveal the hidden wisdom in those words and the clear presentation of those easily comprehensible phrases, shining with the immortality of that lofty and divinely radiant power and intellect, and purified, we might set forth clearly. For I have eagerly undertaken the care of this matter, not as if you would derive any benefit from these things (for I believe that the eyes of your heart are holy, free from all passion and petty thought, and behold unhindered that divinely radiant grace in those divine words), but so that some corporeal and earthly beings might find some benefit for the spiritual and immaterial life, to which this book leads through the wisdom hidden within it.

But since some of the children of the Church suppose that the words of the divine books, apart from those that are simple and easy to comprehend, as many as are spoken by way of parable and allegory and in a hidden manner, yield us no benefit, I have deemed it necessary first to give a response to such accusers.

And since there is nothing in the divine books that is idle or useless, if we become diligent in hunting for benefit from every side of the divinely inspired books: so that the words which are easy among them to understand, we may readily and without difficulty gather benefit from them; but if they are hidden and obscure and spoken by way of parable and allegory, and their power and benefit are difficult to understand, let us not reject them as idle, but let us investigate such words and comprehend them, as the words of the proverbs teach us and command us to know and comprehend—whether as a parable, or as a dark saying, or as a saying of the wise, or as a natural description, or as something to be understood by parable, or as an allegory, or as one may wish to name it; for we care nothing about names, only what power and comprehension of it may bring benefit.

And since the great apostle spiritually interprets the law, and when he speaks more extensively in the name of the law, he speaks by way of allegorical words, and that every divinely inspired book is a law for those who read it, and not only through the clear commandments, but also through allegorical teachings they instruct in the knowledge of mysteries and in pure conduct, for those who read with understanding; and as it seemed fitting, so he interprets that narrative, for he sees benefit, but concerning the names he does not care, how the naming is appropriate to that allegorical name. But when he speaks of a change of voice, intending a change of understanding to comprehend those two laws of providence; and then, recalling the two sons of Abraham, who were born from a handmaid and a noblewoman, he sets their understanding as a parable and a type, and again when he recounts allegorical deeds, he says: "It happened to them as a sign and a parable, but it was written for us as a lesson." And again, when he says: "The mouth of the calf-milker did not strike," he adds and says: "It was not because God cared anything about calves, but it was written for our sake," and sometimes he sets a small knowledge and a small understanding as a sign and a parable.

And again, it speaks of turning from the corporeal to the spiritual toward the Lord, and it prescribes the plundering of the veil. And over every single form and name and intellectual vision, it guides and teaches us, so that we may not cling only to the book and the writings, as is harmful in many ways to the virtuous life by a simple understanding of the names, but rather that we may change toward incorporeal and invisible visions, and that we may understand corporeal and material thoughts spiritually and divinely, and that we may break through the dust of those material and corporeal words. For this reason it teaches and says: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life." That is to say, if we understand the power of the deeds according to the simple and literal word of the writings, they do not give us the form of a good life. For what virtue does the begetting of children from fornication teach, as is written about the prophet Hosea, and the entering of the prophet Isaiah, if one establishes the power of those utterances only according to the words, or what virtuous life does that account of David teach, in which the abomination of adultery and murder are together and in some way combined?

But when it finds a word that simply reveals the utterance of those deeds, then the truth of that apostolic word appears, namely: "The letter kills," that is, it gives form to evil deeds, but the spirit saves, for it transforms that crude and perceptible understanding into a divine and complete comprehension. Know then that the Word itself, worshipped by all created things, when it became incarnate and taught us the divine mysteries concerning itself, spoke thus: "The testimony of two men is true," and "I and the Father are one," and "That bronze serpent, raised up in the wilderness for the healing of the people's bites," it took as a type of that dispensation accomplished for us through the cross. And to its holy disciples, for the comprehension of hidden and concealed words, it instructed them through parables and figures and dark sayings and teachings and allegories, which it itself interpreted and explained to them.

And when they cannot comprehend the power of those words, they attribute it to the heaviness of their own minds and to their lack of understanding; as when he spoke of the abstinence from leaven of the Pharisees, and they did not understand, he rebuked them and said: "I did not tell you to abstain from bread, but from teaching," for he took leaven as a symbol of teaching. And again, when they were troubled about eating, he said to them: "I have an eating which you do not know." And when they thought: "He has brought some kind of food," he interpreted his own word and said: "My eating is this: to fulfill the will of my Father.

And many such words are found in the Gospel, whose literal surface is one thing, and the meaning toward which it looks is another, its depth being another, like that water which he promised to the thirsty, through which a spring of rivers becomes for the faithful, and the bread which came down from heaven, the breaking of the temple, and the resurrection on the third day, and the door and the way and the stone, the stone rejected by the builders and the stone joined to the head, and two bodies upon one, and the mill and the millers, and the one seized and the one left behind, and the corpse and the eagles and the fig tree, the fig tree with its branch cut off—all this and whatever else is of this kind have been spoken for this reason: that we might seek out the power of the divine commandments and beware of the literal reading, and that we might diligently and with all our heart search out, whether perhaps one might find the word of the literal surface higher and deeper, which might direct the mind toward understanding divinely and immaterially and with divine radiance. For concerning this surface, we do not call that tree which was set up a fig tree, nor any other kind of tree, as some have said, for if the fig tree had then been clothed with death, it would not now be eaten without doubt.

And from this we have learned from the Lord with discernment, that: "There is nothing entering through the mouth that would defile a man," but we seek some other understanding for the sake of this law, one akin to the height of the lawgiver. Although we hear that by the labor of God that paradise was planted, or that tree of life in the midst of paradise, we seek from it to learn that which reveals the hidden mysteries, what kind of plantings the Father is the doer and planter, or how it is possible that both those trees, which are of life and of destruction, might be at the center of paradise. For the center is like this: when with a compass one draws the circular point of the compass, which is inscribed from within the compass, that is the center. But if that point should depart, to whichever side, it is impossible without another circular revolution; would it then be called the center? And there was one paradise, as it is written; now then how is it possible for two distinct trees to be at the center of paradise? And that word teaches us to alienate ourselves from that death-clad labor of God, which called all the works of God good and very good.

And all this, if one does not understand it with wisdom and find the truth unshakably, the words of truth will become a fable and a subject of thought for the undiscerning. But if we were to recount everything spoken by the prophets, it would be lengthy for us and incomparable; however, so that we may understand all of it through these few words, let us add a little and pause, as Micah says concerning the manifestation of the last days on the mountain of God, and the crushing of the opposing forces on the summit of the mountains by faith. And again the loud-voiced Isaiah says: "The thorn-bush and the lily shall spring up from its roots." For he thus named the manifestation of the Lord in the flesh, or the assembled mountain, as declared by David, what power it has, or what the simple word is, or that many-charioted and gathered heap of beasts, mixed among the deacons of the people, or the foot stained with blood and the tongues of dogs, and that calf of Lebanon, crushed together with the shoots of Lebanon.

And such a multitude is found among the prophets, who reveal that divine-inspired power hidden within their clear words, which, as it seems to some, if one strips it from them, such a form occurs as if someone were to place unleavened wheat as food for men, and neither leavened it, nor kneaded it, nor separated the chaff from the wheat, nor ground it, nor baked it, as is the custom of bread. For just as unleavened wheat is food for beasts and not for men, so also divinely inspired words, if they are not refined by subtle perceptions and kneaded and softened, are more food for beasts than for rational beings, not only those of the old law, but also those of the new and especially the teachings of the Gospel. This is the winnowing fan, the purifier of the threshing floor and the separation of the wheat and the crushing of the chaff and the inextinguishable fire and that good treasure and that fruitful one and the cypress tree and that sound of the axe, which he spoke of concerning the cut and those stones transformed into the nature of men. I have written this concerning your understanding for those who do not deign to seek any deeper comprehension beyond the simple literal sense in the divine words.

Now, as for Origen, he showed great zeal concerning this book, and we have set our mind to writing down our own labor. Let no one blame us, but let them understand that apostolic word which says: "Let each one receive his reward according to his labor." For we are not writing these words for the sake of showing off to anyone, but for the contemplation of God alone, who is the giver of speech. And since most of these words were spoken by us in the church, and some of the studious ones who were with us wrote them down with accuracy, we took that written record of theirs, and whatever was found coherently in those copies, we wrote down from that; and the other things that were necessary to add, we added from our own head, and in the form of teaching, we arranged their exposition sequentially, and we revealed the hidden meaning of those words through clear expressions, just as time and the task for this purpose gave us leisure during the holy days of Lent; for the power of these words for the hearing of the people became urgent for us to expound during these days.

But if the times of life, peace, and tranquility of life are granted to us by the treasure Christ, we may be able to complete the remainder of the writing, for now the power of our word has advanced only to the midpoint for the glorification of the Lord, whose glory is from eternity to eternity, amen.