Gregory of Nyssa, On the Making of Man (George the Athonite)

Of the holy and God-bearing father of ours, Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, brother of the holy great Basil, which was missing from the account of the six days, which the blessed great Basil had previously spoken, and, because he left the account of the creation of man unfinished, this was completed by the holy Gregory, loftily and divinely gloriously, to my brother and servant of God, Peter the Bishop. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, bless us, father! If it were fitting to honor the acquisitions and possessions with the honor due to the virtues of the eminent, as Solomon says, the acquisitions of the whole world would not be worthy of the knowledge of your virtues, but they are insufficient and incomparable. However, since the fitting grace of your honor is beyond all wealth, and the holy fullness of love sends us a gift according to custom, we present such a gift to your holiness, O man of God, a small and incomparable offering for your worthiness, but not less than our ability. And this gift is a discourse, like a simple garment, woven without difficulty from this poor mind of ours.

But the face of this discourse, perhaps, may seem audacious to many, yet let it not be considered beyond what is fitting, for the creatures of God were fittingly known only by him alone, who was truly born in the image of God and adorned and beautified his own soul with the images of God—that common father and teacher of ours, who made the high adornment of all creatures visible and comprehensible through his own understanding, and by the true wisdom of God, the world created by that wisdom he newly revealed to the learners for their knowledge.

But we, although we are deficient in worthiness of his wonder, yet we have set before ourselves the completion of that great one’s deficient considerations—not that we might diminish his great labors by the feebleness of our words, or that we might add some excess of understanding (for how could that high face be insulted by our unskilled words!), but so that it might not be thought that the honor of the teacher is somehow accounted as inferior among his disciples; for if the completion of the remnant of the making of man, which was deficient in the “six days,” had not been set before anyone by his disciples, would not some stain have touched his great glory, as if it were not fitting, and he did not wish to implant some order of understanding among those hearers and those obedient to his words and teachings?

Now, as far as our strength permits, we have dared to speak of what was left unfinished by him; if, among our words, something of this kind should be found that is not unworthy of his teaching, let that grace and cause be ascribed to his instruction without doubt. But if we fail to attain the comprehension of that all-wise one, the great one is surpassed by the blame from which we mentioned above, as if he did not wish, among his disciples, to set forth something right and desirable, while we become justly blameworthy by the blamers, as being unable, through the weakness of our hearts, to receive the wisdom of our teacher. This subject, however, which lies before us, is not small, nor is it to be examined lightly, nor is it inferior to those great wonders of the creation of the world; indeed, it is even greater than all those of creation, for nothing among non-existent things has been made like the Creator, except man alone among created beings. So that, by the understanding of the hearers, our excuse for these words may not be difficult, even if our speech falls far short of worthiness. For, as I think, it pertains to all men—both those who were born first, and those who are now alive, and those who will be hereafter—so that nothing is left uninvestigated.

And if this is not done, let the deficiency in the fulfillment of our promise be imputed to our haste; if, in the account of the making of man, which is now before us for examination, something should be lacking, or if something proper should be omitted, yet that which was thought to be contradictory concerning this matter—since it was not seen from the beginning among those first-created beings, and now from some necessity of compulsion it has become visible in nature—from translations and knowledge of the scriptures and from the acquisition of reflections, let its harmonization and conjunction be granted, so that everything may be fitted together with each other and one may be mingled with the other (by the interweaving and conjunction of those contradictory thoughts), so that they may advance toward a single completeness; and let this be done with hope in divine power, which is the hope of the hopeless and the helper of the helpless. But for the sake of understanding and clarification, I have fittingly set forth a separate description of the questions, so that from the very beginning it may be easy for you to know, from a few words, the whole subsequent force and knowledge through Christ Jesus, our Lord, whose is the glory now and forever and unto the ages of ages, amen.

Chapter 1, which contains some discourse on the nature of the world and a concise account of the first man's creation. This book is about the creation of heaven and earth, as the divine scripture says, when all these visible things were completed and perfected, and each of the beings was separated into its own structure and settled again, when that visible body of the heavens was transformed, while all those heavy and downward-flowing substances occupied the intermediate place, earth and water, mutually strengthened and united with one another.

But the order and firmness of the divine creation were given to the nature of beings from the wisdom and power of the divine architect, which, by the harmony of the higher assistances and works, governs all things. For by the standing and the motion, the bringing of non-beings into being and the standing and the holding of beings were arranged and established. For upon that heavy, immovable, and motionless nature, as upon some firm axis, it arranged this light and swift revolution of the heaven in the form of a wheel, which turns upon that firm axis, and by each of the two, it preserves both indissolubly. For by the swift motion of that circularly moving nature, it encompasses and strengthens the dense material of the earth, whence that firm and immovable nature, by its unshakable firmness, unceasingly strengthens the motion and the revolution of that which revolves around it. And between these two, a fitting proportion of the works separated from each other is accomplished—of the stationary nature and the unstable construction. For neither does the earth change from its own firmness, nor does the heaven ever cease from its own great and rapid motion.

And these, as the first and heads of beings, by that wisdom of the Creator, as foundations of all things, were first born of all beings, and, as I think, the great Moses reveals this before the first creation of heaven and earth by God, that all these visible created things came into being by the divine will through motion and rest. This is that: heaven and earth, separated from each other by the opposition of their works through proportion, are united with each other through those parts established between them, and by their own heads become intermediate to those parts, and so that the union through the intermediate of the opposites might be made clear, understand thus: in that perpetual motion and instability of the nature of fire, air becomes like it by the subtlety of its nature and perpetual motion, and it is neither alienated from the firm things of its own, nor does it always remain immovable, nor again does it always flow and dissipate, but by the property of both sides it becomes the boundary of those opposite works, for it unites together and separates those naturally separated by its own head.

And likewise, the nature of the elements, by the mixture of the moist and the dry and by the combination of the hot and the cold, which are opposed to each other, for by weight and downward motion it has a great affinity toward the earth, while by its motion and flow it is not alien to those moving natures, but it is that which unites and gathers the opposites, for it changes weight into motion and is not hindered from motion by weight, and thus those natures, separated by nature, are united with each other, brought into unity by those opposing elements. And if one speaks truly, not even those opposing natures are entirely without communion and alien to each other's property and possession, and thus all the things of the world see each other and partake of one another through their distinct and separate constitutions, for motion is seen not only in change from place to place, but also appears in change and transformation. And again, the immovable nature does not have changeable motion, but through decay and renewal it moves and changes perpetually, for the wisdom of God arranged this change of properties thus, giving unchangeability to that which is always in motion, and assigning change to that which is immovable.

and by some boundless design he ordered this, so that the natural property which is immobility and unchangeableness should not be seen in these visible structures, and the created things might be thought of as divine, for multiplicity and change are far from the divine nature and alien to it. And wherever this is seen, the trace of divinity no longer enters. For this reason the earth is fixed and not unchangeable, while the heaven is in motion, for it has no change, but neither does it have firmness, which is immobility, for to the stationary nature—change, and to the unchangeable—motion, the divine power assigned, and thus, having interchanged their properties with each other, it made them alien to the trace of divinity, for neither of these belongs to the divine nature: neither instability nor change, as we said above. Thus everything was completed by its own structure and attained its own measure. And the heaven and the earth and all the things between them were finished in deed, as Moses said, and each of them was adorned with its own appropriate beauty.

For the sky was made radiant by the light of the luminaries, and the sea and the air by the swimmers and the birds of the air, while the earth was adorned by all the plants and the four-footed creatures in their own peculiarities, which by divine will, strengthened in an instant, all at once brought forth and gave birth. And thus the earth was adorned with beauty, and together with the flowers it brought forth fruits, and the gardens were filled with those plants which are seemly for gardens, and all the mountains and hills and mountain slopes and meadows and plains and fields, and whatever was in the valleys and ravines, was newly blossoming with verdure, and with various trees as ornaments, all the forests and groves became crowned, which then only came forth from the earth and in an instant were raised up to the fullness of perfection in beauty, and all rejoiced and were glad and delighted by the command of God. The animals, wild and tame, and those distinct and in tribes, took their rest and ran about in the mountains and hills and all the groves, and with the play and song of the birds, all the plains and groves resounded.

And again, the expanse of the sea and its sight and beauty gave to another aerial nature, and, having come now to rest in stillness and tranquility, and gathered in its own gathering-place, it was desirable to behold, for which the harbors and shelters and ship-stations, by divine will, cut out by themselves in the hollow and rocky places, would calm and settle the hand and the land of the solid sea, and again those desirable bays and the calm-settled coves would be adorned with the beauty of the ship-stations, and the gentle breezes and winds and the quiet blowing of the winds on the face of the sea would raise up those shining and smile-rising waves. And all the wealth of the sea and the land and the adornment of all creatures was ready.