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| He then once more excellently, appropriately, and clearly examines and expounds the passage, “The Lord Created Me.“
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§2. He then once more excellently, appropriately, and
clearly examines and expounds the passage, “The Lord Created
Me.”
Perhaps that passage in the
Proverbs might be brought forward against us which the champions of
heresy are wont to cite as a testimony that the Lord was
created—the passage, “The Lord created me in the beginning
of His ways, for His works534
.” For because
these words are spoken by Wisdom, and the Lord is called Wisdom by the
great Paul535
, they allege this passage as though the
Only-begotten God Himself, under the name of Wisdom, acknowledges that
He was created by the Maker of all things. I imagine, however, that the
godly sense of this utterance is clear to moderately attentive and
painstaking persons, so that, in the case of those who are instructed
in the dark sayings of the Proverbs, no injury is done to the doctrine
of the faith. Yet I think it well briefly to discuss what is to be said
on this subject, that when the intention of this passage is more
clearly explained, the heretical doctrine may have no room for boldness
of speech on the ground that it has evidence in the writing of the
inspired author. It is universally admitted that the name of
“proverb,” in its scriptural use, is not applied with
regard to the evident sense, but is used with a view to some hidden
meaning, as the Gospel thus gives the name of “proverbs536
” to dark and obscure sayings; so that
the “proverb,” if one were to set forth the interpretation
of the name by a definition, is a form of speech which, by means of one set
of ideas immediately presented, points to something else which is
hidden, or a form of speech which does not point out the aim of the
thought directly, but gives its instruction by an indirect
signification. Now to this book such a name is especially attached as a
title, and the force of the appellation is at once interpreted in the
preface by the wise Solomon. For he does not call the sayings in this
book “maxims,” or “counsels,” or “clear
instruction,” but “proverbs,” and proceeds to add an
explanation. What is the force of the signification of this word?
“To know,” he tells us, “wisdom and instruction537
”; not setting before us the course of
instruction in wisdom according to the method common in other kinds of
learning; he bids a man, on the other hand538
| 538 The
hiatus in the Paris editions ends here. | ,
first to become wise by previous training, and then so to receive the
instruction conveyed by proverb. For he tells us that there are
“words of wisdom” which reveal their aim “by a turn539
.” For that which is not directly
understood needs some turn for the apprehension of the thing concealed;
and as Paul, when about to exchange the literal sense of the history
for figurative contemplation, says that he will “change his
voice540
,” so here the manifestation of the
hidden meaning is called by Solomon a “turn of the saying,”
as if the beauty of the thoughts could not be perceived, unless one
were to obtain a view of the revealed brightness of the thought by
turning the apparent meaning of the saying round about, as happens with
the plumage with which the peacock is decked behind. For in him, one
who sees the back of his plumage quite despises it for its want of
beauty and tint, as a mean sight; but if one were to turn it round and
show him the other view of it, he then sees the varied painting of
nature, the half-circle shining in the midst with its dye of purple,
and the golden mist round the circle ringed round and glistening at its
edge with its many rainbow hues. Since then there is no beauty in what
is obvious in the saying (for “all the glory of the king’s
daughter is within541
,” shining with
its hidden ornament in golden thoughts), Solomon of necessity suggests
to the readers of this book “the turn of the saying,” that
thereby they may “understand a parable and a dark saying, words
of the wise and riddles542
.” Now as this
proverbial teaching embraces these elements, a reasonable man will not
receive any passage cited from this book, be it never so clear and
intelligible at first sight, without examination and inspection; for
assuredly there is some mystical contemplation underlying even those
passages which seem manifest. And if the obvious passages of the work
necessarily demand a somewhat minute scrutiny, how much more do those
passages require it where even immediate apprehension presents to us
much that is obscure and difficult?
Let us then begin our
examination from the context of the passage in question, and see
whether the reading of the neighbouring clauses gives any clear sense.
The discourse describes Wisdom as uttering certain sayings in her own
person. Every student knows what is said in the passage543
where Wisdom makes counsel her
dwelling-place, and calls to her knowledge and understanding, and says
that she has as a possession strength and prudence (while she is
herself called intelligence), and that she walks in the ways of
righteousness and has her conversation in the ways of just judgment,
and declares that by her kings reign, and princes write the decree of
equity, and monarchs win possession of their own land. Now every one
will see that the considerate reader will receive none of the phrases
quoted without scrutiny according to the obvious sense. For if by her
kings are advanced to their rule, and if from her monarchy derives its
strength, it follows of necessity that Wisdom is displayed to us as a
king-maker, and transfers to herself the blame of those who bear evil
rule in their kingdoms. But we know of kings who in truth advance under
the guidance of Wisdom to the rule that has no end—the poor in
spirit, whose possession is the kingdom of heaven544
,
as the Lord promises, Who is the Wisdom of the Gospel: and such also we
recognize as the princes who bear rule over their passions, who are not
enslaved by the dominion of sin, who inscribe the decree of equity upon
their own life, as it were upon a tablet. Thus, too, that laudable
despotism which changes, by the alliance of Wisdom, the democracy of
the passions into the monarchy of reason, brings into bondage what were
running unrestrained into mischievous liberty, I mean all carnal and
earthly thoughts: for “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit545
,” and rebels against the government of
the soul. Of this land, then, such a monarch wins possession, whereof
he was, according to the first creation, appointed as ruler by the
Word.
Seeing then that all reasonable
men admit that these expressions are to be read in such a sense as
this, rather than in that which appears in the words at first sight, it
is consequently probable that the phrase we are discussing, being
written in close connection with them, is not received by prudent men
absolutely and without examination. “If I declare to you,” she says,
“the things that happen day by day, I will remember to recount
the things from everlasting: the Lord created me546
.” What, pray, has the slave of the
literal text, who sits listening closely to the sound of the syllables,
like the Jews, to say to this phrase? Does not the conjunction,
“If I declare to you the things that happen day by day, the Lord
created me,” ring strangely in the ears of those who listen
attentively? as though, if she did not declare the things that happen
day by day, she will by consequence deny absolutely that she was
created. For he who says, “If I declare, I was created,”
leaves you by his silence to understand, “I was not created, if I
do not declare.” “The Lord created me,” she says,
“in the beginning of His ways, for His works. He set me up from
everlasting, in the beginning, before He made the earth, before He made
the depths, before the springs of the waters came forth, before the
mountains were settled, before all hills, He begetteth me547
.” What new order of the formation of a
creature is this? First it is created, and after that it is set up, and
then it is begotten. “The Lord made,” she says,
“lands, even uninhabited, and the inhabited extremes of the earth
under heaven548
.” Of what Lord does she speak as
the maker of land both uninhabited and inhabited? Of Him surely, who
made wisdom. For both the one saying and the other are uttered by the
same person; both that which says, “the Lord created me,”
and that which adds, “the Lord made land, even
uninhabited.” Thus the Lord will be the maker equally of both, of
Wisdom herself, and of the inhabited and uninhabited land. What then
are we to make of the saying, “All things were made by Him, and
without Him was not anything made549
”? For if
one and the same Lord creates both Wisdom (which they advise us to
understand of the Son), and also the particular things which are
included in the Creation, how does the sublime John speak truly, when
he says that all things were made by Him? For this Scripture gives a
contrary sound to that of the Gospel, in ascribing to the Creator of
Wisdom the making of land uninhabited and inhabited. So, too, with all
that follows550
:—she speaks of a Throne of God
set apart upon the winds, and says that the clouds above are made
strong, and the fountains under the heaven sure; and the context
contains many similar expressions, demanding in a marked degree that
interpretation by a minute and clear-sighted intelligence, which is to
be observed in the passages already quoted. What is the throne that is
set apart upon the winds? What is the security of the fountains under
the heaven? How are the clouds above made strong? If any one should
interpret the passage with reference to visible objects551
| 551 Or
“according to the apparent sense.” | , he will find that the facts are at
considerable variance with the words. For who knows not that the
extreme parts of the earth under heaven, by excess in one direction or
in the other, either by being too close to the sun’s heat, or by
being too far removed from it, are uninhabitable; some being
excessively dry and parched, other parts superabounding in moisture,
and chilled by frost, and that only so much is inhabited as is equally
removed from the extreme of each of the two opposite conditions? But if
it is the midst of the earth that is occupied by man, how does the
proverb say that the extremes of the earth under heaven are inhabited?
Again, what strength could one perceive in the clouds, that that
passage may have a true sense, according to its apparent intention,
which says that the clouds above have been made strong? For the nature
of cloud is a sort of rather slight vapour diffused through the air,
which, being light, by reason of its great subtilty, is borne on the
breath of the air, and, when forced together by compression, falls down
through the air that held it up, in the form of a heavy drop of rain.
What then is the strength in these, which offer no resistance to the
touch? For in the cloud you may discern the slight and easily dissolved
character of air. Again, how is the Divine throne set apart on the
winds that are by nature unstable? And as for her saying at first that
she is “created,” finally, that she is
“begotten,” and between these two utterances that she is
“set up,” what account of this could any one profess to
give that would agree with the common and obvious sense? The point also
on which a doubt was previously raised in our argument, the declaring,
that is, of the things that happen day by day, and the remembering to
recount the things from everlasting, is, as it were, a condition of
Wisdom’s assertion that she was created by God.
Thus, since it has been clearly
shown by what has been said, that no part of this passage is such that
its language should be received without examination and reflection, it
may be well, perhaps, as with the rest, so not to interpret the text,
“The Lord created me,” according to that sense which
immediately presents itself to us from the phrase, but to seek with all
attention and care what is to be piously understood from the utterance.
Now, to apprehend perfectly the sense of the passage before us, would
seem to belong only to those who search out the depths by the aid of
the Holy Spirit, and know how to speak in the Spirit the divine
mysteries: our
account, however, will only busy itself with the passage in question so
far as not to leave its drift entirely unconsidered. What, then, is our
account? It is not, I think, possible that that wisdom which arises in
any man from divine illumination should come alone, apart from the
other gifts of the Spirit, but there must needs enter in therewith also
the grace of prophecy. For if the apprehension of the truth of the
things that are is the peculiar power of wisdom, and prophecy includes
the clear knowledge of the things that are about to be, one would not
be possessed of the gift of wisdom in perfection, if he did not further
include in his knowledge, by the aid of prophecy, the future likewise.
Now, since it is not mere human wisdom that is claimed for himself by
Solomon, who says, “God hath taught me wisdom552
,” and who, where he says “all my
words are spoken from God553
| 553 Prov. xxxi. 1 (LXX. ch. xxiv.).
The ordinary reading in the LXX. seems to be ὑπὸ
θεοῦ, while Oehler retains
in his text of Greg. Nyss. the ἀπὸ
θεοῦ of the Paris
editions. | ,” refers to God
all that is spoken by himself, it might be well in this part of the
Proverbs to trace out the prophecy that is mingled with his wisdom. But
we say that in the earlier part of the book, where he says that
“Wisdom has builded herself a house554
| 554 Prov. ix. 1, which seems to
be spoken of as “earlier” in contrast, not with the main
passage under examination, but with those just cited. | ,” he refers darkly in these words to
the preparation of the flesh of the Lord: for the trite Wisdom did not
dwell in another’s building, but built for Itself that
dwelling-place from the body of the Virgin. Here, however, he adds to
his discourse555
| 555 If προστίθησι
be the right reading, it would almost seem that
Gregory had forgotten the order of the passages, and supposed
Prov. viii.
22 to
have been written after Prov. ix. 1. To read
προτίθησι, (“presents to us”) would get rid of this
difficulty, but it may be that Gregory only intends to point out that
the idea of the union of the two natures, from which the
“communicatio idiomatum” results, is distinct from that of
the preparation for the Nativity, not to insist upon the order in
which, as he conceives, they are set forth in the book of
Proverbs. | that which of both is made one—of
the house, I mean, and of the Wisdom which built the house, that is to
say, of the Humanity and of the Divinity that was commingled with man556
| 556 ἀνακραθείσης
τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ | ; and to each of these he applies suitable and
fitting terms, as you may see to be the case also in the Gospels, where
the discourse, proceeding as befits its subject, employs the more lofty
and divine phraseology to indicate the Godhead, and that which is
humble and lowly to indicate the Manhood. So we may see in this passage
also Solomon prophetically moved, and delivering to us in its fulness
the mystery of the Incarnation557
. For we speak first
of the eternal power and energy of Wisdom; and here the evangelist, to
a certain extent, agrees with him in his very words. For as the latter
in his comprehensive558
| 558 περιληπτῇ
appears to be used as equivalent to περιληπτικῇ | phrase proclaimed Him
to be the cause and Maker of all things, so Solomon says that by Him
were made those individual things which are included in the whole. For
he tells us that God by Wisdom established the earth, and in
understanding prepared the heavens, and all that follows these in
order, keeping to the same sense: and that he might not seem to pass
over without mention the gift of excellence in men, he again goes on to
say, speaking in the person of Wisdom, the words we mentioned a little
earlier; I mean, “I made counsel my dwelling-place, and
knowledge, and understanding559
,” and all that
relates to instruction in intellect and knowledge.
After recounting these and the
like matters, he proceeds to introduce also his teaching concerning the
dispensation with regard to man, why the Word was made flesh. For
seeing that it is clear to all that God Who is over all has in Himself
nothing as a thing created or imported, not power nor wisdom, nor
light, nor word, nor life, nor truth, nor any at all of those things
which are contemplated in the fulness of the Divine bosom (all which
things the Only-begotten God is, Who is in the bosom of the Father560
, the name of “creation” could not
properly be applied to any of those things which are contemplated in
God, so that the Son Who is in the Father, or the Word Who is in the
Beginning, or the Light Who is in the Light, or the Life Who is in the
Life, or the Wisdom Who is in the Wisdom, should say, “the Lord
created me.” For if the Wisdom of God is created (and Christ is
the Power of God and the Wisdom of God561
),
God, it would follow, has His Wisdom as a thing imported, receiving
afterwards, as the result of making, something which He had not at
first. But surely He Who is in the bosom of the Father does not permit
us to conceive the bosom of the Father as ever void of Himself. He Who
is in the beginning is surely not of the things which come to be in
that bosom from without, but being the fulness of all good, He is
conceived as being always in the Father, not waiting to arise in Him as
the result of creation, so that the Father should not be conceived as
at any time void of good, but He Who is conceived as being in the
eternity of the Father’s Godhead is always in Him, being Power,
and Life, and Truth, and Wisdom, and the like. Accordingly the words
“created me” do not proceed from the Divine and immortal
nature, but from that which was commingled with it in the Incarnation
from our created nature. How comes it then that the same, called
wisdom, and understanding, and intelligence, establishes the earth, and
prepares the heavens, and breaks up the deeps, and yet is here
“created for the beginning of His works562
| 562 The
quotation is an inexact reproduction of Prov. viii.
22 (LXX.). | ”? Such a dispensation, he tells us, is
not set forward without great cause. But since men, after receiving the
commandment of the things we should observe, cast away by disobedience
the grace of memory, and became forgetful, for this cause, “that
I may declare to you the things that happen day by day for your
salvation, and may put you in mind by recounting the things from
everlasting, which you have forgotten (for it is no new gospel that I
now proclaim, but I labour at your restoration to your first
estate),—for this cause I was created, Who ever am, and need no
creation in order to be; so that I am the beginning of ways for the
works of God, that is for men. For the first way being destroyed, there
must needs again be consecrated for the wanderers a new and living
way563
, even I myself, Who am the way.” And
this view, that the sense of “created me” has reference to
the Humanity, the divine apostle more clearly sets before us by his own
words when he charges us, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ564
,” and also where (using the same word)
he says, “Put on the new man which after God is created.565
” For if the garment of salvation is
one, and that is Christ, one cannot say that “the new man, which
after God is created,” is any other than Christ, but it is clear
that he who has “put on Christ” has “put on the new
man which after God is created.” For actually He alone is
properly named “the new man,” Who did not appear in the
life of man by the known and ordinary ways of nature, but in His case
alone creation, in a strange and special form, was instituted anew. For
this reason he names the same Person, when regarding the wonderful
manner of His birth566
, “the new man,
which after God is created,” and, when looking to the Divine
nature, which was blended567
in the creation of
this “new man,” he calls Him “Christ”: so that
the two names (I mean the name of “Christ” and the name of
“the new man which after God is created”) are applied to
one and the same Person.
Since, then, Christ is Wisdom,
let the intelligent reader consider our opponent’s account of the
matter, and our own, and judge which is the more pious, which better
preserves in the text those conceptions which are befitting the Divine
nature; whether that which declares the Creator and Lord of all to have
been made, and places Him on a level with the creation that is in
bondage, or that rather which looks to the Incarnation, and preserves
the due proportion with regard to our conception alike of the Divinity
and of the Humanity, bearing in mind that the great Paul testifies in
favour of our view, who sees in the “new man” creation, and
in the true Wisdom the power of creation. And, further, the order of
the passage agrees with this view of the doctrine it conveys. For if
the “beginning of the ways” had not been created among us,
the foundation of those ages for which we look would not have been
laid; nor would the Lord have become for us “the Father of the
age to come568
,” had not a Child been born to
us, according to Isaiah, and His name been called, both all the other
titles which the prophet gives Him, and withal “The Father of the
age to come.” Thus first there came to pass the mystery wrought
in virginity, and the dispensation of the Passion, and then the wise
master-builders of the Faith laid the foundation of the Faith: and this
is Christ, the Father of the age to come, on Whom is built the life of
the ages that have no end. And when this has come to pass, to the end
that in each individual believer may be wrought the divine decrees of
the Gospel law, and the varied gifts of the Holy Spirits—(all
which the divine Scripture figuratively names, with a suitable
significance, “mountains” and “hills,” calling
righteousness the “mountains” of God, and speaking of His
judgments as “deeps569
,” and giving
the name of “earth” to that which is sown by the Word and
brings forth abundant fruit; or in that sense in which we are taught by
David to understand peace by the “mountains,” and
righteousness by the “hills570
”),—Wisdom is begotten in the
faithful, and the saying is found true. For He Who is in those who have
received Him, is not yet begotten in the unbelieving. Thus, that these
things may be wrought in us, their Maker must be begotten in us. For if
Wisdom is begotten in us, then in each of us is prepared by God both
land, and land uninhabited,—the land, that which receives the
sowing and the ploughing of the Word, the uninhabited land, the heart
cleared of evil inhabitants,—and thus our dwelling will be upon
the extreme parts of the earth. For since in the earth some is depth,
and some is surface, when a man is not buried in the earth, or, as it
were, dwelling in a cave by reason of thinking of things beneath (as is
the life of those who live in sin, who “stick fast in the deep
mire where no ground is571
,” whose life is
truly a pit, as the Psalm says, “let not the pit shut her mouth
upon me572
”)—if, I say, a man, when Wisdom
is begotten in him, thinks of the things that are above, and touches
the earth only so much as he needs must, such a man inhabits “the
extreme parts of the earth under heavens,” not plunging deep in
earthly thought; with him Wisdom is present, as he prepares in himself heaven
instead of earth: and when, by carrying out the precepts into act, he
makes strong for himself the instruction of the clouds above, and,
enclosing the great and widespread sea of wickedness, as it were with a
beach, by his exact conversation, hinders the troubled water from
proceeding forth from his mouth; and if by the grace of instruction he
be made to dwell among the fountains, pouring forth the stream of his
discourse with sure caution, that he may not give to any man for drink
the turbid fluid of destruction in place of pure water, and if he be
lifted up above all earthly paths and become aerial in his life,
advancing towards that spiritual life which he speaks of as “the
winds,” so that he is set apart to be a throne of Him Who is
seated in him (as was Paul separated for the Gospel to be a chosen
vessel to bear the name of God, who, as it is elsewhere expressed, was
made a throne, bearing Him that sat upon him)—when, I say, he is
established in these and like ways, so that he who has already fully
made up in himself the land inhabited by God, now rejoices in gladness
that he is made the father, not of wild and senseless beasts, but of
men (and these would be godlike thoughts, which are fashioned according
to the Divine image, by faith in Him Who has been created and begotten,
and set up in us;—and faith, according to the words of Paul, is
conceived as the foundation whereby wisdom is begotten in the faithful,
and all the things that I have spoken of are wrought)—then, I
say, the life of the man who has been thus established is truly
blessed, for Wisdom is at all times in agreement with him, and rejoices
with him who daily finds gladness in her alone. For the Lord rejoices
in His saints, and there is joy in heaven over those who are being
saved, and Christ, as the father, makes a feast for his rescued son.
Though we have spoken hurriedly of these matters, let the careful man
read the original text of the Holy Scripture, and fit its dark sayings
to our reflections, testing whether it is not far better to consider
that the meaning of these dark sayings has this reference, and not that
which is attributed to it at first sight. For it is not possible that
the theology of John should be esteemed true, which recites that all
created things are the work of the Word, if in this passage He Who
created Wisdom be believed to have made together with her all other
things also. For in that case all things will not be by her, but she
will herself be counted with the things that were made.
And that this is the reference
of the enigmatical sayings is clearly revealed by the passage that
follows, which says, “Now therefore hearken unto me, my son: and
blessed is he that keepeth my ways573
,” meaning
of course by “ways” the approaches to virtue, the beginning
of which is the possession of Wisdom. Who, then, who looks to the
divine Scripture, will not agree that the enemies of the truth are at
once impious and slanderous?—impious, because, so far as in them
lies, they degrade the unspeakable glory of the Only-begotten God, and
unite it with the creation, striving to show that the Lord Whose power
over all things is only-begotten, is one of the things that were made
by Him: slanderous, because, though Scripture itself gives them no
ground for such opinions, they arm themselves against piety as though
they drew their evidence from that source. Now since they can by no
means show any passage of the Holy Scriptures which leads us to look
upon the pre-temporal glory of the Only-begotten God in conjunction
with the subject creation, it is well, these points being proved, that
the tokens of victory over falsehood should be adduced as testimony to
the doctrine of godliness, and that sweeping aside these verbal systems
of theirs by which they make the creature answer to the creator, and
the thing made to the maker, we should confess, as the Gospel from
heaven teaches us, the well-beloved Son—not a bastard, not a
counterfeit; but that, accepting with the name of Son all that
naturally belongs to that name, we should say that He Who is of Very
God is Very God, and that we should believe of Him all that we behold
in the Father, because They are One, and in the one is conceived the
other, not overpassing Him, not inferior to Him, not altered or subject
to change in any Divine or excellent property.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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