GREGORY
of NYSSA
on
DIVINE
DARKNESS
in
THE
SONG of
SONGS
and
THE
LIFE of
MOSES
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From the Commentary on the Song of Songs, ch.
Translation adapted from (1)J. Daniélou, From Glory to Glory (London,
1962), (2)
In Canticum canticorum (homiliae 15) ed W. JaegerGregorii Nysseni opera,vol. 6 (Brill,Leiden
1960)
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HOMILIES
on
THE
SONG
of
SONGS |
In Canticum canticorum (homiliae 15) ed W. Jaeger. Gregorii Nysseni opera,vol. 6 (Brill,Leiden 1960) |
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HOMILY 11 |
[6.322.9] |
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THE manifestation of God to great Moses [:] |
τῷ μεγάλῳ Μωϋσῇ |
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[1] began with light; |
διὰ φωτὸς ἤρξατο ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπιφάνεια͵ |
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[2] afterwards God spoke to him in a cloud. |
μετὰ ταῦτα διὰ νεφέλης αὐτῷ ὁ θεὸς διαλέγεται͵ |
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[3] But having ascended higher and become more perfect he saw God in the darkness. |
εἶτα ὑψηλότερος καὶ τελειότερος ἤδη γενόμενος ἐν γνόφῳ τὸν θεὸν βλέπει. |
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| NOW what this teaches us is as follows. | ὃ δὲ διὰ τούτου μανθάνο μεν τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν· |
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[1] Our initial withdrawal from wrong and erroneous ideas of God |
ἡ πρώτη ἀπὸ τῶν ψευδῶν καὶ πεπλανη μένων περὶ θεοῦ ὑπολήψεων ἀναχώρησις |
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is a transition from darkness [skotos] to light. |
ἡ ἀπὸ τοῦ σκότους εἰς φῶς ἐστι μετάστασις͵ |
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| [2] Next comes a [deeper] awareness [katanoésis] of hidden things, and by this the soul is guided through sense phenomena to the invisible nature. | ἡ δὲ προσεχεστέρα τῶν κρυπτῶν κατανόησις ἡ διὰ τῶν φαινομένων χειραγωγοῦσα τὴν ψυχὴν πρὸς τὴν ἀόρατον φύσιν |
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And this awareness is a kind of cloud[nephelé], which over-shadows all appearances, and slowly guides and accustoms the soul to look towards what is hidden. |
οἷόν τις νεφέλη γίνεται τὸ φαινόμενον μὲν ἅπαν ἐπισκιάζουσα πρὸς δὲ τὸ κρύφιον 6.323 βλέπειν τὴν ψυχὴν χειραγωγοῦσα καὶ συνεθίζουσα͵ |
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| [3] Next the soul makes progress through all these stages and goes on higher, and as she leaves below all that human nature can attain, | ἡ δὲ διὰ τούτων ὁδεύουσα πρὸς τὰ ἄνω ψυχή͵ ὅσον ἐφικτόν ἐστι τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει καταλιποῦσα͵ |
| she enters within the innermost [not-to-be-entered] sanctuary of the divine knowledge, and here she is cut off on all sides by the divine darkness. | ἐντὸς τῶν ἀδύτων τῆς θεογνωσίας γίνεται τῷ θείῳ γνόφῳ πανταχόθεν διαληφθεῖσα |
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In this [divine] manifestation everything the senses can perceive is left outside. |
ἐν ᾧ τοῦ φαινομένου τε καὶ καταλαμβανομένου παντὸς ἔξω καταλειφθέντος |
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and the only thing left for the soul’s contemplation is the invisible and the incomprehensible. |
μόνον ὑπολείπεται τῇ θεωρίᾳ τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ ἀόρατόν τε καὶ ἀκατάληπτον͵ |
| In which [contemplation] is God, as the Scriptures tell us concerning the Lawgiver: | ἐν ᾧ ἐστιν ὁ θεός͵ καθώς φησι περὶ τοῦ νομοθέτου ὁ λόγος ὅτι |
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‘But Moses
went to the dark cloud wherein God was.’ (Exod. 20:21) |
Εἰσῆλθε δὲ Μωϋσῆς εἰς τὸν γνόφον οὗ ἦν ὁ θεός. |
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(Comm. on the Song XI: 1000–1) |
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| We find another way of speaking of the three moments of the soul’s approach to God in Gregory’s Homilies on the Song of Songs. He speaks of the soul’s successive entry into light, cloud, and darkness: phos, nephele, and gnophos. This is the guiding metaphor for Gregory’s understanding of the three ways [...] The progress is a progress from light to deeper and deeper darkness. The initial stage is the removal of the darkness (skotos) of error by the light of the truth. But, from then on, the further the soul progresses the deeper is the darkness into which it enters, until eventually the soul is cut off from all that can be grasped by sense and reason. Louth pp. 79-80] | |
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| SHE is encompassed by a divine night, during which her Spouse approaches, but does not reveal Himself. | νῦν δὲ ἤδη ὑπὸ τῆς θείας νυκτὸς περιέχεται͵ καθ΄ ἣν ὁ νυμφίος παραγίνεται μὲν οὐ φαίνεται δέ. |
| But how can that which is invisible reveal itself in the night? | πῶς γὰρ ἂν ἐν νυκτὶ φανείη τὸ μὴ ὁρώμενον; |
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By the fact that He gives the soul some sense of His presence [/arrival], [aisthésis tés parousias] |
ἀλλ΄ αἴσθησιν μέν τινα δίδωσι τῇ ψυχῇ τῆς παρουσίας͵ |
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even while He eludes her clear apprehension [katanoésis], |
ἐκφεύγει δὲ τὴν ἐναργῆ κατανόησιν |
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hidden in the invisibility of His nature. |
τῷ ἀοράτῳ τῆς φύσεως ἐγκρυπτόμενος. |
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(Comm. on the Song XI: 1001 B–C) |
In Canticum canticorum 6.324.5 |
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THE
LIFE
of
MOSES |
Grégoire de Nysse. La vie de Moïse, 3rd edn Daniélou, J, Sources chrétiennes (Cerf, Paris 1968) 168-169 |
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LIFE
of MOSES
2.168 |
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TRUMPET - LIFE of MOSES - CONTEMPLATION of CREATION |
Grégoire de Nysse. La vie de Moïse, 3rd edn Daniélou, J, Sources chrétiennes (Cerf, Paris 1968) 168-169 |
| Now I think that the heavenly trumpet can be interpreted…as a guide in our progress towards the spiritual. In this sense it would refer to the splendid harmony of the world which proclaims the wisdom that shines forth in the universe and tells of the grandeur of God’s glory reflected in things visible. Thus it is said: the heavens show forth the glory of God. |
2.168 Δοκεῖ γάρ μοι καὶ καθ΄ ἕτερον νοῦν διδάσκαλος ἡ οὐρανία σάλπιγξ τῆς ἐπὶ τὸ ἀχειροποίητον παρόδου τῷ ἐπαΐοντι γίνεσθαι. Ἡ γὰρ τῶν κατ΄ οὐρανὸν θαυμάτων διασκευὴ τὴν ἐκφαινομένην τοῖς οὖσι σοφίαν διαβοῶσα καὶ τὴν μεγάλην τοῦ Θεοῦ δόξαν διὰ τῶν φαινομένων διηγουμένη κατὰ τὸ εἰρημένον ὅτι· οἱ οὐρανοὶ διηγοῦνται δόξαν Θεοῦ͵ |
| There is the loud-sounding trumpet that speaks the divine message in clear and ringing tones, as one of the prophets says: The heavens trumpeted from above. |
αὕτη τῷ τρανῷ τε καὶ εὐήχῳ τῆς διδασκαλίας σάλπιγξ μεγαλόφωνος γίνεται͵ καθά φησί τις τῶν προφητῶν͵ ὅτι· ἐσάλπισεν ὁ οὐρανὸς ἄνωθεν.2.169 |
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| [1] When the hearing of the heart has been purified, | Ὁ δὲ κεκαθαρμένος τε καὶ ὀξὺς τὴν ἀκοὴν τῆς καρδίας͵ |
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| [2] then will a man hear this sound | τὴν ἠχὴν ταύτην δεξάμενος͵ |
| — that is, the contemplation of beings from which we derive our knowledge of the divine powers — | λέγω δὴ τὴν ἐκ τῆς θεωρίας τῶν ὄντων γινομένην πρὸς τὴν τῆς θείας δυνάμεως γνῶσιν͵ ὁδηγεῖται |
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| [3] and by this he is led in his mind to penetrate to the realm where God exists. | δι΄ αὐτῆς πρὸς τὸ ἐκεῖ διαδῦναι τῇ διανοίᾳ ὅπου ἐστὶν ὁ Θεός. |
| This realm the Scriptures call darkness (gnophos) | Τοῦτο δὲ γνόφος ὑπὸ τῆς Γραφῆς ὀνομάζεται͵ |
| And by this is meant the [divine] unknowability and non-contemplatability, | ᾧ διερμηνεύεται͵ καθὼς εἴρηται͵ τὸ ἄγνωστόν τε καὶ ἀθεώρητον͵ |
| in which he sees the tabernacle not made by human hands, as I have said, later showing a material imitation to those below. | ἐν ᾧ γενόμενος τὴν ἀχειροποίητον ἐκείνην σκηνὴν βλέπει͵ ἣν διὰ τῆς ὑλικῆς μιμήσεως τοῖς κάτω δείκνυσι. |
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(Life of Moses II. 168–9) |
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| often Gregory’s doctrine is that the purified soul can see the glory of God manifested in his creation. This is the interpretation he gives to the trumpets that Moses heard on his first ascent of Mount Sinai [...] In this passage several points are made about the nature of contemplation in the second way. The mention of darkness (gnophos) reminds us [...] that in Gregory the three ways are not strictly successive but shade off one into another — the significance of natural contemplation only emerges as we pass beyond it and are precipitated into the darkness where God is, and [f.p.83] where contemplation is impossible. But in this darkness, that is, as we move closer to God, we begin to discern there what Gregory, quoting Hebrews, calls the ‘tabernacle not made with hands’. And in descrying this we find the deepest significance of natural contemplation. Louth 82-84 | |
| [...] for Gregory contemplation, theoria, is not the goal of the soul’s ascent. Rather there is both an active and a contemplative side to each moment of the soul’s ascent. In the first way, the active side is found in the process of purification and the contemplative side in the soul’s perception that God alone truly exists. If anything, it is the second way that is the true place of contemplation, for in the third way the soul passes beyond contemplation. In the third way, the Song of Songs ‘initiates the understanding within the divine sanctuary’ and gives us ‘an account of the marriage, that is, of the union of the soul with God’. Because God is unknowable, contemplation is impossible in the third way, which is concerned with God in Himself: it is the way of union through love. | |
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PERHAPS LESS SIGNIFICANT AND HIDDEN |
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| n Canticum canticorum 6.26.4 to In Canticum canticorum 6.27.5 | |
| If any irrational notion should be seen around this mountain, it is destroyed with firmer thoughts as by stones. Otherwise, we would hardly be able to hear the sound of that trumpet reverberating with a great and awesome sound which is beyond the capacity of those who hear it. This sound comes from the dark obscurity where God is and who burns with fire every material thing upon this mountain. | πᾶν δὲ ἄλογον νόημα εἰ περὶ τὸ τοιοῦτον ὄρος ὀφθείη͵ τοῖς στερροτέροις λογισμοῖς οἷόν τισι λίθοις καταφονεύεται. μόγις γὰρ ἂν οὕτω χωρήσαιμεν τὴν φωνὴν τῆς σάλπιγγος ταύτης μέγα τι καὶ ἐξαίσιον καὶ ὑπὲρ τὴν δύναμιν τῶν δεχομένων ἠχούσης͵ ἣν αὐτὸς ὁ γνόφος τῆς ἀσαφείας προΐεται͵ ἐν ᾧ ἐστιν ὁ θεὸς ὁ τὸ ὑλικὸν ἅπαν ἐπὶ τοῦ τοιούτου ὄρους τῷ πυρὶ καταφλέγων. |
| Now let us enter the Holy of Holies, Song of Songs. In the expression “Holy of Holies” we are taught a certain super-abundance and exaggeration of holiness. Through the title Song of Songs the noble text also promises to teach us the mystery of mysteries. To be sure, there are many songs in the divinely inspired teaching by which we acquire great knowledge about God from David, Isaiah, Moses and many [J.27] others. |
I ῎Ηδη τοίνυν ἐντὸς τοῦ ἁγίου τῶν ἁγίων
γενώμεθα͵ ὅπερ ἐστὶ τὸ ᾆσμα τῶν ᾀσμάτων. ὡς γὰρ ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ τῶν ἁγίων
πλεονασμόν τινα καὶ ἐπίτασιν τῆς ἁγιότητος διὰ τῆς ὑπερθετικῆς
ταύτης φωνῆς διδασκόμεθα͵ οὕτω καὶ διὰ τοῦ ᾄσματος τῶν ᾀσμάτων
μυστηρίων μυστήρια διδάσκειν ἡμᾶς ὁ ὑψηλὸς λόγος κατεπαγγέλλεται.
πολλῶν γὰρ ὄντων κατὰ τὴν θεόπνευστον διδασκαλίαν ᾀσμάτων͵ δι΄ ὧν τὰ
μεγάλα νοήματα περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ διδασκόμεθα παρά τε τοῦ μεγάλου Δαβὶδ
καὶ Ἠσαΐου καὶ Μωϋσέως καὶ ἄλλων 6.27 πολλῶν͵
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| However, we learn from the title Song of Songs that just as the songs of the saints surpass the wisdom of profane songs, so does the mystery contained here surpass the songs of the saints. Indeed, human understanding left to its own resources could neither discover nor absorb the Song’s mystery. | τοῦτο παρὰ τῆς ἐπιγραφῆς ταύτης μανθάνομεν͵ ὅτι ὅσον ἀπέχει τῶν τῆς ἔξω σοφίας ᾀσμάτων τὰ τῶν ἁγίων ᾄσματα͵ τοσοῦτον ὑπέρκειται τῶν ἁγίων ᾀσμάτων τὸ ἐν τῷ ᾄσματι τῶν ᾀσμάτων μυστήριον͵ οὗ τὸ πλέον εἰς κατανόησιν οὔτε εὑρεῖν οὔτε χωρῆσαι ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη δύναται φύσις. κ |
| The most acute physical pleasure (I mean erotic passion) is used as a symbol in the exposition of this doctrine on love. It teaches us of the need for the soul to reach out to the divine nature’s invisible beauty and to love it as much as the body is inclined to love what is akin to itself. The soul must transform passion into passionlessness so that when every corporeal affection has been quenched, our mind may seethe with passion for the spirit alone and be warmed by that fire which the Lord came to cast upon the earth [Lk 12.49]. | In Canticum canticorum 6.27.5 καὶ τούτου χάριν τὸ σφοδρότατον τῶν καθ΄ ἡδονὴν ἐνεργουμένων (λέγω δὲ τὸ ἐρωτικὸν πάθος) τῆς τῶν δογμάτων ὑφηγήσεως αἰνιγματωδῶς προεστήσατο͵ ἵνα διὰ τούτου μάθωμεν͵ ὅτι χρὴ τὴν ψυχὴν πρὸς τὸ ἀπρόσιτον τῆς θείας φύσεως κάλλος ἐνατενίζουσαν τοσοῦτον ἐρᾶν ἐκείνου͵ ὅσον ἔχει τὸ σῶμα τὴν σχέσιν πρὸς τὸ συγγενὲς καὶ ὁμόφυλον͵ μετενεγκοῦσαν εἰς ἀπάθειαν τὸ πάθος͵ ὥστε πάσης κατασβεσθείσης σωματικῆς διαθέσεως μόνῳ τῷ πνεύματι ζέειν ἐρωτικῶς ἐν ἡμῖν τὴν διάνοιαν διὰ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐκείνου θερμαινομένην͵ ὃ βαλεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ἦλθεν ὁ κύριος. 6.27.15 |
[...] for Gregory contemplation, theoria, is not the goal of the soul’s ascent. Rather there is both an active and a contemplative side to each moment of the soul’s ascent. In the first way, the active side is found in the process of purification and the contemplative side in the soul’s perception that God alone truly exists. If anything, it is the second way that is the true place of contemplation, for in the third way the soul passes beyond contemplation. In the third way, the Song of Songs ‘initiates the understanding within the divine sanctuary’ and gives us ‘an account of the marriage, that is, of the union of the soul with God’. Because God is unknowable, contemplation is impossible in the third way, which is concerned with God in Himself: it is the way of union through love. 9
May wish to add contemplation of soul as radiant image of God - light texts in Ben XVI address on GrNys
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