BY THE SAME GREGORY OF NYSSA ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ACCORDING TO THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD
Those who wish to perceive the God-created beauty of their own countenance unerringly can in no other way contemplate their own image and the form of their face than by the work of a most clean mirror, to which, bringing the appearance of their mouth A near, they clearly behold within and through it a certain form, as it were represented in rivalry, according to their own image and likeness. Therefore, let us too, as if turning the eyes of our soul toward the divine ray of the intelligible sun in a sort of mirror, learn thence clearly the sketched appearance, form, and image of that which is in our nature according to the image and likeness of God. For it is—it is, I say, as it seems to me—the creation and structure of man that is something formidable and difficult to interpret, and it expresses within itself many hidden mysteries of God. B And just as the nature of the eye easily perceives things outside itself, but cannot perceive itself as to what it is, so to every eye of human reasoning is the account of our own creation difficult to view and difficult to grasp. For the Creator, having perfected the simple and most intelligible world of invisible powers, and after it this material and visible world also, composed from the bodies of four elements, then says, "Let us make man according to our image and likeness," and creates a living creature, as if a certain mixed world, kin to both worlds, composed of an incorporeal, immortal, and incorruptible soul, and of a material and visible body, joined and C compacted from four elements. Which having been done, Scripture again says that "God made man; according to the image of God He made him"; and by God He means the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Many and various opinions, therefore, have been put forth concerning this by the interpreters. For some have said that the power of commanding and the primacy of man is that which is "according to the image of God and D likeness," while others, the intellectual and invisible aspect of the soul. Others, the incorruptible and sinless [state], when the
Adam was brought forth into light; others have said that this is a prophecy concerning baptism.
B Finally, as if to one untimely born, it has seemed good to me also to say a few words concerning this matter; and first of all it is worth the effort to inquire why, in the world, God did not rather call the intellectual and immaterial, heavenly, and God-approaching angels "created according to His image and likeness"? For they possess authority and dominion over the whole earth, and even over man himself, nay, even more than man does. By the same reasoning, to be immortal, separated from matter, invisible, and pure, and all other praises that you might speak concerning Adam, are present in an excellent way in the intellectual and heavenly choirs of incorporeal minds. Therefore, that which is "according to the image" in man obscurely indicates something deeper for us than appears at first sight. For man does not possess in himself only one certain image and likeness of God, but a second and a third, as if in a certain mirror and shadowed effigy, fictional and typical, not physical, expressing the mystery of the tri-hypostatic Divinity; and not only this, but also clearly foreshadowing the incarnation of the one God the Word of the holy Trinity. And perhaps the soul alone is "according to the image" of the Divinity, while the composite of our soul and body is "according to the likeness" of the incarnation of the Word.
But let us return to the very beginning of the discourse, and thence, as if from a certain most deep fountain, let us first deduce what the reason is why God did not bring forth the principal and head persons of our race—I mean Adam and Eve, and the son who proceeded from them—into light according to the likeness of other rational beings, to wit, the angels, or again, by parity of reasoning, according to the likeness of living creatures endowed with sense and affected in the same way? But [why] he established Adam without cause and without generation, and the second man from him, the son, through generation; while Eve, not through generation, nor again without cause or principle, but by a taking or procession from the substance of the causeless Adam, having proceeded in an ineffable manner, received her nature?
C And might it be that these three primary heads of the whole of human nature, being consubstantial persons, were made figuratively "according to the image" of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, as it seems to Methodius? So that Adam indeed, who is without cause and unbegotten, bears the figure and image of Him who has no cause or principle, and who is the cause of all things, to wit, the almighty God and Father; but the son, who is begotten, has sketched and shadowed the image of the begotten Son and Word of God; and Eve, finally, who was brought forth as she proceeded into light, has designated the person of the Holy Spirit, which arises from procession? D For which reason God did not breathe into her the breath of life, because she herself was the figure of the breath and life of the Holy Spirit, and because she was to receive, through the Holy Spirit, God, who is truly the breath and life of all things. Whence it is possible to see and marvel that the unbegotten Adam had no other unbegotten or causeless one among men as his equal, just as neither did the processional Eve, as they exist as true types of the unbegotten Father and the Holy Spirit; but the begotten son [has] all men, being begotten sons, as brothers
as one who was to the typical image and likeness of the begotten Son of Christ, who was made man, the firstborn among many brethren. B But if this be not so, nor even in this respect [is it] in the image, why, I ask, have there not been four, or two, or more persons of the first parents, which would have had their own varied hypostatic properties—I mean, to be unbegotten, to be begotten, and to have proceeded—but three, and these alone? You have, therefore, according to the typical image and likeness, a trinity in unity in three persons; it follows thereafter that you should understand unity also in the trinity. But by what means you might best discern this, hear one of the wise men exhorting you, and thus addressing you: If you wish to know God, first know yourself; from your own constitution, from your own structure, he says, from those things which are within yourself, you will recognize Him. Enter further into yourself, look as if into a certain mirror into your soul, discern its condition, and you will see yourself made according to the image and likeness of God. C The nameless and unknown spiritual and immortal substance of your soul is fashioned according to the typical image of the nameless and unknown and immortal God. For no one of the men who have been from the ages has ever known the substance of either God or the rational soul. For the soul has the power of vivifying and constituting and providentially managing the body, whose nature consists of four elements, according to the image of God, who provides for and rules over the whole, compounded of four elements, and that heavenly creature. Wherefore, we neither know the place in which God dwells, but we only believe that He is everywhere, nor do we know the place of the soul, in which it dwells in the body, but we only know that it is in the whole body and operates. D Your soul has also some other thing which is according to the image of God, which is that it has a substance different from all other created things: and, which is more wonderful than all things in which this image and likeness consists, that the human mind cannot comprehend the reasons for the existence of God, nor indeed how the substance of our soul is brought to existence and proceeds. Whence it happens that those who have wrongly taught that they have attained to understanding it, have so fallen: such as those who say that souls are sent down from the heavens into bodies; while others say that they begin with the body, being created by God; and others finally maintain that man, because he was made to the image of the Creator, has the faculty of generating a soul with the act of procreation; others contend that the soul is sown from both parts of the male and the female, just as when some stone and iron are struck together, and by the ignition fire is engendered. And these indeed wish it to be produced within the brief moment of the conception of the body.
A some, as they suppose, bring forth a legal constitution concerning this. Some have imagined it to be of the same substance as the angels, others lower, others in the air, and others in the universe, as if it were some divine nature encompassing all. For this reason, also, when it is united to the body and exists as the image of God, and is that which vivifies it, it remains immune from the bodily passions and corruptions of the body, neither seen, nor explained, nor comprehended by nature, nor by kind, nor shape, nor form, nor quality, nor quantity, nor existence, nor constitution, nor beauty. Whence also Methodius says in the *Symposium* that the soul possesses an immeasurable and ineffable beauty, and for this reason the opposing spirits burn with a certain jealousy and love for it, as it is adorned with a form more excellent than they, even though they are spiritual and intelligent.
But all this incomprehensibility and ambiguity and obscurity concerning it B signifies nothing else than that it is truly and properly the image of the incomprehensible God. Whence, being ignorant of all things concerning it, we prove its existence only from its operations in the body, just as we also confirm the existence of God from his operations in the visible creation. But let us indeed come to the most critical part of the "according to the image and likeness," so that, according to our promises, we may demonstrate the unity of the Godhead in the Trinity. And what is this? It is clear that it is our own soul again, and its intellectual word, and the mind, which the Apostle called "spirit" when he commands us to be holy in soul and body and spirit. For the soul is again unbegotten and without cause, for a type of the unbegotten and uncaused God and Father; but its intellectual word is not unbegotten, but is begotten from it ineffably and invisibly and inexplicably and dispassionately. And the mind is neither without cause, nor unbegotten, but is proceeding, running through everything and scrutinizing all things, and invisibly handling them, according to the image and likeness of the all-holy and proceeding Spirit, of whom it has been said that "the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." The soul is not proceeding as long as it is in the body, since if it were proceeding, we would die every hour. Our word is not unbegotten, since otherwise we would be some speechless and brute animals. D But the most paradoxical of these paradoxes is this: that we have a certain simple soul, and likewise a single and incomposite mind; but we have a word that is double, yet one and the same, and preserved undivided in its generation. For the word is generated in the heart by a certain incomprehensible and incorporeal generation, and remains within unknown, and it is generated by a second, corporeal generation through the lips, and then it is made known to all; yet it is not separated from the soul that begat it, so that through the word of our two generations we may clearly learn the two generations of the Word of God according to the image and likeness.
A For He was begotten invisibly and inexplicably and incomprehensibly from the Father before the ages. And He was unknown, as if in a certain soul, to the Father, until, as if from a certain heart, He was begotten of the holy Virgin incorruptibly and without seed according to the flesh, and appeared to the world, not separated from the paternal hidden substance of the God who begat Him. B Thus, there have been shown in the unity of our immortal and intellectual soul-substance, as in an image, three certain hypostatic properties: the unbegotten state of the soul, and the generation of the word, and the procession of the spirit, or rather of the mind. And I am bold and dare to say that it is according to this invisible, trinitarian contemplation of the soul that the divine Apostle said that man is in the image of the invisible God.
But if these things are not so, why was our soul not created by God as bipartite or quadripartite, but rather possesses a certain tripartite and only indivisible and unconfused union, according to the image of the holy and consubstantial and life-giving Trinity? So that, if it is permissible to say, even in man, and especially in the righteous man, the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells typically, though not physically, in a certain way obscurely foreshadowing God in the Trinity. For which reason, secular wise men have also determined that our same soul is tripartite in another way, asserting that it has the faculties of desiring, reasoning, and being irascible, so that through the desiring faculty it might be joined to the love of God, through the reasoning faculty it might receive knowledge and wisdom from Him, and through the C power of irascibility it might stand against the spirits of wickedness, and in these three also it might foreshadow and express that image of God. For in three ways God in the Trinity administers and rules three parts, I mean the celestial, the terrestrial, and the subterranean, by His creative power, and by His providential care, and by His judgmental authority; for all that God brings to pass, He accomplishes in one of these three ways: either as Creator, or as Providential Caretaker, or as Chastener. D And the image of the power of creating, which is in God, is expressed by the desiring faculty which is in the soul; for desire impels one to action: the symbol, however, of the power of providing in the soul is the power of reasoning; and the sign of the power of chastening is established as that of irascibility. And perhaps desire is proper to the soul: for before infants can speak in any way, when they have become ensouled, they immediately long for the breast and incline toward sleep; but the reasoning faculty, there is no doubt, is properly referred to the power of reason. Finally, the power of irascibility is naturally accustomed to consist in the mind itself, which is also disturbed in him who is angered contrary to nature. If, therefore, anyone desires to learn how man was made in the image and likeness of God, let him treat of these things, let him enter into these and such-like hidden shrines of contemplation, and let him consider the constitution of his own soul endowed with intellect, all its parts accurately, if
A he would gradually and minutely investigate the reasons, modes, progressions, conjunctions, and distinctions, and its uniform state, and tripartite division, singular condition, dual and triple nature; and how it is one and yet perceived in three, an image and likeness of the Divine unity in trinity and trinity in unity, as if a figure designed and set forth. For that it is one according to essence, yet not one if its parts be considered, he who said, "I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the understanding; I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the understanding," (I Cor. xiv, 15) has clearly taught. B Indeed, certain men also demonstrate this Trinity figured in us according to the image of God even more clearly from certain physical causes, for they sometimes possess a soul, but lack intellect or speech; others, again, possess soul and speech, but are entirely lacking in intellect; others, again, have intellect and soul, but are deprived of speech. Whence also the nature of infants, as if brought forth and arriving from darkness into light, immediately manifests itself to have a soul, which indeed is endowed with intellect in the image of God and Father, and has within itself the speech and the intellect; but according to the progress of the body as it grows and increases, it manifests the speech secondarily, and this not all at once or suddenly, but by babbling, and as it were C sketching and preannouncing the birth of the Word through flesh; but the presence of the intellect is declared when the infant has progressed into a perfect man.
But someone will say: What do these things pertain to the proposed discussion concerning man? Truly, O man, by these things we learn in what manner God, as if in a certain body, has manifested and shown Himself in the world, and by what reason our nature has gradually recognized the mystery of the Trinity. For man was conceived by the power of a certain evil seed, as if in a womb of error, sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death; then, as if an infant beginning to emerge into the light of the knowledge of God, was animated by the guidance of the Law, when he recognized the Father and God having in Himself, just as does the soul, the substantial Word and the Spirit. But because man, on account of the excessive weakness of his judgment, could not comprehend the manifestation D of the Word and the intellect, lest he should slip through the aspect of divine worship into the cult of many gods, as time went on, this nature of our world was being instructed like a growing infant, taught as if by a soul from God and Father, so that it might obscurely recognize—as if through certain unclear babblings—the experience, and utterance, and epiphany of the substantial and hidden Word of the Father from prophetic teachings. After which babblings—I speak indeed of the Mosaic and prophetic enigmas of the Word—when it had appeared clearly and articulately, as if from certain lips from the virginal womb, the perfect Word of God, human nature of the world thereafter recognizes with these and through this its own perfect triple fullness, just as it received the Holy Spirit as a kind of intellect, not as having arrived into it by transition from external things, but from within itself, that is to say, the soul
A producing the word joined to its essence, putting forth the spirit that is of the same nature as its own mind, and as it were possessing within itself, though bodiless, the parts which are bodiless and joined to it by nature—through which, as through models, that which exists beyond form and figure is marked out, shaped, and constituted—possessing the spirit of the mind as a kind of bodily breath, and as life bearing the word that lives with it, without which neither to be nor to be known is possible for the rational and intelligent soul that was made according to the image and likeness of God; so that, clearly, through these things that are within it, we might learn and be instructed how neither the Father nor the Son existed before the most holy Spirit; but just as in the soul, at once there is the rational soul, and at the same time the word within it, and B at the same time and together with it is the spirit that is vital, constitutive, and complementary; so at the same time is the Father, at the same time the God the Word with the Father, at the same time the Son with the Father, and at the same time the Spirit with the Son and the Father. But if you divide and separate the word from the soul, your soul thereafter remains irrational; so that through this, which is according to the image of God, you may learn that if you deny the God the Word, saying that He is not with God the Father, you proclaim God thereafter to be irrational and beastly; and if you separate the Spirit from God, you then declare God to be a certain dead thing and not living. If you desire to philosophize concerning that which is according to the image and likeness of God, philosophize in this way: not from external things, but from those which are within you; make known to yourself the hidden God from the trinity that is within you, recognize the Trinity through things that have substantial existence; for this is firmer and more trustworthy than any other evidence sought from the law or from Scripture. C
For this one reason God created such a living being, since the mystery of the holy Trinity was to be preached in the world as being difficult to explain and incomprehensible; that you might have within yourself, you who were created according to the image and likeness of God, the image, likeness, figures, and examples of the holy Trinity; that when you have turned your eyes to the condition of the soul, you may no longer doubt or dispute about the mystery of the Trinity, nor may you say any longer and curiously inquire into these words: "If the Trinity is God, how is it a unity? and if He is one, as is said, how is He a Trinity? and if the Son is the Word, how is it possible that the offspring should be no less devoid of a beginning than the begetter? And if the Spirit is from the Father, how is He not begotten, but proceeding? Or D which one did the Father bring forth first, the Son or the Spirit?" And if both at once, is there then a brotherhood and a twin-birth in the Trinity? And how shall we distinguish, in the case of the bodiless, immovable, and immutable, the difference between generation and procession? And how also is it possible for the offspring to be of the same glory as the parent? And then, wishing to...
avoid these lines of questioning and reasoning into which the heretics stumbled and fell, God created you in the image and likeness of His own Trinitarian existence, a certain typological trinity known as a unit, in which, if you gaze well—well, as if in a mirror and a type—you will find all things that are piously preached concerning God. I mean, indeed, the Trinitarian nature of the subsistences, the monadic nature of the essence, the co-eternity, the indivisibility, the incomprehensibility, the non-schematic nature, the invisibility, the ingenerate, the generate, the proceeding, the creative, the provident, the judicial, the intangible, the incorporeal, the incorruptible, the indestructible, the immortal, the eternal, the ineffable—and, to speak concisely, all things that are piously said regarding the Godhead, their types, their images, and their shadows, you will find sketched within your soul. And for this reason it was said by God: "Let us make man according to our image and likeness."
But the heretics and the unbelievers of this present time have not known these things, nor have they understood them. For if they had carefully considered what it means "according to the image and likeness" of man, they would not have doubted concerning the mystery of the Trinity, nor would they have subjected that which is above nature to physical demonstrations. They would not have been darkened, saying that it is impossible for the God of three subsistences to be a Trinity. If Arius had learned what was in "the image" of Himself, he would not have taught that the Word was of a different substance from the Father. If Macedonius had piously considered what was "according to the image," he would never have said that the Holy Spirit was a creature; but, blinded, they suffer the same fate as those who have a pearl in their own bosom but do not know it, and wander about searching for it in the abyss. C Perceive, therefore, that our soul possesses the image of God not only in matters typologically—typologically, I say, not by parity of nature.
But how is this so? I will straightway make what is said clear. We believe God the Father to be uncircumscribed, and likewise the Son and the Holy Spirit; wherefore, as being infinite, they are related to one another and intertwined, and have their own proper appellations. For when one names the Father, it is evident that he has brought forth an indication of some Son of His. For how would He even be called Father if the Son were not known? Likewise, when He says "Spirit," He has signified God; for "God is Spirit," as the Scripture says. Then, come from this holy Trinity to its image—I mean the trinity that exists within us inside—and you will see the three names...
A also related to one another and united. For when you say a rational soul endowed with mind, you have clearly signified both the reason and the mind; and when you name reason, you have altogether declared the rational soul that is its progenitor; likewise, when you say mind, you have by every means declared both the soul and the reason. For whose mind would it be, if not of the soul and the reason? And therefore, just as they have their appellation related and mutually dependent, so too do they have a common and indivisible essential efficacy. For one and the same is the efficacy of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—one virtue, one power, one will, one intent. B For whatever the Father might do, the Son is his inseparable co-worker; and whatever the Son or the all-holy Spirit might accomplish, the Father altogether operates indivisibly. For neither does the Son do anything of himself apart from the Father, nor does the Father do anything at all without the Son and the Spirit, nor again does the Spirit perform anything without the Son and the Father. Come now, then, once more from the archetypes to the image, which is according to the likeness and image of God in our soul, and you will see one and the same operation in us. For neither does the soul accomplish anything without the reason, nor the reason without the soul, nor indeed does the mind, in turn, produce anything by itself apart from the soul and the reason, because of their shared C nature and their inborn and interconnected common power and operation, which is according to the image and likeness of God. But if you tell me that the soul performs nothing of itself apart from the body, we have already said this before: that even in this it is according to the image and likeness, by demonstrating through the visible matter its own powers that do not fall under sight; although, when the soul and substance are by nature pure and separated from the body, then it is found to be most suitable for perception, and simple, and undisturbed, and more luminous, and it can more truly be called and be an image and likeness of God. But if, as is likely, the adversary scoffs at what has been said, because we have not demonstrated three strictly constituted subsistences in the soul according to the equality of the all-holy Trinity, let that foolish man learn D that the soul is made according to a certain typic image, and not according to the equality of the holy Trinity—for even in the Godhead, if it is not fearful to say it, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit from him have a certain local distinction and assigned distance from one another. Do not pass over this, either, for explaining your likeness to the image of God—that, I say, through this bodily generation of the word from the lips, the virtue and the wisdom, and the prudence, and the power, and the depth, and the knowledge of your soul, and of the mind, are made known and published to all; for this example also declares to you that you exist according to the image and likeness of God. For through the birth of the Word of God in the flesh, the virtue and the power, and the knowledge, and the wisdom, and all the other good things of the Father and of the Holy Spirit were made manifest in the world.
the power and depth of your soul and mind are made known and divulged to all, and by this example you are declared to have been created in the image and likeness of God. For through the generation of the Word of God according to the flesh, the power and strength, and the knowledge and wisdom, and all the other goods of the Father and of the Holy Spirit were rendered manifest in the world. A For see how many and what kind of things are the achievements of the Word, in the figure of the Word of God, in the world, and in what way by the Word all things are created and consist: by the Word the angels were brought into being; by the Word they glorify the Creator; by the Word things that fall under sight began to be; by the Word the creature is illuminated; by the Word things that are, were made known; by the Word alone they were manifested; by the Word the ends [of the earth] were shown; by the Word we glorify the Creator; by the Word knowledge of God has been proclaimed; by the Word we have known God; by the Word all things consist; and as the speechless infant is irrational to men until the birth of the word from the lips, so by the birth of the Word of God in the flesh, all the irrationality of our nature has passed away, the Word of God having clearly revealed to the creation the Father and the Holy Spirit. Hence, since our soul is of the divine nature, it is not even sent out into service after the departure from the body, as angels are sent out. For those are ministering spirits; but the souls, especially those of the saints, are ruling spirits in the image of God. For even if man was diminished a little B after the transgression by the angels, yet through the union of the Word of God according to hypostasis, he has become something greater in Him; for he who was once in the image of God has now become that which is with God; and he who was previously participating in the image of God has become a communicator of his own image. To Him be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
VARIOUS NOTES.
ON THE BOOK ON THE MAKING OF MAN
JOHN LEWENKLAIUS.
Since this commentary of Gregory was translated into the Latin tongue nearly one thousand four hundred years ago, perhaps not a few persons desire to understand the reasons for the new translation undertaken, and silently demand these from me. I, however, shall briefly unfold the whole matter to you, reader, so that you will not judge that I have been led by any sickness of mind to desire to substitute my own work, having exploded the labors of others; and (as I hope) you will willingly acknowledge that I have done something of value in this translation. When I was recently with John Jacob Grynæus, whom I name for the sake of honor, I chanced to find in his most ornate library this book of Gregory, which had once belonged to Simon Grynæus, whose own hand-written notes were also seen in it. And so, while I was eagerly reading it through and deriving the greatest pleasure from the reading itself, it began to be my desire to translate it from the Greek language into Latin. I obeyed not unwillingly, especially because the wonderful explanation of most glorious things and the excellent character of the expression pleased me; and I was so much annoyed that such a book was not better known to the common public, having been issued only once from the office of Aldus thirty years ago: since those who are studious of sacred literature, and of the art of medicine, and of the philosophy of the nature of things can receive the greatest utility from it. At that time, we knew nothing of whether it had been translated into the Latin language or not; and if I must also confess the truth, I believed that no one had hitherto labored in interpreting it: this was because it was scarcely known publicly, except in as far as it is listed among the works of Gregory. But when in truth I had returned to Basel, I understood from John Oporinus the printer, who has served the republic of letters so excellently for many years, that there were in the Episcopian office the works of our Gregory, which were indeed thought to be extant, published all together. Then of these catalogs…