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Translated by Ch. Browne and J. Swallow.
Gregory Theologian Bilingual Anthology, Resources Online and in Print
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72 Pages
Page 10
Thus, then, they interpret wrongly the words, But we have the Mind of Christ, [4724] and very absurdly, when they say that His Godhead is the mind of Christ, and not understanding the passage as we do, namely, that they who have purified their mind by the imitation of the mind which the Saviour took of us, and, as far as may be, have attained conformity with it, are said to have the mind of Christ; just as they might be testified to have the flesh of Christ who have trained their flesh, and in this respect have become of the same body and partakers of Christ; and so he says "As we have borne the image of the earth [4725] we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." And so they declare that the Perfect Man is not He who was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin; [4726] but the mixture of God and Flesh. For what, say they, can be more perfect than this?
They play the same trick with the word that describes the Incarnation, viz.: He was made Man, explaining it to mean, not, He was in the human nature with which He surrounded Himself, according to the Scripture, He knew what was in man; [4727] but teaching that it means, He consorted and conversed with men, and taking refuge in the expression which says that He was seen on Earth and conversed with Men. [4728] And what can anyone contend further? They who take away the Humanity and the Interior Image cleanse by their newly invented mask only our outside, [4729] and that which is seen; so far in conflict with themselves that at one time, for the sake of the flesh, they explain all the rest in a gross and carnal manner (for it is from hence that they have derived their second Judaism and their silly thousand years delight in paradise, and almost the idea that we shall resume again the same conditions after these same thousand years); and at another time they bring in His flesh as a phantom rather than a reality, as not having been subjected to any of our experiences, not even such as are free from sin; and use for this purpose the apostolic expression, understood and spoken in a sense which is not apostolic, that our Saviour was made in the likeness of Men and found in fashion as a Man, [4730] as though by these words was expressed, not the human form, but some delusive phantom and appearance.
[4724] 1 Cor. ii. 16.
[4725] 1 Cor. xv. 49.
[4726] Heb. iv. 15.
[4727] John ii. 25.
[4728] Baruch iii. 37.
[4729] Matt. xxiii. 25, 26.
[4730] Phil. ii. 7.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/gregory-nazianzen/letters.asp?pg=10
