INTRODUCTION.

Here, "the seen one" (τοῦ ὁρωμένου) is evidently masculine, and it implies (though Gregory certainly did not intend it to do so) that "the seen one" is one person, and "the Word" is another.

IV.9: "And this belongs to the humanity; but if you should attribute it to God, it is not unreasonable." Original: καὶ τοῦτο τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος· εἰ δὲ καὶ τῷ θεῷ δοίης, οὐκ ἄτοπον.

Whatever is predicated of the humanity of Christ is predicated of "the God" in Him, for there is no human personality of which it can be predicated. The true contrast would have been to say "if you attribute it to the divinity" (εἰ τῇ θεότητι δοίης).

IV.10: "Whether He who is seen in bodily form... or He who is conceived as Word." Original: εἴτε ὁ σωματικῶς ὁρώμενος...εἴτε ὁ ὡς λόγος νοούμενος.

The presence of the definite articles causes some confusion, as if "He who was seen in bodily form" were a different person from "Him who is conceived as the Word."

IV.12: "If, then, these things were not spoken by Him who has come down, we would say that the Word was being fashioned by the man, not the One conceived of according to the Saviour—for His will is not even contrary to God, being entirely deified—but [conceived of] as one of us." Original: εἰ μὲν οὖν μὴ παρὰ τοῦ κατεληλυθότος αὐτοῦ ταῦτα ἐλέγετο, εἴπομεν ἂν ὡς παρὰ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τυποῦσθαι τὸν λόγον, οὐ τοῦ κατὰ τὸν σωτῆρα νοουμένου—τὸ γὰρ ἐκείνου θέλειν οὐδὲ ὑπεναντίον θεῷ, θεωθὲν ὅλον—ἀλλὰ τοῦ καθ’ ἡμᾶς [νοουμένου].

Here, besides the difficulty of the last clause, which makes "Him who is conceived according to the Saviour" appear to be a different person from "the one conceived as one of us," we have the contrast between "the One who has come down" (i.e., the Godhead, or rather the Divine Person) and "the man." The contrast is made all the more marked by the "His" (ἐκείνου) in the parenthetical clause, and indeed by the whole of that clause, which sets "Him who is conceived according to the Saviour," and His "wholly deified" will, over against "the man" and (implied) "the man's" will, which was for the moment in conflict with God's. It is clear from the context that Gregory did not hold the theory of two persons in Christ, but only of two natures and two wills; however, the language is inexact.

IV.13: "The Word was of the Godhead in common." Original: κατὰ κοινοῦ τῆς θεότητος ἦν ὁ λόγος.

Gregory says that the statement "to know Thee, the only true God" is addressed by Jesus Christ to "the Godhead in general," including, that is, the Son Himself. It would be difficult to think of Christ