INTRODUCTION.

addressing words of worship to the Eternal Son without supposing Christ to be one person and the Eternal Son another.

IV.21: "Whose work it is to hear the Anointing One as man, and to make the Anointed One God." Original: ἧς ἔργον ἄνθρωπον ἀκοῦσαι τὸ χρίον, καὶ ποιῆσαι θεὸν τὸ χριόμενον.

It is not exactly true to say that "the anointing element" in Christ comes to be called man. The Blessed Person who may be said to anoint the humanity which He assumed is rightly called man, but His divine nature never became man, nor did the human nature which He "anointed" become God.

It cannot be denied that such passages indicate a lack of clarity in Gregory’s conception of the one person of Christ in two natures. He does indeed, as has been observed, sometimes state the Catholic doctrine on the point admirably; at other times his language wavers. It must be said on Gregory’s behalf that the same ambiguities are found in other Catholic fathers—for instance, in Athanasius. Gregory lived before the rise of the Nestorian heresy, which compelled the Church to arrive at a more conscious and definite belief with regard to the unity of Christ’s person and the impersonality of His human nature apart from the divine. The tendency toward Nestorianism in Gregory, as in Athanasius as well, is observed by Dorner, Person of Christ, div. I, vol. ii, p. 384 (English translation).

II. THE TEXT.

The present volume does not profess to offer a complete critical edition of the Five Orations. According to our scheme, the texts in the series to which it belongs are to be based upon the best printed editions; however, where possible, recourse is to be had to the original manuscripts, and the chief variations in reading are to be noted.