Ταῦτα ποιεῖς, ὦ ἄνθρωπε τοῦ θεοῦ;
κατατολμᾶν ἡμᾶς τῶν ἀτολμήτων ἐγκελευόμενος, καὶ πράγμασιν ἐγχειρεῖν τοιούτοις,
ὧν οὐ τὸ τυχεῖν μόνον ἐστὶν ἀμήχανον, ἀλλὰ οὐδὲ τὸ ἐγχειρῆσαι, κατὰ γε τὸν ἐμὸν
λόγον, ἀνέγκλητον; Τῶν γὰρ κατὰ θείαν ἐπίνοιαν ἐν τῇ κοσμογονίᾳ φιλοσοφηθέντων
τῷ μεγάλῳ Μωσῇ, τὰ δοκοῦντα κατὰ τὴν πρόχειρον τῶν γεγραμμένων σημασίαν ὑπεναντίως
ἔχειν, ἐπέταξας ἡμῖν διὰ τινος ἀκολούθου διανοίας εἰς εἱρμὸν ἀγαγεῖν, καὶ
συμφωνοῦσαν πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἀποδεῖξαι τὴν ἁγίαν Γραφήν· καὶ ταῦτα μετὰ τὴν θεόπνευστον
ἐκείνην τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν εἰς τὸ προκείμενον θεωρίαν, ἣν οἱ ἐγνωκότες πάντες οὐδὲν
ἔλαττον τῶν αὐτῷ Μωσῇ περισοφισμένων θαυμάζουσιν· εὖ καὶ εἰκότως, οἶμαι, τοῦτο
ποιοῦντες. (Gregory of Nyssa, In Hexaemeron, “Prooemium” [PG 44:61])
Are you doing this, O man of God? Are you urging us to
dare what is undaring, and to undertake things of such a kind that not only is
it impossible to attain them, but even to attempt them, at least in my
judgment, is not blameless? For among the things philosophically treated
according to divine insight in the creation of the world by the great Moses,
what seem, according to the surface meaning of the written words, to be at odds
with one another, you have ordered us to bring into a coherent sequence by some
consecutive line of reasoning, and to show Holy Scripture to be in harmony with
itself; and this after that God-breathed exposition of our father on the
present subject, which all who know it admire no less than the very things so
ingeniously handled by Moses himself. And rightly and reasonably, I think, they
do this.
