129-402: Autocephaly recognized by some autocephalous Churches de jure : Autocephaly and canonicity recognized by Constantinople and 3 other autocephalous Churches: Spiritual independence recognized by Georgian Orthodox Church: Semi-Autonomous: Cyril of Jerusalem ( Greek : Κύριλλος Α΄ Ἱεροσολύμων , Kýrillos A Ierosolýmon ; Latin : Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus ; c. 313 – 386)
258-577: A Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered
387-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
516-489: A darkness of the mind in mystic contemplation of the God who cannot be comprehended. Gregory was one of the earlier proponents of Christian universalism . Gregory argues that when Paul says that God will be "all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28), this means that though some may need to undergo a long period of purification, eventually "no being will remain outside the number of the saved" and that "no being created by God will fall outside
645-508: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
774-465: A host of Angels, receiving glory. We rest not then upon His first advent only, but look also for His second." He looked forward to the Second Advent which would bring an end to the world and then the created world to be made anew. At the Second Advent he expected to rise in the resurrection if it came after his time on earth. There has been considerable controversy over the date and authorship of
903-434: A leader's control over a community is fragile, directing attention to the imminent arrival of the antichrist effectively diverts attention from that fragility. Soon after his appointment, Cyril in his Letter to Constantius of 351 AD recorded the appearance of a cross of light in the sky above Golgotha , witnessed by the whole population of Jerusalem. The Greek church commemorates this miracle on 7 May. Though in modern times
1032-590: A lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and
1161-400: A limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in the nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by
1290-459: A mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and a fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes ,
1419-452: A reflection of Christ. Gregory, in stark contrast to most thinkers of his age, saw great beauty in the Fall : from Adam's sin from two perfect humans would eventually arise myriad. Gregory was the first voice in the ancient world known to write against all forms of slavery, declaring the institution inherently sinful. If [man] is in the likeness of God, ... who is his buyer, tell me? Who
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#17327661723751548-554: A reputation as an unconventional thinker whose thought arguably prefigures postmodernism . Major figures in contemporary research include Sarah Coakley , John Zizioulas and Robert Jenson. In 2003, theologian David Bentley Hart published a book seemingly influenced by Gregory. In 787 AD, the Second Council of Nicea , the seventh Ecumenical Council of the Church , honored Gregory of Nyssa: Let us then, consider who were
1677-572: A revival of the study and translation of Greek patristic works. Against this background, some of Gregory of Nyssa’s works which remained unknown to the West during the medieval centuries received their first Latin translations by leading representatives of Italian and Byzantine culture." These include the early Renaissance translations of De vita Moysis by George of Trebizond in 1446, of De vita Macrinae and De anima et resurrectione by Pietro Balbi between 1465 and 1473, and of De oratione dominica by
1806-460: A state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that
1935-478: A stay of several months, a substitute was found—possibly Gregory's brother Peter, who was bishop of Sebaste from 381—and Gregory returned home to Nyssa to write books I and II of Against Eunomius . Gregory participated in the First Council of Constantinople (381), and perhaps gave there his famous sermon In suam ordinationem . He was chosen to eulogise at the funeral of Meletius, which occurred during
2064-653: A time when Julian was attempting to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. Embroiled in a rivalry with Acacius of Caesarea over the relative primacy of their respective sees, Cyril saw even ecclesial discord a sign of the Lord's coming. Catechesis 15 would appear to cast Julian as the antichrist, although Irshai views this as a later interpolation. "In His first coming, He endured the Cross, despising shame; in His second, He comes attended by
2193-459: A tiny wooden craft, exchange the solid element of the land for the unstable motion of the waves." In the 13th lecture, Cyril of Jerusalem discusses the Crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ. The main themes that Cyril focuses on in these lectures are Original sin and Jesus' sacrificing himself to save us from our sins. Also, the burial and Resurrection which occurred three days later proving
2322-647: Is attributed by these writers to this. Sozomen also suggests that the tension may have been increased by Acacius's jealousy of the importance assigned to Cyril's See by the Council of Nicaea , as well as by the threat posed to Caesarea by the rising influence of the seat of Jerusalem as it developed into the prime Christian holy place and became a centre of pilgrimage. Acacius charged Cyril with selling church property. The city of Jerusalem had suffered drastic food shortages at which point church historians Sozomen and Theodoret report "Cyril secretly sold sacramental ornaments of
2451-546: Is controversial, however, and other commentators suggest that Theosebia the Deaconess was one of Gregory's sisters. In 371, the Emperor Valens split Cappadocia into two new provinces, Cappadocia Prima and Cappadocia Secunda. This resulted in complex changes in ecclesiastical boundaries, during which several new bishoprics were created. Gregory was elected bishop of the new see of Nyssa in 372, presumably with
2580-427: Is his seller? To God alone belongs this power; or rather, not even to God himself. [...] God would not therefore reduce the human race to slavery, since [God] himself, when we had been enslaved to sin, spontaneously recalled us to freedom. But if God does not enslave what is free, who is he that sets his own power above God's? Gregory used Plato's definition of virtue as ‘something that admits of no master [ἀδέσποτον]’ in
2709-560: Is no further reference to Cappadocia in the rest of the New Testament . Early Christianity arose in Cappadocia relatively late, with no evidence of a Christian community before the late second century AD. Alexander of Jerusalem was the first bishop of the province in the early to mid third century, a period in which Christians suffered persecution from the local Roman authorities. The community remained very small throughout
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#17327661723752838-533: Is observed on 10 January. The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod commemorates Gregory along with the other Cappadocian Fathers on 10 January. Gregory is remembered (with Macrina ) in the Church of England with a lesser festival on 19 July. Gregory is revered as a saint. However, unlike the other Cappadocian fathers, he is not a Doctor of the Church . He is venerated chiefly in the East. His relics were held by
2967-584: Is often due to the lack of systematic structure and the presence of terminological inconsistencies in Gregory's work. Gregory, following Basil, defined the Trinity as "one essence [ οὐσία ] in three persons [ ὑποστάσεις ]", the formula adopted by the Council of Constantinople in 381. Like the other Cappadocian Fathers, he was a homoousian , and Against Eunomius affirms the truth of the consubstantiality of
3096-1203: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Gregory of Nyssa Autocephaly recognized by some autocephalous Churches de jure : Autocephaly and canonicity recognized by Constantinople and 3 other autocephalous Churches: Spiritual independence recognized by Georgian Orthodox Church: Semi-Autonomous: Gregory of Nyssa , also known as Gregory Nyssen ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Γρηγόριος Νύσσης or Γρηγόριος Νυσσηνός; c. 335 – c. 394),
3225-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
3354-463: Is that he was an orthodox Trinitarian theologian , who was influenced by the Neoplatonism of Plotinus and believed in universal salvation following Origen . However, as a highly original and sophisticated thinker, Gregory is difficult to classify, and many aspects of his theology are contentious among both conservative Eastern Orthodox theologians and Western academic scholarship. This
3483-539: Is the Good is also Beauty. Eastern Orthodox theologians are generally critical of the theory that Gregory was influenced by neoplatonism. For example, Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos argues in Life After Death that Gregory opposed all philosophical (as opposed to theological) endeavour as tainted with worldliness. This view is supported by Against Eunomius , where Gregory denounces Eunomius for placing
3612-632: Is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near the Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in
3741-454: Is to be preferred to that which has existed in such sin. For, as to the latter, on account of the depth of the ingrained evil, the chastisement in the way of purgation will be extended into infinity". However, Ramelli renders the original Greek "εἰς ἄπειρον παρατείνεται ἡ διὰ τῆς καθάρσεως κόλασις" as "the punishment provided for the purpose of purification will tend to an indefinite duration." Additional sources are needed to interpret correctly
3870-595: Is what Gregory believed and taught is affirmed by most scholars. A minority of scholars have argued that Gregory only affirmed the universal resurrection. In the Life of Moses , Gregory writes that just as the darkness left the Egyptians after three days, perhaps redemption [ ἀποκατάστασις ] will be extended to those suffering in hell [ γέεννα ]. This salvation may not only extend to humans; following Origen , there are passages where he seems to suggest (albeit through
3999-562: The British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of the membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in
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4128-458: The Catecheses written by Cyril where he refers to himself as "bishop". Jerome also suggests Cyril was an Arian at this stage. Cyril is described as a preacher and liturgist by the pilgrim Egeria . Relations between Metropolitan Acacius of Caesarea and Cyril became strained. Acacius is presented as a leading Arian by the orthodox historians, and his opposition to Cyril in the 350s
4257-642: The Council of Seleucia reinstated Cyril and deposed Acacius. In 360 AD, this was reversed by Emperor Constantius again, and Cyril suffered another year's exile from Jerusalem until the Emperor Julian 's accession allowed him to return in 361. Cyril was once again banished from Jerusalem by the Arian Emperor Valens in 367 AD but was able to return again after Valens's death in 378 AD, after which he remained undisturbed until his death in 386. In 380 AD, Gregory of Nyssa came to Jerusalem on
4386-592: The Eastern Orthodox Church , Oriental Orthodox Church , and the Anglican Communion . In 1883, Cyril was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII . Cyril is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 18 March. He should not be confused with Cyril of Alexandria . Little is known of his life before he became a bishop; the assignment of his birth to the year 315 rests on conjecture. According to Butler, Cyril
4515-657: The European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek
4644-481: The Great Catechism , Gregory suggests that while every human will be resurrected , salvation will only be accorded to the baptised , although he also states that others driven by their passions can be saved after being purified by fire. While he believes that there will be no more evil in the hereafter, it is arguable that this does not preclude a belief that God might justly damn sinners for eternity. Thus,
4773-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
4902-551: The Martyrion , the basilica erected by Constantine. They contain instructions on the principal topics of Christian faith and practice, in a popular rather than scientific manner, full of a warm pastoral love and care for the catechumens to whom they were delivered. Each lecture is based upon a text of Scripture, and there is an abundance of Scriptural quotation throughout. In the Catechetical Lectures , parallel with
5031-473: The Mystagogic Catecheses , addressed to the newly baptized, in preparation for the reception of Holy Communion , with some scholars having attributed them to Cyril's successor as Bishop of Jerusalem, John . Many scholars would currently view the Mystagogic Catecheses as being written by Cyril, but in the 370s or 380s, rather than at the same time as the Catechetical Lectures . According to
5160-610: The Nicene Orthodoxy . Even if he did avoid the debatable term homoousios , he expressed its sense in many passages, which exclude equally Patripassianism , Sabellianism , and the formula "there was a time when the Son was not" attributed to Arius. In other points he takes the ordinary ground of the Eastern Fathers, as in the emphasis he lies on the freedom of the will, the autexousion (αὐτεξούσιον), and in his view of
5289-780: The United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout the Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to
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5418-545: The Vatican until 2000, when a portion of them were translated to the Greek Orthodox church of St. Gregory of Nyssa, San Diego , California . Professor of theology, Natalie Carnes wrote: "One reason Gregory was not taken up into the theological stream in the West is that he was little translated into Latin. John Scotus Eriugena (c. 800–c. 877) should be greatly credited for the influence Gregory did have. Not only
5547-468: The genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in the ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in
5676-538: The mysteries (μυστήρια) i.e. Sacraments of Baptism , Confirmation and the Eucharist . His catechetical lectures ( Greek Κατηχήσεις, Katēchēseis ) are generally assumed, on the basis of limited evidence, to have been delivered either in Cyril's early years as a bishop, around 350 AD, or perhaps in 348 AD, while Cyril was still a priest, deputising for his bishop, Maximus. The Catechetical Lectures were given in
5805-503: The stoics never questioned the institution of slavery, which was considered an ordinary part of daily life in the ancient world; and other ancient philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle also supported slavery. Gregory of Nyssa's critique was the first and only sustained critique of the institution of slavery itself made in the ancient world. There are many similarities between Gregory's theology and neoplatonist philosophy , especially that of Plotinus . Specifically, they share
5934-417: The syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow the noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However,
6063-566: The 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
6192-548: The 6th-century Latin translation of De opificio hominis by Dionysius Exiguus was very widespread in the Medieval period, and Francisco Bastitta Harriet argues that Nyssen's conceptions of indeterminate human nature and ontological freedom were among the core influences on Renaissance anthropology, particularly on the works of Nicholas of Cusa and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola . "The renewed enthusiasm of 15th-century philosophers and humanists for classical antiquity also led to
6321-650: The Byzantine scholar Athanasius Chalkeopoulos around 1465. In part due to the scholarship of Balthasar and Jean Daniélou , by the 1950s Gregory had become the subject of much serious theological research, with a critical edition of his work published ( Gregorii Nysseni Opera ), and the founding of the International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa. This attention has continued to the present day. Modern studies have focused on Gregory's eschatology rather than his more dogmatic writings, and he has gained
6450-537: The Christians of Cappadocia were devout, with the veneration of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste and Saint George being particularly significant and represented by a considerable monastic presence. There were some adherents of heretical branches of Christianity, most notably Arians, Encratites and Messalians . Gregory was born around 335, probably in or near the city of Neocaesarea , Pontus . His family
6579-483: The Church is decidedly empirical: the existing Church form is the true one, intended by Christ, the completion of the Church of the Old Testament . His interpretation of the Eucharist is disputed. Some argue he sometimes seems to approach the symbolic view, though he professes a strong realistic doctrine. The bread and wine are not mere elements, but the body and blood of Christ. Cyril's writings are filled with
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#17327661723756708-577: The Elder , is also revered as a saint and his maternal grandfather was a martyr, as Gregory put it "killed by Imperial wrath" under the persecution of the Roman Emperor Maximinus II . Between the 320s to the early 340s, the family rebuilt its fortunes, with Gregory's father working in the city of Neocaesarea as an advocate and rhetorician. Gregory's temperament is said to have been quiet and meek, in contrast to his brother Basil who
6837-473: The Father", and "God the Son"), having been finally convinced that there was no better alternative. His story is perhaps best representative of those Eastern bishops (perhaps a majority) initially mistrustful of Nicaea, who came to accept the creed of that council, and the doctrine of the homoousion . Though his theology was at first somewhat indefinite in phraseology, he undoubtedly gave a thorough adhesion to
6966-712: The Father, the Holy Spirit as proceeding from the Father, and the Father by his role as progenitor. However, this doctrine would seem to subordinate the Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit to the Son. Robert Jenson suggests that Gregory implies that each member of the Godhead has an individual priority: the Son has epistemological priority , the Father has ontic priority and the Spirit has metaphysical priority . Other commentators disagree: Morwenna Ludlow , for instance, argues that epistemic priority resides primarily in
7095-544: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
7224-549: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
7353-593: The Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek
7482-617: The Kingdom of God". Due to the unity of human nature in Christ "all, thanks to the union with one another, will be joined in communion with the Good, in Jesus Christ Our Lord". Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection results in "total salvation for human nature". Gregory also described God's work this way: "His [God's] end is one, and one only; it is this: when the complete whole of our race shall have been perfected from
7611-527: The Nyssen taught that due to God's infinitude, a created being can never reach an understanding of God, and thus for man in both life and the afterlife there is a constant progression [ἐπέκτασις] towards the unreachable knowledge of God, as the individual continually transcends all which has been reached before. In the Life of Moses , Gregory speaks of three stages of this spiritual growth: initial darkness of ignorance , then spiritual illumination , and finally
7740-596: The Second Coming, which was soon to take place in Jerusalem. Not surprisingly, in Cyril's eschatological analysis, Jerusalem holds a central position. Matthew 24:6 speaks of "wars and reports of wars", as a sign of the End Times, and it is within this context that Cyril read Julian's war with the Persians. Matthew 24:7 speaks of "earthquakes from place to place", and Jerusalem experienced an earthquake in 363 at
7869-545: The Spanish pilgrim Egeria , these mystagogical catecheses were given to the newly baptised in the Church of the Anastasis in the course of Easter Week. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within
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#17327661723757998-462: The Spirit in Gregory's theology. Modern proponents of social trinitarianism often claim to have been influenced by the Cappadocians' dynamic picture of the Trinity. However, it would be fundamentally incorrect to identify Gregory as a social Trinitarian, as his theology emphasises the unity of God's will, and he clearly believes that the identities of the Trinity are the three persons, not
8127-435: The academic community, particularly involving universal salvation , which has resulted in challenges to many traditional interpretations of his theology. The Book of Acts depicts that on the Day of Pentecost there were visiting Jews who were "residents of ... Cappadocia " in attendance. In the First Epistle of Peter , written after AD 65, the author greets Christians who are "exiles scattered throughout…Cappadocia". There
8256-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
8385-408: The administrative ability of his brother Basil or the contemporary influence of Gregory of Nazianzus, but he was an erudite Christian theologian who made significant contributions to the doctrine of the Trinity and the Nicene Creed . Gregory's philosophical writings were influenced by Origen . Since the mid-twentieth century, there has been a significant increase in interest in Gregory's works from
8514-545: The appropriate length of time." That we can choose either to accept or ignore this purification is confirmed by the saint's many exhortations that we freely undertake the virtuous path." Dr. Ilaria Ramelli has made the observation that for Gregory free will was compatible with universal salvation, since every person would eventually accept the good having gone through purification. Nevertheless, some interpret Gregory as conceding that Judas and similar sinners will never be completely purified when he wrote, "that which never existed
8643-423: The arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During the older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from
8772-407: The authenticity of the Letter has been questioned, on the grounds that the word homoousios occurs in the final blessing, many scholars believe this may be a later interpolation, and accept the letter's authenticity on the grounds of other pieces of internal evidence. Cyril interpreted this as both a sign of support for Constantius, who was soon to face the usurper Magnentius , and as announcing
8901-453: The baptism rite as carrying eschatological overtones, in that "to inscribe for baptism is to write one's name in the register of the elect in heaven". Oded Irshai observed that Cyril lived in a time of intense apocalyptic expectation, when Christians were eager to find apocalyptic meaning in every historical event or natural disaster. Cyril spent a good part of his episcopacy in intermittent exile from Jerusalem. Abraham Malherbe argued that when
9030-509: The church and a valuable holy robe, fashioned with gold thread that the emperor Constantine had once donated for the bishop to wear when he performed the rite of Baptism", possibly to keep people from starving. For two years, Cyril resisted Acacius' summons to account for his actions, but a church council held under Acacius's influence in 357 AD deposed Cyril in his absence, and Cyril took refuge with Silvanus, Bishop of Tarsus . The following year, 359 AD, in an atmosphere more hostile to Acacius,
9159-448: The city to quell discontent. In 375, Desmothenes of Pontus convened a synod at Ancyra to try Gregory on charges of embezzlement of church funds and irregular ordination of bishops. He was arrested by imperial troops in the winter of the same year, but escaped to an unknown location. The synod of Nyssa, which was convened in the spring of 376, deposed him. However, Gregory regained his see in 378, perhaps due to an amnesty promulgated by
9288-527: The commentary on 30 May in the Acta Sanctorum , for example, initially states that they were nine, before describing Peter as the tenth child. It has been established that this confusion occurred due to the death of one son in infancy, leading to ambiguities in Gregory's own writings. Gregory's parents had suffered persecution for their faith: he writes that they "had their goods confiscated for confessing Christ." Gregory's paternal grandmother, Macrina
9417-524: The council. The council sent Gregory on a mission to Arabia, perhaps to ameliorate the situation in Bostra where two men, Agapius and Badagius, claimed to be bishop. If this is the case, Gregory was unsuccessful, as the see was still contested in 394. He then travelled to Jerusalem where Cyril of Jerusalem faced opposition from local clergy due to the fact that he had been ordained by Acacius of Caesarea , an Arian heretic. Gregory's attempted mediation of
9546-796: The country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine ,
9675-441: The dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before
9804-440: The discovery of mystical theology, or rather with the perception that darkness is an appropriate symbol under which God can be discussed. There is much truth in this....Gregory seems to have been the first Christian writer to have made this important point. J. Kameron Carter writes about Gregory's stance on slavery, in the book Race a Theological Account (2008): What interests me is the defining features of Gregory's vision of
9933-528: The dispute was unsuccessful, and he himself was accused of holding unorthodox views on the nature of Christ . His later reign in Nyssa was marked by conflict with his metropolitan, Helladius. Gregory was present at a 394 synod convened at Constantinople to discuss the continued problems in Bostra. While the year of his death is unknown, it is generally accepted that he died in 394. The traditional view of Gregory
10062-401: The divinity of Jesus Christ and the loving nature of the Father. Cyril was very adamant about the fact that Jesus went to his death with full knowledge and willingness. Not only did he go willingly but throughout the process he maintained his faith and forgave all those who betrayed him and engaged in his execution. Cyril writes "who did not sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth, who, when he
10191-528: The earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of the Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of
10320-462: The exposition of the Creed as it was then received in the Church of Jerusalem are vigorous polemics against pagan , Jewish, and heretical errors. They are of great importance for the light which they throw upon the method of instruction usual of that age, as well as upon the liturgical practises of the period, of which they give the fullest account extant. It is not only among us, who are marked with
10449-412: The extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English
10578-575: The first man to the last—some having at once in this life been cleansed from evil, others having afterwards in the necessary periods been healed by the Fire, others having in their life here been unconscious equally of good and of evil—to offer to every one of us participation in the blessings which are in Him, which, the Scripture tells us, 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,' nor thought ever reached." That this
10707-524: The fourth century, and was completed by Augustine in the fourth and fifth centuries. ...[Gregory] taught that Creation was potential. God imparted to matter its fundamental properties and laws. The objects and completed forms of the Universe developed gradually out of chaotic material. Anthony Meredith writes of Gregory's mystical and apophatic writings in his book Gregory of Nyssa (The Early Church Fathers) (1999): Gregory has often been credited with
10836-587: The human being is exceptional, being created in the image of God . Humanity is theomorphic both in having self-awareness and free will , the latter which gives each individual existential power, because to Gregory, in disregarding God one negates one's own existence. In the Song of Songs , Gregory metaphorically describes human lives as paintings created by apprentices to a master: the apprentices (the human wills) imitate their master's work (the life of Christ) with beautiful colors ( virtues ), and thus man strives to be
10965-404: The idea that the reality of God is completely inaccessible to human beings and that man can only come to see God through a spiritual journey in which knowledge [ γνῶσις ] is rejected in favour of meditation . Gregory does not refer to any neoplatonist philosophers in his work, and there is only one disputed passage which may directly quote Plotinus. Considering this, it seems possible that Gregory
11094-475: The just society: his unequivocal stance against 'the peculiar institution of slavery' and his call for the manumission of all slaves. I am interested in reading Gregory as a fourth century abolitionist intellectual....His outlook surpassed not only St. Paul's more moderate (but to be fair to Paul, in his moment, revolutionary) stance on the subject but also those of all ancient intellectuals -- Pagan, Jewish and Christian - from Aristotle to Cicero and from Augustine in
11223-449: The language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to the modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows
11352-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
11481-490: The limited minds of created beings. In Life of Moses , Gregory writes: "...every concept that comes from some comprehensible image, by an approximate understanding and by guessing at the Divine nature, constitutes an idol of God and does not proclaim God." Gregory's theology was thus apophatic : he proposed that God should be defined in terms of what we know He is not rather than what we might speculate Him to be. Accordingly,
11610-412: The loving and forgiving nature of God which was somewhat uncommon during his time period. Cyril fills his writings with great lines of the healing power of forgiveness and the Holy Spirit, like "The Spirit comes gently and makes himself known by his fragrance. He is not felt as a burden for God is light, very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before him as the Spirit approaches. The Spirit comes with
11739-787: The main difference between Gregory's conception of ἀποκατάστασις and that of Origen would be that Gregory believes that mankind will be collectively returned to sinlessness, whereas Origen believes that personal salvation will be universal. This interpretation of Gregory has been criticized recently, however. After all, at the end of chapter XXXV of the Great Catechism Gregory writes that those who have not been purified by water through baptism "must needs be purified by fire" so that "after long succeeding ages, their nature may be restored pure again to God". Attempting to reconcile these disparate positions, Eastern Orthodox theologian Dr. Mario Baghos notes that "when taken at face value
11868-452: The many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is
11997-465: The morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks the infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of
12126-400: The name of Christ, that the dignity of faith is great; all the business of the world, even of those outside the Church, is accomplished by faith. By faith, marriage laws join in union persons who were strangers to one another. By faith, agriculture is sustained; for a man does not endure the toil involved unless he believes he will reap a harvest. By faith, seafaring men, entrusting themselves to
12255-463: The nature of sin. To him sin is the consequence of freedom, not a natural condition. The body is not the cause, but the instrument of sin. The remedy for it is repentance, on which he insists. Like many of the Eastern Fathers, he focuses on high moral living as essential to true Christianity. His doctrine of the Resurrection is not quite so realistic as that of other Fathers; but his conception of
12384-700: The new emperor, Gratian . In the same year Basil died, and despite the relative unimportance of Nyssa, Gregory took over many of his brother's former responsibilities in Pontus. He was present at the Synod of Antioch in April 379, where he unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile the followers of Meletius of Antioch with those of Paulinus . After visiting the village of Annisa to see his dying sister Macrina, he returned to Nyssa in August. In 380 he travelled to Sebaste , in
12513-469: The province of Armenia Prima , to support a pro-Nicene candidate for the election to the bishopric. To his surprise, he himself was elected to the seat, perhaps due to the population's association of him with his brother. However, Gregory deeply disliked the relatively unhellenized society of Armenia, and he was confronted by an investigation into his orthodoxy by local opponents of the Nicene theology. After
12642-466: The questioned chapter. Gregory's anthropology is founded on the ontological distinction between the created and uncreated. Man is a material creation, and thus limited, but infinite in that his immortal soul has an indefinite capacity to grow closer to the divine. Gregory believed that the soul is created simultaneous to the creation of the body (in opposition to Origen, who believed in preexistence ), and that embryos were thus persons. To Gregory,
12771-422: The recommendation of a council held at Antioch in the preceding year. He seemingly found the faith in good shape, but worried that the city was prey to parties and corrupt in morals. Cyril's jurisdiction over Jerusalem was expressly confirmed by the First Council of Constantinople (381), at which he was present. At that council he voted for acceptance of the term homoousios (which defined the nature between "God
12900-643: The regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of
13029-485: The relations between them. Gregory was one of the first theologians to argue that God is infinite . His main argument for the infinity of God, found in Against Eunomius , is that God's goodness is limitless, and as God's goodness is essential , God is also limitless. An important consequence of Gregory's belief in the infinity of God is his belief that God, as limitless, is essentially incomprehensible to
13158-477: The rest of the Apostles and prophets". While his brothers Basil and Naucratius lived as hermits from c. 355 , Gregory initially pursued a non-ecclesiastical career as a rhetorician . He did, however, act as a lector . He is known to have married a woman named Theosebia during this period, who is sometimes identified with Theosebia the Deaconess , venerated as a saint by Orthodox Christianity. This
13287-531: The results of his systematic Aristotelean philosophy above the traditional teachings of the Church. The Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches commemorate Gregory of Nyssa on 10 January. The Roman Martyrology and the Episcopal Church commemorate his death on 9 March. In modern Roman Catholic calendars which include the feast of St. Gregory, such as the Benedictines , his feast day
13416-627: The saint seems to be contradicting himself in these passages; on the one hand he asserted the salvation of all and the complete eradication of evil, and, on the other, that the fire needed to purge evil is 'sleepless', i.e. everlasting. The only solution to this inconsistency is to view any allusion to universal salvation in St Gregory as an expression of God's intention for humanity, which is in fact attested to when his holy sister states that God has "one goal ... some straightway even in this life purified from evil, others healed hereafter through fire for
13545-538: The service of his own theological arguments against slavery: (1) each human is an image of God and therefore free, (2) the equality of all humans reflects the equality of the divine Persons and (3) just as the divine nature cannot be divided into slavery (δουλεία) and mastery (δυναστεία, κυριότης), neither can human nature; the whole creation is a slave, but of God alone. Although the stoic Seneca had criticized cruel slave masters and advised slave masters to treat slaves with kindness (or at least those of good character),
13674-606: The shame of spitting". This clearly reflects the teachings of Jesus to turn the other cheek and not raising your hands against violence because violence just begets violence begets violence. The segment of the Catechesis really reflects the voice Cyril maintained in all of his writing. The writings always have the central message of the Bible; Cyril is not trying to add his own beliefs in reference to religious interpretation and remains grounded in true biblical teachings. Danielou sees
13803-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
13932-484: The support of his brother Basil, who was metropolitan of Caesarea . Gregory's early policies as bishop often went against those of Basil; for instance, while his brother condemned the Sabellianist followers of Marcellus of Ancyra as heretics , Gregory may have tried to reconcile them with the church. Gregory faced opposition to his reign in Nyssa and, in 373, Amphilochius , bishop of Iconium , had to visit
14061-403: The tenderness of a true friend to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen and to console". Cyril himself followed God's message of forgiveness many times throughout his life. This is most clearly seen in his two major exiles where Cyril was disgraced and forced to leave his position and his people behind. He never wrote or showed any ill will towards those who wronged him. Cyril stressed
14190-441: The themes of healing and regeneration in his catechesis. Cyril's famous twenty-three lectures given to catechumens in Jerusalem being prepared for, and after, baptism are best considered in two parts: the first eighteen lectures are commonly known as the Catechetical Lectures , Catechetical Orations or Catechetical Homilies , while the final five are often called the Mystagogic Catecheses (μυσταγωγικαί), because they deal with
14319-582: The third century: when Gregory Thaumaturgus acceded to the bishopric in c. 250, according to his namesake, the Nyssen, there were only seventeen members of the Church in Caesarea. Cappadocian bishops were among those at the First Council of Nicaea . Because of the broad distribution of the population, rural bishops (χωρεπίσκοποι) were appointed to support the Bishop of Caesarea . During the late fourth century there were around 50 of them. In Gregory's lifetime,
14448-400: The trinity over Eunomius' Aristotelian belief that the Father's substance is unengendered, whereas the Son's is engendered. According to Gregory, the differences between the three persons of the Trinity reside in their differing hypostatic origin, and the triune nature of God is revealed through divine action (despite the unity of God in His action). The Son is therefore defined as begotten of
14577-534: The venerable doctors and indomitable champions of the Church [including] Gregory Primate of Nyssa, who all have called the father of fathers. Henry Fairfield Osborn wrote in his work on the history of evolutionary thought , From the Greeks to Darwin (1894): Among the Christian Fathers the movement towards a partly naturalistic interpretation of the order of Creation was made by Gregory of Nyssa in
14706-413: The voice of Macrina) that even the demons will have a place in Christ's "world of goodness". Gregory's interpretations of 1 Corinthians 15:28 ("And when all things shall be subdued unto him ...") and Philippians 2:10 ("That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth") support this understanding of his theology. Nevertheless, in
14835-568: Was Eriugena himself influenced by Gregory, but he also translated On the Making of the Human into Latin." Gregory's work received little scholarly attention in the West until the mid-twentieth century, and he was historically treated as a minor figure in comparison to Basil the Great or Gregory of Nazianzus. As late as 1942, Hans Urs von Balthasar wrote that his work was virtually unknown. However,
14964-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
15093-608: Was a theologian of the Early Church . About the end of AD 350, he succeeded Maximus as Bishop of Jerusalem, but was exiled on more than one occasion due to the enmity of Acacius of Caesarea , and the policies of various emperors. Cyril left important writings documenting the instruction of catechumens and the order of the Liturgy in his day. Cyril is venerated as a saint within the Roman Catholic Church ,
15222-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
15351-542: Was an early Roman Christian prelate who served as Bishop of Nyssa from 372 to 376 and from 378 until his death in 394. He is venerated as a saint in Eastern Orthodoxy , Catholicism , Oriental Orthodoxy , Anglicanism , and Lutheranism . Gregory, his elder brother Basil of Caesarea , and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus are collectively known as the Cappadocian Fathers . Gregory lacked
15480-460: Was aristocratic and Christian—according to Gregory of Nazianzus , his mother was Emmelia of Caesarea , and his father, a rhetorician, has been identified either as Basil the Elder or as a Gregory. Among his eight siblings were St. Macrina the Younger , St. Naucratius , St. Peter of Sebaste and St. Basil of Caesarea . The precise number of children in the family was historically contentious:
15609-448: Was born at or near the city of Jerusalem and was well-read in both the writings of the early Christian theologians and the Greek philosophers . Cyril was ordained a deacon by Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem in about 335 AD and a priest some eight years later by Bishop Maximus . Around the end of 350 AD, he succeeded Maximus in the See of Jerusalem, although the evidence for this relies on
15738-556: Was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and
15867-475: Was familiar with Plotinus and perhaps other figures in neoplatonism. However, some significant differences between neoplatonism and Gregory's thought exist, such as Gregory's statement that beauty and goodness are equivalent, which contrasts with Plotinus' view that they are two different qualities. However Plotinus does say " And Beauty, this Beauty which is also the Good " implying the Platonist One which
15996-574: Was known to be much more outspoken. Gregory was first educated at home, by his mother Emmelia and sister Macrina. Little is known of what further education he received. Apocryphal hagiographies depict him studying at Athens , but this is speculation probably based on the life of his brother Basil. It seems more likely that he continued his studies in Caesarea , where he read classical literature , philosophy and perhaps medicine . Gregory himself claimed that his only teachers were Basil, "Paul, John and
16125-485: Was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in
16254-602: Was reviled, did not revile, when he suffered did not threaten". This line by Cyril shows his belief in the selflessness of Jesus especially in this last final act of Love. The lecture also gives a sort of insight to what Jesus may have been feeling during the execution from the whippings and beatings, to the crown of thorns, to the nailing on the cross. Cyril intertwines the story with the messages Jesus told throughout his life before his execution relating to his final act. For example, Cyril writes "I gave my back to those who beat me and my cheeks to blows; and my face I did not shield from
16383-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
16512-637: Was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to
16641-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
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