Unity and Duality

Abstract

In Gregory of Nazianzus’s Oration 30, seven of his ten points against Eunomian misreadings of Scripture about the Son deal directly with quotations of Jesus from the Gospels. This study shines new light on Gregory’s exegetical method, arguing that in Oration 30, grammatical, contextual, and partitive exegesis marks Gregory’s interpretation of the Gospels, which serve as foundational texts for understanding the Son’s relationship to the Father. First, I briefly provide support for the Gospels as foundational texts for understanding the Son’s relationship to the Father. Second, I summarize Gregory’s exegesis of each of these seven texts in detail. Third, I analyze Gregory’s exegetical method based on his grammatical, contextual, and partitive exegesis. Perhaps most importantly for Gregory, one must always have before him both the divinity and humanity of the Son. Anything less than this exegetical method leads to misreading the Gospels and misunderstanding the Son himself.