Humanitext Reader

Gregory of Nazianzus · The Suffering Christ §pr.1-pr.30

Prologue on the Passion Play and Its Characters

Passage 1 of 32 · Greek

Summary

The narrator of the drama declares that they will recount the Passion of Christ in the manner of Euripides, explains the salvation-historical causality between humanity's fall and God's incarnation, and introduces the dramatis personae, including the Virgin Mary and the beloved disciple.

§pr.1Ἐπείδ’ ἀκούσας εὐσεβῶς ποιημάτων §pr.2ποιητικῶς νῦν εὐσεβῆ κλύειν θέλεις, §pr.3πρόφρων ἄκουε·
Since, having heard poems piously, you now wish to hear pious things in a poetic way, listen with a willing mind.
νῦν τε κατ’ Εὐριπίδην §pr.4τὸ κοσμοσωτήριον ἐξερῶ πάθος, §pr.5ὅθεν μαθήσῃ πλεῖστα μυστικῶν λόγων, §pr.6ὡς ἐκ στόματος μητροπαρθένου κόρης §pr.7μύστου πεφιλμένου τε τῷ Διδασκάλῳ.
And now, in the manner of Euripides, I shall relate the world-saving passion, from which you will learn very many of the mystical words, as if from the mouth of the mother-virgin maiden, and of the initiate beloved by the Teacher.
§pr.8Πρώτην γὰρ αὐτὴν νῦν παραστήσει λόγος §pr.9μητροπρεπῶς θρηνοῦσαν ἐν καιρῷ πάθους §pr.10πότμου τε τὴν πρόφασιν ἀρχῆς ἀπ’ ἄκρης §pr.11στένουσαν, ὡς φανεῖσαν ὄντως αἰτίαν §pr.12τοῦ μητέρ’ αὐτὴν τοῦ Λόγου χρηματίσαι §pr.13καὶ νῦν ἰδεῖν πάσχοντα τοῦτον ἀδίκως·
For first, the discourse will present her herself, mourning in a motherly manner in the season of passion, and lamenting the cause of death from the very beginning, as having appeared to be truly the cause of her being styled the mother of the Word and of now seeing Him suffering unjustly.
§pr.14εἰ μὴ γὰρ ἐσφάλημεν ἀπροσεξίᾳ, §pr.15οὐκ ἂν κατεκρίθημεν ἀρχῆθεν μόρον· §pr.16κἂν μὴ διεφθάρημεν ἑρπετοῦ δόλῳ, §pr.17μηδ’ ἡ φθορά τ’ εἰσῆλθε θηρὸς ἀπάτῃ, §pr.18καὶ πότμον ὑπέστημεν ἐνδίκῳ κρίσει, §pr.19ὡς μὴ τὸ κακὸν ἀδιάφθορον μένῃ, §pr.20οὐκ ἦν βροτωθῆναί τε καὶ τλῆσαι μόρον §pr.21τὸν ζωοποιὸν Δεσπότην, Θεὸν Λόγον, §pr.22ἀφθαρτίσοντα τὸ φθαρὲν φιλαγάθως §pr.23καὶ ζωοποιήσοντα τὸ βροτῶν γένος·
For if we had not stumbled through carelessness, we would not have been condemned to death from the beginning; and if we had not been corrupted by the guile of the serpent, nor corruption had entered through the deceit of the beast, and we had not undergone death by a just judgment— so that evil might not remain incorruptible— it would not have been possible for the life-giving Master, God the Word, to become mortal and endure death, to make incorruptible that which had been corrupted in His love for humankind, and to give life to the race of mortals.
§pr.24μένοντος αὐτοῦ δ’ ἀκενώτου τοῦ Λόγου §pr.25ἥδ’ οὐκ ἂν ἐκπέφηνε μήτηρ Δεσπότου §pr.26καὶ τόνδε νῦν ὁρῶσα πάσχοντ’ ἀδίκως §pr.27θρηνοῦσ’ ἀνηλάλαζε τετρυχωμένη.
But if He, the Word, had remained unemptied, this woman would not have appeared as the mother of the Master, and now, seeing Him suffering unjustly, she would not have cried out, lamenting and worn out with grief.
§pr.28Πρόσωπα γοῦν δράματός εἰσί μοι τάδε· §pr.29μήτηρ πάναγνος, παρθένος μύστης, κόραι §pr.30αἱ συμπαροῦσαι μητρὶ τῇ τοῦ Δεσπότου.
At any rate, these are the characters of my drama: the all-pure mother, the virgin initiate, and the maidens who are present together with the mother of the Master.

Notes

  1. §pr.3κατ’ Εὐριπίδην — Refers to imitating Euripides' tragic style or constructing the work by recycling lines from his plays (cento). It prefigures the technique of this drama (*Christus Patiens*), which borrows extensively from Euripidean tragedies such as *Bacchae* and *Medea*.
  2. §pr.11ὡς φανεῖσαν ὄντως αἰτίαν τοῦ μητέρ’ αὐτὴν τοῦ Λόγου χρηματίσαι — The accusative participle φανεῖσαν agrees with the pronoun αὐτήν (referring to Mary) in line 8, with αἰτίαν functioning as its predicate accusative. The genitive infinitive phrase τοῦ... χρηματίσαι (and καὶ... ἰδεῖν in line 13) modifies αἰτίαν, explaining how the fall of humanity ultimately caused Mary to become the mother of the Word and witness His passion.
  3. §pr.24μένοντος αὐτοῦ δ’ ἀκενώτου τοῦ Λόγου — A genitive absolute construction acting as a counterfactual conditional clause ('if he had remained...') to the apodosis in line 25 (οὐκ ἂν ἐκπέφηνε). The adjective ἀκενώτου ('unemptied', the negation of kenosis) refers to the hypothetical scenario where the Word did not become incarnate but remained in heaven.

Cite this passage

Gregory of Nazianzus, The Suffering Christ §pr.1-pr.30. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg2022.tlg003.humanitext-grc1:pr.1-pr.30

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