17 Luke i. 33. Cf. Nic. Creed.
20 S. Gregory would here shew that the subjection of Christ of which S. Paul speaks in the passage quoted, is that of the Head of the Church, representing the members of His body. Cf. S. Ambrose, de Fide V. vi., quoted by Petavius, de Trin. III. v. 2.
27 Leuvenclavius translates "The art of this lovingkindness gauges," etc.
28 The Benedictines render, "In darkness, that is, in this life, because of the veil of the body."
30 The Benedictines take para fqeire/sqwsan in an active sense: "I would not let even the Sabellians wrest such an expression."
44 Note with the Benedictines that S. Gregory is here speaking of our Lord alone, not of ordinary Physicians; hence he uses the singular.
50 One Ms. reads "to be fourteen."
56 cf. Amos iv. 13, where A.V. reads, He That formed the mountains and created the wind.
59 Observe that S. Gregory expressly limits this paraphrase to the Divine Nature of our Lord, and is not in any way denying to Him a Human Will also; - indeed in the preceding sentence he distinctly asserts it. The whole passage makes very strongly against the heresy of Apollinarius, which adopted the Arian tenet that in our Lord the Divine Logos supplied the place of the human soul.
82 Elias thinks that the great S. Basil is here referred to. Petavius thinks the first argument of c. xvi. forced and unsatisfactory.
88 The derivation of Qeo=j from Qe/ein (to run) is given by Plato (Crat., 397c). That from Ai!qein (to blaze) is found also in S. John Damascene (De Fide Orth.. I., 12), who however may have borrowed it from S. Gregory, or from the source whence the latter took it. S. Athanasius also admits it (De Defin., 11). Other definitions are, according to Suicer, (1) Qea=sqai (to see), e.g. Greg. Nyss. in Cant. Hom., V. (2) Qewrei=n (to contemplate), Athan. Quaest Misc., Qu. XI.. Qeo\j le/getai a'po\ to\ qewrei=n ta\ pa/nta, oi'onei\ qewro\j kai\ qeoj, h#goun qea/thj pa/ntwn. (3) Tiqe/nai (to place). Clem., Al. Strom., l. s. fin., qe_\j para\ th\n qe/sin ei!rhtai.
90 Lord (Ku/rioj) is simply the LXX. rendering of the word which in reading Hebrew is substituted for the Ineffable Name. Thus in the passages quoted, had the original language been used, the Four-Lettered Name would have appeared.
93 Of the oration on Christmas Day, where He is called o 9 tou= Patro\j o#roj kai\ lo/goj, and see Note there.
94 Ratio (relation; sometimes reason) Sermo (discourse) and Verbum (Word) are all renderings of Lo/goj.