Commentary on Joshua

Gregory of Nazianzus (329–390)

What is the special excellence of Joshua? His generalship, and the distribution of the inheritance, and the taking possession of the Holy Land.

What aspects of theology should be investigated, and to what limit? Only aspects within our grasp, and only to the limit of the experience and capacity of our audience. Just as excess of sound or food injures the hearing or general health, or, if you prefer, as loads that are too heavy injure those who carry them, or as excessive rain harms the soil, we too must guard against the danger that the toughness, so to speak, of our discourses may so oppress and overtax our hearers as actually to impair the powers they had before.Yet I am not maintaining that we ought not to be mindful of God at all times. My adversaries, ever ready and quick to attack, need not pounce on me again. It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe: indeed, if one may say so, we should do nothing else besides. I am one of those who approve the precept that commands us to "meditate day and night," to tell of the Lord "evening, and morning, and at noon," and to "bless the Lord at all times," or in the words of Moses, "when we lie down, when…

See also

• More works by Gregory of Nazianzus

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