Commentary on Acts

Gregory of Nyssa (335–394)

for certainly it was impossible for him to be held by it: so that His new birth from the dead was made a way for us also, since the pains of death, wherein we were held, were loosed by the resurrection of the Lord.

But since it was also meet that He should implant in our nature the power of rising again from the dead, He becomes the "first-fruits of them that slept" and the "first-born from the dead," in that He first by His own act loosed the pains of death, so that His new birth from the dead was made a way for us also, since the pains of death, wherein we were held, were loosed by the resurrection of the Lord. Thus, just as by having shared in the washing of regeneration He became "the first-born among many brethren," and again by having made Himself the first-fruits of the resurrection, He obtains the name of the "first-born from the dead," so having in all things the pre-eminence, after that "all old things," as the apostle says, "have passed away," He becomes the first-born of the new creation of men in Christ by the two-fold regeneration, alike that by Holy Baptism and that which is the consequence of the resurrection from the dead, becoming for us in both alike the Prince…

See also

• More works by Gregory of Nyssa

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