Commentary on Isaiah

Gregory of Nyssa (335–394)

For we too say plainly that the prophet, wishing to make manifest the mystery concerning Christ, called the self-existent "Angel," that the meaning of the words might not be referred to the Father, as it would have been if the title of "Existent" alone had been found throughout the discourse. But just as our word is the revealer and messenger (or "angel") of the movements of the mind, even so we affirm that the true Word that was in the beginning, when he announces the will of his Father, is styled "angel" (or "messenger"), a title given to him on account of the operation of conveying the message. And as the sublime John, having previously called him "Word," so introduces the further truth that the Word was God, that our thoughts might not at once turn to the Father, as they would have done if the title of God had been put first. So too does the mighty Moses, after first calling him "Angel," teach us in the words that follow that he is none other than the self-existent himself, that the mystery concerning the Christ might be foreshown, by the Scripture assuring us by the name Angel that the Word is the interpreter of the Father's will, and, by the title of the "self-existent," of…

See also

• More works by Gregory of Nyssa

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