Commentary on Numbers

Gregory of Nyssa (335–394)

[Macrina replied,] It is said of Moses that he was superior to anger and desire. History testifies that he was the "meekest" of men. An incapacity for anger is shown through mildness and an aversion to wrath. He desired none of the things toward which the desiring element in many people is directed. This would not have been so if these qualities had been natural to him and logically in keeping with his essence, for it is not possible for that which is unnatural to remain in the essence. Moses, you see, was true to his essence and not involved in desire and anger, which are in addition to our nature and not our nature itself, for nature is truly that in which being has its essence.

Now if we have been conformed to his death, sin henceforth in us is surely a corpse, pierced through by the javelin of baptism, as that fornicator was thrust through by the zealous Phinehas.

See also

• More works by Gregory of Nyssa

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