Commentary on Philippians

Gregory of Nyssa (335–394)

He did not say "having a nature like that of God," as would be said of [a man] who was made in the image of God. Rather Paul says "being in the very form of God." All that is the Father's is in the Son.

The form of God is absolutely the same as the essence. Yet when he came to be in "the form of a slave," he took form in the essence of the slave, not assuming a naked form for himself. Yet he is not thereby divorced from his essence as God. Undoubtedly when Paul said that he was "in the form of God," he was indicating the essence along with the form.

The Godhead is emptied so that the human nature may accommodate it. What is human, on the other hand, is made new, becoming divine through mingling with the divine.

He "emptied himself," as the Scripture says, so that as much as nature could hold it might receive.

The one who says that he "took the form of a slave"—and this form is flesh—is saying that, being himself something else according to his divine form, something else in his nature, he assumed the servile form.

See also

• More works by Gregory of Nyssa

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