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The Life of Moses
St. Gregory of Nyssa (335-394 CE), who came from an illustrious Christian family of Capadocia, became bishop of the small town of Nyssa in 371 and is known as one of the founders of mystical theology in the Church. In The Life of Moses , one of the most important books in the study of Christian mysticism, Gregory retells the story of Moses's life from the biblical account in Exodus and Numbers and then refers back to these stories as the basis for profound spiritual lessons. The ultimate goal of Gregory's spirituality is to strive for infinite progress in the never-completed journey to God. His exhortations to lead a life of virtue will inspire all who hope to increase their knowledge and love of God.
132 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 390
About the author
Gregory of Nyssa
169 books138 followersGregory of Nyssa was a Christian bishop and saint. He was a younger brother of Basil the Great and a good friend of Gregory Nazianzus. His significance has long been recognized in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Roman Catholic branches of Christianity.
Gregory along with his brother Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus are known as the Cappadocian Fathers. They attempted to establish Christian philosophy as superior to Greek philosophy.
Gregory along with his brother Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus are known as the Cappadocian Fathers. They attempted to establish Christian philosophy as superior to Greek philosophy.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 15, 2021
I find myself approaching books written by the early church fathers with a certain amount of fear...will I even understand them? This book (really letter) by St Gregory of Nyssa delighted me from the very first pages. St Gregory’s humility, wisdom, and love are deeply evident as he encourages the letter’s recipient to pursue a life of obedience to God using Moses as an example. This is NOT AT ALL an obscure commentary on an Old Testament character! Instead, it lays out the essential FOUNDATION for a life of faith. Very practical and a very understandable example of how the whole Old Testament clearly points to Christ.
He concludes: This is true perfection: not to avoid a wicked life because, like slaves, we servilely fear punishment, nor to do good because we hope for rewards, as if cashing in on the virtuous life by some businesslike and contractual arrangement. On the contrary, disregarding all those things for which we hope and which have been reserved by promise, we regard falling from God’s friendship as the only thing dreadful, and we consider becoming God’s friend the only thing worthy of honor and desire. This, as I have said, is the perfection of life.
He concludes: This is true perfection: not to avoid a wicked life because, like slaves, we servilely fear punishment, nor to do good because we hope for rewards, as if cashing in on the virtuous life by some businesslike and contractual arrangement. On the contrary, disregarding all those things for which we hope and which have been reserved by promise, we regard falling from God’s friendship as the only thing dreadful, and we consider becoming God’s friend the only thing worthy of honor and desire. This, as I have said, is the perfection of life.
January 15, 2023
Always a classic.
Read
February 10, 2022I love Moses but I am allergic to virtue ethics
January 16, 2023
Excellent. Basically an extended spiritual reading of the life of Moses, applying the details of his life metaphorically to a life of Christian virtue. Especially encouraging was 1) Gregory's discussion of the infinite journey into God, or the idea that human life will involve eternally experiencing God in deeper and more intimate ways, and 2) his emphasis on developing virtue as a means to experience God. This emphasis on the mystical and practical aspects of the life of faith--rather than merely the intellectual--was both a comfort and a challenge.
May 25, 2020
Short but powerful reflection on the life of Moses. This is an excellent example of what David Steinmetz called “the superiority of pre-critical exegesis.” Nyssa’s allegorical reading has stood the rest of time for a reason. He also demonstrates how classical virtue theory maps on well to the biblical ascent to God.
February 11, 2017
Last Read:
2013 7-11 February
2013 7-11 February
January 4, 2023
Like many, I found this an inspiring read even if I find Gregory of Nyssa making some wild allegorical interpretations of Moses' life and its relation to our own spiritual pilgrimage.
February 26, 2023
This was a great read! Happy to move it to the ‘read’ shelf by way of the Center for Baptist Renewal 2023 reading challenge.
November 10, 2011
This St. Gregory was one of the first Christian mystics, and parts of this little book point in that direction. "As the mind progresses and comes to apprehend reality, leaving behind not only what sense comprehends but also what the intelligence thinks it sees, it keeps on penetrating deeper until by the intelligence's yearning for understanding it gains access to the invisible and the incomprehensible, and there it sees God" (80). Also, as a true believer (Bishop of Nyssa - pre-modern Turkey), Gregory finds portents of Jesus throughout the Moses story. But apart from that, and on the whole, this little 4th-century book is in many ways a model of what I call Critical Religious Literacy, and I recommend it on that basis:
1. Gregory argues that "practical philosophy should be joined to contemplative philosophy" (94). (Did he read the Hellenistic philosophers who made the same argument a century earlier?)
2. Most of the book is astonishingly naturalistic in the account of what it means to live a good life. "Covetousness is a master who provides no relief to the servant, for even if the one in bondage should slave in subservience and acquire for the master what he desires, the servant is always driven on to more" (68). (Who hasn't experienced that?!)
3. Gregory champions secular study and the life of the mind, as not only compatible with, but a tool for spiritual growth ("There are certain things derived from profane education which should not be rejected when we propose to give birth to virtue. Indeed, moral and natural philosophy [science] may become at certain times a comrade, friend, and companion of life to the higher way" (41).
4. But he also recognizes egotistical intellectualism as a distraction from the good life. "For what fruit worthy of such pangs does philosophy show for being so long in labor? Do not all who are full of wind and never come to term miscarry before they come to the light ...?" (34).
5. More surprisingly, Gregory's thesis is that the story of Moses is NOT to be taken literally, but as an allegory of spiritual progress. Indeed, he argues that some events depicted in the Bible are so heinous that to take them literally would make God into a monster. ("How would a concept worthy of God be preserved in the description of what happened if one looked only to the history? ... Therefore, we look for the spiritual meaning" (56-7). So, circumcision stands for cutting superstitions away from religion (42); the plagues are the natural consequences of chasing after cravings (55); God's killing the Egyptian first-born means we should kill our first stirrings of lust and anger before they turn into adultery and murder (57); the Israeli looting of Egyptian wealth before the Exodus indicates that those on the path of spiritual growth should "equip themselves with the wealth of pagan learning [including] such things as moral and natural philosophy, geometry, astronomy, dialectic ... by which foreigners to the faith beautify themselves" (63); that Aaron's rod grew nuts instead of exotic fruit shows that the clergy should not lead lives of luxury but of modesty and self-restraint (120). Apart from these lessons, Gregory himself is a model of a religious devotee bringing his own intelligence and secular education to bear on a sacred text, in order to make some good, practical sense of it.
6. Yet, he is so unpretentious in his scholarship that he sometimes shares his own uncertainty: "We shall leave what we say conjecturally and by supposition on the thought at hand to the judgment of our readers. Their critical intelligence must decide whether it should be rejected or accepted" (84).
7. In the final pages, Gregory insists that it is wrong to live a virtuous life either in hopes of avoiding punishment or of winning a reward, but only, like Moses, to enjoy life as a "friend of God" (132).
1. Gregory argues that "practical philosophy should be joined to contemplative philosophy" (94). (Did he read the Hellenistic philosophers who made the same argument a century earlier?)
2. Most of the book is astonishingly naturalistic in the account of what it means to live a good life. "Covetousness is a master who provides no relief to the servant, for even if the one in bondage should slave in subservience and acquire for the master what he desires, the servant is always driven on to more" (68). (Who hasn't experienced that?!)
3. Gregory champions secular study and the life of the mind, as not only compatible with, but a tool for spiritual growth ("There are certain things derived from profane education which should not be rejected when we propose to give birth to virtue. Indeed, moral and natural philosophy [science] may become at certain times a comrade, friend, and companion of life to the higher way" (41).
4. But he also recognizes egotistical intellectualism as a distraction from the good life. "For what fruit worthy of such pangs does philosophy show for being so long in labor? Do not all who are full of wind and never come to term miscarry before they come to the light ...?" (34).
5. More surprisingly, Gregory's thesis is that the story of Moses is NOT to be taken literally, but as an allegory of spiritual progress. Indeed, he argues that some events depicted in the Bible are so heinous that to take them literally would make God into a monster. ("How would a concept worthy of God be preserved in the description of what happened if one looked only to the history? ... Therefore, we look for the spiritual meaning" (56-7). So, circumcision stands for cutting superstitions away from religion (42); the plagues are the natural consequences of chasing after cravings (55); God's killing the Egyptian first-born means we should kill our first stirrings of lust and anger before they turn into adultery and murder (57); the Israeli looting of Egyptian wealth before the Exodus indicates that those on the path of spiritual growth should "equip themselves with the wealth of pagan learning [including] such things as moral and natural philosophy, geometry, astronomy, dialectic ... by which foreigners to the faith beautify themselves" (63); that Aaron's rod grew nuts instead of exotic fruit shows that the clergy should not lead lives of luxury but of modesty and self-restraint (120). Apart from these lessons, Gregory himself is a model of a religious devotee bringing his own intelligence and secular education to bear on a sacred text, in order to make some good, practical sense of it.
6. Yet, he is so unpretentious in his scholarship that he sometimes shares his own uncertainty: "We shall leave what we say conjecturally and by supposition on the thought at hand to the judgment of our readers. Their critical intelligence must decide whether it should be rejected or accepted" (84).
7. In the final pages, Gregory insists that it is wrong to live a virtuous life either in hopes of avoiding punishment or of winning a reward, but only, like Moses, to enjoy life as a "friend of God" (132).
June 18, 2016
This is a crash-course in Patristic allegory. We might wince at some of his connections, but Nyssa never rejects the literal meaning.
“No good has a limit in its own nature, but is limited by the presence of its opposite” (Nyssa 5).
Within God there is no opposite. So far so good. But is God limited by what is not God? I don’t think that is what Gregory means, since farther down the page he says “This good [God] has no limit--the participant’s desire itself necessarily has no stopping place, but stretches out with the limitless.”
The climax to Nyssa’s narrative is Moses’s meeting with God on the mountain. Our knowledge of God is like the circumference of a circle. That outside the circumference is what we do not know. As our knowledge grows, so does that which we don’t know about God. As the circle gets bigger, so does the area where the circle touches “not-knowledge.” In heaven, the soul is always moving towards God, yet because God will always be “beyond” the soul in heaven, the soul will always be growing. Every limit involves an essence beyond it. This means the soul can only rest in the infinite. Knowledge by representation takes us right to the limit. One can never be face-to-face with God because that would place the knower “opposite” to God, and anything opposite to the good is evil. Therefore, in order to see God we must see “the back parts of God.”
We must follow the back-parts to the Good/God. We can’t see him by seeing opposite to him, for anything opposite to the Good is evil.
“No good has a limit in its own nature, but is limited by the presence of its opposite” (Nyssa 5).
Within God there is no opposite. So far so good. But is God limited by what is not God? I don’t think that is what Gregory means, since farther down the page he says “This good [God] has no limit--the participant’s desire itself necessarily has no stopping place, but stretches out with the limitless.”
The climax to Nyssa’s narrative is Moses’s meeting with God on the mountain. Our knowledge of God is like the circumference of a circle. That outside the circumference is what we do not know. As our knowledge grows, so does that which we don’t know about God. As the circle gets bigger, so does the area where the circle touches “not-knowledge.” In heaven, the soul is always moving towards God, yet because God will always be “beyond” the soul in heaven, the soul will always be growing. Every limit involves an essence beyond it. This means the soul can only rest in the infinite. Knowledge by representation takes us right to the limit. One can never be face-to-face with God because that would place the knower “opposite” to God, and anything opposite to the good is evil. Therefore, in order to see God we must see “the back parts of God.”
We must follow the back-parts to the Good/God. We can’t see him by seeing opposite to him, for anything opposite to the Good is evil.
March 23, 2025
incredible . for those looking for an introduction to Patristic allegorical exegesis , this is a great primer. the whole thing is an extended allegory for Gregory, bouncing between the account of the Moses’ life, the passion of Christ, and the virtuous life lived by any who seek God.
david bentley hart holds this to be just that, an outstanding example of a sustainable hermeneutic, or however he puts it.
worry not if you are NOT interested in patristic exegesis, or extended allegory, the relation of the account of Moses’ life to the life of virtue is completely worthy in itself to read this book. Gregory writes in the conclusion- “it is time for you, noble friend, to look to that example and, by transferring to your own life what is contemplated through spiritual interpretation of the things spoken literally, to be known by God and to become his friend.”
gregory’s chief concern is that we seek the Good, which is only and purely God himself, and this book is an invitation to know that.
david bentley hart holds this to be just that, an outstanding example of a sustainable hermeneutic, or however he puts it.
worry not if you are NOT interested in patristic exegesis, or extended allegory, the relation of the account of Moses’ life to the life of virtue is completely worthy in itself to read this book. Gregory writes in the conclusion- “it is time for you, noble friend, to look to that example and, by transferring to your own life what is contemplated through spiritual interpretation of the things spoken literally, to be known by God and to become his friend.”
gregory’s chief concern is that we seek the Good, which is only and purely God himself, and this book is an invitation to know that.
April 21, 2017
In this extremely short work, Gregory of Nyssa, one of the great Greek Cappadocian Fathers, commends his readers Moses, the servant and man of God, as the par excellence of spiritual maturity and perfection. This is a spiritual exegesis (if such things exist nowadays). Meaning, Nyssa makes many interpretative moves that seems really foreign. I frequently found myself saying, "Is that even appropriate to say? Does the text allow that?" However, after accepting his Greek (Neo-Platonic) quarks, there is deep wealth in this book. I quote one of my favorites at length below:
If, then, one should withdraw from those who seduce him to evil and by the use of his reason turn to the better, putting evil behind him, it is as if he places his own soul, like a mirror, face-to-face with the hope of good things, with the result that the images and impressions of virtue, as it is shown to him by God are imprinted on the purity of his soul. (44)
cf. www.sooholee.wordpress.com
If, then, one should withdraw from those who seduce him to evil and by the use of his reason turn to the better, putting evil behind him, it is as if he places his own soul, like a mirror, face-to-face with the hope of good things, with the result that the images and impressions of virtue, as it is shown to him by God are imprinted on the purity of his soul. (44)
cf. www.sooholee.wordpress.com
January 31, 2012
This book is an incredible book, although small in size, it does perfectly what I have told every person to do when reading The Bible and that is to see the Spiritual Reality underscoring the literal historical words written. Often people say, "How can a Loving God allow X to happen?" Of course one would be at a lost to explain this if one was limited to a Historical-Literal Interpretation of Scripture, however such is not the case when one reads the more difficult texts with a Spiritual perception as Gregory of Nyssa has done here in this text.
The book is a little confusing, but is summed up pretty well as one gets closer to the end. This book would probably be best to read twice, just to make sure nothing was lost from the first reading.
The book is a little confusing, but is summed up pretty well as one gets closer to the end. This book would probably be best to read twice, just to make sure nothing was lost from the first reading.
August 25, 2023
Concise and eloquent biography of Moses followed by an edifying, spiritual interpretation of the events of his life.
Moses saw God's back because to see Him is to follow him.
Any animal that touched Mt. Sinai had to be stoned because anything irrational and driven by passions can't approach God.
Joshua is another name for Jesus so it is him and not Moses who must lead Israel into the promised land.
Moses saw God's back because to see Him is to follow him.
Any animal that touched Mt. Sinai had to be stoned because anything irrational and driven by passions can't approach God.
Joshua is another name for Jesus so it is him and not Moses who must lead Israel into the promised land.
June 27, 2024
An enlightened typology of the life of Moses, lauding him as the pillar of virtue he was. A great prefiguring of Christ, and a great prophet of the most high. There is also a thorough interspersing of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy; these serve in portraying a life of virtue to the end Christians can live the life of faith.
July 5, 2017
I've just begun this book, but I must say immediately that this edition includes a terrible introduction written by someone who is completely irrelevant to the subject matter.
January 10, 2023
To read and remember forever. Illuminates the Old Testament beautifully.
January 21, 2023
Utterly bonkers with moments of brilliance.
The foreword is terrible.
The foreword is terrible.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews