HistoricalChristian.Faith

Gregory of Nyssa on the Old Testament Canon

Dates: c. 335–395 AD (Gregory, bishop of Nyssa in Cappadocia from 372, younger brother of Basil of Caesarea and the third of the three Cappadocian Fathers; the citations below come from On the Making of Man [De hominis opificio, 379], Against Eunomius [Contra Eunomium, c. 380–383], and On Virginity [De virginitate, c. 371], the works of his episcopate, which is why he is slotted on the timeline at c. 380 rather than at his death) · Wikipedia
Verdict on the deuterocanon: YES — cites it as "the prophetical writing," as Baruch "delivered… by the Holy Scriptures," and as "the Scripture"; leaves no canon-list. Gregory draws up no catalogue of the Old Testament books, so he renders no formal canon-verdict. But across his doctrinal and ascetic works he presses the disputed books into service as inspired authority: the Greek addition to Daniel (Susanna) quoted as "the prophetical writing," Baruch named outright as a voice "delivered to us by the Holy Scriptures" and made a proof-text for the Incarnation against Eunomius, and the Wisdom of Solomon introduced with the bare formula "the Scripture tells us." His practice puts him squarely on the "using" side of the divide, beside his brother Basil and the wider Greek East — even as his fellow Cappadocians Gregory of Nazianzus and Amphilochius of Iconium were versifying Hebrew-sized lists that left the same books out.

Claims & evidence

The addition to Daniel (Susanna) quoted as "the prophetical writing"

In On the Making of Man (16.14, written 379), arguing that God's foreknowledge governs the whole order of creation, Gregory grounds the divine prescience in a line from the Greek addition to Daniel — the prayer of Susanna, "O everlasting God… that knowest all things before they be" (Susanna 42 / Daniel 13:42) — introduced with the formula he reserves for the prophets:¹

He Who, as the prophetical writing says, "knoweth all things before they be," following out, or rather perceiving beforehand by His power of foreknowledge what, in a state of independence and freedom, is the tendency of the motion of man's will… devised for His image the distinction of male and female.

The Susanna verse is not adduced as a maxim but classed as the prophetical writing — the inspired, predictive Scripture — and made to carry the doctrinal point about divine foreknowledge. Gregory cites Susanna exactly as Irenaeus had ("to be found in Daniel the prophet") and as Eusebius had handled "the description by Susanna of God as knowing all things before they come to pass," reckoning the Greek addition a genuine part of prophetic Daniel.

Baruch named as Scripture and pressed as a proof of the Incarnation

The firmest use is in Against Eunomius (c. 380–383), the long refutation of the Neo-Arian Eunomius. Defending the eternity and full deity of the Son who "afterward… was seen upon earth," Gregory twice quotes the deuterocanonical Baruch (3:37, LXX 3:38). In Book V he names the prophet and ranks the words among the Holy Scriptures:²

…delivered to us by the Holy Scriptures, that the God who was in the beginning, "afterwards," as Baruch says, "was seen upon the earth, and conversed with men."

And in Book VI (§4) he repeats the same verse as the word of "the prophet," turning Eunomius's own argument against him — that the eternal Word's appearing on earth no more makes Him a creature than the prophet's saying it does:²

For since He was the Word and was God, and "afterwards," as the prophet says, "was seen upon earth and conversed with men"…

Baruch was reckoned in the Greek tradition an appendix to Jeremiah, and Gregory cites him exactly as Athenagoras, Hippolytus, and Eusebius had — as the genuine prophetic word foretelling the Incarnation ("This is our God… afterward did He show Himself upon earth"). That he calls it "delivered to us by the Holy Scriptures" and makes it carry a christological argument against a formidable heretic is a use of the highest force.

The Wisdom of Solomon introduced as "the Scripture"

In his ascetic treatise On Virginity (ch. 15, c. 371), warning the soul betrothed to God against admitting defilement, Gregory clinches the exhortation with a verse of the deuterocanonical Wisdom of Solomon (1:4), under the bare label "Scripture":³

…she would herself have broken the covenant of her spiritual marriage; and, as the Scripture tells us, "into the malicious soul Wisdom cannot come."

The Wisdom phrase is handled with the same unqualified "the Scripture" that Gregory uses for the protocanon, the formula his brother Basil attached to Sirach and that Clement of Alexandria and Methodius attached to the same book of Wisdom — a settled scriptural source, not a lesser authority flagged as "useful."

Notes

• The third Cappadocian, on the "using" side with Basil. Where his brother Basil calls Sirach "Scripture" and cites Baruch, Judith, and Wisdom to settle doctrine, Gregory does the same — Susanna as "the prophetical writing," Baruch as the Scripture proving the Incarnation, Wisdom as "the Scripture." The two brothers stand together on the "using" side, while the lists of the Cappadocian circle belong to their friends Gregory of Nazianzus and Amphilochius. So neither brother can be enlisted as a "rejecter" on the strength of the Cappadocian lists: the lists are not theirs, and their own usage runs the other way.
• List versus usage, again. Gregory sharpens the recurring fourth-century gap between the list a circle will draw up and the books its members actually read as Scripture — the same split visible in Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Hilary, and Epiphanius, each of whom recites a Hebrew-sized canon yet quotes the disputed books in argument. Gregory, like Basil, leaves no list of his own and shows the "usage" half in pure form.
• The Baruch citation is the strongest. Of the three, the Against Eunomius use of Baruch is the firmest: the book is named by its author, ranked "among… the Holy Scriptures," and made to carry a christological argument against a leading heretic — the Incarnation proof-text "afterward… was seen upon earth, and conversed with men." The Susanna citation calls the addition to Daniel "the prophetical writing"; the Wisdom citation labels it "the Scripture." Graded together they make Gregory a clear, many-sided "using" witness.

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