Sentences

Name: Sentences
Author: Gregory Thaumaturgus

Sententiae

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270 AD) · written c. 250–270 AD · PG 10

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270) wrote these Sentences as a collection of brief moral and theological maxims, apparently preserved as excerpts. They urge piety as the foundation of the virtues and contrast sincere faith with costly but empty religion.

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Contents4 passages

1Piety as beginning and end of the virtues
2Open-air faith surpasses costly piety
3Pure speech and a perfected soul as what is magnificent to God; piety as the only abiding good
4Envy makes the unattainable unbelievable

Author

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270 AD) — Gregory the Wonderworker, a student of Origen at Caesarea who became bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus. His farewell address to Origen gives a rare picture of how Origen taught.

All works by Gregory Thaumaturgus

About this text

Six short sentences on piety, knowing God, and purified speech attributed to Gregory Thaumaturgus.

The work opens by insisting that piety must be cultivated above all things, since it is rightly called the mother of the virtues and is their beginning and end. Knowledge of God as the sustaining and creating cause of all things is taught both by sight and by the natural law. The remaining sentences contrast simple, open-air faith with costly piety, and three gathered in the Lord's name with many who deny the divinity.

The work affirms that piety alone is an unchangeable and abiding good, and warns that what is not attainable is somehow not believed because of envy, since to profane souls nothing of good things is credible.

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Translated from PG 10 (Greek)

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Piety as beginning and end of the virtues§1

The work opens with a maxim on piety, then explains how knowledge of God as the sustaining and creating cause of all things is taught by sight and by the natural law.

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1Piety must be cultivated above all things. It is rightly called the mother of the virtues, for it is the beginning and end of the virtues. Both sight and the natural law teach us to know God, the sustaining and creating cause of all things: sight, as it falls upon visible and firmly established things; the natural law, as through those same visible and ordered things it reasons out their author.

Greek · §1

The Greek is on each section page: §1

Open-air faith surpasses costly piety§2

The author continues his maxims by contrasting simple, open-air faith with expensive piety and three gathered in the Lord's name with many who deny the divinity.

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2Open-air faith is better than costly piety, and three gathered in the name of the Lord are better than many who deny the divinity (Matthew 18:20).

Greek · §2

The Greek is on each section page: §2

Pure speech and a perfected soul as what is magnificent to God; piety as the only abiding good§3

The speaker continues the collection of maxims, now stating what is most magnificent to God and what alone is an unchangeable good.

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3Nothing is so magnificent to God as pure speech and a soul perfected by the teachings of truth.

Piety alone is an unchangeable and abiding good.

Greek · §3

The Greek is on each section page: §3

Envy makes the unattainable unbelievable§4

The author is closing the collection of maxims with a final warning about why profane souls reject good things.

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4For what is unattainable is somehow not believed because of envy; to profane souls, nothing among good things is believable.

Greek · §4

The Greek is on each section page: §4

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