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

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

Nothing 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

Οὐδὲνοὕτω τῷ θεῷ μεγαλοπρεπές, ὡς λόγος κεκαθαρμένος καὶ ψυχὴ τελεία τοῖς τῆς ἀληθείας δόγμασιν. Μόνον ἀμετάπτωτον ἀγαθὸν καὶ παραμένον ἡ εὐσέβεια.

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About this text

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

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.

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.

Printed text used

Translated from PG 10 (Greek)

This work has passed our source check. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Greek on any section to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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