The Fourth and Sixth Letters of Saint Gregory of Nyssa: A Commentary with an Introduction and Translation
Graduation Date
Summer 1939
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Degree Granting Institution
Catholic University of America
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
The Letters of Gt. Gregory of Nyssa first appeared in on English transition of 1893 in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers under the editorship of Philip Schaff and Barry Race. Doth the fourth and sixth Jotters are included in the collection, the former presumably because of its metaphorical treatment of the Christian festivals, the latter because of its interesting narration. A definitive text of the letters was edited by Georgius Pasquali and published in 1925. During the interval elapsing between the publication of these two works, tools which are a great aid to the student of patriotic Greek have become available. Today, as a consequence, we have a more exact knowledge of the times and of the language of the Greek Fathers. Therefore, the present work does not seem unnecessary. It aims to give a translation of Letters IV and VI in the light of the scholarly discoveries of the last twenty-five years, the commentary, used to illustrate the text, is linguistic and historical. The vocabulary has been classified according to the following periods*. Classical, 500-283 B.C.; Alexandrian, 283-146 B.C. Graeco-Roman, 146 B.C. - 330 A.D. Byzantine, 330-526 A.D.