Primary source · Koine Greek
On the Soul and the Resurrection
Gregory of Nyssa (with Macrina as the Teacher) · c. AD 380
What this text is
A Christian Phaedo set at Macrina's deathbed: the dying sister leads her bishop-brother through grief to the resurrection of the body — Gregory casting her, throughout, simply as 'the Teacher.'
Profile of Macrina the Younger →
Public-domain translations
W. Moore & H. A. Wilson (NPNF, 1893)
The soul is an essence created, and living, and intellectual, transmitting from itself to an organized and sentient body the power of living… As the Teacher spoke, my grief began to yield to her reasoning, as wave yields to the headland.
Manuscript witnesses
Gregory-of-Nyssa corpus manuscripts
10th c. onwardDe anima et resurrectione, the Christian Phaedo, in the Nyssen dossier.
Provenance
Written after Basil's death, AD 379 — the dialogue with the dying Macrina
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Grégoire de Nysse: Sur l'âme et la résurrection (SC 602)(ed.) I. Ramelli et al. / Gregorii Nysseni Opera III.3 (Spira), 2014The critical editions.
- On the Soul and the Resurrection (Popular Patristics 12)Catharine P. Roth, 1993Faithful English translation.