2. Gregory of Nazianzus appears to quote from the "last section" of the
BASIL'S "NEOPLATONISM"
314 If this were to prove correct, it might seem that the prima facie likelihood of Basil's being the author of De sp. would increase: the De sp. would appear to be his blend of material later known as the "Creed of Gregory Thaumaturgus" with Plotinus. For it is certain that the first ascription of the Creed that we know to Gregory
Thaumaturgus (together with the first publication of its full text) is made by Gregory of Nyssa way dependent on Basil.
315 after Basil's death. However, if Basil wrote De sp., we have to credit him at some stage of his career with a degree of respect for Plotinus (at least for Ennead 5.1) which we might otherwise never have suspected.
Let us now inspect at least the major points of Abramowski's argument that the "Creed" (if that is the proper rendering) of Gregory Thaumatur gus is dependent on Basil:
1. The first extant complete version of the "Creed" that we have is to be found in Gregory of Nyssa, who is also the first to mention the ascription of this material to Gregory Thaumaturgus. The date of Gregory's Life of Gregory in which this appears is uncertain, but it is between 381 and 395.
2. Gregory of Nazianzus appears to quote from the "last section" of the "Creed" in 380 or 381, 316 but not as the work of Gregory Thaumatur gus, but of "one of the inspired men" (θεοφόρων) of not long ago.
(Caspari, 317 implausibly, thought that this θεόφορος must be Gregory Thaumaturgus, referred to rhetorically.)
3. Basil himself makes no use of the "Creed," though he had ample opportunity to do so, especially in his dispute with Atarbius of Neocaesarea.
318 (In ENeoc. pm. [210] there is mention of Gregory's statement of faith [έκθεσις πίστεως], but Basil denies that it contains an imprecise reference to the relation of the Father and the Son: the real source of this is a dialogue with a pagan named Gelianus, which Basil admits often contains expressions [e.g., κτίσμα, ποίημα] which give comfort to heretics.) From point 3, we may assume that no "Creed of Gregory Thaumatur gus" known to Basil could have contained much material which he could
314 L. Abramowski, "Das Bekenntnis des Gregor Thaumaturgus." ZKG 87 ( 1976) 145166.
315 Ibid.. 145. For the text see Vita Greg. Thaum.. PG 46: 912D-913A.
316 Or. 31.28; Or. 40.42.
317 C. P. Caspari, Alte und neue Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols und der Glaubensregel (Christiania 1879) p. 27; contra Abramowski, "Das Bekenntnis," p. 150.
318 ENeoc. [204]; ENeoc. cl. [207]; ENeoc. pm. [210],