La teofania «delle spalle» di Dio nella roccia (Es 33) secondo l’interpretazione di Isacco di Ninive e Gregorio di Nissa

Abstract

Among the East Syriac authors, Isaac of Nineveh occupies a prominent place – his works had almost an universal spreading in the entire Christian world. The originality of this author’s theological vision comes out of its synthetic character: he brought together the Syriac and the Greek theological school, first one much more biblical, while the latter more philosophical (one can speak also about a
second synthesis between the school of Alexandria, in the line of Evagrius, and the School of Antioch, in the line of Theodore of Mopsuestia). This paper deals with what theology calls the “vision of God” according to Isaac of Niniveh, in particular on the interpretation he gives to the vision that Moses had in the cleft of the rock (Ex 33), in reference with Gregory of Nyssa’s perspective and his mystical commentary on this biblical extract (The Life of Moses). We will place the authors in a historical, geographical and theological context, and then we will focus on the mystical interpretations the two authors give to Moses’ third vision on the Sinai Mountain (Ex 33,18-­23). Finally, one will point to some conclusions vis-­à-­vis the methodological approaches proposed by the two authors, that will come out evidently from the analyse.