The following list of references contains the word epektasis. It is not intended to be
inclusive but as a means of showing how Gregory of Nyssa employs this term which translates as
"stretching forward" as to attain a goal. Epektasis is best understood within the context of Phil
3.13 which Gregory quotes frequently: "Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it
(perfection) my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining
(epekteinomenos) forward to what lies ahead." This forward-looking view of the Christian life
lies at the heart of Gregory's theology on spiritual advancement in that it represents a movement
of perpetual ascent towards God who is immovable. According to Gregory, we can never attain
ultimate unity and stability in the divine good but simply expand towards it. This list presents
epektasis in Gregory's own terms and is the foundation for an article to be written at a later time.
A note on the texts: The letter "J" followed by a page number refers to the critical texts
(E.J. Brill, Leiden) begun under the direction of Werner Jaeger and continued after his death. The
letter "M" followed by a column number refers to the edition of J.P. Migne (Paris, 1858). The
letters "PN" also followed by a page number refer to The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,
volume five (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, Michigan), 1972 reprint.
Commentary on the Song of Songs
Therefore, such maidens have grown through their virtues and at the proper time have
entered the bridal chamber of the divine mysteries. Now they love the bridegroom' s beauty, and
through love they draw him to themselves. For he is a bridegroom who repays the desire of those
who love and says in the person of Wisdom "I love those who love me," and "I will give
substance to those who love me." (The bridegroom himself is this substance.) "And I will fill
their treasuries with good things"[Pr 8.17, 21]. The souls, therefore, draw to themselves a desire
for their immortal bridegroom and follow the Lord God, as it is written [Hos 11.10]. The cause
of their love is the scent of the perfume to which they eternally run; they stretch out
(epekteinontai) to what is in front, forgetting what is behind. "We shall run after you toward the
scent of your perfumes" [1.4]. J.39.13
Those who are not yet perfect in virtue and who are still young promise to run towards
the goal which the scent of perfumes represents. For they say, "We shall run toward the scent of
your perfumes." But the more perfect soul, having stretched forward (epektatheisa) more
earnestly, has already obtained the goal for which the course is undertaken, and it is worthy of the
treasures in the storehouse. For she says: "The king has brought me into his chamber" [1.4]. She
desired to touch the good with the very tip of her lips and touched the beauty only as much as the
power of her prayer could reach. (She prayed [1.2] to become worthy of a kiss through the
illumination of the Word.) J.39.20
The bride then says, "Bring me into the house of wine; set love before me. Strengthen me
with perfumes; stay me with apples, for I am wounded with love" [2.4-5]. Oh, how the soul
likened to a horse runs on the divine course! How she leaps and bounds toward (epekteinetai)
what lies before her and does not turn back! And still she thirsts. The intensity of her thirst has
become so great that she is not satisfied with the cup of wisdom. The entire cup is not enough to
quench her thirst. J.119.17
By participation in the transcendent, it continually remains stable in the good; in a certain
sense, it is always being created while ever changing for the better in its growth in perfection.
Neither is it limited, nor can it be circumscribed in its growth towards the good; however, its
present state of goodness, even if especially great and perfect, is only the beginning of a more
transcendent, better stage. The Apostle's words are thus verified: stretching out (epektaseos) to
what lies before is related to forgetfulness of earlier accomplishments [Phil 3.13]. The good
which is superior to the one already attained holds the attention of those participating in it while
not allowing them to look at the past; by enjoying what is more worthy, their memory of inferior
things is blotted out. J.174.15
When the great Apostle Paul gave an account to the Corinthians of his lofty vision, he
doubted his human nature, that is, whether he was in the body or in the spirit. He testifies "I
consider myself not to have reached [the goal], but I stretch forward (epekteinomia) to what lies
in front of me, forgetting what went before me" [Phil 3.13]. It is clear that Paul alone knew what
laid beyond that third heaven (for Moses himself did not speak of it in his cosmogony). After
hearing the unutterable mysteries of paradise, Paul still continued to move higher and did not
cease to ascend. He never allowed the good already attained to limit his desire. J.245.16
The bride does not remain here; she does not reach out (epekteinousa) to what is loftier,
nor does the text tell about her ascent, rather, from the bride's own mouth are the emissions of
pomegranates and gardens of spices; she now has become a fountain watering the gardens which
flow out from her. We have not learned this as in the case of Paul and Apollo; one planted and
the other watered [1Cor 3.6]; rather, both are used together, the planting and watering of the
bride's gardens. Perhaps the bride's praise contains something more sublime. The text says that the
bride is a fountain which does not flow with streams, but with gardens; not streams of any water,
but gardens that spring and swell up. Thus the divine Apostle made "living gardens" those among
whom he lived and made the garden of the Church to swell up through his doctrine. J.291.17
The soul looking towards God is raised to this sublime height as we have observed
earlier. It does not know as it ought, as Paul says [1Cor 8.2], nor does the soul estimate
itself to have comprehended, but runs to what lies beyond, stretching forward (epekteinousa) to what is before [Phil 3.13]. The Song offers these words of the bride: "Upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved." And she adds, "My beloved was gone. My soul went forth at his word" [5.5-6]. The bride teaches us here that the only way for comprehending that power transcending all understanding is never to remain in any notion of him, but to
always move forward and never stand still. J.352.10
Let us recapitulate the sense of the text. The soul which looks to God and
conceives that desire for incorruptible beauty always has a new desire for the transcendent, and it
is never dulled by satiety. Such a soul never ceases to stretch forth (epekteinomene) to what lies
before, going out from her present stage to what lies ahead. Anything great and marvelous
always seems inferior in comparison to what succeeds it, since what the bride has found seems
more beautiful than her earlier discoveries. Thus Paul died each day [1Cor 15.13], because at all
times he partook of a new life, being dead to the past and forgetful of previous things. J.366.15
Thus we should not be unaware of the beauty praised in the bride who is compared to
pleasure and Jerusalem. By these terms the Word clearly reveals the correct manner of ascent
until the soul is exalted and reaches out (epekteinai) for her Lord's glorious deeds. For if God is
on high, then the One in the Father's bosom is united with men of flesh and blood for bringing
peace on earth to please his Father. It is clear that the bride compares her own beauty to such
divine benevolence by imitating Christ in her works; she is to others what Christ was in his human
nature. J.443.9
Against Eunomius
When, then, we compare the Infinite being to such a figure, circumscribed though it be, let
none find fault with this account; for it is not on the circumference, but on the similarity which the
figure bears to the Life which in every direction eludes our grasp, that we fix our attention when
we affirm that such is our intuition of the Eternal. From the present instant, as from a centre and
a "point," we extend (epekteinontes) thought in all directions, to the immensity of that Life.
PN.97; J.218.13.
And so, too, all the other things which in the course of his reasoning he was led to
apprehend as he advanced, whether the power of God, or His goodness, or His being without
beginning, or His infinity, or whatever else is conceivable in respect to the divine nature, using
them all as supplies and appliances for his onward journey, ever making one discovery a stepping-stone to another, ever reaching forth (epekteinomeonos) unto those things which were before, and
setting in his heart, as saith the Prophet, each fair stage of his advance [Ps 83.6], and passing by
all knowledge acquired by his own ability as falling short of that of which he was in quest.
PN.259; J.253.7.
For to the Godhead it properly belongs to lack no conceivable thing which is regarded as
good, while the creation attains excellence by partaking in something better than itself; and
further, not only had a beginning of its being, but also is found to be constantly in a state of
beginning to be in excellence, by its continual advance in improvement, since it never halts at what
it has reached, but all that it has acquired becomes by participation a beginning of its ascent to
something still greater, and it never ceases, in Paul's phrase, "reaching forth (epekteinomene) to
the things that are before," and "forgetting the things that are behind" [Phil 3.14]. PN.210;
J.212.14
And therefore we say that that perfection of goods which we behold in the Divine Nature
always remains the same, as, in whatsoever direction we extend (epekteinomen) our thoughts, we
there apprehend it to be such as it is. The Divine Nature, then, is never void of good; but the Son
is the fullness of all good; and according He is at all times contemplated in that Father Whose
Nature is perfection in all good. PN.213;J.222.10
But as we extend (epekteinontes) in every direction to what is to follow, or to what was before the ages, we nowhere pause in our conceptions at the condition of "not being," judging it to tend equally to impiety to cut short the Divine being by non-existence at any time whatever. PN.216; J.233.6
For in defining ungeneracy as an essence, he will logically arrive at the same pitch of
absurdity which he ascribes to our teaching. For as beginning means one thing, and end means
another, by virtue of an intervening extension, if any one allows the privation of the first of these
to be essence, he must suppose His Life to be only half subsisting in this being without beginning,
and not to extend (epekteinousan) further, by virtue of His nature, to the being without end, if
ungeneracy be regarded as itself His nature. PN.303; J.381.16
On the Inscriptions of the Psalms
A person with a noble mind looks out (epekteinon) from a tower, as it were, at distant
objects and sees the difference between good and evil because he judges from the future, not
present circumstances. The sharp, penetrating eye of the soul can comprehend as present that
which hope stores up for virtuous persons and transcends all appearances. Once admitted to the
heavenly sanctuary, this person condemns the unjust judgment of the good by petty minds inclined
to things perceived by the senses. J.41.13
On the Beatitudes
But lest our words should labour in vain in our effort to reach (epekteinon) what is
inaccessible, we will cut short our enquiry into the nature of the transcendent good; for it is
impossible that such a thing should come within the scope of our comprehension(1).
PG#44.1225.40
I suppose the great Paul, too, who had tasted of those ineffable fruits from Paradise, was
at the same time full of what he had tasted and always hungering for it. For he owns that he has
been filled with what he desired when he says, "Christ liveth in me" [Ga 2.20]; yet he is still
hungry, for he always stretches forth (epekteinetai) to the things before him, saying: "Not as
though I had already attained, or were already perfect; but I run that I may apprehend" [Phil
3.14](2). PG#44.1248B
On the Sixth Psalm
Those persons who are advancing from strength to strength according to the prophet's
blessing [Ps 83.6-8] and who dispose their hearts for these noble ascents, whenever they
apprehend some good thought, they are led to a loftier understanding which yields for the soul an
ascent on high. Thus he who always stretches forward (epekteinomenos) [Phil 3.13] will never
cease his good ascent through lofty thoughts to be ever guided to comprehend transcendent
reality. J.187.8
The Life of Moses
The perfection of everything which can be measured by the senses is marked off by certain
definite boundaries. Quantity, for example, admits of both continuity and limitation, for every
quantitative measure is circumscribed by certain limits proper to itself. The person who looks at a
cubit or at the number ten knows that its perfection consists in the fact that it has both a beginning
and an end. But in the case of virtue we have learned from the Apostle that its one limit of
perfection is the fact that it has no limit. For that divine Apostle, great and lofty in understanding,
ever running the course of virtue, never ceased "straining toward (epekteinomenos) those things
that are still to come" [Phil 3.13]. Coming to a stop in the race was not safe for him. Why?
Because no Good has a limit in its own nature but is limited by the presence of its opposite, as life
is limited by death and light by darkness. And every good thing generally ends with all those
things which are perceived to be contrary to the good(3).
What then is being signified? Bodies, once they have received the initial thrust downward,
are driven downward by themselves with greater speed without any additional help as long as the
surface on which they move is steadily sloping and no resistance to their downward thrust is
encountered. Similarly, the soul moves in the opposite direction. Once it is released from its
earthly attachment, it becomes light and swift for its movement upward, soaring from below up to
the heights. If nothing comes from above to hinder its upward thrust (for the nature of the Good
attracts to itself those who look to it), the soul rises ever higher and will always make its flight yet
higher--by its desire of the heavenly things "straining ahead (sunepekteinomene) for what is still
go come" [Phil 3.13], as the Apostles says(4).
Gregory the Wonderworker
For if human reason could grasp his words, it would not differ from Greek wisdom which,
if they had strength to absorb it, would express their own opinions. Since comprehension of
[God's] transcendent nature cannot be fathomed by human reasoning and intelligence, faith takes
its place and fosters it (epekteinousa). J.10.7
1. Ancient Christian Writers, number 18 (London, 1954), p.112.
2. Ibid, p.129.
3. Translation by Abraham Malherbe and Everett Ferguson (New York, 1978), p.30.
4. Ibid, p.113.