Gregory of Nyssa, on Eccl 3:2

“A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.”

“He does well to mention right away the binding union between birth and death; death necessarily follows birth, and each generation passes away. To show the connection between death and birth, the former is like a spur to arouse persons immersed in the flesh who love this present existence that they may pay attention to the future. Moses, the friend of God, quietly philosophizes over these matters as we see in the first titles of his books; he immediately writes Exodus right after Genesis. Thus these titles teach us about the order of our lives, for there is no birth [genesis] without death [exodos]. The great Ecclesiastes shows that death holds the same rank as birth: "There is a time to be born and a time to die."”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.