Second Discourse on the True Faith, to the Queens

“And he who sees me, sees him who sent me.” ^A Then he adds to these words: “I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment what to say and what to speak.” Since therefore he refers the faith that is in him to the Father who sent him, even if he speaks as a man in accordance with the Father's command, and since he who sees him also sees him who sent him, who would dare to deny that he is God, and that he is the true God? Related to this is also the following: “You believe in God; believe also in me.”

From the Gospel according to Luke. “Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” When Christ comes one day from heaven, what sort of faith, I ask, will he seek among us? For if he merely wishes to be believed and held to be a man like us, who would decline to believe him? For the Jews used to insult him, saying: “Why do you, being a man, make yourself God?” ^B The heathens, too, hearing of his cross and death, take what is said as if it were spoken of some common man of our own condition. What faith, then, does he seek? Clearly, that very faith which those divine heralds, who were both ministers and eyewitnesses of the Word, announced to the world. Therefore John says: “And the Word became flesh.” He became flesh while remaining God. Such, then, is the faith that he will seek from us at the proper time.

The end of the first oration of Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, sent to the most pious queens. ^C

CYRIL ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, SECOND ORATION TO THE MOST PIOUS QUEENS, CONCERNING THE ORTHODOX FAITH.

^D I. To those who administer that divine and heavenly proclamation, the God of all commands through the voice of the prophet Isaiah, saying: “Go up onto a high mountain, you who bring good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with strength,

you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem; lift it up, be not afraid.” ^A For I say that those who are appointed to the priesthood and who proclaim the mystery of our common Savior Christ must not possess a spirit that is cast down or groveling upon the earth, or one overcome by sloth or shriveled by cowardice; but rather, their mind should be as it were stationed on high, as if fixed upon a mountain, so that they may strive to contemplate the extraordinary beauty of the doctrines of the truth. They should speak their words with boldness, even if some of those who are being instructed are stubborn and difficult to lead, and like certain insolent and unbridled horses, regarding whom the blessed David himself says to the God of all things: “Constrain their jaws with bit and bridle, those who do not draw near to you.” But if it is necessary to speak even to those who are in such a state of mind, how would it not be one of the most perilous things to choose silence, and not to instill into your pious ears, very often, like some sweet and life-giving stream, the knowledge of the holy Scriptures, which God promised to us long ago, saying through the voice of Isaiah: ^B “And you shall draw water with joy from the fountains of the Savior.” By the fountains of the Savior, we mean the holy prophets, evangelists, and apostles; for they irrigate this world with the saving doctrine drawn from heaven, supplied to them by the Holy Spirit, and thus they gladden the entire world under heaven. Come then, casting our minds into the depths of the thoughts given by Him, let us draw out from there the discovery of the truth. For just as tillers of the soil, at the appropriate times, pluck the most fragrant flowers from the fields, and then, having placed them in baskets, offer them to their masters—who for their part receive them most gladly and are pleased by the seasonal offerings—so we, who have received the office of teaching, bring from the field of the divinely inspired Scripture, not flowers that quickly wither, but words and instruction through the Spirit, possessing the unfading beauty of piety in Christ, ^C exuding, even, the fragrance of His mystery in great abundance. For it is written that “we are the fragrance of Christ to God.”

II.

^A Father, from whom are all things, so also there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things; and there is, of course, the Holy Spirit, in whom are all things. And those who divide the one Christ and Son and Lord into two sons, we, having been taught to think correctly, will by no means tolerate. For we do not say that the Son who was begotten before all ages from the substance of God the Father is one, and that the one who in the last times was born of a woman and became subject to the law is another; but we acknowledge one and the same Son, both before the union with the flesh and after it. For the Son, who by nature proceeds from God the Father, having taken to Himself a soul and a fully rational mind, has been born according to the flesh through the holy Virgin and Theotokos Mary, and has not been changed into flesh (heaven forbid!), but has rather assumed it, and has not neglected His condition of being God; for even in this state He has remained the Lord of all things.

130 III. Now we have been taught to think these things. For the words of the holy Fathers and their decrees wisely admonish us to observe with great zeal and diligence what is most consonant with the divine Scriptures, and by applying a subtle mind to those things which have been set forth concerning Christ, to contemplate the truth of the divine dogmas: "Casting down counsels, and every height that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." ^B For since it is firmly established and acknowledged by all that the natural Word of God the Father, existing in the form and equality of the same God, "did not think it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," it is clearly necessary for anyone who wishes to judge rightly the force of those things which are written concerning Christ to have a breast instructed with excellent sentiments, so that he may be able to perceive how the same Christ exists at once as God and man, and remains God without any alteration or change (for the nature of the Word is immutable), and does not reject the humiliation of the emptying; for He who in the plan of the dispensation endured the voluntary humiliation for our sake is not ashamed of His own counsels. Therefore, it is necessary that He be seen as both illustrious in the majesty of His divinity and yet not to be thought alien from the condition of our own humility, on account of the assumed humanity: for the logic of the dispensation demands this. For if the Word of God has become flesh, that is, man, according to the saying: "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh," let no one be ^D perturbed, even if something is said about Him by the divinely inspired Scripture that corresponds to our human nature. Let him rather contemplate His transcending glory proceeding from the power and preeminence that is divine and exalted above all.

^A

IV. Therefore, I shall endeavor to explain, as clearly as possible and with the greatest possible lucidity, those points which seem likely to disturb the minds of the simpler folk more than others, providing a sufficient solution as a clarification for each passage, with God once again guiding our path in this endeavor. "For He gives the word to those who evangelize with great power," as the divine Psalmist says. In the discourse we addressed to the holy virgins, we gave very extensive treatment to the more straightforward points, which hold no difficulty for comprehension; but in the present work, we have occupied ourselves with the explanation of the more obscure ones. For it is right that your pious Majesty should know both, and not be ignorant of those things, so that through both, complete knowledge, like some light, may dwell in your most holy minds. My intention while interpreting each point is to be as brief as possible. But the discourse will be prefaced by the others concerning the emptying of the Word. One must know this, however: that when Christ Jesus is named to us, it is fitting to understand the Word from God the Father who became man and took flesh. ^B

V. "For I wish you to know that the head of every man is Christ; the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." The first man is of the earth, earthly (that is, Adam); the second is from heaven (it is clear that this is Christ). "But just as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us also bear the image of the heavenly," according as it is written. Therefore, the first head of our race, that is to say, the origin, has become the one from the earth and earthly. But since Christ has been named the second Adam, He has been established as the head, that is to say, the origin, of those who are being reshaped by Him through the Spirit unto incorruption by sanctification. Therefore, He is our origin, that is, our head, insofar as He appeared as man. Yet He Himself also has a head, in that He is God by nature, namely the Father who is in heaven; for the Word, being God, was begotten of Him by nature. And the fact that "head" signifies "origin" reinforces the truth for those whose mind might doubt that the man is called the head of the woman; for she was taken from him. One, therefore, is Christ, and Son, and Lord, ^C who has as His head—as He is God by nature—the Father who is in heaven, but who has become our head owing to the kinship of the assumed flesh. ^D

VI. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake He became poor, being rich, that you might become rich by His poverty." Observe here most clearly both the preeminence of the divine and incorruptible nature, and also the humble human nature.

^A For the nature of humanity is ^B lowered from its measures, and further, in this, the union of both, the Only-Begotten having deigned to lower Himself. For no speech could interpret the wealth of the Godhead; yet humanity is exceeding poor, to which all things are gifts from God and from above, and even the very being that it has before all things; for it is called by God into existence, having not been at any time. But He who was rich as God, voluntarily became poor, and became as we are; so that in turn the nature of man, having come in Christ to the heights of divine preeminence, might cast off the shame of poverty. "For God and Father," as it is written, "has raised us up together, and made us sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." But we would not have attained to these things, if He who is rich as God had not put on our nature, which was poor and needy. For a man who is poor by his own nature cannot rightly be said to have become needy: but this is asserted to have happened suitably to Him who is without controversy rich, that is, the Word of God the Father, after He became man, like unto us. One, therefore, is both Christ and Son.

VII. ^B "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written: Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree." Since the legal letter declared accursed him who was in transgression and sin, He who knows no sin, that is, Christ, was brought under judgment, having endured an unjust sentence and having suffered things befitting those under the curse; so that He, being equal to all, having died for all, might loosen the charges of the disobedience of all, and redeem the world under heaven with His own blood. Therefore, He would not have become ^C equal to all, if He were merely a man. But if He be considered as God incarnate, and as having suffered in His own flesh, the whole creation is little in comparison to Him, and the death of one flesh is sufficient as a ransom for the world under heaven: for it was the proper flesh of the Word who was born of God the Father.

VIII. ^D "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone." ^D The divine Paul, again, makes these remarks concerning Christ, the Savior of us all: "When He brings the firstborn into the world, He says: And let all the angels of God worship Him." And again: "Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels said He at any time: Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee?" Since, therefore, the Only-Begotten became the firstborn, and one of many brethren, then also on ear

^Ath it is said that He has been brought into the world (for, according to His own nature as God, He was outside of every creature): then also He is said to have been made lower than the angels, even if He has obtained a name more excellent than they. For the word "angel" is significant of service and indicates to us a station of servitude: "For they are sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." But the Son would signify an existence from the Father, being substantial and natural, inasmuch as we believe that the birth has truly occurred. How has He who is worshipped by the angels, who is the co-sitter with the Father, been made lower than the angels? But the reason is clear. For He descended to the measures of humanity, and having taken a body capable of dying, and having made it His own, He suffered in it voluntarily, and is crowned with the highest glories on account of the passion, as having by it abolished death and rendered corruption inoperative, since He is Himself incorruption and life. When, therefore, he names Jesus and says that He has been made lower than the angels, we do not conceive of a man individual and apart, but of Him Himself the Only-Begotten, yielding in the order of the economy to the holy angels in point of pre-eminence; because He who is inferior in their excellence has truly become man. But the excellence of the holy angels consists in this, that they are exempt from flesh and are superior to death: to both of which, however, the Son became subject on account of the voluntary emptying. But He who for the measure of humanity is said to be made a little lower than the angels, being in the excellence of His divinity, is worshipped by them, and sits upon those majestical thrones which they encircle, ever glorifying Him with praises and calling Him Lord of the powers ^B.

IX. Having partaken of flesh and blood

IX. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." In these words He calls "children" us who pass our life on the earth, according to that which is sung in the Psalms in the person of God: "I said: Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High." For so far as it depended on the will of God, and the gentleness naturally inherent in Him, we would all be children, and no one would have fallen from the close kinship with Him. But as David says, "We die like men, and fall as one of the princes," because we submit our own mind to the passions of the flesh. How then, therefore, have we partaken of blood and flesh? For the human soul, having a nature different from the flesh, by its disposition towards it in union, has completed the one rational animal, that is to say, man. Just so, therefore, the Word of God also, having united to Himself a body endowed with a soul—and not a soulless body as some fancy—He

in a manner which the human mind cannot grasp, and having His origin from a woman, participated in blood and flesh just as we do, ^A in a manner similar to us, but through birth, plainly, from a woman. There is, then, one Lord Jesus Christ, since the Word of God united to Himself the human element, while remaining even so what He was. And if He Himself has abolished the power of death, as Life and God, it is proper to understand that that which suffered death was His own particular possession, so that, as He Himself, having risen, could be said to have abolished corruption and to have transmitted to our entire race the grace of incorruptibility. "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." And again: "For as by a man came death, by a man also is the resurrection of the dead." And since it is beyond the measures of the humanity which we conceive of, for the Word of God to become, in flesh and blood, a man such as we are, yet to have remained even so superior to death—for He was God in the flesh ^B—we say that by union, or communion, He trod down death through a flesh that was His own.

X. "For it is not to angels that He gives help, but He gives help to the descendants of Abraham. Therefore He had to be made like His brethren in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make expiation for the sins of the people. For because He Himself has suffered and been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted." We assert that the Word of God took upon Himself the seed of Abraham; for He sprang from the Jews according to the flesh, and was made like His brethren in all things, that is to say, in the servant-form he took, according to the teaching of the Apostle, and he did not disdain to be born like other men. For this very reason He also existed as the Son of man, and became a brother to those who had come from the seed of Abraham, that is, those constituted of flesh and blood. What, then, was the cause of these things? Not another, surely, He says, than "that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God." For Christ has shown Himself to us as a high priest ^C beyond measure kind and merciful. For while the letter of the Law condemns those who have sinned, and decrees that those who have violated the commandment of God must be punished with the most grievous penalty—for "anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy at the testimony of two or three witnesses"—Christ justifies through faith, and absolves those who have fallen from their ancient trespasses. He became, therefore, a merciful high priest, as one who does not permit that legal severity to prevail any longer.

XI. But as a "faithful" high priest; because He is perpetual and constant, and most worthy that credence be given to His promises. But regarding the legal priests, the matter is far otherwise, with the Apostle as witness. "And the others," he says, "were made many priests, because they were prevented by death from continuing; but He, because He remains forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Consequently He is able for all time to save those who approach God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for ^D them." And consider how he has become a high priest not for the condemnation of those who have sinned, if...

^A but rather for the purgation and propitiation of their offenses. But what, I pray, was the manner of his temptation and of his sacrifice? For he says: "For in that he has suffered and been tempted, he is able to succor those who are tempted." For he stood firm when tempted, and endured the punishment of the cross. Moreover, the Son offered himself to God and the Father as an unblemished sacrifice, so that by his own flesh he might bring aid to those who are laboring and tempted. "For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." He therefore became a high priest according to the human nature, even though, as God, he receives sacrifices from all. He is the victim according to the flesh. He is the one who, by the power of his divinity, is propitiated ^B for our sins. One, therefore, is the Lord Jesus Christ.

XII. "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know; for salvation is from the Jews." Someone might perhaps object here that it is unbefitting for the supreme divine nature of the Word to worship another. If, therefore, Christ is truly God, how is he seen to have numbered himself among those who ought to worship? What, then, shall we say to this? If we believe that the Word who has shone forth from God the Father came into this world with his divinity naked and alone, the matter is altogether unbefitting to him; for he is worshipped more truly than he himself worships another. But if, having taken the form of a servant ^C and not rejecting the measure of the worshipping human nature, he has been named the Son of Man, the act of worship will be part of the dispensation, and will correspond more to the conditions of his self-emptying, and not to the nature of the Word considered by itself. For how else is salvation from the Jews? For no one would say that, in so far as he is understood and is the Word, he exists from the Jews; but rather, in so far as he has become a brother to those who are in flesh and blood, by his taking hold of the seed of Abraham. One, therefore, is Christ, even if he is said to worship on account of his humanity, though he is worshipped by all creation as God.

XIII. "Yet a little while I am with you, and I go to him who sent me." For where is the Word of God not present, ^D if he fills all things by the nature of his divinity? How then is he sent by the Father? And how does he go to him? Therefore, he is sent as a man according to the manner and reason of his mission, so that he might preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. He goes, however, to God the Father, not in the same way as before, but as having returned to heaven in the body, so that for our sake he might...

^A appear before the Father's face, as it is written.

But if anyone should take the word "sent" to be applied to the Word himself, let no one be troubled; for it is the custom of divinely inspired Scripture sometimes to use such expressions, and not to attribute a local or circumscribed nature to the divine and transcendent essence (for it knows that it is incorporeal, beyond limitations, and far removed from being conceived in a place); but rather, it attempts by means of human expressions to declare those things that are beyond the comprehension of our mind. Since the Savior himself also said that he would send the Paraclete to us, even though the Holy Spirit fills all things, according to the passage: "The Spirit of the Lord, he says, has filled the world."

XIV. "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know that I am." The blessed John, explaining the causes of the Jewish madness which they leveled against Christ, writes thus: "For this reason, he says, the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, ^B making himself equal to God." And elsewhere he introduces them uttering these impious things: "For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God." Therefore, they were unwilling for any reason to believe in him, since they thought him to be only a mere and common man; they were ignorant that the Word being God had taken hold of the seed of Abraham, and had shared in blood and flesh similar to us, yet he did not cease to be God: for he is immutable by nature, and is ever the same. He says, therefore: "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know that I am." Although he suffered the punishment of the cross according to human nature, yet he rose by divine power. And on account of his resurrection he is believed to be both true God and in truth the Son of God. And if we believe that he did not raise another, but that he himself rose, it must be established that the body which suffered death was his own by dispensation: so that in this way ^C he himself also, although by his own nature he is immortal as God, may be said to have risen. For by proclaiming the death of one and the same Christ and Son, and by confessing the resurrection, we are justified through faith. Therefore, the same and only Christ Jesus, as man is said to have died according to the flesh, but as God and Life is said to have risen.

XV. "The Jews therefore gathered around him and said to him: How long do you take away our life? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them: I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my name of my Father, these testify of me." ^D

^A What then, I ask, do those say in this matter who ignorantly divide into a duality of sons and into two Christs the one Lord Jesus Christ? Concerning whom did the Jews say, "If you are the Christ, tell us plainly"? And who is it who says, "The works that I do in the name of my Father, these testify of me"? To whom do we say God is the proper Father? Is it to the one who is understood by part and specifically as being born of a woman, or to the Only-Begotten? Yet to be able to accomplish the works of divinity would surely not be fitting for a human nature; it is far from it. Since Christ was fulfilling the works of the Father, he should not be thought of as a mere man, but rather as God in blood and flesh, remaining what he was. For in this way, being such, he will indeed perform works equal to his own Begetter; and no one of sound mind could find fault with the rationale of this mystery.

XVI. "And the child grew, and became strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him." And again: "Jesus increased in wisdom and in age and in grace before God and men." Affirming that our Lord Jesus Christ is entirely one, and attributing to him equally the human and the divine, we truly assert that to the measure of the ^B emptying belong both the reception of bodily growth and the successive consolidation and strengthening of the parts of the body; and finally, also that very thing, that he seemed to be filled with wisdom: for, along with the growth of the body, through appropriate advances as it were, the manifestation of the wisdom existing in him would shine forth ever more daily. And these things, as I said, would befit the dispensation with flesh and the measures of his lowering. But to the nature of the Word, it would again befit to possess perfection always and to be Wisdom. These things, therefore, are humanly his, since he has in a sense lowered himself in the emptying; and likewise, the things that befit God are his divinely. For the manner and rationale of the dispensation with flesh knows him to be as we are, and above us. Surpassing the measures of creation as God; and yet, in a way, ^C as though yielding to himself, in that he has appeared as man. For where is the humiliation, which he endured willingly, if he avoids human things? Yet the nature of the Word is not thought to be in these things, but rather he makes them his own along with his own flesh; just as, indeed, hungering and thirsting, and being said to become weary from a journey. When, therefore, you hear, "And the child grew, and became strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom," accept the mystery as a defense of the dispensation with flesh. For that God was in the flesh will be confirmed by the blessed evangelist himself, saying, "That the grace of God was upon him." For he is not said to have the grace ^D of God as though having it as a gift from another God, but because the child had a grace that would befit God. For the Word is both God and is God, and he appeared in the flesh, that is to say, as man according to us. But if he should be said to have grace,

^A that is, to advance in grace before God and men, there is nothing unseemly in this; for even the Father himself accepted the dispensation, and he also accepted the Son taking onto himself things proper to the flesh, because of what is fitting and useful for the mystery.

XVII. "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." If you have learned to confess Christ as one, they say, that is, the Word of God incarnate, that is, made man, how did he not know the day of the consummation? We say, therefore, that to be ignorant, perhaps, of the mysteries that are in God is neither strange nor otherwise unbecoming to the creature. "For who has known the mind of the Lord?" ^B according to what is written. And if it is said that the Son is "made a little lower than the angels," ^C as clearly he has become man, even though he is divinely beyond all creation, what is the wonder if he is said to be ignorant of the mystery that is in God, just as the angels are, even though he is his Wisdom and Power? And how could the Wisdom of the Father be ignorant of what is hidden in him? And if the Spirit is said to "search all things, even the depths of God," and it is the Spirit of Christ, how would he himself be ignorant of what his Spirit knows exactly? Wherefore, although as man he is said to have been ignorant of something, as God, however, he knew all things. And indeed, when asking, "Where have you laid Lazarus?" as one allowed not to know as man, he acted divinely, having raised him from the dead. ^D Therefore, attributing to the dispensation of the incarnation those things that are of man, let us preserve with piety for the Word who is begotten of God, and who became man like us, those things that befit him as God.

XVIII. "And Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Shall we say, then, that the Word who is begotten of God the Father also stood in need of divine help from above? But what could be said that is more foolish than that? Is he not the Lord of all together with God the Father, and does he not make the heavens firm with his own Spirit, and is he not called the Lord of hosts, and is he truly so? Did he then grow weak against the treacheries of the Jews, and were the hands of those who were crucifying him invincible to him? And yet the prophet Isaiah says thus: "If all nations are reckoned as a drop from a bucket, and as the turning of the scale, and shall be reckoned as spittle: to whom have you likened the Lord? or with what likeness have you compared him?" It is necessary to remember in this place that the ministers of the Jewish synagogue were present, having the cohort of soldiers, with the traitor as their leader. And since they were seeking to seize him, he met them, saying: "Whom do you seek?" And they, to this...

said: "Jesus the Nazarene." Jesus says to them: "I am." And they went backward and fell to the ground. How, then, can he be called weak, who by his voice alone demonstrated the weakness of those who were plotting against him? What, then, is the meaning of his saying: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" We say, therefore, that when our first parent, Adam, had trampled underfoot the commandment that had been given to him and had disregarded the divine law, human nature was in a way forsaken by God; and it became accursed for this reason, and subject to death. But since the only-begotten Word of God arrived to restore that which had ^B fallen into corruption, for this reason he took hold of the seed of Abraham and was made like his brothers; it was necessary that, alongside that ancient curse and the corruption which had supervened, the forsakenness which human nature had suffered in the beginning should also come to an end. As one, then, who was among those who had been forsaken, insofar as he himself likewise shared in flesh and blood with us, he says, "Why have you forsaken me?" This was an utterance that was clearly undoing the forsakenness that had befallen us, and was, as it were, inclining the Father toward himself and summoning him to benevolence toward us, even as toward himself first of all; for Christ has become for us the source and bringer of every good thing. So that even if he is said to have received anything as a man from the Father, he bestowed the whole of this upon our nature, although he himself, as God, is full and entirely in need of nothing.

XIX. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on the cross. Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Behold, the text clearly sets forth that the Word of God, who was in the form and equality of God the Father, did not consider being equal to God as a thing to be grasped, but rather emptied himself voluntarily, taking the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of men. It adds, moreover, that he humbled himself and rendered obedience unto death, ^D even death on the cross. If, therefore, one must tear apart the one and only Christ and Lord into two Christs and sons, as it pleases some, and if the Word of God has honored the man born of a woman with the equality of his own dignities, and has joined to himself—according to the fallen state of humanity—

^A manner of authority and the homonymy of sonship, as though he were another Son specifically beside him—who then is the one who emptied himself? Or in what way has he been emptied? For if, as they say, it is the man born of a woman, considered specifically, who is said to suffer this, how or in what way has he been emptied? Did the one who had come to be in equality with God the Word, both in terms of merit and authority, descend into humiliation, and possess this union with him? But if, in the case of God the Word himself, when he is again considered specifically and individually as the Son, it is said that he was emptied, how has he been emptied by honoring another, as they say, and investing him with his own dignities? How can he be said to be humiliated, who has imparted the summit of his own glory to one associated with him? For if they were to say that he endures humiliation—that is, emptying—because he glorifies another, it would not, it seems, be absurd to conceive that he who offers injury is also exalted. Therefore, truth and a compelling argument, ^B which almost forces us, persuade us to think that it is the Plenitude itself that underwent emptying, and that, having put on the form of a servant—not that which is naturally a servant, but that which is beyond the measures of servitude—he came to be in the likeness of men, not being such by nature before he became man. And we believe that the Most High was humiliated, that the Word of God himself became man in these things, by his own will for our sake; yet he remained divinely in the heights of his own excellence. For this reason he is also said to be highly exalted and to have received the name that is above every name, and to be worshipped by all, and to be named ^C Lord to the glory of God the Father. For although he existed in the excellence of the Father and in unspeakable heights, since he humbled himself to emptying and is said to have been humiliated, having assumed the form of a servant; and since he ascended again to his own riches, surpassing the poverty of the nature united to him—that is, the human—for this reason it is said that he received, in a human way, that which he possesses always and inalienably in himself, namely, to be God and Lord of all. Finally, if it is glorious to the Father to have a Son who possesses dominion over all and everything, who can doubt that, for him, even after the form of a servant was accepted, the freedom and the supernatural dignity of power and dominion over all remained fully preserved? ^D XX. "Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us for the share of the inheritance of the saints in light: who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins: who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for in him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether

^A Thrones, or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers: all things were created by him and in him; and he is before all, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body of the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that he might hold the primacy in all things; for in him it hath well pleased that all fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things unto himself: making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to things on earth, and things in heaven.

Here we are taught that the Word of God, that is, the Son naturally born of him, is the image of the invisible God; furthermore, that all things visible and invisible, whether in heaven or on earth, were created by him; and that he is before all things ("For in the beginning was the Word"), and that he is the Creator of the ages, and possesses an existence that is older than all time. But he says that he who is such by his own nature has been given by God the Father as the head of the body of the Church, and that he himself is the firstborn from the dead. How then, if he is the eternally existing Word of God, in whom all things consist, is he called the firstborn from the dead and the firstfruits of them that sleep, unless the body which he took from us was truly his own, so that when it suffered death, he himself would be understood to have suffered? For it is not unreasonable for one to have in himself the cause of what occurred; for he suffered what was his own. In this way he is understood as the firstborn from the dead, even though he is by nature immortal and is himself Life-giving. Since, therefore, he has been given as the head of the body of the Church, having humbled himself to the emptying ^B of his glory, he is then also said to have died humanly for us, he who, as God, knew nothing of death.

XXI. ON THE WORD DWELLING IN THE FLESH

XXI. Now, since the blessed Paul says that all the fullness dwelt in him, maybe some might object: "Look, he recognizes another Christ, specifically the man born of a woman, in whom Christ, as someone distinct from him, dwelt, and specifically the Word, that is, the Spirit and the fullness of the Godhead, bodily." To such as these we reply that the Spirit-bearing Paul does not know of two Christs, but proclaims one, just as he also proclaims one Father: "For to us," he says, "there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him. And one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." Come, let us examine carefully and weigh the power of the words proposed here. He declares that the eternal Son, in whom all things are and by whom all things subsist, the image of the invisible God, the builder of the universe, and the firstborn among the dead, has been given as head of the Church. Because, therefore, the Word of God is by his own nature exempt from death, we cannot but assert that he was joined in a true and perfect union with human nature; and thus one Christ, being at once ^C both God and man, was revealed to us. ^D

^A But to think that this occurred in the nature of the Word considered by itself and apart, is altogether absurd; for it is the same as saying that the Only-Begotten dwelt within himself. But believing that the Word became flesh—not by any transmutation or change, but rather that he “tabernacled among us,” and made the body united to him in truth, having a rational soul, his own temple—we piously and rightly assert that when the great Paul writes that “all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him,” he did not intend to signify merely by participation, or habit, or communication of grace, but “bodily,” which is to say, substantially; just as if one were to say that his spirit dwells in a man, not being something other than himself. For in the case of one person, a figure of speech involving two persons is often introduced, and in no way does it harm the truth. For example, when holy Scripture proclaims concerning God: “He that formeth the spirit of man within him.” And yet, how is it not clear to all that one would not conceive of another spirit being formed in a man, apart from his own? ^B And the blessed David also says somewhere: “I communed with my own heart, and my spirit made diligent search.” Who, then, I ask, was it that communed with his own heart, and had his own spirit making search? One ought not, therefore, to scrutinize the forms of language with such anxiety, but rather to contemplate the natures of the things themselves, and, led by them, press on toward the truth itself.

On the obedience of Christ.

“Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” ^C Since human nature lay bound by the curse and the sentence of death on account of the disobedience of the first-created man, it was necessary for it to be restored again to its ancient state through an irreproachable demonstration of obedience. But this far exceeded the powers of human nature, for none was immune from sin. For since it had once fallen into transgression and error, and lay defeated and prostrate under internal infirmities, and had the root of wickedness within its own flesh, and carried the unbridled law of sin perpetually within its own bowels, how could it altogether escape every fall? “For the carnal mind,” he says, “is altogether enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can it be.” ^D

^A And so, God the Father, in His wonderful dexterity, being about to restore all things in Christ, and out of His exceeding great gentleness intending to effect for human nature its return—that is, its reintegration into what it once was—with greatest benevolence, “sent His Son, made of a woman,” ^B in order that, by taking a body like to ours and making it His own, He might be found upon earth as man, Himself knowing no sin, and thus, having become obedient in all things to God and the Father, He might justify human nature in Himself, and deliver it from the bonds of death, being crowned by God and the Father with the robe of innocence. For it is truly absurd that we should be heirs of condemnation by the disobedience of the first Adam, who cast us down into death and corruption, but should remain destitute of the righteousness of the second Adam, who leads us back to life through His perfect obedience. When, therefore, the holy Scripture says that by the obedience of one many were made righteous, we must not think that some simple man of our own condition was taken for this purpose, but rather the Only-Begotten Himself, having become man and having rendered obedience to the Father on our behalf. “For He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,” ^C as it is written.

XXIII. “For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers; and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.” The divine Paul declares that the promises given to the fathers pertained to the Jews. And the blessed prophets had long since foretold concerning Christ that He would be the expectation of the Gentiles. Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, conforming Himself to the nod of the Father, became a minister of the circumcision—that is, to the Jews—for the confirmation of the things promised to the fathers. For it had been said, “The just shall live by faith;” but to the Gentiles, [He became] a vivifying and spiritual blessing, so that they too, having been shown mercy through faith, might glorify God. But although He became a minister according to human nature, yet He is announced as God both to those from the circumcision and also to those from the Gentiles; for they have been called to life, believing in Christ not as a mere man of our own lot, but as God; and they do not profess the Word of God to exist outside of flesh—that is, outside of human nature—but they worship Him as having been incarnate and having truly become man. ^D

XXIV. “But the word of faith which we preach (the Apostle said), that is: If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Now, since God is by His own nature immortal, if…

do not admit the doctrine of the incarnation, and we deny that He made for Himself a body that could die, how shall we be able to correctly say that He has risen from the dead? Therefore, He sustained death in the human body which He assumed; but by divine power, as existing being life and incorruption, He rose from the dead.

XXV. «For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.» ^A The war which the saints wage is not gross or corporal, but subtle and spiritual. For they are not accustomed to be commended and celebrated because they brandish corporal weapons, or aptly use the points of spears or the casting of missiles: but rather because, instructed with the weapons of truth, they spiritually and intrepidly set themselves against those who desire to adulterate the rectitude of divine dogmas, and with rash daring attempt to pervert them to their own whims. Therefore, the weapons of the saints are not carnal, but rather valid in God and for God. For they demolish the inventions of men, which ^B drag them into some absurd sense; nor do they strive with less zeal to remove them from the midst than [they would] certain destructive barbarians who declare open war against the royal majesty. And if anyone from their herd, who are accustomed to speak iniquity against God, has lifted his horn on high, they, as if striking him with the judgments of the right faith, presently lead him back to the doctrine of truth. Therefore, the work of the saints’ industry would be truly worthy, and pleasing to God above all, to transfer those things to the rationale of the dispensation in the flesh which do not seem to conform sufficiently with the glory of Christ. For although the Word was God, and existed in the form and equality of the Father, He let Himself down to the emptying, and rendered obedience ^C even unto death. Therefore, it is necessary to overturn every contrary intellect skillfully, and, as it were, to lead it captive into the obedience of Him. But if anything savoring of human infirmity be said of Him, it will cast no stain at all upon the nature of the Word, if we believe Him to have become a man like us. For although He assumed human nature, and was made obedient unto death according to the flesh, He nevertheless made no loss of His divinity: for He remained God as He was.

XXVI. «Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus, who is faithful to Him who made Him, as also Moses was in all His house. For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some man; ^D but He that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all His house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken; but Christ as a Son over His own house; whose house are we.»

^A Jesus has become the apostle and high priest of our confession, that is, the Word from God made man; for it was then that He was named Jesus through the voice of the angel. And although the name and function of the priesthood and the apostleship are, strictly speaking, ^B quite trivial in relation to the nature of the Word, yet they are not incongruous for the measures of human nature. For as He Himself says somewhere, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." That He should be ministered to by the creation would, indeed, fit Him very properly, as God and Lord, having under His feet everything that has been created. But that He should minister is a human function; yet, so far as the reasons for the economy in the flesh are concerned, it is not unbecoming to Him who lowered Himself to human conditions. Observe, however, how He exercises the priesthood in a human manner, and is set as a mediator between God and men; for every priest performs the office of a mediator. Yet He does not offer the manner of the sacrifice servilely, like the priests of our order—as though He were not also the one to whom the sacrifice is offered—but He performs it for Himself, and through Himself and in Himself to the Father. For He offers our confession, that is, the faith, which we are also rightly accustomed to make, saying: "We believe in one God the Father Almighty, and in one Lord Jesus Christ His Son, and in the Holy Spirit." Therefore, even if He is said to exercise the priesthood in a human way, He nevertheless receives the sacrifice as God, being Himself at once God and man. He is called faithful for the reason that He is always able to save those who approach God through Him. The Father Himself is also occasionally called faithful. And how much the ministry of the latter, as man, exceeds the Mosaic ministry when compared in terms of human nature—insofar as He is considered as God—anyone can learn, and not with long toil, by considering that the one was faithful in the house as a servant, but the other as Lord over His own house. And that Emmanuel is the architect and creator of the house, whose house we are. For the difference between the Maker and the thing made is incomparable, as is that between the Lord by nature and the servant, truly and even in perception understood.

^C

XXVII.

^A that which He was not, in order that by yielding to death for a short while the body which had been united to Him and made His own, He might lose none of those who had been given to Him, but rather preserve them, and raise them up on the last day. For by saying that He does the will of the Father, and not at all His own, He convicts the madness of the Jews; and he strikes them indirectly, as people who are always establishing their own will and despise the divine laws, and who have taken no care to perform what is pleasing to their Master. For while He plainly commends in this place His own prompt eagerness to obey, He accuses their rebellion in no obscure fashion. Indeed, elsewhere also He charges them on this very account, because they practiced hatred and persecution and passed an unjust judgment against Him, saying, "You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one; and if I do judge, my judgment is true; for I do not seek my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." Therefore, He says these things according to the dispensation of the flesh. ^B

XXVIII. But come, let us now weigh that other point as well. When He descended from heaven as God, He affirms that those who believe in Him were given to Him by the Father; not that He might destroy them, but that He might raise them to life on the last day. But in what way does He raise them? Clearly through His own resurrection from the dead. For having quickened His own temple before all else, and having shattered the power of death through the death of His own flesh, He paved the way for human nature ^C unto resurrection, and furthermore to the ability to eventually overcome corruption. And so, it was the property of the Word of God who descended from heaven that He should become the firstborn from the dead, so that, by the One raised, that which had been given to Him might follow after Him into life—no longer perishing because of the transgression of the first-formed man, but being saved instead through the obedience of Christ. Furthermore, as He became man, He says that those who receive faith in Him are given to Him. For He possesses all things that are the Father’s by hereditary right. But since, as I said, He partook of blood and flesh, and then we believed in Him as God, for that reason the name of a "gift" is brought in; for He who ruled even before the flesh was taken on, obtained rule over us also when He was clothed in flesh. Thus, as soon as the Word became man, like us, so that He might exercise authority over us, it was inaugurated: "The Lord," He says, "said to me: You are my Son, today have I begotten you." He receives, therefore, in a human manner things that are His own, even though He rules over all things as God, ^D according to human nature, which otherwise [was]... [it is said] He received.

Concerning the sanctification of Christ, and His priesthood according to the thought.

XXIX. "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things..."

and by whom are all things, having brought many sons into glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. ^A For both He who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee." [PS CXVII, 20] Perhaps some of the more ignorant ones, who are accustomed to divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two Christs and two Sons, think that it is the man born of the woman, conceived separately and apart from the Word who is from God the Father, who is here said to be made perfect through sufferings, and the same who is called the captain of our salvation; but that the Word of God Himself, having been given to the passion by him, was, as it were, another person. For they say that it is ^B truly fitting for Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, because of what the blessed evangelist says: "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made." [JOAN. I, 3] "It was fitting, therefore," they say, "for the Word, by whom are all things and for whom are all things, having brought many sons into glory, to make the captain of their salvation (that is, the man simply, who was born of the holy Virgin) perfect through sufferings." That their argument is full of thunder-struck madness, as far as it is possible, I shall now endeavor to show.

XXX. For in the first place, the expression "by whom" is also used of the Father Himself. And indeed the blessed Paul says: ^C "God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son." [I COR. I, 9] And again to those who through faith had been called to the dignity of freedom: "So, he says, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God." [GAL. IV, 7] Since, therefore, the divinely inspired Scripture is indifferent about the utterance of the phrase, and admits it even for the Father, there is no longer anything that compels us to force the expression "by whom" to the person of the Son as if by necessity. Since this is true, why then do we not rather, leaving aside His person for the moment, and then following the scope of the Holy Scriptures, and keeping the logic ^D that is becoming to the economy with flesh of the Only-Begotten, say that the Father made perfect through sufferings the Son who became man? "For He endured the cross, despising the shame," [HEBR. XII, 2] surely under the good pleasure of God and Father; so that, having chosen to follow in His footsteps, He might make us also manly, obeying Him who says: "Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." [MATTH. X, 28] For because they were about to have tribulation in the world, and to be persecuted by enemies, and to contend earnestly for the dogmas of the truth, and to accomplish the pursuit of virtue not without great sweat and labor, He did not allow them to be broken by fear, but rather, being Himself made perfect through sufferings, He animated them so that we too might not shrink from them, [lest in their turn they might]

^A be beaten, saying: "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord; it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord." "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you."

XXXI. The purpose, therefore, set before the only-begotten Son of God was to suffer in His own flesh for us. And what this reason is, the inspired Paul will teach by saying: "Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Since, therefore, it was impossible for human nature to destroy death (for it was held by it, being brought into this state by that ancient curse), it was necessary that the life-giving Word of God should put on a nature subject to death, that is, our nature, or rather, human nature, so that when death leaped upon His flesh like some wild beast, it might be stopped in the tyranny it exercised over us, being effectively destroyed by God. He Himself, therefore, is the One who is made perfect in the flesh for our sakes in a human manner, while ^B perfecting us in a divine manner through the destruction of the power of death. For human nature lacked that integrity and incorruptibility which it possessed in the beginning of its origin: "For God made not death: neither hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living. For He created all things that they might have their being," and the beginnings of the world look toward salvation, nor is there in them any poison of destruction, nor is there a kingdom of Hades upon the earth. "But by the envy of the devil death entered into the world." Having thus perfected us, He said to the Father and God in heaven: "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." For ^C indeed, that is the true glory of God the Father, that through His own Offspring He has destroyed death. Therefore, while for Him the consummation was through sufferings, for us it was the providing of what was missing; for the things in Christ are a new creation.

XXXII. That he does not say that a mere common man, separated from the Word, was made perfect for our sake, but that the Only-Begotten Himself, clothed in human form, was made perfect, the inspired Paul will confirm again, adding: "For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren." ^D Here it is worth our while to understand who that One is who sanctifies; then, who those are, in turn, who are sanctified; and how they are all of One, or from whom they are, it is surely worth seeing. Therefore, the Son sanctifies, being holy by nature as God; and we are sanctified by

the Spirit. But how are all from One? They are indeed from One, the Creator and Maker, whence we necessarily draw a mutual brotherhood from this source. For between one begotten thing and another, in so far as they are begotten, a certain natural kinship intervenes. However, as the Son is not created by nature, and as God can in no way enter into brotherhood with the creature; how can it be that all, both those who are sanctified and He who sanctifies, are from One? Truly, to clarify the matter set before us, we must look to the dispensation of the incarnation. For when He became as we are, then He too is said to be from One with us, and is rightly called a brother to the creatures, as having obtained a kinship with our humanity. On this account, therefore, He is not at all ashamed to call us brothers, not enduring, as it seems to me, to be called a brother to those who have come into being through Him, unless He has become like them, yet without laying aside what He was. For then, without reproach, He will also praise with us Him whom the Seraphim praise, and all creation worships. ^B

XXXIII. "And confessedly great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in flesh, was justified in spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the Gentiles, was believed on in the world, was received up in glory." If the Word of God, though He were said to have become man, did not indeed lay aside His being God, but remained constantly in the goods in which He ever was, then truly it is great, and confessedly great, is the mystery of godliness. But if Christ is conceived of as a common man, joined to God only by the equality of dignity or authority (for some of the more unlearned have thought these things), how was He manifested in flesh? (And yet, how is it not evident to all that every man is clothed in flesh, and could not be seen by anyone in any other way?) And in what manner is it said that He was seen also by the holy angels? For do the angels not see us ourselves? What, therefore, is strange or paradoxical in Christ, if, being only like us and nothing else, He was seen by some of the holy angels? ^C And how was He preached to the Gentiles? And as being someone, is He believed on by those in the world? For if the disciples preached Him to the world simply as one of the men like us, and not rather as God who has become man, and He is believed in by those in the world as such, we are convicted of man-worship, and we have worshipped the creature; and we have been led to this by Him who is by nature and in truth the God of all things; for He Himself established for us the choir of those who speak of God. But if Christ, having risen from the dead, told the holy apostles: "Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit," ^D

^A and we believe in him, and we have been baptized, announcing his death and confessing his resurrection; and since we are accustomed to doing this, we have never until now been accused of worshipping a man. Who can have any doubt that Christ is not a mere man, honored only by a naked and simple connection with the Word of God; but that he is one Son and Lord by a natural conjunction according to the dispensational union with human nature, and that therefore the great mystery of godliness has shone forth to the world? For God the Word appeared in the flesh, and was justified in the Spirit (for our Lord Jesus Christ commits no sin), and he was seen by the angels, who, not being ignorant of his birth according to the flesh, sang: «Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men ^B.» He was preached also among the Gentiles; and that he is truly the Son of God and the Father, and has appeared in the flesh, is believed by those who inhabit this world.

XXXIV. «And John bore witness, saying: Because I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained upon him. And I knew him not, but he who sent me to baptize in water, he said to me: Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is he who baptizes with the holy Spirit. And I have seen, and have borne witness, that this is the Son of God ^C.» Since we assign but one Emmanuel, and do not tolerate those who tear the one Christ into two, what are we to say when we hear that the holy Spirit descended from heaven upon him, and also remained upon the same? Shall we suspect that the Word of God the Father was in need of the participation of the holy Spirit? But what could be thought or said more absurd than this? For the Spirit is as much his own as he is the Father’s. «Because you are sons (says the blessed Paul), God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father ^D.» Therefore, it would be impious even to think that the Word of God the Father himself needed the communication of the holy Spirit; and to inquire curiously into a matter so plain and evident is altogether foolish. How then did the Spirit descend upon him? For he accepts it according to human nature, by a dispensation involving the flesh, so that he might receive the Spirit beyond all reproach; nay, it even necessarily led to this. Moreover, he receives it rather for us than for himself: so that, seeing that [the Spirit] had flown away from upon men, because their mind from their youth had been always prone and intent upon evil, it now descends upon Christ as into a second beginning of our race, and taking its seat, it might again, as if in us who are now rightly acting and have cast off the source of all

^A life. Yet, although he receives it in a human manner for our sake, see how he bestows it in a divine manner. “For upon whom,” he says, “you see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.” Now this is a divine act; for our Lord Jesus Christ sends into those who are baptized the Spirit of the Father as his own Spirit. And the divine Paul has written to confirm us in this: “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any one does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.” John therefore has testified that “this is the Son of God.” ^B

XXXV. I would gladly question those again who divide the one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons (the Father has shown one, and the blessed evangelist says concerning one: “This is the Son of God”). Tell me, then, concerning which of them is this said? If it is said specifically and individually of the Only-begotten—that is, the Word who is from the Father—how does he receive the Spirit, even though he is God by nature and has the Spirit as his own? But if they say that the man born of a woman, considered apart and by himself, stood in need of the participation of the Spirit, how does he then baptize in him, since it is appropriate only to the ^C highest nature to be able to declare those who come to it to be partakers of the Spirit? If the same one receives and gives, it is manifest that this is according to the accounts of the economy in the flesh, and in that he is by nature and truly God. He receives as a man, not so much for himself but for the whole human race, procuring it through himself and in himself first; but he gives as God, from his own nature, bestowing it upon those worthy to receive it. Many other things could indeed be alleged that are similar and suggest the same meaning for our subject; but knowing that to say the same thing repeatedly is wearisome, we say that the explanation of one instance is sufficient for those of more discerning mind for the precise understanding of similar passages. Therefore, as often as Christ might be said to be sanctified, or to receive ^D the Spirit, it must be understood in this very way. For it is better to embrace piety, while we piously turn the sense of the sacred Scriptures toward a right interpretation, than to impiously deny what has been rightly spoken concerning the glory of Christ, and go off headlong.

XXXVI. “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil; and he ate nothing in those days; and when they were ended, he was hungry.” It was fitting that he should, for our sake, stand against and, one might almost say, wrestle back the palm from Satan—who had conquered long ago—he who for this reason had lowered himself into a voluntary emptying, that he might make us partakers of his own fullness; and that he might raise up those who were broken and feeble.

^A For in Christ those operations of bodily and psychic infirmities which had occurred in the first-formed man, within the nature of humanity, have ceased. For just as by his obedience the many were made righteous, even though we had incurred the sentence of condemnation through that one’s disobedience; so again, through the strength understood as being in Christ—and it is evident that this is spiritual strength—we have warded off the harm of the primal infirmities, and having fallen in Adam, we have conquered in Christ. He is set in opposition, therefore, for our sake as a human, and he conquers as God. He is tempted, indeed, as Satan leaps upon one of "those who are like us," thinking that the intemperance of the flesh would help him in the struggle against the one being tempted; but he departs put to shame, since the nature of man in Christ is being made new, and possesses the law of sin, which previously raged in the members of the flesh, as dead—for that law has been abolished in Christ.

But furthermore, when he had fasted sufficiently and, by divine power, had kept the flesh incorrupt without food or drink, he with difficulty allowed it to suffer things suited to it. For he is said to have hungered. And for what reason, I ask? Clearly, so that he might cleverly demonstrate himself to be, through both, at once God and man, and one and the same; being perceived as above us insofar as he is God, and similar to us insofar as he is a human. He is said also to be led by the power of the Spirit into the desert—the expression "being led" ^B indicating not being carried away, but rather living or dwelling, just as it is often said among us, "so-and-so conducts himself rightly," which is to say he lives and conducts his affairs blamelessly. He was therefore "conducting himself" in the desert—that is, he was spending his time there—not in a bodily manner; for without drink and the food necessary for bodies, he endured in his fast by the power of the Spirit, transcending the condition of our nature.

But consider this, for the power of this understanding is most beneficial. He was not tempted before the holy baptism, nor was he led by the Spirit into the desert, setting this circumstance as a pattern for us. For it is impossible for those who have not yet received baptism to endure the unbearable assault of the tempting Satan with vigor, or to be led spiritually. The time appropriate for such bright and admirable accomplishments is after holy baptism. For having been strengthened in this way by the participation of the Holy Spirit, and having been sealed by the grace from above—obviously unto spiritual vigor—we shall be unassailable to Satan; and as if in the power of the Spirit, we shall live, taking as a kind of desert the state of being outside of worldly tumult and living our lives peacefully. ^C For while, for the all-powerful Word of God, it was a very small thing ^D to conquer Satan, it was a great thing for us, on the other hand, to obtain this through his incarnation, just as it was to be renewed unto immortality. For just as we have become superior to corruption through his resurrection from the dead, so through his victory in being tempted, we have in turn become the conquerors.

^A XXXVII. "Having therefore a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. iv, 14, 15). The confession of the right faith is made by us in one God the Father almighty, and in one Lord Jesus Christ his Son, and in one Holy Spirit. The divine Paul admonishes us that we must hold fast to this confession of faith. Since it is certainly established that there is but one Son of God the Father, namely Christ Jesus, who is able to sympathize with our infirmities and was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin, who then is this great high priest of ours? Is it not he who truly became as we are, and even suffered in the flesh for our sake? For then he took upon himself the title of our high priest: not, however, in the manner of other priests, offering a sacrifice external to himself, that is, something foreign to his own nature, but he himself was the lamb, he himself the most fragrant ^B sacrifice and spiritual burnt offering, and he himself the lamenting turtledove and the simple dove, he himself the living bread, and the golden censer. "For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ," according to what is written (II Cor. ii, 15). Observe, however, the depth of the apostolic thought here. "We have not," he says, "an high priest who cannot sympathize with our infirmities, but one who has been tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin." For if the Word of God had not yet become man, he knew, he indeed knew the human infirmity, even so, as the Creator; "for he himself knew our frame," as it is written (Ps. cii, 14). But if it is appropriate to say anything of human things regarding him, he was also called to this very experience of our infirmities. Since he put on our flesh, he has been tempted in all things. And we do not by any means say that he was ignorant of them, but that to the divine knowledge which he possessed as a prerequisite, there was added that which comes to be known through experience. He became sympathetic and merciful, not because he was tempted from some source—for he was merciful by nature, and is, as God—but because, after he remained consistently what he was, he became also man, like us, and therefore these things are said of him in a manner befitting man. And he says that he passed through the heavens both bodily and in a manner befitting God. "For he ascended," as the most wise Paul himself says somewhere, "now to appear in the presence of God for us." He passes through the heavens, however, in another way as well, with the blessed angels, ^C clearly, trailing behind and following his glory. "For he is," he says, "as God, far above all Principality and Power and Dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." For as the Son, he sits ^D with his own Father.

and possesses the same glory and power, even if he has been made like unto us by the dispensation.

^A XXXVIII. "And no man takes this honor unto himself, but he that is called by God, as was Aaron. So also Christ did not glorify himself to be made a high priest, but he that said unto him: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." He who of his own accord humbled himself unto emptying, awaits the calling from the Father, leading unto the priesthood—a calling most suitable and appropriate to our nature, that is, human nature. Since he became equal to it, he endures the things pertaining to it, in no way suffering injury from this, but rather cleverly employing the economy regarding the flesh. For just as he remained Lord by nature, what he was, even if he became in the form of a servant; so we say that although he has myriads in heaven who minister unto him—that is, intellectual and bloodless sacrifices, hymns, and doxologies—he nonetheless makes our priesthood acceptable, preserving everywhere for the measures of humanity things that are fitting and agreeable to it. ^B He was called, therefore, as was Aaron, yet not in the same manner. For the one was anointed for the ministry, and was a servant; but the other is called as a Son, and serves the Father according to the order of Melchizedek. The divine Paul explains this manner of the ministry, having written thus concerning our Savior of all, Christ: "Who was made not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an indissoluble life." The manner of this ministry is therefore incomparably better. And the former, as I said, was a servant, even though he was called to the priesthood; but the latter is also in this way the Son of God and Father, as God and Word by nature according to the pre-eternal generation, and as man according to us, according to the most recent and incarnate generation—of which the word "today" might be indicative, for it signifies to us the present time. The Father indeed claims as his own His birth in the flesh; for He knows, He knows that He is His own Son, divine by nature from Himself, and humanly from a woman. ^C

^D XXXIX. "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."

^A Called of God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. The all-wise Paul writes to those who had been justified by faith, saying: "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." And indeed, the divine Peter also says: "For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps."

The goal for the Only-begotten, having our likeness, was therefore to suffer according to human nature and to teach those known to him in what manner it is necessary to approach the onsets of temptations, and what sort of people those ought to be who suffer persecutions for the sake of piety toward God, and have entered into dangers concerning soul and body. ^B And furthermore, he wished to point out the glorious end of obedience, so that we too, being found strenuous and wise imitators of the things done by him through the dispensation, and hastening to follow in his footsteps, might pass a truly approved life. That it is therefore necessary for those to whom it may fall to suffer for his sake to have an unshaken mind, and to consider the danger for the sake of piety as life, he wishes to teach through the things which he himself, having become man, endured for our sake.

However, he does not permit those who are courageous to throw away their own souls at random, nor—as if carelessly neglecting what must be done and what might lead to salvation—to wait against hope only for that which seems good to those acting maliciously. But rather, persuading them to persist in prayers and to make unceasing supplication to God, he teaches these things: making prayers and supplications in the days of his flesh to him who was able to save him from death.

^C

XL.

It was necessary, therefore, that Christ himself should be revealed to us as the guide and teacher of every good work. For he approached with a strong cry and supplication, as having become like us; and he was heard

^A because, as the true and natural Son, he could not be ignored. "For I knew," he says, "that you always hear me." For in order that he might make our own prayers acceptable, he himself begins the matter, as it were opening and widening the Father's ear to human nature, and making it quite ready for the prayers of those who are in danger for his sake. Thus we were in him, as in a second first-fruit of our race, when those who pray with a strong cry and not without tears, petitioning that the power of death might be abolished in us, and that life, which had long since been given to our nature, might be strengthened anew.

^B XLI. Furthermore, that the zeal for obeying God is rewarded with a glorious prize and attains a distinguished outcome, we are permitted to learn from this same passage. "He learned," he says, "obedience from the things which he suffered." This is equivalent to saying: "He humbled himself, having become obedient even unto death, even the death of the cross." Yet he did not remain in that abasement and humility: for he was superexalted, having received the name which is above every name. The manner of this expression is indeed human; but the example of the action is excellent for us, showing obedience to be both glorious and worthy of admiration, and the intermediary of every good thing. We must therefore believe that what is set before us as an example for us to imitate is the fact that Emmanuel, not before the incarnation but in the days of his flesh (when, of course, it was permissible ^C to do this without any stain or any injury whatsoever to his own divine glory; indeed, when the dispensation with the flesh permitted this—otherwise, how would Life have feared death?), prayed with a strong cry and tears. For since he wishes us to be most courageous in dangers, and commands us to flee the threats of those "who kill the body only," how would he have been caught being affected by fear? Or how would he not have had the power to drive death away from his own flesh, he who drives it away from all, and who promised that he would raise those who are in the monuments by his own voice alone, and showed by the deed itself that he could do it? For he called out to Lazarus: "Come forth," and to the widow's son: "Young man, I say to you, arise," and immediately recalled both to life.

XLII. But if there are any who, with a certain rashness and thinking wrongly contrary to Scripture, dare to say ^D that he who was born of the holy Virgin was by himself only a common man, who offered prayers and supplications with a strong cry and tears to the one who was able to save him from death, they will justly hear one of the holy apostles singing these things against them: "These are those who separate themselves, sensual, having no spirit." I ask, then, of those who are not ashamed to utter these things, whether they altogether think that Emmanuel is only a pure man, who for this reason alone is said to have attained to an equality of dignity and authority with God the Word, because, as they say, he is joined to him? If, indeed, they mean a man

^A of our nature, they are openly guilty of the crime of anthropolatry, by worshipping him. For it is written: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve” (Deut. vi, 13; Matth. iv, 10). But if they should say that he has been raised to an equality of honor and authority equal to God the Word, and then he comes to God the Father with a loud cry and in tears, and prays to the one who can save him, nothing at all will prevent us from supposing that the condition of the Word himself is such as that of one who is believed to have equality of honor and authority with him. Therefore, it would also be fitting for him to fear death, to be apprehensive of danger, to weep in temptations, to be in need of the help of another so that he might be saved, and in addition to these things, even to learn obedience through the temptations he suffered. But, I think, this is a matter of such madness to think or to say; for the Word of God is omnipotent, ^B superior to death, beyond the passions, and entirely free from human cowardice. And yet, though he is of such a nature, he suffered for our sake. Therefore, Christ is not merely a man, nor is the Word lacking our flesh, but rather, being united to the humanity common to us, he suffered human things in his own flesh, yet impassibly. He became for us, therefore, a pattern in a human manner, as I said in the beginning, in order that we might follow his footsteps. For he did this, having offered himself once for all. For the Law appoints as high priests those who have infirmity; but the word of the oath which was after the Law appoints a Son who is perfected for ever by one offering—it is clear, through his own body—by which our Lord Jesus Christ has perfected for ever those who are being sanctified (Heb. vii, 28; x, 14). For he has offered himself for us ^C as an odor of a sweet smell to God and the Father (Eph. v, 2), and he has perfected us intelligibly through faith and sanctification, although the legal worship perfected nothing. Therefore the types have come to an end, and the uselessness of the Old Testament in shadows has ceased; and there has necessarily come an introduction of a better hope, through which we draw near to God, with Christ mediating, who has taken on the high-priestly order on account of the likeness he has towards us.

XLIII. But observe this: the blessed Paul says regarding him that he was crucified out of weakness (II Cor. xiii, 4). How, then, does the Law appoint as high priests those who have infirmity, ^D while the word of the oath, which came after the Law, declares the Son to be perfected forever, as if, clearly, infirmity does not fall upon him? For this, I think, is what it means to be perfect—that is, to be perfected in every good thing; because he is not like those who were under the Law, to whom it was not unfamiliar to say that they also suffered infirmity at times.

^A How then is the same person believed to be greater than infirmity, and as a Son made perfect, yet also is crucified out of infirmity? Therefore it is consistent to understand that he was infirm, in that he endured the cross in the flesh; yet he is, as God, beyond being infirm: "For the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." But if they should say that by "infirmity" here is meant that those who served as priests under the Law were in sins, I will not oppose them; rather, I agree with those who choose to understand it this way. Therefore, the ministers under the Law had need not of one sacrifice, but of many, inasmuch as they had to offer them daily both for their own ignorances and for those of the people, ^B because they would frequently fall into various infirmities and be held by that languor which leads to manifold sin; but He, being greater than the capacity to sin, as God, has offered himself and has become our high priest, being called to minister in a human way, while priesting his own body to the Father. It is therefore worthy of God that he does not endure to suffer sin; for it was not of a created nature, which does not essentially possess immutability and the power to escape sin in all things. God, therefore, is altogether perfect, having an unshakable state for holiness that does not need help from another, and having sinlessness as the fruit of his own nature.

XLIV. A Chapter on the things said: We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.

^A. For if it is true that every priest stands always ministering, and can never be conceived of as a co-assessor and of equal glory with God to whom he offers sacrifice, how, then, is Christ not an unusual minister, he who ministers in the seats of the divinity as God, and yet officiates as a man? But if some sycophant of the truth should say that, "Indeed, he has sat down at the right hand of the Father, specifically as a man joined to God merely according to an equality of dignity," he is no longer saying that the throne which is highest and properly belonging to it alone belongs only to the holy Trinity, but rather that some fourth god—recent and created—is now introduced to us, alongside the consubstantial and holy Trinity.

^B XLV. "But Christ having appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, nor by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered once for all into the holy places, having found eternal redemption." Our discourse has just now demonstrated beforehand in what manner our Lord Jesus Christ has become a high priest for us through the greater and more perfect tabernacle. And that the mode of his liturgy is both incomparably better than that according to the law, and far superior to those things which were in type and shadow (for he himself is the truth and the unblemished sacrifice), no one, I suppose, would doubt. Observe, however, how: "Our highly-admirable high priest, who sat at the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens, entered once for all into the holy places through his own blood, having found eternal redemption." How then could he who, as God, sits at the right hand of the Father, be said to have his own blood, unless we believe that he who is by nature the Son from God the Father also became the Son of man, and by giving his own blood as a ransom for the life of all, found for the world this eternal redemption? For surely no one would say that it was fitting and proper for Emmanuel to be sacrificed many times, as in the order of irrational animals, whereas his having suffered once was sufficient for the redemption of all under heaven. But if, as some have thought, he was purely a man—joined to God by equality of dignity or authority, yet divided according to hypostasis, and believed to be separate—the blood that was shed for the redemption of the world was not the blood of him who sits with the Father, but rather of someone else who has only a relative connection with him. For just as two princes, endowed with exactly the same authority and differing in nothing at all from one another, would not be thought of as one, but rather as two in reality; so too, he who is joined to someone according to dignity, while the natures—or rather, the ^D hypostases—are divided, would not be one, but two; and the blood of one would certainly be his own, and...

in no way that of the other. Therefore, to constitute a true union, it is not enough to assert that a man is coupled with God by an equality of authority or dignity.

XLVI. “For Christ did not enter into holy things made by hands, nor into the copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” ^B But God says: “Heaven is my throne.” Wherefore we say that the Son himself also rests among the heavenly spirits, having heaven as a kind of holy tabernacle, and not as those on earth perform sacred rites corporally, and offer sacrifices with blood according to the prescription of the Law, entering into copies of the true ones as the Law seems to dictate. But in what way does he now appear for us in the presence of God? Was he not always, even before the incarnation, manifest and conspicuous? And this is easy to understand, for he himself is the creative Wisdom of God the Father, by whom all things were brought into being. And certainly, as Wisdom says: “I was she who was rejoicing. Daily I delighted in his presence at all times, when he rejoiced, having perfected the world, and rejoiced among the sons of men.” Since, therefore, the Father rejoiced in her, and she was in his presence daily, both being delighted and delighting, how is she now said to appear in the presence of God? Verily, he appears in a new way, no longer as the Word devoid of flesh and naked, as he was in the beginning, but in the form and nature that is ours; for we say that he thus appears now, and as it were in the sight of God the Father, having brought ^C human nature—even though it had once been hateful and proscribed on account of the transgression in Adam—into the presence of God the Father. Therefore, the Word, having become man, presents us as it were in himself primarily to the Father’s eyes, so that he may commend us to the Father, having expiated our ancient sins and transformed us through the Spirit to a newness of life, and finally rendered us worthy to be seen henceforth in the presence of the Father, as having been adopted into the rank of sons.

On the fact that it is written that our Lord Jesus Christ received glory.

XLVII. “Paul an apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” It would have been sufficient, in order to prove that our Lord Jesus Christ was in no way in need of external and adventitious glory, to have pointed out that he, just as God the Father, sends out ministers who proclaim him; for they who were sent did not preach themselves, but Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father. But since it is necessary for us to follow the holy Scriptures, and nowhere to deviate from...

τὸ ^A δοκοῦν, φέρε λέγωμεν, τίνα δὴ τρόπον ὁ Θεὸς καὶ Πατὴρ δόξῃ λέγεται στεφανοῦν τὸν Υἱόν. Οὐκοῦν αὐτός πού φησιν ὁ μακάριος Παῦλος περὶ τῶν ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου· «Εἰ γὰρ ἔγνωσαν, οὐκ ἂν τὸν Κύριον τῆς δόξης ἐσταύρωσαν.» Οἶδεν οὖν ἄρα καὶ Κύριον ὄντα τῆς δόξης τὸν ἐσταυρωμένον· πῶς οὖν δέχεται δόξαν παρὰ τοῦ Πατρὸς ὁ τῆς δόξης Κύριος; Ἢ δῆλον, ὅτι πεποίηται πάλιν οἰκονομικῶς ὁ λόγος αὐτῷ; Δέχεται μὲν γὰρ ἀνθρωπίνως, ἔστι δὲ καὶ οὕτω τῆς δόξης Κύριος θεϊκῶς. Καὶ ὁ μὲν τῆς θείας αὐτοῦ φύσεως πλοῦτος ὁρῷτο ἂν πρὸς ἡμῶν ἐν τοῖς ὑπὲρ κτίσιν πλεονεκτήμασι· τῆς δὲ καθ' ἡμᾶς πτωχείας τὸ μέτρον ἐν τῷ λέγεσθαι λαβεῖν· «Καὶ εἰ πλούσιος ὢν, δι' ἡμᾶς ἐπτώχευσεν.» Ἀλλ' οὖν ἀγαθαῖς ἐννοίαις πρὸς ὀρθότητα διοικούμενοι, καὶ τὰ εἰκότα φρονεῖν ἐπ' αὐτῷ σπουδάζοντες, οὐκ ^B ἀγνοήσομεν ἡμεῖς τὸν καὶ ἐν τῇ καθ' ἡμᾶς πτωχείᾳ πλούσιον ὡς Θεόν.

ΜΗ'. «Ὁ Πατὴρ ἀγαπᾷ τὸν Υἱόν, καὶ πάντα δέδωκεν ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ.» Δέχεται πάλιν ὡς ἄνθρωπος ὁ Υἱός· πλὴν οὐκ ἔξω πάλιν τίθησιν ἑαυτὸν ὁ Πατὴρ τοῦ πάντα ἔχειν ὑφ᾽ ἑαυτῷ· διδοὺς γὰρ αὐτὰ τῷ Υἱῷ, σὺν αὐτῷ κατάρχει τῶν ὅλων, τοῖς τῆς θεότητος σκήπτροις ὑποφέρων δι' αὐτοῦ τε καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς γένος, καίτοι διανενευκὸς ἀχαλίνως εἰς ἀπόστασιν. Ὡς γὰρ αὐτός πού φησιν ὁ σοφώτατος Παῦλος, «Θεὸς ἦν ἐν Χριστῷ, κόσμον καταλλάσσων ἑαυτῷ.» Καὶ οὐ δή πού φαμεν, ὡς ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ κατοικήσας Χριστὸς ἕτερος παρὰ γε τὸν ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας Παρθένου γεγεννημένον, κόσμον ἑαυτῷ κατήλλαττε (φρονοῦσι γὰρ ὧδέ τινες τῶν ἀμαθεστέρων)· ἐκεῖνο δὲ μᾶλλον, ὅτι κατήλλαττεν ἑαυτῷ τὸν κόσμον ὁ Θεὸς καὶ Πατὴρ ἐν Χριστῷ· γέγονε γὰρ ἡμῶν μεσίτης ἐνανθρωπήσας ὁ Υἱός, καὶ οἷον διαλλακτὴς εἰς εἰρήνην, οὐχ ἑτέρῳ προξενῶν τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τὴν ὑποταγήν, ἀλλ' ὡς ἐν ἰδίῳ προσώπῳ, τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρί. Χριστῷ γὰρ κατηλλαγμένοι, κατηλλάγμεθα δι' αὐτοῦ τε καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ πάντων ἡμῶν Σωτῆρι Θεῷ. Τοιγάρτοι καὶ ἔφασκε· «Δεῦτε πάντες πρός με, οἱ κεκοπιακότες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς.» Ὅτι δὲ τοῖς πρὸς αὐτὸν ἰοῦσιν οὐ πρὸς ἕτερόν τινα γένοιτ' ἂν ἡ καταλλαγή, πλὴν ὅτι πρὸς Θεὸν τὸν φύσει καὶ ἀληθῶς, πεπληροφόρηκεν εἰπών· «Ὁ πιστεύων εἰς ἐμὲ οὐ πιστεύει εἰς ἐμὲ, ἀλλ' εἰς τὸν πέμψαντά με. Καὶ ὁ θεωρῶν ἐμὲ θεωρεῖ τὸν πέμψαντά με.» Ὁτὲ δὲ πάλιν· «Πιστεύετε εἰς τὸν Θεόν, καὶ εἰς ἐμὲ πιστεύετε.»

ΜΘ'. «Πάτερ, ἐλήλυθεν ἡ ὥρα, δόξασόν σου τὸν Υἱόν, ἵνα καὶ ὁ Υἱός σου δοξάσῃ σε. Καθὼς ἔδωκας αὐτῷ ἐξουσίαν πάσης σαρκός, ἵνα πᾶν ὃ δέδωκας αὐτῷ, δώσῃ αὐτοῖς ζωὴν αἰώνιον.» Παράκλητος μὲν ^D οὖν ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις...

τοιούτοις ^A call him the Son. For he renders the heavenly Father kindly and propitious to men, and is therefore the author of all good things to us. Yet it is worthy of inquiry by what reason the Father glorifies the Son, and the Son, in turn, glorifies the Father. He says, therefore, that the hour has come, that is, the time in which it was altogether fitting for Him to undergo the punishment of the cross for the life of the world. But it was necessary that the Son be glorified by the Father, and by the resurrection from the dead, it be testified that He is consubstantial with Him, and life-giving, and superior to death, and that He had obtained a nature alien to corruption. And the Father Himself is also glorified, as having a Son in all things similar, equal in glory, and equal in power to Himself. And the Son showed this when, having demolished the empire of death, He raised up His own temple from the dead. But He receives power over all, according to us, again, and humanly, although He reigns over all things divinely. And the Father imparts to those who have been given to the Son, eternal life; and this is He Himself. For He said: "I am the resurrection and the life." Therefore, although He be said to have received glory and a kingdom, and authority over all and everything, this, however, must be referred to the condition of the incarnation. For it is certain that the Son, as He is God and Lord of glory, is endowed with the same majesty as the Father; nor, as regards the nature of the divinity, is He in any respect inferior to the glory and eminence of the Father. And by such a way of comparison we shall be pious, turning every thought into obedience to Him, and destroying reasonings, "and every height raising itself against the knowledge ^B of God."

^C 50. "Exalted, therefore, by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured forth this which you see and hear. For David did not ascend into heaven; but he himself says: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." One might behold in these words the whole mystery of the incarnation of the Only-Begotten. For the God Word, who is from the Father, being in the form and equality of the Father, that omnipotent right hand, and the all-creating hand, is said to have been emptied on account of the human nature; ^D but He is exalted again, not to a strange dignity, nor that He might attain to something which He did not naturally possess of old, but that He might return to His own and naturally inborn and ingenerate glory and eminence. For as a man He is exalted, although according to His nature He is always the Most High. For He became man, and this, I think, is the measure of His nature, and what we call the emptying. Yet God, having become man, although He was deemed to be nothing other than merely a man, just this very thing that was seen, was preached among the nations

^A honored as the true Son of God the Father, and clothed Himself in the boasts of glory from the highest above, being believed to be God. Nor is this matter strange to Him; rather, we say that what is humbled in humanity is true, and the appearing to be exalted, even though it shines with glories that excel to the end. Since, however, to human nature, and by the measures that apply to us, all things are from above and from God, in this way, quite reasonably, He is said to be exalted by the right hand of the Father, even though He Himself is the hand and the right hand of the Creator of all. Observe, however, again, my Lord Jesus Christ receiving the Spirit humanly, while ^B divinely fulfilling the promise of the Father, by sending the Spirit to those who believe, and not as something foreign, but as His own. For God said somewhere through one of the holy prophets, "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." Christ fulfills this, as He sends the Spirit to the called as His own. And yet, for anyone to be able to make others partakers of the Holy Spirit would be fitting not for anyone among men, but rather for God by nature. Therefore, the Son, having given the Spirit Himself, has performed the works of God and the Father. The reception, then, is human, but it is divine and beyond man to pour out the gift of the Spirit also upon others from His own fullness. Therefore, the Word appeared in human form as God, and on account of this, He sits with God and the Father.

Concerning the statement that Christ is said to have risen from the dead by the power of the Father.

^C LI. The divine Paul writes concerning the forefather Abraham, "It was not written for his sake alone, that faith was reckoned to him as righteousness, but also for our sake, to whom it will be reckoned, to those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification." There is one nature of the Godhead, but it is worshiped by us and by the spirits above in three hypostases. But since the entire Godhead is one, necessarily every work whatsoever that can proceed from that one is considered the work of the whole. For ^D God the Father operates all things through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Wherefore, if the Father is said to vivify, it is understood that He performs this very thing entirely through the Son in the Holy Spirit. And if the Son is proclaimed to produce life in those who are destitute of life, let this not be thought to be performed without the cooperation of the coessential Father, as one who always has within Himself the One who begat Him. And so He said clearly, "I do not speak from myself; but the Father who dwells in me, He does the works." And if the Spirit is said to do this, He will perform it in every way as the Spirit of life; and we say that God the Father, and the Son who was begotten from Him, are life by nature. Therefore, the Father is said to have raised Christ from the dead; but we will not find the

^A Son to have been inactive regarding the resurrection of His own body. Indeed, He said to the Jews: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." And consider how the blessed Paul says: "That it shall be reckoned to us for righteousness, who believe in Him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead"; for faith has not become directed toward the Father and God alone, but also toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Furthermore (for I think it necessary to see this too), the Only-begotten became man, and He endured death according to the flesh, yet He rose again not by the power of the flesh, that is, of humanity, but as in the strength of the Godhead, which "gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did." Therefore, the vivification must very rightly be attributed not to the nature of the body itself, even if it has become the property of the Word born from God, but rather to that supreme power, and to the nature that is above creation, as in the person of God and Father, from whom the Son has shone forth, equal and in all things like to Him. And through both proceeds also the life-giving Spirit. And he says that Christ was delivered up for our trespasses, and raised for our justification. Just as it came to pass that He suffered death in His own flesh on our behalf, so that the empire of death might henceforth be dissolved, so also did He live again for our sake, renewing in us the return to incorruption and obliterating the charges of the transgression in Adam. For we have been justified in Christ, who obliterates the power of that ancient curse ^B through His obedience, which was perfect in every way, and who liberates human nature from ancient sins. For He committed no sin (rather, He became approved in it), even though, as we said before, in the beginning—that is, in Adam—it was subject to condemnation.

52. Do you not know, that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death? We were buried with Him ^C through baptism into death; so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

^A If they claim that we have been baptized into the death of one of these, while separating the natures, let them tell us into death of which one we have been baptized. For if they claim it is specifically into the death of the Word of God, we shall openly accuse them of attributing corruption to the incorruptible nature and of defining death for the Life according to nature. But if they should say it is into the death of the one born of a woman, who is conceived specifically and separately and by himself, why do they not also say openly that he would necessarily be someone numbered alongside the Father and the Holy Spirit? Perhaps the Word born of God would even be pushed out of true sonship if he is capable of death, he into whose death we have been baptized! But anyone whose mind is awakened surely sees the absurdity of such concepts. Therefore, it is necessary to believe that the Word of God, having become as we are, suffered in the flesh voluntarily. For we have been baptized into his death in such a way that he is one Son, impassible according to the nature of his divinity, but passible according to the flesh. And as to how Christ transforms us into newness of life through the resurrection, who could doubt it? For he presents us to himself and to the Father as if living from the dead, just as it is written: “Dead indeed to sin, but alive to righteousness.”

LIII. “But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” The only-begotten Word of God is indeed Life according to nature; but because he clothed himself in a body subject to death, and by the grace of God tasted death for everyone through his own flesh, he indeed rose again ^B divinely, “inasmuch as it was not possible for him to be held by it.” Therefore, according to the arguments just given to us, he is said to have been raised by the Father. But come now, let us examine carefully again, if you will, how he predicts that the Father will also give life to our mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in us. He will give life, therefore, and one must not doubt the truth of this matter. But this very life-giving Spirit is also the Spirit of Christ. For it is written: “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his.” And again regarding the holy apostles: “When they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them.” Since, therefore, the Spirit is also his, of the one who was raised—even though God and Father gives us life in the Spirit—how can one doubt that while the resurrection was indeed enacted regarding the human nature, the Word of God ^C who is from Him by nature worked the matter together with his own Father, to whom also the life-giving Spirit belongs as his own?

^A LIV. "Do you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward us, but is powerful in you? For even if he was crucified out of weakness, yet he lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you." Some of those who believed in our Lord Jesus Christ, having taken offense at the words of certain people, had rushed headlong into such thoughts: If he were truly God, and the Son by nature of the all-powerful God, why did he not escape the hands of murderers? For by suffering the most disgraceful death on a cross, it cannot be understood how he both existed as God and yet yielded to the hands of those crucifying him, and was bound by our infirmities. To such thoughts, the blessed Paul responds as follows: If you would wish to consider seriously in your minds who and what sort of person he is who speaks in me, and ponder carefully those things that concern us, you will soon find a suitable solution to this knot. For he was not weak in us, but rather displayed power and efficacy through his own pre-eminent Spirit, such that it was possible to repel without any difficulty whatever impulses of encroaching temptations, and to resist courageously all the insults of afflictions. ^B What then? someone might say, "O Paul, was it not a sign of weakness to endure the cross? Was that event truly a proof of virtue? Or of divine power?" Far from it, he says. For I acknowledge that he was weakened in the flesh, but on the other hand, he came to life again by divine power: for he was God by nature. Why then, or how was he weakened? By allowing his own body to taste death for our sake, "that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Since, therefore, the weakness in the flesh—I speak according to the flesh—was a pretext for the salvation of those who are under heaven, how was it not fitting that he should suffer that weakness, so that through it he might destroy death? By having his own temple vivified again, he is an object of admiration for all, accomplishing this not through the weakness of the flesh, but through divine power: "For he is the power of the Father, and the resurrection and the life." He lives, therefore, forever; for he is Life. And that we also shall live with him, being "weakened together" with him—according to our dying for the time being, even if we are sustained by the hopes of life eternal—how is it possible to doubt? For he came back to life from the dead, having become the way to life for our nature. ^C For it has been said that he is the "firstborn from the dead," and the "firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."

LV. "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this reason I came to this hour. — Father, glorify your Son." And in another place again: "And he began to be sorrowful and troubled, and said: My soul is exceeding sorrowful ^D

^A even unto death." And again: "And Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said: Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Those who are overcome by the opinion of Apollinarius, and have chosen to hold the same views as he does, resisting and saying as they do that the temple united to the Word was inanimate and devoid of mind—what, I ask, could they possibly reply, when they read that the holy evangelists have written such things in their books concerning the Savior of us all, Christ? For the divine and supreme nature of the Word would be, according to what is plausible, utterly incapable of any sorrow or of those charges that lead to cowardice. It would surely reject from itself entirely any [involvement] in these things, and would not endure any of the passions [experienced] by us at all. But an inanimate and mindless body, on the other hand, could not ^B receive sorrow, nor would it even conceive of any of the things that are grievous, or [feel] the fear that arises from the anticipation of things that are to happen. Yet such things would be suffered—in accordance with what all, I think, agree—by a rational soul, which contemplates with its mind both things already present and, in addition to these, things that are about to come to pass. How, then, does Emmanuel say: "Now my soul is troubled"? And how did he also begin to be sorrowful and distressed? Or what, indeed, was the spirit that he commended into the hands of God and the Father, if [that spirit] is something alien to the divinity, and not even [belonging to] a merely inanimate flesh? It is clear, therefore, that the Only-Begotten became man, not ^C having taken an inanimate and mindless body, but rather one enlivened by a soul both rational and possessing perfection according to the principle appropriate to it. And just as he makes his own all that belongs to his own body, so too [he makes his own] all that belongs to the soul. For it was necessary for him to be seen through every carnal and psychical matter as having become [like us] for our sake. We ourselves are composed of a rational soul and a body. Just as he was economically permitted for his own flesh to suffer at times the things that are proper to it, so again he also allowed for the soul to suffer its own [passions]; and throughout, he has kept the measure of his emptying, although he is God by nature, and above all creation. He commends his own spirit to God and the Father—that is, the soul united to him—so that ^D through this, too, he might benefit us again. For formerly, when human souls were departing from their bodies, they were sent down into the hidden places under the earth, filling the storehouses of death. But since Christ commended his own Spirit to the Father, he has renewed this path for us as well. For we shall not go down into Hades, but rather we shall follow him, our leader; and committing our own souls to him as a faithful Creator, we are in hope of being raised; for Christ will raise everyone.

LVI. "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; and he who eats me, he also will live because of me." I would gladly ask those who divide into two...

^A the one Christ: Who, then, is he who was sent by God and the Father, and lives because of Him, and by this existence is the life-giver? For if the Word from Him, naked and by Himself, is what they say is sent, how, I ask, is He eaten by us, so that we may live through Him? For the Divine nature is by its essence incorporeal. But if they assert that only the man, conceived apart by Himself, was sent, how then is He the life-giver, because He lives through the Father? And yet, how are we not all who are upon the earth alive, with God and the Father giving us life, if it is true that "In Him we live, and move, and have our being"? Since, therefore, we all live through the Father, how is it that the body of one man alone is proclaimed to be life-giving for that reason? Why have our bodies not also attained the same power, if indeed we all, as I said, live and exist through the Father? What then shall we say to these things? The Word of God has been called an apostle, having appeared in human form; for "He was sent to preach ^B to the captives freedom, and to the blind recovery of sight." He lives through the Father; for He was begotten of the living Father. For it was necessary, entirely and in every way necessary, for the Son, who has sprung from the living God and Father—who is Life—to be Life by nature. But since He assumed for Himself the body taken from the holy Virgin, He rendered it life-giving, and very reasonably so; for it is the body of the Life that gives life to all things. Therefore, one must not divide the one Son and Christ and Lord into two sons. For He is the same, Life as being from the Life and living Father, and life-giving through His own body, as God who has become like us and has become man.

LVII. "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man." ^C But how (one might ask here) does the Father have life in Himself? Is it something received from elsewhere, or given by another? By no means. For what would teaching or thinking this be, if not open delirium? Indeed, what else could it be but manifest blasphemy against that ineffable nature? For, in the first place, if the life which He has were different from Himself, the God of all would not be a simple nature, but rather composite. Furthermore, if it were determined that He had received life from elsewhere, he who bestowed life upon one who did not have it would, without any controversy, be by many degrees greater than Him and more abundant in all good things. Finally, to imagine that this is the case is to imagine that God the Father obtained life from elsewhere, and as if it were adventitious; this would be nothing else, as I said, than to rave most absurdly. Therefore, the Father has life ^D in Himself, not something adopted or adventitious, but natural.

^A For, I suppose, one might say that He has life in Himself, as existing from Him by nature, in that He is understood to be God. But He is said to receive it together with the power to judge, even though He is Judge as God. And what would be the mode of His receiving it? He Himself will teach us, saying, "Because He is the Son of man." For it is not the property of man to be able to have life of himself. ^B "But since the body united to the Word has become the property of the living Word, it is on this account, and very naturally, that He is said to receive life, as having the life-giving energy of the Word." He appropriates the matter to Himself, He to whom the body that received it has itself become proper.

That Christ is true God, even if He is called the Son of man.

^B LVIII. Our Lord Jesus Christ says somewhere, "Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" Come then, let us weigh the meaning of these words by a plumb line, and let us see what kind of faith our Lord Jesus Christ will require when He returns from heaven. For if He wished to be believed by us to be only a man, inferior in nothing to others, and not also God or the true Son of God, I think no one would doubt that He would find such a judgment—that is, such faith and opinion—among the pagans and Jews rather than among us. Since the idolaters and those who worship created things in the place of the Creator, when they hear of the cross which He endured for our sake, and furthermore of His death, ^C the wretched men immediately break out into insane laughter; and if anyone calls Him God, they are indignant, and immediately recoil, defining the matter as anthropolatry. The Jews also, rising up against Christ, did not hesitate to object openly: "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, because You, being a man, make Yourself God." Since, therefore, it is not the faith that the erring possess that He will demand, but that which we hold, who are accustomed to think rightly, it is by all means necessary, by inclining toward the truth, to confess that He who became Son of man for our sake is God by nature; ^D lest, by casting ourselves into the charges of the erring, we should be found, through ignorance, to think similar things to them, and thus to imagine, like them, certain base things about Christ.

LIX. Christ says somewhere, "For neither does the Father judge anyone, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father." And again, what we were just saying: "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given also...

to the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him ^A authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man." The blessed David also sings somewhere: "For God is Judge." And His own disciple also writes: "There is one Lawgiver and Judge." Therefore, the authority to judge can belong to no one else but to Him alone who is Lord of all, that is, to God. How, then, did He deliver judgment to the Son of man? For if He granted that power to Him as to one like us, how will He be truthful when He says: "My glory I will not give to another"? For it belongs ^B to the glory of God to exercise judgment. But if He so communicated judicial power to the Son that He Himself nevertheless did not lose the right of judging, on account of the identity of substance, and he who received it is nonetheless the Son of man, how is it not manifest to all that the Word, because of that ineffable generation from God the Father, is God; and yet the same, because He was united to flesh and underwent birth from a woman in our fashion, is the Son of man? When, therefore, He says to the Jews: "Why do you seek to kill a man who has told you the truth?" And again: "And no one has ascended into heaven but He who came down from heaven, the Son of man." And again: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, ^C so must the Son of man be lifted up." Or when He says of Himself: "For the Son of man is to come in the glory of His Father with His angels." And again: "Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" Or, in a word, as often as He is called man in the divinely inspired Scripture, we do not conceive of a man apart and by himself, with the Word who is from God excluded, but rather we believe that God the Word was, by way of economy for our sake, made the Son of man, with His divinity meanwhile in no part lost or weakened, and that our Lord Jesus Christ is one. And therefore it cannot be otherwise than joined with the highest impiety, after that indivisible and inseparable union which exceeds by far every apprehension of both mind and reason, if anyone should divide the one Christ or Son into two. But if anyone had a mind to examine ^D more diligently all the things that exist in writing concerning Christ, it would certainly not be too difficult for him to add many other testimonies to these; but we know the Scripture: "Give opportunity to a wise man, and he will be wiser." For God, the God of all, will lead your most divine ears by the Holy Spirit so that you may be able to understand rightly. For Christ, having thus found in you a faith steadfast and unshaken, will enrich you abundantly with heavenly blessings and declare you most blessed. For all our hope is in Christ, through whom and with whom to the Father be glory with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

FRAGMENTA EX OPERIBUS DOGMATICIS S. CYRILLI DEPERDITIS.

I. ON THE DEFECT OF THE SYNAGOGUE OR THE TRANSNOMINATION OF ABRAM TO ABRAHAM.

^ADe Saint Cyril, from the book entitled: "Demonstration from divine oracles formerly issued to the renowned patriarchs concerning the change and translation of the Jews and the Gentiles."

The transnomination of Abraham is taken as signifying the trinitarian number of the divine hypostases; for when the renowned patriarch was called Abram, he was divinely renamed Abraham. If anyone should wish to interpret this: if he takes the initial letter of the name, the A, together with the letter joined and adjacent to it—I mean the B—and by transposing the other A which is after the R, he will certainly find that it signifies "Father," for *aba*, surely, is translated as "Father." And if again he should wish to explain the second letter in position, I mean the B, separately, and then with the R which is joined and adjacent to it, he will again find, by similarly transposing the same A, exactly that it signifies "Son," for *bar*, surely, is translated as "Son." And if he should wish to read the final letter, I mean the M, together with the letter joined and adjacent to it, it has come to pass that the Synagogue of the Jews has fallen through [their] unbelief… ^B

^C…concerning the change and translation of the Jews and the Gentiles. ^A Of Saint Cyril, from the book whose title is: "Demonstration from divine oracles formerly issued to the renowned patriarchs concerning the change and translation of the Jews and the Gentiles."

We have discovered that the ternarian number of the divine, sublime persons is signified by the transnomination of Abraham. For when the renowned patriarch was called Abram, he was divinely transnominated to Abraham. If one wishes to interpret this, he will find that the first letter of the name, A, when joined to the one adjacent to it, B, as well as by making a transposition of the other A, which is after the R, signifies "father": for we translate *aba* as "father." If he should wish, again, to explain the second letter in rank, I mean the B, separately and then with the R to which it is united, he will find—again by casting out the R after the A—the signification of "son." For *bar* stands in the place of "son." But if one should wish to read and explain the final letter, that is to say M, with its adjacent A in the contrary order, he will find, having assumed the same R at the same time, he will find, I say, the meaning "most high": for in reality *mar* is explained as... ^D