concerning the nature of God, the origin of the world, and what the Greek philosophers thought about virtue and vice, and what the sacred Scriptures have taught us concerning the same matters; and how it is that their systems are already entirely quenched and wrapped in the darkness of oblivion, while these of ours flourish and thrive, and are frequented by countless myriads of hearers in every city and province, and by teachers who, indeed, lack Platonical eloquence, but offer the healing medicine of truth: and how the error of the false gods has been expelled, while the doctrines of our Savior have been proclaimed. A For Porphyry himself, in the works he wrote against us, has testified to this. "But now," he says, "they marvel that for so many years a disease has held the city, since there is no longer any access for Aesculapius or the other gods. For from the time that Jesus began to be worshipped, no one has experienced any public benefit from the gods." This Porphyry, our most bitter enemy of all, has said, and he openly confessed that Jesus, from the time that faith began to be placed in Him, rendered the gods devoid of power. Therefore, after the cross and the saving passion, Aesculapius no longer imposes upon men, nor does any other of those who are called gods. For the rising light, like some sort of daystar, drove their whole band into darkness, just as it does with owls. I pray that you too may become partakers of this light. It was for this reason that I undertook this labor of writing, and, like someone collecting various herbs from everywhere, I have prepared a salutary medicine for you.
ADMONITION TO THE READER
From the Appendix annexed to the fourth volume of the Sirmond edition, nothing is added to this fourth volume of the new edition except the *Book Against Nestorius*, or the *Epistle to Sporacius*, and the arguments of the twenty-seven books *Against the Eutychians*. The *Oration on Divine and Holy Charity* has found its place in our edition in volume III, p. 1296, after the *Religious History*. The epistles found in the Appendix of the Sirmondian edition will be inserted in their proper place with the remaining epistles. Finally, the *Reprehension of the Anathematisms of Cyril* will hold the first place in the fifth and final volume of this edition, so that the bulk of this volume may not be excessively increased.
THEODORET, BISHOP OF CYRRHUS, AGAINST NESTORIUS, TO SPORACIUS
A Since the world is gradually passing away and hastening toward the dissolution of this universe, every man has come to consider himself a sufficient teacher of piety. Because, through the pride of ignorance, no one can endure to learn, the soul-destroying demon, the father of lies, the sower of tares, no longer arms himself against the Church through external and manifest enemies; but having found an instrument that could, so to speak, suddenly receive his entire art, he introduces, under the guise of orthodoxy, the denial both of the divinity and of the humanity of the Only-Begotten, disturbing the simple and artless faith of ours with Hellenic sophistries. You have surely heard of Nestorius; for he is, indeed, a notorious man. This man, hailing from the little town of Germanicia, and educated, I know not in what sort of studies from the beginning, moving from one region to another like an Egyptian scourge, burst into the great city of the Antiochians. In this place, having had a moderate share of liberal disciplines, and having practiced a voice that was most beautiful and B magnificent, he thrust himself into the Church of God, and having been enrolled in the number of the presbyters, and having had the duty of teaching the people imposed upon him, he showed immediately at the beginning what he would be throughout his whole life. For he did not follow the noble and fruitful style of speech, one capable of cultivating the souls of men; but, inclining toward what is pleasing to the people, and being a hunter of applause that dissolves into the air—if ever there was one—
A he summoned the mob and the unstable multitude toward the desire he felt for his own ends, clothing himself in a dark-colored cloak, walking with a sullen air, avoiding public clamor, and by the pallor of his body hunting for the reputation of being disciplined, while staying mostly at home occupied with books, and spending time with himself in quiet. By such appearances and pretenses he ensnared many, and he advanced far into his life, being eager to seem a Christian rather than to be one, and preferring his own glory to the glory of Christ.
But since, as it was said by the Lord, “There is nothing hidden that shall not be known, nor secret that shall not come to light,” and, “Good works are manifest, and those that are otherwise cannot be hidden,” through the A unsearchable abyss of the judgments of God, Nestorius, by the vote of those residing in the palace and the cathedrae of state, and of him who then held the scepter of the world, was entrusted with the leadership of the Catholic Orthodox Church in Constantinople, and to no lesser degree that of the entire world. B From there on, those deeds were committed which all but filled land and sea. For as soon as he occupied that great throne, having seized the charge of the high priesthood like some sort of tyranny, he could no longer contain the impiety he was pregnant with; but, taking foolish license from the power he possessed, he brought into the open and exposed to all the blasphemy he had long ago conceived against the Only-Begotten, and openly waged war against the apostolic doctrines. He strove to cast out the words of the holy Fathers who, from the time the Gospel was proclaimed, had B led the way in the faith of the orthodox; he disturbed the Church of the royal city, and he disturbed the entire world, paying no heed to the divine Paul who cries out: “But he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he may be.” But upon the lampstand of the divine pontifical throne, he set not the lamp of truth, but the darkness of impiety. C The first step of his innovation was the assertion that one ought not call the holy Virgin, who gave birth to the Word of God having taken flesh from her, “Theotokos” (Mother of God), but only “Christotokos” (Mother of Christ)—although the most ancient heralds of the orthodox faith, in accordance with apostolic tradition, had taught that the Mother of the Lord be called and believed to be Theotokos. Come then, let us bring into the open his blasphemous technicality and the observation known to no one before.
D The appellation of “Christ,” he says, is significant of the two natures, the divinity of the Only-Begotten and his humanity; but the word “God,” when uttered absolutely, represents the simple and incorporeal substance of the Word of God, whereas “man” points only to the human nature. For this reason, he says, it is necessary to confess the Virgin as Christotokos and not Theotokos, lest we...
A be forced to admit, by consequence, that the Word of God received a beginning of existence from the holy Virgin, and thus that the mother is older than the One born of her. But lest I be thought to accuse the man of these things with empty reproaches, I will produce him as a witness against himself, by his own words. For, having banished from his mind the memory of apostolic teachings and of all the saints, he uttered many such expressions in the Church of the orthodox: “Mary, my good friends, did not bring forth God, but brought forth a man, an instrument of the divinity.” And in other trifles again: “The Gentile is blameless, who introduces a mother to the gods.” Let these few things be said by me out of the many, while the discourse hastens to what follows. B Whence, since the impious perish by a terrifying death, and he was deposed from the high priesthood by the holy ones assembled at Ephesus, and ordered by the imperial will to dwell in the Oasis, he took from there the beginning of the future punishment of the impious, becoming a laughingstock for his own madness and fulfilling in himself that saying of the Apostle: “Some men’s sins are manifest, going before to judgment” (1 Tim. v, 24). But these things, as they have been examined by many others, it is necessary to pass over. Let us go on to what follows, and proceed to the confession of the holy Fathers.
We, obeying the evangelical and apostolic dogmas everywhere, according to the tradition of the holy C Fathers, believe that the God Word, the Creator and Lord of this whole universe, the only-begotten Son of the Father, who is before the ages, who is without a body and exempt from all things that are of the body, in whom are all things that are in the Father, except for the being the Father, did in the last days, moved by His own philanthropy and by the good will of God the Father, take to Himself consubstantial flesh from the holy Virgin and became man; that the God was born together with that which He assumed, not having cast off what He was (for the divine is free from all change), but having assumed in addition the becoming man. This One, according to the apostolic word, we believe to have been tempted in D all things by human affections, according to the likeness and human law, without sin; for to hunger, and to be weary, and to weep, and such things as these, demonstrate the truth of the human nature. We believe Him to have been crucified under Pontius Pilate, and to have died, and to have been buried, and to have risen on the third day, and to have been taken up into the heavens, being worshipped and glorified together with His own Father by every nature gifted with intellect and sense; and that He will come again to judge the living and the dead, in no way diminished in His divine nature by the form of a servant; but that we confess one God, the only-begotten and Lord of all, with His own flesh, whom all acknowledge and
A always adore. For this reason, O good sir, the Virgin is proclaimed as Theotokos by those who adore Christ as God; not as though the divine nature of the Only-Begotten took its beginning of being from her; for God is, and shall be, and was in the beginning, and He never received the beginning of His being from anyone at all; but as one who already existed, the Word of God made the dwelling in the virginal and immaculate womb the beginning of His incarnation and of the dispensation toward us. And the apostle Paul is a witness to this fact, and the divine evangelist John is also a witness. The holy Paul, indeed, crying out thus: «God sent forth His Son,»—the one who already existed, that is—«(for that which is not is not sent, but it becomes) made of a woman, made under B the law,» and so on. And John, who was called by the Lord the Son of Thunder on account of the grand and heavenly nature of his dogmas, having first said that the Word was God, and that He was in the beginning, and with God, and that He always was, and that all things were made by Him, and that He Himself is the Lord of all, and having shown His being to be without beginning and consubstantial with the Father, as [pertaining to] the Only-Begotten; then descending to the ineffable discourses regarding the dispensation, he says: «And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.» How then, O most wise man, as you think yourself to be, is she who carried the Word of God in her womb as He became man, and gave birth to Him, and is necessarily believed to be the mother of Him who was born, not the Theotokos? And all the prophets proclaim these things. Or have you not heard Isaiah C crying out? «Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.» Not, by your account and your delirious trifles, an instrument of the Deity, but God with us, having become man according to our nature. And Jeremiah, he too, theologizing about the Word who became man, in the words where he says: «This is our God, no other shall be accounted besides Him; He found all the way of knowledge.» And after a few words: «Afterward He was seen upon the earth, and conversed with men.» And also the mother of the Forerunner, being moved prophetically by the adorable Spirit and crying out: «And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?» To pass over these things, which have been said by many before and are now said in the same way, is necessary. That the holy Virgin is therefore the Theotokos, what we have said is sufficient for sound minds; D but I will attempt to overturn his clever argumentation in a few words.
A little above, he says, the appellation "Christ" is indicative of the two natures; but "God" is indicative of the simple and incomposite [nature]; and "man" represents the human nature. What do you say? Therefore, when the Lord in the Gospels, while teaching the more divine things, and, as He himself says, heavenly things, was saying to Nicodemus (for as one skilled in the divine Scriptures, I will deal with you): «No one hath ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, the Son
of Man, who is in heaven.» A Since He clearly said «Son of man,» are we to say that the human nature descended from the heavens, according to your impious and foolish wisdom? For I shall use your own sophistries against you. Away with this blasphemy! For the flesh of the Lord did not descend from the heavens, nor does it fill all things; but this discourse concerning the Lord Christ is about His divinity. For He who descended from the heavens, and fills all things, and does not forsake those places from whence He descended, is God the Word, B crying out through the prophet: «Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.» And again: «Who hath measured the waters with his hand, and the heaven with a span, and all the earth with his fist?» And: «Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet.» Insofar as He is God, He is in heaven, and comes down to us, and fills all things; but insofar as He became man, after His descent to us, He ascends into the heavens, and is glorified with His own Father. For this is also signified by that which was said to the holy Psalmist David: «The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand.» Behold, the voice of the Lord is an accurate refutation of your empty wisdom of words. For having set forth «Son of man» as descending from the heavens, and being in those places from whence He descended—for this He declared by saying: C «who is in heaven»—He designated the divine substance that contains all things, which descended to us by the economy and brought our nature, which it took into itself, up to the paternal throne, according to that which was said by the divine Paul: «And He raised Him, Christ, from the dead, and set Him at His right hand, above all Principality, and Power, and Might, and Dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the coming one.» Not, of course, that the divine substance of the Only-Begotten attained the glory of the Father after the resurrection from the dead; but that then, after the ascension into the heavens, God the Word was honored and worshipped together with His own flesh in the glory of the Father. And in another place the same apostle Paul casts out this foolish talk of yours. For writing to the Corinthians, he says: D «The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.» Behold, having set forth only the name of "man," he added "the Lord from heaven," explaining the divine substance by the phrase "from the heavens." And the divinely-inspired prophets and apostles, when they frequently call Him God, also append the human nature. Jeremiah cries out: «This is our God, and none other shall be accounted in comparison of Him.» Then, so that I may not speak of each thing in detail: «After this He was seen on earth, and conversed with men.» Not, surely, predicting that the divinity of the Only-Begotten was to be perceived by the eyes of men, but in what he says, "He was seen," he clearly demonstrates the flesh of God the Word. Its
to be apprehensible to the eyes of men A, but rather, by the word "He appeared," he clearly points out the flesh of the Word of God. The content in the forty-ninth Psalm, spoken by the inspired David, holds to the same understanding: "God shall come manifestly" [Ps. XLIX, 3]. And the prophet Sophonias also prophesies this very same thing, saying: "The Lord shall appear upon them, and shall destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth" [Sophon. II, 11]. And no less does the evangelist John also proclaim this secret mystery: "That which was from the beginning," he says, "which we have heard, which we have seen [24], and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life" [I Joan. 1, 1]. He was not, of course, imagining that the incorporeal and invisible nature of the Word of God could be handled by hands, but he was honoring the body of the Word of God with the appellation of "Word." For so it is, and this is the faith handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, and by the sacred number of holy Fathers who came after them all. For after the only-begotten Word of God had become man as we are, and while remaining God, had accepted our affections into Himself through the form of a servant, He is not, from that point on, separated from His own flesh either by terms or by nature; but whether one says "man," he speaks of the God Word, or if he names "God," he nonetheless names Him with His flesh alongside. And let this suffice for now. For it is not our purpose to present a multitude of testimonies, but to refute this ignorant terminology and observation.
THEODORET, BISHOP OF CYRRHUS, TWENTY-SEVEN BOOKS AGAINST VARIOUS PROPOSITIONS
Read are the twenty-seven books of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, against various propositions. The First is against those who say that the Word of God has become one nature, and [against those who say that the humanity] taken from the seed of David B