in his becoming man for our sake, depart from his own divinity B. But while kings came to worship the heavenly King, who was born ineffably from the Father, today he is brought forth from the Virgin for my sake; but then he was born according to nature, whereas today it is for the sake of his own nature. For having been born before the ages from the Father, as he who begat him knows, today he was born from the Virgin above nature, as the grace of the Spirit knows. The Ancient of Days has become an infant; he who sits upon a high throne is placed in a manger; he who is untouchable and incorporeal is wrapped by human hands; he who tears asunder the bonds of sin is wrapped in swaddling clothes—and this, because he so wills. Who then did the Virgin bring forth? The Lord of nature. For even if you are silent, nature cries out. For the Virgin Mary brought forth as he who was born willed to be born. He was not turned aside from nature, but as Lord of nature, he introduced a strange mode of birth. Yet, even having become man, he is not born as a man. For if he had come forth from a common marriage, as I did, it would have been thought by the many to be a fabrication. Now, therefore, he is born of a Virgin, and he preserves his mother undefiled, and keeps her virginity inviolate, so that the strange mode of his conception might become a cause of great faith for me. Whence, if either a Gentile or a Jew should ask me whether Christ became man according to nature, or contrary to his own nature, I shall summon as a witness for the argument the immaculate seal of virginity; for thus does God overcome the order of nature.
2. And if you wish, ask the blessed evangelist Luke C, and he will answer you concerning his economy in the flesh. For starting thus, he says: “In the sixth month of the conception of Elizabeth, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in to her and said, ‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.’ When she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ And Mary said to the angel, ‘How shall this be, since I do not know a man?’ And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you.’…” ...And he is distressed. He entered without flesh; he was carried for a nine-month period in the womb of the Virgin. He entered as he willed, he was carried as he was pleased. He came forth as he himself desired. D He entered without flesh; he became man, the divinity being united to the economy.
A And we do not say two sons, but we understand one and the same, the Word of God and our Lord Jesus Christ. He became man and was, being by nature. He became what he was not, and remained what he was. For "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He became flesh, not losing what he was. "And he dwelt among us." That "he dwelt among us" means that he conversed with us, according to holy Jeremiah, or rather his minister Baruch: "This is our God, and there shall none other be accounted in comparison of him. He hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob his servant, and to Israel his beloved. Afterward did he show himself upon earth, and conversed with men."
3. Listen, therefore, also to the voice of the Gospel: for the voice of the angel spoken to the holy Virgin brings us a great manifestation: "Behold," he says, "thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Emmanuel," which is interpreted, "God with us." Before the child was conceived in the womb, he was called God, namely, "God with us." The prophet's discourse, therefore, agrees with that "he conversed with men," and that "he dwelt among us." Therefore, even before the conception, the child was called God. How, then, was the holy Virgin Mary not the Theotokos? Since, therefore, that name has no meaning of a man at all, the child born is God, who did not loosen the natural virginity of the Virgin; but having been born in this way from the Theotokos, he is God and man; God by nature, man by his own good pleasure. B Having become man, he is also God, though maintaining the union of the two natures. But perhaps the opponent will say: If the Virgin is Theotokos, you grant a beginning to God the Word from the Virgin. I do not at all say that he received his beginning from the holy Virgin; God forbid! For he existed before the ages; for he himself made the ages, and he himself is the creator of all creation, as the Evangelist says: "All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." This one, by whom all things were made, spent nine months in the womb, and did not leave the bosom of the Father. While he was in the womb of the Virgin, he was being celebrated with praises and adored by the host of the heavenly powers. While he was in the womb of the Virgin, he was filling heaven and earth, he who sustains heaven and earth not by strength, but by his nod. C He was carried in the womb as man, but he was working as God; he was not being carried about in the Virgin’s womb, but holding and governing all things as God, according to the power of that name, "God with us," who indeed was born of the Virgin. But if you say that he who was born is merely a child, and not God, hear the great herald Isaiah crying out and saying to the ungrateful synagogue, or rather "exagogue," that is, the assembly of the Jews cast out: "A child is born to us, a son is given to us; whose government is upon his shoulder. And his name is called, of the great counsel...
A angel, Wonderful, Counselor, God the Mighty, the Powerful, Prince of Peace, Father of the age to come." Amen. Could a child according to nature ever become God the Powerful, just as this child is, who is called "God with us"?
4. But if the Son who is born from the Virgin is God the Powerful, the Mighty, the Prince of Peace, and Father of the age to come, why then will the Virgin not be Mother of God, but only Receiver of God, seeing that she conceived and gave birth, and that which was born is God? And again I say to him: as He willed, He entered; as He was pleased, He was carried in the womb; as He desired, He who was born came forth. Why do you examine His will? Why do you investigate His good pleasure? Why do you pry into His decree? Hear Paul, or rather, be convicted by him: "For who has resisted His will?" B Indeed, O man, who are you that you should inquire into and investigate His birth, when the prophet says: "Who shall declare His generation?" The prophet refuses to declare His generation, and you curiously pry into and investigate His nature? But the evangelist Luke, describing His birth here below, says this: "There were shepherds in the same region, watching and keeping the night watches over their flock; and behold, the angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they feared with a great fear. And the angel said to them, 'Do not fear; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all the people; for there is born to you today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David.'" The angel, in bringing good tidings to the shepherds regarding Him who was born of the Virgin, calls Him Christ and Lord. If, therefore, He who was born is Lord, why shall the Virgin not be Mother of Lord? But I indeed call the holy Virgin C Christ-bearer, and Lord-bearer, and Savior-bearer, and Mother of God, according to the voice of the angel who brought the good tidings to the shepherds and to the Virgin. If angels proclaim Him Savior, and Christ, and Lord, and God, why do we reject their testimony? He entered into the Virgin without flesh, He was carried in the womb corporally and as He was pleased. He came forth through the mother's nature by way of dispensation, yet the Word of God was not united to the flesh by the dispensation *after* He was born. He came forth, remaining by nature immutable, having become what He was not, while remaining what He was. Not changed in essence, He emptied Himself—that is, as He willed; He was not emptied by another, D but took the form of a servant; He was not emptied of His divinity, according to the blessed Paul who says, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant." He emptied Himself, becoming what He was not; and I say it again, remaining what He was—for this Word was God—as a child He is born, as a Son He is glorified. He entered incorporeal, He put on a body as He willed, and that which was mortal was swallowed up by life.
A 5. Say then that the Virgin is Theodochos [Receiver of God]; or rather, say both Theodochos and Theotokos [Bearer of God]. If she is Theodochos and Theotokos, did not God the Word take flesh from her? But here the Evangelist constrains me, crying out with a loud voice: "The Word was made flesh." And in another evangelist it is said thus: "Jesus asked His disciples, saying: Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And the apostles answering said: Some say John the Baptist, but some Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. Jesus said: But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answering said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God." He did not say: Thou art he that has become Son of God by grace, but with a clear voice: "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God." And Mark the Evangelist again has used the same expression, consistent with the sentiment of the blessed Peter: "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." B And in the Gospel according to Matthew, where the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ is narrated, the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus, having seen the earthquake and the things that were done, were greatly afraid, saying: "Truly this was the Son of God." And the angel says to the shepherds: "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people, for this day is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David." If therefore that which is born is Lord, the Virgin is then Lord-bearing [Kyriotokos]; but where the Lord is, there also is God. The Lord is not distinguished from God, nor God from the Lord, as it is said in the Old Testament: "And the Lord rained fire from the Lord"; and again: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God"; and again: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord"; and again the Psalmist: "O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer"; the same again: "God is the Lord, and hath appeared unto us"; and again the same: "O Lord God of hosts, who is like unto thee?" And Paul in his Epistle to Titus writes thus: "For the grace of God our Saviour hath appeared to all men, instructing us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly and justly and godly in this present world, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." C This is He who was born of the holy Virgin, who is Christ the Lord. This Christ and Lord the blessed Paul declares to be great God, saying: "Of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Again, in his Epistle to the Romans he writes thus: "For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongeth the adoption as of children, and the glory, and the testament, and the legislating, and the service, and the promises: whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God." D And again the same Paul says: "Every fornicator, or covetous man, or drunkard, or unclean, or idolater... [no inheritance in the kingdom of the Lord and God]."
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6. It has been demonstrated, therefore, that the Lord is God, and God is the Lord. But if even these things you do not accept, let the demons in the region of the Gergesenes persuade you, crying out: "What have we to do with thee, Son of God? Hast thou come hither before the time to torment us?" Let the demons persuade you. If you reject the testimony of Peter, and turn away from the voice of the Gospel, revere that voice of Mark. Revere the angel who says that He who is born of the Virgin is Savior, Christ, and Lord. Do you disbelieve these things? Curb the impulse of your blasphemy, and confess the voice of the angel, which is spoken in the Gospel: "Emmanuel," which is, "God with us." He is called God before the conception; and when He is conceived by dispensation, and not by nature, in the womb of the Virgin, do you deny that He is God? But if you confess Him to be God in the womb of the Virgin—which is indeed the case—and that God the Word was united B to human nature by dispensation, why do you refuse to call the Virgin Theotokos? If she is not Theotokos, then she is not a Virgin after childbearing. But I say that while He was being conceived in the virginal womb, He was sitting in the bosom of the Father, uncircumscribed. For the divine nature is simple and incomposite, and not circumscribed. The nature is immutable and the substance unchangeable. And this same One, who is in the bosom of the Father, the Virgin has now brought forth by dispensation. As He willed, He entered; as it pleased Him, He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin; as He desired, He came forth having been born. Why do you curiously inquire into His generation? Either as God, fear Him; or as Master, revere Him; C or as Creator and Maker, worship Him; or as Lord, dread Him; or as Judge, tremble. The demons, who drove out the swine and caused the whole herd to be suffocated by a watery death, will put you to shame. Knowing the Master, they say: "What have we to do with thee, Son of God? Hast thou come hither before the time to torment us?" They flee from the danger and the threat of punishment, and you draw upon yourself the judgment of punishment. They knew the Lord of all and Judge of the world, born of Mary, and seeing Him even before the judgment, they trembled; and you, having this judgment before your eyes, do you not care nor fear? Again I shall say these things, and I shall not cease from saying them, cleansing for you the subject of the word, so that in safe knowledge you may have an unshaken D faith and hold fast the foundation of faith, which is the firm confession.
7. Let us return again to the subject, demonstrating the straight and undeviating path of faith. For me, it is not burdensome to speak, and for you, it is safe. This God entered through the hearing of the Virgin as He willed, was carried in the womb as it pleased Him, came forth having been born as He desired; He entered incorporeal as He willed; the Uncontainable was carried in a containable vessel, in the womb of the Virgin by dispensation, as it pleased Him. He came forth