you have humbled us, for the years in which we saw evils." A And you, having obtained your petition, shall say, praising him: "Blessed be God who has not turned away our prayer, and his mercy from us. To him be glory for ever. Amen."
That even after the assumption of humanity, our Lord Jesus Christ is one Son.
Those who have devised slanders against us say that we divide the one Lord our Jesus Christ into two sons. B But we are so far from thinking such things that we even accuse of impiety those who dare to say them. For we have been taught by the divine Scripture to worship one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, the God the Word who took on humanity; for we confess the same both to be God before the ages, and man having become so in the last of the days for the salvation of men. But he became man not by a change of the divinity, but by the assumption of the humanity. For he possesses the nature of the divinity unchangeable and unalterable, just as the Father who begat him before the ages; and whatever one might conceive concerning the essence of the Father, one will surely find the same also on the part of the Only-Begotten. For he was begotten from that same essence. C And teaching this, the Lord said to Philip: "He that has seen me has seen the Father." And again elsewhere: "All things that the Father has are mine." And elsewhere: "I and the Father are one." And countless other things can be found signifying the identity of essence.
God, therefore, did not come into being, but was: "For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." But he was not man, but he became so, and he became so by assuming our nature; for the blessed Paul said concerning this: "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." And again: "For verily he took not on himself the nature of angels; but he took on himself the seed of Abraham." And again: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same." D Thus he was both passible and impassible, and mortal and immortal; passible, indeed, and mortal insofar as he was man, but impassible and immortal insofar as he was God. For as God he raised his own body which had died; for his is the voice: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." And as man, he was passible and mortal up until the passion; for after the resurrection, even as man, he possesses impassibility, immortality, and incorruption; and he radiates divine glory; not having been changed into the nature of divinity according to the flesh, but preserving the nature of the humanity.
A And he does not have an uncircumscribed body (for this is a property belonging only to the divine nature), but he remains in his former circumscription. A Teaching this, even after the resurrection he said to the disciples: "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have." Thus, being seen, he ascended into heaven; thus he promised that he would come again; thus even those who believed in him and those who crucified him shall see him: "For they shall look," he says, "on him whom they pierced."
B Therefore, we worship one Son, but we perceive in him each nature as perfect—both the one that took [flesh] and the one that was taken; the one from God, and the one from David. For this reason, he is called both Son of the living God and Son of David, each nature receiving the appellation fitting to it. Because of this, the divine Scripture calls him both God and man, and the blessed Paul cries out: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all." But here he has called him man; elsewhere he calls him God: "awaiting," he says, "the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." Elsewhere, however, he mentions both at the same time: "From whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen." And he has called the same one both from the Jews according to the flesh and over all as God. Thus, the prophet Isaiah said: "A man in affliction, and knowing how to bear infirmity; he bears our iniquities and suffers for us," and he added a little later: "Who shall recount his generation?" This issue is not human, but divine. Thus, through Micah, God says: "And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall go forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. And his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity." C By the words: "For from you shall go forth he who is ruler," he indicated the economy of the incarnation, but by the additions: "His goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity," he revealed the divinity which was begotten of the Father before the ages.
Having been taught these things by the divine Scripture, and having found that the doctors of the Church who were illustrious in various times held the same opinion, we labor to keep whole what we have received; and we worship one Son of God, just as we worship one God the Father and one Holy Spirit; however, we recognize the distinction between the flesh and the divinity. D Just as we say that those who divide our one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons wander [outside the path],
A so too do we say that those who claim that the divinity of the Only-begotten and the humanity have been made into one nature are inclining toward the other precipice. These are the thoughts we hold, these are the doctrines we preach, and it is for these that we contend.
That our calumniators are wrong to say that we profess two sons, the testimony of the facts cries aloud. For we instruct those coming to the all-holy baptism in the faith defined at Nicaea; and, performing the mystery of regeneration, we baptize those who believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, offering each designation singly. Furthermore, regularly performing the holy rites in the churches, we are accustomed to glorify the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit—not "sons," but one Son. If, then, we spoke of two sons, who would be the one we glorify, and who would be the one remaining without honor? For we have not fallen into such madness that we would speak of two sons, yet deem one of them worthy of no honor. Thus, the calumny is exposed thereby; for we worship one Son, the Only-begotten, the God Word who became man; and we call the holy Virgin Theotokos, B because she gave birth to Emmanuel, which is translated, "God with us."
The prophet who foretold the Emmanuel, a little further on, wrote these things about him: "A child has been born to us, a son has been given to us, whose principality is upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called the Angel of great counsel, wonderful, counselor, mighty God, powerful, prince of peace, Father of the age to come." If, therefore, the infant born of the Virgin is called mighty God, then she who gave birth to him is rightly called Theotokos; for the mother shared in the honor of the one born, and the Virgin is both mother, as of the man Christ the Lord, and slave again, as of the Lord and Creator and God.
Because of this variety of expressions, he is also called by the divine Paul "without father" and "without mother" and "without genealogy," having neither a beginning of days nor an end of life. C He is "without father" according to his humanity, for he was born from the mother alone, as man; but he is "without mother" as God, for he was born from the Father alone before the ages. And he is "without genealogy" again as God, but he has a genealogy as man. For it says: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham." The divine Luke also gives his genealogy. Thus again, as God, he had no beginning of days, for he was born before the ages; nor does he have an end of life, for he possesses an immortal and impassible nature. But as man he did have a beginning of days, for he was born D under Augustus Caesar, and he had an end of life, for under Tiberius Caesar he was crucified. But now, as I said, he possesses even his human nature as immortal, and just as he was taken up, so too will he come