Against the Anthropomorphites

^A They used to say: "Since the divine Scripture says that man was made in the image of God, we must believe that the Divine is anthropos-like, or rather, human-shaped." This is utterly senseless, and capable of bringing those who choose to think in this way under the charge of the extreme of impiety. It is indeed the case, and acknowledged, that man is in the image of God; but the likeness is not bodily. For God is incorporeal. And the Savior himself will teach this, saying: "God is spirit." Therefore, if he is spirit, he is not corporeal, nor does he bear the form of a body. For whatever is without a body is also without shape. For the Divine is also immeasurable and shapeless. But if they think that God, who is over all, was also fashioned according to the nature of the human body, let them tell me if he also has feet, that he may walk; hands, that he may work through them; and eyes, that he may see through them. Where, then, does he go? And from what places into what places does he move, he who fills all things? For he says: "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" Or what kind of hands does he move to perform works, he who creates through the living Word? And if, like us, he has eyes situated in a face, he certainly does not see what is behind him; but when he looks toward the east, he does not know what those who are in the west are doing; and if he turns his eyes to the west again, he does not see those in the east. I am ashamed even to write these things, but because of the ineptitude of some, I too have become foolish—not willingly, but compelled by them. Therefore, let those who babble these things be muzzled as ignorant, and let them cease from handling things beyond their power, or rather, let them not bark against God. For God exceeds every creature, and is neither a body, nor is he contained by bodily figure or form, since he is simple, void of matter and form; nor is he composed of parts or members like us, but is spirit, according to the Scriptures, looking upon all things, existing everywhere, filling all things, and failing to be present in none; for he fills heaven and earth. But that man was made in the image of God has other implications and meanings: for he alone of all living beings on earth is rational, compassionate, having an aptitude for every virtue, having obtained—^{B C}

BON. VULCANII NOTES

(3) *They used to say*, etc. Cyril explicitly condemns those who attribute human species or form to God with charges of madness and impiety; which Isidore of Pelusium, in the 95th letter of the third book, expresses in other words: *For those who judge [the Divine] to be human-shaped* (supply what precedes, that is, God), *are utter fools.* He adds the reason, which Cyril omits: *Because they become entangled in what was said in condescension, and do not endure to conceive of anything more divine, to the things which God said, condescending to our capacity and accommodating himself to it, they adhere, and conceive nothing more divine in their mind.* Where it is also to be noted in passing that what Cyril and Isidore of Pelusium call *the Divine*, the same is called by Isidore a little before in the same letter; which to signify the same—namely, God—and that both among Christian authors and among the so-called Gentiles, is better known than to need proof by examples. Therefore, what Isidore had said a little before should have been translated thus: *They do better who compare God to the better part of man.* For Isidore, as his own interpreter, adds (of which matter we shall speak immediately), where he expressly explains *the Divine* by *the better*... [The remainder of the note discusses Isidore's gloss on the rational soul and a cross-reference to the Epistle to the Hebrews].

^A and to rule over all things upon the earth, according to the likeness and image of God. Therefore, in accordance with the animal ^B [this note (4) continues, covering the arguments of Isidore of Pelusium regarding the image of God in man, the rational soul, and the dominion over earthly creatures, also citing the distinction between 'image' and 'likeness' and the subsequent loss of this domain due to the Fall and its restoration in figures like Noah].

^C And these things, in the first place, we have gathered from Isidore of Pelusium concerning man created in the image of God. But since in the epistles of John Zonaras, which I mentioned above, there exists one of nearly the same subject matter, and one that contributes not a little to the explanation of Cyril, it seemed to me worth the effort to insert it here, so that the studious reader might profit from it, meanwhile, until the remaining epistles of the same author are made public property by me. This epistle of Zonaras is indeed number thirteen, which reads as follows:

That, therefore, our mind has been created in the image of God, and that that divine inbreathing created our rational soul in a marvelous way, is something that no one among all men is ignorant of. For he breathed, it says, into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. II, 7). And it was indeed fitting for man thereafter to enjoy an equality of honor, so that the very angels and man would differ in nothing by this account. But since, having forgotten the Creator, we imagined things beyond us, and from that became declared unworthy of that angelic state, miserable through natural necessities, and indeed most justly, from that time we have become subject to them, so that thence, laboring under infirmity, we might remember sin even against our will, by which we were condemned to be stripped of those divine graces. One thing, however, and the most excellent of all, is clearly prudence, which by natural consequence follows men. And do not tell me, according to the wise Solomon, that these things are rare, and that one ought not to inquire about them; for witnesses to my argument, beyond any exception, are the Sinaite and the divine Anastasius, and the most holy John, the author of the Ladder, and besides these, the great Basil, who call innate talent and docility natural prerogatives. On which account, and thus those people are as they are, one surpasses another in reason and understanding. And on this account, do not wonder, nor say: How is it that our mind, created in the image of God, rational, self-determining, invisible, incomprehensible, and besides this, uncircumscribed (if indeed we look toward the imagination of thought), according to the most divine Cyril, is not given equally to all, but to whom...

^A a greater share of prudence is present, while another possesses a lack of wits, and others again are deranged. For the mind is truly one and the same from God, and has been granted in equality to all men; for "Let us make," He says, "man according to our image and likeness" (Gen. 1, 26). Yet, although it is such, according to the formation of the instrument (and the instrument of the mind is the brain), it also produces its operations. For just as this visible sun is indeed created by the Creator as most shining, so that from there it illuminates the entire globe of the earth with its boundless brightness, yet nevertheless it sends its rays to us according to the thinness or thickness of the air; so also our mind shows its operation according to the quality of the instrument. And that the brilliance of our mind is overshadowed by this fleshly thickness, just as the sun by a cloud, the subsequent ^B condition clearly demonstrates this. Whence today one man surpasses another in reason and understanding; and for this cause do not oppose, nor accuse the Creator because of this inequality; for such inequality has procured an equality for all. For if this were not so, the majority could not be led into obedience, nor would the foolish man be subordinated, even against his will, to the wise. And nature does these things by its own guidance and consequence, as the great Basil said, and it itself permeates everything conveniently according to the divine command which was pronounced at the beginning of creation. For attend, if you please, to the things that have been said. God said in the beginning, "Let the earth bring ^C forth the herb" (Gen. 1, 11). Since that time, the earth does not cease year by year, as if mindful of that command, to bring forth herbs in their birth, with its bosom pregnant. But if indeed it heard the divine voice, it does not cease from that time to do its work naturally. But observe carefully. For where the earth is stony, and rough, and refractory, and not admitting of cultivation, such is altogether sterile and inept for performing its work; but where it is both rich and fertile, there a multitude of herbs is also given forth. And this very thing is also to be seen in the female womb. For "Increase," said God, ^D "and multiply" (Gen. 1, 28). Wherefore also from the mutual intercourse of spouses, the human race increases into a multitude. But where the womb labors under some intemperance, such a one is altogether sterile and not at all fit for child-bearing. Similarly, therefore, it is worthwhile to establish this concerning the proposed question. For although God also said, "Let us make man according to our image" (the image of God, as has been said from above, is our mind), yet it exercises its work just as the instrument is disposed. Wherefore, if the instrument is sound and well-affected, the mind also operates according to nature. But if that is corrupted in any way, the mind too is not fit for performing its operations, even though it itself has suffered no harm in itself. And just as it is possible to see in a cithara-player and a cithara, the harmony of the instrument often discord-ing, but the artist himself in no way having his art damaged; so also consider that it happens exactly the same way in our mind and in the instrument itself through which it is accustomed to operate. So the mind is indeed the same for all, according to the comparison instituted with the sun, because it consists of the divine in-breathing; but the instruments differ, inasmuch as they have their constitution from the four elements, and according as they are affected, so also the mind operates. And further, do not marvel. For also very conveniently, as has been said, God permitted at the beginning for the four elements to come together, and at the same time to complete this earthy man. Hence the difference of our bodies, as easily...

^A all recognise one another. For our mind does not possess a discerning faculty so sound and well-developed that it could grasp everyone without distinguishing marks. So if all had one and the same form, no light or small confusion would have happened to this life. Therefore, Divine Providence, aiding our infirmities, allowed that through the mixing of elements, even the very difference of bodies should be brought about. Hence there are wise and unwise, strong and weak, bold and timid; hence there are sick and those who are not, some long-lived, and others short-lived. And this is what the great Cyril said: "God permitted, after the fall, that each one should live his life according to the measure of the mixture or temperament he has obtained." But for what reason did God permit these things to happen at the beginning? So that at the same time we might remember that ancient way of life, and thence condemn ourselves for our lack of counsel; and at the same time, that all things might be conducted with a certain order and rhythm, and that some might rule, while others be ruled, and that no one should rise against another because of equality. If these things are so, do not inquire further into the divine wisdom, for it is inscrutable; and that which to many seems to be inequality strangely bestows an equality upon all. ^{A B C}

Indeed, we know, beloved, that some, being carried away by their own reasoning, even have no small doubts concerning the nature of the immaculate mysteries of Christ—at one time calling it incorruptible, as it is a provider of eternal life, and at another time asserting it to be corruptible, since it is consumed and eaten by our teeth. Therefore they also attempt to say many things of their own, and, as it seems, to play at matters that are not for playing, and to jest in matters that are not for jesting, not being safely led. But you, beloved, do not pry into the divine and holy mysteries against them; nor, as if emboldened, leap over the boundaries, inquiring whether the holy participation of Christ is superior to corruption or whether it is temporal. For such matters deserve silence rather than examination. Nevertheless, let not your reasoning doubt to such a degree, as if you were attaching yourself to one side as seemingly pious and rejecting the other as impious. For you will find both in this communion, if only you examine the power of the word in a catholic manner. The bread of proposition, therefore, is that very flesh of Christ which was then sacrificed and given to the tomb. And this is evident from those things which the Lord himself said to the apostles, when he instituted the mysteries of the New Testament. For sharing these with them, he said: "Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you for the remission of sins" (Matt. xxvi, 26-28). Observe, therefore: if the flesh of the Lord were not corruptible, it would not have been subject to the corruption of death. For that which is incorruptible exists above every corruption. In the same way, therefore, the bread of proposition is also subject to corruption, in that it is flesh ^D

^A and truly of Christ, and it is cut by our teeth and ground. For if it were incorruptible, it would not admit of any cutting at all, nor would it be eaten by us. But do not be saddened, nor let what is said seem heavy and burdensome to you. For even if you have heard of corruption in this divine and fearful communion, yet incorruption follows it afterward, as the argument will show you. For the flesh of the Lord, even if it fell to death, even if it reached the point of being given to the tomb, did not undergo corruption, according to the Prophet who says: "Neither will you give your holy one to see corruption" (Ps. xv, 10). For, being preserved by the Divinity, it has remained entirely incorrupt. So also, the bread of proposition, after it has been consumed by the teeth and brought into the stomach, as if into a tomb, returns to incorruption, according to John of Damascus, being restored to the same order as the essence of the soul. Hence it is that those who are about to depart from this life, if they have been participants in the holy mysteries of Christ with a pure conscience, are led away guarded by an entourage of angels, on account entirely of what was received, as divine Chrysostom said regarding this. ^B But notice here also the loving-kindness of God toward men. For since that wily serpent introduced death to us through taste, through taste in turn the cure for it has been devised. Whence those who distance themselves in any way from the holy communion of Christ truly cannot be counted among the living at all. And the Lord, declaring this, said: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves" (John vi, 54). Therefore, let us purify ourselves, and let us approach the spiritual table, and thus, having become participants of immortal food, we shall meet in ^C Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. ^D

They are mad to say these things; for Christ is not altered, nor shall his holy body be changed, but the power of the blessing and the life-giving grace is perpetual in it. There are also others who wander about, as they say, pretending only to devote themselves to prayer and doing no work, and they make piety a pretext for sloth and for gain, not thinking rightly; for they ought to acknowledge themselves superior to the holy apostles, who worked when the time granted them the leisure for it, and labored also for the word of God. And how is it that they forgot the blessed Paul, writing to some: "For I hear that there are some among you who walk in idleness, doing no work, but are busybodies?" (2 Thess. iii, 11). The Church, therefore, does not accept those who do this. For it is necessary, indeed, for those who lead a solitary life in monasteries to pray intently; but working causes no harm, and is rather most beneficial so that one may not be found a burden to others by receiving their sweat for one's own need, but may be able also to comfort the widow and the orphan from one's own labors, and some of the brothers who are sick. But if they think it is good not to touch work, when everyone strives for the same things, who is it that feeds them?

There are some who cover up their sloth and gluttony with this pretext, contending that they ought to be free for prayer alone; but they abstain entirely from work. ^A However, do not permit the orthodox to come to holy communion with those who are called Meletians, lest they become participants in their apostasy and defection. But if those men, repenting, betake themselves to the orthodox, let them be acceptable. Let no one, however, commune with them without making any distinction at all, unless they have first repented: lest, as I have said, he become a partner in their perverse opinion. Let your godliness see to it that these things are read in those monasteries, for the instruction of those who dwell there: and let it give orders that they keep them, so that the orthodox may neither suffer by having their conscience weakened, ^B nor may those who desire to be fed in idleness have any loophole to appear virtuous. I pray that you thrive in the Lord, most beloved and desired.

CHAPTER ONE

Those who are of good mind, and who cast the keen eye of their own intellect upon the arguments concerning the ineffable Divinity, see it to be beyond every created thing, and transcending every most acute intellect, and entirely beyond corporeal imagination, ^C and as the all-wise Paul says, dwelling in light unapproachable. But if the light that surrounds it is unapproachable, how could anyone gaze upon it? For we see in a mirror and in a riddle, and we know in part. Therefore, the Divine is incorporeal, without quantity and without size, and not bounded by any form. But if it is thus in its own nature, how could it be conceived as consisting of parts and members? For if one were to grant this to be true, it would no longer be conceived as incorporeal. For that which is entirely in a shape, is in every way also in quantity and in place. And that which is conceived in a place is not outside of bounds. But these things are properties of bodies, ^D and are entirely alien to the incorporeal nature. Therefore, neither eyes nor ears, nor indeed feet and hands, or wings should be thought of in God, even if someone perhaps might not want to conceive of such things as in tangible and thick bodies, but rather as in something subtle and immaterial, in accordance with the nature of God. For it would be entirely absurd to think of such a thing. For God is Spirit; and being this, He knows all things, watches over all things, and provides for all things; nothing of what exists is hidden from Him. But if Holy Scripture makes mention of parts or members, speaking to us about divine matters, it must be known that it speaks to us from those things which fall under our intellect, and of which we are accustomed to be composed. For it could not have happened otherwise for us to understand divine things. Therefore, the true cause and pretext for the Holy Scriptures speaking to us about God in a bodily way, is the poverty of our mind and tongue. For the things concerning Him are entirely ineffable; and it was not possible for those who are in tangible and thick bodies to understand the necessary things, unless in a manner

^A taking our own members as examples, we should scarcely ascend to subtle notions concerning God.

CHAPTER II

Such subtle and not very well-trodden questions stand in need not so much of dogmatic demonstration as of questioning and conjectural examination, while ensuring that the discourse does not slip into things that are not fitting, or wander away from the truth. For it is written: “Seek by seeking, and dwell beside me.” But what the Holy Scripture has not clearly stated, how could anyone declare it clearly? I mean, for example: it is written in the book of the cosmogony that ^C “In the beginning God made heaven and earth.” That He did indeed make them, the Holy Scripture says, and we embrace this in faith as true. But how, or from whence, or in what manner heaven and earth and the rest of the created things were brought into existence, to investigate this too curiously is not without harm. For it is not fitting to plunge the mind into higher and more hidden things. Therefore, whatever the Holy Scripture does not clearly say, it is right to let lie and to pass over in silence. But if we must contend for the truth by reasoning and conjecture, we say: that the Creator of the whole universe created man—that is, the body—from the earth; but having animated it with a living and intellectual soul, in the manner ^D which He alone knows, He naturally implanted in it both the desire for and knowledge of every good thing. For I think that this is what is signified by what was said through the blessed evangelist John: “That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” For the living creature is born endowed with a natural aptitude for the good. And the all-wise Paul will teach this clearly, writing that “We are His workmanship, created in good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.” For man is believed to be governed by the free choice of his own mind, and the reins of his own intellect are placed in his own hand and power, so that he may be borne toward whatever he pleases, whether toward the good or toward its opposite. For nature has implanted within itself an inclination and desire for every kind of good, and a zeal for honesty and justice. For we say that man was thus made according to the image and likeness of God, in that the living creature is naturally adapted to be both good and just. But since he had to be not only rational, but also of the Spirit

so that he might have more ^A brilliant characters of the divine nature in him, He breathed into him the breath of life. This is the Spirit, which by the Son is supplied to the rational creature, and which transforms it into the highest form, that is to say, the divine. For that the breath blown into man did not become a soul, nor again a mind, as some think, is evident from this: First, He who breathed is understood to be God; and what was breathed out of Him must necessarily be thought of as His own, that is, of His essence. Furthermore, how could the Spirit from God have been changed into the nature of a soul, or have become a mind? For it is impossible for the Spirit to change. But if one were to grant that it could happen, and that by mutation it became a soul or a mind (which is one of the impossible things), still this much is immediately evident: if the divine Spirit had indeed become a soul for man, the soul and the mind would have remained incapable of sin. But if the Spirit from God, having been changed into a soul, has fallen into sins, a twofold accusation is brought against Him by us: first, that it underwent a change into what it was not; afterward, that we say it became capable of sin. Therefore, the living creature was indeed ensouled by the ineffable power of God, and came into being in the likeness to Him, in that it was naturally adapted to be good and just, and capable of every virtue. It was sanctified ^B as having been shown to be a participant of the divine Spirit, which it also cast away through sin. For God says somewhere, "My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh," that is to say, they think only of the things of the flesh. But since it pleased God and the Father to sum up all things in Christ, that is, to restore to their ancient state that holy Spirit which had flown away and departed from us, He breathed it again into us, into the holy apostles, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit." For the renewal of that ancient gift, and of the breath given to us, was accomplished through Christ, transforming us back to that first sanctification, and raising up the human nature, as in the firstfruits, the holy apostles, to that sanctification which was once given to us in our first creation.

CHAPTER III.

we ourselves exist. Are we then to think that He too is a body, and that He is no longer a spirit? For shapes are entirely adherent to bodies. But since God is spirit, He is entirely without shape, and beyond any form, and figure, and circumscription of any kind. ^B We have been fashioned toward Him, in the first and most proper way in which it can be understood, according to virtue and sanctification. For the Divine is holy, and the beginning and fountain and origin of all virtue. And that it is more fitting to understand the creation of man "in the image of God" in this way, Paul, that all-wise man, will teach us when he says to the Galatians: "My little children, of whom I am in travail again until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. iv, 19). For He is formed in us through sanctification, which is through the Spirit, through the calling of faith in Him. But in those who transgress the faith, that image does not shine forth clearly. ^C For this reason, they stand in need of another birth, a spiritual and intellectual regeneration, so that with the Holy Spirit shining within them through sanctification, the divine image may again be refashioned into Christ. Nor would it be contrary to the truth to say that there is also in man a resemblance to God by way of authority. For the order to rule over all things that are on the earth has been given to him. And this is the second reason for the resemblance to Him. But if to have been made in the image of the Creator, or to have been created, were located in the nature and appearance of the human body, how could it come about that such a resemblance might be lost in anyone? For we have lost none of the things that exist in us substantially. But since sanctification and righteousness transform us toward God, we say that those who no longer lived virtuously and as in sanctification have lost such a venerable and excellent beauty; and for this reason, it is recovered again through sanctification and virtue and a life according to godliness. But if some, from having too great a levity, think that the divine nature has a human form, how is it that the Savior said to the Jews about God and the Father: "Amen, amen, I say to you, you have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form" (John v, 37)? For if He were, as I have said, endowed with a human form, how is it that not only the Jews, but all men, have not seen His form?

CHAPTER IV.

In explaining the expression "in the image of God" with regard to man, we have said that it is not that the shape of the body is transformed into Him. For the Divinity is apart from body and matter, and cannot be apprehended by touch, nor is it contained by any quantity or circumscription, or form or figure. But when we apply the divine image to man, we have said that it is in respect to the quality of his character or ways, and according to a spiritual form, which indeed shines forth through the beauty of the virtues, that he has been made in His likeness.

^A For every good is in God, and He himself is the fountain and root and genesis of every virtue. And from Him, good things descend to us. If, therefore, we are fashioned toward God according to the form derived from the virtues, and this exists also in the holy angels, and incomparably more so than in us, it is not difficult to understand that every rational creature, through sanctification and righteousness and every virtue, is fashioned toward God. For if the divine and supermundane beauty adorns us who dwell upon the earth, how much more does it adorn the rational powers above, in whom God rests? For this reason, the divine Scriptures also call His heaven divine.

CHAPTER V.

^B Against those who say that we received the "after the image" ^C as soon as we were created, but not the "after the likeness"—that this has been reserved for us for the age to come. Therefore it is written: "When Christ shall appear, we shall be like him." And again it is said: "Let us make man after our image and after our likeness," and after the creation of man it is said: "God made man, after his image he made him," omitting there the "after the likeness," to show that we have not yet attained this, but that it is reserved for us in that blessed life.

If they say that "after the image" and "after the likeness" are two different things, let them teach the difference. For our opinion is that "after the image" signifies nothing other than "after the likeness," and similarly, "after the likeness" signifies the same as "after the image." We attained the likeness to God in our first creation, and we are the image of God. For the creation of man, or rather his nature, is, as I have said, capable of both goodness and righteousness and sanctification, and has the desire for these implanted in it by God. That this is so can clearly be gathered from the following argument: a change occurs in the human mind, not from bad to good, but from good to bad. It is necessary, therefore, that that first state be presupposed, by the loss of which we have been changed. For that the desire for all good, and the inclination, and the knowledge were infused into human nature from its first creation, the all-wise Paul declares, saying: "For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness." If then even to the Gentiles who are outside the law, it is natural to know the law, or the intent of the lawgiver, it will be manifest to everyone henceforth that human nature was made just and good in the beginning, and was brought into being by God for this purpose, bearing the form of His own and the image of His goodness. For the first time of human life was holy; but after sin crept in, the characters of the likeness to God no longer remained bright and splendid in us. But since again

^A the only-begotten Word of God has become man, the nature of man has again become holy, being refashioned unto Him through righteousness and sanctification. Thus somewhere says the all-wise Paul: “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” But the Lord is the Spirit. There is, therefore, a renewal and a kind of new creation of the human nature in Christ, our flesh being regulated unto a holy life in the Spirit.

But if the holy Scripture has said that God made man after His own image, but was silent regarding “after the likeness,” one ought to understand that it was sufficient to say “after the image,” as it implies nothing different from “after the likeness.” For it is superfluous to say that this is reserved for us for the age to come. For when God says, “Let us make man after our image and likeness,” who would be so rash as to say that he was indeed made after the image, but not yet after the likeness? We shall be like Christ, in that we are free from corruption and have become superior to destruction and death, and moreover according to the glory which He Himself has bestowed upon us. For the blessed Paul writes again: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” And elsewhere again: “Who will transform the body of our lowliness, so that it may be conformed to the body of His glory,” ^C since even now we are not alien from being made after His likeness, if it is true that He is formed in us through the Holy Spirit. For Paul writes again to the Galatians: “My children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.” For when we show ourselves to be faithful and holy, then Christ is seen being formed in us, irradicating His own characters and types spiritually upon our intellects.

CHAPTER VI.

The holy and consubstantial Trinity is more exalted than to be contained by any form or bodily likeness. But it must be understood with sure faith that the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father; and he who has seen the Son has seen the Father. And the Son is seen also in the consubstantial Spirit. For it is written: “But the Lord is the Spirit.” But where there is an absolute identity of essence, there no difference whatsoever can be established, but whatever you conceive the Father to be, this is also the Son, apart from the sole

^A truth that he is Son. For each of the things named subsists in its own hypostasis, and truly is what it is said to be. Furthermore, the likeness of the holy Trinity in all respects preserves an unchangeable character. Therefore, even if man has been made according to the image of the Son, in this way he is also according to the image of God. For the characters of the entire holy Trinity shine forth in him, since there is one divinity by nature in the Father and the Son and the holy Spirit. Moses, therefore, divinely inspired, writes: “And God said: Let us make man according to our image, and according to likeness.” ^B Now, the word “our” does not designate a single person, precisely because the fullness of the divine and ineffable nature exists in three hypostases. It is redundant, therefore, to be overly curious and to quibble and to say that we are not images of God or of the archetype, but rather images of the image of God. It is enough to believe with simplicity that we have been made according to a divine image, having received a formation that is naturally toward God. But if it is necessary to say something and it is not implausible, it was necessary for us, who were to be called sons of God, to be made rather according to the image of the Son, so that the character of sonship might also shine upon us.

CHAPTER VII

Those who entertain such thoughts seem to be ignorant of the grace that will be conferred upon human nature after the resurrection from the dead. ^C For if this corruptible must put on incorruption, and put off corruption, we shall clearly cast off, along with corruption, the passions that arise from it (and these are every carnal desire), and henceforth we shall be brought into a holy and spiritual life, with the Savior of us all, Christ, bestowing upon us that which is suitable for these things. For if, while now possessing the pledge of the Spirit, we conduct ourselves holily, what shall we be when we have received the fullness? Where there is the fullness of the Spirit, there is altogether the firmness of the mind and the stability of the heart, looking toward the good and toward a pure and sincere vision of God. Therefore, we shall be superior to our present selves, having put off corruption and possessing a spiritual body, that is, one looking only to the things of the Spirit; and there will be no movement then to cast us down into baseness, with the Creator holding us in His own will ^D through the holy Spirit, just as He does, of course, with the holy angels. Christ declared something of this sort when He said: “In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”

CHAPTER VIII.

^A Why is it that those who die in Adam pay the paternal penalty, and each one of us is held accountable for his transgression; yet when my father is made alive in Christ, and is purified by the Holy Spirit from the debt of our first parent and from his own sin, he does not transmit to me, who am born of him, his purity, nor does the grace of justice which was bestowed upon him profit me, even though it prevails over sin?

We must inquire in what way our first parent, Adam, transmitted to us the penalty brought upon him for his transgression. For he heard, “Earth you are, and to earth you shall return,” and being made from imperishable to perishable, he was subjected to the bonds of death. ^B After he had fallen into this state and had children, we who were born of him became mortals, as coming from a mortal. In this way we are heirs of the curse in Adam. For we are not punished as having ourselves broken the commandment which he received, but because, as I have said, having become mortal, he transmitted the curse to his offspring. For we were made mortal from a mortal. But our Lord Jesus Christ, having been declared the second Adam and the beginning of our race—the second after the first—has reformed us into incorruption, opposing Himself to death and by His own flesh emptying and dissolving it; and in Him the power of the ancient curse is annulled. ^C Therefore the most wise Paul says: “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.” And again: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” Thus, the universal and most general penalty for the transgression that took place in Adam is decay and death; in the same way, a universal and most general redemption has been accomplished in Christ. For human nature in Him has cast off the death cast upon it by the fact that the first man had been made mortal.

But my individual father, even if he has been sanctified through the Holy Spirit and has obtained the remission of his offenses, ^D will not transmit this gift to us, for there is one who sanctifies and justifies all and leads them back to incorruption: our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him the gift comes to all equally. It is one thing to have remission of sins, and another to have the dissolution of death. Each person obtains the remission of his own private sins in Christ through the Holy Spirit, but we are all set free in general from the penalty long since imposed upon us—I mean from death, which had pervaded all through our first parent, who fell into death after his likeness. For this reason the most wise Paul also says that death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the transgression of Adam. But as Christ has now shone forth in advance, righteousness has entered in, justifying...

grace, and driving corruption from our bodies. ^A

CHAPTER IX

Whether the resurrection which the prophet Ezekiel saw has already taken place, when bone approached bone, and joint to joint, and flesh, and skin, and hair, and spirit, and a resurrection of a great multitude was seen; or whether the holy Scripture shows us in a prophetic vision the image of the future universal resurrection.

Great matters, and matters that are suspected on account of the magnitude of the miracle that is in them—for which reason some have even denied faith in them—were not taught to the prophets at various times by mere report, with the Holy Spirit illuminating the knowledge of each of them; but rather they saw the things themselves, so that, having believed them before others, they might also set them forth for others. Therefore, the God of all, having promised to bring back even those who had already died in the land of the Babylonians ^B to Jerusalem, clearly showed to the prophet the resurrection—not, of course, the one on earth, but the one that is heavenly and understood in the heavens—and in what manner it shall be at the proper times. This is also what the inspired David foretold, speaking concerning us, or rather concerning every man, saying: "When you turn away your face, they shall be troubled, and they shall return to their dust. You shall send forth your spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth." For having offended in Adam through the transgression, we have become "turned away" from God. And for this reason, we have returned to our own dust, having become cursed. For the Creator said, "Earth you are, and to earth you shall return." But in the last times of the age, by the power of the life-giving Spirit, in Christ, God and Father will raise all the dead. For that the resurrection of the dead has not yet occurred, but will be at the proper times, the all-wise Paul confirms, writing: "Concerning the faith, Hymenaeus and Alexander have made shipwreck, saying that the resurrection has already happened." ^C If, then, the one who says such a thing suffers shipwreck concerning the faith, it would thenceforth be manifest that the blessed prophet Ezekiel usefully contemplated the power of the resurrection as in a prophetic vision. ^D

CHAPTER X

Against those who inquire whether Christ, by coming in the flesh, added anything to human nature; and how man was made according to the image of God.

But that the coming of Christ has been the cause of every good for human nature, who would dare to deny? Or who would contradict it, and say that His mission into this world was useless to us? For man was indeed made at the beginning according to the image of Him, and nature had the aptitude for embracing every good, and for cultivating and practicing virtue.

^A For He created us for good works, as the all-wise Paul writes. But sin destroyed the beauty of the divine image, and Satan filled the radiant face of humanity with filth. Yet the Restorer appeared, reshaping what had been injured back to its original state, and once again transforming us into His own image, so that the features of His divine nature might be reflected in us through sanctification and righteousness and a life lived according to virtue. For He is the gate and the way by which we have been able to enter into every good thing and to make our paths straight, so that the beauty of this most excellent image shines forth in us who are in Christ, if we distinguish ourselves by our deeds and actions. In the first man, however, there was every aptitude, providing the power to embrace virtue, but not entirely the act or the operation itself. Therefore Christ Himself said regarding us, that is, regarding His own sheep: "I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly." For that which Adam was endowed with in the beginning—namely, sanctification—has been restored to human nature. And the "more abundantly" signifies, in my opinion, that we may be seen to be holy in very deed, and be revealed as illustrious by our actual achievements.

CHAPTER XI

To some, the all-wise Paul seems to say things that are difficult, that is, hard to understand, according to the voice of the holy apostles. But that these things are filled with the wisdom from above, it is not ^C permitted to doubt; for Christ speaks in him. He says, therefore: "I delight in the law of God according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin." And again: "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." For the movement of the flesh truly opposes the mind as it looks toward temperance out of fear of God, and it resists and fights back fiercely against the impulses toward purity. But those who use proper sobriety, revering God, chastise the movement of the flesh, and blunt and dull the sting of sin by discipline and toils, and by practicing other forms of moderation. It is ^D not possible, therefore, to eradicate the desire that is innate in the flesh; but it is within our power, as I have said, to oppose it with sobriety, so that it does not insolently rise up against the mind, especially since the only begotten Word of God became man, and has no longer permitted the ferocious law of sin which is in our members to make incursions against us. And the most excellent Paul will clearly teach this, writing, "For what was impossible for the law, in which it was weak"

through the flesh, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. We shall therefore overcome the inborn impulses, not altogether, nor ^A entirely (for this is reserved for that most blessed life, which is expected to be in the world to come); but we can strongly resist and punish the impulses of the flesh, with God helping us, and providing strength from on high. And desire is stronger in those who are slothful, and as it were holding sway over their hearts; but it is feeble and easily punished and driven out of the mind in those who have the fear of God. For it is written that the law of the Lord is pure, that is, making pure.

CAPUT XII. That the Eucharist must be celebrated only in the catholic churches.

But the gift, that is the oblation, which we perform mystically, ought to be offered only in the holy churches ^B of the orthodox, and nowhere else; and those who do otherwise openly violate the law. And this can be seen from the Holy Scriptures. For the law commanded that the sheep be sacrificed on the day, that is, the feast of the Passover, and it was a type of Christ. "But in one house it shall be eaten," it says, "and you shall not carry forth any of its flesh." They, therefore, carry the gift outside who do not celebrate it in the one and same catholic house of Christ, that is, the Church; and by another law also, something of the sort is signified. For it is written again, "And whosoever shall sacrifice a calf or a sheep in the camp, and shall not bring it to the doors of the tabernacle, that soul shall ^C be cut off from among his people." Therefore, those who sacrifice outside the tabernacle would be none other than heretics, and certain destruction hangs over those who have ventured to do this. We therefore believe that the offerings in the churches are sanctified and blessed and perfected by Christ.

CAPUT XIII. Whether the God of all can cause things that have already occurred and been done to have never happened.

If the God of all can cause things that have already occurred and been done to have never happened, according to the saying, "No word shall be impossible with Him." For we are not saying, as if they did not happen, but as if they had never happened at all in the beginning, for instance, whether He can make a harlot a virgin from her mother's womb, ^D so that she who has committed fornication may never have been a harlot; because "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." The power of God is by no means to be investigated by us.

^A For it is not the case that because He is all-powerful, it is fitting for one to look upon Him as a perpetrator of absurdities. For we perceive that it is absurd to say: Is God able to make Himself not be God? Is He able to make Himself capable of sin? Is He able to make Himself not be good, or life, or justice? Therefore, one must with all diligence detest such absurd questions. But why God is not able to make the one who has fornicated never to have been a harlot, the reason is that He cannot make a lie to be the truth. And this does not argue for infirmity in Him, but demonstrates a nature that shrinks from that which does not befit it. But a lie is something altogether foreign to Him. Furthermore, it is a lie to make the one who has played the harlot not to have played the harlot in the past. It is necessary, as I have said, not even to admit from the beginning such foolish questions, which carry within themselves a great deal of absurdity. ^B

CHAPTER XIV.

Against those who say that the Son was ignorant of the last day; against the Agnoetae.

They say, moreover, that others also, when they hear Christ saying: "But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone," ^C most foolishly and ignorantly affirm that that day or hour is truly unknown to the Word who was begotten from the essence of God and the Father: so that He is reduced to the order of the angels, and in no way appears to differ from those who were made through Him. But how can the creature and the Creator be considered of the same order and the same nature? Or how are they not rather separated by an immense interval? For the one is above all things; the other, however, is among all things. But if they think that Christ in truth is ignorant of anything, insofar as He is God, they wander from the mark, and they strike against rocks, and lift up their horn against His divine glory. For it will be found, if the matter stands as they say, that the Son is no longer ^D coessential with God and the Father. For if the Father knows, but the Son is ignorant, how will He be equal to Him, or coessential? For that which is ignorant must by all means be less than that which knows; and this is all the more absurd, because the Son has been named the Counsel and Will of God and the Father. For Paul said of Him: "Who was made for us wisdom from God." [1 Cor. 1:30] And again: "In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." [Col. 2:3] And the inspired David sings to the heavenly Father and God: "O Lord, in Thy will Thou hast guided me," [Ps. 72:24] calling the Son, who sprang from Him, His Will. How, then, is it not ridiculous to think that He is ignorant of any of the things that are in the Father? We answer that we should attribute to Him what is befitting; and every useless inquiry is solved. For He can do all things, but He wills what is best.

^A And, one may ask, how can the One who alone knows the Father be ignorant of the day of consummation? Indeed, what advanced knowledge is greater than knowing who the Father is, or knowing the final day? But it is written again, that "the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." [1 Cor. II, 10] Since, therefore, the Spirit who knows the depths of God and all things that are in Him is the Spirit of the Son Himself, how does He not know the things that are in His own Father? Since, then, the foolish and counterfeit arguments of those who crowd many absurd notions into their minds are refuted, it is necessary that we come to the mystery of the incarnation, saying that the only-begotten Word of God bore indeed along with humanity all things that are its own, except for sin alone. ^B It is fitting, however, that ignorance of future things should be attributed to human nature. Therefore, insofar as He is understood as God, He knows all things that the Father knows; but insofar as the same One is man, he does not appear to reject the appearance of ignoring future things, because this is consistent with human nature. Just as He Himself, being the life and power of all, received bodily nourishment, not dishonoring the measure of emptying Himself, and was recorded as even sleeping and growing weary, so too, knowing all things, He accommodated His behavior to that which is proper to the incarnation.

NOTES BY BONAVENTURA VULCANIUS

11 *It is necessary to come to the economy.* Cyril often makes use of this word *oikonomia*, as do other Fathers, sometimes for the humanation, or incarnation, of the Only-begotten; sometimes for the divine counsel, dispensation, and administration which He employed in the restoration of the human race. Therefore, as often as the name *oikonomia* occurs in Cyril, I have not always translated it in the same way, but I have used the interpretation which seemed most appropriate in each place, following in this matter the authority of Isidore of Pelusium, who uses this word in various ways in many places, and from whom I shall transcribe a few items. Thus, in Book 1, Epistle 416, speaking of the divine incarnation, he says: "Just as Eve was created from the side of Adam without any intervention of seed, adding that this is not impossible for nature,"—that is, just as it had already been done in the first parents, so it was completed in the Lord's incarnation. In an Epistle of the same book, among those things which Solomon says he cannot grasp with the intellect, he places "the way of a ship in the midst of the sea," which Isidore of Pelusium interprets as the divine incarnation saving all. In an Epistle of the same book he speaks thus: "...having used servile vileness for the ineffable restoration of our salvation," which he calls in Epistle 436, the salutary apparition of the Son of God in the flesh for human sins. In an Epistle of the same book, speaking of Jesus Christ incarnate in the last times, when human sins had reached the highest degree, he makes Christ Himself speak thus: "For the salvation of those who have sinned, I will enter upon this administration of my counsel." In an Epistle of the same book, speaking of our Lord as a cornerstone binding two peoples most closely together, he says: "...the incarnate economy of our Lord binding them." He also uses the adverb *oikonomikos* in an Epistle of the same book for "by certain counsel," speaking of Paul wishing to be anathema for the sake of the Israelites: "He accepted the Law which He had left, as if He were perfect, as something more fitting for infants, *oikonomikos*, by a certain counsel, for their sake, so that they might become perfect." It once came to my mind, when I was reading that passage of Isaiah chapter 55: "My counsels are not as your counsels, nor my ways as your ways," that the ways and counsels of the Lord are the same as—an opinion of mine with which I was glad to see supported by the authority of Isidore, whom I willingly use together with my Cyril as a teacher. For he says in an Epistle of the third book, where he treats the subject that "no one should have a conversation about God unless he is leading a probated life, and that one should not curiously inquire what God is": "God, rebuking through Isaiah those who do not care for a most excellent life but blame His counsels, says (Isa. LVIII, 2): 'They desire to know my ways, as a people that has done righteousness, and has not forsaken the judgment of their God.' If, however, those who curiously inquire into His ways, that is, His counsels, are most confident, how can they not have exceeded all measure of confidence who move a conversation about God Himself with an execrable tongue, and especially when they curiously inquire what He is?" From these words of Isidore of Pelusium it appears clearly what the ways and counsels of God are.

^A For all things pertaining to humanity became His, apart from sin alone. But because the disciples wished to learn things above themselves, He profitably feigns ignorance in that respect in which He is man, and says that not even the holy angels in heaven know [the day], so that they might not grieve as though they were not trusted with the mystery, nor does He blush to ascribe human ignorance to Himself.

CHAPTER XV.

How one should understand, "The Word became flesh."

CHAPTER XVI.

Against those who say that a worthy retribution has already been allotted to each.

^A in a shout, in the voice of the archangel, and in the trumpet of God, will descend from heaven. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will rise incorruptible 58." Therefore, since the Judge of all has not yet descended from heaven, neither has the resurrection of the dead taken place. How then would it not be absurd to think that a retribution for evil or good works has already happened to some?

There is, then, a manner of parable elegantly fashioned in the things said by Christ concerning the rich man and Lazarus. The account states, as the tradition of the Hebrews says, that ^B there was a certain Lazarus at that time in Jerusalem who was laboring under extreme poverty and sickness; the Lord also remembered him, as it were, taking him as an example for a clearer explanation of his word. Since, therefore, the Savior of all, Christ, has not yet descended from heaven, neither has a resurrection occurred, nor has a retribution of deeds followed for anyone; but as in an image, the parable describes a rich man living in luxury and unmerciful, and a poor man in sickness, in order that those who possess wealth on earth might see that, if they do not wish to be kind, generous, and sociable, and do not choose to assist the needs of the poor, they will fall into terrible and inescapable judgment.

CHAPTER XVII.

Against those who say: How, being incorporeal, did demons have relations with women?

^C Since he says that some people ask: How is it that the wicked demons, being incorporeal, have had relations with women, and that giants were born from them? It is necessary for us to answer this briefly, not extending ourselves to the length of the narratives, but expressing the meaning of the matter in an epitome.

They say, therefore, that in the ages or times of old, the progeny of Cain and the progeny of Enos were distinct; the latter having been called "god" by the people of that time on account of his very great justice. "For he hoped," he says, to be called by the name of the Lord his God 59." ^D Now those who were born from Enos were practitioners of justice and every good work, following the customs of their father and insisting upon his footsteps. The descendants of Cain, however, were reckless and detestable, and readily practiced every kind of wickedness; for their father had been such a man. So long, therefore, as the generations were unmixed with one another, the splendor of an excellent and most praiseworthy life was preserved intact among those born of Enos. But after, he says, the sons of him who was called a god, that is to say, of Enos, cast their eyes upon the daughters of Cain (whom the Scripture also calls the daughters of men), then they were corrupted...

and were turned to their ways. But God, being indignant, caused the women they had chosen to bear deformed monsters, which they also called giants, on account of the harshness and baseness of their habits, and their untamed audacity. And indeed, the four interpreters who came after the Seventy, when explaining this passage, did not write: "The sons of God seeing the daughters of men," but some wrote, "The sons of those who possess power," and others, "The sons of the dynasts." ^B It is foolish to think that bodiless demons are capable of performing the functions of bodies, and of bringing about what is contrary to their own nature. For nothing that exists in the nature of things can perform anything contrary to its own nature, but each thing remains as it was created, God assigning to each its own function. For He is the Maker and Lord of the generation of all things, by whose nod and will each of those things which exist is what it is. It should be known, however, regarding this, that some of the copies have, "The angels of God seeing the daughters of men." This is a note placed in the outer margin; but the true and genuine reading is, "The sons of God seeing the daughters of men."

CHAPTER XVIII.

Against those who say that the Son, so far as the dignity of the divinity is concerned, was with the Father when He became man and was upon the earth, but not so according to his hypostasis.

I hear that some, rashly and inconsiderately, even in such great and grave matters, are in the habit of talking nonsense, asserting something of this kind: that the only-begotten Son of God was with the Father, according to the dignity of His deity and essence, when He acted upon the earth and conversed with men, since He is coessential with Him; but that, according to the principle of ^C hypostasis, He was no longer there. For, as they themselves say, the whole filial hypostasis was emptied out from the heavens and from the Father’s own bosom. For, say they, hypostasis must not be joined to hypostasis, especially those which exist in one and the same essence. I, however, being amazed at the headlong ignorance of those who hold such views, thought it necessary to say this: that with them the essence of God is diminished, and they assert that it is comprehensible and bounded, and no longer unlimited, nor incomprehensible, but already capable of being contained in places and circumscribed by intervals. But these things belong to the principles of bodies; therefore, it would also be a body, and surely also endowed with a form, and not without a body; for such things are appropriate to bodies. But then how does the Savior say, "God is Spirit?" ^D For He calls Him Spirit, so that He might remove that supernatural and ineffable nature far from corporeal imagination. And would not one justly say to those who spread such things abroad, or who dare to think them: "Sodom has been justified by thee?" For the wise men among the Greeks hold a more pious opinion, that the Divine is incorporeal and without form,

^A asserting that it is without magnitude, parts, or figure, and that it exists everywhere, being absent from nothing. But how did the following also escape them? If the Son, being coessential with the Father, emptied heaven of his presence when he became man and associated with those on earth, it would follow that the earth was also empty of the hypostasis of the Father, since he himself was not made man, nor did he associate with men; but, to speak according to their lack of understanding, he remained in the heavens. How, then, did the Savior say: "The Father remaining in me, he does the works?" Or how does he say through the prophet: "Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord," and again: "I am a God drawing near, saith the Lord, and not a God far off?" For Christ, who is begotten of him by nature, has all things near, filling all things together with the Father. And, in fact, the prophet David says: "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, and whither shall I flee from thy face?" For it is not possible, it is not possible at any time to find heavens or earth void of the ineffable Divinity; for, as I said, the divine and coessential Trinity fills all things. We remember also that ^B the Savior of all and Lord said to his holy apostles: "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Paraclete will not come to you." And when he had gone, fulfilling his own promise, he sent to us from heaven the Paraclete, that is, the Spirit. And he is coessential with the Father and the Son. When, therefore, the Paraclete descended to earth to sanctify us, was the Spirit not also in the heavens? But it would be proper to say that having sanctified us, he ascended again into heaven, and is no longer with us. Yet it is written that the Spirit of the Lord has filled the world. But Christ himself also, being about to ascend to the Father, said: "Behold, I am with you all the days, even to the consummation of the age." If he is with us, then surely the heavens are now void, as they themselves say, of the filial hypostasis, and having left the bosom of the Father, he is already dwelling more with those on earth; for they blurt out such absurdities, as I said. Yet who will endure their folly? Or who, being of a slightly sounder mind, would not shed abundant tears for them—they who, being ignorant of the holy and divine Scriptures, rashly spew forth whatever comes into their minds, and fall away from the correct dogmas of the Church? What did Christ answer to Philip, who spoke about the Father? ^C "Dost thou not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?" It is therefore impossible for one to exist without the other; but wherever the Father is perceived to be (and he is everywhere), there also the Son is entirely, and wherever the Son is, there also is the Father. For if the Son is the radiance of the Father, and his Word, and wisdom, and power, how is it possible for the Father ever to be conceived of without the Word, and power, and wisdom? How then could the wisdom of God, the Word,

and his power, ever be conceived of apart from the Father? Or how should his character ^A not reside in him at all times? And how, furthermore, could the character exist apart from the Father? But they say, "There is no character," because one must not join hypostasis to hypostasis, nor treat as such those that exist in one essence; and perhaps they bring forward the things of our nature to prove their own foolish babblings. Then how was it not incumbent upon them to understand that the things which are proper and peculiar to the divine nature are not to be measured by our own nature, but possess their own rationale, and are received through faith, and do not admit of overly curious reasonings? For the nature of the ineffable Divinity is one, in three ^B and individual hypostases, which is entirely different from the rationale of our own, and does not follow the rationale of created things. And this is evident from many things. For we are fathers of our own children by the emission of seed and by separation. For that which is begotten acquires a proper and peculiar difference in its entirety. But we do not say the Son was begotten of God the Father in this way. For he shone forth from his substance, and was effulgent like light from him. Nor was he made outside of him, but is of him, and in him; and our parents among us are older than their own children; but this is in no wise true in God. For it always exists with the Father, and has a coeternal ^C subsistence with its own Begetter, so that the Father may also always appear as Father. For there was never a time when this was not. It is, therefore, the same by nature with the Father, a divine and supermundane Offspring, distinguished only by the difference of being a Son. For he is not called Father, because he is not a son. Since, therefore, the supreme essence of all things fills all things, because it exceeds every creature and mind and word: let some cease to quibble, who speak out of their own private heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord, as it is written; lest, by suppressing the truth, they bring upon their own heads the punishment due to this sin.

CHAPTER XIX.

Against those who say that the Only-begotten, having become man, left the heavens void of his divinity.

There are those who, as I hear, utter certain absurd and most ridiculous sayings, speaking ^D out of their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord, as it is written. For where the splendor and beauty of the truth do not shine, there the father of lies altogether pours forth the lethal venom of his own depravity. I gather, therefore, that some, burdened by extreme ignorance, think and say that the only-begotten Word of God, when he became man and dwelt among men in the flesh, left the heavens void of his divinity. But this is nothing other than saying that he can be measured by quantity, and is of a comprehensible nature, and remains in a place, just as bodies and other creatures do. They are perhaps ignorant, ...

that the Divine is incorporeal, without form, indivisible, not measured by quantity, not circumscribed by place, but on the contrary fills all things, and is in all things, being uncircumscribed according to its own nature. For it is written: “Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if ^A I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me.” It behooved them, therefore, not to blurt out rash words born of ignorance, but to ponder with themselves what, and how great, and how excellent the divine and immense and ineffable nature of God is. For how could God the Word ever have departed from being with the Father, or from remaining in Him? For if it is possible for the radiance that proceeds from light to fall away and be separated from it, it might then be plausible to conceive that it is possible for the Son not to be with the Father. How, moreover, have they not understood concerning a creature, for example the sun (for the sun too is a creature, brought forth into being through the Word himself), that it is carried in a circle through the Zodiac, the path prescribed for it in the heavens; yet it sends down its light to every place: and while it fills all things with the brightness it pours forth from itself, does it not nevertheless retain that light within itself? When, then, was the radiance of his glory not in the Father? When has his image been separated from his hypostasis? And since the Father fills all things, will not the Son also possess this according to his own nature—namely, the filling of all things, and being present everywhere, and being absent from nothing? If so, he would be of a different nature ^B from him. They fall, therefore, into the erroneous opinion of the Arians, those who dare to say these things concerning him. For if they have truly believed that the Son is both God, and has been begotten of God the Father by nature, why do they not attribute to him the things that befit the divine nature? But if they bestow upon him the name of God, yet deprive him of the dignities of the Godhead, they are ignorant that they are dragging the Creator down into the ranks of creatures, and are placing the Author and Lord of all in the same category as things that have been made. Therefore, while he was visible on earth in the flesh as a man, the heavens were nonetheless full of his Godhead; for the Word, being God, fills all things.

CAPUT XX.

to the deity of the Only-Begotten, nor the deity to the flesh in the working of miracles: or that it was not a man who raised Lazarus from the tomb by calling out, but God the Word; and that it was not God who grew weary on the journey, but the man he assumed, who also hungered, and thirsted, and was crucified, and died—we say that they have wandered off the path of truth entirely, and are ignorant of the mystery of the Economy in the flesh. For we do not say that there are two Sons, nor two Christs, but one Christ and Son, who is indeed God, begotten of God the Father before all ages and time, his consubstantial Word; and in the last times of the age, the same one born of a woman according to the flesh. Therefore, let them not distinguish or separate him as if he were double-minded, nor let them introduce two Sons to us, but let them confess one and the same, as God the Word incarnate, and all things, both words and works, to be his. For since he himself is at once God and man, he speaks in a manner befitting both deity and humanity. ^B He likewise performs both divine and human works. When, therefore, they do not confess one Son and Christ and Lord, they will cease to divide and separate him ignorantly into two, so that one is understood separately and distinctly as Son—namely, the Word from God the Father—and yet another, again, separately and distinctly as Son, the one who, as they themselves say, is the man he assumed. For we say no such thing, nor do we believe so; but that God the Word became flesh, not having cast off being God, but remaining what he was, without change or alteration, and having partaken of flesh and blood according to the Scriptures; and we say that the flesh which was united to him, and which became his own, was endowed with an intelligent soul.

CAPUT XXI.

How could anyone deny that he was assumed with the flesh united to him? For the Father has seated him who was raised from the dead—he himself, clearly, just as he appeared and is understood to be man—at the right hand of the throne of majesty on high, far above every principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named. ^D He will come again in this same way in his own time. And the voice of the holy angels will suffice for the belief of this matter, for those who watched him ascending into heaven after his resurrection from the dead, crying out openly: "This Jesus, who was taken up from you, will come in the same way as you saw him going into heaven." If, then, those who were the witnesses of his ascension saw the Word stripped of flesh, then let some suppose that he will come that way too. But since he gave most certain proof to the holy apostles, showing them his palpable body, and thus was he taken up, so will he come again, and he would not belie the

^A apostles' false statement regarding him. Furthermore, let not some imagine it incorrectly, nor let them even suspect that the body united to the Word is commingled with the nature of the Holy Trinity. For it is impossible for that ineffable and transcendent essence, which is beyond all mind and speech, to receive any addition, and especially one of an external and different nature; for it is essentially perfect in itself and admits of no diminution, because it always remains unchangeable and unalterable, nor, as I have said, does it need any addition. Therefore, those are speaking foolishly who, out of great ignorance, claim that the body finds a place within the nature of the Holy Trinity by way of a commingling or union. For we do not hold such notions, but we have a correct opinion concerning Christ, the Savior of us all. For we say that the only-begotten Word of God became man, not by transforming his own nature into flesh, but by taking it from the holy Virgin, and he will come again with that same flesh in the glory of the Father ^B with the holy angels.

CHAPTER XXII. That the Word, being God, performs divine miracles through his own flesh.

We say that the only-begotten Word of God became man, not that he might cease to be God, nor that the Word might be thought of as "bare," but rather that, having become man, he made his own the body from the Virgin and Theotokos. Therefore, he who names Christ does not signify a "bare" Word, nor a common man, or one like us; but, as I have said, the Word from God the Father who became man and was anointed for his mission. For man was not made God, as some say, by being united to the Word, but the ^C Word himself, having taken flesh and become man, remained God even so. Therefore, when he performs divine signs, do not separate the Word of God from his holy flesh and attribute the power of the miracle performed to him alone; but rather, think piously that the only-begotten Word of God, having become man, also frequently operated through his own flesh, since he had it as his own, not by confusion or mixture. And just as one can understand in the case of a craftsman (say, a carpenter or a blacksmith) that while the soul operates through its own body, yet no one would say that the works belong to the soul alone, even though it is the soul that incites and moves the body to work, but rather to the whole composite; so also must one think concerning Christ. For before the incarnation, ^D the Word, still existing "bare" in himself, performed divine works; but having become man, he also performed works through his flesh, as I have said. Thus he touched the blind; thus he raised up the widow's son again, extending his hand and touching the bier; thus, having spat and made clay, he anointed the eyes of him who was blind from birth. But if one considers it spiritually...

consider again that, in raising our condition to a spiritual way of life, he ^A himself began the matter humanly, so that he might become a way and a principle for human nature to be able to exist—no longer carnally and voluptuously, but rather holily and spiritually. For he has become for us the principle of every good. And for this reason he became human, so that having freed our nature from the infirmity contracted in Adam, he might demonstrate as in himself, and indeed as in a first fruits, that spiritual [life].

CHAPTER XXIII

Against those who say: Could Christ have sinned, bearing the likeness of Adam because of the flesh?

Those who are altogether foolish and demented, who affirm that Christ himself—I know not how—could have sinned, for the reason that he was made in a form similar to us through the incarnation, and that he took the form of a servant and conversed with men on earth, are utterly wrong. ^B For if he ceased to be what he was, or if he merely crossed over from being God into being such as we are, let them hold him accountable for the failings of human infirmity. But if he bore human nature for this purpose—that he might show that which was infirm in Adam to be most powerful and superior to sin in himself—why do they inquire anxiously and in vain for things they cannot find? How have they forgotten him who said: "The prince of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me"? He indeed condemns all flesh of sin, he who is its author; but that curiosity of his was ineffectual in Christ, for it is said that there was nothing at all in him. And he said to the Jews: "Which of you convicts me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?" ^C Just as, therefore, we were condemned in Adam on account of disobedience and the transgression of the commandment, so in Christ we have been justified on account of his total immunity from sin, or rather his purity and his perfect and blameless obedience; and the glory and dignity of human nature were restored in this. The curse has therefore been blocked, and the mouth of sin has been stopped, and with it the power of death has been made void, and in a certain manner withered away with its root. For if sin became for us the source and origin of all evils, the abolition of those things which had befallen us is the justification in Christ, which entered through obedience and is entirely lacking in any blame. ^D Wherefore, even if he was clothed with Adam, as they say, yet he was not like him—who was earthly, from the earth—but as heavenly, incomparably more excellent than the earthly; and one might easily perceive in him human nature adorned with the praise of sinlessness, as the sacred Scripture testifies concerning him: "Because he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth."

CHAPTER XXIV.

^A Why did the Lord not appear at the beginning, but in the last times granted the manifestation of his divinity to human life?

Because he was about to be mingled with human life for the destruction of wickedness, he necessarily waited until ^A when the wicked demons, along with the devil who led them, allowed nothing to remain in order, but, gorging themselves on every kind of injustice and greed and knowing no satiety of insolence, drove men to the extreme of their passions—then, indeed, then the King of all, the paternal Word, having both hated their tyranny and pitied the calamities of the former, took on human nature and stood in the battle line. Thus, some trophies were fixed, some were being raised, and others remained in hope. And the barbarian troop of demons groaned at the calamities along with their leader, but human nature returned to freedom. For this reason, the Psalmist also urged those who had been liberated to sing a new song; for with prophetic eyes he saw what was to come.

^B The God-Word, therefore, truly became man in the last times for the salvation of men. On this account, one might even doubt, saying: "Why did the economy of the incarnation not take place in former times, so that from then all might have known the mystery of Christ?" But since we have heard the Lord in the Gospels saying: "Father, the hour has come" (John 17:4), that is, the fitting time, which was foreordained before the foundation of the world for the salvation of men; for if this were not so, he would not have said: "The Son of God goes as it has been ordained"—who is so confident in himself as to manifest opposition to what the Lord himself affirms? This time appeared fitting and, moreover, suitable to the divine will, because the all-pure one, who was to serve the mystery of Christ, was then brought forth into the world; ^C and because at that time the disease of wickedness had passed its peak—to use the expression of the divine Gregory of Nyssa—which from the beginning had afflicted the nature of humanity. For if he had become man beforehand, the wickedness residing within would not have easily yielded to the medicines, nor would the nations, as they were then called, have listened. For a raw and existing malady is not yielding, as a certain wise man said; that is, being deeply rooted in the humors, it is not easily drawn out by the applications of medicines. Therefore, as it has been said, God descended to earth at the fitting time. For "when," says Paul, "the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son" (Gal. 4:4), and he administers remedies at the fitting time. For God did not come to us with great display, nor did he use divine power such that he might have dragged even unwilling nations to himself, because he did not wish to harm our freedom of will in any way. For if that were the case, he might perhaps have become man in former times and thus have wrought our salvation by his authority. And do not say to me that all those who existed before Christ are therefore without guilt, and that if he had become man beforehand, they would not have perished through ignorance, those who ended their lives in unbelief. Say nothing of the sort. For as John of Damascus says: as many as lived a most ascetic life in the practice of piety, even if they were unknowingly led astray concerning the faith, were of such a teachable and grateful soul that, having seen and heard, they would have readily

believed, those men did not perish, nor did God allow the immense labor of their efforts to be in vain ^B. Therefore, since He Himself descended even into Hades and preached there, both they embraced the preaching and believed. But they who suffered from dimness of sight and malice not only could not look directly at the truth, but were even rendered completely blind by that intellectual Sun, as we have said, shining there. This very thing that great Gregory, who excelled in theology, also indicated when he said: "Did the Lord save everyone when He appeared in Hades, or did He perhaps save even those there who did not believe, but were nevertheless disposed to believe?" And concerning this, do not doubt; for you have, before all others, even the chief of the apostles, Peter, speaking thus about this matter: "And to the spirits in prison He went and preached to those who were once disobedient" (1 Pt. 3:19). From this, then, the great Cyril, moved, said: "Just as, therefore, God lived in the flesh with those who were in the flesh, so He also preached to the souls in Hades, having as His own proper instrument the soul united to Him." Neither did the most divine Damascene judge otherwise concerning these things, saying: "Just as He announced peace to those on earth, and to those who believed He became the author of salvation, while to those who disobeyed He was a test of their unbelief; so also to those in Hades." Thus, ordering all things skillfully, so that neither should the good perish through ignorance of their own goodness, nor the wicked have any excuse at all, saying, "If we had known, we would have believed"; He preaches also in Hades, as has been said, similarly to those above, and from there draws out those who are fit and well-disposed to be drawn along; and like some illustrious leader, He ascends from there with them. For although, having risen from the dead, He granted that last resurrection to all in common, yet not all came with Him as He returned from Hades, but only those who believed, as the theologian Gregory says.

From these things, then, it is demonstrated that He became man at the appropriate time, and that no one perished through ignorance, provided they were obedient to the divine preaching. And we, for our part, gave such an answer to the question or doubt. But the Emperor, full of all prudence, did not further contend; rather, he even greatly admired God for ordering this in ways and by methods known to Him. ^C

*Notes of Bonaldus Vulcanus*

The passage of this epistle long vexed me (B 10), nor could I elicit any convenient sense from the words, for [*phronema*] is usually taken in a bad sense, signifying the elation of the soul and arrogance, to which is opposed [*phronesis*], that is, prudence. Then it came to my mind that Zonaras had borrowed this passage from Cyril, *Lib. De incarn. Unig.*, p. 695, which reads thus: "Just as to those who still live in the flesh: so He also preached to the souls in Hades, having His own proper instrument, the soul united to Himself." From which I conjectured that in Zonaras, for [*phronema*] one should read [*phorema*], which signifies an instrument or garment: in which signification indeed Paul uses the verb in 1 Cor. 15, saying: "And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear [or, according to the Complutensian edition, *bore*] the image of the heavenly" (1 Cor. 15:49); so that it is the same as [*phorema*], by which word also Paul frequently uses to have a similar signification, as in the same epistle and the same chapter in the ways I have cited: "For it is necessary," he says, "that this corruptible should put on incorruption, and this mortal should put on immortality" (ibid 53).

^A And when wickedness has become settled, then they apply their art, once the entire disease has manifested itself. So too, in healing those who suffer in their souls, He waited for the disease arising from wickedness, by which nature was overcome, to be entirely uncovered, so that nothing hidden might remain untreated—for the physician heals only what is seen. And for this reason, not even in the times of Noah, when all flesh had corrupted itself with iniquity, did He bring the remedy through His own manifestation, because the sprout of Sodomitic wickedness had not yet emerged; nor did the Lord appear at the time of the destruction of Sodom, because many of the remaining evils still lay hidden in the human nature. For where was the god-fighting Pharaoh? Where was the indomitable malice of the Egyptians? ^B Yet not even then did it seem opportune for the Restorer of the universe (I speak of the evils after the Egyptian) to be mixed with human life. For it was necessary that the disobedience of the Israelites be manifested; it was necessary that the pride of the Assyrian kingdom and of Nebuchadnezzar, still smoldering in the life of man, be made manifest; it was necessary that the slaughter of the saints, like some evil, thorny sprout of the wicked root of the devil, arise; it was necessary that the madness of the Jews against the holy ones of God be revealed, of those who killed the prophets and stoned those who were sent to them, and who finally committed the heinous crime regarding Zechariah between the altar and the temple. Add to the catalog of wicked sprouts also the child-slaughter perpetrated by Herod. ^C Since, therefore, the entire power of wickedness had emerged from the wicked root, and had increased in many ways in the wills and pursuits of each generation, with malice luxuriating indiscriminately, then at last, as Paul says to the Athenians: "God, having overlooked the times of ignorance, comes in the last days" (Acts XVII, 30); when there was no one who understood, nor was there anyone to be found who sought God, when all had turned aside, together they had become useless, when all things were tangled in malice, when sin abounded, when the darkness of wickedness had increased to the highest measure: then, I say, grace appeared, then the ray of the true light shone forth, then the Sun of Righteousness arose for those sitting in darkness and in the shadow, then He crushed the many heads of the dragon, treading with His foot through the human flesh, and dashing and crushing them upon the earth. ^D Nor should anyone in the present state of life consider the statement that we make, that the Lord shone upon life in the last times, to be contrary to the truth. For an opponent might perhaps say that it would be likely that He who waited for the times opportune for the manifestation of wickedness, so that He might remove it when it had grown to its height—it would be likely, I say, that He would have removed it all once and for all from the foundation, so that no remains of it would any longer cling to life. But now murders, and thefts, and adulteries, and what things—of the most wicked deeds—are not committed? But let him who looks at this resolve the doubt by a certain likeness taken from more familiar things. For just as it is possible to see in the destruction of reptiles, not immediately striking the coil with the head, but

^A even when it has died, the rest is still animated by its own wrath and not deprived of vital motion: so also the slayer of the dragon, when the beast had grown greatly, ranging through all the generations of men, by cutting off the head—that is, the power to discover evils, which possesses many heads—took no account of the coil that followed, allowing the movement remaining in the dead beast to serve as an opportunity for exercise for those who were to come after.

CHAPTER XXV.

What may be the bruised head.

The bruised head is that which by its own perverse counsel brought in death; which poured out deadly poison for man through its dogma. He, therefore, who dissolved the empire of death, bruised the power [residing] in the head of the serpent, as the Prophet says. ^B But the rest of the coil of the beast, dispersed through human life, as long as human nature is liable to motions inclining toward wickedness, irritates life with the scales of sin; and it is dead in power, inasmuch as the head has been removed, but when the limit of time has passed and those things which are moved have ceased, in that consummation of life, indeed, which we expect: then also the last volume of the Enemy, which is death, shall be dissolved, and thus the total annihilation of the beast, or rather of wickedness, will come to pass, all having been recalled to life through the resurrection, the just being ^C translated at once to celestial rest, but those who are liable to sins being handed over to the fire of Gehenna.

CHAPTER XXVI.

The custom of men is to call an incorrupt one, "wedlock-less."

That great Moses, when the fire was kindled from the bush, and the bush did not wither ^D by the force of the flame and its heat, [alt-version omitted]

BONAVENTURA VULCANIUS' NOTES.

Incorrupt is rendered in Greek as virgin, that is, inviolate, which is also called άθικτος, that is, intact. For φθορά, besides that it signifies plague, calamity, and destruction, is also accepted for violation and vitiation; and φθορεύς is a violator. From which it once came into my mind to call an adulterer, or violator of another's bed, λεκτροφθόρος, in a certain epigram which I made from Latin into Greek as follows:

Dost wish the world destroyed? Then raze the cities to the ground: Dost wish to take the cities? Tear the houses down. Dost wish to end the houses? See the spouse lack spouse, And let the holy bonds of marriage be in vain. Therefore house, and city, and round world must perish, Or every adulterer be driven from the world.

That great Moses. This vision of the burning bush, which Cyril interprets here concerning the Theotokos Virgin, he also transfers to the mystery of the Lord's incarnation in the book *That Christ is One*, page 737; where see what we have cited from Cyril's Glaphyra.

I will go, he says, and see this great vision; ^A not signifying a local movement by the passing, but the transitional passing of time. For what was then typified in the flame and the bush was, after the middle time had passed, clearly revealed in the mystery concerning the Virgin. For just as the bush there both ignites the light and is not burned, so too here the Virgin both gives birth to the light and is not corrupted. But if the bush prefigures the Theotokos’ body of the Virgin, do not be ashamed of the enigma. For all flesh, by reason of the reception of sin, in that very respect—that it is flesh—is sin. And sin is called by the Scripture by the name of the thorn.

CHAPTER XXVII

This Zacharias was a priest and was radiant with the gift of prophecy. But the power of prophecy is preached in the book of the Gospels to be written down, because divine grace, paving the way for men so that they might not deem the birth from a virgin unworthy of belief, exercises the assent and faith of the unbelieving with lesser miracles: a son is born to an aged woman. This becomes a prelude to the mystery concerning the Virgin. For just as Elizabeth does not become a mother by the power of nature, having grown old in her life while barren, but the generation of the child is referred solely to the divine will; ^C so also the incredibility of the virginal birth finds faith when it is referred to God. Since, therefore, the one from the barren woman precedes the birth from the Virgin—he who, at the voice of her carrying the Lord, leapt in the maternal womb before coming out into the light; and at the same time the forerunner of the Word passed into birth, then at last the silence of Zacharias is dissolved by the prophetic inspiration, and whatever Zacharias utters were prophecies of things to come. This man, therefore, being led by the hand by the prophetic Spirit to the knowledge of hidden things, having understood the mystery of the virginity in the incorruptless birth, did not ward off the all-pure Mother from that place of the temple which had been allotted to the virgins ^D according to the Law, teaching the Jews that the Creator of all and King of all creation has human nature subject to Him along with all other things, and leads it by His own will to whatever He wills, and is not Himself dominated by it, so that it is in His power to create a new creation, which, having become a mother, will not cease to be a virgin. For this reason her...

^A exclusion from the place of the temple dedicated to virgins did not occur. Now this place was the space located between the temple and the altar. Therefore, when they heard that the King and Lord of all creation was proceeding toward human birth by the economy of the incarnation, for fear of falling under the power and authority of the King, they did away with the priest who had testified these things concerning her birth, sacrificing him right by the altar.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The angels were filled with great joy at what was revealed, for peace had appeared on earth. She who was formerly cursed, ^B the one fruitful in thorns and thistles, the seat of war, and the place of exile for the condemned, she has received peace. O, the great miracle! «Veritas ex terra orta est.» Such is the fruit the earth of men has brought forth. And these things come to pass because of the good pleasure toward men. God mingles and tempers Himself with human nature, so that the human may be fashioned together with the loftiness of God.

BY THE SAME HOLY CYRIL, ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA, TO THE MOST PIOUS EMPEROR THEODOSIUS. ADDRESS. Concerning the right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

^A 1. The highest point of glory among men, standing apart and preeminent over all others by incomparable distinctions, is yours, O Christ-loving Emperors; and a singular and fitting lot has descended to you from God, in virtue of that superiority which He possesses over all things; for it is right that an image of His excellence should exist upon the earth. For every knee bends to Him, and Thrones and Principalities, Lordships and Powers, bowing their necks as a servant, honor Him with fitting doxologies and declare that Heaven and earth are full of His glory. One may see in your own serenity, too, the clear and manifest archetype of this glory, so illustrious and supreme above all others. For you are the fountains of those dignities that fall to the lot of men, and are beyond all preeminence, and the beginning and origin of human prosperity. ^B And by the gentlest nods of your power, all that is ever subject to the thrones of the empire is steered into a life that is lawful, admirable, and worthy of song. But those who do not endure the yoke fall easily, overcome by your inherent strength. And even if the Emperor’s shield merely flashes, those men's vain fancies are gone, and, straightway withdrawing their own minds from the madness that possesses them, they fall into