The Anchored One, from the edition of Cardinal Thomasius in his Theological Institutes

LETTER WRITTEN FROM PAMPHYLIA, FROM THE TOWN OF SUEDRA, BY TARSINUS, MATIDIUS, AND OTHER PRESBYTERS TO SAINT EPIPHANIUS, REQUESTING [A TREATISE] CONCERNING THE FAITH IN THE FATHER, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF THE SAME FAITH

^A To the Lord Epiphanius, most honored by God and bishop, Matidius and Tarsinus, the new presbyters of the Catholic Church in Suedra, greet you in the Lord.

The devil, the enemy of the human race, is accustomed to stir up trouble in various ways and to sow his own seeds against those who are more simple and not yet strengthened in the faith of the Holy Trinity. But the sure foundation, as it is written, stands firm having this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his." But the heretics, ready for all things, having set aside blasphemy against Jesus, act impiously toward God in another way, sharpening their tongues insolently against the Holy Spirit and speaking injustice against the heights. Yet, even though countless people are stirred up, we, by the grace of the Lord, stand in the sound faith, having in no way been moved from the right and sound doctrine. Moreover, many who seemed to have been led astray have recovered by the grace of the Lord, having received letters from the blessed bishop of happy memory, Athanasius, and from your most religious colleague, Proclianus. But because remnants of this wicked doctrine still remain among some, and it is necessary that these things either be grafted into the good olive tree by you, who are skilled husbandmen, or be entirely cut off, for this reason we earnestly entreat your piety through this letter—do not hesitate to send writings to our Church, and to set forth more fully the right and sound faith, so that both the simpler ones and those who are still hesitant about the faith may be strengthened by your holy writings, and the devil, the enemy of the Church, may be put to shame by your holy prayers. Fare well, most honorable man.

LETTER WRITTEN BY PALLADIUS, A MAGISTRATE OF THE SAME CITY OF SUEDRA, SENT TO THE SAME SAINT EPIPHANIUS, ASKING HIM ALSO CONCERNING THE SAME MATTERS

^C To my lord, most honored by God, Bishop Epiphanius, Palladius, greetings in the Lord.

Those who sail the great and wide sea...

^A so long as a favorable wind steers their ship, concern themselves little with the ports lying along the shores, thinking they shall cross [the water] without great labor. But when a contrary and violent wind begins to blow, raising high the ^B waves from every side and washing over the ship, then, longing for a safe harbor and looking around at all the mainland lying beneath them, but unable to anchor anywhere, they at last make for some island lying nearby, if it so happens, securing their safety by every possible means. Approaching this, and having entered under the shelter of the projecting headlands, they are with difficulty able to be delivered from the evils that engulf them.

And we ourselves now, my lord, being instructed in the saving word of God, and desiring to be delivered from the worldly turmoil and agitation, and wishing to bring our boat into the unshaken harbor of Christ, since we have learned of certain empty and absurd questions—as it seems to me—being stirred up by some regarding the Holy Spirit—claiming that He ought not to be glorified and preached together with the Godhead and the Sovereignty, but rather to be held in the rank of a minister or messenger, or indeed thinking something even more humble and abject concerning Him—for these reasons, as though tossed in an unstable swell and difficult storm, ^C and being unable to find anyone among us capable of resolving these questions and setting forth for us the sound faith, we have been compelled to refer the matter to your piety, so that we too may deservedly use that cry: "Master, save us." ^D Wherefore we ask this of you, in view of your sincere and right faith, which a good reputation and reliable witnesses have long since heralded and proclaimed everywhere: that, as one appointed by the Savior to fulfill this ministry, you would kindly receive our request and be willing, through your sacred writings, to set forth more fully and clearly the faith of the Holy Trinity, and send this to us, so that we too, being confirmed in it, may attain what we desire, and those who have already lived piously in it may rejoice, and those who are straying may, if possible, be healed, and God may in all things be glorified.

A REPLY SENT TO THEM BY SAINT EPIPHANIUS

Which also includes in itself the entire teaching concerning the divine faith for which they had asked.

THE EPISTLE OF SAINT EPIPHANIUS

In which he replies to those things mentioned above, and explains the whole doctrine of the faith as they had requested.

To the lords and most honorable brothers and presbyters, Matidius and Tarsinus and Numerius, and to all the others who are with you, and to our most beloved sons, Palladius and Severinus, who burn with a laudable zeal for piety and have chosen for themselves a blessed and desirable life, joined with the right faith and perfect concord with the Church; and who furthermore comply with this saying of the Savior: ^A "If you wish to be perfect, sell what you have, and give to the poor"; and likewise that text: "They sold their possessions and laid them at the feet of the apostles"; and who add to their own souls whatever is essential and most excellent: Epiphanius, the least of bishops, and the brothers who are with me, send greeting in the Lord God.

^B 4. I could now call myself blessed, most beloved, in that, being ourselves not competent to the virtuous manner of life of the saints and zealots and those who have taken up zeal for God, we are deemed worthy to be spurred on by these very men, to rouse the mind and turn it to what is useful. For our lowly disposition, which always strives to persevere in quiet and not to extend itself further than is appropriate for those who are watching—that which was said by the Apostle: "Lest I extend myself beyond the measure of the rule which God has given to us as a measure"—is now compelled to arrive at this. For on every side the votes, which have governed the zeal that comes from God in you, and in the others of like mind—I mean those who desire orthodoxy—and in Hypatius, our son, who came to me from the land of the Egyptians for this reason, have caused me to put aside all sloth and every hesitation, no longer to delay, nor to put in second place the writing of the things concerning the faith. ^C Since you, and our brothers, are seeking things concerning your salvation, seeking from the holy and divine Scriptures the solid foundation of the faith concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and of all the other salvation in Christ—I mean the resurrection of the dead, and the incarnate presence of the Only-Begotten, and concerning the holy Covenant, both Old and New, and absolutely the other structures of perfect salvation—I, therefore, having received such a proposal of requests,

which were brought to me by my colleague, the presbyter Conops, and those who were with him, as well as others, and by your own cherished selves, my most beloved sons,—and not least by our son Hypatius, who for this very reason came to me from Egypt—when I saw so many votes cast in agreement, I was stirred in my mind and in my reason, and I reflected. It seemed good to me to embark eagerly, according to your request by letter, and without hesitation to write this my epistle, simple and weak as I am, in accordance with your desire.

^B II. And truly, I am struck with wondrous admiration at the providence of our Lord and God, who out of the abundance of His goodness has willed to grant His Holy Spirit in all things to those who seek Him in truth. For I do not think that your requests, sent to me through letters, were made without some divine instinct; rather, I have judged this movement of your hearts to have been brought to you by divine grace. For there is no doubt that those who are able to say the same thing as the divine Peter, asserting in agreement: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" 1, are to be clearly pronounced blessed by the Lord Himself, just as that holy and happy man was addressed in these words: "Blessed are you, Simon bar Jona," 2 that is to say, son of Jonah—for his father was called Jonah—and the word *bar* is interpreted from the Hebrew dialect as "son."

And this is the life which the only-begotten Son bestowed upon His disciples, saying: "That they may have life in themselves" 3—that is, to know the only true God, and Him whom He sent, Jesus Christ 4. In saying, therefore, "the only true God," He brought us to a monarchy, that we might no longer be enslaved under the elements of the world, that there might no longer be polytheism among us, and that the minds of men might not be scattered toward such a kind of fornication—for "the beginning of fornication ^C is the seeking after idols," as Scripture says 5—but rather that they might turn toward the unity of the only true God. "And whom You sent, Jesus Christ." Which Jesus Christ? The true God. And if Christ Jesus is God, as John testifies concerning Him: "The Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known" 6—the Father is therefore one God, and the only true God, not like those falsified gods whom some of the Greeks took to be gods, while they were in no way gods; but He is the only true God, since the Only-begotten is alone from the Alone, and the Holy Spirit is alone from Him. For the Trinity consists in unity, and there is one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

^D III. But this discourse moves and disturbs those who have not yet merited to be partakers of the Holy Spirit. For no one can say "Jesus is Lord," except in the Holy Spirit; the one...

who has not received the Holy Spirit does not truly call Jesus Lord, nor truly God, nor truly the Son of God, nor truly the eternal King. Let those, therefore, who have held the evil notion learn that the only-begotten Son of God does not at all wish to testify concerning Himself. For thus He spoke in the Gospel: "If I testify concerning myself, my testimony is not true; there is another who testifies concerning me." And who is this other? It is He who spoke from heaven: "This is my Son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased." ^B Yet this same One, who says, "If I testify concerning myself, my testimony is not true," says again: "Even if I testify concerning myself, my testimony is true"; and again: "The very works that the Father has given me testify"; and again: "Moses wrote concerning me," and, "Moses testifies concerning me." First, as to "If I testify concerning myself, my testimony is not true," this was said because many glorify themselves and testify concerning themselves, in order that He might cut off the boasting of those who exalt themselves and commend themselves. But when He says: "Even if I testify concerning myself, my testimony is true," He demonstrates that His testimony is not human, but that it is God who is truth-speaking in His own testimony. The Father is, therefore, true God, the Son is true God, and the Holy Spirit is true God—being the Spirit of God and the Spirit of truth, a Trinity numbered in one Spirit. For concerning the Father, the Son Himself says: "That they may know Thee, the only true God." ^C And credible is that witness who reclined upon His breast, calling Him the only-begotten God. He did not add the word "true" to "only-begotten God," but it is written of the Father that He is the "true God"; whereas of the Son, that He is "only-begotten God." Furthermore, it is written of the Father that God is "light," and concerning the Son, that "He was the true light."

IV. And observe for me the precision of the Scriptures. For the Father is indeed light, and it is not added to that which concerns the Father that He is "true light"; but since it is said of the Son that He is "true light," no one dares to speak otherwise. For who, being mad, or rather gathering mental derangement unto himself, would dare to acquire for himself the suspicion of blasphemy, by not finding the word "true" added to the passage? ^D For if the genuine Son, begotten of Him, is true light, the Begetter of the Son is without doubt true light—He Himself who begat Him without beginning and timelessly as true light. And just as one must not dare to say regarding the Father that He is not true light, but rather out of piety we know how to perceive that He is true light, even if it be not written, and

^A we do not doubt, lest we perish; so too it is written concerning the Son, that the Son is God, and even if it is not added that He is true God, we heap madness upon ourselves if we dare to blaspheme and not call the Son true God. For it suffices, in the one, to convey the entire bond of the Trinity, and from the Father to understand the Son as true God, and the Spirit as true God, since the weights of truth correspond to either set of names; to the Father, "true God," and to the Son, "God"; and conversely, to the Son, "the true light," and to the Father, "light"; so that by joining the two glories which pertain to divinity—regarding the Father as true God and regarding the Son as the true light, and regarding the Father as light and regarding the Son as God—from the light ^B and God, we may confess the one divinity; and from "true God" and "true light," we may confess the one unity of power.

V. Similarly also regarding the Holy Spirit: "If I go away," He says, "He will come, the Spirit of truth." And further of Himself, "I am the truth"; and of the Father, "The Spirit of my Father who speaks in you"; and of the Spirit, "My Spirit stands in your midst." Furthermore, the Spirit, who in an ineffable way acts with the Son, casts Him into the desert to be tempted by the devil. And the Lord Himself says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me." Moreover, the Holy Spirit, speaking through the prophets, says: "Thus says the Lord Almighty," who speaks in the prophets—the Lord who "establishes the thunder and creates the spirit": the thunder, I say, whose crash is heard by men; and creating the spirit, by which He stirs up the rains that are sent down from God upon the earth. Therefore, when He speaks of created things, He uses these words: "Establishing thunder, and creating spirit": for these things are created. ^C But in announcing His own Christ to men, He is said not to be creating, not to be establishing, but to be announcing to men Him who is truly begotten of Him, the uncreated, the immutable, the unchangeable, Him who is always from Him who is always, Him who was preached by John, who is always. For "He who is," says Moses, "sent me." And John says: "He who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known." Therefore the Son is called "existent," and the Father "existent": existent, that is to say, compared to the Existent, and begotten of Him; who is neither confused with the Father, nor began to be at some time, but is always a true Son with the Father; and the Father always begat the Son. For there never existed a time when the Father was not Father; there never existed a time when the Son did not exist ^D with the Father alone. For if there had been any time when He was not Father, He would be the Son of another Father, before the Father of the Only-Begotten existed; and those who think they are being pious toward the Father are in fact completely impious. In God there is no time, no season, no moment of time, no indivisible

point in time, no hour’s moment, no blink of an eye, no motion of thought; but as much as your mind is raised up to understand and believe in the Son, conceive of the Father as well. For the name itself has the power of signifying; for whenever you call upon the Son, saying "the Son," understand the Father; for the Father is known from the Son. And when you call upon the Father, you signify the Son; for the Father is absolutely called Father of the Son.

[G] VI. When, therefore, can you dare to say that the Father was not the Father, so that you would dare to say that the Son did not exist? But if you do not dare to attribute an advancement of dignity to the Father—for He who eternally was exists in identity, and has no need of addition, nor of glory, nor of advancement—learn not to blaspheme, O you who war against the faith, or rather, who drive yourself away from the faith; but believe that the Father is eternally and truly He who begat the Son, who always ontologically exists, in relation to the Father who ontologically exists. For the Son eternally exists, not being fused with the Father, nor a fellow-brother, but a genuine Son begotten of the Father, a natural Son, not an adopted one; a Son consubstantial [homoousios] with the Father—not [synousios] (simultaneous in substance), but [homoousios] (consubstantial), meaning that He was not begotten outside of the Father, as some in irony suggest, wishing the Son to be by adoption and not in truth. But the bond of faith is to say [homoousios]. For if you say [homoousios], you have dissolved the power of Sabellius. ^D For where [homoousios] is used, it is indicative of one hypostasis; yet it also signifies that the Father is subsistent, the Son is subsistent, and the Holy Spirit is subsistent. And when [someone] says [homoousios], he does not signify something alien to the same divinity, but signifies God the Son from God, and the Holy Spirit as God of the same divinity, not three gods. For even if we call the Son and the Father God, we do not speak of two gods; for our God is one, as the blessed Moses says: "The Lord thy God, the Lord is one" (Deut. vi, 4). We do not speak of gods, but God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and not gods; for there is no polytheism in God. But through the three names is the one divinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; and there are not two sons, for the Son is one, the Only-Begotten; the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, eternally existing with the Father and the Son, not alien to God, but being from God, proceeding from the Father, and receiving from the Son. But while the Son is the only-begotten, incomprehensible...

that the Spirit is incomprehensible, and is from God, and is not alien to the Father and the Son. Nor is there a coalition ^A of the Father and the Son, but a Trinity that always is of the same substance. Neither is the substance distinct from the divinity, nor is the divinity distinct from the substance; but it is the same divinity, and from the same divinity is the Son and the Holy Spirit.

VII. The Spirit, therefore, is the Holy Spirit; the Son is the Son: the Spirit proceeds from the Father and receives from the Son, searching the depths of God, proclaiming the things of the Son, and in the world sanctifying the holy through the Trinity, third in nomenclature: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. “Going,” he says, “baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. XXVIII, 19). For the Spirit is a certain seal of grace, the bond of the Trinity, not alien to the number, not differing in nomenclature, nor to be separated as a stranger from the communion of the gift: but there is one God, one faith, one Lord, one grace, one Church, one baptism (Ephes. IV, 5). For the Trinity is always Trinity, it never receives an addition, being thus numbered: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is not a coalition; there is nothing separated in it from its own proper unity; but in perfect hypostasis, the Father is perfect, the Son is perfect, the Holy Spirit is perfect, the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But the Spirit is attributed to heavenly ^B gifts. “For there are divisions of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are divisions of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are divisions of operations, but the same God, who works all in all” (1 Cor. XII, 6). Let us not fall away from the proposed theme; let us not depart from the truth. We do not offer a defense on behalf of God, but we think piously, lest we perish; and we speak, not as if we encompass Him; for we speak as humans, those things which we have grasped. For that honor toward God is immense, and is exalted in infinite parts above our mind's capacity: and thus the divinity itself is preached, so that nothing can be added to its glory, nor taken away from it; for there is nothing created in the Trinity, nor made in it afterwards. But the Father begets the Son; yet there was no time at which time the Son was not: for the Father was at no time not called Father, but as He was always Father, so there was ^C always the Son, not a brother, but the Son, begotten in a manner which no discourse can attain; and in

not begotten, not created, not a fellow-brother, not a brother’s brother, not a forefather, not an offspring, but of the same substance of the Father and the Son [(8)], the Holy Spirit; for the Spirit is God.

^A VIII. Now each of the names is singular, having no duplication. For the Father is Father; and he has no opposite, nor is he conjoined to another Father, lest there be two gods. And the Son is Only-begotten, true God from true God, not having the name of the Father, nor strange to the Father, but existing from one Father. Yet he is Only-begotten, that the Son may be singular in name; and God from God, that there may be called one God, Father and Son; and the Holy Spirit is unique, not having the name ^B of the Son, nor the designation of the Father; but he is thus called Holy Spirit, not strange to the Father. For the Only-begotten himself says, *The Spirit of the Father*, and, *who proceeds from the Father*, and, *he shall take from mine*; so that he may not be thought strange to the Father nor to the Son, but of the same substance, of the same divinity, a divine Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of God, the Spirit, the Paraclete, called singularly, having no opposite, not being made equal to any other spirit, not being called by the name of the Son, or named by the designation of the Father; so that these singular names may not be equivocal. Except that he is God, but in the Father; God in the Son; God in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God and God. For he is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of the Son; not by any composition, as in us soul and body, but in the midst of the Father and the Son, from the Father and the Son [(9)], third in designation. For, having gone forth, [he is] from the Father, through the Son, from whom [he is], through whom [he is].

^C [(8)] "Of the same substance of the Father and the Son." From this, without doubt, it follows that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, as also from the Son. Consult Petavius, cited in his work on dogmatic theology, book 4, no. 4. In this work, Epiphanius professedly and very clearly declares that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Which, against the Greeks, is ready at hand. See the following page. Also no. 11, where he writes that the Spirit proceeds from the Son. He teaches the same in the *Ancoratus*, heresy 74, no. 7 and 8.

"From the Father and from the Son," [that is, implicitly, proceeding]. Why S. Epiphanius did not say in this place, as in others which occur below, "proceeding from the Father and receiving from the Son," as he had said in the previous chapter 6, and here a little above in the present one, is explained by what we indicated a few lines ago in our note 7. Take from this a most firm argument that both modes of speaking signify the same thing in Epiphanius; which learned men are certain we can safely affirm of other Greek Fathers. The Greek Church, therefore, has both acknowledged and professed the procession of the Holy Spirit not only from the Father, but also from the Son. Nor should anyone be moved in this matter by that use of speaking whereby the Greeks were in the habit of saying everywhere that the Son proceeds in the divine essence from the Father; but the Holy Spirit from the Father, through the Son; or by the chapters of Theodoret refuting S. Cyril; or by S. John Damascene in chapter 8 of book I of *De Fide Orthodoxa*, ^D of those who openly declare that the Holy Spirit ought not to be said to be from the Son; and that you are blasphemous and impious if you say that. These are not new, but have been agitated for fourteen centuries now; by Photius especially, so that he might put forward some cause by which it might seem, if it were lawful, that he and his had not without merit defected from the communion of the Roman Church. It is known that S. Basil in his book *De Spiritu Sancto*, and indeed from the first chapters from the beginning, noticed that that distinction of words "from him" (*ex ipso*) and "through him" (*per ipsum*) in indicating divine processions was first introduced with evil intent by that demented Aetius, the prince of the Anomoean sect. To these, he further noticed that the same small words are used both indiscriminately and without any distinction, both in divine Scripture and by the Fathers to signify the same thing. This being truly noticed, that the Greeks have been in the habit of saying everywhere that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, it stands in the same way as if they had said the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Furthermore, we hold it to be certain that the Greek Fathers especially, perhaps more subtly than would have been necessary, had the necessity of refuting adversaries not demanded it, considered that the Father in the divine essence is the first principle, and as it were the fountain and origin of all processions; the Son, however, although most intimately joined to the Father by will, and consubstantial with Him, yet [is] begotten from the Father; and as it were the medium between the Father and the Holy Spirit, receiving from the Father whatever...

is His, and from the Son acting as the third in appellation. For He says, ^A *Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.* And if the Father baptizes in His own name, in the name of God, and the seal is perfect, sealed in us in the name of God; and Christ baptizes in His own name, in the name of God, and the seal is perfect, sealed in us in the name of God; who will dare to war against his own soul, calling the Spirit alien to the Godhead? For if it is into the name of God, and into the name of the Son, and into the name of the Holy Spirit, there being one seal of the Trinity, then there is one power of the Godhead in the Trinity. But if the one is God, and the others are created things, and not God, by what logic are the two bound to the one in the seal of perfection? Unless we have been sealed into a royal name, that of the Father, and the others are not royal, but we are still enslaved to elements and creatures, and the name of the Father alone could not save us, but He had to add to Himself two other elements, according to the presumption of those who blaspheme, so that His Godhead might receive other powers, and be able to save the one being sealed by Him, so that the man created by Him might obtain the forgiveness of sins in the redemption.

IX. Proh! How absurd are these comments! O the detestable blasphemy!

he is called for this reason. And he himself again reveals ^A His holy Spirit; for it was fitting for him, who was the first among the apostles, for that solid rock, I say, upon which the Church of God is founded, and against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. By the name of these gates, heresies and the founders of heresies are understood. For in every way faith is established in him, who received the keys of heaven, and who looses and binds on earth and in heaven. For in this man are found all the subtle points of faith that are sought. ^B This is he who denied Him three times, and three times bound himself with an oath, before the cock crew. For in order to signify his vehement affection toward his Lord, he had said with assurance: "Even if all others deny You, I will not deny You"; speaking, that is, as far as the human condition allows. This is he who, when he heard the cock crow, wept, so that he might truly show the Son of God to be one who was apprehended, not merely in appearance, and that by following Him when He was apprehended and delivered up with tears, he might demonstrate Him to be true man. The same was his companion, who reclined on the breast of the Lord. For he, after he had drawn and learned this from the Son, subsequently revealed the power of that knowledge. But that first man had obtained this very thing from the Father, so that he might found and support the firmness of faith. Who, after he was called by the Lord, was again fishing naked in the boat on the lake of Tiberias. But then that disciple whom Jesus loved, when he had heard the Savior speaking thus: "Children, have you anything to eat?" And then: "Cast to the right side of the boat, and you shall find"; ^C at these words they were struck with amazement: and John, whom Jesus loved, said to Peter: "It is the Lord." That man was indeed born of Mary in truth according to the flesh, not merely in appearance or simulation, but yet he was the same God and Spirit, descended from heaven and from the Father. From whom Peter heard: "Peter, feed my lambs," to whom the custody of the flock was committed; whom, relying on the virtue of his Lord, he excellently governs and rules; who confesses the flesh of the Lord, who most truly proclaims concerning the Son what he had received from the Father; who indicates the Spirit and the splendor and dignity of Him in the divinity: who gave his right hand in token of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas with James and John: so that every word might stand in three witnesses.

^D X. For nothing can be firm without two or three witnesses. For it was confirmed by a kind of figure and adumbration in those who were under the law, who recognize only the Father, unless they receive the power of the Son, and are corroborated by those two witnesses, the Father and the Son; but then, by the third testimony, they obtain the Holy Spirit, and are manifestly filled with those voices of the cherubim and seraphim, who cried out the third "Holy, holy, holy." For not by two voices is the doxology concerning the heavens...

^A constituted; nor do those same holy and invisible spiritual 13 creatures cry out a fourth time, nor do they give utterance to a fourth voice, neither only one; but they emit three singular voices: "Holy, holy, holy." And they do not say, "Holies, holies," lest they attribute a multiple appellation to that which is singular, nor do they hide the number of the three; but they offer the sanctification three times, yet they utter the word in a simple and singular way, that they may not proclaim a plurality of gods. For there is one God, the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit; and for this reason, He who is holy rests in the holy [ones], the Father true and subsistent, the Son true and subsistent, and the Holy Spirit true and subsistent; three in number, but one divinity, one substance, one doxology, one God. You name God? You have comprehended the Trinity in your mind. You have received the Holy Spirit? You have obtained the power of the Father and of the Son of God. You have glorified the Father? You have indicated the Son and the Holy Spirit, but not by a confusion. For the Father is Father; the Son is Son; the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit; yet the Trinity is not severed from unity and identity. The Father is honored, insofar as He is Father; the Son is honored, insofar as He is Son; the Holy Spirit is honored, insofar as He is true and the Spirit of God. Thus the Only-Begotten says: "He who honors the Father, honors the Son." For in the very act of naming the Father, you signify the Son, and you honor the Son; and he who honors the Son, honors the Father. For when you name the Son, you honor the Father, provided you affirm that Christ is in nothing inferior to the Father.

[XI] For if among us mortals there exists a certain common sense that we should not deem sons to be in any way inferior to their parents, nor in the least removed from their dignity—since the ignominy imposed upon sons redounds to the parents—how much more will God and Father by no means tolerate that His Son be placed in a lower rank? Whoever, therefore, thinks that the true and genuine Son of God must be relegated below the paternal glory, he does not honor Him but brings infamy upon Him, and finds himself in the height of ignorance. Wherefore, as Christ, indicating His own Father, testifies: "No one knows the Father except the Son, and no one knows the Son except the Father," I, for my part, would not hesitate to pronounce also: "No one knows the Spirit except the Father and the Son, from whom He proceeds and from whom He receives." With what effrontery, then, do those who are moved by frenzy and madness rather than by truth dare to assert that the Spirit is foreign to God, and fail to understand that most true utterance of the most trustworthy and holy Apostle Paul—Paul, I say, to whom Peter, the prince of the apostles, to whom the keys of the kingdom were committed, is recorded to have given the right hand, who heard this voice from heaven: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" who was deemed worthy to hear the arcane words which it is not permitted for a man to speak—he who says: "No one knows the things of a man, unless

the spirit of man which dwells within him." ^A For by this example he wished to express the things above, so as not to liken the human example to God, but by the example to reveal a part of the things above. For even if the whole creation, gathered together—angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim, with the heavenly host, heaven and earth, earthly, heavenly, and subterranean beings, luminaries and stars, dry and liquid things, and absolutely everything that is in heaven and on earth—it cannot display, nor by any example be made to resemble, its own Lord. For it is by grace that He grants the image to man, saying, "God created man; in the image of God He created him." For every man possesses the image by a gift. But no one can be compared to his own Lord; for the one is invisible, the other visible; the one is immortal, the other liable to death; the one is the fountain of all wisdom and contains all things perfected within Himself, while man, having a gift in part, is lacking in the most perfect things, unless God wills to provide to those who receive it the perfection through grace according to each one's worth.

^B XII. Yet the same holy Apostle, having used the example: "No man," he says, "knows the things of a man, unless the spirit of man that dwells within him; so also no one has known the things of God." And he did not say, "unless the Spirit of God that dwells within Him," but "the Spirit of God" alone, so that no one might conceive of the Divine as composite and formed of various parts. "Unless," he says, "the Spirit of God." For the Spirit of God searches all things, even the depths of God. The Spirit, therefore, which searches the depths is not alien to God. For if the divine scripture rebukes us, saying, "Think on these things which are commanded you, and you have no need of hidden things; and do not seek things higher than you, nor examine things deeper than you," shall we therefore say concerning the Holy Spirit that He searches the depths of God out of curiosity rather than because this befits His nature? For where indeed does He search the depths of God? And for what reason? Tell me, you most foolish man. Does He inquire as one who is curious? Or like an interloper? Or as one despising what is His own? God forbid! But because the saints are deemed worthy to receive the Holy Spirit within themselves, when the Holy Spirit comes to be in the saints, He grants them to search the depths of God, in order to glorify Him deeply (as David also confesses this: "Out of the depths," he says, "I have cried to You, O Lord"), and to do so with infinite magnitude, not meagerly and jejunely, as do those who adhere to the Arian faction and to other heresies, of which kind are both those eleven sects which arose from various schisms after the law was given through Moses before the Incarnation of Christ our Lord, and the sixty others that arose after the Incarnation, besides those that [existed] before the law...

^A of Hellenic heresies, which are nine in number before the Law; and altogether, with their own mothers, they amount to the number of eighty. Their mothers are five, in this way: Barbarism, Scythism, Hellenism, Judaism, Samaritism. From these, Hellenism produced four sects: the Pythagoreans, the Platonists, the Stoics, and the Epicureans. From the Law before the coming of Christ in the flesh, there are eleven: from the Jews, seven—Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Nazarenes, Hemerobaptists, Herodians. From the Samaritans, four—Gorotheni, Sebaei, Essenians, Dositheans. In total, eleven [sects] sprung from the Law among the Jews and Samaritans.

XIII. All Heresies, Before and After Christ

XIII. All the heresies, therefore, from the beginning with Adam up to the coming of Christ in the flesh, are twenty. But after the coming of Christ in the flesh, until the reign of Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, all the heresies that have falsely usurped the name of Christ for themselves are sixty, calculated in this way: Simonians, Menandrians, Saturnilians, Basilidians, Nicolaitans, Gnostics—who are also [called] Stratiotici ^B and Phibionites, and by some Secundians, by others Socratitae, by others Zacchaeans, and by some they are called Coddiani and Borborites—Carpocratians, Cerinthians—who are also Merinthians—Nazarenes, Ebionites, Valentinians, Secundians, to whom are added Epiphanes and Isidorus; Ptolemaeonites, Marcosians, Colorbasians, Heracleonites, Ophites, Cainans, Sethians, Archontici, Cerdonians, Marcionists, Lucianists, Appelleians, Severians, Tatianists, Encratites, Cataphrygians—who are also Montanists and Tascodrungites—Pepuzians—who are also Priscillians and Quintillians—to whom are added Artotyrites, Tessarescaedecatites ^C (who celebrate the Pascha on a fixed and set day of the year), Alogi (who reject the Gospel and the Apocalypse of John), Adamians, Sampsaeans (who are also Helcesaei), Theodotians, Melchisedecians, Bardesianists, Noetians, Valesians, Cathari (who are also Novatians, or even Montenses, for that is how they are called at Rome), Angelici, Apostolici (or Renuntiatoris), Sabellians, Origenists (who commit shameful acts), Origenists of Adamantius, the followers of Paul of Samosata, Manichaeans (who are also Acuanitae), Hieracites, Meletians (who make a schism in Egypt), Arians (who are also Ariomanites), Audians (who cause a schism, but ^D not a heresy), Photinians, Marcellians, Semiarians, Pneumatomachi (who hurl insults at the Holy Spirit of God), Aerians, Aetians (who are also Anomoeans, to whom is added Eunomius, or rather "the unlawful one"), Dimaritae (who do not confess the perfect Incarnation of Christ), and Apollinarists; and then those who say that holy Mary, the ever-virgin, after she had brought forth the Savior, had relations with Joseph, whom

^A we have called the Antidicomarianites; and those who offer a cake in her name, who are called Collyridians; and the Massalians, to whom are joined the Martyrians from the Gentiles, as well as the Euphemites and the Sataniani.

XIV. Finally, it is wearisome to enumerate the names of so many heresies and to relate their impious crimes. I shall mention, among others, those two schisms: first, the Meletians in Egypt, who separated themselves because of those who had lapsed during the persecution and had been received back into their own order and status by our people after repentance, yet who are not involved in heresy; and then those in Mesopotamia already mentioned, the Audiani, who also cause a schism, yet do not profess an alien faith but contend stubbornly regarding the statement that man was made in the image of God. They do not separate themselves because of any dogma of the faith, nor for any other reason than a feigned perfection of righteousness; because they refuse to have communion with bishops and presbyters who possess gold and silver, and because they celebrate the Pasch at the same time as the Jews, on account of which they separate themselves from the Church and are divided from the union of the orthodox Church. For those who have not received the Holy Spirit have not learned the depths of God, and have been scattered into these heresies^B and schisms which have arisen from a desire for caviling and from opportunity; for having abandoned the truth, they have walked in many paths, thinking differently at different times.

The same holy Apostle tells us for what reason he said this, declaring: "But we have received the Spirit of God, that we may know the things that are given us by God; which things also we speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Cor. II, 12, 13), and so on. The Spirit of God, therefore, is not alien to God; for if He were alien to God, how would He search the depths of God? But what will you say to me, O vainglorious man, who fight against yourself—if I may not say, against the Holy Spirit of God? For why, O vainglorious man, do you fight against Him who cannot be fought? Why do you contend with Him who cannot be overcome? "It is hard for you to kick against the goad" (Act. IX, 5). You cause scandal to yourself, and not to the Word. You attempt to remove yourself from every side; and when you find things sufficiently firm, you either impiously reject them, or, in order to deceive the simpler folk by appearing to reprehend and destroy them, you mix square things with round; you do not distinguish dogmas from those things which pertain to discipline, to morals, to ceremonies, and to rites. Because these things can and do sometimes differ according to the diversity of times and places, they accuse us Catholics of an inconsistent spirit regarding the faith, and condemn us, while nothing is more familiar to them than their own instability and inconsistency of mind. Whether these and other such things are exaggerated rashly, or are rather true, the history of the Church demonstrates. In it, indeed, it appears by what arts Pelagius, Nestorius, and Eutyches; by what arts the Monothelites and Iconoclasts; and by what arts Photius and Calvin introduced their heresies and established them once introduced.

you, I say, do not circumvent the Spirit, and you alienate yourself from the grace of God, and do not separate the Son from the Father, nor the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son. ^B

XV. Perhaps, due to the cleverness and sharpness of your wit, you will object this to us—for I recall having heard this from certain foolish people, who, twisting the truth of God and our Savior into blasphemy, would bring this forward: that the Spirit indeed searches the deep things of God, but does not attain them, because that word was not attached to the scripture, but the Apostle only said: *He searches the deep things of God*, and "attains" is not added. O unheard-of stupidity! For is it necessary, O most insane of men, that after the word "searches," the word "attaining" must be appended? For if credit is to be given to your foolish opinion, the matter would be incomplete unless that word were added. But now, no evasion is left for you; for Scripture confirms the truth to the pious and religious mind in every respect. For concerning the almighty God, it is written thus: *God, who proves the reins and searches the secrets of the belly*. If then He proves the reins, does He not know that which He proves? Or has He declared that all knowledge is set in the proving? And when it says "searching the secrets of the belly," again "attaining" is not added. Therefore, if the word "attaining" is not attached to the scripture, shall I procure my own destruction by weaving into the scripture "does not attain," according to your word, O foolish one? ^C Thus, therefore, it is also said concerning the Holy Spirit, that He searches; and there was no need to say that He also attains; for by that very word it is shown that in the Holy Spirit is the knowledge of God and of the deep things of God. And if it does not say to you "attains," understand it the same way for me, and do not destroy your own soul. For as it is not to be dared to say concerning the Father that He searches and does not attain—for He Himself created man with the Son and the Holy Spirit, for the Trinity is always Trinity and admits of no addition—so also must you conceive concerning the Holy Spirit. For to whom does He speak regarding man being fashioned by Him? *In the beginning*, He says, *God created the heaven and the earth*, indicating the voice of the Father, invoking to creation; and I would not hesitate to declare that the word *Let us make* refers to the Son and the Holy Spirit. For thus ^D it speaks: *By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all the power of them by the Spirit of his mouth*. Therefore, the Word is a co-creator with the Father; the Holy Spirit is also a co-creator. Does, therefore, the almighty God, who created man, not know the things of man, while searching the storehouses of the belly? But the Word brings forth this most supreme knowledge of God, saying this, so that no one of those who sin among us may imagine that it is still possible to be hidden from God. For He Himself knows man and the things of man.

XVI. Therefore, the Father searches the storehouses of the belly and knows; but the Spirit searches the deep things of God, and [index: entries preserved]

^A manifests them to the saints, and teaches how to celebrate God from the bottom of the heart, and Himself declares the incomprehensible nature of God to His own. Wherefore, the Spirit is not alien to God. For He did not say of the angels that they search the depths of God, nor of the archangels. For, says the Son of God, no one knows the day nor the hour, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, except the Father. But the senseless, those not adorned by the Holy Spirit, imagine: is there anything in the Father which is not in the Divinity of the Son? For as the Father has life in Himself, so also the Son has life in Himself; and: All things that are the Father’s are mine, says the same most holy Word of God. ^B And what are the things of the Father, if not these? To be God belongs to the Father; this also belongs to the Son. Life is the Father’s; this is also the Son’s. Light is the Father’s; clearly it is also the Son’s. Immortality belongs to the Father’s nature; it is likewise the Son’s. Incomprehensibility belongs both to the Father and to the Son. Whatever pertains to the Father, the same also pertains to the Son. Whence, if the things that are the Father’s belong to Him, then the knowledge which consists in the Father also exists in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. But if anyone thinks the Son is ignorant of that day, let the ignorant one learn, and let him not blaspheme. For I set knowledge before him, and he shall know. Tell me, O beloved—for I call you beloved, since I hate no one except the devil and the works of the devil and perverted faith; but for you I pray to God, that you may come to the truth of God, and not destroy yourself in blasphemy against God. For deep are the words of the holy God. But they are given by the Holy Spirit through ^C gifts. For to one, He says, is given the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge, and so on. But it is the same Spirit who divides to each as He wills, to show you also the authority of the Holy Spirit; for the same Spirit gives all gifts as He wills. Therefore, beseech the Father, that He may reveal the Son to you; and beseech the Son, that He may reveal the Father to you. And again, beseech the Father that He may give you the Son, and reveal to you the Holy Spirit, and grant you to have Him in you, so that the Holy Spirit being in you may reveal to you every knowledge of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, that you may learn that in the Son there is no ignorance, nor in the Holy Spirit.

XVII. ^D For if even the angels fall short of greater power and knowledge, God forbid that the Son of God and the Holy Spirit should fall short! But God, the holy Word who came down to us from the Father, speaks spiritually; but the natural man does not judge, since he does not perceive the wisdom of the Son—or rather, the Word of wisdom. Tell me, and speak to me: Who is greater, the Father, or that day of which He speaks?

^A You will not dare to say that the Father is not greater. If, therefore, the Father is greater than both the day and the hour, and than all things that have been or shall be brought into existence by Him, and no one knows Him except the Son, which then is greater: to know the Father, or to know that day? It is manifest that it is to know the Father. How then does He who knows the greater things fall short of the lesser? If, therefore, He knows the Father, He certainly knows also the day; and there is nothing in which the Son is lacking in knowledge. But you will say that, because the Father is greater, He possesses the knowledge of all things, while the Son does not at all; just as He Himself says, "My Father is greater than I." ^B But the Son says this in honoring the Father.

But the Son says this in honoring the Father.

≫ the Hebrews, comparing Christ the Lord to the angels, says: "Having become so much better than the angels." But let us say enough on these matters according to the logic of our task. ^A For He himself also testifies: *My Father is greater than I.* But in truth, the Son said these things to honor the Father, which He did with good reason, as He was honored by the Father in the way of a greater. For it was fitting that the true Son should render honor to His own Father, that He might declare Himself to be truly the Son. But in what, I pray, do you pronounce Him greater? In circumference? In volume? In time? In season? In dignity? In divinity? In immortality? Or in eternity? Do not believe such things. For there is nothing in the divinity that is unequal in the Son. But in so far as the Father is Father, and in so far as the Son is true Son, He honors His own Father. For the divine nature is not carried about in volume, so that the Father might be greater in size than the Son; nor is it subject to time, so that the Father might be older than the Son; nor is the Father arranged in some partial way by height. For He himself embraces all things, being embraced by none, so that the Son might be understood as having transcended all things. For He sat at the right hand of the Father, and it is not said, *He entered into the Father*, so that He might refute Sabellius and destroy the blasphemy of Arius. ^B

XVIII. Therefore, do not seek what is not to be sought, but honor the Son, that you may honor the Father. And when you hear concerning God: *No one is good except one, God*, do not be so bold as to pronounce the Son not good because He honors the Father to an excessive degree. For He does not say that the Father is good by denying that He himself is good; rather, He reveals Himself the more in that He defers the honor to His own Father, so that from the goodness of the Father, the knowledge of the goodness of the Son of God—who is begotten of the good Father God—might be known. For great is the weakness of those who dare to say such a thing concerning the Son, even if you say: *One is good, God*. For behold, in many places the divine Scripture teaches us, calling a poor and wise child good; and, "Samuel was ^C good before God and men"; and, "Saul was good, the son of Cis from the tribe of Benjamin, higher than all the Israelites from his shoulders and upwards"; and, "It is good to go into the house of mourning rather than the house of feasting"; and, "Open, O Lord, the heaven, thy good treasure"; and, "A good word is better than a gift"; and, "A living dog is better than a dead lion"; and, "Two are better than one"; and, "The last and best of words is above the beginning"; and, "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children"—where ^D indeed there is here also the most suitable opportunity to mention this, above all those very subtle arguments which were dealt with in the previous note. And would that doctors, content with simplicity in sacred theological matters, had fulfilled that, *Seek not the things that are too great for thee*; and might have been far from that useless, or more than once pernicious, investigation by which it is asked why God did this or that, or how He did it. Alas! What peace the Church would enjoy! How few would be the heresies! How much more concise the theological treatises! What, alas, and how great Christians we would be! But the insatiable desire for knowledge in the human mind, the odious moroseness of adversaries, and the wicked zeal for attacking the truth have created for us a certain necessity of complicating that doctrine with disputes, pitfalls, and most difficult entanglements, which, like the most chaste Virgin, would gladly delight in its own modesty and simplicity. Let us therefore beware, lest we either follow or approve, without necessity, that vice which necessity has brought in. (19) *The word was in that place where Petavius warns, and the most approved Greek examples of the Old Testament.*

^A of fish and bread speaking. How great, then, is this audacity of yours, that you would maintain that the Son denied his own goodness, and that He did not make mention of that goodness out of an excellent zeal for honoring the Father? For He who called Himself by these words, "Good Teacher," saw that he who uttered them with his mouth did not hold them in his heart, and He wished to refute him, because he did not believe with his lips, but He tested the heart; as He also says in another place: "Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say?" And here He wished to refute him; for he called Him a good teacher, yet he did not remain in His faith, so as to believe in His goodness.

^B XIX. Therefore the holy Word of God Himself, living and subsisting, the celestial King, the true Son, existing always with the Father, proceeding from the Father, the brightness of glory, the figure of [His] substance, the most true image of the Father, sitting on the same throne of dignity with the Begetter: whose kingdom shall have no end, the judge of the living and the dead, Wisdom from Wisdom, drawing forth origin from the Fountain: "For Me," He says, "they have forsaken, the fountain of living water, and have hewed out to themselves broken cisterns": and He is the perennial river that gladdens the city of God with its streams, which proceeds from the same fountain: "from whose belly," He says, "shall flow rivers": the scepter of David, the root of Jesse, and the flower budding from it: the Lion, the King from the tribe of Juda, the rational lamb, the living stone: the Angel of the great counsel, man born in reality, having suffered no mutation either of nature or of divinity, born in the flesh, the incarnate Word, the Word made flesh. In the declaration of which matter, before the word "made," the word "flesh" is inserted. For He did not say "the Word made," but after the name of the Word, He set the word "flesh" ^C infinitely; then after "flesh," He added "was made," so that by the word "was made," it might be signified that He was born of Mary, and that the Word might be understood to have descended from heaven and from the Father. This holy and living Word, therefore, God from the Father, the Angel of the great counsel, the messenger and interpreter of the paternal counsel, the Father of the future age: He, I say, said this: "No one knows the day nor the hour, not even the angels who are in heaven," for they do not know that the Son pronounces this in a more profound sense, "Except the Father alone." Since, therefore, the Son knows the Father, and the Father is greater than that day and hour—a matter concerning which no one can doubt—how is it that He who knows the greater, is ignorant of what is less? For no one knows the Father except the Son, and no one knows the Son except the Father. For as the Father is great because He knows the Son, so also the Son is great because He knows the Father. Wherefore, how can He who perceives the greater—that is, the Father—be ignorant of what is far less, that day and hour? Come, therefore, search the sacred Scriptures, ^D and learn the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit Himself who knows the Father

^A and the Son, reveals to you the knowledge of the Word of the Son of God, so that you do not wander from the truth and lose your own soul.

XX. For there is a twofold knowledge in the Holy Scriptures, two kinds: one consisting in action, and one contained in mere apprehension. But in order that I may represent the similarities by examples, so that your wandering mind—and the minds of those who think this—may be smoothed out by many arguments, learn what the Scripture says concerning Adam: "They were," it says, "naked in paradise, and were not ashamed." But they were not blind; for they saw. For if they did not see, how could they see the tree, that it was good for food, and beautiful to behold? "And having taken," it says, "the woman ate, and gave also to her husband who was with her." Therefore they were not blind, but had their eyes open; being naked, they were not ashamed while looking, and being naked they ^B knew each other—they knew each other by apprehension, and not by action. For after having been cast out of paradise, having eaten of the tree, after a long time, it says: "Adam knew Eve his wife." How then shall this be? And yet, they saw each other being naked, and they knew themselves by sight, but not by action. The Scripture called their coming together "knowledge." It knows how to call apprehension [by the name of] knowledge; for in another place it says thus: "Jacob knew Leah his wife, and she conceived and bore." And the first one, he surely knew her; for he had been seven years with her, pasturing the sheep of Laban her father. But he knew the apprehension which is through sight and through knowledge, [yet] he knew her through action: "And he knew Rachel his wife." And again in another place: "And David," it says, "grew old, and they covered him with garments, and he was not warmed. And they said to the king: Let a beautiful virgin be sought. And Abishag the Shunammite was found. And," it says, "she was brought to the king, and slept with him, and warmed him; and David did not know her," who was with him, who was his companion in body and ^C at his side. Therefore, what kind of knowledge does he mean? That which is through sight, or that which is through action? And: "The Lord knew those who are His." Does He then not know those who are not His? And: "Depart from me, workers of iniquity; for I never knew you." Is there then ignorance in the Son of God? And again: "You have I known out of all the nations." Does He then not know the other nations? God forbid! But the Holy Scripture knows a knowledge, one according to apprehension, and another according to action. ^D

XXI. Since, therefore, the Only-begotten, fulfilling the will of the Father, already demonstrated that all things are perfected... for the Father knew the day and the hour, He knew it both by knowledge and by action; for He Himself knew all things. And when the Son says: "The Father..."

^A has given all judgment to the Son," even if He does not judge, yet by the very fact that He grants the office and duty of judging to the Son, He Himself must be considered to judge; for God is not alien to exercising judgment upon the guilty, and though the Father does not judge, He has already judged. But the Son knows when that day is to come: for He Himself brings it forth and defines it, He prepares and accomplishes it. For thus He speaks: "As a thief in the night, so that day will come." Then that word: "Do not dwell in the night, lest that day overtake you in darkness." Why, therefore, since the servants of Christ are children of the day, could the Son, who brings it about, be ignorant of it, so that the day might overtake Him, and not rather that He Himself brings the day? Who, contemplating these things, would not blaspheme, by imagining what is unworthy concerning the Father and the Son? Therefore, the Father knows that day and hour in two ways, that is, by knowledge and by action; for He knows when it will be, and He has already judged, since He has determined that the Son shall judge, and thus He has known it by action itself. Moreover, the Son of God knows when that day is to come, and He Himself brings it, and is not ignorant; yet He has not yet performed it according to knowledge, that is, according to action ^B; for even now the impious act impiously, and the faithless hold to their unbelief, and the wicked blaspheme, or the devil is at work, and... ^C [The Latin text continues with scholarly apparatus and commentary regarding the interpretation of St. Epiphanius, the Agnoetae, and the patristic tradition concerning the knowledge of Christ; this analytical section continues to the end of the page.] ^D

^A and the unbelievers disbelieve, and the malicious blaspheme, and the devil works, and sins occur, and injustice prevails, and the judgment waits patiently—until it shall come, and He shall know it according to the action, and shall execute vengeance, and save those who place their hope in truth in Him, and who do not blaspheme His divinity, that of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

XXII. Concerning the holy angels, such dignity is lacking in two ways. For while they are honorable, having obtained this from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, it is nevertheless lacking to them: for they do not know when the appointed things shall be. For the Father has set the times by His own authority. But if the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, then the authority which is in the Father is not absent from the Son. But it is absent from the angels, for angels and archangels and ^B powers are created. But the Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Spirit of God is uncreated. Therefore, the angels possess knowledge neither according to understanding nor according to action of that day and that hour. For they do not know when the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit wish to bring about that day. And they do not know by knowledge of the action; for they have not yet been commanded to go forth and gather them like weeds, and tie them into bundles, to be burned with unquenchable fire. ^C Thus, then, they have neither acted, nor do they know; but the Father knows and has acted; and the Son knows, but has not yet acted—that is to say: "Except the Father alone," neither the angels, nor the Son. Let us understand the power of the Scripture, so that the letter may not become death for us. For "the letter," it says, "kills, but the Spirit gives life." Let us take the Spirit, so that we may be benefited by the letter. Does the letter not kill? In the letter is life; it kills him who approaches the letter without understanding, and who does not possess the Spirit that explains, ^D that opens the letter, and reveals what is in it. Thus, then, the holy Father gave His own only-begotten Son, genuinely begotten of Him, and His Holy Spirit to His holy Church, in one knowledge of concord, in one bond of perfection; so that in the name of the perfect Father and God we might receive the seal, and in the name of the perfect Son and God, and in the name of the holy and perfect Spirit, we might receive the seal. The Trinity is holy, numbered, a Trinity numbered in one name! For it is not called a unity and a duality, nor a monad and a monad; but a monad in Trinity, and a Trinity in unity, monadically, mononymously.

in singular form, and in a singular appellation, one God, Father in the Son, Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit.

^C XXIII. Come now, bring forward for me the witnesses of the truth, I mean those youths who were delivered from the Babylonian furnace, who were deemed worthy to be cast into the fire and not to be consumed. Indeed, the fire was not extinguished, lest they might appear to have resisted the flame by some new artifice, but they remained in the fire, yet were not destroyed by it; and this was on account of their sincere faith, through whom God wished to teach us what things are created and what are uncreated, what are made and what were never made, what are eternal and what were produced by those eternal things. Those youths, therefore, who were saved from the fire desired to testify to their mind and purpose of gratitude toward the God by whom they had been saved and in whom they had hoped from the beginning; they did not hesitate, nor did they bend their neck to an idol, or to the audacity and tyranny of the king. ^B And when they desired to offer something to God, having searched into the depths by the Holy Spirit in their hearts—being holy men—and having considered both the heaven and all things that are in it, and the earth and all that is beneath it, and all things that exist, they realized that they were not worthy to be offered as a gift to God (for they did not have the authority to offer to God things greater than themselves), and wishing only to praise and celebrate God with hymns according to his dignity and their own capacity. For this is what is written: *Sacrifice the sacrifice of praise* (Ps. CXVI, 17); and, *A sacrifice of praise shall glorify me* (Ps. XLIX, 23). For having already transformed the Old into the New Testament, being subjected to the Holy Spirit, they needed no sacrifice of animals nor burnt offerings; for they say: *There is no place for sacrifice, nor oblation, nor altar* (Dan. III, 38); because they had left all things behind. Wishing therefore to offer such praise, having no regard for their own meanness, they are borne along with the greatest humility toward divine praises; *For every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted* (Luc. XVIII, 14). Having obtained this very gift of humility and modesty along with the benefit of their own salvation, and having set themselves to celebrate that glory of God not as ungrateful persons, they call upon every creature to share in that proclamation, and together with all the works joined to themselves, they begin to sing.

^C XXIV. Furthermore, discerning the works from the Worker, and the created things from the Creator, they spoke in this manner: *Bless the Lord, all ye works of the Lord* (Dan. III, 57). They said "all," they left nothing behind. But that the Holy Spirit might characterize the perfect knowledge, in order to know what

^A the Divine is, and what things were made by God, so that we might not commingle things made from nothing with that which is eternal, nor bring destruction upon our own intellect, they gathered everything together by number. For the Holy Spirit revealed to them, as having been deemed worthy to be with the angels, and having become fellow-inhabitants of the angels, the things in heaven and the things on earth, and the things beneath the earth; and henceforth they were no longer ignorant. And the same holy youths say, as I said before: "Bless the Lord, all ye works of the Lord" (Dan. III, 57). And they begin to number and distinguish what the works are, who the authors of the works are, what the manufactures are, who the artificers are, and what the things wrought are. And they recount heaven, earth, the waters ^B above the heaven, and the angels—for the angels were created—and thrones and powers—for these were created—the sun, the moon, for they are created, not uncreated; clouds and snowstorms, winds, lightning, thunder, earth, sea, fountains, abysses, rivers, all mankind, mountains, birds of the air, cattle and beasts, the souls of the holy, the spirits of the just, Ananias, Azarias, Misael, the priests and servants of God. For all these things are created and made, having been brought into being by God through the Word and the Holy Spirit. "For by the Word of the Lord were the heavens established, and all their power by the Spirit of His mouth" (Ps. XXXII, 6). See, beloved brother, how they numbered all things, being borne along by the Holy Spirit, and did not number the Son among created things, nor likewise the Holy Spirit; but they knew the same Godhead to be in the Trinity, and the same Trinity in one Godhead, and they glorified the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father ^C with the Holy Spirit—one holiness, one worship, one Godhead, one doxology.

XXV. But the devil in any case dares to stir this up among men, and to impute a boldness of unbelief to the holy youths, and to invent and say: "They knew not how to speak the name of the Holy Spirit, for they were Jews; and they did not even know the Son, being Jews." But the words immediately refute the unbelief of the heterodox. For it says: "And the appearance of the fourth was like the appearance of a Son of God; behold the name of the Son of God" (Dan. III, 25). Therefore there is no ignorance regarding this. And before the time of the furnace, because Daniel was filled with the Holy Spirit and said: "I am pure from her blood" (Dan. XIII, 46), and they returned to the court; and he judged the elders, being filled with the Holy Spirit; therefore they knew the Son, and they knew the Father and the Holy Spirit, ^D and were not—

^A led by ignorance, but by a desire for security and caution that they would not name them individually. "Bless," they say, "all works of the Lord, the Lord;" and they do not say, "Bless, O Son of God, the Lord," or "Bless, O Holy Spirit, the Lord," but rather, "Bless, all works of the Lord, the Lord." And lest some captious seeker of pretexts or arguments should object that not even the cherubim or seraphim were named, from which it might seem to follow that they are not even themselves works of God, the divine discourse took care to provide a safeguard beforehand, foreseeing the damage to them and to the boys. For the holy boys tripled their hymn, they who brought forward all created and made things for the praise of God, saying first: "Blessed are you, O Lord the God of our fathers, and praiseworthy and glorious is your name forever." Then, after some intervening words: "Blessed are you who sit upon the cherubim." And again: "Blessed are you who sit on the throne of the glory of your kingdom." And: "Blessed are you who look upon the deeps, sitting upon the cherubim," so that from the mention of the throne, you might understand the seraphim and cherubim; and from the name of the cherubim, and the deeps, and the consecrated throne, and all the other names, you might perceive from the number of all those named that they are to be numbered among the works to be recounted, and that it is necessary to count them with the others. For when they had called all ^B of those things to praise God, they immediately add: "Bless, all works of the Lord, the Lord;" surely so that Gabriel and Michael might praise the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

XXVI. Moreover, the venerable angels in heaven sing the triumphal hymn, together with the seraphim and cherubim, glorifying the Trinity with equal glory, order, and substance, saying, "Holy, holy, holy." They utter three voices indeed, but express them in the singular, not in the plural. They did not add a fourth "Holy," lest they should add something to the naming of the Trinity; nor do they say "Holy" only twice, lest anything should be lacking to the glory of perfection; but they use the word three times, so that they might sanctify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit with the same honor. And they do not say "Holy and semi-holy," but rather they express "Holy" everywhere equally, so that with one voice, one utterance, and one perfection they might celebrate both the Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity. For the only-begotten Son of God came to teach us this knowledge; the Holy Spirit proclaimed this understanding to us; the Father revealed this perfection; the incarnate Word truly bestowed this life; the Holy Spirit built this edifice for us: "For if anyone builds upon this foundation gold, ^D silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw," says the Apostle. For there is no other foundation. "For no one can lay another foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ," the Son of God, of whom we are the building, and of whom we are the farm, having been built

upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, so that we might know our structure to be firm in the truth, and that our foundation is eternal, having had no beginning of its existence. But ^A knowledge is not in all, according to the apostolic word, but only in those who have been deemed worthy by the Holy Spirit to know the mysteries of the truth. For he himself who revealed himself and his Father and the Holy Spirit, rebuking some who were laboring in ignorance, said: "You know not the Scriptures, neither the power of them." And again in another place: "He that has ears to hear, let him hear." And again, speaking to the Samaritan woman: "If you knew who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked of him." And again: "You know not of what spirit you are." Therefore, knowledge is not in all; for they have different gifts from God, and the holy word says: "To whom much is given, ^B more will be required of him," as some receive a little, some nothing at all, and others have received more abundantly.

XXVII.

on the contrary, when they hear the oracles pertaining to the incarnation of Christ, but perceive them shallowly and meagerly, are all the more troubled; and they use what was written for our edification for their own ruin and destruction. For they object: "But Christ said, *I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God*." ^A Do you see how they would count him among created things? For they brandish this as a supreme insult against God.

33 XXVIII. Do you now observe how the Savior’s incarnation provides an occasion for their error? Let them go back to what was from the beginning, and let them inquire about the times and seasons. *For his goings forth,* it says, *are from the days of eternity.* Let us see, therefore, the things that came before. The Father spoke in this manner: *Let us make man after our image and likeness.* He did not say: "I will make man after my image." These words themselves ought to refute you, whoever has a heart hardened, as it is written: *But their heart was hardened.* Learn from this that the Son has always existed with the Father. For this word, *Let us make*, does not signify one only, but expresses the Father speaking with the Son. Let that same expression also refute you, whoever you are who thinks the Son is unlike the Father. ^B For in the very fact that He says *after our image*, He did not separate the likeness of the Son from the Father, nor did He divide in any way the identity of the Father from the Son. For He did not say "after my image" or "after your image," but showed the one substance and divinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For He says, *after our image and likeness*, so that the divinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is understood to be one, and man has come to be after the image of the one divinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Be refuted also, Arius, and hear the Father saying to the Son, *Let us make*, calling the Son a co-creator. For I have frequently heard some saying that the Son made nothing, but that it was through Him that the things that were made came to be. ^C If they were made through Him, then He too made them, as we have clearly demonstrated. For the master architect, the Word, is the maker of all things, and through Him the Father works. Let them hear Him saying this clearly: *My Father worketh hitherto, and I work*; and here He calls the Father His own co-creator in saying this. But again, let not your mind deceive you, and do not approach the Son as a servant, and not as a true and legitimate Lord. For if He were a servant and not the true Lord, how did He who exists in the form of God take upon Himself the form of a servant when He came? ^D And how did He call the Father his co-creator, if He did not possess the fullness? As to God, therefore, perfect…

^A and legitimate Son proceeding from the Father, approach Him.

XXIX. And do not, out of a perverted state of mind, object to us: "The Father indeed said to the Son, *Let us make*, but the Son did not in turn say to the Father, *Let us make*"; and that the Son does not say, *My Father is working, and I am working*, but he positions the Father as speaking and working in the first place. You say this foolishly, and you would seem to want to divide the Divinity into multiple principles; but there is one principle, and the same one Divinity. Nowhere, indeed, according to His divinity, does the Son say, "My God," not because the Son denies the honor due to the Father, but I am setting forth what is consistent with Divinity. ^B Again: *Adam heard*, he says, *God walking in the paradise in the evening*; and nowhere does the Son say, "My God and your God," but He calls Him God absolutely here. And again: *And God spoke to Noah*, and nowhere is such an expression reported. And, he says, *God appeared to Abraham, while he was sitting by the oak of Mamre; and behold three men, and he ran to meet them, and he bowed down to the earth, and said, If I have found favor before you*, so that He might show the one God, and the other two who accompanied Him were His angels. For regarding this it says also, *And God went up from Abraham*; and He who came to him says, *Shall I hide anything from my servant Abraham? The cry*, he says, *of Sodom and Gomorrah has been multiplied before me*, and what follows. (And nowhere in these times is it reported ^C saying, "My God and your God.") And the two men entered Sodom; as He who had gone up above Abraham had been left behind by the two who had entered Sodom for the destruction. And regarding Him who had gone up, the Scripture says: *And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and sulfur from the Lord.* And there was no need of the expression to say, "My God and your God." And Moses also says in his song: *And let all the angels of God worship Him.* And if he says "angels of God," and "fire from the Lord," and does not say "angels only," he says this in order to show the kingship of the Father and the Son, and that the angels are not divided into separate powers, but are angels of God, and they worship the Son and God; for an angel does not worship an angel. And nowhere ^D here is "My God and your God."

35 XXX. To this David says: *The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies as a footstool for your feet.* For the Lord, he says, to my Lord; for the dispensation of the flesh did not yet exist, for the sake of which there was a need for Him to say, "My God and your God." And, *Behold the virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bear a son; and you shall call*

^A His name Emmanuel, which is translated, God with us. And it was not yet time to say, "My God and your God." — *And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrath, you are not the least among the thousands of Judah; for out of you shall come forth to me one who is to be ruler in Israel, and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity.* And according to other manuscripts: *And you, Bethlehem, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come forth a leader, and he shall shepherd my people Israel.* And you see that there was ^B not yet a need to say, "My God and your God"? But when the prophecy of Jeremiah and Isaiah was being fulfilled—which likewise foretold that the Word would be born of a virgin and would take on flesh, just as Jeremiah says: *And it is a man, and who shall know him?*—then, having partaken of flesh, and having fashioned that same holy flesh for Himself from the Theotokos Mary without the seed of a man, according to what is said, *born of a woman*, and having partaken of our nature for the sake of our own, He says, "My God." But because of the eternal ^C nature of His genuineness, He says, "My Father"; and because of the grace He bestowed upon His own disciples, He adds, "your Father"; and because of their nature (as disciples) in relation to His divinity and the eternity of His Father, He says, "your God." For He is the God of the disciples; the Father of the Lord by nature, but the Father of the disciples by grace; and He is the God of the Son because of the flesh, but His Father because of His eternal and incomprehensible generation and genuineness; for He is truly His Father, having begotten Him timelessly and without beginning according to the divinity. Yet He needed to call Him God, because of the economy which He accomplished for us, He who was always the Word, begotten of the Father without beginning, but in the last days born in the flesh from Mary, and born from Mary, the same holy Virgin, by the Holy Spirit.

^C 31. Let them, therefore, understand the deep things of God's administration, and not turn grace into ingratitude, thinking that the salvation administered for us by Him is a disgrace to the ineffable and incomprehensible nature of God. But, they say, it is written of God: *He shall not hunger, nor thirst, and there is no searching of His understanding*; yet on the other hand, concerning the Son, we read that He hungered in the wilderness after the temptation. Likewise: *He says, God shall not grow weary*; yet the Lord Jesus was weary from the journey. And, *He shall not slumber, nor shall he sleep who keeps Israel*; yet it is said that the Lord ^D slept in the boat. O vain thoughts of those who reason such things in their mind! For the holy Word, coming for our sake, not only took upon Himself our burdens, but also became subject to touch, and took on flesh, and...

[alt-version omitted]

was found as a man, and was apprehended by the Scribes, and gave His back to the scourges, and, "My face I did not turn away from the shame of spitting." But He also wept—this lies in the Gospel according to Luke, in the uncorrected copies—and the holy Irenæus used this testimony in his *Against Heresies* to refute those who said that Christ appeared only in semblance. But the orthodox removed the phrase, having become afraid and not understanding its end and its most powerful purpose. And becoming in an agony, He sweated, and His sweat became as drops of blood, and an angel appeared strengthening Him. And not only this, but as a man He asks: "Where have you laid Lazarus?" And concerning the woman with the flow of blood: "Who touched me?" And concerning those seeking Him: "Whom do you seek?" But also as a man He asks His disciples: "Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" But also, "How many loaves have you with you?" He asked. Wearied from the journey, He sat by the well in Samaria. But also, "The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and Jesus increased in age and wisdom." But also, "Before the child shall know to call father or mother, he shall receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria"—He who is Wisdom itself and teaches men knowledge, who planted the ear in man and gave distinct and articulated speech to the sons of men, and made the tongue of the stammerers clear—all such things He endured for our sake, in order that, by keeping the whole consistency of the incarnation accomplished for our sake, He might not obliterate the character of the truth.

^B XXXII. But that we may not allow those testimonies which we have brought forth—which were cited by the adversaries against the truth from the Holy Scriptures, but were wrongly understood by them—to remain unexplained, we shall discuss in this place the theory of the power of each saying, and for what reason it was said in a way befitting human weakness. And again, we shall speak at length when we treat of the words, "My God and your God," so that from the very context of the utterance any prudent person may be able to recognize ^C as it is—to one who has the mind to know—that it was reasonably said in such a sequence, "For he is man, and who shall know..."

him?" ^A In this the divine Scripture reveals two things: that which is visible and that which is invisible. For the visible part, it is reasonably said "my God," and for the invisible part, "my Father," without contradiction of either phrase to the Word. For how, if he were merely a man, would he not be known? And if he were not a man, how was he called a man? For certainly everyone who is born of humans is known by humans: by the one who bore him, by relatives, by kin, by neighbors, by those who dwell together, or by fellow citizens. And it is impossible for this to be fulfilled in a mere man; but it is fulfilled in the Word who is God and Son of God, in the saying, "He is man, in truth, but who shall know him?" Because he is God—for he partakes of both—and he is both man and God, unknown to men because of his incomprehensibility; yet a man truly born of Mary without the seed of a man. "And the virgin shall conceive in the womb," for the prophet was proclaiming that which was to come from the fullness of time: "And the virgin shall conceive in the womb." For the words "She shall bring forth a son" signify something future. If, therefore, it is a virgin, the arrangement of the conception is not from men, because it was said before this time to Ahaz, "Ask for yourself a sign into the depth or into the height." ^B But he, being humble-minded, says, "I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord my God," refusing to ask for a sign. But immediately, because he would not ask for a sign, God, who bestows great gifts upon men, grants two gifts: from the height, the Word, by his own will and by the will of the Word himself he sent him; and from the depth, the flesh, having arranged the mystery of the flesh assumed together with the Word himself. For he says afterward, "And they shall call his name Emmanuel." He did not say, "I will call," but, "They shall call"; for God, who was unknown to them, was being revealed to men. But he does not receive the name just now; for he did not say, "I will call his name Emmanuel," but, "They shall call." ^C And in the same place he reveals the two, for the divine word is visible and invisible; for the visible part, "my God" is reasonably said, and for the invisible part, "my Father" is said, without either application being contested by the Word.

[Editorial note: The paragraph beginning "Deus. Haec Hieronymus..." in the Latin column serves as an analytical apparatus regarding the interpretation of Isaiah and the behavior of Ahaz; it does not contain the primary text of the *Ancoratus* being translated.] ^D

^A XXXIII. But these words, "born of a woman," were written, as I have said before, so that the expression "born" might have its force in the fact that he was generated by a woman, so that in the meantime the eternal Word might be clearly shown to all. But that saying, "he shall not thirst," if it is understood of God; since it is written of the Son that he hungered and thirsted, it is necessary that all of that was assumed for our sake. For how, in the end, would the incarnation be found to be true, unless it bore before it the necessity and custom natural to man? For in this way he taught us to dissolve all the questions which are objected by the heretics. And first of all, he removes the false opinion of the Manichaeans: for the fact that he is said to have eaten and drunk declares that his flesh was real. To these he overturns the error of the Lucianists and the arguments of Arius. Indeed, Lucianus and all the Lucianists deny that the Son of God assumed a soul; they say he wore only flesh, so that by this pretext they might attribute to the divine Word human affections—thirst, hunger, ^B and weariness, and weeping, and grief, and perturbation, and whatever else is found in his incarnate presence. It would be foolish to attribute these things to the divinity of the Son of God. But, they say, flesh by itself neither eats, nor drinks, nor is weary, nor does other things. And I myself agree that flesh by itself does not have these things. But the Word, having come, took up the whole economy, both flesh and soul and whatever consists in man; and the parts belonging to the soul and the flesh were hunger and weariness, and thirst and grief, and the rest. For he weeps in order to refute the error of Manichaeus, that the body was not worn in appearance, but in truth. And he thirsts, in order to show that he possesses not only flesh, but also a soul. For his divinity did not thirst anywhere, but he thirsted in his soul, and he grew weary from the journey because of the sequence of flesh and soul.

^{C D} XXXIV. That the Word came possessing both body and soul, let the divine Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments persuade them. For indeed David speaks of him, and Peter agrees with David: "You will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you give your Holy One to see corruption." This is so that the composite nature of the Lord's man might be understood, and sure knowledge concerning him might be established for us, that he might demonstrate that his soul was sent down with his divinity during that three-day period, that he might show the flesh to be holy, and that with his soul he had perfected the mystery while his divinity was unrestrained in hell. For there is also another testimony somewhere which says: "Free among the dead." That word "free" signifies that hell did not have dominion over him, but that he had descended to hell along with his soul by his own will. And Peter says: "Inasmuch as it was not possible for him to be held by it," that is, by hell. And the Saviour himself says: "I have power to take my soul, and to lay it down; and, I am the good shepherd, who lays down his soul for the sheep." And: "My soul is troubled," he says, "and what shall I say?" as though speaking in doubt: "What shall I say? Fa-

^Ather, save me from this hour. But for this cause I came to this hour," that he might show that his divinity came to this of its own will. And the phrase "is troubled" is used so that the true and proper form of the human nature he assumed might not be disturbed, for his incarnation was not merely a shadow or semblance. But just as a very powerful king, when waging war against someone of lower rank, knowing that if the enemy sees him coming with great strength and power, he will refuse battle and turn to flight, and will lay waste many of the provinces under him—knowing these things, I say, the king prudently deceives him with his own stratagems, turning his back and fleeing, until the enemy, taking courage, makes an assault upon him as upon a timid and weak king, and pursues him; and then the king, suddenly turning with his forces, captures and brings into subjection the weak and hostile one: so also our Lord did not fear death, he who, before he came to suffer, signified on the journey that it was to happen that the Son of man would be betrayed and crucified, and on the third day rise again. And when Peter said, "Mercy on you, Lord; this shall never happen to you," Christ rebuked him with these words: "Get behind me, Satan, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men." He, therefore, who had predicted these future things, who had come for the sake of this very matter, how could he later pray that the cup might pass from him, so that he would not drink it? He who had spoken of his death before he died, could not, even if only so as not to be convicted of falsehood, pray that that cup might pass from him. But by such a manner he provokes his adversary, so that when the latter supposed the Savior feared death, he might bring death upon him for the salvation of those who were to die, by means of the dispensation—a thing which was accomplished with singular wisdom. And if you should also hear that the Lord is dead, learn where that death was undergone. For the prince of the apostles, Peter, explains to you that business of his death with these words: "Being put to death in the flesh, but brought to life in the spirit."^B For his divinity, while undergoing the suffering of the flesh, is nevertheless devoid of suffering, and was devoid of it, and remained devoid of it, since that condition of not suffering was not changed, nor was his eternity extinguished.

XXXV. But those most vain men object: You cannot persuade us with these words that Christ was endowed with a soul, since in the sacred Scriptures we read that Isaiah spoke from the person of God and the Father concerning the Only-Begotten: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: whom my soul has loved." What then shall we think concerning the Father? Whether he had a soul in himself, or still has one? Who is so demented as to suspect these things regarding the Father? What then do they say? ^D

^A That it has been spoken figuratively, of course. If therefore they say that it has been spoken figuratively regarding the Father, then one ought to accept the same regarding the Son. For even if he says, "My soul is troubled," and, "[I have power] to lay down my soul and to take it again," they say he did not have a soul, but it was spoken figuratively. And his syllogistic 35 reasoning seems to be saying something, though the truth itself is self-established by many proofs. For every mode is derived from the form. For on the one hand, regarding the Father, one dare not do this, because he did not put on flesh. But since the flesh is acknowledged by the Lucianists, if therefore by the Arians, there is no ambiguity. But, he says, "The Word became flesh," and he did not say, "The Word became flesh and soul." But against their ignorant objection I too say, that God "formed man," having taken dust from the earth; and by the word "he formed" he encompassed all things, and by the word "The Word became flesh," he contains all things. For by the same logic we counter-argue them, and they themselves say: Behold, he says, "God formed man," and he did not say, "He fashioned for him a liver, or a lung, or a heart, or veins, or nerves, or the other things which are in the body; shall we therefore think that man is some one thing ^B forged in one piece, because Scripture did not minutely detail the composition of the whole animal? Not at all. As therefore from the one form it encompassed the whole, so also from the flesh it is clear that the Savior took on the soul.

XXXVI

^A or strike with blows such an ineffable and incomprehensible being? But if the impassible Word of God has undergone these things, is the passion then corporeal, apart from his impassibility? Yet it is not apart from it either, because he willed it; although he himself did not suffer, the passion is reckoned to him. Just as a stain on a garment does not reach the body of the one who wears it, but the stain on the garment is reckoned to the wearer, so God has suffered in the flesh, his divinity having suffered nothing, yet the passion of the flesh, which was worn by the divinity, was reckoned to the divinity, in order that in the divinity salvation might be accomplished for us.

XXXVII. Memorial of the text according to the Gospel of Luke

^B I also remember the passage from the Gospel of Luke, and I do not wish to leave it uninterpreted: the record that "being in an agony, he sweated, and his sweat became as drops of blood." An angel of the Lord appeared to him, strengthening him. The deeper matters of the words—as we are accustomed to say—and the necessary ones are, by those who do not understand their power, turned to their own ruin rather than to benefit, instead of toward good. For there is nothing more timely than this. For in saying that "he was in an agony," it shows the Lord's man as a true man. And in order to show that he was a true man, ^C and that the agony did not come from the divinity, it says "he sweated, and his sweat became as drops of blood." This form is corporeal, not spiritual. But an angel of the Lord appeared strengthening him—not that the One who is greater than the angels, to whom every knee bends of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, being God the Word—who is always with the Father and was begotten from Him—stood in need of the strength of an angel. Rather, it was in order to fulfill ^D what was written in the great song of Moses which was sung in the wilderness, in which he said: "Let all the sons of God worship him, and let the angels of God strengthen him." By "strengthen him," it does not mean that they provided him with strength, but since the doxology is powerful to glorify God in these things—when it is shouted by angels above and by spiritual living creatures, saying, "Thine is the power, thine is the rule, thine is the strength"—in this they show the worshiping and the strengthening, that is, giving to him the kingdom that is proper to his power. Thus even the angel was seen before the disciples, worshiping his own Master, not being ignorant of the excellence of his most benevolent dispensation; but marveling at such a management of meekness that took place in him, which defeated the devil, crushed the sting of death, triumphed over the principalities and powers, shattered sin, and because of the greatness of the wondrousness, the angel in his doxology said, while worshiping: Thine is the strength, O Master. For thou didst prevail over death, and over hades, and over the devil.

^A that the devil was routed, the sting of death crushed, the principalities and powers led away as in a triumph, and the force of sin broken, the angel, in the magnitude of his astonishment, cried out in that proclamation of his: "Yours is the power, O Lord." For you have been superior to death and the underworld and the devil; you have crushed his sting and driven him away from the human race.

XXXVIII. Concerning what is asserted regarding the human nature of the Lord.

But if any one should say again, "Where have you laid Lazarus?"—speaking in a human manner; or, concerning the woman with the issue of blood, "Who touched me?"; or, "Whom do you seek?"; or, "Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?"; or, "The child grew and waxed strong"; or, "He increased in wisdom and stature"; or, "Before the child knows how to call father or mother"—do you not perceive from the very subject matter the surpassing knowledge, how these accounts refer to flesh and humanity? For whatever things in the Old Testament are said from the person of God and the Father, and are brought down to the level of human persuasion, involving ignorance—though they are not actually unknown to God—the Word, having come, has fulfilled, so that he might bring to completion what was said: "My Father works until now, and I work."

"Where have you laid Lazarus?" he asked, having come near to the place. But before coming to the place, having heard from no one, he said to his disciples: "Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep." He, therefore, standing at such a distance from the place, having known that Lazarus was dead, could he be ignorant being present at the place? By no means, I think. But he wished to show that while he was doing all these admirable things, no one yet believed in him perfectly, so that he might demonstrate the great philanthropy of his forbearance toward us. For it behooved those women not to say, "He has been four days, he now stinks," nor to depart and point the way, but rather to speak thus: "You know all things, and if you will, he will live again." ^B Because of these reasons, Christ weeps over the hardness of men's hearts. He asks, therefore, not as one ignorant, but he examines by testing, and he acts with philanthropy. And, "Who touched me?" he says, not because he did not know who touched him, but so that the woman might not herself speak of the miracle that had occurred, but rather that she, having heard and approached, might declare the grace that had come to her, and having confessed, might hear: "Your faith has saved you," in order that he might encourage others also to believe, so that they might be healed. "Whom," he says, "do they say that I, the Son of man, am?"—just as in the Old Testament, the Father is introduced speaking: "Adam, where are you?" Yet he knew where he was, and for this reason he convicts him later, saying: "Have you eaten from the tree?" And to Cain: "Where is Abel your brother?" and he did not ask out of ignorance. ^C For he says: "Cursed are you upon the earth, which has opened to receive the blood of your brother from your hand. For behold, his blood cries out to me." The one speaking, therefore, was not ignorant that the blood cries out; but he asked so that by giving him space for repentance, he might provide him an opportunity for defense. ^D

^A XXXIX. But they turn again to their stubbornness of ignorance, and assert that these voices in the Old Testament belong to the Son. But their practice is immediately refuted. For He who said to Moses, "What is this that you have in your hand?" (Exod. 4, 2) is the same who added, "I am who I am" (Exod. 3, 14). Then, the Lord indeed, while disputing with the Sadducees concerning the resurrection, said: "But that the dead rise, God said: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is therefore God of the living, and not of the dead" (Marc. 12, 26, 27). I could mention many other things which were said in the Old Testament in the person of the Father. Although some things are also frequently sprinkled therein from the person of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. "Where," he asks, "is Sara your wife?" (Gen. 18, 9). This the Son of God, who had descended from heaven with two angels, said to Abraham. For if He were ignorant of where she was, He would not have said, "Sara laughed therefore within the house." By these words He wished to show her modesty and gravity, and to propose an example ^B to those who wish to follow piety from the heart, so that, as often as they entertain strangers, they might serve them with their own labor in such a way that, mindful of modesty, they might withdraw their faces from the sight of men. For that blessed woman indeed prepared the meal for them; having performed this office, she did not show herself to be seen by the angels; a memorable example of modesty and gravity for posterity. But so that it might be understood what kind of guest was present, He expressed the name of the woman: that one, I say, who was received in hospitality at that time; so that it might be manifest that neither her name, nor her work, nor any thought of man could be hidden from Him. But as for that which follows: "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" (Matth. 16, 13) — He confesses Himself to be the Son of man in this place so that they might not believe Him to be inquiring about Him who could not be seen. When the disciples answered, "Elias, and Jeremias, and John," He said: "But whom do you say that I am?" "You are," Peter said, "the Christ, the Son of the living God." He soon proclaims him blessed. For He was not inquiring because He was ignorant, but wishing to show that the teaching is of the Father which proclaims the Son as true to the Church; so that Peter was forced to say what he had been taught by the Father.

^C XL. And you should not marvel if He says, "By me they enter to the Father" (Joan. 14, 6), or that you should on this account imagine Him different from the Father's substance; for He Himself again teaches in another place, saying: "No one comes to me, unless the Father draw him" (Joan. 6, 44). Therefore, just as the Father sends to the Son, so the Son leads to the Father, so that He may show them to be one and the same Divinity. Now regarding that which is written: "He advanced in age and wisdom" (Luc. 2, 52); He is the Wisdom of God, and wisdom does not lack wisdom. But when He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant (Philipp. 2, 7), nothing was taken away from that which was full and perfect; but He wished to show this one thing, that He was poured out from heaven into humanity, that is to say, into the workshop of Mary.

For an ointment, he says, is poured out ^A into your name. He did not say "poured forth," but "poured out," from heaven, that is to say, down to the earth; where, from the earth, He is brought into Mary, and being made flesh from Mary, is brought forth in the womb, is born in Bethlehem, passes from Bethlehem to Nazareth, from Nazareth to Capharnaum, from Capharnaum to Jerusalem and into the sea when He walked upon the waters, and to the regions of Tyre, and to Nain, and to Judaea, and to Jericho, and to Bethphage and Bethany, and to the temple in Jerusalem, and to the Mount of Olives, and to Gethsemani, to the house of Caiaphas, to the praetorium, and to Herod, to the place of Golgotha, to the tomb, and even to Hades, to the earth after the resurrection, and to the heavens. For an ointment poured out from one vessel into another perfumes all the vessels. And the presence of Christ from heaven has sanctified the whole earth, those who receive Him in truth; He is that mountain, and a great one indeed, ^B of which Daniel makes mention: A stone cut without hands, that is, begotten without the seed of a man. Though it was small, it was later discovered to be greater; a stone, I say, which afterwards reached a great size and grew into a lofty mountain, which mountain is not circumscribed by a specific place, but has filled the whole world with its magnitude. Being Wisdom, and having become man, He extended His power to the world, so that He might fill the world with grace, and He progressed in age and wisdom. For since He is the Wisdom of the Father, and He who taught men to speak and endowed men with language, and fashioned the ear for those who hear, how was He not required to call Him Father or Mother? He shall take the power of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria, and so forth. But since, if He had been born from the womb and immediately spoken, and had clearly articulated words as though He were a youth, it might have been thought to be a fantasy and not true, or rather, that His incarnation was Docetic, for this reason He endures the smallness of age, lest He should destroy the truth of that which was consistent and logical.

XLI. The Adversaries' Objections regarding Christ's Human Nature

XLI. They proceed, moreover, and attempt to entangle the divine Scriptures with certain absurd opinions, and they object thus: "For what reason then is it written: *Take the high priest of our confession, who is faithful to Him who made Him*? And: *Let it be known to all the house of Israel, that this Jesus whom you crucified, God has made Him Lord and Christ*?" ^C And a great wonder comes over me, how those who profess to handle the consequence of the passages of Scripture are ignorant of the force and meaning contained within them. For these words, "Take the high priest, faithful to Him who made Him," do not refer to His divinity. For God has come, and all things are laid out for us clearly in the holy Scriptures; for there is nothing crooked or gnarled in them, but all things are plain to those who understand, and right to those who find knowledge. For take, He says, instruction,

^A *For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices*. For this reason the Only-Begotten himself, since He came to become man for the sake of men, took upon Himself flesh from us, so that He who had become from us might, as an offering to His own Father God, call the disciples His brothers. Where, then, is that which has been realized? Nowhere else but before the high priest: *Consider the high priest who is faithful to Him who made Him*. But to use ^B a more thorough example: suppose someone were to ask a king about his own son, and were to dare say to him, "Who is this?" And having heard a true confession from the father, "He is my son," he were to ask again, "Is he your son by nature?" And upon the king saying, "Yes," the asker were then to add, "Why then did you make him?" The king would surely say, "I made him king." Did he, by stating his rank, deny his natural birth? If he were to say the second thing, did he destroy the former one? Not at all. Thus, therefore, God and Father begat the Son without beginning, and in the flesh it was fulfilled, *He made Him high priest*.

^C XLII. For they say, it is written: *The Lord created me the beginning of His ways for His works*. But these most vain men are ignorant first of all of the very inscription and name of the book. For this book is called the Proverbs of Solomon. And everything that is said proverbially is not the same in the power of its meaning. For behold, our Lord Jesus Christ spoke in parables, and we see that the parables do not hold such a relation to our subject. For He says, *The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed*. And if we should wish to understand this according to our own mind in part, it is clear that the kingdom of heaven is a place of expanse; if, then, that which is told is a proverb, it consists of images of other things, not those very things which are expressed.

^A If, then, we wish to weigh everything individually and in parts, no one can doubt that the kingdom of heaven must be a most ample and vast place—if, indeed, the name of a place ought to be accommodated to signify that kingdom, of which God is King and Father, and God the Word and Son of God, and the holy Spirit of God, in which the angels and archangels, spiritual hosts, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the righteous dwell. Can these so great things truly be contained in a grain of mustard seed? But, without a doubt, these things are shadowed forth more obscurely through metaphor and trope. Therefore, a proverb is not the same as the truth of the thing. Similarly, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a woman who, when she had ten drachmas and had lost one, lit a lamp and found it. And it is compared to a net cast into the sea, and to seed sown upon the earth. All these things are told obscurely and figuratively, and are not the same in force and property. Furthermore, we do not know for certain if the writer of Proverbs, Solomon, spoke this word concerning the Son of God. For there is wisdom and ^B wisdom. The Apostle therefore knows how to say: "The world knew not God through the wisdom of God," and "God made foolish the wisdom of the world." And again he says, "Not in carnal wisdom, but by the power of God." And Solomon knows how to call something wisdom, saying: "I became enamored of her beauty, and I took her to myself as a bride." And Job knows of wisdom, and says: "But where is wisdom found? And what is the place of understanding?" And, "The wisdom of the poor man is despised." And He himself is the corrector of wisdom; and, "The wisdom of the Father is the Only-begotten."

^C XLIII. What, then, shall we say? If the Son is the wisdom of the Father, and yet he did not proceed from Him—the Word himself, I say, and God, and being wisdom—does it follow that the Father is devoid of wisdom in himself? How then [can it be said] of the One God, "to the wise, invisible God"? And all these things are incomprehensible and infinite to men. God gave wisdom to Solomon, and filled Bezalel with wisdom; and, "Wise men hide dishonor." Much can be said about wisdom. But that wisdom of the Father is unique, having no other thing to be set in opposition to it. Nevertheless, if the discourse were indeed being delivered about it, I would neither agree nor dissent, but I leave the knowing of it to God; for I am constrained when I see those things which are said set in opposition. "For He created," he says, "the beginning of His ways for His works, before the age He established me; and before all the hills He begets me." How then is that which is begotten established? ^D

^A For if that which is begotten were something created, it would not be begotten; for those things which we beget, we do not create, and those things which we create, we do not beget; for we are created, and the things begotten by us are created. But in God, who is uncreated, the offspring is not created; for if He begot, He did not create; but if after creating He has also begotten, how then is that which was first created afterward begotten? If, therefore, the things being spoken of pertain to Him, they are fulfilled in the incarnation. And for this reason He mentions the closer things first, and recounts the more ancient things later. For, wishing to persuade men who are closest to Him, He begins from the flesh; for the beginning of the ways of the righteousness of the Gospel is, *The Word became flesh for us in Mary*, and a soul was established in His own flesh, so that He might show the higher things later. We say, then, that He came from the paternal bosom from the heavens to the earth; since He came to us later, having completed the whole dispensation. The Word, therefore, is not a creature—far be it! And the divine Scripture would not produce anything crooked in any part whatsoever.

XLIV.

^A ...of Christ, therefore, having suffered for us in the flesh; and again, *Of whom is Christ according to the flesh*, as Paul says. And the Savior himself said in the Gospel: *But now you seek to kill me, a man who have spoken the truth to you, which I have heard from the Father*, in order to show the passion from his humanity, but to let him be known as the natural Son of the Father from above. The holy apostle Paul agrees with this teaching, saying: *There is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.* Do you see how he proclaimed him man, but not a mere man? For as to the phrase, *Mediator of God and men*, since he mediates for both sides to his own Father, being God by nature, he was born as a true God. ^B And towards men, he is a natural man, born genuinely from Mary without male seed. Thus he is the Mediator of God and men, being God, and having become man, not changing his nature, but mediating for both according to either side.

XLV.

who illuminates our minds darkened by shadows.

^B XLVI. Then they argue thus: "Since it is written that he is a creature, one must confess that he is a creature." Behold, I have explained a portion of the meanings that have reached us through these riddles of his. Let them tell us: when they call him a creature, what purpose does it serve? Is he not rightly called "door" metaphorically, so that there may be an entrance and benefit for us? And "way," so that walking through him we may not go astray? Why, then, is he called a creature for our sake? What benefit does this bring us? Indeed, the arrogant and obstinate person says: "For unless you confess him to be a creature, you attribute passion to the Father; for everyone who begets is subject to passions; either one is contracted, or dilated, or unfolded, or flows out, or swells, or experiences something of this kind." Flee from such a thought, for it is wicked and most untrue. Who would think such things about God? What kind of presumption would dare such a thing? Clearly, not even one of the demons would think such a thing. And if anyone confesses the Father, he believes that the Son has been truly begotten by him; for the Divine is not carried about in bulk, nor is it a pregnant body that it should endure the aforementioned things. For God is Spirit; and spirit does not undergo flowing, nor division, nor extension, nor diminution, nor unfolding, nor anything of the sort. Insofar, therefore, as the Father is Spirit, he has begotten the Son, God the Word, spiritually, timelessly, incomprehensibly, and without beginning.

^C XLVII. But that we may persuade those who harbor such thoughts—not by asserting that things are alike, but by refuting their wicked apology with instances from similar things—let us say: a creature is that which is infinitely and ten-thousand-fold removed from the majesty of its Master. Many people in the wilderness, when they have no fire, fill a glass vessel with water and, applying some material that readily ignites, such as linen or tow, expose it to the rays of the sun. They cast light through the glass upon the material placed underneath, and immediately it catches the fire of the sun and flares up. Does anything of the [sun's] substance, therefore, become detached through this participation? Does it fail? Is it diminished? Not at all, they say. If, therefore, nothing is taken away from a creature, how much more does the infinite, incomprehensible, and pure God, being Spirit, when begetting from himself God the Word—who can neither be expressed in speech nor comprehended by intelligence, and is incorrupt—beget that same one without such corruption, and without passion, division, or diminution, but as perfect begetting perfect in perfection? ^D And indeed, the nature of fire lights many lamps from one, and the original is not diminished. Again, the same substance can exist from many partial sources, I mean from lamps or torches. But it is not so with the Divine, God forbid! For the Word has not come to be joined with...

the Father, but the Father is Father, and the Son is Son, and the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit.

^B XLVIII. For it is foolish what is proposed by the Manichaeans, that according to the opinion of Manes, souls originating from the pillar of light become one body, and being released from bodies, they are reformed again into one substance, into that one pillar, as their mythic creation story recounts. But the Gospel does not show it so; rather, it broke [bread] from five loaves and fed five thousand, and did not leave their leftovers behind, but, "Gather," he says, "and let nothing of the fragments be lost"; and they gathered twelve baskets. And they gathered them together into the containers, but he did not wish for the fragments to be joined back into whole loaves as they were before; he gathered the whole mass, I say, yet the fragments were collected into many into a single aggregation of baskets. And we did not set forth this allegory as a hypothesis that aligns completely with the subject we are now treating. The same is to be thought of the aforementioned example of the sun: for we do not say that the loaves or the fragments are souls—God forbid!—nor do we equate God with the sun, which is created by Him, nor the Only-Begotten with the sun’s radiance that is sent into a piece of tow. Yet in this there is something similar, that those begotten souls do not coalesce into one merging—God forbid!—but are distributed into the mansions of God, as it is written: "In my Father’s house are many mansions"; they are not heaped into one mound, but each one is counted individually. And when we say that God begat His only Son, we do not on that account attribute to Him an affection, as their wicked blasphemy suggests. ^C For everyone who begets toils with passion; and following their account, one ought to call Him neither a creature nor offspring, so as not to represent God as toiling or suffering. Whence, then, have we discovered the Son, or why does He have the name of God? These are syllogisms of men, starting from earthly ways of thinking. For it is unlawful to attribute our human passions to God, since God clearly says: "My thoughts are not as your thoughts." And again: "God is not as man."

XLIX. Therefore let them cease from this blasphemy, and let them learn from the Father who says: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Again, speaking as if of things to come, he says: "For [thou art] my beloved Son, whom I chose." And then in the Canticles: "Chosen out of ten thousands."

^A Whence then is this election made, let them say. For empty-headed men think that in saying, "I have chosen," he is called Son by grace and not by nature. Let them show who is like unto him, so that having tested all, he might choose that one. For if the Son is only-begotten, there is no one equal to him, nor is anyone a contrary to be compared as being like the Son among the sons of God. For he knows these to be by grace, but in that other, no one can be equalized, because he is naturally Son. For it is manifest whence he was chosen, and whence the election is held: because there were many myriads upon the earth, and Mary alone found grace, and in her he chose the holy flesh, and for this reason, [in her] he was well pleased, as also David speaks from the person of the apostles who had believed in the Lord, and were demonstrating his grace with joy to the nations: "For he has subjected peoples to us, and nations under our feet; the beauty of Jacob which he loved," that is, the pure beauty of him, the beauty of the whole of Jacob, the flesh from Mary chosen through the Holy Spirit. The mystery of the incarnation of the flesh was revealed from above to John the Baptist by the Father; for the Father was well pleased in the presence of Christ in the flesh; ^B but the Godhead has an infinite amplitude of nature.

[L.] Furthermore, the Apostle calls him the Son of his love: "Who delivered us," he says, "from the power of darkness, and translated [us] into the kingdom of the Son of his love." Those who do not understand the force of this expression think that the Son came into being through a certain progression of God's charity; nor do these ignorant men understand the comparison of that passage with another. For in another place, the Apostle speaks thus: "God loved us in Christ." Truly the only-begotten is the beloved Son, since God is love, the Son is love, since love is from love. Therefore, he is the Son of love both for our sake and for his own, because in him he loved us, and delivered up his only Son for us. Therefore, he does not grow weary in the work of creating, nor does he suffer in begetting. Let them cease from hurling such insults in vain to their own destruction. If the Son is created, ^C he is not to be worshipped; such is their discourse. For it is foolish to worship any creature, and to violate that first commandment: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord thy God is one Lord." Therefore, the holy Word of God, since he is to be worshipped, cannot be created. But he was worshipped by the disciples, and is worshipped by the angels in heaven: "And let all the angels of God worship him," he says. Item: "Let my strength worship thee, O Lord." One thing remains to be said, and that very briefly, which cannot be gainsaid. For let those enemies of the Son of God bring forth any testimony if they have it, and show in what place the Father has said: "I have created a Son for myself," whether in the Old or in the New Testament; or where the Son has said that [I have been created].

the Son, or "I have created my Son."

^A NA. But the contentious and glory-seeking man says: "What then do you say? Is it that the body was clearly taken from Mary? And what is Mary? Is she uncreated," he asks, "or created?" Clearly she is created, and we ourselves say that she was born of a man and a woman. "What then do you say regarding that which is from Mary? Do you worship the Savior in the body, or do you not worship?" How then should I not worship? For if I do not worship, I do not have life. "Behold then, you worship a creature, the body." Great is the mental derangement of those who say such things. For indeed, a king clothed in purple is worshipped by everyone; is the purple worshipped, or the king? It is evident that it is the king; but the purple being worn is worshipped together with him. But when the king has taken it off and placed it in its proper place, the purple garment is no longer worshipped. ^B Often, too, a king sits in the temple on his own throne, and those who offer worship, worship the king in the temple and on the throne. But when the king has risen, no one worships either the temple or the throne. And no one who is mad, wishing to worship the king in his temple, says to the king, "Go out of your temple so that I may worship you." Thus, therefore, let no one say to the Only-Begotten, "Put aside the body so that I may worship you"; but he worships the uncreated Only-Begotten together with the body, together with the holy temple which He took upon Himself when He came. And no one says to the king, "Rise from your throne, so that I may worship you without the throne"; but he worships the king together with the throne; ^C and so, therefore, Christ is worshipped together with the body that was buried and raised.

NB. But they say: "What then do you say? Did the Father beget ^D the Son willingly, or unwillingly?" Since

^A You say: "The Word always existed, and there is no time before the Word"—yet even the Arians themselves, for the sake of deceiving some, claim that the Son of God was begotten without time, but they do not wish to call Him eternal, saying instead: "There was once when He was not." And they imagine that the word "once" does not mean time. But when the expression is examined, you refute the ignorant. For "once," when used lexically, is significant of time, and those who say that it does not mean time fall into the absurdity of their own belief in their lack of faith. For they use words with irony, being fiercely at war in their thinking against the Son of God, and they hold thoughts that are entirely alien and estranged from the divinity of the Father.

Was it, then, willingly that He begat, or unwillingly? If we say "unwillingly," we encompass God in necessity; and if we say "willingly," we grant that the will was prior to the Word. Even if it were some single atom or a tiny fraction of an hour, a fraction of time is significant before the Word, and we fall again into their logic. And if we say that He did not beget unwillingly, then the Divine is brought under the necessity of nature, and not by the freedom of the will. But none of these things apply to God, as you imagine, O vain man; for these things do not exist with God. Therefore, He did not beget either willingly or unwillingly, but by an excelling nature; for the divine nature surpasses counsel and does not fall under time, nor is it led by necessity. ^C For in us nothing is ready, because we were not at one time; and we deliberate on something first, then we act or perform it, or if we have not deliberated, that which has not yet been done by us does not exist. But with God all things are perfect and smooth, and all things are fulfilled in Him; and He did not beget—neither unwillingly nor “willingly”—the holy Word and God, who is eternally begotten of Him, but rather in His excelling and ineffable nature. ^D LIII. But I am wont to marvel greatly, O sons of faith and the Church, when I ponder within myself how those contentious ones have twisted the true things into things that are alien, and those things which are spoken figuratively—

On the necessity of the Divine

After he had reduced his adversaries to a standstill with these inquiries, Nazianzenus turns his discourse to those arguments by which he directly attacks their insanity. Even if it were granted that the Son was begotten by God the Father by will, it does not follow that that will was prior by any time, or moment, or instant. The generation of the divine Word is inscrutable and ineffable; it surpasses all the power of the human mind; it exceeds even the grasp of angels and of the sublime powers, even if one possesses an extraordinary power of understanding. See Nazianzenus himself. (55) That it must be said that God the Father begat the Son by the excellence of nature is the teaching of Epiphanius, whom Cyril of Alexandria, mentioned in the previous note, follows. St. John Damascene follows him as well in the first book of *De Fide orthodoxa*, chapter 8; see them.

^A and mistakes when they apply them to the true reality. For they are content that He be begotten, which is His by nature, saying that it is not as one of the things that are begotten. But as for the statement "He was created," which is foreign to His divinity, even if it has ever been spoken through allegory, they affirm that as the truth. They obscure the truth by citing Isaiah: "I saw the Lord of Sabaoth," and, "The Lord appeared to Moses," and, "The Lord appeared to Abraham," and, "He saw the vision of the Ancient of Days," and such like; and, "The Lord appeared to Ezekiel," and he said: "I saw the appearance of God." They say these things are not as they are, so that they might accuse the prophets of lying, (nothing) from the literal text of the Gospel, where the Savior said in His teaching that "no one has ever seen God." But since the prophets say they have seen Him, it is necessary either that the Only-Begotten or the prophets are lying. And according to the logic of those who speak in this way and of the Manichaeans, the things in the prophets will be false. But if the prophets do not lie, but speak the truth according to the word of the Savior that "He who speaks in the prophets, behold, I am present," then the matter is one of understanding and ^B in need of allegory. For this is often fulfilled in this way: we see (57) the sea from a certain part of a mountain or a plain, and we speak the truth in saying we have seen it; and if someone says that he has not seen it, he does not lie, but speaks the truth: for he does not know where is the depth, where (58) is the length, he does not know the volume, he does not know the abyss. And through some opening we see a man (59), but we do not understand his full extent; and if one person says, "I have seen," he has seen; and if another says, "I have not seen," he has not seen; for we saw truly as we were capable, we did not see as He is. Thus also the prophets, as if through an opening of the narrow passage of their own body, were accounted worthy to see, and they saw the truth, not as the infinite quality of the vision is; and thus the divine Scriptures are fulfilled as they harmonize with one another, both in the prophets saying that they have seen—for they saw in truth—and in the Savior saying, "No one has ever seen God," for they saw as they were able and as it was conceded, and God appeared to them as He willed.

^C alien, even if they have been used through a figure of speech and allegory, the stubborn heretics are liable to turn them into propriety through the greatest of errors. For they deny that the Word is said to be begotten—which properly and by nature belongs to Him and to this—and they call Him a product, as if He were one of the things that are generated; but they consider that the term "to be created," which is foreign to His divinity, if it has ever been spoken anywhere perhaps through allegory, is to be accepted properly and truly. Yet they attempt to subtract what is true, just as Isaiah said: "I saw the Lord of hosts"; item: "The Lord appeared to Moses"; then: "The Lord appeared to Abraham"; and, "Daniel saw the Ancient of days in a vision." "The Lord appeared to Ezekiel," and he said: "I saw the likeness of God." They deny all these things to such a degree that they convict the prophets of lying, and for this they rely upon the testimony of the Gospel, where the Savior Himself said in His teaching: "No one has ever seen God." But the prophets relate that they saw Him. It is necessary, therefore, that either the only Son of God has lied, or the prophets. Wherefore, according to the opinion of these men and the Manichaeans, everything that is said by the ^D prophets will be false. But if the prophets are by no means lying, but proclaim the truth—which the Savior Himself confirms by His own authority, saying: "I who speak through the prophets, behold, I come"—then there will be a need for a certain hidden sense and for allegory. Indeed, we see something of this kind come to pass daily. For example, when we look out upon the sea from the ridge or plain of some mountain, we speak the truth when we report that we have seen it, just as does he who confesses that he has not seen it: for he has in no way lied, inasmuch as he did not behold its depth, nor its length, nor its bulk and vastness. Thus, for the most part, we look upon a human being through a narrow aperture, whose full extent we do not know. But if someone says he has seen, he has indeed seen; if another denies he has seen, he has not seen. Indeed, insofar as he was capable, the apostles allowed that God had shown Himself to be seen. That this is so is held by the divine utterances; it cannot be refuted. Nothing resists the will of God: whatever He wills, He can do. Nothing has been put forward so far that is not admitted by everyone. Men who were mortal therefore saw God. But how? Nothing fixed is put forward concerning this matter; concerning the manner in which they saw, he labors. He does not say that they saw God in His own nature and substance, or that they saw Him in some corporeal and visible appearance. He says that they saw Him indeed, but as they were able, and as much as was permitted to them: God was seen by them, yet in that manner and by that reason by which God willed to be seen. This is the doctrine of Epiphanius, which defines no mode of seeing God, and which leaves a free and broad path for others to opine and state in what manner those mortal men who saw God, saw Him. It does not deserve to be noted or reproved, therefore, as it does not depart even a hair’s breadth from the common opinion of the Fathers.

^A For He is not seen as He is. But He who saw Him, saw Him in a way that surpasses nature, and He gave to him who could not see, the power of a gift, so that he might see the power of contemplation.

^B LIV. But do not again, by making a drama out of this, say that the prophets saw not with the eye, but with the mind, understanding rather than seeing. For this is why Isaiah accurately says: "Woe is me, because I am pricked, because I am a man, and have unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips, and I have seen the Lord Sabaoth." And he did not say, "I saw with my mind," but, "with my eyes." They saw, therefore, and they did not see; but as it was possible, they saw in truth, yet they did not see as the infinity of His incomprehensibility exists.

In this way, many also allegorize regarding Paradise, just as the god-driven Origen wished to introduce into life a fantasy rather than the truth. And he says: "There is no Paradise on the earth," taking this from the saying of the holy Apostle, where he says: "I know a man fourteen years ago (whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows) caught up to the third heaven." But do not misread this and say that it refers to the third part of the air. For when he said "up to the third heaven," he did not speak of a third part, but he encompassed a sum of three. He adds indeed: "I know such a man caught up into Paradise, and hearing words which it is not lawful for a man to speak." Glory to the Almighty ^C God, who in every way makes things clear and explains them in detail, so that the truthful may not err. For he did not join the heaven and the Paradise together in one brief statement, but says, "I know a man caught up to the third heaven," he knows.

and again, "caught up to the Paradise." For where the article is added, it expresses a certain distinct person, and transfers to another mode. Just as if someone possesses a mountain and a plain, and the plain surrounds the mountain, and he desires to reach the part beyond the mountain within his own plain; whenever he wills to make the journey through the plain, to whatever place of the mountain he may reach to ascend, this will be possible for him. But if he wills first to step onto the mountain, and from the mountain again to arrive at the place of the plain that is beyond the mountain, this too is possible for him. Understand in this way also what was said concerning the Apostle: that he ascended first to the heaven, according to what is said: "My kinsman descended into his garden." And the Savior says: "Today you will be with me in Paradise."

^B LV. But if there is no Paradise on earth, and the things written in Genesis are not true, but are allegorized, then nothing follows in sequence, but all things are allegorized. "For in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," and these are not allegorized, but are visible. And the firmament, he says, and the sea, and growths, and trees, and herbs, grass, animals, fishes, birds, all things that are visible were created in truth, and He created man in truth. ^C He placed him, therefore, whom He had fashioned, in the Paradise, having made the same man in the image, in the image of God. But do not curiously examine the gifts of God, which were given to man by grace. We do not deny that all men are in the image of God; but how it is in the image, we do not curiously examine. For we do not understand the fashioned creature to be "in the image," nor the soul, nor the mind, nor the virtue; for there are many things that prevent me from saying so; but we do not say that the body is not "in the image," nor the soul. It is the duty of the faithful to acknowledge the Scripture, and not to deny; but it is the duty of the faithless to reject the grace. There is, therefore, in man that which is "in the image," but God Himself knows how it is. ^D For if you say, "He made man in the image," and you think it to be the body, while God is invisible, incomprehensible, and inconceivable, then that which is visible and comprehensible and subject to touch will be an image of the invisible and incomprehensible. And if you say, "The body is not in the image"—"He took," he says, "dust from the earth, and fashioned man," and he calls the earthy one "man," and

calls the psychic part “man.” For “He breathed,” he says, “into his face, and man became a living soul.” And we understand the soul and the body to be created. How created? For “He breathed,” he says; and we do not say that the soul is a part of God, nor that it is foreign to the breathing. But how this subtle matter is to be understood is known to God alone.

^B LVI. But we, without curiosity and without guile, place our faith in God, who is true in all things. But you, if you suppose that the soul is that which is in the image, whereas the Apostle asserts that “the Word of God is living and effectual, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul,” ^C if, therefore, the soul has divisions, but God is indivisible, how can the soul be that which is in the image? For the soul does not know the future, but God knows all things; and we see the things in front of our body, while being ignorant of those behind. And if you say that the soul is not that which is in the image, certainly He has called the soul “man,” and man consists of both soul and body. But you might say that the mind is that which is in the image; yet the Scripture says, “I see another law warring in my members, and bringing me into captivity in my mind to the law of sin which is in my members.” How then, being brought into captivity, will it be in the image? Because it says, “I will sing with the mind, I will sing with the spirit.” And if you say that virtue is that which is in the image, I will say to you: Tell me concerning Adam, what virtue had he practiced before he was fashioned? For he did not exist at the beginning, but was fashioned in the image from the start. And if you say that virtue is not the image, you do not speak correctly; for to what is it fitting to be in the image, if not to virtue? But man was fashioned in the image long before virtue. For Adam had not yet lived in virtue, nor had he even been created. And if you say that baptism is that which is in the image, then those who had not received baptism were not righteous—were they not in the image of God? For from Moses and the sea the type began, from John the type was revealed, and in Christ the gift was ^D perfected. Verum ex eo sequitur justos qui baptismo initiati non fuerant, eos ad imaginem Dei minime esse factos; nam a Moyse atque mari baptismi figura cœpit, eadem ab Joanne patefacta, in Christo vero munus est ipsum perfectum.

^A LVII. Therefore, while all contain within themselves the image of God, they are not endowed with it by nature. For it is not in equality with God that human beings possess this image; because God is incomprehensible, beyond conception, being spirit—and above every spirit—and light above every light. Yet we do not deny what He Himself has determined. The True One is He who, by His grace, has bestowed upon man the "according to the image," and all things that are of the likenesses. For we see that the Lord took bread into His hands, as is contained in the Gospel, that rising at the supper, He took such, and giving thanks, said: "This is My this." And we see that it is not equal, nor similar, neither to the incarnate image, nor to the invisible divinity, nor to the lineaments of the limbs. For the one is rounded and insensible regarding its power; and He willed by grace to say: "This is My this," and no one disbelieves the word; for he who does not believe it to be true, as He said, falls away from grace and salvation. But as for what we hear (and believe), we believe that it is His. But our Lord, we know, is altogether perception, altogether sensitive, altogether God, altogether moving, altogether working, altogether light, altogether incomprehensible, but this is granted to us by grace.

LVIII. This Adam, therefore, was placed ^B in paradise, and he ate from the tree. And the paradise, he says, was in Eden in the East; and a fountain went up from Eden. And he did not say, "It went down," so that we might not think that Eden was in heaven. For if it were in heaven, he would have said, "A fountain comes down from above." But he says: "A river goes forth from Eden," and he did not say, "It comes down." This divides ^C into four heads. Nomen uni, Phison: whom we... ^D [alt-version omitted]

see before our eyes. And Phison is the Ganges, called by the Indians and Ethiopians ^A by that name, though the Greeks call it the Indus river; for it encircles all of Evilat, the small and the great, and passes through the parts of the Elymaeans. It passes through the great Ethiopia [(78)] and falls towards the south, and sinks inside the Straits of Gades into the great Ocean. The second river is Geon [(79)]. And we see the river as a sensible thing, and not allegorized. For this is the one that descends along Ethiopia, and passes through small Ethiopia, the Anubitic tract, and the Blemyes and the Exomitae, and flooding the parts of the Thebaid and Egypt, it falls into this sea. But if anyone disbelieves, let him hear Jeremiah saying: "What have you to do with the land of Egypt, to drink the turbid water of Geon [(80)]?" The third, he says, is the river Tigris, moving opposite the Assyrians. For it cuts through the parts of the East, and sinks ^B under the earth, and rises again from Armenia, passing between the Cardyaei and the Armenians, and bubbles up again, and is diverted into the land of the Assyrians. But the fourth river, the Euphrates, likewise, in the same manner sinking under the earth, rises up from Armenia, and thus waters Persia. If, therefore, there is no sensible paradise, there is no fountain; if there is no fountain, there is no river; if there is no river, there are not four heads. If there is no Phison, there is no Geon. If there is no Tigris, there is no Euphrates; if there is no Euphrates, there is no fig tree, no leaves, no Adam, no eating, no Eve, she did not eat from the tree, there is no Adam. If there is no Adam, there are no men, but the truth is henceforth a myth, and all things are allegorized. But Adam ^C truly existed; for we are of him, all of us being of his race by succession, and we see him through the multitude in the succession. LIX. For Adam begets according to his own image Seth, so that no one may suppose another to have been formed, and others to have been born, of...

^A a different kind, Scripture says this according to his likeness. Seth begets Enos; Enos begets Cainan; Cainan begets Malaleel; Malaleel begets Jared and Enoch; Enoch begets Mathusala; Mathusala begets Lamech; Lamech begets Noe; under whom the flood happened not in allegory, but in truth, and every soul perished, and there remained only eight human souls. But when you hear "souls," do not suppose them to be phantasms; for from one part and species the whole human being is named. For Jacob descended into Egypt with seventy-five souls, not that the souls moved without bodies, but with bodies. And we were, says Luke who wrote the Acts of the Apostles, about eighty souls in the ship. And common usage is accustomed to call slaves "bodies." A master, he says, of a hundred bodies, but having souls as well; ^B but since the lordship of men rules over the bodies and not over the souls, for this reason they reasonably called the slaves "bodies" endowed with a soul, in order to show the use of the bodies. For Noe went forth from the ark after he had begotten Sem, Cham, and Japheth. Sem indeed begets Arphaxad; Arphaxad begets Cainan; Cainan begets Sala; Sala begets Heber; Heber begets Phalec; Phalec begets Rhagam; Rhagam begets Seruch; Seruch begets Nachor; Nachor begets Tharra; Tharra begets Abraam; Abraam begets Isaac; Isaac begets Jacob; Jacob begets Judas; Judas begets Phares; Phares begets Esrom; Esrom begets Aram; Aram begets Aminadab; Aminadab begets Naason; Naason begets Salmon; Salmon begets Booz; Booz begets Obed by Ruth; Obed begets Jesse; Jesse begets David the king; David begets Solomon by the wife of Urias; Solomon begets ^C Roboam; Roboam begets Abia; Abia begets Asaph; Asaph begets Josaphath; Josaphath begets Joram; Joram begets Ochozias; Ochozias begets Joas; Joas begets Amasias; Amasias begets Ozias, who is also called Azarias; Ozias begets Joatham; Joatham begets Achaz; Achaz begets Ezechias; Ezechias begets Manasses; Manasses begets Amos; Amos begets Josias; Josias begets Jechonias; Jechonias again begets Salathiel; Salathiel begets Zorobabel; Zorobabel begets Abiud; Abiud begets Eliacim; Eliacim begets Asor; Asor begets Sadoc; Sadoc begets Achim; Achim begets Eliud; Eliud begets Eleazar; Eleazar begets Matthias; Matthias begets Jacob; Jacob begets Joseph.

LX. Joseph, being an old man and a widower after having taken his first wife, and having had by her four males, Jacob—called the brother of the Lord ^D because he was reared with him—and Simon and Judas and John, di...

and two daughters, Anna and Salome. ^A This Joseph, being an old man and a widower, when the lots were cast among the widowers and the unmarried of every tribe for those virgins who were being reared at the temple—because all the firstborn of both sexes used to be consecrated in the temple—was compelled by the necessity of the lot to take the holy Virgin Mary into marriage, from whom our Lord Jesus Christ was born according to the flesh, by the Holy Spirit, not from the seed of a man, nor through the conjunction of bodies. The Lord was born, therefore, from the tribe of Judah, from the seed of David and Abraham according to the flesh, being God, in the fortieth year of the reign of Augustus.

Augustus reigned for sixty-six years and six months. ^B After him, his son Tiberius succeeds to the rule for twenty-three years. After Tiberius, Gaius for three years and nine months and twenty-two days. After Gaius, Claudius for thirteen years. After Claudius, Nero for thirteen years. After Nero, Vespasian for nine years. After Vespasian, Titus his son for two years. After Titus, Domitian his brother for five years and five months. After Domitian, Nerva for four years. After Nerva, Trajan for nineteen years. After Trajan, Hadrian for twenty-two years. After Hadrian, Antoninus Pius for twenty-two years. ^C After Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who is also Verus, for nineteen years. Commodus for fourteen years. Pertinax for six years. Severus for eighteen years. Antoninus his son for seven years. Macrinus for one year. Another Antoninus for two years.

^A Alexander, not the Macedonian, for three years. Maximinus for three years. Gordianus for six years. Philippus for six years. Decius for one year. Gallus and Volusianus for three years. Galienus for fifteen years. Another Claudius for one year. Aurelianus for fourteen years. Tacitus for six months. Probus for six years. Those around Carus and Carinus and Numerianus for two years. Diocletianus for eight years. After Diocletianus, Maximianus. Licinius. Constans. Constantinus. Julianus. Jovianus. Valentinianus. Valens. Gratianus.

Up to this year, after the death of Gratianus, there are seventy years. For this year is the ninetieth of Diocletianus; the tenth of Valentinianus and Valens; ^B the sixth of Gratianus; in the third consulship of Gratianus Augustus and the most illustrious Equitius; the second indiction.

LXI. We, therefore, have been propagated in order from the aforementioned Adam, and the succession has not been lost, nor are the things done by God to be interpreted allegorically. Adam, therefore, exists; and fig leaves exist, and a fig tree, and a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and a tree of life planted in the midst of the paradise, and a serpent, and disobedience, and obedience, and there are rivers, and Eve exists, and the creation. For all things are possible with God, both to change corruptible things into incorruption, and to make those things on earth exist in incorruption. And let no one be surprised. For He came, and He demonstrated this, having taken corruptible flesh and having clothed it in His divinity, and having shown it to be incorruptible. For who shall accuse God? But let us see another vision. He cast them out of the paradise, and He set the Cherubim and the flaming sword to guard the entry to the tree of life. And having gone forth, those around Adam dwelt opposite the paradise.

Let no one be deceived by empty myths. For God is able to raise up children from stones; and God is able to transform corruptible things into incorruption; and He is able to create the rest of paradise on earth, since He willed it. For the earth is not of another God, nor is the heaven of another God, but all things belong to the same One, and as He wills, He grants incorruption to each. For we know that the body of Adam was molded from the earth from which our own bodies were also formed, and we have the hope of eternal life and of an incorruptible inheritance. For the body of the Savior was from Mary, and it is united spiritually to the incorruption of the Word in heaven. ^B We have gathered all these things here and set them forth, wishing to cast aside nothing of what is written, but rather to be guided by simplicity, and to show ourselves faithful to God in those things which He has written to us in truth, and has granted us the way of truth and our salvation; it is fitting for Him alone to know the incomprehensible things. Let no one be deceived by empty myths. For God is able to raise up children from stones.

LXII.

Who, then, sewed these garments for Him after the resurrection? You will say that He adorned Himself with certain spiritual garments. Therefore, if He was able to fashion such garments for Himself, could He not have fashioned those leather tunics for the first humans by His own will? Indeed, that whole allegory of Origen is refuted. For if, after tasting the fruit, God fashioned flesh for Adam, whence did He take the rib? For when Adam was awakened from that deep sleep, he said: "This is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh."

^B LXIII. Let no one, therefore, henceforth cause us trouble. For thus has the holy Church of God thought from the beginning down to this day. Nor will Origen stand with us on that day of judgment. For I truly marvel how any can tolerate a man who is so contumelious toward his own Master. Let those who appear to be sons of the Catholic Church read Origen’s book entitled *On First Principles*, and learn therefrom, and not dare to separate the Son from the divinity of the Father, and how Origen did not blush to say that the Son does not see the Father. For he says: "Just as the Son cannot see the Father, so the Holy Spirit cannot see the Son." And again: "The angels cannot see the Holy Spirit, just as men cannot see the angels." He deluded himself, or rather, he deceived himself, but he could not deceive the wise, the faithful, and those who believe in the truth and in spiritual instruction. Cease, therefore, Origen, and cease, you disciples of Origen. For the apostles and prophets are truer than you and your teacher.

Let the Gnostics cease, being "catagnostics" [condemnable] in their manner of life. And let the Valentinians, and Manichaeans, and Marcionists cease, being deceived in everything. And let the Arians, and Anomoeans, and Sabellians, and the Pneumatitae who are also called Pneumatomachi, and the Dimeritae who foolishly cast aside their reason, cease. For all holy Scripture is true; but there is need of wisdom to know God, to believe in Him and in His words, and in the things graciously given and bestowed by God, and things to come, and to know in perfection the resurrection of the dead according to the promise. ^C For every heresy is false, not having the Holy Spirit according to the tradition of the Fathers in the holy, catholic Church of God.

LXIV. But we shall speak of these same things again further.

^A According to our weakness, but through the favor granted by God to those of the holy, catholic Church of God—even if we are the least and most humble, yet possessing the foundation thereof—we offer, according to the ability of our insignificance, a partial account concerning all things for those who wish to take care of their own lives. Indeed, what has been said thus far concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit was sufficient; but in order that we may clarify these same things more abundantly for the greater assurance, preservation, and certainty of the faithful, we shall not hesitate to show once again, gathering from every side the testimonies of Holy Scripture into a wide feast of joy for the faithful who encounter them, how our hope in God is safe and secure, and that nothing is altered in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but the holy Trinity is co-equal and consubstantial. We do not construct this teaching from elsewhere, nor from our own private opinions, but from our own life—that is to say, from the prophets, and from the advent of our Savior, and from His philanthropy. For He came, our Life came, and shone upon us again, having found us wandering. For we were, we were wallowing and submerged in pride, and blasphemies, and the likenesses of idols, and the godlessness of spirits, and in the commands of every evil. And since we were held fast by all these things against our own will (for I was not doing what I willed, but the thing which I hated I was driven to do, with sin serving me in this way), the holy Father sent His own holy Son, and in His mercy He saved me, and delivered me from all my corruptions. ^{B C} LXV. For the grace of our Lord and Savior has appeared, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works; having blotted out the handwriting against us by His decrees, which was contrary to us, and having taken it out of the way, He nailed it to the cross; and having despoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in Himself; and when He had shattered the brazen gates and broken the iron bars, He ^D showed forth the light of life, stretching out His hands, preparing the foundation of the way, pointing toward heaven, and offering paradise again as a place to dwell. Here, therefore, He dwelt in us, and having given us the righteousness of the law of the Spirit, so that we might know both Him and the things which are His own—which is the beginning and the end of life—the law of jus

tice has come to us, the law of the Spirit, free from the law of the sin of life. For this reason we concur with the law of God according to the inner man. And Christ is within us, if indeed He dwells in us. For He ^A Himself, having died, became the way of life for us, "that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for our sake and was raised," the Author of life; remembering the oath sworn many generations ago, according to David, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them; because in Him it pleased all the fullness to dwell, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood on the cross. He came, therefore, for the dispensation of the fullness of times, just as it had been promised to Abraham and the other saints: To re- ^B capitulate all things in Himself, both those in the heavens and those on the earth. There had been dissension and enmity, but by the forbearance of God, He reconciled them in the body of His flesh, by Himself making both one. For He who is our peace came, and having broken down the middle wall of the fence, the enmity in His flesh, by His ordinances He abolished the law of commandments, so that He might create the two into one new man. And He commanded that the Gentiles be fellow-members of the body, fellow-partakers, and fellow-heirs of the promise, saying: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Therefore, in which I was weak because of the flesh, the Savior was sent to me in the likeness of ^C sinful flesh, fulfilling such a dispensation, that He might redeem me from slavery, that He might redeem me from corruption, that He might redeem me from death; and He became for me righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Righteousness, indeed, because through faith in Him He dissolved sin; sanctification, because through water and the Spirit and in His word He set [me] free; and redemption, [through] His blood, the ransom of the true Lamb, having delivered Himself for me; the Propitiation for the cleansing of the world, of the reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth, fulfilling the mystery which was hidden from the ages and from generations in the times appointed. The same One will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be formed like His glory ^D according to the working by which He is able, and to subject all things to Himself, because "in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

LXVI. Therefore, Christ, that vessel of wisdom and of divinity, acting as Mediator, reconciles all things to God in Himself, not imputing sins, fulfilling the hidden mysteries, by the faith of His testament.

^A For He was foretold ^B by the Law and the prophets, proclaimed as the Son of God and called the son of David, being both God and man, the mediator of God and men, the true house of God, a holy priesthood, the dispenser of the Holy Spirit who regenerates and renews all things again for God; because "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, as of the Only Begotten from the Father." For just as rain, joining itself to trees and plants, fashions a body and brings forth each of the fruits according to its own likeness—and in the olive, rich oil is made, drawing its essence from it; in the vine, it turns into the quality and color of the sweetest wine; in the fig tree, it is tempered to a most luscious fig flavor; and in every kind of seed, it grows and sprouts according to its nature—so, I think, the Word of God became flesh in Mary, and was found as a man in the seed of Abraham according to the promise. "For we have found the Messiah, of whom Moses wrote." He said: "Let my speech descend as the rain, and as the drops that drip upon the earth." And David: "Let Him descend as rain upon the fleece." The wool, therefore, receiving the dew, increases the growth of the fleece; but the earth, receiving the rain, increases fruit by the command of the Master, yielding its nature more readily; and the receiving of it from Him possesses greater eagerness. So also the Virgin Mary, when she had thus replied: "How," she said, "shall I know this, that this will be for me?" she heard: "The Spirit of the Lord shall descend upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you: therefore also that which is born of you shall be holy, and shall be called the Son of the Most High." Christ speaks in the angel, and the Master portrays Himself in His own creation, putting on the form of a servant. But Mary draws to herself the Word for conception, as the earth does rain; and the Word of God, taking on the nature of a mortal, shows Himself to be the holy fruit. ^C Thus, then, from her who was undefiled, as earth and fleece, there came forth the fruit of true hope, the expectation of the saints, just as Elizabeth said: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." He took this from human nature, while the Word Himself remained impassible. This is the living bread that descended from heaven and imparted life. This is the fruit of the true olive, that oil of anointing and composition which Moses adumbrated with a certain likeness. This is the true vine, which the Father alone tends, who produced for us a cluster of joy. This is that living water, which, when a thirsty man has drunk, he shall not thirst again, but it shall be within his belly, leaping up into eternal life. ^D Having received from Him, the new husbandmen imparted it to the world; but the old husbandmen withered and destroyed it through unbelief. By His blood the nations are sanctified, and by His own Spirit He leads up those called

to the heavenly kingdom. Truly, whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they live to God; but whoever are still accounted as being in death are called animal or rather carnal men. Therefore, the Spirit commands us to extinguish the works of the flesh, which are the strongholds of sin, to mortify the members of death through His grace, and to receive the Holy Spirit which we lacked—He who recalled me, who long ago was dead, to life; and if I do not receive Him, I shall die again, for without His Spirit everyone is dead. If, therefore, His Spirit is in us, He who raised Him from the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies through His Spirit indwelling in us. But I think that both dwell in the righteous man, Christ and His Spirit. ^B

LXVII. On the Faith in the Trinity

If Christ is believed to be God from God, begotten of the Father, and the Spirit from Christ, or from both, as Christ says: "Who proceeds from the Father," and, "He shall receive of mine," and if Christ was born of the Holy Spirit, the angel’s voice revealing the mystery to the one being redeemed, by faith and by hearing alone, and by affection for Him who came to me—for God knows Himself, Christ proclaims Himself, and the Holy Spirit makes Himself known to the saints. In the holy Scriptures the Trinity is proclaimed to us, and you believe it, without curiosity, without contention, by the hearing of faith. From this faith comes the salvation of grace; "From faith, righteousness without works of the law." It is written that the Spirit of Christ is given to those who are being saved by the hearing of faith. And the common voice of the preachers, as I suppose, being instructed from the Scriptures, signifies this: Three holy ones, three gathering ones, three distinct in form, three co-formal, three operative, three cooperative, three subsistent, coexisting with one another. This holy Trinity is called three beings, one harmony, one divinity of the same essence, of the same godhead, of the same hypostasis, equal from the equal, and of equal ^C power. ^D

holy; thrice gifted with form, having three times the same form; three effective, three simultaneously efficient; three subsistent, three simultaneously subsistent and mutually conjoined. And this is at last called the holy Trinity, in which there are three, but one consent of the three, one divinity of the same virtue and of the same substance, the like from the like; which causes equal grace from the same grace of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But as to how this can be, it is left to them themselves to teach: No one, he says, knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father, and he to whom the Son shall reveal him ^A. And he reveals through the Holy Spirit; to him the Father also reveals. Therefore, these things being three, either from him, or by him, or toward him, each one is understood worthily, as they reveal themselves, light, fire, spirit, and, I suppose, other likenesses of visions, as the man who is served is worthy. So then, God himself who said in the beginning: Let there be light, and there was light, he is the one who shone for us to see the true light which illuminates every man coming into the world. Send forth thy light and thy truth, says David. He is the Lord himself who said: In the last days I will pour out of my Spirit, and their sons and their daughters will prophesy, and their young men will see visions; revealing to us three persons of holy service from the third hypostasis ^B. Send forth thy light, says David, and thy truth. He is the Lord himself who said: In the last days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and their sons and their daughters will prophesy, and their young men will see visions. And he shows us three persons of holy service, as the third proceeds from the hypostasis ^C.

LXVIII. I say, therefore, that Christ was a minister of circumcision for the truth of God, to fulfill the promises. Furthermore, we have learned from the authority of the sacred Books that the Holy Spirit also ministers in the same way. Christ is sent by the Father, the Holy Spirit is also sent; Christ speaks in the saints, the Holy Spirit also speaks; Christ heals, the Holy Spirit also heals; Christ sanctifies, the Holy Spirit also sanctifies; Christ baptizes in his name, the Holy Spirit also baptizes. In this way Scripture speaks: Thou shalt send forth thy Spirit, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth: which is the same as this: Thou shalt send forth thy Word, and shalt melt them. Likewise: As they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said: Separate for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. This is the same as that: The Lord, however, said: Enter the city, and there it shall be told to you what you must do. Likewise: They, therefore, having been sent by the Holy Spirit, departed ^D.

...held at Alexandria in the year 362; in which St. Athanasius miraculously recalled the dissident Fathers to concord, by revealing to them the diverse usage of the word; by which even those who were unwilling were implicated. Regarding the use of this same word ὑπόστασις in our Epiphanius, the present place of his is to be examined: the many places in the Panarion are also to be examined, and especially the number in heresy 73. Indeed, St. Basil the Great, in the Epistle given to Epiphanius himself, which according to the new recension is in the order 258, vol. III Garner., page 392, rejoices and congratulates Epiphanius, because he determined that it is necessary to confess three persons in the divine. Moreover, the student of theology must have before his eyes the variety of the aforementioned usage, if he wishes to grasp the doctrines of the Fathers and the false senses of the heretics. That the matter may be clearer by an example: the Sabellians called the Son of God *moousion* [monoosios], which a theologian receiving in a right sense would not reject; for truly the Son of God is thus *homoousios* [of one substance]. Far be it, however, that we should adhere to those heretics, seeing that they denoted only the substance by the name person and acknowledged only one person in the divine, while they said the Son of God was *monoousion* [of one substance/one-being].

^A And so, these men, having been sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia; as if Christ were saying, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves." For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit to lay upon you no other burden than these necessary things; as if He were to say, "I say, and not the Lord," that a wife should not be separated from her husband. And they passed through Phrygia and the Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit did not allow them; as if Christ said, "Go, baptize all nations. Take no bag, nor staff, nor sandals." Some, he says, were telling Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem. Agabus says: "Thus says the Holy Spirit, the man whose girdle this is"; similarly, as if Paul were saying, "Do you seek proof of Christ speaking in me?" or, "Remember the words of the Lord, for He Himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" And now, behold, I go bound by the Spirit; as if he were to say, "Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ." But the ^B Spirit testifies to me through every city, saying; similar to saying, "The Lord is witness to my soul that I do not lie." In power according to the Spirit of holiness; similar to saying, "Holy is He who rests in the holy ones," and, "You were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands in removing the body of sins, in the circumcision of Christ." If the Spirit of God dwells in you; similar to saying, "As you have received Christ, walk in Him." And, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke in me; and, His word is in my mouth." And, "Having the first fruits of the Spirit"; similar to saying, "The first fruits is Christ." But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us; similar to saying, "Who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." — That the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified in the Holy Spirit; ^C similar to saying, "May the Lord sanctify you, that you may be sincere and blameless unto the day of Christ." But to us, Christ revealed through His Spirit; similar to saying, "When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, through His grace, to reveal His Son in me." We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God; with this is to be compared: "Test yourselves whether Christ is in you." You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. ^D

similar to saying, *I will dwell in them, and I will walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.* ^B LXIX. Furthermore, he demonstrates that justification and grace flow from both. *Justified* moreover *in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God*; to which is similar: *Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.* *No one can say Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit*; and, *No one can receive the Holy Spirit, except from the Lord.* *There are variations of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are variations of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are variations of operations, but the same God who works all things in all*; and, *From glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord*; and, *Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption*; with which agrees: *If we provoke the Lord, are we stronger than he?* Moreover, this: *The Spirit speaks expressely*, is similar to this: *Thus says the Lord Almighty*; and, *My Spirit stands in the midst of you*, is joined with this: *If anyone opens to me, I and the Father will enter, and will make our abode with him.* To these Isaiah: *And upon him the Spirit of God*; but Christ: *The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me*; and, *Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit*; or: *The Lord sent me and his Spirit.* Nor is the voice of the Seraphim crying out obscure: *Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth.* Furthermore, when you hear that: *Exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise of the Spirit from the Father*; or, *To wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard*; or in the way that the Spirit *drove* him *into the desert*; or what the same [Scripture] says: *Do not think what you shall speak, for it is the Spirit of my Father that speaks in you*; or this: *But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons*; or, *Whoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven*, and the rest; or, *The child flourished and grew strong in Spirit*; or, *Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan*; or, *Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit*; or, *That which is born of the Spirit is spirit*; all these coincide with this: *That which was made, in him was life*; or with this: *I will ask my Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, the Spirit of truth*; or with this: *Why did Satan fill your heart*, to Ananias, Peter says, *to lie to the Holy Spirit*? Then he adds: *You have not lied to men, but to God.* Therefore...

the Holy Spirit ^A is God from God, to whom those who misappropriated part of the price of the land lied. Or, *He was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit.* I have nothing greater than this to say. And the Son is God; for the Apostle says: *Of whom*, he says, *is Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all.* Believe, he says, in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved; also: *He spoke the word of the Lord to them; and taking them into the house, he set a table before them, and rejoiced with his whole household, having believed in God.* Or that *In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God*; or, *That they may adorn the doctrine of our God the Savior*; or, *The grace of God appeared, the Savior to all ^B men, instructing us*; or, *Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.* This is the ministry of the Spirit and of the Word. *Pay attention*, he says, *to yourselves and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops to shepherd the Church of God*; similar to saying, *I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry.*

^C 70. Therefore, as has been demonstrated, the Son and the Holy Spirit act in common with the Father; for *by the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the Spirit of His mouth.* But the Holy Spirit is to be worshipped; for *they who worship God must worship in Spirit and in truth.* But if these things work together, a creature does not create another creature, nor does divinity become created, nor is God known by measure or circumscription. For God is uncircumscribed, uncontained, incomprehensible, containing all created things. Neither is a creature to be worshipped; *for they worshipped the creature rather than the Creator, and became foolish.* For how is it not foolish to call a creature God, but to reject the first commandment which says: *Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord, and there shall be no new god in you?* But in the holy Scriptures, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are called by various names. Of the Father: Almighty Father, Father of all, Father of Christ. Of the Son: The Word, Christ, True Light. Of the Holy ^D Spirit: The Paraclete, Spirit of truth, Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ. What, then? God is conceived of as both Father and light—but as one superabundant, a power, a wisdom. And if God the Father is light, then the Son is light from light, and for this reason He dwells in *light inaccessible*. And God is wholly power, and for that reason He is the Lord of powers. The Son is wholly wisdom; therefore wisdom

is from wisdom, in whom are hidden all the treasures ^A of wisdom. And God is wholly life, therefore the Son is life from life; for He says, I am the truth and the life. And the Holy Spirit is from both, Spirit from the Father, for God is Spirit; and the Godhead is the giver of gifts, most truthful, illuminating, a Paraclete, an angelic messenger of the Father's counsels. For just as the Son is the Angel of great counsel, so also is the Holy Spirit. But we have received, he says, the Spirit of God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God, which we also speak, not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit of God, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

LXXI. That some one may say: Do we therefore posit two Sons? And how is He the Only-Begotten?

to be the Father. For if He begins to be the Father, then the Son was once the son of another Father, before He was the Father of the Only-Begotten. For just as by likeness (20) fathers of fathers are understood to be children, the true Father of old can be found in an infinite succession. Nor is the true Son, as other children are by adoption, young in His being a Son; for if He were young in being a Son, there would be a time when the Father was not the Father of the Only-Begotten. Nor is the Spirit of truth as other spirits, created or made; nor is He called the Angel of the great counsel as other angels are. For the former have a beginning and an end, but He who is ^B has an incomprehensible beginning and power; and the former create all things for infinite ages, working together with the Father; but the latter are created by these, as you will; and the former worship these, while the latter are worshipped by all creatures; and the former heal the works, while the latter receive healing from them; and the former are judged according to merit, while the latter possess the just judgment; and the former exist in time, while the latter happen to be outside of time; and the former enlighten all things, while the latter are enlightened by them; and the former call infants to the heights, while the latter are called by the perfect; and the former grant to all, while the latter receive gifts; and to speak once for all, the former celebrate holiness in the heavens of heavens and the other invisible places, while the latter, being celebrated, ^C worthily provide gifts to the worthy.

LXXII. There are very many spirits, the Scripture says: "Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire"; and, "All you spirits, praise the Lord." But gifts of the discernment of spirits are given to the worthy. For some are heavenly, rejoicing in the truth; others are earthly, prone to deceit and error; and others are subterranean, children of the abyss and darkness. For, the Gospel says, they begged that He would not command them to go into the abyss. In the same way, He also commanded the spirits, and drove the spirits out by a word, and did not allow them to speak. He is also called a spirit of judgment, and a spirit of burning; ^D and He is also called the spirit of the world. But we

^A have not received the spirit of the world, he says; and, "The spirit of man: for who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him?" And, "A spirit going and not returning," that "he might pass through it, and shall occupy it no more." And, "You shall take away their spirit, and they shall fail." And, "The spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets." Behold, "a lying spirit stood before the Lord, and said to him: Wherewith shall you deceive Achab?" And, "I will be," he says, "a lying spirit in the mouth of the false prophets." It is also said to be a spirit of compunction, a spirit of timidity, and a spirit of Python, and a spirit of fornication, and a spirit of a tempest, and a spirit of much-speaking, and a spirit of infirmity, and an unclean spirit, and a deaf spirit, and a dumb spirit, and a spirit of hesitant speech, and an exceedingly fierce spirit which is called Legion, and the spiritual ^B hosts of wickedness. There are countless sayings in the Scriptures concerning spirits, as the wise understand. But just as there are many who are sons by adoption or calling, though not by nature—because they have a beginning and an end in terms of sinfulness—so also there are many spirits by adoption or calling, even if they are sinful, whereas the Holy Spirit alone is called, from the Father and the Son, the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ, and the Spirit of grace; for He distributes the good to each in various ways, to one the spirit of wisdom, to another the spirit of knowledge, to another the spirit of strength, to another the spirit of healings, to another the spirit of prophecy, to another the spirit of discernment, to another of tongues, and to another of interpretations, along with the other gifts, as he says: ^C "But one and the selfsame Spirit works, distributing to each as He wills." "That your good Spirit shall lead me," says David; "The Spirit breathes where He wills" — by such words demonstrating to us the subsistence of the Holy Spirit. And, "You hear His voice, but you do not know from where He comes or where He goes." And, "Unless you be born of water and of the Spirit," which is consistent with what Paul said: "For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you." Concerning this same Spirit the Lord speaks thus: "When the Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He shall bear witness concerning me." And, "I have yet many things to say, but you cannot bear them now. When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will lead you into all truth. ^D For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear He shall speak, and He will announce to you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me, because He shall receive of mine, and shall announce all unto you."

LXXIII. Therefore, if He proceeds from the Father, ^A and "receives of mine," says the Lord, in the same way that no one has known the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father; so I dare to say that no one has known the Spirit, except the Father and the Son, from whom He proceeds and from whom He receives. And neither has anyone known the Son and the Father, except the Holy Spirit, who truly glorifies, who teaches all things, who bears witness concerning the Son, who proceeds from the Father and from the Son, the sole guide of truth, the interpreter of holy laws, the explainer of the spiritual law, the teacher of the prophets, the instructor of the apostles, the beacon of evangelical dogmas, the elector of the saints, the true light from the true light. The Son is natural, the Son is true, the Son is genuine, the only one from the only one, and with Him the Spirit, but named Spirit. This God is celebrated in the Church, always Father, always Son, always Holy Spirit; ^B high from the high, and most high, intelligent, possessing immeasurable glory, to whom all created and made things are subjected, simply all things that are perceived and contained in each case.

Now the Godhead is declared as one, especially in Moses; as a duality it is proclaimed very clearly among the prophets; but as a Trinity it is revealed in the Gospels, accommodating itself more over times and generations to the righteous for knowledge and faith. This is the knowledge of immortality; it is called this out of faith, it becomes adoption. But first He expresses the justification of the flesh, as if building the outer enclosure of the temple in Moses. ^C But afterwards He expounds the justifications of the soul, as if adorning the holy place among the other prophets. Finally, the third justifications of the Spirit, as if arranging the propitiatory and the Holy of Holies in the Gospels for His own dwelling. And He holds the holy tabernacle, the holy temple, to be solely the righteous man who lives in these things. But in him dwells one infinite Godhead, one incorrupt Godhead, one Godhead that is incomprehensible, ungraspable, inexpressible, invisible, knowing only itself, revealing itself to whom it wills, raising up witnesses for itself, calling, predestining, glorifying, lifting up from Hades, sanctifying, and again uniting into its own glory and the faith these three: heavenly, earthly, and ^D subterranean; spirit, soul, and flesh; faith, hope, and love; things past, things present, and things to come; the age of the age, the ages of ages, the Sabbath of Sabbaths; the circumcision of the flesh, the circumcision of the heart, the circumcision of Christ.

^A in the putting off of the body of sins. In all things, He cleanses for Himself all things, the invisible and the visible, thrones, lordships, principalities, powers, virtues. And in all things is the same holy voice proclaiming from glory to glory: Holy, holy, holy, declaring the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit; to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. And he who so believes shall say: So be it, so be it!

LXXIV. Concerning the Trinity, therefore, and the consubstantiality of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we who are weak and untaught, using no trickery or caviling, and not setting ourselves up in opposition to the illusions of men, but rather gathering testimonies from the divine Scriptures for those who wish to find them for the discovery of the faithful and the refutation of the faithless and the vain-glorious, have gathered them in part. For great is the power of faith in the Holy Spirit, which is proclaimed in various ways in all the divine Scriptures. ^B And since the foundation of our salvation is the sure confession and confirmation of hope regarding the incarnation and fleshly presence of our Savior, and regarding the resurrection of the dead and our own regeneration, we ourselves, having added a little more to this our labor, continue, for those who wish to read more accurately, to gather from the same divine Scriptures and to add these to our discourse. For since, as we have already been taught in the aforementioned, the Lord Himself in His Gospel thus commanded His disciples: "Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep the commandments which I have commanded you," this, I say, was spoken by the most holy and subsistent Word of God, who proceeds from the Father, through whom the ages and times and seasons have been produced. For there was neither season nor time before the Son. For if there were time before the Son, then the time would be greater than the Son; and how is it that all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that has been made? For if anything has been made, it has been made through Him, but He Himself is uncreated and always existing, because the Father always was, and His Holy Spirit always was. ^C For if there were time before the Son, it will be asked, therefore, again, through whom even the time of the Son existed? And countless other things remaining will turn our reasoning into a fantasy dwelling within the supposition of men, or rather into a fornication of thoughts, and not toward temperance. There was, therefore, no time before the Son; since it is not through times that the Son came into being, but through the Son that times and angels and all other created things were produced. There was never a time when the Son was not, nor was there ever a time when the Spirit was not.

^A LXXV. But some, endowed with a false understanding, are accustomed to punctuate that passage of Scripture in such a way that, when it is said: *All things were made by him, and without him was no thing made*, they conclude the sentence there, and conceive an opinion full of insult toward the Holy Spirit; for, straying from the true reading, they limp away into blasphemy due to such error. The genuine reading, however, should be conceived thus: *All things were made by him, and without him was not one thing made that has been made in him*; that is to say, whatever has been made, was made through him. Thus the Father always existed, and the Spirit breathes from the Father and the Son; and neither is the Son created, nor is the Spirit created. All things after the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit were created and brought into being, having not existed at one time, and were made by the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, through the Word who always exists with the Father who always exists. Therefore, all created things were made through this Word, the heavenly King, the subsistent Word, our Savior and benefactor. ^B For this very Savior is the Holy One who came down from heaven, who deigned to effect our salvation in the Virgin’s workshop, who was born again from Mary, having been conceived through the Holy Spirit; who took on flesh, the Word made flesh, who, without being changed in his nature, joined human nature to his divinity, being perfect from the Father; who, having fulfilled the perfect dispensation, came into the world for our sake and for our salvation. He who took on human flesh and soul, being perfect from the Father, became man among us—not in appearance, but in truth—having fashioned in himself a perfect human being from Mary, the Theotokos, through the Holy Spirit. He did not inhabit a human being, as he was accustomed to speak in the prophets, and to inhabit and act in them by power and energy; but the Word himself became flesh, not changed so as to become flesh, nor converting the divinity itself into human nature, but, with his own body, having included as his own the existence of being man—in the divinity and in the distinct subsistence of the Word of God. And by "perfect man," I mean all that is in a human being, and such as a human being is, and whatever a human being is. The Only-Begotten came and took this upon himself, so that in the perfect man, the God who is might perform the entirety of salvation ^C in a perfect way, leaving nothing of the human being unfinished, so that the part which was left behind might not become, in turn, a portion of food... ^D

^A for the devil.

LXXVI. And if some say that Christ assumed only flesh without a soul [(31)], weaving fables ^B and perverting Scripture into myths, let them understand from the text itself, "But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. II, 16), that those who say "We have the mind of Christ" possessed their own mind and had not spit it out. And if, while possessing their own mind along with the mind of Christ, they were filled with both—the mind of Christ being able to improve their own mind, and their own mind correctly understanding—know that this is also the case with Christ: that being God, and the Mind being in Him, He possessed the human mind along with the flesh, and He also took a soul [(32)]. Consequently, He did not turn it aside as if He were a man; rather, He Himself became the adornment, corrector, and improver of the mind. For just as He took on flesh without being defeated by the flesh, so too, having taken on the ^C mind, He was not defeated by the mind. On the contrary, such people fall into even greater and grievous contradictions. For the divine Scriptures cry out clearly, up and down, that the grievous things they declare are not against the mind, but against the flesh. For the fruits of the flesh, he says, are "fornication, adultery, licentiousness, and similar things" (Gal. V, 19); and, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. VIII, 8); and, "The flesh lusts against the spirit" (Gal. V, 17). Regarding the mind, however, he says: "I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing also with the mind" (1 Cor. XIV, 15); and that "My mind is unfruitful," or "it is fruitful" (1 Cor. XIV, 14). For He set the mind—which Scripture is accustomed to call the heart—as the leader, so to speak, and the charioteer of the entire vessel, the discriminator of good things and evil, the examiner of the things within us ^D.

^A Mens enim verba dijudicat; guttur vero cibos degustat. Porro mens in homine discendi vim habet; nondum tamen sese ad assentiendum inclinat, nisi semetipsam commutet ac convertat.

LXXVII. For what, then, has it seemed good to some to exclude the mind from the Lord's taking of human nature? And what have they benefited life by turning it rather into instability? Or what did this harm us or benefit us, if I may so speak, to help Christ? Or to do Him this great favor, and say to Him: "He did not take a mind"? For the Galatians ^B are indeed foolish, and the Cretans are always liars, and Ephraim is a senseless dove; but our Lord, having become human, took up all things perfectly for the life, or rather, He Himself took them, having been the Maker of His own body, Himself taking for Himself the soul, or rather, placing it within. ^C But some, wishing to make the incarnate presence of Christ and the economy in Him incomplete—I know not what they are thinking—have spoken incorrectly in saying that Christ did not take a mind. Yet these men suppose the mind to be a hypostasis, and by nature they dare to say what is usually said in Scripture regarding the spirit in man, as the Apostle says: "That our whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." They are mistaken, therefore. For if the mind is the spirit, and the spirit is the mind, as they themselves suppose, and the soul is something other than the mind and other than the spirit, there are no longer two hypostases in man, joined together into one hypostasis; no longer is the soul alone substantial and the body substantial, but we have discovered at last four: the mind is one hypostasis, the soul is another hypostasis, the spirit is another hypostasis, the body is another hypostasis. And if we investigate again, there will be even more; for man possesses many names—both the inner man and the outer man—and all these things Scripture has spoken figuratively, tightening our understanding so that we may not leave out anything of salvation, nor might any pretext for straying from the subject at hand arise for us. For these things exist in man.

^A but they should not be scrutinized too curiously. Nevertheless, from the opinion of those who claim that if the spirit is the mind, and the mind is the spirit, and these things exist outside the soul, then by what logic does the Apostle say: "I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind"? By these words he seemed to signify that neither is the spirit the mind, nor is the mind the spirit.

^B LXXVIII. Furthermore, he says, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." I do not think he spoke of the soul separated from the body. "There were," he says, "in the ship about seventy souls." And they were not, of course, souls without a body, but bodies with souls. And again, humanity is accustomed to call a man by the name of one part. Because a master is lord of eighty bodies, this does not mean they are without souls. Therefore, the Word having become flesh is not without a soul, not without the whole of that dispensation. For neither when he says "soul" does he declare it to be without a body, nor when we speak of "bodies" do we understand them to lack souls. What then did those men think who wanted to cast the mind out of the nature of man that He assumed? Or what benefit did this thing confer upon the Church? Indeed, what tumult of discord did it not create? Does not he who conceives these things constitute our salvation as merely maimed and incomplete? For our part, we cannot think of the mind as something else or distinct, ^C nor can we assert it to be a person subsisting by itself, but only that which is composite, and a participant of reason, and endowed with wisdom and understanding in each one of those who are led by error. And to bring forward something drawn from human contemplation: just as eyes are in the body, so the mind is in the soul, although we do not assert this contentiously or stubbornly; but we simply say that the mind is the faculty of understanding in a man. What, then, is a man? Soul, body, mind, and whatever else there may be. What, then, did Christ come to restore for our salvation? A perfect man, I think. Therefore, He perfectly took up all that is in him. Otherwise, how could these things be true in Him, which were predicted and pronounced by the prophets concerning man, consisting of mind, body, soul, and the rest of the condition of human life, apart from sin? ^D Since Scripture manifestly admonishes us with these words: "Behold, my beloved Servant shall understand, whom I have chosen, in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit..." But as for the things concerning the Godhead, is the Godhead then in need of understanding? God forbid! For this is fulfilled in the Lord's human nature. But if it is fulfilled in the Lord's human nature, how shall the human nature understand if it exists without a mind? This is impossible; for if the word "understand" is referred entirely to Christ, and Christ is the God-Word from above, having become flesh from Mary, and having become man, He lived among us according to what is written.

^A And so, undoubtedly, he received the economy along with the mind, since it is fitting for him to understand. For this reason the Gospel says about him: *He increased in wisdom and stature* [Luke 2:52]; not that the divinity admits of stature, nor that He who is Wisdom in its entirety lacked wisdom. But the Savior’s incarnation increased in wisdom—not by being outside of it, for it could not exist without wisdom—and he increased in stature as the child matured, as is true.

^B LXXIX. Now if, because he received the mind, one says that he came under the power of sin, then it follows much more strongly that if we admit he put on flesh, apart from which sin cannot be performed—*for the works of the flesh are manifest* [Galatians 5:19]—we must also grant that it was in the flesh that he sinned, having taken the flesh. For *I know*, the Apostle says, *that there does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh, any good thing* [Romans 7:18]. But who will be so reckless as to assert that because the Savior took on flesh, he was dragged away by the flesh and performed the things of the flesh that are not reasonable, contrary to the harmony of his own entire vessel? And yet, although he had flesh, and it was human flesh, it did not fail in any way. For the God-Word, having gone forth from the Father above, having willed to be in the flesh, kept the vessel in check, and as he willed, he was able to keep it back from every useless carnal disposition. And if he willed, he would yield; but he yielded only to those bodily needs that were reasonable and fitting to his own divinity. For since he possessed the mind in truth, just as he possessed the entire incarnation in truth, he was not stretched toward irrational desires, nor did ^C he perform or contemplate the things of the flesh in the same way as we do. Rather, as God having been born in true flesh from the Virgin Mary, he acted with body, soul, and mind, and by dwelling among the human race with the whole instrument, the God-Word subsisting from above from the Father. But let some not use sophistry, saying this refers to a catachresis, as in the phrase, *Understand my cry* [Psalm 5:2-3]. For that passage is spoken figuratively for the sake of prayer, and its usage is clear; but the example of his carnal presence is prophesied as a reality; for the phrase, *And he increased in stature*, is true. ^D Nor should anyone cavil or assume it to be spoken by a certain abuse of terms, just like that instance: *Understand my cry*. Indeed, in that place the abuse of the term is manifest.

[LXXX] But what do such people think they can manage to say if we hold that Christ, born of Mary, is a perfect human being, or one who possessed a mind? Is there a danger that we might suspect him of having been subject to sins? Heaven forbid! For *he committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth*. For if he breathed his own power into certain holy men, and those into whom he breathed are testified to as being holy, righteous, and having lived their days without blame, how much more so is he himself, *in whom it pleased all the fullness of the godhead to dwell bodily*? Even though he took true flesh from Mary the ever-virgin, and a true human soul and a mind and whatever else is in a human being, he was able, as God, to hold all these things together within himself in such a way that they were not scattered into wickedness, nor broken by the guile of the malignant enemy, nor trapped by the allurements of pleasures, nor subjected to the sin of Adam. ^B And it is for this reason that the Apostle said: *Made under the law*; and again: *Being found in fashion as a man*. Now both "in fashion," and "under the law," taken together, signify perfection and impassibility. From "made," it is declared that he is perfect; from "under the law," that it is not by appearance; by "in fashion," the constancy of the form; and from "as a man," the condition of being without sin. Since these things are so, let no one be deceived by empty myths (39). For if the same one who is truly begotten from the Father above was also begotten from Mary, he is truly begotten both above and below. If he is imperfect above, he will also be imperfect below; if he is perfect above, he will be perfect below as well. Nor is he said to have dwelt in some other perfect being, but he perfected all things in himself. ^C But afterward he rose from the dead in such a way that he is no longer divided into a body in the tomb, and a divinity, and a soul in the underworld; nor can he be held back anymore; nor does he depart again, but enters though the doors were shut, and is touched by the fingers of Thomas, so that he might be believed to exist not by some fantasy, but in truth. Thomas himself later had faith in this: where that which was written is fulfilled: *I sought God with my hands, and I was not deceived*. The same God, therefore, and the same man, wrought nothing mingled or confused, but tempered both into one. Thus, he did not vanish into nothingness, but, strengthening the earthly body with his divinity, he fused it into one power and one divinity; he is indeed one Lord, one Christ; not two Christs, nor two Gods. In him there is a spiritual body; in him there is a divinity that cannot be grasped. And that which has suffered is free from corruption; that which is not subject to passion is incorrupt, or

rather, the whole of him is incorruption itself. That Lord ^A sits at the right hand of the Father, his flesh in no way abandoned, but, by the union of the whole into one and the same singular and unique divinity, he sits at the right hand of the Father.

LXXXI. The Only-Begotten, therefore—the perfect, the increate, the constant, the immutable, who can neither be conceived in the mind nor seen, having become human among us, having risen spiritually, and no longer dying, no longer needing, though for our sake he became needy when he was rich, for he is spirit in his entirety, who joined the flesh with the divinity—he is one Lord, King, Christ, the Son of God, sitting in heaven at the right hand of the Father, above every principality and power and virtue and every name that is named. He commands in the Gospel: Go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This indeed, and the tiny particle *and* included in between, signifies that the Son is not merged with the Father. Rather, it indicates that the Father knows himself to be the true Father, and has shown himself to be the true, subsistent Word, and his Holy Spirit to be the subsistent Spirit, and the Spirit of truth, increate, immutable, and constant—not as ^B some one might suspect, moving craftily toward the faith, hiding his tracks, and acting deceitfully toward the truth; for God searches hearts and kidneys. And the heretic says: "Clearly, I believe that the Father is the Father, and the Son is the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit; and I confess three hypostases in one substance." But I, for my part, deny that there is any substance other than the divinity, or any divinity other than the substance; but, that we may speak more precisely, and that we may not speak of one form of divinity and another form of divinity in the Trinity, we speak of "substance." For he who says these things is craftily equivocating and dissembling, and with evil intent speaks thus: "I believe the Father to be the Father, and the Son to be the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be the Holy Spirit," while in the meantime he fosters a certain hidden thought in his mind and shapes for himself some idea concerning the Divinity according to the example of our own nature, saying to himself: "Just as I am possessed of body, soul, and human spirit, so it is with the Divinity. The Father, so to speak, is the form; the Son is like the soul in a man; ^C the Spirit is like that which breathes through a man." For there are some who act deceitfully and think of the Divinity in such a way. But we have not learned it thus; rather, behold, the Father testifies from heaven with a voice; behold, the Son appears at the Jordan; behold, the Holy Spirit, appearing in the form of a dove, was fashioned—not that it was fashioned by itself, but it was fashioned as a hypostasis in its own right—of the same substance, not different from that of the Father and the Son. Again, in another way: Behold, the Father sits in heaven—but do not again assume a human manner of sitting; rather, understand it in an indescribable and incomprehensible way. And he did not say, "The Son ascended to the Father," but, "He sat at the right hand of the Father." And again, ^D speaking about the Holy Spirit, the Only-Begotten taught: "I am going away, and he will come, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. Unless I go away, he will not come." If the Spirit were a merging with the Son, he would not have said, "I am going away, and he will come"; but that he might...

^A show that there is one Person and another Person. Yet there is one Godhead, one God, one truth.

LXXXII. Thus have I written for those who wish to know and embrace the order of our life and salvation, and the most certain profession which, from the Law, the prophets, the Gospels, and the apostles, and from the times of the apostles down to our days, has been kept undefiled in the Catholic Church; which, though it has been tossed about by the persecution of various heresies stirred up by envy and tumults against the one and true faith at one time or another, and vexed by the many troubles of their importunity—that faith, I say, our very hope and salvation, has stood firm in its own truth, while on the contrary, heresies continually contaminate themselves with their own filth and are separated from the society of the Church. We have found that some have recently been stirred up, to whom most of those who exercise the monastic life in Egypt, the Thebaid, and other climates readily ^B yield first place. They are involved in the same error as the Hieracites, and like them, they preach the resurrection of the flesh—not of the one we now have, but of some other one substituted in its place. All these have fallen away from the truth, and have turned the truth of God and our most certain hope into trifles and fables. For this reason we are compelled to speak again about this matter.

LXXXIII. Infidels and Gentiles, therefore, deny the resurrection altogether: but those whose faith is depraved, who have foolishly and ignorantly withdrawn themselves from every hope of truth, possess that particular opinion about the resurrection. And the Gentiles indeed, who think that there is no resurrection at all, feel this way because of the impiety of the crimes they commit daily; for they hate the resurrection, by which they are about to undergo the greatest infamy and shame, because they have entirely ignored God and his commandments, although they will necessarily ^C rise again even if they are unwilling. And indeed all created things openly convict them, for they display a certain appearance of resurrection every day. For the day sets and shadows the death of the dead, while bringing sleep upon men; and the same day rises again, and wakes us from sleep, and thus demonstrates the judgment of the resurrection. Fruits are gathered, and the state of things is cut down; whence the departure of our own from this life is established as a sort of measure; the earth is sown and sprouts, because what is ^D afflicted will rise again after the cutting. The locust dies and buries a certain discarded offspring of itself in the earth; and after a time the earth gives back what was buried. The seeds of various things are sown...

^A And God has fashioned for us ten and ten seals ^B by means of our fingernails, testifying to our hopes regarding the resurrection. But even as by a crown of hair He has proclaimed our resurrection; for that which seems to be dead in us—the hair, which is cut every day and then grows again—shows the hope of resurrection. ^B

LXXXIV. I could mention other things, indeed an infinite number, whose examples might persuade the unbelievers of these truths. However, neither the wood-pigeon—a certain bird—nor that animal which they call the Alpine mouse can produce faith, of which the latter lies among the dead for six full months, and the former for forty days, and then, their respective times having elapsed, they are roused again to life. Beetles, when they are about to die, hide themselves in a ball of dung, having buried such a ball in the ground and covered it over; and thus, through the moisture from themselves, they are found coming to life again out of it. ^C But as for the Arabian bird, the phoenix, it is superfluous for me to speak, for it has already reached the hearing of many, both believers and unbelievers. Its story appears to be of this sort: spending five hundred years, when it knows that the time of its death is at hand, it builds a cell of aromatics and, carrying it, comes to a city of the Egyptians called Heliopolis—interpreted from the Egyptian and Hebrew dialect of the ancients—and with its own wings, having beaten its breast repeatedly, and bringing forth fire from its body, it sets fire to the material underlying it, and thus burns itself up entirely, flesh and bones alike. But by the providence of God, a cloud is sent, and it rains, and extinguishes the flame which had consumed the body of the bird; and the bird being already dead and thoroughly roasted, when the flame is extinguished, the remains of its flesh still continue as a body, and for one day it vanishes and generates a worm. The worm, having become a fledgling, grows wings; on the third day it becomes strong, and having become strong, it reveals itself to those who serve in that place, and again it flies back to its own fatherland and rests.

LXXXV. ^D I myself am amazed at the mind of those gentile Greeks and other barbarian unbelievers, which is blinded in everything, inasmuch as they are not ashamed to signify resurrection in their own myths, and frequently to sing of the resurrection, just as their fables record.

^A For example, they tell of Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias, who died for her husband Admetus, and after three days rose again through Hercules, having been brought up from the depths. And Pelops, the son of Tantalus, after he was carved up by his own father for their falsely named gods, was brought back to life by Asclepius. And Castor attained it through the favor of his brother Pollux, who chose to exchange his own life with him day by day. And Protesilaus, who is portrayed as having attained the same through the agency of Laodamia. Moreover, they claim that Sisyphus, and Tantalus, and the daughters of the Caucasus whom they call Erinyes, and Tiresias along with them, were thrust down into Tartarus to pay the penalty for their crimes there—one being tortured by a rock, another by a wheel, and others in other ways—and that they still persist in punishment, so that they have not vanished into non-existence, but exist in bodies. For if they did not possess bodies, how could they be subjected to punishments by rock and wheel? And much can be said about these things, both to establish our own faith and to refute them.

^B LXXXVI. Allied and akin to these dreams and faithlessness of the Gentiles are those presented by the heretics. Some of them proclaim that the resurrection will not be of bodies, but of souls. These very Gentiles of whom I have spoken profess the same in their own opinion; so that their discourse is exceedingly absurd, set forth by them to invite ridicule. For because those heresies somehow acknowledge a resurrection and believe it will happen, yet refer it only to souls, nothing more inept can be imagined. For how can a soul rise again, which has never fallen? We do not bury souls in the tombs, but bodies; for souls do not fall, but the flesh does—hence the common practice of calling dead bodies "corpses" (πτώματα). ^C Therefore, if a resurrection is acknowledged among them, it is clear to everyone that it is not of the soul, but of the body that has fallen. The Greeks, however, are in turn refuted when they deny the resurrection entirely, while bringing food and drink to the tombs on days they call "public." They burn the food as holocausts and pour out the wines, offering nothing of benefit to the dead, but rather causing harm to themselves. Again, they are compelled by their own habit to acknowledge the resurrection of the dead; for they go to the very place where the bodies of the departed have been laid, and call out to the buried dead by name, saying: "Rise, such and such a person, eat and drink and be glad." And if they think the souls remain there, ^D where the remains of the deceased were buried, [this suggests such an expectation of souls; for they remain there on the day]

await that future day and the resurrection and the repeated generation for so long, until they receive back their own kindred and matching bodies, although the Greeks are accustomed to abhor flesh as something evil, and one that is thoroughly consumed and completely excluded from any hope of reviving. But if they do not do so for this reason, for what purpose do they chain the souls—which are superior to the substance of the bodies—to them, and seem rather to condemn them, while they follow opinions of this kind? Why do they cling to the remains of the dead? Or in what hope do they linger in these places? Let them say if they can. But that, I think, is manifest: that they do not place the souls in the tombs, but in certain repositories assigned by God to each soul according to the worth of the things they did and lived during their life; while meanwhile everyone lays out the bodies of his own kin in the coffins of the corpses or rather of the bones. It would be foolish among all people for there to be this one opinion and consensus for those who have confessed it from everywhere, but for the unbelievers, contrariwise, to deny the truths, and for the things possible in God not to be strengthened by the firmness of hope among them.

^B

LXXXVII. Concerning those who claim to be Christians, but follow Origen

Verily, I think enough has been said about these things, having set forth a few examples from the many. ^C But now, regarding those who claim to be Christians, and who have followed Origen, and who admit the resurrection of the dead—both that of our flesh and that of that most holy body of the Lord which was taken from Mary—but yet do not think the same flesh is raised, but that another is given by God instead of it: how should we not say that they hold an opinion more impious than the others, and more foolish than those held by the Greeks? For first, if according to their argument another is raised instead of this one, the judgment of God is not just, condemning another flesh instead of the one that sinned, or bringing another body into the glory of inheritance and the kingdom of heaven instead of the body which has labored in fasts and vigils and persecutions for the name of God. And how will the soul be judged alone, according to the argument of the heresies, without the presence of the body that sinned with it? For such a soul might answer to the judgment of God, saying that the sins were of the body. And it also has its defense according to the argument which is carried by contention and not by truth; for it is possible to say: "I did not sin, but the body; for since I went out ^D of the body, I neither fornicated, nor… shall it be judged."

committed adultery, nor theft, nor homicide; and I have not entangled myself in any idol worship or other such detestable crimes." And this defense will not be unjust. Since therefore she has rightly brought these things forth for her own excuse, what shall we say? Is the judgment of God therefore idle and superfluous? Or are we to think that God unjustly exercises His wrath upon men? God forbid! ^A Since I have not committed adultery, nor stolen, nor committed murder, nor practiced idolatry, nor have I performed any of the other evil and incurable things. And her defense will be found reasonable. And if she is reasonably defending herself, what shall we say? Does the judgment of God therefore lie idle? Or does God unjustly bring wrath upon men? God forbid!

^B LXXXVIII. We know that everything is possible for God: He is able to bring forth bodies without a soul, and those bodies that have been completely extinguished are able to live again and move of themselves without souls, if He wills it. Just as the things offered by vision ^C to the most holy Ezekiel proved this by their own example. For when God said to the holy prophet: "Say, son of man, let bone to bone, and joint to joint return," then a stupendous specimen of divine power occurred: for even before the souls were infused, and while the bones were merely dry, they not only had the power to move at the divine operation, but the bones also appeared endowed with intelligence and no ordinary knowledge. For the bones near the head did not, through some forgetfulness, gather themselves to the feet, nor did the neck vertebrae wander around the joints of the ankles searching for their place, but each one of the bones was seen to be stirred and to proceed with intelligence, and to adhere to its own structure. Therefore, God is able, if He wills, to raise up bodies without a soul. For in this He showed His power, in that he willed that this very thing, which was most despaired of by men, should come to life ^D before all other things, through that command which was given to Ezekiel. For He did not say: "Command, son of man, for the spirit to come first"; but He first made plain and easy what seemed more difficult, for the sake of establishing faith—that is, He joined the bodies together, and then commanded the souls to enter into those bodies. "And there arose," he says, "a great multitude." I said, therefore, that God is able to make a body live again without a soul, as has been shown beforehand; but the body itself cannot be judged by itself, for it has a just defense against the judgment of God. For it can allege in its own behalf: "All sin came from that soul; what could I do? For since it departed from me, have I committed adultery? Have I fornicated? Have I stolen? Have I practiced idolatry? Have I committed any of such offenses?" And according to the logic of the contentious, the judgment of God will be rendered ineffectual. Therefore, just as the body and the soul, joined together, formed one man produced by God, so the just Judge raises the body and gives back its soul to it, and thus the judgment of God will be just, as both parts participate, whether in the punishment for sin, or in the communion of glory promised to the saints for the sake of virtue and piety.

^A LXXXIX. Thinking that we have sufficiently proposed these things for the demonstration of the truth of our hope, we have set forth a few things instead of many. But for the sake of those who say that another body rises instead of that which fell, we again add to our labor, wishing to benefit those who desire to understand, and who do not desire to lose the same life. For may it be that we, the least and most insignificant, should labor, and that all might be benefited, and not deny the resurrection of our flesh, in which lies the entire treasure and foundation of every sound thought, and the hope of every virtuous deed, according to what is said: "Having this treasure in earthen vessels," and what follows. For we who are weak exercise temperance, practicing chastity, and we who are powerless desire to perform almsgiving, on account of the hoped-for enjoyment of the resurrection of the dead; ^B and in this way the one who labors is grounded in faith and hope, as a testimony of the love of God, and for the sake of the name of God in the midst of the torments of persecutions and other inhuman punishments, among those who do not deny the resurrection of our flesh, but believe that that very thing which is sown in the earth will be made effective. For the divine Scriptures have given us two clear and true testimonies, through which we can know the hope of our resurrection, and not be misled by the myths of innovative men who have been deceived and have written deception into their lives. In order, therefore, that I may not use many testimonies (for they are not few in both the New and the Old Testament regarding our hope and resurrection), I will speak of this briefly.

XC. If that which rises were something else, as some ^C claim, the Apostle would not have asserted it, saying: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption." And since he also speaks of the glory of the saints, how they are about to become more radiant and to be changed in glory after the resurrection, just as he says, "It is raised in glory," in order to ground us in hope; the holy Scripture says: "Fool, that which you sow is not brought to life unless it dies; and you do not sow the body that is to be, but, if it happens, a grain of wheat or of those that will rise."

other seeds," ^A and God gives it a body as He wills. He said this for the glory of those who are to be raised in splendor. And in order to show that the grain itself lays hold of the glory by its own nature, He who spoke through Paul concerning the resurrection also said in the Gospel: "Unless a grain of wheat falling into the ground dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Therefore, the Apostle spoke of a grain, and the Savior pointed out the same grain as the body itself. What then shall we say? Did not that very body which was sown, that is, the grain, rise again? Or was it something else that rose from the tomb after three days? As the angels say: "He has risen, He is not here." And as He says to Mary: "Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father." And as He shows His hands and side to Thomas, saying: "Do not be unbelieving." But it is the way of the faithless to say that He did not rise at all, or of the wrong-believing to say that the same body that rested did not rise; but it is the way of the faithful to say that the same body did rise. And He was raised for us from that same body, so that it might be established for us as a hope of truth.

^B XCI. To this end, indeed, He left the scars of the nails, and did not wish to erase them, nor the mark of the spear, although He had entered while the doors were shut. For that which was His carnal body rose spiritual, yet it was not something other than what it was, which, being united with the Divinity, passed into a certain spiritual subtlety. For if that spiritual subtlety had not existed, what hole in the earth could have received so small a body? But He wished to declare this: "This corruptible body of ours must put on incorruption." ^C And even if it is mortal, it is clothed with immortality. He entered, therefore, when the doors were shut, in order to show that what is gross and concrete [becomes] thin and subtle, and what is mortal, immortal, and what is subject to corruption, incorruptible. But in order to convince all those who distrust our salvation—that is, the resurrection—He who had changed the body into subtlety and tempered the resurrection into spirit did not take away the scars of the nails, nor the mark of the spear; but He showed that it was the same body that had suffered on the cross, and that it had risen afterwards; and that nothing else had arisen from it, but this very one which had suffered had become free from suffering; ^D and that it was the same grain which had fallen that had risen, and had risen incorrupt. And so that we might not happen to think that only a part of it had been raised—although the whole itself did not see corruption, the whole nonetheless rose. For it is written: "He has risen, He is not here." Truly, therefore, He has risen: and the Scriptures are not mistaken, for they are our life. And so that those who are deceived might not find an excuse, He showed bones and flesh to Thomas, and to His disciples He said: "See My [hands and feet], that it is I Myself; for a spirit

^A has not bones and flesh, as you see Me have."

^B XII. If some sophist should say: "But the body of our Savior was of a special kind, because it was conceived from Mary alone and without the seed of a man," still, no one can say this, nor prove it. And if some sophist should say again: "Only the whole body of Christ rose again, but ours does not rise as the same, but another in its place," how then does he say, "Christ has risen, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep?" It is possible for that very body to be the firstfruits of those who are being raised. But let them learn how Christ became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and not turn again to another error ^B or think that the other Scriptures are false. For before Him, He raised Lazarus, and the son of the widow in Naim. And Elijah raised a dead man; and Elisha raised two dead men, one still walking about, and one already buried. But those men, having risen, died again, and they await the one and general resurrection. But Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, because, having risen, He no longer dies, and death no longer has dominion over Him, according to what is written. For He died once for our sake, enduring the passion on account of our passions; He tasted death once, that is, the death of the cross, the Word having willingly come into death for our sake, so that by death He might kill death, the Word having become flesh, not suffering in His divinity, but suffering with the humanity, the passion being imputed to Him ^C while He Himself remained in immortality; for He Himself said, "I am the life." Nor is our hope in flesh; for it says, "Cursed is he who puts his trust in man, and he shall be as in a wild tamarisk."

XIII. What, then, shall we say? Is Christ not a man, from what has been said before? It is clear to everyone that we acknowledge without doubt that the Lord the Word became man, not in appearance but in truth. But He is not a man who came to be through an advancement of divinity (for neither is our hope of salvation in a man; for no one at all of the men from Adam was able to work out salvation), but God the Word having become man, so that hope might not be in a man, but in the living God, who became a true ^D man. For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men, according to what is written. Whence the Lord, having come, took flesh from our flesh, and God the Word became man like us, so that in the divinity he might…

^A dissolve the passion by the passion, and through his own death kill death. The passion was attributed to the divinity, although the divinity is impassible; for so it pleased the holy and impassible God the Word to come.

The example is as follows: as if someone were wearing a garment, and a drop of blood were sprinkled on the garment, defiling the garment, while not reaching the body of the one wearing it; yet that stain of blood is reckoned to the wearer of the garment. Thus, Christ suffered in the flesh—I mean, in that Lordly man whom the holy God the Word, having come down from heaven, fashioned for himself. To this, indeed, the holy Peter attests with these words: *Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit*; and again: *Christ therefore having suffered for us in the flesh, do you also arm yourselves with the same thought*.

In this manner, then, consider the blood on the garment as if it belonged to the wearer. The passion of the flesh was reckoned to the divinity, though the divinity itself suffered nothing, so that the world might not place its hope and confidence in a mere man, but in the Lordly man, while the divinity willed to have the passion reckoned to itself; so that the condition of the divinity, which is exempt from passion, might become the salvation of the whole world; and that the passion inflicted upon the flesh might nevertheless be attributed to the divinity, which meanwhile suffered nothing. In this way, that which is written is fulfilled: *For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory*, etc.

XCIV. The Lord, then, was crucified, he was crucified, I say; and we adore him who was crucified, ^C who was buried, and who rose again on the third day, and ascended into heaven. *O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!* according to what is written. For *we know in part, and we prophesy in part*, as if drawing a drop of the knowledge of God from the ocean, and grasping some example of such a dispensation, and the grace of our hope: since, by the willing grace and consensus of the Father, and the will of the Son, along with the will of the Holy Spirit, this whole matter was administered by one and the same God. Furthermore, although the dogma of his resurrection is ^D mentioned sporadically in all places of Scripture, the sum and perfection of the matter was reserved for the coming of the subsistent Word. For *Christ is the end of the law*, as Scripture testifies. For what place is there in the holy Scriptures where the resurrection's

^A truth is not found, or where the blessed witnesses of God do not mention it, that they might not remember? The blood of Abel first proclaims it; for after death it still speaks, as Scripture reports. Enoch was translated and was not found, nor did he see death, because he pleased God. Noah, by the command of God, built an ark, and fashioned it as it were a regeneration for his family. Abraham, worn with age, receives a child from a body now dead, and God bestowed hope from the dead, especially since Sarah’s womb was dead; and that which had aged and had come near to disappearance—the womanly custom—the dried-up fountain again receives power for the sowing of seed, and the aged woman brings forth like a young girl. And Isaac, living from death, was given back to his father; for God, in handing over the son alive to the father from the resurrection of the dead, was proclaiming hope. Joseph shows the same reality, not setting the hope of his bones in the second place, for he took care of such things, not as if they were perishing but as if they were going to live again. And he commanded that they be brought up out of the land of the Egyptians, not without purpose. And Joseph signified this, saying, *You shall carry up my bones with you; for the Lord will surely visit you.* If there were no hope of resurrection, why would the just show such care for bones, for bones that are decaying, in giving such instructions? The first voice to Moses was the testimony of God: *I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob*, of those sleeping in the world, yet living with me. One ^B and the same Spirit, who spoke in the Law, also taught in the Gospel; for the Savior indicated this very thing to the Sadducees: *I who spoke in the prophets, behold, I am here.*

XCV.

^A of testimony, that the nuts which living trees produce after twelve months, grown in the dry and sapless wood, sprouted more densely, so that what is wont to be produced in twelve months, as has been said, is perfected by God in one night or rather in one moment of an hour. And just as an infant, having been carried in its mother’s womb for nine months, is wont to be fashioned and perfected over a long period, yet in the resurrection it will arise perfected and complete in a single moment and point of time.

XCVI. Let the power and strength of God, to whose will no one can resist, create faith in unbelieving men. Let Moses hear and show: *What have you in your hand?* the Lord says to him. And he said: A rod. Now the rod was wooden and completely dried out. Then the Lord said: Cast it upon the ground. So Moses cast down the dry rod; and what was dry, God made moist and full of sap: and not only moist, but also animate, and thus changed in nature, and fashioned into another substance ^B. Nor was that appearance an empty phantom; for by God’s command the work itself is perfected in the truth of the thing, and not by phantasy. For in all things He has set forth the truth through Moses, correcting our understanding. For the prophet knew that what was taking place was not by semblance, but in truth, in that he fled. For if he had known that what was happening was a phantasy, he would not have fled from the face of the serpent. But lest this again become a stumbling-block to the contentious, and they say ^C that it was another rod, and that God gave it a different body as He willed, let them first know that He did not animate one thing in place of another, but animated that very one which was dry. Because this body bestowed upon the rod, and the species or kind moved by Him, God was not calling to judgment, nor did He wish to judge the serpent instead of the rod; but He wrought in that rod a most certain assurance of the resurrection. And God showed His own power, that no one might disbelieve the One who is powerful in all things. And He did this with all security; for He did not raise up merely a part of the rod, but changed the whole rod as He willed. And this very thing He perfected with all caution: He converted it, whole and entire, by His own will.

XCVII. But that matters are so, and that the hope of eternal life has been shown to the dead, and that those who lie in the tombs will arise, call to me again the most trustworthy witness, Moses. For when Ruben had committed an act of wickedness, his father, that most holy patriarch Jacob, invokes a curse upon him, and says: *Ruben, my firstborn and the beginning of my children, you have acted with insolence. As water do not boil over. You went up to your father's bed, and you uncovered*, he says, *where you went up*. But in the Hebrew ^D *elthobar*—which is interpreted...

as: do not return, or, do not add, or, do not abound. But if the word is to be pronounced with a gentle spirit, it is the same as: do not boil over, which sense the Interpreters ^A expressed. But if you wish to learn why he says these things in this way, and that death was appointed by the father as a penalty for him who had sinned, Moses will clarify it for you. For when he was blessing the twelve tribes, and had come to Ruben, and knowing that Levi was the priest (for by the administration of the priesthood sins were loosed and bound), he says: Let Ruben live, and not die. But how could he who had been buried one hundred and twenty-six years prior live? But since he knew that the resurrection was about to follow in all respects, and knew of a second death by condemnation on the day of judgment, wishing to relieve him of future things instead of the one punishment, he says: Let him live, ^B signifying in the resurrection (for he knew that all would rise), and let him not die, that is, let him not be entangled in the second death, which is by condemnation and eternal punishment. For if he had been concerned only about the loss of the present life, it would have been enough to say only: Let Ruben live. But since he is signifying concerning future things, he says: Let Ruben live, and not die.

XCVIII

Elias, however, was in circumcision, so that the resurrection might not be ascribed specifically to one group or the other, but be held as common and general. ^A Elias cultivated virginity, so that that excellent dignity of virginity might proclaim to the world immortality and the incorrupt state of the body. But that the resurrection or the preservation of the whole body might not appear to be granted to virginity alone on account of its excellence, Enoch was not a virgin, but was chaste and temperate, and he begat children. Therefore, those two are counted among the living, and they persevere in both body and soul for the sake of our hope, ^B and so that no one might doubt the endurance of life.

XCIX. But that no one might again be able to doubt, he cast others down into the underworld with their very bodies; for the earth, splitting asunder and opening its jaws, swallowed Dathan and Abiron, the sons of Core, and Aunan; and they were plunged into the underworld alive in body and soul. For from that very hour they were delivered to judgment, with neither their bodies dissolved nor any relic or part left behind, but they were delivered whole, with body and soul together, to punishment. Furthermore, Job speaks thus: "Until I am again, and this body which sustains these things, and Thou shall restore me." And again: "Thy youth shall be renewed as an eagle's." Isaiah furthermore says: "The dead shall rise, and they who are in the tombs shall be awakened." For He has come who looses the bound in strength, and likewise those who provoke, those dwelling in the sepulchers. But what Job said—"Man when he has slept will rise no more, and shall not acknowledge his place"—was stated because the resurrection does not happen daily, but is destined for one certain and definite day. And to show for what time he was expecting that future event, he immediately resolves the question: "So long as heaven and earth exist," he says, "bodies will lie in the earth." But after He has come who rolls up the heaven like a scroll, and shakes the earth, then those who are in the earth shall rise. For this reason He says to Ezekiel: "Son of man, speak: Let bone be joined to bone, and joint to joint," and it was so; and upon them grew sinews, and veins, and flesh, and hair, and nails. And again He says: "Speak, son of man: Come, O spirit, from the four corners of the earth, from those places, that is, which are assigned to souls." ^C But why does the Lord Himself not speak, but commands man to proclaim these things? It is surely because whatever the Lord says, He brings to pass at the same time, and it is no longer dissolved. And to man [He commands to say it], that after the resurrection at the appointed time, our hope might be signified... ^D [alt-version omitted]

but that the word of man—and not of the Lord—should be dissolved, since those bones were destined to die again thereafter. But when the Lord says, "Arise," they rise, and they do not die; for the word of God shall not be dissolved. ^B

C. And it appears this is the reason why the Lord, coming in the flesh, raised the dead, so that what was recalled to life through the intervention of the flesh might die again, until the flesh itself should rise, no longer to die, and [He] cease to say this to any one person alone, "Arise, come out," until in the end He shall come, and no longer speak singularly, "Arise"; but, "Arise all," and shall proclaim the common resurrection for all; for He Himself is the resurrection of the dead. Furthermore, after He was raised from the dead, He raised no one of those who had recently died from the dead. For with Him indeed many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose, and appeared to many, when they had entered into the bridal chamber, as we read in the Gospel. Yet He did not say, "A part of the bodies of the saints arose," but "bodies of the saints," and they appeared to many, not being others than those who had died, but recognized by their own people who had died not long before. And wishing to show the miracle also to others, our Lord accomplished those difficult things by showing them to be easy. For when He came to the girl, the daughter of the synagogue ruler, who had recently died, since she had died at that very hour, He deigned to say to her, "Maiden, arise"; by which words He confirmed with new strength what was already dissolved, since she still lay on the bed. But the son of the widow in Nain, because he was already being carried out on the bier, He raised more easily. For He touched the bier, and did not say anything to the boy, but only touched the bier, and he arose. But what is still far deeper, and far beyond the hope of men, is that when He came to the four-day-old Lazarus, He did not say, "Arise," nor did He touch the tomb with His hand, but thus He calls [him] in readiness by His own authority: "Lazarus, come out." And it is much easier and readier to say, "Come out," than to touch; but to touch again is much easier than to call, "Maiden, arise." But here the holy Word of God does everything, ^C that He may point out to us the hope of the resurrection.

CI. But if I should wish to collect all the testimonies from all the Scriptures, our mind is small, and brief and untaught; nevertheless, because of the multitude, I extend the discourse to great length. But, in summary, I will say that our salvation is brief, [saying], "Young man, I say to you, Arise." ^D

^A in that it is proclaimed to us in one hope of the resurrection. But the unbelievers disbelieve these things, the heretics corrupt them, the contentious do not receive them, and the vain-minded cast them away. May God, however, grant mercy to all, and enlighten the darkened minds of their intellects. For the Greeks, when they have received the Holy Spirit, shall be rebuked by the truth and by all the testimonies foretold, especially by you who are the sons of the holy Church of God and of the orthodox faith. For you who have received the Holy Spirit, and have been deemed worthy of the grace of right speech in the opening of the mouth, teach these things; first, because you have been deemed worthy to be disciples of Christ, the chief Shepherd and moderator and president of our souls, being those who gather food for the flocks of Christ—that is, for your own peoples—and who are anxious to care both for yourselves and for God's flock, I mean for those who wish in every way to be profited by that holy land ^B hinted at by Moses. And who among the prudent, looking upon you, O pious and faithful ones, O orthodox sons of the Church (for when I name some, I intend for all the sons of truth to be included, as it is written), who, I say, looking upon you, would doubt the faith of these? For you are the sons of that wise and most courageous woman, whose beauty and glory Solomon expressed in these words: "A courageous woman who shall find?" (Prov. xxxi, 10). Wherefore, since he judges her to be rare, or rather unique, do you choose what is better, and love that which is profitable. Consider that the courageous woman refers to the Church of God, your mother, than whom nothing is more courageous, dying in every persecution that is stirred up for the sake of the name of her own husband.

^C CII. This most candid woman diligently inquires of her own Bridegroom in the Book of Canticles: "Where do you feed? Where do you rest at midday?" (Cant. i, 7). Christ feeds in that aforementioned land, and not only does he feed, but he also commands that the sandal be loosed from the feet of the shepherds, just as Moses declared in the beginning (Exod. iii, 5). Having received this tradition from him, do you yourselves also securely guide those who are being introduced into the holy knowledge, taking care that each one looses his sandals. Now the sandals of each of us are different; for each person is bound by his own deeds as if by sandals. And in this way, since each one who is obedient to you, who are disciples of Christ and excellent shepherds, is as it were bound by the sandal of idolatry, he looses it through your exhortation; another strips off adultery, another fornication, another theft, and another covetousness. And not only this, but also renouncing abominable words and shameful speech, ^D everyone, lured by the hope of happiness, commits himself to be pastured under the strong hand of the good Shepherd through you, the excellent disciples: for no one

^A will be found who does not cast away error. But you, set the truth before their eyes, and now that the idols are condemned, proclaim openly and freely how greatly those who venerate them wander. Do not think that they are dead, for they never lived; but teach all men always and deservedly that they are vain, empty, and non-existent, for they never were such that they could exist. They are nothing but evil demons, the invention of human thought, which provided opportunities for the allurements of the passions; and hence each one has dared to consecrate his own passion with divine worship. For at first, immediately after this new kind of superstition was brought upon men through the wickedness of demons, this primary fornication was uttered in word and speech, and the idols were prefigured by rough sketches. Then, each man offered to his own children, for veneration, the craft he practiced, through which he had his livelihood; and from the material of their own craft, they fashioned gods for themselves—the potter from clay, the carpenter from wood, the goldsmith from gold, and the silversmith likewise.

^B 103. Furthermore, each one inscribed his own passion into the shape of an image for his own eyes to see. One man, who was bloodthirsty and cruel, asserted that Mars was a god; some adulterer or adulteress, the promiscuous Venus; a tyrant furnished Victory with wings; the squalid man, gaping after profit and wealth, drew the form of Saturn; the effeminate man, Cybele and Rhea, because of the rheum—as I suppose—of the varied mingling of bodies; another, a wanderer or a profligate, prefigured the huntress Diana, or drunken Bacchus, or the laborious Hercules; he who pursued promiscuous lust, Jupiter and Apollo. And why should I tell of the multitude of countless passions existing in men?

The Egyptians, however, certainly surpassed the error of all nations; for they did not only venerate their own passions as gods, but also birds and quadrupeds, terrestrial and aquatic creatures, certain untamed beasts, and even those things that were given to them by holy God for servitude; they changed them into the order [of gods], and being beast-like in their minds as if they truly were such, they over-venerate the animals among them, deifying them, and not being ashamed of the barking dog, the cat that eats reptiles, the lascivious goat, the bleating sheep, the multi-footed and ^C most hideous crocodile, the ibis that feeds on poison, or the kite, or the hawk, or the raven—most servile creatures—or the crooked and most loathsome serpent. And, in a word, upon the great shame of those who do not even consider the reproof of their own eyes, nor take in perception with their ears, nor perceive with their minds the things that are among them— ^D just as they posit their gods to be in human form, so also do they posit them to be subject to human passions. And just as each one paints their faces similar to his own—as Xenophanes says, the Ethiopians as black and flat-nosed, the Thracians as red-haired and blue-eyed—so do they likewise liken their souls and fashion them with the same [traits]. At once, the barbarians are beastly and savage in their habits, while the Greeks are more civilized, yet still subject to the passions.

^A They are struck with a sort of evil delirium, and they neither perceive the critique that is present before their very eyes, nor do they admit into their ears the sense of this matter, nor do they grasp with their mind and thought the things so absurdly performed by them. Therefore, they are as if struck by the worst kind of fate: neither are they bathed in the light of truth by their own philosophers, nor do they strive to be spectators along with those who have drawn the same truth from the more humane disciplines. For they do not listen to that [story] of Diagoras, who, when for lack of wood he had cast his own wooden image of Hercules into the hearth, added this gibe: ^B "Come now, Hercules, perform your thirteenth labor and cook our dinner for us." Having taken and split it into pieces, he mocked his own god as if he did not exist, and he ate his meal, amused by the lunch that had been prepared for him through that [very image].

CIV. But Heraclitus the Egyptian says in this manner

^A he objects: "If they are gods, whom you worship, why do you bewail them?" For they lament Typhon and Osiris and other gods cast down under the earth with mournful chants, as if they were performing funeral rites for the dead. He speaks, therefore, as follows: "If they are gods, why do you bewail them? But if they are dead, you bewail them in vain." Another comic poet (74), Eudæmon by name, says: "If indeed they are gods, I cannot speak about them, nor do I dare to explain what kind of beings they are; for many are the things that prevent me." And Homer indeed says: "Ill is the lordship of many." ^B And another comic poet in our day (75) says: "Whoever worships one God have good hopes for salvation."

For Apis—that straw-eating calf—was immediately (76) wounded in the thigh by the sword of the King of the Assyrians, so that if blood flowed, he might be exposed as not being a god. And the followers of Cronus do not deny that their own god is kept in iron chains, but even openly admit it. But whoever is kept in confinement is not simply made subject to one more powerful, but such a one is in confinement as a criminal. And if I am to speak about Isis, who is now also called Atthis and Io, the daughter of Apis the Cappadocian—who is also called Inachus—I am perhaps ashamed to proclaim her deeds. ^C But, on the other hand, I will not be ashamed to mention what they themselves are not ashamed to worship. Let the most vain worshippers of this divinity be ashamed (77) (and those born of Aphrodite), who exhort their own daughters and wives and sisters to imitate the deeds of their own gods; and the one who is immediately, as a priestess (78), enamored of her own brother Typhon, stirs up others to make war against their own brothers. And there is great shame for a goddess who feels no shame for her own brother, but is enamored, and not content with men from outside, even to... ^D

the point of desiring to commit incest with her own brother, while he is dead. ^A And not only this, but she also demonstrates to those most dear to her an example of fratricide because of her own insatiable desire. And Horus, that only son to whom no one could truly point and say, "This, in truth, is his legitimate father"—for if one honors Typhon, he doubts whether he is his parent, and if he presents Osiris, who could establish that with certainty? A wonderful god, indeed, such as a mother, trained in these very disciplines, would teach, having taken him up and spent ten whole years in the city of Tyre prostituting herself! And in deifying Serapis, or Apis, the king of the Sinopians, they served a tyrannical dominion rather than the truth.

^B CV. These are the prizes of the gods who are worshipped by the Egyptians; if I wished to recount them one by one, much time would be consumed in the matter. But the Greeks, who seem to themselves to be excellent and illustrious, while they philosophize only with words and a certain flow of eloquence, and not with deeds, have slipped more shamefully than all others. For they first narrate that Saturn was born of Heaven, and had cut off the virile members of his own parent. O wicked deed! O most foul opinion! As if, had he not been castrated, there would be so many more Saturnians. But that energetic and strong one, who had done such a notable injury to his father, not content with this former impiety, ^C just as he had injured his father while still a youth, when more advanced in age he swallowed his own children, Neptune and Pluto; and searching for Jupiter, and being deceived by Rhea, as if he were a god, he swallowed a huge stone wrapped in swaddling cloths instead of an infant. Furthermore, his son, sprung from these most illustrious and noble parents—Jupiter, whose name is this—was in danger of becoming the husband of all women, and his son Mercury likewise. And would that he had at least had them as legitimate wives, and not existed as a secret adulterer and evildoer ^D toward Penelope, whom, in fact, he assailed, and for whose sake he became a goat—a goat, I think, owing to the vigorous growth of his beard. And to Danae he became gold, so that he might corrupt a chaste virgin kept in her chamber; but that gold could not have been real: rather, being a trickster, by means of gold and bribes he deceived the maiden. And with Leda he becomes a swan, signifying the renewal of the heat of his own pleasure. ^B And an eagle—never having flown at all, but a master and teacher of child-corruptors—sitting in wait, never having become an eagle, but having sailed by in a ship named "Eagle" on account of its speed, he put in at Troy, and having snatched up Ganymede, the son of the king of the Trojans, he committed the corruption. And to Pasiphae he became a bull, and in like manner to Europa, and corrupted them. Idem ad Pasiphaen et Europam in taurum mutatus accessit.

^A And what need is there to speak of the multitudes of that noble corrupter and teacher of corruption? Whose sepulchre is known to not a few; for in the island of Crete, on the mountain called Lasius, it is to this day pointed out by the finger. And the Jupiters were not one or two, but even three and four in number. For one of them is the Saturnian mentioned above, who cast his own father into the depths at the Caucasian mountain; another became the Latiaris, from whom the gladiators took their origin; another is the tragedian, who also burned his hand—perhaps, being a god, he had forgotten that fire bites, and had not the foreknowledge of what is said by the he-goat to the Satyr who had first discovered fire and approached to kiss it: "Do not touch me, O goat; for if you touch me, you will burn your beard." And the Minervas are not one, but many: one who wanders and is lost about the Triton lake; another the daughter of Oceanus; another that of Saturn, to omit the others. Dianas also are many; one, the Ephesian; another, the daughter of Zeus; and others likewise, not a few. And Dionysus the Theban, and another the son of Semele, and he who presides over the Corybantes, and he who is torn to pieces by the Titans, and the Curete who was robbed of his inheritance. And Hercules, who is called among them Alexikakos (the Averter of Evil), all of whose deeds I shall pass over in silence, but I will point out one out of all those of theirs that might perhaps be praised. It will be enough for him to have undergone this labor, that salvation might come to life. For if he had not corrupted fifty virgins in one night, how could the world have been saved? Or rather, it would have perished. And simply, I confess to thee, I am weary of recording their evil deeds ^B by list. Furthermore, certain princes and most savage tyrants, having held some to be desirable, and having buried them in the earth, having nothing more to bestow upon them—being themselves mortal, according to them—for the sake of the love they bore them, in their foolishness have handed down their tombs to their own subjects to be worshipped as a bad pretext for the evils of life. Like Antinous, who was buried in Antinoopolis, and placed in a pleasure-boat, and was thus established by Hadrian. And Timagenes in Asia; and Canobus, the pilot of Menelaus; and his wife Eumenuthis, buried in Alexandria, are honored by the seashore, twelve miles apart. And Marnas, the slave of Asterius the Cretan, among the Gazaeans; and Casius the shipmaster among the Pelusians.

CVII.

^A from violating the marriages of others, but also see to it through your exhortation that they abstain from the company of their lawful wives; for the time is short, as the holy Apostle says. Instruct fornicators, lest they pay the penalty for a deed that is abominable and illicit both before God and men. And when you have delivered all these things, toiling both by word and by deed, persuade them to accept these same things from you, having first performed everything in deed and having framed yourselves in them, confirming the words by means of the deeds in which you have first instructed yourselves, so that you may also disciple others. For hold fast, even while silent, in the manner of the sun, which in silence teaches everyone everywhere; for immediately upon rising, even while silent, it teaches the arts of all men. And whenever you hand down the benefit of all these things to your own children, or rather to your most faithful brothers, lead them to walk upon the earth while nevertheless holding their citizenship in heaven. And instill in the majority a zeal for the monastic life through your own steadfastness and unfeigned faith; detesting heretics, silencing the Manichaeans, and driving the Marcionites and others of their ilk from the fold of God, ^B by unraveling and silencing all their pretexts. For whatever they rashly utter against God and His holy prophets—being shallow and empty of the Holy Spirit, and blaspheming against the Creator of all—and whatever good things God has granted to all men through His holy prophets according to prophecy, these they hate; and the deepest matters of the law and the prophets, since they are earthly and fleshly, they do not understand when examined, and they blaspheme in vain. Do not hesitate to banish their error from those who hear you; cast them off by means of true proofs, for by such words those of vain mind are swept away like brushwood in the current of a ^C mighty river.

CVIII.

those sisters, who did not even manifest a faith equal to that Shunammite woman. Although it was the case for her only with a man, namely the holy prophet Elisha; but Martha and her sister were dealing with God. For what He said elsewhere, "Who touched me?" he did not say out of ignorance, but so that He might elicit a confession from the woman herself—that the Son of God might not testify regarding Himself, but be commended by the testimony of others. But as for what pertains to those matters: "Have you any bread with you?" He asked this so that, however small the supply of bread was, the magnitude of so great a miracle might be demonstrated—which was the more admirable in that He had fed so many thousands of men with so few loaves. ^B Furthermore, when He signifies that those seeking Jesus were deceived, it is so that, by the One they were seeking—the One whose name signifies Physician and Savior—they might have the salvation imparted by Him, had they not killed Him.

^C CIX. Therefore, just as we demonstrated that the things said regarding the incarnation of the Lord Christ are conceived in a manner accommodated to human affection but are in no way lacking in foreknowledge (for no prudent person could say that He was ignorant when He asked, "Where have you laid Lazarus?" since He was near to that place, and, for the reasons I mentioned before, had asked the question; especially since, earlier, though far removed from Galilee, He had of Himself signified the death of Lazarus): so also we prudently explain those things in the Old Testament which are akin to these; namely, that word of God: "Adam, where are you?" is not that of One who is ignorant, but of One who is showing from what height to what depth of disgrace and infamy Adam had fallen. Of the same sort is also that: "Where is Abel your brother?"—he whom you ought to have carried in your arms assiduously, and with whom you ought to have lived perpetually, here has been cast by you to the ground. For from those things which follow, He shows that it was not out of ignorance that He said these things, but in order to convict the man. For it follows: "Cursed is the ground in your works; and you yourself are cursed from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hand." "For behold," He says, "his voice cries to me." Now, that phrase: "Where is Sarah your wife?" He did not utter out of ignorance, but so that, for the daughters who would be born of her and who would profess piety, He might offer her instruction as a kind of model; to which they ought especially to adapt themselves, as often as they minister to holy men by their own labor. For even she, though distracted by such a busy ministry, when she had made the unleavened and hearth-baked breads herself, and had performed all the other duties with the servants, did not look at the faces of those for whom she prepared these things; and by that act, she left behind a rare and singular example of modesty and propriety for posterity. And these things will be sufficient as a refutation against the objections of the most inept of men.

^A PI. If they say that the God of the Law is good, who defrauded the Egyptians and taught His own people to plunder them as they were going out of the land of Egypt, the foolish ones do not know that nothing is lost before God, and that there is a just judgment, and that God is not mocked. For what did the Egyptians mean by wanting the Jews to work for them without pay—and not for just any number of years, but for two hundred and fifteen, together with the two hundred and fifteen [years] of Joseph? ^B For the four hundred and thirty years of sojourning having been ordained for Abraham and his seed, to whom He says, "Your seed shall be a stranger in a foreign land," the thing ordained was being brought to completion. God, therefore, in His own compassion, divided the years of His sojourning. And immediately, while there were still fifteen years left in the Canaanite [land] [note 88], He took him [Abraham], and the other two hundred and fifteen He distributed to those dwelling in Egypt. For the number of these years is reckoned as follows: Abraham was then seventy-five years old. There are, therefore, from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham until the birth of Isaac, twenty-five years. Isaac begets Jacob, dragging on to the sixtieth year, and it became eighty-five years. Jacob, being eighty-nine years old [note 89], begets Levi, and there are one hundred and fourteen years. Levi, being forty-four years old [note 90], begets Kohath. And in the forty-seventh year of Levi, Jacob goes down into Egypt, and there are two hundred and eleven years. And after their entry into Egypt, another four years. And the two hundred and fifteen are filled. From this, there are again calculated for me the remaining two hundred and fifteen years of the sojourning of the Israelites. And Kohath, after the going down into Egypt [note 91], in the sixty-fifth year...

^{C D}

Commentary on the preceding calculation

(87) *Together with the two hundred and fifteen.* These two words indicate that the place is defective. For from the promised Isaac, or from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham, to the birth of Joseph, there are not two hundred and fifteen years, but about one hundred and seventy-five. Petav.

(88) *And immediately while there were still fifteen years.* Since in Exodus chapter 12, the time during which the Israelites sojourned in Egypt is defined in Latin and Hebrew codices as four hundred and thirty years, the interpretation applied to those words upon the authority of the Greeks is convenient, so that not more than two hundred and fifteen [years] are imputed from the departure of Jacob into Egypt to the exodus. Yet those entire four hundred and thirty [years] are derived from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham. For in the seventy-fifth year of Abraham, the son is promised by God to the patriarch, who is born in the hundredth year of Abraham. Thus, twenty-five years are already gathered; Isaac begets Jacob in the sixtieth year of his age. He, being one hundred and thirty years old, as he himself testified to Pharaoh, arrives in Egypt. These are two hundred and fifteen years from the promise. The rest intervene until the exodus, the intervals of which are set down by chronologists. Paul himself supports this reasoning in Galatians 3:17, who counts four hundred and thirty years from the promise to the Law being given, as we have said elsewhere. Epiphanius dispenses those numbers perplexedly and quite obscurely, which will be shown item by item. Id.

(89) *Jacob being eighty-nine years old.* This is the eighty-seventh. For Jacob is third in the order of the sons, born in the tenth year of that same servitude, which began around the seventy-seventh year, as is more studiously gathered by chronologists. Id.

(90) *Levi being forty-four years old.* Latin codices have this, which is forty-four, not thirty-four, as Cornarius renders, whose reading is indeed more emended. For thirty-four are to be entirely enumerated, as is evident from what follows. For to the birth of Levi, the years amount to one hundred and seventy-four; adding thirty-four, then three, so that forty-seven of Levi arise, there are two hundred and eleven years, which Epiphanius recounts. Id.

(91) *And Kohath after the going down into Egypt.* And in the age of the patriarchs, when they begat sons, it stands by nothing but conjecture, which is variously elicited by our chronologists. Here, however, Epiphanius's calculus is hampered. He says Kohath was begotten in the thirty-fourth year of Levi, which is from the promise two hundred and eight. Furthermore, Kohath begat Amram in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Therefore, from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham to the birth of Amram, two hundred and eighty-three years have flowed, not two hundred and eighty: to complete which, if indeed Kohath begat Amram in the sixty-fifth year, he was born in the fourteenth year of Levi. Yet he is said by Epiphanius to be born in the thirty-fourth year, to which are added other three until the departure into Egypt, then four are taken from the Egyptian sojourn, so that the number of two hundred and fifteen years is absolved. Either, therefore, Kohath begat Amram in the seventy-first year of his age; or, as I have said, Levi, acting in the forty-first year, begat Kohath. From the seventy-fifth year of Abraham to the forty-first of Levi there are two hundred and fifteen years, to which the added sixty-five constitute two hundred and eighty. Item, from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham to the thirty-fourth of Levi, there are numbered two hundred and eight years. Add seventy-one, the years will arise to two hundred and eighty. Three

hundred and fifty years elapsed from the first ^A Abraham. From the descent into Egypt, there are one hundred and thirty-five years. Moses, being seventy years of age, begets Moses. And there occur from the first Abraham three hundred and fifty years; and from the descent into Egypt, thirty-five years. Now Moses, in his thirtieth year, treads the Red Sea, coming out of Egypt with the Israelites. And there occur from the great Abraham three hundred and eighty years, and from the descent into Egypt, five hundred and sixty-five years. And they consumed the remaining fifty years after the crossing of the Red Sea until the meeting in Palestine, not because of the length of the road, but because of the fighting and being hindered by the nations found along their way. Therefore, from the seventy-fifth year of the great Abraham, from which time this prophecy was given to him by God, until Moses and the arrival of the children of Israel into Palestine, there are four hundred and thirty years. ^B

CXI. Since the Israelites had worked for the Egyptians for so many years without any reward, was it not just, in the judgment of both God and men, for their wages to be given to them at least at the end? Why then is God not unjust, who brings his own out from there with spoils? But if anyone should doubt [whether this is so]... ^C

[TABLE: TYPOLOGY OF EPIPHANIUS’S ERRONEOUS CALCULATION] From the year of the promise made to Abraham to the birth of Isaac: A. LXV. From Isaac to the birth of Jacob: A. LX. From thence to complete the former two hundred and fifteen years: A. LXXXIX. From the birth of Caath to the birth of Amram: A. XXXIV. To the birth of Moses: A. III. To the departure from Egypt: A. IV. Total computed from the entry into Egypt: two hundred and fifteen years.

From the birth of Caath to the possession of Palestine: A. CCXV. From the promise made to Abraham to the entry into Palestine: A. CDXXX.

^D These matters Petau, most experienced in chronological affairs, points out—showing that if Epiphanius is less diligent and less accurate in a matter quite intricate, and which he touches upon only incidentally, in the partition and distribution of that time which concerns the promise made to Abraham and which constitutes the third age of the world—yet they do not detract from that praise due to the same Epiphanius, because in the interpretation of this same promise, concerning which St. Jerome says at the beginning of his Epistle to the Galatians: "For it is no small matter, and though sought by many, I know not if it has been discovered by any," he follows the opinion which is the most approved of all, which agrees most with the divine testimonies of Scripture, and which is defended by Eusebius, Jerome, Augustine, John Chrysostom, and other holy Fathers of the Church. See what Natalis Alexander has gathered on this subject in his first dissertation on the third age of the world.

^B But if anyone does not think that this sum of years and this account is correct, let him hear Moses speaking: "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in the land of Canaan and in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years." Since, therefore, the Lord was providing for a most rightful reward, what vain argument can still remain for those who wish to bring accusation against the holy God? A true God could never be blamed by anyone. But those who blame Him, blame themselves. Another vain argument is announced by them, similar to the first, that the God of the Law is good, who did wrong to the Canaanites, so that He might give to the Israelites their place, the houses which they had built, and the olive groves and fig trees and vineyards which they had not planted. To those I say: O senseless ones! If God were a man, what is said or done today ^C would pass away, and it would be of no concern to Him; but because God is God and not a man, He does not forget, punishing the things brought against Him over many generations. If they are ignorant of this matter, let them learn it.

^B Thus, to count the years, let one listen to Moses saying: "But the sojourning of the children ^D of Israel in the land of Canaan and in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years." Since, therefore, the Lord was providing for a most rightful reward, what vain argument can still remain for those who wish to bring accusation against the holy God? A true God could never be blamed by anyone. But those who blame Him, blame themselves. Another vain argument is announced by them, similar to the first, that the God of the Law is good, who did wrong to the Canaanites, so that He might give to the Israelites their place, the houses which they had built, and the olive groves and fig trees and vineyards which they had not planted. To those I say: O senseless ones! If God were a man, what is said or done today would pass away, and it would be of no concern to Him; but because God is God and not a man, He does not forget, punishing the things brought against Him over many generations. If they are ignorant of this matter, let them learn it.

CXII.

CXIII.

^A are dispersed among languages, tribes, and kingdoms. Their names are these: Elymai, Paeones, Lazi, Cossesui, Gaspheni, Palestini, Indi, Syri, Arabes who are Caiani, Ariani, Masasuli, Hyrcani, Magusaei, Troglodytae, Assyrii, Carmani, Lydi, Mesopotamitae, Hebraei, Coeleni, Bactriani, Adiabeni, Camelii, Saraceni, Scythae, Chiones, Gymnosophistae, Chaldaei, Parthi, Enotae, Cordyleni, Masseni, Phoenices, Madienaei, Comageni, Dardanii, Elamaseni, Cedrosii, Elamitae, Armenii, Cilices, Aegyptii, Cappadoces, Phoenices, Pontici, Marmaridae, Biones, Cares, Chalybes, Psyllitae, Mossynoeci, Iberi, Phryges. Ham, the second son, had thirty-two sons and grandsons, down to the same division of languages: from whom arose the Ethiopians, Troglodytae, Aggaei, Gangeni, Sabeni, Ichthyophagi, Hellanici, Aegyptii, Phoenices, Marmaridae, Cares, Psyllitae, Mossynoeci, Phryges, Macedones, Cracones, Syrtitae, Leptitae, Magnetae, Bithyni, Nomades, Lycii, Mariandeni, Pamphylii, Moschesidii, Pisideni, Augalaei, Cilices, Maurusii, Cretes, Magardae, Numidae, Aphri and Byzaceni, Nasamones, Phasgini, Mazices, Garami, Getuli, Blemmyes, Auxomitae; these inhabit the region from Egypt to the Ocean. And the islands they occupy are Curcuda Lopadusa, Gaulos, Ride, Melita, Corcyra, Mene, Sardane, Gortyna, Crete, Glaucus (Ride), Thera, Arianus, Astypalaea, Chios, Lesbus, Tenedus, Imbrus, Jasus, Samus, Co, Cnide, Nisurus, Megista, and ^C Cyprus. As for Japheth, the third son of Noah, he had fifteen sons and grandsons, down to the same division of languages: from whom arose the Medi,

^A Gargani, Armenii, Arrhei, Amazones, Colli, Corzeni, Beneageni, Galatae, Cappadocians, Galatians, Paphlagonians, Mariandeni, Tibareni, Chalybes, Mossynoeci, Colchi, Melanchlaeni, Sauromatae, Maeotae, Scythians, Tauri, Thracians, Basternae, Illyrians, Macedonians, Libyans, Phrygians, Pannonians, Uosteri, Uenni, Daunii, Iapyges, Calabri, Hippici, Latins who are [also] Romans, Tyrrhenians, Gauls, Celts, Lybisteni, Campanians, Celtiberians, Aquitanians, Illyriani, Basantes, Samians, Carpetani, Lusitanians, Caecei, Britons, Scots, and Spaniards. Their islands are Britain, Sicily, Euboea, Rhodes, Chios, Lesbos, Cythera, Zacynthus, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Corcyra, and Cyprus. ^B If the name of any nation or island is mentioned twice in the lot of one and another—whether this has happened because it is contained within the common border of both, or whether it should be attributed to colonies propagated in the same way, or whether it has happened through the unjust usurpation of Ham, who, doing injury to his brother Shem, occupied no small part of his lot—no one ought to marvel or hesitate on that account.

CXIV. When, therefore, all those nations had been propagated in this manner from the three sons of Noah, and the world had been distributed in a threefold way to the three sons, as I have said, an oath was demanded ^C of them by their father, that no one should invade the lot of his brother: and that he who violated the faith of the oath should perish most miserably with his whole lineage. Wherefore, since Palestine had fallen to the lot of Shem with the adjacent regions, Chanaan, the son of Ham, greedy for another’s property and prone to injury, later invaded the land of the Palestinians, which is to say Judea, and snatched it away by force. Meanwhile, God patiently dissembled and granted a time for repentance so that the posterity of Ham might come to their senses and restore to the sons of Shem their own inheritance. But they were so far from being led to ^D repentance that they wished to fill up the measure and standard of their crimes. Therefore, God, most just, after many generations had passed, took vengeance for the violated religion of the oath. For thus the measure of the Amorites had to be filled. For Shem begat Arphaxad; and Ham begat Chanaan; and Chanaan, after the usurpation of another’s lot, begat the Amorite, and the Gergesaean, and the Pherezaean, and the Evaean, and the Arucaean, and the Aradian, and the Sidonian. In this manner the generations are recounted down to the vengeance of Shem: Shem, who had received the injury, begat Arphaxad, as has been said; Arphaxad begat Cainam; Cainam [begat] Sala; Sala [begat] Heber, under whom the building of the tower took place; Heber begat Phalek, and there came the division of land and languages.

^A Heber begat Phalec, in whose time the division of lands and languages took place. Phalec begat Rhagau; Rhagau [begat] Seruch; Seruch [begat] Nachor; Nachor [begat] Tharra; Tharra [begat] Abraham; Abraham [begat] Isaac; Isaac [begat] Jacob, who was called Israel, from whom came the Israelites; Jacob [begat] Judas; Judas [begat] Phares; Phares [begat] Esron; Esron [begat] Aram; Aram [begat] Aminadab; Aminadab [begat] Naasson and Salmon (20). This is the genealogy of those born of Sem. God, therefore, avenged these men who were wronged by the sons of Cham and whose own land had been taken from them, having destroyed those of Chanaan according to their oath; and the seed of Sem regained its own territory. God, therefore, did not act unjustly, assigning to each their fair portions; for God is not mocked, as I said before.

[PIE'] ^B CXV.

Concerning the departure of the Israelites, and the symbol of the garment

^A Likewise, they did not understand that which is written in the same book: "The Lord rained fire," namely, He who had turned aside to Abraham from the Lord from heaven, from Him, that is, who had sent Himself. Nor did they recognize Him who had delivered them from Egypt. Nor did they understand that voice of the prophet: "And you, Bethlehem, are by no means least." For how is it possible to call "least" the city that received Him whom heaven and earth cannot contain? And again: "Out of you shall come forth to Me a ruler." But who is He who comes forth from Bethlehem? He is a man; why then is He called God?

^B CXVI. For they are perturbed by this, that the same one is God and man. For in the same [book it is said]: "His goings forth are from the beginning, from the foundation of the world." This, indeed, no longer refers to a man, but to God. Nor do they remember that: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel." But the word "they shall call" signifies the way of the holy and faithful children of the Church. For when questioned by the Christ-killing Jews concerning the Savior—"Why do you believe in Him who was crucified?"—the faithful answer them: "He who was crucified among you is God with us." Furthermore, they neither listen to David, nor do they understand his fear, which, seeing in the Holy Spirit, he spoke with trembling concerning the future incarnation of the same Lord, saying: "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand," and so forth. ^C Therefore, those ancient Sabbaths have passed away, and the true Sabbath is preached by us. And the first circumcision, which cut away one very small part of the body, has ceased; but the heavenly circumcision, which cuts away the whole body, acts most effectively. For the waters and the holy invocation do not occupy only one member of a man, but cleanse the whole body of the man, circumcise it, and deliver it from all evils. Such are the mysteries that have been handed down to the most holy Church of God. But most atrocious enemies have been stirred up against her, who are called "domestic," though they in no way belong to the true and sincere faith of the apostles of the Lord; for if they had been of them, they would surely have remained with them. ^D Yet, being bastards and of a mixed breed, they are held again by a perverse desire for the smell of the fish and cucumbers of the Egyptians, and they heap infinite insults upon the Son of God on every side. Such are the Ariomanites, whom we proscribed in previous books. Such also are the Sabellians. For the Sabellians completely remove the Son and the Holy Spirit from the midst; they assert that the Son is the Father Himself, and that the Father is the Son Himself, and that the Holy Spirit is the Father Himself: so that there is nowhere a Son and a Holy Spirit. The Jews, who are convicted as Christ-killers, are second. But the Ariomanite-fanciers are the most impious of all, who, daring to divide and alienate the Son from the paternal essence, do not...

acknowledge that He was begotten of the substance of the Father. Others are their descendants, who have emerged before this time and are included in the number of the rest: would that it were permissible to count them among the Jews at least, for they bespatter the Holy Spirit with insults; others are a kind of Sadducees or Samaritans, and obscure dead and faithless people.

^B CXVII. But that I may not, in order to convince them, pursue authorities and testimonies in writing with ink at greater length than is fitting, lest it bring weariness to the readers: against the Sabellians, among other testimonies, that which was produced at the Jordan, as I have already said, will be sufficient. For the Son truly comes to the Jordan, having become God-man, not having undergone any change of Himself, but having only assumed flesh, and having taken on a body not by the seed of man, but from the holy Virgin, a body conceived by the Holy Spirit—a perfect body, that is, a perfect human in soul and body. Therefore, God became man, and the same one, I say, the same Person, the Son and Christ and Lord, presented Himself to John at the Jordan. The Father, crying out from above concerning the Son who was at the Jordan, testifies with this voice: *This is my beloved Son.* And the Holy Spirit, when He had descended upon Him to the waters, came down in the form of a dove, so that He might show those waters to be pure for the sake of those who were to be initiated into them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. ^C And as regards the Arians, this of itself may be sufficient against them—what the Son Himself said: *I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.* By which words He demonstrates that the Son is equal and legitimate to the Father. But against the descendants of the Arians, who contumeliously detract from the dignity of the Holy Spirit, those two testimonies which we have subjoined after the others can suffice. One of these, taken from Daniel, is of this sort: Sidrach, Misach, and Abdenago, praising God in that burning furnace, invite all things created by Him together with themselves to praise Him with these words: *Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord.* Then they recount the heavens and the angels, and the moon, and the sun, and the powers, and the earth and the sea, and all things that are in them; but they nowhere mention the Son and the Holy Spirit among the created things. Furthermore, the seraphim celebrate the Trinity equally, and not once, nor twice, nor four times, but three times in total, proclaiming, *Holy.*

^D CXVIII. Let the authority of Peter also be added to refute them, who, reproving Ananias and Sapphira, says: *You have tempted the Holy Spirit.* Then he adds: *You have not lied to men, but to God.* For the Apostle knows, as we have often said, that the Holy Spirit is not alien to God, saying: *He searches even the depths of God.* For that which is not of the substance of God, it is impossible—

^A Migne’s Latin: ...non est, ejus profunda scrutari non potest.

We therefore profess the Father to be Father; the Son, Son; and the Holy Spirit, ^B Holy Spirit; a Trinity in unity. For there is one unity of Father and Son and Holy Spirit, one substance, one sovereignty, one will: one Church, one baptism, one faith. And let those cease who fight against the holy virgin of Christ, and chaste bride, that is to say, our mother the holy Church. For her children have received from the holy Fathers, that is, from the holy apostles, the faith to observe; and at the same time to deliver and declare it also to their own children. Of whose number you are, most honorable brethren, and you deliver this same teaching to your own offspring. While saying these things, and instructing yourselves as well as those who hear you—strengthening, training, and moderating them by teaching these and similar things from the divine Scriptures—cease not, O faithful and orthodox men, to preserve this holy faith of the catholic Church, as the holy and only virgin of God received it from the holy apostles of the Lord to keep; and thus you ought not only to declare to each of the catechumens who are preparing to approach the holy laver that they must believe it, but also to teach even your own children in the Lord, so that they may expressly and clearly say this formula which the mother of us all embraces:

119. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. ^C And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, that is, of the substance of the Father, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; by whom all things were made, both those in heaven and those in earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down from the heavens, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, ^D and suffered and was buried; and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures, and ascended into the heavens, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; of whose kingdom there shall be no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshipped together and glorified together, who spoke through the prophets. In one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come. Amen. But those who say: There was once when He was not; and, Before He was begotten He was not; or that He was made out of non-existence, or from another hypostasis or substance; and those who defend that the Son of God is mutable or changeable; all these the catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes.

And this faith was delivered by the holy apostles, and in the Church, the holy city, by all the holy bishops together, in number more than three hundred and ten. ^A CXX. But since in our own generation other heresies have arisen one after another, up to this present time, under the empire of Valentinian and Valens, of whom the tenth year is now current, and the sixth of Gratian, and the ninetieth from the tyrant Diocletian: for this reason, both you and we, and all orthodox bishops, and in a word the whole catholic Church, against the heresies which have sprung up, consistent with the faith of those holy Fathers set forth before, thus command, especially to those who are to be initiated by the holy laver, that they should declare and say as follows:

We believe in one God, Father almighty, maker of all things invisible and visible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of God the Father, only-begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, through whom all things were made, ^B both those in the heavens and those on the earth, visible and invisible; who for us men and for our salvation came down, and became incarnate, that is, begotten perfectly by the holy Spirit from holy Mary the ever-virgin, and became man, that is, perfect human, having taken and soul and body and mind and everything that is human, without sin, not from the seed of a man, nor in a man, but having refashioned flesh into himself into one holy unity; not as in the prophets he inspired and spoke, ^C and in the holy Spirit.