18. Perhaps they will have so little shame as to say, that this utterance belongs not to the Son but to the Word; but from what preceded it appeared plainly that the speaker was the Son. For He who here says, `I came not to judge the world but to save ,' is shewn to be no other than the Only-begotten Son of God, by the same John's saying before , `For God so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the Only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil .' If He who says, `For I came not to judge the world, but that I might save it,' is the Same as says, `He that seeth Me, seeth Him that sent Me ,' and if He who came to save the world and not judge it is the Only-begotten Son of God, it is plain that it is the same Son who says, `He that seeth Me, seeth Him that sent Me.' For He who said, `He that believeth on Me,' and, `If any one hear My words, I judge him not,' is the Son Himself, of whom Scripture says, `He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but He that believeth not is condemned already, because He hath not believed in the Name of the Only-begotten Son of God.' And again: `And this is the condemnation' of him who believeth not on the Son, `that light hath come into the world,' and they believed not in Him, that is, in the Son; for He must be `the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world .' And as long as He was upon earth according to the Incarnation, He was Light in the world, as He said Himself, `While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light;' for `I,' says He, `am come a light into the world .'
19. This then being shewn, it follows that the Word is the Son. But if the Son is the Light, which has come into the world, beyond all dispute the world was made by the Son. For in the beginning of the Gospel, the Evangelist, speaking of John the Baptist, says, `He was not that Light, but that he might bear witness concerning that Light .' For Christ Himself was, as we have said before, the True Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. For if `He was in the world, and the world was made by Him ,' of necessity He is the Word of God, concerning whom also the Evangelist witnesses that all things were made by Him. For either they will be compelled to speak of two worlds, that the one may have come into being by the Son and the other by the Word, or, if the world is one and the creation one, it follows that Son and Word are one and the same before all creation, for by Him it came into being. Therefore if as by the Word, so by the Son also all things came to be, it will not be contradictory, but even identical to say, for instance, `In the beginning was the Word,' or, `In the beginning was the Son.' But if because John did not say, `In the beginning was the Son,' they shall maintain that the attributes of the Word do not suit with the Son, it at once follows that the attributes of the Son do not suit with the Word. But it was shewn that to the Son belongs, `I and the Father are One,' and that it is He `Who is in the bosom of the Father,' and, `He that seeth Me, seeth Him that sent Me ;' and that `the world was brought into being by Him,' is common to the Word and the Son; so that from this the Son is shewn to be before the world; for of necessity the Framer is before the things brought into being. And what is said to Philip must belong, according to them, not to the Word, but to the Son. For, `Jesus said,' says Scripture, `Have I been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not, that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself, but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else, believe Me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son .' Therefore if the Father be glorified in the Son, the Son must be He who said, `I in the Father and the Father in Me;' and He who said, `He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father;' for He, the same who thus spoke, shews Himself to be the Son, by adding, `that the Father may be glorified in the Son.'
20. If then they say that the Man whom the Word wore, and not the Word, is the Son of God the Only-begotten, the Man must be by consequence He who is in the Father, in whom also the Father is; and the Man must be He who is One with the Father, and who is in the bosom of the Father, and the True Light. And they will be compelled to say that through the Man Himself the world came into being, and that the Man was He who came not to judge the world but to save it; and that He it was who was in being before Abraham came to be. For, says Scripture, Jesus said to them, `Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am .' And is it not absurd to say, as they do, that one who came of the seed of Abraham after two and forty generations , should exist before Abraham came to be? is it not absurd, if the flesh, which the Word bore, itself is the Son, to say that the flesh from Mary is that by which the world was made? and how will they retain `He was in the world?' for the Evangelist, by way of signifying the Son's antecedence to the birth according to the flesh, goes on to say, `He was in the world.' And how, if not the Word but the Man is the Son, can He save the world, being Himself one of the world? And if this does not shame them, where shall be the Word, the Man being in the Father? And where will the Word stand to the Father, the Man and the Father being One? But if the Man be Only-begotten, what will be the place of the Word? Either one must say that He comes second, or, if He be above the Only-begotten, He must be the Father Himself. For as the Father is One, so also the Only-begotten from Him is One; and what has the Word above the Man, if the Word is not the Son? For, while Scripture says that through the Son and the Word the world was brought to be, and it is common to the Word and to the Son to frame the world, yet Scripture proceeds to place the sight of the Father, not in the Word but in the Son, and to attribute the saving of the world, not to the Word, but to the Only-begotten Son. For, saith it, Jesus said, `Have I been so long while with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.' Nor does Scripture say that the Word knows the Father, but the Son; and that not the Word sees the Father, but the Only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father.
21. And what more does the Word contribute to our salvation than the Son, if, as they hold, the Son is one, and the Word another? for the command is that we should believe, not in the Word, but in the Son. For John says, `He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life; but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life .' And Holy Baptism, in which the substance of the whole faith is lodged, is administered not in the Word, but in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. If then, as they hold, the Word is one and the Son another, and the Word is not the Son, Baptism has no connection with the Word. How then are they able to hold that the Word is with the Father, when He is not with Him in the giving of Baptism? But perhaps they will say, that in the Father's Name the Word is included? Wherefore then not the Spirit also? or is the Spirit external to the Father? and the Man indeed (if the Word is not Son) is named after the Father, but the Spirit after the Man? and then the Monad, instead of dilating into a Triad, dilates according to them into a Tetrad, Father, Word, Son, and Holy Ghost. Being brought to shame on this ground, they have recourse to another, and say that not the Man by Himself whom the Lord bore, but both together, the Word and the Man, are the Son; for both joined together are named Son, as they say. Which then is cause of which? and which has made which a Son? or, to speak more clearly, is the Word a Son because of the flesh? or is the flesh called Son because of the Word? or is neither the cause, but the concurrence of the two? If then the Word be a Son because of the flesh, of necessity the flesh is Son, and all those absurdities follow which have been already drawn from saying that the Man is Son. But if the flesh is called Son because of the Word, then even before the flesh the Word certainly, being such, was Son. For how could a being make other sons, not being himself a son, especially when there was a father ? If then He makes sons for Himself, then is He Himself Father; but if for the Father, then must He be Son, or rather that Son, by reason of Whom the rest are made sons.
22. For if, while He is not Son, we are sons, God is our Father and not His. How then does He appropriate the name instead, saying, `My Father,' and `I from the Father ?' for if He be common Father of all, He is not His Father only, nor did He alone come out from the Father. But he says, that He is sometimes called our Father also, because He has Himself become partaker in our flesh. For on this account the Word has become flesh, that, since the Word is Son, therefore, because of the Son dwelling in us , He may be called our Father also; for `He sent forth,' says Scripture, `the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father .' Therefore the Son in us, calling upon His own Father, causes Him to be named our Father also. Surely in whose hearts the Son is not, of them neither can God be called Father. But if because of the Word the Man is called Son, it follows necessarily, since the ancients are called sons even before the Incarnation, that the Word is Son even before His sojourn among us; for `I begat sons,' saith Scripture; and in the time of Noah, `When the sons of God saw,' and in the Song, `Is not He thy Father ?' Therefore there was also that True Son, for whose sake they too were sons. But if, as they say again, neither of the two is Son, but it depends on the concurrence of the two, it follows that neither is Son; I say, neither the Word nor the Man, but some cause, on account of which they were united; and accordingly that cause which makes the Son will precede the uniting. Therefore in this way also the Son was before the flesh. When this then is urged, they will take refuge in another pretext, saying, neither that the Man is Son, nor both together, but that the Word was Word indeed simply in the beginning, but when He became Man, then He was named Son; for before His appearing He was not Son but Word only; and as the `Word be came flesh,' not being flesh before, so the Word became Son, not being Son before. Such are their idle words; but they admit of an obvious refutation.
23. For if simply, when made Man, He has become Son, the becoming Man is the cause. And if the Man is cause of His being Son, or both together, then the same absurdities result. Next, if He is first Word and then Son, it will appear that He knew the Father afterwards, not before; for not as being Word does He know Him, but as Son. For `No one knoweth the Father but the Son.' And this too will result, that He has come afterwards to be `in the bosom of the Fathers ,' and afterwards He and the Father have become One; and afterwards is, `He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father .' For all these things are said of the Son. Hence they will be forced to say, The Word was nothing but a name. For neither is it He who is in us with the Father, nor whoso has seen the Word, hath seen the Father, nor was the Father known to any one at all, for through the Son is the Father known (for so it is written, `And he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him'), and, the Word not being yet Son, not yet did any know the Father. How then was He seen by Moses, how by the fathers? for He says Himself in the Kingdoms, `Was I not plainly revealed to the house of thy father ?' But if God was revealed, there must have been a Son to reveal, as He says Himself, `And he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.' It is irreligious then and foolish to say that the Word is one and the Son another, and whence they gained such an idea it were well to ask them. They answer, Because no mention is made in the Old Testament of the Son, but of the Word; and for this reason they are positive in their opinion that the Son came later than the Word, because not in the Old, but in the New only, is He spoken of. This is what they irreligiously say; for first to separate between the Testaments, so that the one does not hold with the other, is the device of Manichees and Jews, the one of whom oppose the Old, and the other the New . Next, on their shewing, if what is contained in the Old is of older date, and what in the New of later, and times depend upon the writing, it follows that `I and the Father are One,' and `Only-begotten,' and `He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ,' are later, for these testimonies are adduced not from the Old but from the New.
24. But it is not so; for in truth much is said in the Old also about the Son, as in the second Psalm, `Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee ;' and in the ninth the title , Unto the `end concerning the hidden things of the Son, a Psalm of David;' and in the forty-fourth, `Unto the end, concerning the things that shall be changed to the Sons of Korah for understanding, a song about the Well-beloved;' and in Isaiah, `I will sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Well-beloved touching my vineyard. My Well-beloved hath a vineyard ;' Who is this `Well-beloved' but the Only-begotten Son? as also in the hundred and ninth, `From the womb I begat Thee before the morning star ,' concerning which I shall speak afterwards; and in the Proverbs, `Before the hills He begat me;' and in Daniel, `And the form of the Fourth is like the Son of God ;' and many others. If then from the Old be ancientness, ancient must be the Son, who is clearly described in the Old Testament in many places. `Yes,' they say, `so it is, but it must be taken prophetically.' Therefore also the Word must be said to be spoken of prophetically; for this is not to be taken one way, that another. For if `Thou art My Son' refer to the future, so does `By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established;' for it is not said `were brought to be,' nor `He made.' But that `established' refers to the future, it states elsewhere: `The Lord reigned ,' followed by `He so established the earth that it can never be moved.' And if the words in the forty-fourth Psalm `for My Well-beloved' refer to the future, so does what follows upon them, `My heart uttered a good Word.' And if `From the womb' relates to a man, therefore also `From the heart.' For if the womb is human, so is the heart corporeal. But if what is from the heart is eternal, then what is `From the womb' is eternal. And if the `Only-begotten' is `in the bosom,' therefore the `Well-beloved' is `in the bosom.' For `Only-begotten' and `Well-beloved' are the same, as in the words `This is My Well-beloved Son .' For not as wishing to signify His love towards Him did He say `Well-beloved,' as if it might appear that He hated others, but He made plain thereby His being Only-begotten, that He might shew that He alone was from Him. And hence the Word, with a view of conveying to Abraham the idea of `Only-begotten,' says, `Offer thy son thy well-beloved ;' but it is plain to any one that Isaac was the only son from Sara. The Word then is Son, not lately come to be, or named Son, but always Son. For if not Son, neither is He Word; and if not Word, neither is He Son. For that which is from the father is a son; and what is from the Father, but that Word that went forth from the heart, and was born from the womb? for the Father is not Word, nor the Word Father, but the one is Father, and the other Son; and one begets, and the other is begotten.
§25. Marcellian illustration from 1 Cor. xii. 4, refuted.
25. Arius then raves in saying that the Son is from nothing, and that once He was not, while Sabellius also raves in saying that the Father is Son, and again, the Son Father , in subsistence One, in name Two; and he raves also in using as an example the grace of the Spirit. For he says, `As there are "diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit," so also the Father is the same , but is dilated into Son and Spirit.' Now this is full of absurdity; for if as with the Spirit, so it is with God, the Father will be Word and Holy Spirit, to one becoming Father, to another Son, to another Spirit, accommodating himself to the need of each, and in name indeed Son and Spirit, but in reality Father only; having a beginning in that He becomes a Son, and then ceasing to be called Father, and made man in name, but in truth not even coming among us; and untrue in saying `I and the Father,' but in reality being Himself the Father, and the other absurdities which result in the instance of Sabellius. And the name of the Son and the Spirit will necessarily cease, when the need has been supplied; and what happens will altogether be but make-belief, because it has been displayed, not in truth, but in name. And the Name of Son ceasing, as they hold, then the grace of Baptism will cease too; for it was given in the Son . Nay, what will follow but the annihilation of the creation? for if the Word came forth that we might be created , and when He was come forth, we were, it is plain that when He retires into the Father, as they say, we shall be no longer. For He will be as He was; so also we shall not be, as then we were not; for when He is no more gone forth, there will no more be a creation. This then is absurd.
§§26-36. That the Son is the Co-existing Word, argued from the New Testament. Texts from the Old Testament continued; especially Ps. cx. 3. Besides, the Word in Old Testament may be Son in New, as Spirit in Old Testament is Paraclete in New. Objection from Acts x. 36; answered by parallels, such as 1 Cor. i. 5. Lev. ix. 7. &c. Necessity of the Word's taking flesh, viz. to sanctify, yet without destroying, the flesh.
26. But that the Son has no beginning of being, but before He was made man was ever with the Father, John makes clear in his first Epistle, writing thus: `That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of Life; and the Life was manifested, and we have seen it; and we bear witness and declare unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us .' While he says here that `the Life,' not `became,' but `was with the Father,' in the end of his Epistle he says the Son is the Life, writing, `And we are in Him that is True, even in His Son, Jesus Christ; this is the True God and Eternal Life .' But if the Son is the Life, and the Life was with the Father, and if the Son was with the Father, and the same Evangelist says, `And the Word was with God ,' the Son must be the Word, which is ever with the Father. And as the `Son' is `Word,' so `God' must be `the Father.' Moreover, the Son, according to John, is not merely `God' but `True God;' for according to the same Evangelist, `And the Word was God;' and the Son said, `I am the Life .' Therefore the Son is the Word and Life which is with the Father. And again, what is said in the same John, `The Only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father ,' shews that the Son was ever. For whom John calls Son, Him David mentions in the Psalm as God's Hand , saying, `Why stretchest Thou not forth Thy Right Hand out of Thy bosom ?' Therefore if the Hand is in the bosom, and the Son in the bosom, the Son will be the Hand, and the Hand will be the Son, through whom the Father made all things; for it is written, `Thy Hand made all these things,' and `He led out His people with His Hand ;' therefore through the Son. And if `this is the changing of the Right Hand of the Most Highest,' and again, `Unto the end, concerning the things that shall be changed, a song for My Well-beloved ;' the Well-beloved then is the Hand that was changed; concerning whom the Divine Voice also says, `This is My Beloved Son.' This `My Hand' then is equivalent to `This My Son.'
27. But since there are ill-instructed men who, while resisting the doctrine of a Son, think little of the words, `From the womb before the morning star I begat Thee ;' as if this referred to His relation to Mary, alleging that He was born of Mary `before the morning star,' for that to say `womb' could not refer to His relation towards God, we must say a few words here. If then, because the `womb' is human, therefore it is foreign to God, plainly `heart' too has a human meaning , for that which has heart has womb also. Since then both are human, we must deny both, or seek to explain both. Now as a word is from the heart, so is an offspring from the womb; and as when the heart of God is spoken of, we do not conceive of it as human, so if Scripture says `from the womb,' we must not take it in a corporeal sense. For it is usual with divine Scripture to speak and signify in the way of man what is above man. Thus speaking of the creation it says, `Thy hands made me and fashioned me,' and, `Thy hand made all these things,' and, `He commanded and they were created .' Suitable then is its language about everything; attributing to the Son `propriety' and `genuineness,' and to the creation `the beginning of being.' For the one God makes and creates; but Him He begets from Himself, Word or Wisdom. Now `womb' and `heart' plainly declare the proper and the genuine; for we too have this from the womb; but our works we make by the hand.
28. What means then, say they, `Before the morning star?' I would answer, that if `Before the morning star' shews that His birth from Mary was wonderful, many others besides have been born before the rising of the star. What then is said so wonderful in His instance, that He should record it as some choice prerogative , when it is common to many? Next, to beget differs from bringing forth; for begetting involves the primary foundation, but to bring forth is nothing else than the production of what exists. If then the term belongs to the body, let it be observed that He did not then receive a beginning of coming to be when he was evangelized to the shepherds by night, but when the Angel spoke to the Virgin. And that was not night, for this is not said; on the contrary, it was night when He issued from the womb. This difference Scripture makes, and says on the one hand that He was begotten before the morning star, and on the other speaks of His proceeding from the womb, as in the twenty-first Psalm, `Thou art he that drew Me from the womb .' Besides, He did not say, `before the rising of the morning star,' but simply `before the morning star.' If then the phrase must be taken of the body, then either the body must be before Adam, for the stars were before Adam, or we have to investigate the sense of the letter. And this John enables us to do, who says in the Apocalypse, `I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are they who make broad their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever maketh and loveth a lie. I Jesus have sent My Angel, to testify these things in the Churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star. And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come; and let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst, Come; and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely .' If then `the Offspring of David' be the `Bright and Morning Star,' it is plain that the flesh of the Saviour is called `the Morning Star,' which the Offspring from God preceded; so that the sense of the Psalm is this, `I have begotten Thee from Myself before Thy appearance in the flesh;' for `before the Morning Star' is equivalent to `before the Incarnation of the Word.'
29. Thus in the Old also, statements are plainly made concerning the Son; at the same time it is superfluous to argue the point; for if what is not stated in the Old is of later date, let them who are thus disputatious, say where in the Old is mention made of the Spirit, the Paraclete? for of the Holy Spirit there is mention, but nowhere of the Paraclete. Is then the Holy Spirit one, and the Paraclete another, and the Paraclete the later, as not mentioned in the Old? but far be it to say that the Spirit is later, or to distinguish the Holy Ghost as one and the Paraclete as another; for the Spirit is one and the same, then and now hallowing and comforting those who are His recipients; as one and the same Word and Son led even then to adoption of sons those who were worthy . For sons under the Old were made such through no other than the Son. For unless even before Mary there were a Son who was of God, how is He before all, when they are sons before Him? and how also `First-born,' if He comes second after many? But neither is the Paraclete second, for He was before all, nor the Son later; for `in the beginning was the Word .' And as the Spirit and Paraclete are the same, so the Son and Word are the same; and as the Saviour says concerning the Spirit, `But the Paraclete which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My Name ,' speaking of One and Same, and not distinguishing, so John describes similarly when he says, `And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of one Only-begotten from the Father .' For here too he does not distinguish but witnesses the identity. And as the Paraclete is not one and the Holy Ghost another, but one and the same, so Word is not one, and Son another, but the Word is Only-Begotten; for He says not the glory of the flesh itself, but of the Word. He then who dares distinguish between Word and Son, let him distinguish between Spirit and Paraclete; but if the Spirit cannot be distinguished, so neither can the Word, being also Son and Wisdom and Power. Moreover, the word `Well-beloved' even the Greeks who are skilful in phrases know to be equivalent with `Only-begotten.' For Homer speaks thus of Telemachus, who was the only-begotten of Ulysses, in the second book of the Odyssey:'er the wide earth, dear youth, why seek to run,An only child, a well-beloved son?He whom you mourn, divine Ulysses, fellFar from his country, where the strangers dwell.Therefore he who is the only son of his father is called well-beloved.
30. Some of the followers of the Samosatene, distinguishing the Word from the Son, pretend that the Son is Christ, and the Word another; and they ground this upon Peter's words in the Acts, which he spoke well, but they explain badly . It is this: `The Word He sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ; this is Lord of all .' For they say that since the Word spoke through Christ, as in the instance of the Prophets, `Thus saith the Lord,' the prophet was one and the Lord another. But to this it is parallel to oppose the words in the first to the Corinthians, `waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end unblameable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ .' For as one Christ does not confirm the day of another Christ, but He Himself confirms in His own day those who wait for Him, so the Father sent the Word made flesh, that being made man He might preach by means of Himself. And therefore he straightway adds, `This is Lord of all;' but Lord of all is the Word.
31. `And Moses said unto Aaron, Go unto the altar and offer thy sin-offering, and thy burnt-offering, and make an atonement for thyself and for the people; and offer the offering of the people, and make an atonement for them, as the Lord commanded Moses .' See now here, though Moses be one, Moses himself speaks as if about another Moses, `as the Lord commanded Moses.' In like manner then, if the blessed Peter speak of the Divine Word also, as sent to the children of Israel by Jesus Christ, it is not necessary to understand that the Word is one and Christ another, but that they were one and the same by reason of the uniting which took place in His divine and loving condescension and becoming man. And even if He be considered in two ways , still it is without any division of the Word, as when the inspired John says, `And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us .' What then is said well and rightly by the blessed Peter, the followers of the Samosatene, understanding badly and wrongly, stand not in the truth. For Christ is understood in both ways in Divine Scripture, as when it says Christ `God's power and God's wisdom .' If then Peter says that the Word was sent through Jesus Christ unto the children of Israel, let him be understood to mean, that the Word incarnate has appeared to the children of Israel, so that it may correspond to `And the Word became flesh.' But if they understand it otherwise, and, while confessing the Word to be divine, as He is, separate from Him the Man that He has taken, with which also we believe that He is made one, saying that He has been sent through Jesus Christ, they are, without knowing it, contradicting themselves. For those who in this place separate the divine Word from the divine Incarnation, have, it seems, a degraded notion of the doctrine of His having become flesh, and entertain Gentile thoughts, as they do, conceiving that the divine Incarnation is an alteration of the Word. But it is not so; perish the thought.
32. For in the same way that John here preaches that incomprehensible union. `the mortal being swallowed up of life ,' nay, of Him who is Very Life (as the Lord said to Martha, `I am the Life '), so when the blessed Peter says that through Jesus Christ the Word was sent, he implies the divine union also. For as when a man heard `The Word became flesh,' he would not think that the Word ceased to be, which is absurd, as has been said before, so also hearing of the Word which has been united to the flesh, let him understand the divine mystery one and simple. More clearly however and indisputably than all reasoning does what was said by the Archangel to the Bearer of God herself, shew the oneness of the Divine Word and Man. For he says, `The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God .' Irrationally then do the followers of the Samosatene separate the Word who is clearly declared to be made one with the Man from Mary. He is not therefore sent through that Man; but He rather in Him sent, saying, `Go ye, teach all nations .'
33. And this is usual with Scriptures , to express itself in inartificial and simple phrases. For so also in Numbers we shall find, Moses said to Raguel the Midianite, the father-in-law of Moses; for there was not one Moses who spoke, and another whose father-in-law was Raguel, but Moses was one. And if in like manner the Word of God is called Wisdom and Power and Right-Hand and Arm and the like, and if in His love to man He has become one with us, putting on our first-fruits and blended with it, therefore the other titles also have, as was natural, become the Word's portions. For that John has said, that in the beginning was the Word, and He with God and Himself God, and all things through Him, and without Him nothing made, shews clearly that even man is the formation of God the Word. If then after taking him, when enfeebled , into Himself, He renews him again through that sure renewal unto endless permanence, and therefore is made one with him in order to raise him to a diviner lot, how can we possibly say that the Word was sent through the Man who was from Mary, and reckon Him, the Lord of Apostles, with the other Apostles, I mean prophets, who were sent by Him? And how can Christ be called a mere man? on the contrary, being made one with the Word, He iswith reason called Christ and Son of God, the prophet having long since loudly and clearlyascribed the Father's subsistence to Him, and said, `And I will send My Son Christ ,' and in the Jordan, `This is My Well-beloved Son.' For when He had fulfilled His promise, He shewed, as was suitable, that He was He whom He said He had sent.
34. Let us then consider Christ in both ways, the divine Word made one in Mary with Him which is from Mary. For in her womb the Word fashioned for Himself His house, as at the beginning He formed Adam from the earth; or rather more divinely, concerning whom Solomon too says openly, knowing that the Word was also called Wisdom, `Wisdom builded herself an house ;' which the Apostle interprets when he says, `Which house are we ,' and elsewhere calls us a temple, as far as it is fitting to God to inbabit a temple, of which the image, made of stones, He by Solomon commanded the ancient people to build; whence, on the appearance of the Truth, the image ceased. For when the ruthless men wished to prove the image to be the truth, and to destroy that true habitation which we surely believe His union with us to be, He threatened them not; but knowing that their crime was against themselves, He says to them, `Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up ,' He, our Saviour, surely shewing thereby that the things about which men busy themselves, carry their dissolution with them. For unless the Lord had built the house, and kept the city, in vain did the builders toil, and the keepers watch . And so the works of the Jews are undone, for they were a shadow; but the Church is firmly established; it is `founded on the rock,' and `the gates of hades shall not prevail against it .' Theirs it was to say, `Why dost Thou, being a man, make Thyself God ?' and their disciple is the Samosatene; whence to his followers with reason does he teach his heresy. But `we did not so learn Christ, if so be that we heard' Him, and were taught from Him, `putting off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,' and taking up `the new, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness .' Let Christ then in both ways be religiously considered.
35. But if Scripture often calls even the body by the name of Christ, as in the blessed Peter's words to Cornelius, when he teaches him of `Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost,' and again to the Jews, `Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God for you ,' and again the blessed Paul to the Athenians, `By that Man, whom He ordained, giving assurance to all men, in that He raised Him from the dead ' (for we find the appointment and the mission often synonymous with the anointing; from which any one who will may learn, that there is no discordance in the words of the sacred writers, but that they but give various names to the union of God the Word with the Man from Mary, sometimes as anointing, sometimes as mission, sometimes as appointment), it follows that what the blessed Peter says is right , and he proclaims in purity the Godhead of the Only begotten, without separating the subsistence of God the Word from the Man from Mary (perish the thought! for how should he, who had heard in so main, ways, `I and the Father are one,' and `He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father ?)' In which Man, after the resurrection also, when the doors were shut, we know of His coming to the whole band of the Apostles, and dispersing all that was hard to believe in it by His words, `Handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have .' And He did not say, `This,' or `this Man which I have taken to Me,' but `Me.' Wherefore the Samosatene will gain no allowance, being refuted by so many arguments for the union of God the Word, nay by God the Word Himself, who now brings the news to all, and assures them by eating, and permitting to them that handling of Him which then took place. For certainly he who gives food to others, and they who give him, touch hands. For `they gave Him,' Scripture says, `a piece of a broiled fish and of an honey-comb, and' when He had `eaten before them, He took the remains and gave to them ,' See now, though not as Thomas was allowed, yet by another way, He afforded to them full assurance, in being touched by them; but if you would now see the scars, learn from Thomas. `Reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side, and reach hither thy finger and behold My hands ;' so says God the Word, speaking of His own side and hands, and of Himself as whole man and God together, first affording to the Saints even perception of the Word through the body , as we may consider, by entering when the doors were shut; and next standing near them in the body and affording full assurance. So much may be conveniently said for confirmation of the faithful, and correction of the unbelieving.
36. And so let Paul of Samosata also stand corrected on hearing the divine voice of Him who said `My body,' not `Christ besides Me who am the Word,' but `Him with Me, and Me with Him.' For I the Word am the chrism, and that which has the chrism from Me is the Man ; not then without Me could He be called Christ, but being with Me and I in Him. Therefore the mention of the mission of the Word shews the uniting which took place with Jesus, born of Mary, Whose Name means Saviour, not by reason of anything else, but from the Man's being made one with God the Word. This passage has the same meaning as `the Father that sent Me,' and `I came not of Myself, but the Father sent Me .' For he has given the name of mission to the uniting with the Man, with Whom the Invisible nature might be known to men, through the visible. For God changes not place, like us who are hidden in places, when in the fashion of our littleness He displays Himself in His existence in the flesh; for how should He, who fills the heaven and the earth? but on account of the presence in the flesh the just have spoken of His mission. Therefore God the Word Himself is Christ from Mary, God and Man; not some other Christ but One and the Same; He before ages from the Father, He too in the last times from the Virgin; invisible before even to the holy powers of heaven, visible now because of His being one with the Man who is visible; seen, I say, not in His invisible Godhead but in the operation of the Godhead through the human body and whole Man, which He has renewed by its appropriation to Himself. To Him be the adoration and the worship, who was before, and now is, and ever shall be, even to all ages. Amen.