A. Seeing that we have been made accursed because of the transgression in Adam and forsaken of God have fallen under the snare of death, and that all things have been made new in Christ, and a return of our condition to what it was in the beginning [has taken place]; need was it that the second Adam which is out of Heaven, He Who is superior to all sin, the All-holy and Undefiled second first-fruits of our race, Christ, should free from sentence the nature of men and call again upon it the good favour that is from above and from the Father and undo the forsaking through His Obedience and entire subjection. For He did no sin, and the race of man in Him has gained the riches of spotlessness and entire blamelessness, so that it at length may with boldness cry out, My God my God why forsookest Thou me?
For consider that the Only-Begotten having been made man, gave forth such words as one of us and in behalf of our whole nature, as though He said , The first man hath |292 transgressed, he slipped down into disobedience, he heeded not the command given him, by the wiles of the dragon he was carried off into wilfulness: therefore fall rightly has he been subjected unto decay and has become subject to doom, but Thou didst plant Me a second beginning to them on the earth, I am called, Second Adam. In Me Thou seest the race of man purged, achieving sinlessness, holy, all-pure. Give now the good things of Thy Clemency, undo the forsaking, rebuke decay and let wrath reach its period. I have conquered Satan himself too who of old prevailed, for he found in Me no whit of what was his.
Such then, as I think, is the meaning of the Saviour's words; for He was inviting the good favour of the Father not on Himself but on us rather. For as the [fruits] of wrath passed through as from the first root, I mean Adam, unto the whole nature of man (for death hath reigned from Adam unto Moses over them too which sinned not after the likeness of Adam's transgression): thus too will the [fruits] from our second first-fruits, Christ, pass through unto the whole human race. And the all-wise Paul will be our warrant, saying, For if by the transgression of one man the many died, much more by the righteousness of the One shall the many live, and again, For as in Adam all die so too in Christ shall all be quickened.
B. Unwise therefore and utterly incongruous to the holy Scriptures is it both to deem and to say that the man assumed used human expressions as forsaken by the Word which was connected with him.
A. Blasphemy, my friend, and a proof of the uttermost |293 stupefaction, and that full clear, will this be, yet is it not incongruous to those who understand not to think aright. For since they sever and divide utterly both words and facts and have allotted the one to the Only-Begotten alone and by Himself, the other as it were to a son other than He and from a woman, therefore have they missed of the straight and most unerring way and of clearly knowing the mystery of Christ.
B. We must not then divide either words or facts, when the Gospel and Apostolic preachings are brought forward?
A. By no means, as far as pertains to two persons and hypostases severed from one another and diverging altogether apart and separately: for in that there is One Son, the Word made Man for our sakes, I would say that all are His, both words and facts, both the God-befitting and besides the human.
B. Hence even if He be said to be weary from the journey . to be hungry and to share in sleep: will it be fit (tell me) to allot to God the Word things thus mean and abased?
A. The Word still bare and not yet Incarnate and ere He descended unto the emptying, it will by no means befit (for you deem aright), but to Him made man and emptied what hurt can this inflict on Him? for as we say that His flesh was made His own , so again His are the weaknesses of the flesh through the Economic appropriation of them and after the mode of the emptying, for He was made like in all things to His brethren, without sin alone. And marvel not that we say that He has made the weaknesses |294 of the flesh His own along with the flesh: whence to Himself again hath He allotted the contumelies too from without, which were put upon Him by the frowardness of the Jews, saying through the voice of the Psalmist, They parted My garments among themselves and upon My vesture they cast the lot, and again, All that see Me sneered at Me, they spake with their lips, they wagged the head.
B. Hence though He say for example, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, I and the Father are One, and to the Jews, Why are ye seeking to kill Me, a man Who have told you the truth which I heard of God, shall we allow that the words both one and other belong to One and the Same?
A. Most certainly, for Christ has never been divided, but is believed to be One and Only and Very Son by all who worship Him. For the Image of the Invisible God, the Brightness of the glory of the Person of the Father, the Impress of His Essence, took bondman's form, not as though connecting a man to Himself, as they say, but rather Himself made in that form, yet even so abiding in likeness to God the Father. And the all-wise Paul hath written, For it is God Who said that the light should shine forth of darkness, Who shone in our hearts unto the illumining of the knowledge of His glory in the Face of Christ Jesus. For view how it is in the Person of Christ that the illumining of the Divine and Ineffable glory of God the Father shines forth: for the Only-Begotten albeit made man shews in Himself the glory of the Father, for This Alone and none other is conceived of and called Christ . Else let our opponents teach us how one can behold in a mere man the illumining or the knowledge of the Divine glory? for not in the form of man shall we see God: yet in the Word Alone Which has been made as we and made Man and hath even |295 thus remained by Nature and truly Son, might one in wondrous wise see this too, in that He is conceived of as God. And verily the steward of His Mysteries, having called Him Christ Jesus as having been made as we and Incarnate, knows that He is so together with being God by Nature and in truth: for he writes after this wise, More boldly in part I have written to you, as reminding you because of the grace given me by God that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus, ministering the Gospel of God , Zacharias too prophesieth to his own child, I mean the Baptist, And thou, little one, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare a people for Him: and the Divine Baptist pointed out the Most High and Lord saying, See the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world: This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a Man who has been made before me because He was prior to me. Is it then lawful to doubt that One and Only and Truly Son is the Word forth of God the Father together with the flesh united to Him and that not without soul, as some say, but ensouled with reasonable soul and in all respects One Person with it?
B. I would not doubt it in the least, for One Lord, One faith, One Baptism. But if Jesus be said to advance in stature and wisdom and grace, who is it that has been made in these? for the Word Who is forth of God the Father being full and Perfect in Himself, what and whereunto will He take accession or advance? being Himself Wisdom, He will not be said to be recipient of wisdom . We must enquire then, they say, to whom these things belong.
A. We must then (it is like) bring in another son and lord, because some cannot reach the depth of the holy Scriptures. The wise Evangelist therefore, having first brought in that The Word has been made fleshy sets Him forth Economically |296 charging His own flesh to proceed by the paths of its own nature; and it belongs to human nature to advance in stature and wisdom, I may say in grace also, in that the understanding too that is in each springs upward conjointly with the measures of the body: for it is one in babes, other again in those that are now children and upwards. For it were not impossible or impracticable to the Word from forth of the Father as God, to rear on high even from the very swaddling-clothes the body which was united to Him and to bring it up to the measure of perfect stature; I will say too that to shew forth admirable wisdom even in His baby-state would have been both easy and without obstacle to Him, yet would it have savoured of wonderworking and been incongruous to the plan of the Economy; for the Mystery was performed noiselessly. He permitted therefore economically the measures of human nature to prevail in His own case, for this too will have been arranged in the meet order of the likeness to usward, whose advance is by little and little to what is greater, as the season calls us to accession of stature and of understanding not out of harmony therewith.
All-Perfect therefore, and un-lacking of ought whatever, and too of increase, is the "Word from forth the Father, as God: yet makes He His own what is ours seeing He has been made as we: yet we know that He is even so above us as God. And verily Paul dares, albeit knowing that He has been made flesh, looking at the Excellences of the Godhead, in places to say that He is not even man: he writes to them of Galatia, Paul an apostle not from men nor through man but through Jesus Christ, and elsewhere too, I declare to you the Gospel which was gospelled by me that it is not after man, for neither did I receive it from man nor was I taught it, but through revelation of Jesus Christ.
B. We must therefore adapt to Him both the being said to progress in wisdom and stature and grace, just as [we do] the hungering and being weary and the like: and perhaps even if He be said to suffer and to have been |297 quickened by the Father, we shall allot to Him these things too.
A. Yes, for we say that His are the human by an Economic appropriation, and along with the flesh that which is its: seeing that no other son beside Him is conceived of by us, but the Lord Himself hath saved us, giving His own Blood a ransom for the life of all; for we were bought with a price, not with things corruptible silver or gold but with the Precious Blood as of a Lamb Immaculate and without blemish,, Christ, Who offered Himself in our behalf for an odour of a sweet smell to God the Father. And hereto will be our warrant Paul most learned in the law, who hath written, Be therefore imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love as Christ too loved us and delivered Himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet smell. But since Christ hath been made a sweet smell for us shewing in Himself the nature of man in possession of sinlessness, we have had confidence through Him and in Him with God the Father Which is in Heaven: for it is written, Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy in the blood of Christ, which He inaugurated for us, a new and living way through the veil, that is, through His flesh. Understand therefore how he says that His is the Blood and His the flesh, which he also calls the veil and with good reason, in order that whatever in the temple the sacred veil used to effect, concealing full well the holy of holies, somewhat of the same might the flesh too of the Lord be conceived of as doing, not permitting the marvellous and choice Excellence and glory of God the Word to it united, to be seen by any bare so to say and unhidden. And verily some imagined that Christ was Elias or one of the Prophets, but the Jews, not a whit understanding the mystery respecting Him, railing said, Is not this the carpenter's son ? how saith He now, I have come down from heaven? for invisible by Nature is the Godhead, yet was He seen of those on earth in likeness with us Who in His own Nature is not visible, and the Lord God appeared to |298 us. And this I think the Divine David teaches saying, God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not be passed over in silence.
B. You think aright, but they maintain that these things are not so, far from it. For in no wise do they choose to attribute the suffering on the cross to the Word Who sprang from God, but they say that He prepared the man who was connected with Him in equal honour, to undergo the contumelies of the Jews and the sufferings on the cross, yea and death itself and that he became the captain of our salvation, in the might of the Word Who was co-with him coming back to life and doing to nought the power of death.
A. Will they then be able out of the Holy Scriptures to prove to us that their account hereof is true? or do they innovate the Faith, uttering things out of their heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord, as it is written, or haply unable to say, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ through which the world hath been crucified to me and I to the world?
B. Yea, they say, for the all-wise Paul confirms us hereto having written thus, For it became Him because of Whom all things and through Whom all things, bringing many sons to glory, to perfect through sufferings the Captain of their salvation. For He (they say) in Whom are all things and through Whom all things will be none other than the Word Which sprang from forth of God. He therefore perfected through sufferings the captain of our salvation, i. e. him from forth the seed of David.
A. We have therefore been redeemed by God no more (for how or whence could we?) but by another's blood, and some counterfeit man and falsely-called son hath died for us, and the august and mighty mystery of the Only-Begotten was then idle talk and quackery, and neither hath He been made man, but we will register as our saviour and redeemer, not Him but that other rather, who hath given his own blood for us. Yet the most holy Paul hath written to The Syriac translation transposes in and through |299 some, It was therefore necessary that the patterns of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these; for not into sanctuaries made with hands, figures of the true, entered Christ, but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us, nor that oftentimes He should offer Himself as the High Priest entereth into the sanctuary yearly with another's blood, since He must needs often have suffered from the foundation of the world; but now once in the completion of the ages hath He been manifested for the abolition of sin through His sacrifice. Hence the type hath, that certain make their entry w ith another's blood and are cleansed: the reality, i. e. the Truth, will surely possess what is better, i. e., that Jesus does this, entering with His own blood, not into any temporary tabernacle and made with hands, as it were in shadow and type, but into that which is above and true, into Heaven: for it was necessary that the patterns of the things in the heavens should be purified with these (i. e. with the typical and another's) but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
We must therefore necessarily seek for in Christ what is superior to the types, I mean the truth, which is in His own Blood.
B. You say right.
A. But since they set up against us the Apostle's saying, as though it were put forth of a common man, come let us say, taking from the beginning of what is written unto a sufficient close of it. It is written therefore, But we behold Jesus Who has been some little abased below the angels because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour: for it beseemed Him because of Whom all things and through Whom all things, bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the Captain of their salvation through sufferings: for the Sanctifier and the sanctified are out of one, all of them, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers saying, I will declare Thy Name to My brothers, and again, Behold I and the children which God gave Me. Since therefore the children have partalcen of blood and flesh, He too likewise |300 shared the same, in order that through death He might do to nought him that hath the power of death, i.e., the devil, and might rid those who in fear of death through all their life were subject to bondage: for not I suppose of angels taketh He hold but of Abraham's seed He taketh hold, whence He ought in all things to be likened to His brothers. See, see and that most clearly, saying that He has been abased below the Angels because of the suffering of death, yet has been crowned therefore with honour and glory, he makes evident Who it is of Whom he is discoursing, the Only-Begotten: for he says that He has partaken of blood and flesh like us, and that He took hold not of angels but of Abraham's seed. For it beseemed God the Father because of Whom all things and through Whom all things, to perfect the Son Who had descended to emptying and become man, having taken bondman's form, through sufferings in that He consecrates His own flesh a Ransom for the life of all. For Christ hath been sacrificed for us, the spotless Victim, and by One offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified, re-forming man's nature into what it was in the beginning: for all things in Him are new.
For that God the Father hath given His own Son for us, no less will the all-wise Paul be our warrant, writing of . Him, Who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not with Him too bestow on us all things? and we say that the own Son of God is the Word Who beamed forth of His Essence, and that He has been given for us, not still bare and without flesh but when He was made flesh. And His being said to suffer is free from any blame, for He suffered not in the nature of the Godhead but in His own flesh: for God the Father as I said above, made Him Who knew not sin sin for us, in order that we might be made the righteousness of God with Him.
B. Do we therefore conceive that He was made sin, or |301 rather because He was made like to them who are under sin, is He therefore said to be sin?