By diminution indeed the nature without needs and impassible became a passible and needful nature. In the same |40 way as one who by his own will does away with his hand or his foot or his eye no longer possesses them after they have been done away, in that he has truly put them away, so he also who by his own will does away with his immortality and impassibility for the completion of a passible and needful nature no longer has that impassibility and freedom from needs which were formerly his, in that he was made equal to a passible nature until he obtained anew impassibility by command [apart] from nature together with the natural union, since after the resurrection from the dead he has been in a nature which is immortal and impassible, but not in virtue of his own nature which [was his] before he became a mortal man by a natural union; since / he accepted naturally all the properties of nature, he [accepted] also obedience unto death, even death upon the cross and also an uplifting of exaltation above which there is no glory, and the adoption of a name which by grace is above all names, before which every knee in heaven, and on the earth, and beneath the earth bows, for the glory of God the Father to whom he was subjected and fulfilled all obedience. He did not empty himself nor yet was he the similar to the Father nor received he anew the similitude from the Father. For indeed he exalted himself and emptied himself to [the state of] mortal nature and he became that nature, and that which he had in his nature he took by grace. And from a nature unmade he became a nature made and created by addition and diminution of natural power; and the ousia which accepted neither sufferings nor death became mortal and passible, and he died through weakness and through the power of God he became alive, in that he became a weak nature and endured the painful sufferings thereof, being in pain and suffering in consequence of the equality in nature of the soul and of the body, being torn apart and isolated from his nature; under constraint he was torn out of his nature and consequently he was not even corrupted by the parting of the soul from the body. As the body endures the suffering of |41 death and is violently torn apart from any equality [with the soul] and from the natural / union by division, so also God the Word who was united for the completion of the natural union must endure naturally all the natural sufferings of death; therefore also life and death belong in common to those who are united in nature. He then who concedes this concedes also the rest, whether he will or not, even if he says a thousand times that he is impassible in his nature; for he suffered in the nature which he became, whether of flesh or of man or of any thing else that we might mention. And let us not say that his nature does not accept sufferings, except that perhaps, as those who are able to die or not to die are not by their nature immortal, so also might we say of God the Word; for therein is God the Word conceived in his nature and he has nothing more. If thou sayest that his nature is not subject to death, in no way is it subject to natural death; the union took place not for nature but for the use of man according to the dispensation, so that the Incarnation of God the Word, who is impassible and immortal, took place. What then do they say? I ought fully to treat two things: to set out their objections and to resolve them as best I can, since thou hast persuaded me to do both.
Sophronius. They say in fact as follows: how is he called man heavenly and spiritual, if he is neither spiritual nor heavenly? / He who has been united to human nature is God the Word by nature as God; and it is said: As the first man was of the dust of the earth, so also is the Lord from heaven; and: The first man became a living soul and the second man became a quickening spirit. And not apart from the ousia of the body of dust is he called a man of dust nor again without the soul is he called animate, but in consequence of their combination, which results in the nature of man, is he so called apart from the ousia of the heavenly and the spiritual, which has been united by nature to the nature of man. |42
50. Concerning this: that if the second man, the Lord from ' heaven,' is adopted of God the Word, then men are heavenly since they are of the nature of God the Word; for ' as is the heavenly ', so also are the heavenly ones '.
Nestorius. Hear then also this, when you read the rest of the book, that as is the heavenly, so also are the heavenly ones, and as we have clothed ourselves in the likeness of one of dust, so also [are we] of dust, because all possess the same nature, and as he is heavenly, so also [are they] heavenly, because they have the same nature as the heavenly; [so] also all of us, who wait to become [so] in this sort. We men are of the ousia of God the Word, since our soul and our body have been combined for the completion of such a nature, and each of us becomes that which God the Word is by nature; / for as is the heavenly, so also are the heavenly ones, and to the extent that they are heavenly men, they are Gods the Words, in that each single one of them is both of God the Word and of the human soul and body, not infinite in his nature, although in each one he exists [in some sense] infinitely except inasmuch as the nature of each single one of them is finite and apart from it his existence cannot be conceived. If you so understand the Lord is from heaven and the second man was a quickening spirit, how do you imagine the rest of it: as we have been clothed in the likeness of him of dust, so shall we be clothed in that of him from heaven? How then have we been clothed in the likeness of him from dust? What do we become? And in what have we been clothed? Have we become heavenly and spiritual men, [formed] of the soul and the body and of God the Word? Or has the spirit without body and without soul been clothed in the likeness of him of dust, [who is] body and soul and who urges us to become the likeness of spiritual beings, that is, spirits without soul and without body, although indeed it is not our affair but [that of our] Maker? If this is according to the truth, how does he urge us to be clothed in the likeness of spiritual man, that is, [of] Christ, as though Christ were without soul |43 and without body? And how then is he man, if he has nothing of man? Or how is Christ called spiritual / man, he who has been constituted the ousia of God the Word to [become] the nature of man, [that is], of soul and body? And we shall come to be without bodily frame and without soul in becoming as he is, having nothing that he has not. But this cannot be so. It follows that those who confess that the nature of God cohered for the completion of human nature say these and such like absurdities, for a passible and created nature is the result of a natural union with a passible and created nature. And therefore they fall either into the opinion of the Arians, who say that by nature God the Word became the nature of a passible and mortal man, in enduring sufferings sensibly, or into the opinion of those who say that he became body and soul in fiction, or into [that of] both of them in inclining now to the one and now to the other side, because they suppose by such inclining to escape from these absurdities.
51 Against those who suppose that Christ was a mere man.
So far the argument has been against these. Let us look then also at the heresies of those who dissent and confess that Christ was only a man, [and see] wherein they are distinct and in what they resemble those above, in order that we may distinguish and demonstrate their heresies, so that we may not, on account of what has been wrongly said, again escape / that which has been fairly said and so that further we may not without distinction accept that which has been wrongly said. For to confess that Christ is man both by nature and in truth appertains unto the truth and is attested by the truth; and therein is there no one who blames them. But in that they shun his divinity, though it exists in truth and in nature, they are to be repudiated, since they suppress the Incarnation of God the Word.
52. Concerning those who confess God the Word only in name.
The Sabellians. Among them indeed are also those who deny that God the Word exists in ousia and who say only |44 that the name 'God the Word' is that command: He spoke and it became. But thus also they predicate the Father and the Holy Spirit in name alone; so in short they agree rather with the Jews than with Christians.
53. Concerning those who say that God the Word exists indeed by nature, but that he has not been united by nature but in schema and that there are two sons.
The Paulinians. But others reprove them, confessing that God the Word is a nature or a hypostasis, as also are the Father and the Holy Spirit. Concerning his incarnationthey agree not with the orthodox, but they approach those / who say that Christ was only a man and that he comported himself in subjection to the law as one of the saints, and that by command he observed all the commandments and that by supreme observance he was without sin as a man, and thereby he is more excellent than all men, either because, after having been without sin, he appeared freed from death and rightly accepted immortality which is established for the honour of those who observe the law without sin, or because, having so comported himself in all these things, after he [had] observed all the commandments without fault, he accepted for himself to die for us and, in consequence of that greatness of his obedience, he received the honour and the name of Son by grace. He is not God the Word but he who has so comported himself and observed all the commandments. So they say.
The Paulinians: What purpose indeed could it have served that God the Word also should associate himself with him in operations and should operate with him as though he could not of himself observe the commandments? And what is that which has been preserved without sin? Or what is the victory? It is not a high merit if, being unable to be victorious, he had need of assistance so as with assistance to be victorious, since he [himself] could not do it [otherwise]. For it is not to him that victory comes but to him that assisted him and was invincible. What then is a combat for God? |45 And what is the merit? That he who asks [assistance] of anyone should be the saviour! / For what is he who sees that there is [nothing in common] between him and the prince who comes and finds nothing in him, when it is discovered that the [divine] nature has assisted him? And before whom is he judged, when he who judges and is judged is the judge? Who is it who has accepted the offering for all men, when it is he who accepts and he who is offered? Who is it who propitiates and who is propitiated, when he is in both of them? [Who indeed], unless perhaps they break up one sovereignty into two which are not like one another, and say that the Father was angry and the Son propitiated him when he was enraged, as they have learnt from the fables of the Manichaeans, who have foolishly invented them; or [unless] perhaps the Father manifested his anger in schema against those who erred and appointed a term hypocritically by showing himself angry and able to be propitiated as by the Word?
Now in another way there adhere also to that which the [followers] of Arius imagine [men] who say that God has not been propitiated in any other way than by the death of Christ, who from in the beginning was God and he was God. What urgent need then was there for this foolish invention? For he who was in him did this not by the death of another; further also it is not justice that he who is not of one nature should accept death for another nature for the remission of the debt; nor also has a true remission been shown, but a schema. / And they say that these things have been divided between two sons in such a way that some befit the one and others the other, in order that there may be neither contradictions nor schematisms in all the words that there are. There is one divinity and one lordship and one authority of the Father and the Son, who accept not any such schema. These things and such like they say, insisting on their views, and call Christ and the Son double in prosôpa as well as in |46 hypostases ----in like manner as the saints have received the indwelling of God----and they speak also of his image in the same way.
Nestorius. Let us speak then also with every one of those who, decieved and deceivers, deny the incarnation which took place for God the Word. And first let us use against them their very own words. Thou then lay before me their words, those which are persuasive and are of use in persuading many; and combat manfully for them, so that no cause at all for excuse may be granted unto them. Since then there is only one divinity and lordship and authority and knowledge and opinion and power of God the Father and of the Son, by means of whom everything came from the Father and without whom nothing at all which has come into being came into being, for what reason does he apply only to God the Word he became flesh, not he made the flesh but The Word became flesh, even he who was with / God? And said he not of God the Father he who is with the Father? For he became and he made both belong unto him, since they make no division; nor is it [said] that the one is and that the other is not; but perhaps they confess that there are two Words as also two Sons and that the one is the divinity and the other the passibility in that it became flesh.
Sophronius. And what is there absurd in our confessing so? For this is evident; for the Evangelist said this also concerning him: he dwelt among us, that is, concerning the Word, [but] of man this: we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only begotten and: w ho is full of grace and of truth was not [said] of the only begotten, nor is it any more by nature, for he is full of glory, not by virtue of grace but by virtue of nature and he has no need of any addition.
Nestorius. When then the Father said concerning him This is my Son and again He has given his only begotten Son ; and the only begotten who is in the bosom of his Father has |47 himself told us, did it speak of him who was in the bosom of his Father or did it speak of three only begottens, one who was from in the beginning God the Word and another who had the glory as of the only begotten without being / the only begotten, and a third apart from these whom he gave on behalf of the world?
Sophronius. What then? Did he give God the Word, consubstantial with him, who is immortal and impassible, unto death? And do not He who is consubstantial, impassible and immortal and He gave him unto death belie one another? Or is it perhaps so in schema?
Nestorius. Thou wilt confess aloud with us that there are not two Gods the Words or two Sons or two only begottens, but one, and so on with all the rest of them. Investigation is made on both sides similarly and rightly how he became incarnate voluntarily, when he was by his nature immortal and impassible, and how it is said that the Son is dead in nature and in so far as he is not immortal by nature.
Sophronius. But we say these very things to show clearly, although thou dost not wish [it], that thou dost predicate t\vo sons by nature, one impassible and immortal and the other passible and mortal.
54. Concerning this: that God the Word became incarnateand there were not two Sons but one by an union.
Nestorius. It is not at all true; but if it is right in the first place to speak concerning this, from Divine Scripture itself will we learn that which we confess to one another. Let us see then what the Evangelist / says concerning God the Word. Does he speak of one God the Word or of two Words? In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; everything came into being by him and without him came into being nothing whatsoever that came into being. |48 Concerning whom can these things be said by the Evangelist, except concerning him who is consubstantial [with the Father] and without bodily frame? And this: In him was life and the life was the light of men and the same light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not? Did he say it of another or of the very same? Therefore he called him both the life and the light, which indicate the immortal and quickening ousia, and [he said] it shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not, as if concerning things which had been in death and in darkness. But he is not dead, for he is the life and the light which are not extinguished, and he quickens those who are in death. Concerning what light does John bear witness, that all men should believe through it? Surely it was the light of the truth which gives light unto every man who has come into the world; he was in the world and the world came into being by him and the world knew him not; he came to his own and his own received him not; and but to those who received him he gave authority to become the sons of God, to those who / believe on his name, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God? Did the Evangelist speak of another Word or of God the Word, by whom everything came into being, life and the true light, who came unto his own and his own received him not, who gave authority unto those that received him to become the sons of God, [who] were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh but of God? And, further, whereby gave he to those who received him to become the sons of God? [Was it] to those who were born of the nature of God? [Or to those who] have been changed in nature into the nature of God and have become that which God the Word is in so far as he is born of the Father? Or have they remained in the same nature in which they are and have they become sons of God and have they been born of God by adoption and by acknowledgement? As they have received him as being God, who has become |49 [their] kin-by-adoption, and as they have acknowledged that he is their God who has made everything and who has come unto his own, so also he has made them his kin-by-adoption and has acknowledged them to be the sons of God, as sons who have entered into sonship but who possess not the nature.
55. Concerning this: that God the Word is one by nature and is [ so ] named and that there are not many who have been [ so ] named by homonymy.
Those who become sons by adoption and by acknowledgement [become the sons] of him / of whom they are born not by flesh nor by blood but by the will and the love of him who has no bodily frame but has become their body by adoption and by love and by acknowledgement like a father; so also God the Word who has come into his own has given authority unto those who have received him and confessed him and believed in his name; for he has not given to those, who are not born of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of the man, to become the sons of God----for that should have been possessed by them beforehand in their natures----but they were born of God by adoption. Thus therefore he who came into his own and was received gave to those who believed in his name authority to become the sons of God, and he will be their flesh by the taking of the flesh and he will make it [his] by adoption and he will acknowledge it as his body by adoption. Consequently he has said: The Word became flesh ; balancing in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and so on. He also adduced the Word became flesh and sojourned among us. As those who have received him have become voluntarily by reception the natural [sons] of God, so also he, in that he received the flesh and sojourned in it, became their flesh by adoption and not by change of ousia. Therefore also he adduced the peculiar property of God, saying And we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of / the |50 Father. He qualifies it not by likeness but as for confirmation, when he says 'full of grace', in calling that which is of the nature of the only begotten grace; for that is the fulness. For that which surely participates [in anything] is not full but is deficient in that of which the nature is altogether it, and he is full of grace and truth ; not as one who has been changed but as one who is that which the beloved Son was; according as they have received him and according as they have believed in him, so also have they seen him who was revealed in flesh, [even] him and not another God nor again another Word nor another life nor another light nor again another only begotten, but the very same who was revealed in flesh. And of his fulness have we all received that which was not in us; and of his fulness have we received but not his fulness; for the fulness consists in being deficient in nothing, as God. And consequently the only begotten who is in the bosom of his Father has expounded unto us God whom no one has ever seen; and no one else than he who was in the bosom of his Father came and became flesh and dwelt among us; and he is in the bosom of his Father and with us, in that he is what the Father is, and he has expounded unto us what he is in the bosom of his Father----it being evident that he has not explained the infinity and the incomprehensibility of the ousia. As he knows our nature / he has expounded unto us in our very nature that which none of mankind has ever seen. How then is it possible that we should understand by him one Son and by Christ another Son, who is only such as a man is and who in the equality and the honour of sonship remains in the image of him whom you deny to have been sent and to have moved among us? By a kind of divine indwelling he who was in the likeness of God [so] dwelt, as the Evangelist clearly refers us back from God the Word to God the Wordand apart from God the Word shows no other Word nor other only begotten of God, except him [who is] with his flesh. |51
Sophronius . But from what has been said understand what the Evangelist says: No man has ever seen God; the only begotten Son who was in the bosom of his Father has expounded [ him ], speaking of him who has been taken up and sits on the right hand of the Father, who is the Son in the image and glory of the Son, who has been shown unto us, who has come after me, who is mightier than I, on whom the Holy Spirit has come down and has remained in the likeness of a dove, who is the elect of God, the Lamb of God, the Nazarene, the Son of Man; you shall see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. It is not he who in ousia is God the Word, consubstantial with the Father; for no one has ever seen God, but he has been seen. But he spoke not of him but of the Son of Man, who by his grace was in the rank of the image of the Son of God, and thereby he was the Son and the only begotten by good will; in whom dwells all the fulness of the divinity in bodily frame. He is not the fulness, but all the fulness dwells in him in bodily frame as it has dwelt in every single one of the saints. For he who is the Son is not by himself apart nor again is the Father by himself apart, for the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son. And consequently if the incarnationwhich took place in the ousia is that of the Son of God, it is also that of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, if you say that he is the Son by nature and not by equality and honour; for he has been sent in the prosôpon of the Son of God and is clothed in his prosôpon and everything appertaining unto him is referred unto him, as God is in an angel and in a mediator, for he is the mediator of God and of men, the Man Jesus Christ. And how then has there been one Son and |52 an incarnation of God, unless perhaps it is said that there has been an incarnation of God in every thing whereby God wrought the dispensation for men, and it is said that God has said and God has wrought and God has been seen in those things which have been said or wrought by Moses and by the prophets and by the angels. / Because in fact God by his nature is invisible and incomprehensible, he must have some mediator, through whom to provide these things, while to him are referred those things which are wrought or said by them by the doctrine of providence and of the dispensation and not in the course of nature. How is he who is man by nature God by nature, and not by grace and activity, as God can act at his will in the case of all nature, unless, perhaps, God be everything in him? Some one will say that God and man are acting [alike] and that he is two natures. I turn then to those things on which the whole investigation hangs.
56. Concerning this: that it is not said that God became incarnate also in one of the prophets or saints, nor even that he made use of any of them in his own prosôpon.
Nestorius. Since then, as they say, they adhere to the Divine Scriptures, the statement [of our case] against them causes us no labour. For never has any of the prophets nor of the angels been seen to make use of the prosôpon of God in his own prosôpon ; but our Lord Christ said: I and God are one, and whoever sees me has seen God, and that which God has done, that I also do, as he, and as God has life in his hypostasis and gives life to whom he will, I also, even I , give life to whom I will, / and if ye believe not on me, believe at least in my works, because I and God are one? None further of the prophets nor of the angels dared to say these things; but, whatsoever they said or did, [they said] the Lord said, and not 'God or they'; and all that they said or did, [they said] that by their means God said [it]; they also said that God said [it], as the prophets |53 and as the angels. And wherein he took the schema of a man or of fire, it is said that God appeared or that one saw God; and in another place, that God gave the law, and again: by means of the angels the law was given. They are not lies nor further are they contradictory one to another; it is not that he calls the angels God nor again that an angel calls himself God; but, because he appeared by means of the angels, both are truly said, both that God appeared by means of the angels in the fire of a bush and that by means of it God appeared unto him.