Orth. -One Son of God I both know and adore, the Lord Jesus Christ; but I have been taught the difference between His Godhead and his manhood. You, however, who say that there is only one nature after the union, do you make this agree with tIle introductions of the Evangelists.
Eran. -You appear to assume the proposition to be hard, nay impossible. Be it, I beg, short and easy;-only solve our question.
Orth. -Both qualities are proper to the Lord Christ,-existence from the beginning, and generation, according to the flesh, from Abraham and David.
Eran. -You laid down the law that after the union it is not right to speak of one nature. Take heed lest in mentioning the flesh you transgress your own law.
Orth. -Even without mentioning the flesh it is quite easy to explain the point in question, for 12 am applying both to the Saviour Christ.
Eran. -I too assert that both these qualities belong to the Lord Christ.
Orth. -Yes; but you do so in contemplation of two natures in Him, and applying to each its own properties. But if the Christ is one nature, how is it possible to attribute to it properties which are inconsistent with one another? For to have derived origin from Abraham and David, and still more to have been born many generations after David, is inconsistent with existence in the beginning. Again to have sprung from created beings is inconsistent with being Creator of all things; to have had human fathers with existence derived from God. In short the new is inconsistent with the eternal.
Let us also look at the matter in this way. Do we say that the divine Word is Creator of the Universe?
Eran. -So we have learnt to believe from the divine Scriptures.
Orth. -And how many days after the creation of heaven and earth are we told that Adam was formed?
Eran. -On the sixth day.
Orth. -And from Adam to Abrahamhow many generations went by?
Eran. -I think twenty.
Orth. -And from Abraham to Christ our Saviour how many generations are reckoned by the Evangelist Matthew.
Eran. -Forty-two.
Orth. -If then the Lord Christ is one nature bow can He be Creator of all things visible and invisible and, at the same time, after so many generations, have been formed by the Holy Ghost in a virgin's womb? And how could He be at one and the same time Creator of Adam and Son of Adam's descendants?
Eran. -I have already said that both these properties are appropriate to Him as God made flesh, for I recognise one nature made flesh of the Word.
Orth. -Nor yet, my good sir, do we say that two natures of the divine Word were made flesh, for we know that the nature of the divine Word is one, but we have been taught that the flesh of which He availed Himself when He was incarnate is of another nature, and here I think that you too agree with me. Tell me now; after what manner do you say that the making flesh took place?
Eran. -I know not the manner, but I believe that He was made flesh.
Orth. -You make a pretext of your ignorance unfairly, and after the fashion of the Pharisees. For they when they beheld the force of the Lord's enquiry, and suspecting that they were on the point of conviction, uttered their reply "We do not know." But I proclaim quite openly that the divine incarnation is without change. For if by any variation or change He was made flesh, then after the change all that is divine in His names and in His deeds is quite inappropriate to Him.
Eran. -We have agreed again and again that God the Word is immutable.
Orth. -He was made flesh by taking flesh.
Eran. -Yes.
Orth. -The nature of God the Word made flesh is different from that of the flesh, by assumption of which the nature of the divine Word was made flesh and became man.
Eran. -Agreed.