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having drawn up in battle alongside; and He who spoke to Job through the whirlwind; and He who appeared to Isaiah on the high throne; and He who was described in word by Ezekiel in human form; and after these things, He who struck down Paul with light; and before this, He who appeared on the mountain to those with Peter in a higher glory. But if it is absurd and utterly impious to divide the various theophanies of the only-begotten into a number of sons, it is equally absurd also to make the appearance through the flesh an occasion for the construction of another son. 3,1.123

For we suppose that the vision of the transcendent nature has always occurred according to the measure of the capacity of each of those receiving the divine manifestation, being greater and more divine for those able to attain the height, but lesser and more humble for those incapable of the greater; for which reason, in the economy through the flesh, He does not appear to human life in the same way as in the previous manifestations, but since all, as the prophet says, have turned aside and become worthless and there was not, as it is written, one who was able to understand and seek out the height of the Godhead, for this reason the only-begotten Son, appearing to a more carnal generation, becomes flesh, contracting himself according to the smallness of the one receiving, or rather, as the scripture says, emptying himself, so that nature might receive as much as it can contain. For that that generation was condemned beyond the previous ones, we have learned clearly from the voice of the Lord, in which He declared the people of Sodom more tolerable than them, and the Lord ordained that the Ninevites and the queen of the south would condemn that generation in the resurrection.

If, then, all were able, like Moses, to enter into the darkness, in which Moses saw the 3,1.124 unseen things, or, like the exalted Paul, to be caught up to the third heaven and in paradise to be taught the unspeakable things concerning matters beyond reason; or, like the zealot Elijah, to be carried up with fire to the ethereal region and not be weighed down by the drag of the body; or, like Ezekiel and Isaiah, to see upon the throne of glory Him who is lifted up upon the Cherubim or glorified by the Seraphim—there would certainly have been no need for the appearance of our God through the flesh, if all were such. But since, as the Lord says, that generation was a wicked and adulterous generation (wicked because, as the Gospel says, the whole world then lay in the evil one, and adulterous because, having apostatized from the good bridegroom, it was mingled with the one who commits adultery with souls through wickedness), for this reason the true physician, who heals the sick, just as the disease required the therapy, so He brought His care to the one who was sick, in a way becoming weak along with the sickness of our nature and becoming flesh, which in its own nature has weakness co-essential with it, as the divine voice teaches that The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. If, then, the divine, having come to be in the human, and the immortal in the mortal, and the powerful in the weak, and 3,1.125 the unchangeable and incorruptible in the changeable and corruptible, allowed the mortal to remain mortal or the corruptible to remain in corruption and the rest to the rest in the same way, one might reasonably have perceived a duality in the Son of God, counting each of the contraries as distinctly on its own. But if the mortal, having come to be in the immortal, became immortality, and likewise the corruptible changed into incorruptibility, and all the other things were likewise transformed toward the impassible and divine, what argument still remains for those who tear the one into a dual difference? For the Word both before the flesh and after the economy in the flesh was and is the Word; and God both before the form of a servant and after it is God; and the true light, both before it shone in the darkness and after these things, is true light. If therefore every God-befitting concept is unfallen and unchangeable through

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συμπαραταξάμενος· καὶ ὁ διὰ λαίλαπος τῷ Ἰὼβ χρηματίσας· καὶ ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ ὑψηλοῦ θρόνου τῷ Ἠσαΐᾳ φανείς· καὶ ὁ ἀνθρωπικῷ σχήματι παρὰ τοῦ Ἰεζεκιὴλ τῷ λόγῳ ὑπογραφείς· καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ὁ ἐν τῷ φωτὶ καταστράψας τὸν Παῦλον· καὶ πρὸ τούτου ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ ὄρους τοῖς περὶ τὸν Πέτρον ἐν ὑψηλοτέρᾳ δόξῃ φανείς. εἰ δὲ τοῦτο ἄτοπον καὶ παντελῶς ἀσεβὲς τὸ τὰς ποικίλας τοῦ μονογενοῦς θεοφανείας εἰς ἀριθμὸν υἱῶν καταμερίζειν, τὴν ἴσην ἀτοπίαν ἔχει καὶ τὸ τὴν διὰ σαρκὸς ἐπιφάνειαν ἀφορμὴν εἰς ἑτέρου υἱοῦ κατασκευὴν ποιεῖσθαι. 3,1.123

Οἰόμεθα γὰρ ὅτι κατὰ τὸ μέτρον τῆς ἑκάστου δυνάμεως τῶν δεχομένων τὴν θείαν ἐπιφάνειαν ἀεὶ γέγονε τῆς ὑπερε χούσης φύσεως ἡ ὀπτασία, μείζων μὲν καὶ θεοπρεπεστέρα τοῖς δυναμένοις καθικέσθαι τοῦ ὕψους, ἐλάττων δὲ καὶ σμικροπρεπεστέρα τοῖς ἀχωρήτοις τοῦ μείζονος· οὗ χάριν οὐχ ὁμοίως ταῖς προλαβούσαις ἐπιφανείαις ἐν τῇ διὰ σαρκὸς οἰκονομίᾳ τῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ζωῇ ἐπιφαίνεται, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ πάντες, καθώς φησιν ὁ προφήτης, ἐξέκλινάν τε καὶ ἠχρειώ θησαν καὶ οὐκ ἦν, καθὼς γέγραπται, ὁ δυνάμενος συνιέναι καὶ ἐκζητῆσαι τὸ τῆς θεότητος ὕψος, διὰ τοῦτο τῇ σαρ κωδεστέρᾳ γενεᾷ ἐπιφαινόμενος ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς σὰρξ γίνεται, κατὰ τὴν βραχύτητα τοῦ δεχομένου ἑαυτὸν συστείλας, μᾶλλον δέ, καθώς φησιν ἡ γραφή, ἑαυτὸν κενώσας, ἵνα ὅσον χωρεῖ ἡ φύσις τοσοῦτον δέξηται. τὸ γὰρ εἶναι τὴν γενεὰν ἐκείνην παρὰ τὰς προλαβούσας κατάκριτον, σαφῶς παρὰ τῆς τοῦ κυρίου φωνῆς μεμαθήκαμεν, ἐν οἷς Σοδομίτας τε αὐτῶν ἀνεκτοτέρους ἀπέφηνε καὶ Νινευΐτας καὶ τὴν τοῦ νότου βασίλισσαν κατακρινεῖν ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει τὴν γενεὰν ἐκείνην ὁ κύριος διωρίσατο.

Εἰ μὲν οὖν πάντες κατὰ τὸν Μωυσέα δυνατῶς εἶχον ἐντὸς γενέσθαι τοῦ γνόφου, ἐν ᾧ εἶδεν ὁ Μωυσῆς τὰ 3,1.124 ἀθέατα ἢ κατὰ τὸν ὑψηλὸν Παῦλον τριῶν οὐρανῶν ὑπεραρ θῆναι καὶ ἐν παραδείσῳ περὶ τῶν ὑπὲρ λόγον πραγμάτων διδαχθῆναι τὰ ἄρρητα· ἢ κατὰ τὸν ζηλωτὴν Ἠλίαν τῷ πυρὶ πρὸς τὸν αἰθέριον χῶρον συνεπαρθῆναι καὶ μὴ βαρυνθῆναι τῷ ἐφολκίῳ τοῦ σώματος· ἢ κατὰ τὸν Ἰεζεκιήλ τε καὶ Ἠσαΐαν ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου τῆς δόξης ἰδεῖν τὸν ἐπὶ τῶν Χερουβὶμ ἐπαιρόμενον ἢ ὑπὸ τῶν Σεραφὶμ δοξαζόμενονοὐδ' ἂν ἐγένετο πάντως χρεία τῆς διὰ σαρκὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν ἐπιφανείας, πάντων τοιούτων ὄντων. ἐπειδὴ δέ, καθὼς ὁ κύριος λέγει, γενεὰ πονηρὰ καὶ μοιχαλὶς ἦν ἡ γενεὰ ἐκείνη (πονηρὰ μὲν διὰ τό, καθώς φησι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, ὅλον τότε τὸν κόσμον ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖσθαι, μοιχαλὶς δὲ διὰ τὸ ἀποστᾶσαν αὐτὴν τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ νυμφίου τῷ διὰ κακίας μοιχεύοντι τὰς ψυχὰς ἀνακραθῆναι)τούτου χάριν ὁ ἀληθινὸς ἰατρός, ὁ τοὺς κακῶς ἔχοντας θεραπεύων ὡς ἐπεζήτει τὴν θεραπείαν ἡ νόσος, οὕτω προσήγαγε τῷ ἀρρωστοῦντι τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν, τρόπον τινὰ συνασθενήσας τῇ ἀρρωστίᾳ τῆς ἡμετέρας φύσεως καὶ σὰρξ γενόμενος, ἥτις ἐν τῇ ἑαυτῆς φύσει συνου σιωμένην ἔχει τὴν ἀσθένειαν, καθὼς διδάσκει ἡ θεία φωνὴ ὅτι Τὸ πνεῦμα πρόθυμον, ἡ δὲ σὰρξ ἀσθενής. Εἰ μὲν οὖν τὸ θεῖον ἐν τῷ ἀνθρωπίνῳ γενόμενον καὶ ἐν τῷ θνητῷ τὸ ἀθάνατον καὶ τὸ δυνατὸν ἐν τῷ ἀσθενεῖ καὶ 3,1.125 ἐν τῷ τρεπτῷ τε καὶ φθειρομένῳ τὸ ἀναλλοίωτόν τε καὶ ἄφθαρτον ἐφῆκεν ἐπιμεῖναι τὸ θνητὸν τῷ θνητῷ ἢ τῇ φθορᾷ τὸ φθαρτὸν καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τοῖς ἄλλοις κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον, εἰκότως ἄν τις δυάδα τῷ υἱῷ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐνεθεώρησεν, τῶν κατὰ τὸ ἐναντίον θεωρουμένων ἑκάτερον ἰδιαζόντως ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ ἀριθμῶν. εἰ δὲ τὸ θνητὸν ἐν τῷ ἀθανάτῳ γενό μενον ἀθανασία ἐγένετο, ὁμοίως <δὲ> καὶ τὸ φθαρτὸν εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν μετέβαλε καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα ὡσαύτως πρὸς τὸ ἀπαθές τε καὶ θεῖον μετεποιήθη, τίς ὑπολείπεται λόγος ἔτι τοῖς εἰς δυϊκὴν διαφορὰν τὸ ἓν διασχίζουσιν; Ὁ γὰρ λόγος καὶ πρὸ τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἔν σαρκον οἰκονομίαν λόγος καὶ ἦν καὶ ἔστιν· καὶ ὁ θεὸς καὶ πρὸ τῆς τοῦ δούλου μορφῆς καὶ μετὰ ταύτην θεός ἐστιν· καὶ τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινὸν πρίν τε ἐλλάμψαι τῇ σκοτίᾳ καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα φῶς ἐστιν ἀληθινόν. εἰ οὖν ἀμετάπτωτος καὶ ἀμετά θετος πᾶσα θεοπρεπὴς ἔννοια διὰ