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only-begotten, not divided into a dyad of sons, but yet bearing in himself the unconfused properties of the two inseparable natures, not one and another, may it not be, but one and the same Lord Jesus, God the Word, clothed in flesh, and this not soulless and mindless, as the impious Apollinarius said. But if to some it seems impossible for two things to be in one and at the same time one to be contained and the other to be crucified and for one of these to endure the outrage, I shall try to show this with a human example. The royal purple was wool; the blood of the murex mixed with this gave it a purple color. Therefore, when it was worked by the fingers and spun, becoming thread, of course, the wool and not the dye endured the twisting, similarly also the man to the wool, God the Word to the purple color, who was united in the passion and on the cross. But he did not fall subject to the passion at all. Again, let there be a tree, having in itself a ray of the sun; therefore in the cutting of this we see that the striking iron is first brought down from above upon the ray within it. And the ray appears to receive the blow first, before the tree is struck. Therefore, just as the radiance, although being there, is not cut, nor is it severed, so also the divinity could neither be separated nor cut and suffer, but the flesh fell subject to the passion, which could be cut and suffer, just as the tree there.

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μονογενῆ οὐ διαιρούμενον εἰς υἱῶν δυάδα, φέροντα δὲ ὅμως ἐν ἑαυτῷ τῶν ἀχωρίστων δύο φύσεων ἀσυγχύτους τὰς ἰδιότητας, οὐκ ἄλλον καὶ ἄλλον, μὴ γένοιτο, ἀλλ' ἕνα καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν Κύριον Ἰησοῦν, Θεὸν Λόγον, σάρκα ἠμφιεσμένον, καὶ ταύτην οὐκ ἄψυχον καὶ ἄνουν, ὡς ὁ δυσσεβὴς εἶπεν Ἀπολλινάριος. Εἰ δέ τισιν ἀδύνατον δοκεῖ ἐν ἑνὶ δύο εἶναί τινα καὶ ἅμα μὲν κατέχεσθαι ἅμα δὲ σταυροῦσθαι καὶ τὸ ἓν τούτων ὑπομένειν τὴν ὕβριν, ἀνθρωπίνῳ ὑποδείγματι ὑποδεῖξαι τοῦτο πειράσομαι. Ἡ βασιλικὴ πορφύρα ἔριον ἦν· τούτῳ μιγὲν τῆς κογχύλης τὸ αἷμα, χροιὰν πορφυρέαν αὐτῷ παρέσχεν. Ὅτε οὖν ἐνήθετο τοῖς δακτύλοις καὶ ἐκλώθετο, στήμων γενόμενον δηλονότι, τὸ ἔριον καὶ οὐχ ἡ βαφὴ τὴν στρέψιν ὑπέμενεν, ὁμοίως καὶ τῷ ἐρίῳ τὸν ἄνθρωπον τῇ πορφυρέᾳ χροιᾷ τὸν Θεὸν Λόγον, ὃς ἥνωτο ἐν τῷ πάθει καὶ τῷ σταυρῷ. Ἀλλὰ τῷ πάθει παντελῶς οὐχ ὑπέπεσε. Πάλιν ἔστω δένδρον, ἔχον ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὴν ἀκτῖνα τοῦ ἡλίου· ἐν τῷ οὖν τέμνεσθαι τοῦτο θεωροῦμεν ὅτι ὁ πλήττων σίδηρος πρῶτος κατὰ τῆς ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἀκτῖνος ἄνωθεν φέρεται. Καὶ ἡ ἀκτὶς πρώτη πρὶν ἢ τὸ δένδρον πληγῆναι τὴν πληγὴν ὑποδεχομένη φαίνεται. Ὥσπερ οὖν ἡ λαμπηδὼν καίτοι ἐκεῖ οὖσα οὐ τέμνεται, οὔτε διακόπτεται, οὕτω καὶ ἡ θεότης οὔτε χωρισθῆναι ἠδύνατο οὔτε τμηθῆναι καὶ παθεῖν, ἡ δὲ σὰρξ τῷ πάθει ὑπέπεσεν, ἣ καὶ τμηθῆναι καὶ παθεῖν ἠδύνατο ὡς ἐκεῖ τὸ δένδρον.