On the Incarnation of the Word.

§1. Introductory.—The subject of this treatise: the humiliation and incarnation of the Word. Presupposes the doctrine of Creation, and that by the Word. The Father has saved the world by Him through Whom he first made it.

Whereas in what precedes we have drawn out—choosing a few points from among many—a sufficient account of the error of the heathen concerning idols, and of the worship of idols, and how they originally came to be invented; how, namely, out of wickedness men devised for themselves the worshipping of idols: and whereas we have by God’s grace noted somewhat also of the divinity of the Word of the Father, and of His universal Providence and power, and that the Good Father through Him orders all things, and all things are moved by Him, and in Him are quickened: come now, Macarius1    See Contra Gentes, i. The word (Μακάριε) may be an adjective only, but its occurrence in both places seems decisive. The name was very common (Apol. c. Ar. passim). ‘Macarius’ was a Christian, as the present passage shews: he is presumed (c. Gent. i. 7) to have access to Scripture. (worthy of that name), and true lover of Christ, let us follow up the faith of our religion2    τῆς εὐσεβείας. See 1 Tim. iii. 16, and note 1 on De Decr. 1., and set forth also what relates to the Word’s becoming Man, and to His divine Appearing amongst us, which Jews traduce and Greeks laugh to scorn, but we worship; in order that, all the more for the seeming low estate of the Word, your piety toward Him may be increased and multiplied. 2. For the more He is mocked among the unbelieving, the more witness does He give of His own Godhead; inasmuch as He not only Himself demonstrates as possible what men mistake, thinking impossible, but what men deride as unseemly, this by His own goodness He clothes with seemliness, and what men, in their conceit of wisdom, laugh at as merely human, He by His own power demonstrates to be divine, subduing the pretensions of idols by His supposed humiliation—by the Cross—and those who mock and disbelieve invisibly winning over to recognise His divinity and power. 3. But to treat this subject it is necessary to recall what has been previously said; in order that you may neither fail to know the cause of the bodily appearing of the Word of the Father, so high and so great, nor think it a consequence of His own nature that the Saviour has worn a body; but that being incorporeal by nature, and Word from the beginning, He has yet of the loving-kindness and goodness of His own Father been manifested to us in a human body for our salvation. 4. It is, then, proper for us to begin the treatment of this subject by speaking of the creation of the universe, and of God its Artificer, that so it may be duly perceived that the renewal of creation has been the work of the self-same Word that made it at the beginning. For it will appear not inconsonant for the Father to have wrought its salvation in Him by Whose means He made it.

Αὐτάρκως ἐν τοῖς πρὸ τούτων ἐκ πολλῶν ὀλίγα διαλαβόντες, περὶ τῆς τῶν ἐθνῶν περὶ τὰ εἴδωλα πλάνης καὶ τῆς τούτων δεισιδαιμονίας, πῶς ἐξ ἀρχῆς τούτων. γέγονεν ἡ εὕρεσις, ὅτι ἐκ κακίας οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἑαυτοῖς τὴν πρὸς τὰ εἴδωλα θρησκείαν ἐπενόησαν· ἀλλὰ γὰρ χάριτι Θεοῦ σημάναντες ὀλίγα καὶ περὶ τῆς θειότητος τοῦ Λόγου τοῦ Πατρὸς καὶ τῆς εἰς πάντα προνοίας καὶ δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ· καὶ ὅτι ὁ ἀγαθὸς Πατὴρ τούτῳ τὰ πάντα διακοσμεῖ καὶ τὰ πάντα ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κινεῖται καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ ζωοποιεῖται· φέρε κατὰ ἀκολουθίαν, μακάριε καὶ ἀληθῶς φιλόχριστε, τῇ περὶ τῆς εὐσεβείας πίστει, καὶ τὰ περὶ τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως τοῦ Λόγου διηγησώμεθα, καὶ περὶ τῆς θείας αὐτοῦ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἐπιφανείας δηλώ σωμεν· ἣν Ἰουδαῖοι μὲν διαβάλλουσιν, Ἕλληνες δὲ χλευάζουσιν, ἡμεῖς δὲ προσκυνοῦμεν· ἵν' ἔτι μᾶλλον ἐκ τῆς δοκούσης εὐτελείας τοῦ Λόγου μείζονα καὶ πλείονα τὴν εἰς αὐτὸν εὐσέβειαν ἔχῃς. Ὅσῳ γὰρ παρὰ τοῖς ἀπίστοις χλευάζεται, τοσούτῳ μείζονα τὴν περὶ τῆς θεότητος αὐτοῦ μαρτυρίαν παρέχει· ὅτι τε ἃ μὴ καταλαμβάνουσιν ἄνθρωποι ὡς ἀδύνατα, ταῦτα αὐτὸς ἐπιδείκνυται δυ νατά· καὶ ἃ ὡς ἀπρεπῆ χλευάζουσιν ἄνθρωποι, ταῦτα αὐτὸς τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ἀγαθότητι εὐπρεπῆ κατασκευάζει· καὶ ἃ σοφιζόμενοι οἱ ἄνθρωποι ὡς ἀνθρώπινα γελῶσι, ταῦτα αὐτὸς τῇ ἑαυτοῦ δυνάμει θεῖα ἐπιδείκνυται, τὴν μὲν τῶν εἰδώλων φαντασίαν τῇ νομιζομένῃ ἑαυτοῦ εὐτελείᾳ διὰ τοῦ σταυροῦ καταστρέφων, τοὺς δὲ χλευάζοντας καὶ ἀπιστοῦντας μεταπείθων ἀφανῶς ὥστε τὴν θειότητα αὐτοῦ καὶ δύ ναμιν ἐπιγινώσκειν. Εἰς δὲ τὴν περὶ τούτων διήγησιν, χρεία τῆς τῶν προειρημένων μνήμης· ἵνα καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν τῆς ἐν σώματι φανερώσεως τοῦ τοσούτου καὶ τηλικούτου πατρικοῦ Λόγου γνῶναι δυνηθῇς, καὶ μὴ νομίσῃς ὅτι φύσεως ἀκολουθίᾳ σῶμα πεφόρεκεν ὁ Σωτήρ· ἀλλ' ὅτι ἀσώματος ὢν τῇ φύσει, καὶ Λόγος ὑπάρχων, ὅμως κατὰ φιλανθρωπίαν καὶ ἀγαθότητα τοῦ ἑαυτοῦ Πατρός, διὰ τὴν ἡμῶν σωτηρίαν, ἐν ἀνθρωπίνῳ σώματι ἡμῖν πεφανέρω ται. Πρέπει δὲ ποιουμένους ἡμᾶς τὴν περὶ τούτου διήγησιν, πρότερον περὶ τῆς τῶν ὅλων κτίσεως καὶ τοῦ ταύτης ∆ημιουργοῦ Θεοῦ εἰπεῖν, ἵνα οὕτως καὶ τὴν ταύ της ἀνακαίνισιν ὑπὸ τοῦ κατὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν αὐτὴν δημι ουργήσαντος Λόγου γεγενῆσθαι ἀξίως ἄν τις θεωρήσειεν· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐναντίον φανήσεται, εἰ δι' οὗ ταύτην ἐδημιούρ γησεν ὁ Πατήρ, ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν ταύτης σωτηρίαν εἰργάσατο.