3

And to speak comprehensively, if you would wish to know the precision of the teacher's words,

seek what is the principle of man's origin which causally precedes it, the one that always remains within its own immutability without ever departing, and what is the mode of his generation on account of sin according to the educative economy, the one which has as its end the correction of the one being educated and the perfect return to the principle of his own origin, and you will learn clearly how God, having become man, became perfect in both respects, 1320 wisely leading back the mode according to the economy to the principle of origin which He truly had, and then you will rightly marvel at the teacher for his understanding, how, having divided in thought things naturally connected, he secretly revealed the whole principle of the most divine mystery concerning us. For by distributing in thought the generation from bodies to the life-giving in-breathing and to the Incarnation, he hinted at the difference of the mode of generation with respect to the principle of origin. God, who for our sake took these things up and renewed our nature, or rather, to speak more truly, made it new, and led it back to the ancient beauty of incorruptibility through His holy and rationally ensouled flesh from us, and bountifully granting it, in addition, deification, from which it is utterly impossible to fall away, as it is united to the incarnate God in the manner of a soul to a body, interpenetrating the whole unconfusedly according to the union, and receiving from His manifestation in it a concealment proportionate to His becoming manifest through it and being thought to have abandoned His own natural hiddenness;

14Ε_018 And what is more paradoxical than this, that being God by nature, and having deigned to become man by nature, he did not in any way alter the natural properties of either nature through the other, but being wholly God, He remained wholly man, having become so? not being prevented from becoming man by the fact of being God, nor diminished from being God by the fact of becoming man, being preserved as one and the same whole through both, truly existing naturally as both, neither being divided by the unmixed natural difference of the parts in their essence, nor confused by the utterly unique character of the hypostasis, not changed into the lower nature nor altered into what He was not. He did not fulfill this economy by imagining it in the appearance and form of flesh, and by taking those other things which are said to be of a subject without the subject, but by properly, in deed and in truth, assuming the human nature itself, He united it to Himself hypostatically, unchangeably and unalterably and undiminishedly and indivisibly, preserving its essential principle and definition without failure. In which nature he also honored our generation from bodies, according to this holy and great teacher, and becoming truly man and being born in a human way, in order that He might free us from the bonds of generation, and from the law of being sown like grass and springing up from condemnation on account of sin, and from having the same kinship in origin for being as plants and irrational animals. As the great Ezekiel, seer of great things, says somewhere, being initiated into divine things and instructed about the cause of the present economy concerning man, speaking as if to Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord to Jerusalem, Your root and your birth are from the land of Canaan, your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite; 1321 on the day you were born your navel was not tied, and you were not washed in water, 14Ε_020 nor were you salted with salt, and you were not wrapped in swaddling clothes, and you were cast out on the face of the field in the crookedness of your soul on the day you were born; and I passed by you, and I saw you weltering in your blood, and I said to you, ‘From your blood is your life; increase, as I have given you to be like the growth of the field.’

3

Καί συλλήβδην εἰπεῖν, εἰ βούλοιο γνῶναι τῶν τοῦ διδασκάλου λόγων τήν

ἀκρίβειαν, ζήτει τίς ὁ κατ᾿ αἰτίαν προηγούμενος τῆς ἀνθρώπου γενέσεως λόγος ἐστίν, ὁ τῆς ἰδίας ἐντός μένων ἀεί μονιμότητος ἀνεκφοιτήτως, καί τίς ὁ κατά τήν παιδευτικήν οἰκονομίαν τῆς γεννήσεως αὐτοῦ διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν τρόπος, ὁ τέλος ἔχων τήν τοῦ παιδαγωγουμένου διόρθωσιν καί πρός τόν λόγον τῆς αὐτοῦ γενέσεως τήν τελείαν ἐπάνοδον, καί μαθήσῃ σαφῶς πῶς ὁ Θεός γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος κατ᾿ ἄμφω τελείως γέγονε, 1320 πρός ὅν εἶχεν ἀληθῶς τῆς γενέσεως λόγον τόν κατ᾿ οἰκονομίαν σοφῶς ἐπανάγων τρόπον, καί τότε δικαίως θαυμάσεις τῆς συνέσεως τόν διδάσκαλον, πῶς τά κατά τήν φύσιν συνημμένα κατ᾿ ἐπίνοιαν διελών τόν ὅλον τοῦ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν θειοτάτου μυστηρίου κρυφίως διετράνωσε λόγον. Τήν γάρ ἐκ σωμάτων γέννησιν τῷ ζωτικῷ ἐμφυσήματι καί τῇ σαρκώσει κατ᾿ ἐπίνοιαν ἐπιμερίσας τήν πρός τόν κατά τήν γένεσιν λόγον τοῦ κατά τήν γέννησιν τρόπου διαφοράν παρῃνίξατο. Ὧν ἐπιλαβόμενος δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ὁ τήν φύσιν ἀνακαινίσας Θεός, μᾶλλον δέ καινίσας εἰπεῖν ἀληθέστερον, καί πρός τό ἀρχαῖον κάλλος αὐτήν τῆς ἀφθαρσίας ἐπαγαγών διά τῆς ἐξ ἡμῶν ἁγίας αὐτοῦ καί λογικῶς ἐψυχωμένης σαρκός, καί πλεόν παρασχόμενος αὐτῇ φιλοδώρως τήν θέωσιν, ἧς μεταπεσεῖν παντελῶς ἀμήχανον αὐτῷ τῷ σαρκωθέντι Θεῷ ψυχῆς τρόπον ἑνούσης σώματι, δι᾿ ὅλου περιχωρήσασαν ἀσυγχύτως κατά τήν ἕνωσιν, καί τῆς αὐτοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτήν ἐκφάνσεως τοσοῦτον ἀντιλαβοῦσαν τό κρύπτεσθαι ὅσον αὐτός δι᾿ αὐτήν γέγονε φανερός καί τῆς οἰκείας φυσικῆς κρυφιότητος ἐκβεβηκώς ἐνομίσθη·

14Ε_018 Καί τί τούτου παραδοξότερον, ὅτι φύσει Θεός ὑπάρχων, καί ἄνθρωπος φύσει γενέσθαι καταξιώσας, οὐδετέρας φύσεως τούς φυσικούς ὅρους διά τῆς ἑτέρας παντελῶς παρήμειψεν, ἀλλ᾿ ὅλος Θεός ὤν ὅλος γενόμενος διέμεινεν ἄνθρωπος; οὐ τῷ εἶναι Θεός ἄνθρωπος γενέσθαι κωλυόμενος, οὔτε μήν τῷ γενέσθαι ἄνθρωπος τοῦ εἶναι Θεός ἐλαττούμενος, εἷς καί ὁ αὐτός ὅλος δι᾿ ἀμφοῖν συντηρούμενος, ἄμφω φυσικῶς κατά ἀλήθειαν ὑπάρχων, μήτε τῷ ἀκραιφνεῖ τῆς κατ᾿ οὐσίαν τῶν μερῶν φυσικῆς διαφορᾶς διαιρούμενος, μήτε μήν τῷ ἄκρως μοναδικῷ τῆς ὑποστάσεως συγχεόμενος, οὐ τραπείς εἰς τήν κάτω φύσιν καί εἰς ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν μεταπεσών. Οὐ φαντάσας σαρκός εἴδει καί σχήματι τήν οἰκονομίαν, καί ὅσα ἑτέρα καθ᾿ ὑποκειμένου λέγεται εἶναι χωρίς τοῦ ὑποκειμένου λαβών, ταύτην ἐπλήρωσεν, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτήν κυρίως πράγματι καί ἀληθείᾳ τήν ἀνθρωπίνην προσλαβών φύσιν ἥνωσεν ἑαυτῷ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἀτρέπτως καί ἀναλλοιώτως καί ἀμειώτως καί ἀδιαιρέτως, τῷ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν αὐτῆς λόγῳ καί ὅρῳ συνέχων ἀνέκπτωτον. Καθ᾿ ἥν καί τήν ἐκ σωμάτων κατά τόν ἅγιον τοῦτον καί μέγαν διδάσκαλον ἡμετέραν ἐτίμησε γέννησιν, καί γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ἀληθῶς καί ἀνθρωπίνως γεννώμενος, ἵνα ἡμᾶς τῶν δεσμῶν τῆς γεννήσεως ἐλευθερώσῃ, καί τοῦ παραπλησίως χόρτου σπειρόμενους ἐκ καταδίκης διά τήν ἁμαρτίαν φύεσθαι νόμου, καί τοῦ τήν αὐτήν ἔχειν φυτοῖς τε καί ἀλόγοις ζώοις τῆς πρός τό εἶναι γενέσεως τήν συγγένειαν. Ὥς πού φησιν ὁ μέγας καί τῶν μεγάλων θεατής Ἰεζεκιήλ τά θεῖα μυσταγωγούμενος καί τήν αἰτίαν τῆς νῦν περί τόν ἄνθρωπον ὑπαρχούσης οἰκονομίας ἐκπαιδευόμενος, ὡς πρός Ἱερουσαλήμ φάσκων· τάδε λέγει Κύριος τῇ Ἱερουσαλήμ, Ἡ ῥίζα σου καί ἡ γέννησίς σου ἐκ γῆς Χαναάν, ὁ πατήρ σου Ἀμοιῤῥαῖος, καί ἡ μήτηρ σου Χετταία· 1321 ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ᾗ ἐτέχθης οὐκ ἔδησαν τόν ὀμφαλόν σου, καί ἐν ὕδατι οὐκ ἐλούθης, 14Ε_020 οὐδέ ἁλί ἁλίσθης, καί σπαργάνοις οὐκ ἐσπαργανώθης, καί ἀπεῤῥίφης ἐπί πρόσωπον τοῦ πεδίου τῇ σκολιότητι τῆς ψυχῆς σου ἐν ᾗ ἡμέρα ἐτέχθης· καί διῆλθον ἐπί σέ, καί εἶδόν σε πεφυρμένην ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου, καί εἶπα σοι, Ἐκ τοῦ αἵματός σου ἡ ζωή σου, πληθύνου, καθώς ἡ ἀνατολή τοῦ ἀγροῦ δέδωκά σε.