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17 The Lord, testifying to His own pre-eternal existence, says: "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am," and again: "And no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven." How could he who is from the seed of David, the son of Abraham, have been before Abraham came to be, unless as God? And how is the same one the son of Abraham unless as having become man in the last times? "No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven"? How has a son of man descended from heaven and is in heaven? And how does "he who is in heaven" ascend into heaven, unless it is because the same one, being God and man, insofar as He is God, condescendingly comes down and is incarnate and becomes man and neither leaves the heavens nor His paternal bosom, and insofar as He has become man, "ascends to where he was before" as God, just as He Himself again, the one who cannot lie, the hypostatic truth, has said: "What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before"? For as God He is both pre-eternal and uncircumscribed, even if He is said to have descended—for we say His descent is a condescension and humiliation and manifestation on earth—, but as having appeared as man He is circumscribed and under time. 18 John the forerunner and baptist says: "This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but for this reason I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel," and "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Understand how, in calling him a man and naming him a lamb, he does not say that he who takes away the sin of the world is another, and has ascribed to him this great and truly exceptional and God-befitting dignity. And he says that He was before him and first, although coming after him, I mean, according to the time of His birth in the flesh. For even if Emmanuel is of late birth as man, yet He was before every age as God. Therefore, His recentness is humanly and His eternity is divinely. Therefore also Zacharias, John's father, prophesying to his own child, says: "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways." 19 The son from the virgin asked his disciples, saying: "Who do people say that I, the Son of Man, am?" So when some said one thing and others suspected he was one of the prophets, not accepting them as not speaking the truth, he asked again: "But you," who know more than the others, "who do you say that I am?" Then the all-excellent Peter, the chief summit of the apostles, contemplating not a bare or fleshless Word, nor a mere and God-bearing man, but the Son of God and God by nature, and by nature become man, and being one and the same Christ: "You are the Christ," he said, "the Son of the living God." He did not say: Christ, without the article, but "the Christ," the awaited one, the one prophesied, and he did not stop there, but added, "the Son of the living God." He did not say: a Son, but "the Son," the only-begotten, the one, the pre-eternal, and he heard: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." "For no one knows the Son except the Father." 20 And the disciples, astonished at the divine sign of His walking on the sea, said: "Truly you are the Son of God." But if He were illegitimate and adopted, not "truly." Let the blessed disciples therefore be accused by you. 21 If there is one nature of the holy trinity and one energy, and all things in it are common except for the hypostasis, and by relation and energy the God-Logos was united to the flesh the

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17 Ὁ κύριος τὴν προαιώνιον ὕπαρξιν ἑαυτῷ μαρτυρῶν φησιν· «Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγὼ εἰμί», καὶ πάλιν· «Καὶ οὐδεὶς ἀναβέβηκεν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν εἰ μὴ ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ». Πῶς ὁ ἐκ σπέρματος ∆αυίδ, ὁ υἱὸς Ἀβραάμ, πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἦν εἰ μὴ ὡς θεός; Πῶς δὲ υἱός ἐστι τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ ὁ αὐτὸς εἰ μὴ ὡς ἐπ' ἐσχάτων γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος; «Οὐδεὶς ἀναβέβηκεν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν εἰ μὴ ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ»; Πῶς υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβέβηκε καὶ ἔστιν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ; Καὶ πῶς «ὁ ὢν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ» ἀναβαίνει εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, ἢ ὅτι ὁ αὐτὸς θεὸς ὢν καὶ ἄνθρωπος καθὸ μὲν θεὸς συγκαταβατικῶς κάτεισι καὶ σαρκοῦται καὶ ἄνθρωπος γίνεται καὶ τῶν οὐρανῶν οὔτε μὴν τῶν πατρικῶν οὐκ ἐξίσταται κόλπων, καθὸ δὲ ἄνθρωπος γέγονεν, «ἄνεισιν, ὅπου ἦν τὸ πρότερον» ὡς θεός, καθὼς αὐτὸς πάλιν ὁ ἀψευδής, ἡ ἐνυπόστατος ἀλήθεια, εἴρηκε· «Ἐὰν οὖν θεωρῆτε τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἀνερχόμενον, ὅπου ἦν τὸ πρότερον»; Ὡς γὰρ θεὸς προαιώνιός τέ ἐστι καὶ ἀπερίγραπτος, κἂν εἰ καταβεβηκέναι λέγεται-κατάβασιν γὰρ ἐπ' αὐτοῦ τὴν συγκατάβασίν φαμεν καὶ ταπείνωσιν καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ γῆς φανέρωσιν-, ὡς δὲ ἄνθρωπος πεφηνὼς περιγραπτὸς καὶ ὑπὸ χρόνον. 18 Ἰωάννης ὁ πρόδρομος καὶ βαπτιστής φησιν· «Οὗτός ἐστι, περὶ οὗ εἶπον· Ὀπίσω μου ἔρχεται ἀνήρ, ὃς ἔμπροσθέν μου γέγονεν, ὅτι πρῶτός μου ἦν. Κἀγὼ οὐκ ᾔδειν αὐτόν, ἀλλ' ἵνα φανερωθῇ τῷ Ἰσραήλ, διὰ τοῦτο ἦλθον ἐγὼ ἐν ὕδατι βαπτίζων», καὶ «ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου.» Σύνετε, ὅπως ἄνδρα λέγων καὶ ἀμνὸν ὀνομάζων οὐχ ἕτερόν φησι τὸν αἴροντα τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου καὶ τὸ μέγα τοῦτο καὶ ἐξαίσιον ἀληθῶς καὶ θεοπρεπὲς ἀξίωμα προσνενέμηκεν αὐτῷ. Ἔμπροσθεν δὲ καὶ πρῶτον εἶναί φησιν αὐτοῦ, καίτοι κατόπιν ἐρχόμενον, κατά γέ φημι τὸν τῆς κατὰ σάρκα γεννήσεως χρόνον. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἔστιν ὀψιγενὴς ὡς ἄνθρωπος ὁ Ἐμμανουήλ, ἀλλ' ἦν πρὸ παντὸς αἰῶνος ὡς θεός. Αὐτοῦ τοιγαροῦν καὶ τὸ πρόσφατον ἀνθρωπίνως καὶ τὸ ἀίδιον θεϊκῶς. ∆ιὸ καὶ Ζαχαρίας, ὁ Ἰωάννου πατήρ, τῷ ἑαυτοῦ παιδὶ προφητεύ ων φησί· «Καὶ σύ, παιδίον, προφήτης ὑψίστου κληθήσῃ· προπορεύσῃ γὰρ πρὸ προσώπου κυρίου ἑτοιμάσαι ὁδοὺς αὐτοῦ.» 19 Ὁ ἐκ παρθένου υἱὸς ἠρώτα τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ λέγων· «Τίνα με λέγουσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι εἶναι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου;» Ἑτέρων οὖν λεγόντων ἕτερον καὶ ἕνα τῶν προφητῶν ὑποτοπαζόντων οὐκ ἀποδεξάμενος ὡς μὴ τἀληθῆ φασκόντων πάλιν ἠρώτα· «Ὑμεῖς δὲ» οἱ πλέον τῶν ἄλλων εἰδότες «τίνα με λέγετε;» Τότε ὁ πανάριστος Πέτρος, ἡ κορυφαία τῶν ἀποστόλων ἀκρότης, οὐ γυμνὸν οὐδ' ἄσαρκον καταθεώμενος λόγον οὐδὲ ψιλὸν καὶ θεοφόρον ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' υἱὸν θεοῦ καὶ θεὸν φύσει καὶ φύσει γενόμενον ἄνθρωπον καὶ ἕνα τοῦτό τε κἀκεῖνο ὄντα Χριστόν· «Σὺ εἶ ὁ Χριστός», ἔλεγεν, «ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος.» Οὐκ εἶπεν· Χριστός, ἀσυνάρθρως, ἀλλ' «ὁ Χριστὸς» ὁ προσδοκώμενος, ὁ προφητευόμενος, καὶ οὐκ ἔστη μέχρι τούτου, ἀλλ' ἐπήγαγεν «ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος». Οὐκ εἶπεν· Υἱός, ἀλλ' «ὁ υἱός», ὁ μονογενής, ὁ εἷς, ὁ προαιώνιος, ἀκήκοέ τε· «Μακάριος εἶ, Σίμων Βὰρ Ἰωνᾶ, ὅτι σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα οὐκ ἀπεκάλυψέ σοι, ἀλλ' ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.» «Οὐδεὶς γὰρ ἐπιγινώσκει τὸν υἱὸν εἰ μὴ ὁ πατήρ.» 20 Καὶ οἱ μαθηταὶ τῆς ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης πορείας τὴν θεοσημείαν κατατεθηπότες ἔφασαν· «Ἀληθῶς θεοῦ υἱὸς εἶ.» Ἀλλ' εἰ νόθος καὶ εἰσποιητός, οὐκ «ἀληθῶς». Ἐγκαλείσθωσαν τοίνυν οἱ μακάριοι μαθηταὶ πρὸς ὑμῶν. 21 Εἰ μία φύσις τῆς ἁγίας τριάδος καὶ μία ἐνέργεια καὶ πάντα ἐπ' αὐτῆς κοινὰ πλὴν τῆς ὑποστάσεως, σχέσει δὲ καὶ ἐνεργείᾳ ἥνωτο ὁ θεὸς λόγος τῇ σαρκὶ τῇ