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3. Incorruptible is also often said of that which is sinless. For David calls sin corruption. For he says: They were corrupted and became abominable in their pursuits, as Moses also says in Genesis: And the Lord saw the earth, and it was corrupted, because all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth. 4. If, therefore, you find among the teachers of the church the term 'incorruptible' concerning the body of Christ, as not having been corrupted by its activity and dissolved into the simple elements from which it was composed, understand it either in the sense of 'sinless'. But do not say it is incorruptible by nature, but rather corruptible; for Christ, wishing to heal the sentence pronounced against the first-father Adam, assumed a corruptible body after the transgression, so that in it He might abolish corruption, living as a fellow-citizen with sinners. For if it were incorruptible by nature, it would not have been susceptible to any suffering. 5. Again the blessed Basil said: «Therefore, just as the Lord accepted hunger, when the solid food had been digested, and received thirst, when the moisture in the body had been consumed, and grew weary, when the muscles and nerves were overstrained through the hardship of the journey, not the Godhead being overcome by fatigue, but the body accepting the symptoms that follow from nature». «For when he wished, the Lord gave occasion for nature to perform its own operations», as the Theologian also says. 6. How then did nature work these things in Christ as its own, if it is incorruptible? For in a nature not susceptible to corruption, these things have no place to occur. But the Word, not wishing to prevent his own flesh, being corruptible, did not prevent it from enduring these sufferings, but permitted the flesh to undergo its own properties for the confirmation that it was real and not a phantasm. Besides, he accepted the flesh, not to flee the blameless passions, but to abolish | along with the passions also corruption in his own flesh. 7. From Hippolytus, To the Empress Mammea: For the ark made of incorruptible wood was a type of Christ, signifying his incorruptible power, because he did not see corruption. And it included five and a half measures for the ark not without reason; for through the measures it signified the number befitting the time, as being composed according to this measure when fulfilled ... bearing the incorruptible ark, his own body, in which, containing every ordinance, he finds rest. 8. From Athanasius, from the third oration against the Arians: For it was fitting that the flesh, being corruptible, no longer remain mortal according to its own nature, but through the Word who put it on, remain incorruptible. For just as he, having come in our body, imitated our properties, so we, receiving him, partake of the immortality from him. 9. From Methodius of Myra in Lycia, concerning virginity: Adam, while still being formed of clay, so to speak, and being dissoluble and watery and not yet having been strengthened by incorruptibility, like a potsherd, sin dissolved him, like water being poured and dripping down. Wherefore, God, again fashioning the same one from above into honor, having strengthened him in the virgin and mixed him with the Word, brought him forth into life indissoluble and unbreakable, so that not again, being flooded by the streams of corruption from without, melting

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3. Λέγεται ἄφθαρτον καὶ τὸ ἀναμάρτητον πολλάκις. ∆ιαφθορὰν γὰρ καλεῖ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ὁ ∆αυίδ. Φησὶ γάρ· ∆ιεφθάρησαν καὶ ἐβδελύχθησαν ἐν ἐπιτηδεύμασιν, ὡς καὶ Μωσῆς φησιν ἐν τῇ Γενέσει· Καὶ εἶδε κύριος τὴν γῆν καὶ ἦν κατεφθαρμένη, ὅτι κατέφθειρε πᾶσα σὰρξ τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. 4. Εἰ οὖν εὕρεις περὶ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ τὸ ἄφθαρτον παρὰ τοῖς διδασκάλοις τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ὡς μὴ διαφθα- ρὲν τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ καὶ διαλυθὲν εἰς τὰ ἁπλᾶ ἐξ ὧν συνετέθη ἢ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ ἀναμαρτήτου σημασίαν νόει. Ἄφθαρτον δὲ κατὰ τὴν φύσιν μὴ λέγε, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον φθαρτόν· τὴν γὰρ κατὰ τοῦ προπά- τορος Ἀδὰμ ἀπόφασιν ἐξενεχθεῖσαν θεραπεῦσαι βουλόμενος ὁ Χριστὸς τὸ μετὰ τὴν παράβασιν φθαρτὸν ἀνεδέξατο σῶμα, ἵνα ἐν αὐτῷ τὴν φθορὰν καταργήσῃ ἁμαρτωλοῖς συμπολι- τευσάμενος. Εἰ γὰρ ἦν ἄφθαρτον φύσει, οὐκ ἂν ἦν πάθους δεκτικὸν οὐδενός. 5. Πάλιν ὁ μακάριος Βασίλειος ἔλεγεν· «Ὥσπερ οὖν κατεδέξατο τὴν πεῖναν ὁ κύριος, τῆς στερεᾶς τροφῆς διαπνευσθείσης, καὶ τὴν δίψαν προσήκατο, τῆς ὑγρότητος ἀναλωθείσης, τῆς ἐν τῷ σώματι, καὶ ἐκοπίασε, τῶν μυῶν καὶ τῶν νεύρων διὰ ταλαιπωρίας τῆς ὁδοιπορίας ὑπερ- ταθέντων, οὐ τῆς θεότητος τῷ καμάτῳ δαμαζομένης, ἀλλὰ τοῦ σώματος τὰ ἐκ φύσεως παρακολουθοῦντα συμπτώματα δεχομένου». «Ἐδίδου γὰρ ὅτε ἐβούλετο καιρὸν τῇ φύσει τὰ ἑαυτῆς ἐνεργῆσαι ὁ κύριος», καθώς φησι καὶ ὁ θεολόγος. 6. Πῶς οὖν ταῦτα ἐνήργει ἡ φύσις ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ ὡς ἑαυτῆς ὄντα, εἰ ἄφθαρτός ἐστιν; Περὶ γὰρ φύσιν ἀνεπίδεκτον φθορᾶς ταῦτα γίνεσθαι χώραν οὐκ ἔχει. Ἀλλὰ μὴ βουλόμενος κωλύειν ὁ λόγος ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκείας σαρκὸς φθαρτῆς οὔσης, ταῦτα καρτερεῖν τὰ πάθη οὐκ ἐκώλυεν, ἀλλ' ἐνεδίδου τὰ οἰκεῖα ὑφίστασθαι τῇ σαρκὶ πρὸς βεβαίωσιν τοῦ ἀληθῆ εἶναι αὐτὴν καὶ οὐ κατὰ φαντασίαν. Ἄλλως τε τὴν σάρκα κατεδέξατο, οὐχ ἵνα φύγῃ τὰ ἀνέγκλητα πάθη, ἀλλ' ἵνα καταργήσῃ | σὺν τοῖς πάθεσι καὶ τὴν φθορὰν ἐν τῇ οἰκείᾳ σαρκί. 7. Ἱππολύτου Πρὸς Μαμμείαν βασιλίδα· Ἦν μὲν γὰρ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τύπος ἡ κιβωτὸς ἐξ ἀσήπτων ξύλων σημαίνουσα τὴν αὐτοῦ ἄσηπτον δύναμιν, ὅτι μὴ εἶδε διαφθοράν. Συμπεριέλαβε δὲ πέντε καὶ ἥμισυ μέτρα τὴν κιβωτὸν οὐκ ἀργῶς· διὰ γὰρ τῶν μέτρων ἐσήμανε τὸν ἐπιβαλόντα τῷ χρόνῳ ἀριθμόν, ὡς τῷ μέτρῳ τούτῳ συγκείμενος πληρωθεὶς ... φέροντα τὴν ἄσηπτον κιβωτόν, τὸ ἑαυτοῦ σῶμα, ἐν ᾧ πᾶν δικαίωμα χωρούμενος ἀνάπαυλαν λαμβάνει. 8. Ἀθανασίου ἐκ τοῦ κατὰ Ἀρειανῶν λόγου τρίτου· Ἔπρε-πε γὰρ φθαρτὴν οὖσαν τὴν σάρκα μηκέτι κατὰ τὴν ἑαυτῆς φύσιν μένειν θνητήν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν ἐνδυσάμενον αὐτὴν λόγον ἄφθαρτον διαμένειν. Ὡς γὰρ αὐτός, γενόμενος ἐν τῷ ἡμῶν σώματι τὰ ἡμῶν ἐμιμήσατο, οὕτως ἡμεῖς, δεξάμενοι τοῦτον τῆς παρ' ἐκείνου μεταλαμβάνομεν ἀθανασίας. 9. Μεθοδίου Μύρων Λυκίας περὶ παρθενίας· Ἔτι πηλουρ- γούμενον τὸν Ἀδάμ, ὡς ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, καὶ τηκτὸν ὄντα καὶ ὑδαρῆ καὶ μηδέπω φθάσαντα, δίκην ὀστράκου, τῇ ἀφθαρσίᾳ κραταιωθῆναι, ὕδωρ ὥσπερ καταλειβομένη καὶ καταστάζουσα διέλυσεν ἡ ἁμαρτία. ∆ιὸ δὴ πάλιν ἄνωθεν κηροπλαστῶν τὸν αὐτὸν εἰς τιμὴν ὁ θεὸς ἐν τῇ παρθενικῇ κραταιώσας καὶ συγκεράσας τῷ λόγῳ ἄτηκτον καὶ ἄθραυστον ἐξήγαγεν εἰς τὸν βίον, ἵνα μὴ πάλιν τοῖς τῆς φθορᾶς ἔξωθεν ἐπικλυσθεὶς ῥεύμασι τηκεδόνα