Contents of Book V.

§1. The fifth book promises to speak of the words contained in the saying of the Apostle Peter, but delays their exposition. He discourses first of the creation, to the effect that, while nothing therein is deserving of worship, yet men, led astray by their ill-informed and feeble intelligence, and marvelling at its beauty, deified the several parts of the universe. And herein he excellently expounds the passage of Isaiah, “I am God, the first.”

§2. He then explains the phrase of S. Peter, “Him God made Lord and Christ.” And herein he sets forth the opposing statement of Eunomius, which he made on account of such phrase against S. Basil, and his lurking revilings and insults.

§3. A remarkable and original reply to these utterances, and a demonstration of the power of the Crucified, and of the fact that this subjection was of the Human Nature, not that which the Only-Begotten has from the Father. Also an explanation of the figure of the Cross, and of the appellation “Christ,” and an account of the good gifts bestowed on the Human Nature by the Godhead which was commingled with it.

§4. He shows the falsehood of Eunomius’ calumnious charge that the great Basil had said that “man was emptied to become man,” and demonstrates that the “emptying” of the Only-begotten took place with a view to the restoration to life of the Man Who had suffered.

§5. Thereafter he shows that there are not two Christs or two Lords, but one Christ and one Lord, and that the Divine nature, after mingling with the Human, preserved the properties of each nature without confusion, and declares that the operations are, by reason of the union, predicated of the two natures in common, in the sense that the Lord took upon Himself the sufferings of the servant, and the humanity is glorified with Him in the honour that is the Lord’s, and that by the power of the Divine Nature that is made anew, conformably with that Divine Nature Itself.

αʹ. Ὁ δὲ πέμπτος λόγος τὰ παρὰ τῆς τοῦ ἀποστόλου Πέτρου φωνῆς ῥηθέντα ἐπαγγέλλεται εἰπεῖν, ἀναβάλλεται δέ, καὶ πρότερον μὲν περὶ τῆς κτίσεως διαλέγεται, ὅτι μηδὲν αὐτῆς ἐστι σεβάσμιον, ἀλλ' ἀπαιδεύτῳ καὶ ἀσθενεῖ διανοίᾳ πλανηθέντες οἱ ἄνθρωποι καὶ τὸ κάλλος αὐτῆς θαυμάσαντες τὰ μέρη τοῦ κόσμου ἐθεοποίησαν: ἐν ᾧ καὶ τὴν Ἠσαΐου ῥῆσιν τὸ Ἐγὼ θεὸς πρῶτος παγκάλως διηρμήνευσεν.
βʹ. Εἶτα τὴν Πέτρου διέξεισι ῥῆσιν ὅτι Κύριον καὶ Χριστὸν ὁ θεὸς αὐτὸν ἐποίησεν: ἐν ᾧ καὶ τὴν παρὰ Εὐνομίου ἀντίρρησιν, ἣν κατὰ τοῦ ἁγίου Βασιλείου διὰ τὴν τοιαύτην ῥῆσιν ἐποιήσατο, τάς τε λοιδορίας καὶ ὕβρεις ὑφειμένως ἐξέθετο.
γʹ. Πρὸς ἃς ἀπάντησις θαυμαστή τις καὶ ξένη καὶ ἀπόδειξις τῆς τοῦ σταυρωθέντος δυνάμεως, καὶ ὅτι τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως, οὐ τῆς τοῦ μονογενοῦς παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἡ ὕψωσις γέγονε, καὶ ἑρμηνεία τοῦ σταυρικοῦ σχήματος καὶ τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ προσηγορίας καὶ τὰ ἐκ τῆς ἀνακραθείσης θεότητος τῷ ἀνθρωπίνῳ χαρισθέντα ἀγαθά.
δʹ. Εἶτα τὴν Εὐνομίου συκοφαντίαν, ὡς ἄνθρωπον εἰς ἄνθρωπον κεκενῶσθαι τὸν μέγαν Βασίλειον λέγοντα, ψευδῆ ἀποδείκνυσι, καὶ τὴν τοῦ μονογενοῦς κένωσιν ἐπὶ ἀνακλήσει τοῦ πεπονθότος ἀνθρώπου γεγονέναι ἀποφαίνει.
εʹ. Μετὰ τοῦτο οὐ δύο Χριστοὺς οὐδὲ δύο κυρίους, ἀλλ' ἕνα Χριστὸν καὶ ἕνα κύριον ἀποδείκνυσι, καὶ ὅτι ἡ θεία φύσις τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ μιχθεῖσα ἀσυγχύτους ἑκατέρας φύσεως τὰς ἰδιότητας διετήρησε, καὶ διὰ τὴν συμφυΐαν κοινὰς καὶ τὰς ἐνεργείας κατονομάζεσθαι [εἴρηκε], τοῦ τε θείου εἰς ἑαυτὸν καὶ τὰ πάθη τοῦ δούλου ἀναλαμβάνοντος καὶ τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου τῇ δεσποτικῇ τιμῇ συνδοξαζομένου καὶ τῇ δυνάμει τῆς ἀνακραθείσης θείας φύσεως εἰς ἑαυτὴν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ἀναποιηθείσης, διὰ πολλῶν πανσόφως ἐξέθετο.