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could a mind believe these things to be? And he says that this one is called from heaven for this reason, because the heavenly spirit was incarnated. What scripture 3,1.147 says these things? To which of the saints does he refer the saying, that a spirit was incarnated? We have not heard thus from the gospels, we have not been taught thus from the great voice of the apostle, but that The Word became flesh, the preaching says and the gospel history says that the spirit descended in the form of a dove; but no one of those who speak mysteries in the spirit has spoken of an incarnation of the spirit. Glory has dwelt in our land; and Truth has sprung up from the earth; and God was manifested in the flesh; and Righteousness has looked down from heaven; and many other such things. But the divinely-inspired scripture knows not of a spirit being incarnated. And the man Christ, he says, pre-exists, not as if the spirit, that is, God, were something other than him, but as the Lord being a divine spirit in the nature of the man of God.

These are the very words of the writer. But since somehow through the weakness of his interpretive power the meaning is not exceedingly evident in clarity, I will first strip the underlying thought of the darkness of the wording, and then I will submit the argument to examination. The man Christ, he says, pre-exists. He conceives of the man who appeared as pre-existing before the manifestation along with the Word who was in the beginning and he elaborates the meaning through what follows. For he says that the spirit is not other than him, establishing through this that the divinity of the Son itself was a man from the beginning, which is shown more clearly by the succeeding argument; for he says that the Lord was a divine spirit in the nature of the man of God. He made the nature of God and man one and he named the fusion of two men. 3,1.148 So the thought of what has been said is this, that what was manifested through the flesh from the virgin is preconceived of things that exist not only according to the eternity of the divinity, as we all believe, but also according to the flesh itself. For he adds to what has been said in testimony of such a supposition, Before Abraham was, I am; and the voice of John, He was before me; and One Lord, through whom are all things; and He is before all things; and a certain voice of Zacharias, which, since it is dragged in forcedly for this purpose, we shall pass over. I, therefore, if the construction of this absurdity were concealed by some circumlocution of thoughts, would have rightly been diligent about the refutation of the hidden things; but since it openly proclaims its impiety, I do not know what more could be done by our words. If the flesh is pre-eternal, if he who is from Mary existed before Abraham was, then the virgin is older than Nahor; then Mary is also before Adam.

And yet why do I say this? She is, as it seems, older than the constitution of existing things and more ancient than the ages themselves. For if he was incarnated in the virgin, and the flesh is called Jesus, and it is testified through the apostle that he was before all things, it seems that the noble fellow establishes that Mary is also conceived along with the eternity of the Father. And I am silent about the things that are too offensive, to which the absurdity of this new-fangled speech is consequently carried; for a sharp-witted person would see the absurdity from what follows, even if we do not lay bare the indecency in words. But let us pass over the stench of these thoughts, noting only this much, that if the flesh is pre-eternal, the divinity has not been emptied, the Son did not exist in the form of God, he did not put on the mask of a servant; but what 3,1.149 he was by nature, this was now manifested, he was not humbled. May the Word be merciful to the word—but I am silent about what is left. If the flesh is before all things, then all things are from weakness, not from power; For the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Therefore if he stops the absurdity only at this point, who would not from what follows also understand the things connected with these? For surely he will conceive of all the properties of the flesh along with the

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νοῦς ταῦτα εἶναι πιστεύοιτο; τοῦτον δέ φησιν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ διὰ τοῦτο καλεῖσθαι, διότι τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ οὐράνιον ἐσαρκώθη. τίς γραφὴ ταῦτα 3,1.147 λέγει; εἰς τίνα τῶν ἁγίων ἀναφέρει τὸν λόγον, ὅτι πνεῦμα ἐσαρκώθη; οὐχ οὕτως παρὰ τῶν εὐαγγελίων ἠκούσαμεν, οὐχ οὕτως παρὰ τῆς μεγάλης τοῦ ἀποστόλου φωνῆς ἐδι δάχθημεν, ἀλλ' ὅτι μὲν Ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο, λέγει τὸ κήρυγμα καὶ ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς τὸ πνεῦμα καταβῆναί φησιν ἡ εὐαγγελικὴ ἱστορία· σάρκωσιν δὲ πνεύματος οὐδεὶς εἶπε τῶν τῷ πνεύματι λαλούντων μυστήρια. Ἡ δόξα κατε σκήνωσεν ἐν τῇ γῇ ἡμῶν· καὶ Ἡ ἀλήθεια ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἀνέτειλε· καὶ Θεὸς ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί· καὶ ∆ικαιοσύνη ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ διέκυψε· καὶ ἄλλα τοιαῦτα πολλά. πνεῦμα δὲ σαρ κούμενον ἡ θεόπνευστος οὐκ οἶδε γραφή. Καὶ προϋπάρχει, φησίν, ὁ ἄνθρωπος Χριστὸς οὐχ ὡς ἑτέρου ὄντος παρ' αὐτὸν τοῦ πνεύματος, τουτέστι τοῦ θεοῦ, ἀλλ' ὡς τοῦ κυρίου ἐν τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσει θείου πνεύματος ὄντος.

Ταῦτα μὲν ἐπὶ λέξεως τοῦ λογογράφου τὰ ῥήματα. ἐπειδὴ δέ πως τῇ ἀτονίᾳ τῆς ἑρμηνευτικῆς δυνάμεως οὐκ ἄγαν ἔκδηλόν ἐστιν ἐν σαφηνείᾳ τὸ νόημα, πρότερον ἀπογυμνώσω τοῦ ζόφου τῆς λέξεως τὴν ἐγκειμένην διάνοιαν, εἶθ' οὕτω προθήσω τῇ ἐξετάσει τὸν λόγον. προϋπάρχει, φησίν, ὁ ἄν θρωπος Χριστός. συνεπινοεῖ τῷ ἐν ἀρχῇ ὄντι λόγῳ τὸν φανέντα ἄνθρωπον ὡς προϋπάρχοντα πρὸ τῆς φανερώσεως καὶ ἐπεξεργάζεται διὰ τοῦ ἀκολούθου τὸ νόημα. φησὶ γὰρ ὅτι οὐχ ἕτερόν ἐστι παρ' αὐτὸν τὸ πνεῦμα, κατασκευάζων διὰ τούτου αὐτὴν τοῦ υἱοῦ τὴν θεότητα ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἄνθρωπον εἶναι, ὅπερ σαφέστερον διὰ τοῦ ἐφεξῆς δείκνυται λόγου· φησὶ γὰρ ὅτι ὁ κύριος ἐν τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσει θεῖον πνεῦμα ἦν. μίαν ἐποίησε τοῦ θεοῦ τε καὶ ἀνθρώπου τὴν φύσιν καὶ ἀνθρώπων δύο τὴν συναλοιφὴν κατωνόμασεν. 3,1.148 ἡ μὲν οὖν διάνοια τῶν εἰρημένων αὕτη, ὅτι τὸ διὰ σαρκὸς ἐκ τῆς παρθένου φανερωθὲν οὐ μόνον κατὰ τὴν τῆς θεότητος ἀϊδιότητα προεπινοεῖται τῶν ὄντων, καθὼς πάντες πιστεύο μεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ κατ' αὐτὴν τὴν σάρκα. ἐπάγει γὰρ τοῖς εἰρημέ νοις εἰς τὴν τῆς τοιαύτης ὑπολήψεως μαρτυρίαν τὸ πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγώ εἰμι· καὶ τὴν τοῦ Ἰωάννου φωνὴν τὸ Πρῶτός μου ἦν· καὶ Εἷς κύριος, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα· καὶ Αὐτός ἐστι πρὸ πάντων· καί τινα τοῦ Ζαχαρίου φωνήν, ἣν ὡς βεβιασμένως πρὸς τὸν σκοπὸν τοῦτον ἐπισυρεῖσαν παρήσομεν. ἐγὼ τοίνυν, εἰ μὲν ἐλάνθανε διά τινος νοημάτων περιβολῆς ἡ τοῦ ἀτόπου κατασκευή, καλῶς ἂν περὶ τὸν ἔλεγχον τῶν κεκρυμμένων ἐσπούδαζον· ἐπεὶ δὲ διαρρήδην βοᾷ τὴν ἀσέβειαν, οὐκ οἶδα τί ἂν πλέον ἐκ τῶν ἡμετέρων γένοιτο λόγων. εἰ προαιώνιος ἡ σάρξ, εἰ πρὸ τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι τῷ ἐκ Μαρίας ἦν, ἄρα πρεσβυτέρα τοῦ Ναχὼρ ἡ παρθένος· ἄρα καὶ πρὸ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ἡ Μαρία.

Καίτοι τί τοῦτο λέγω; αὐτῆς, ὡς ἔοικε, προγενεστέρα τῆς τῶν ὄντων συστάσεως καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν αἰώνων ἀρχαιοτέρα. εἰ γὰρ ἐσαρκώθη μὲν ἐν τῇ παρθένῳ, ἡ δὲ σὰρξ Ἰησοῦς λέγεται, ἐκεῖνον δὲ πρὸ πάντων εἶναι διὰ τοῦ ἀποστόλου μαρτύρεται, ὡς ἔοικε, τῇ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀϊδιότητι συνεπινοεῖσθαι καὶ τὴν Μαρίαν ὁ γενναῖος κατασκευάζει. καὶ σιωπῶ τὰ λίαν ἀπεμ φαίνοντα, πρὸς ἃ κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον ἡ ἀτοπία τῆς καινοφω νίας ἐκφέρεται· ἴδοι γὰρ ἂν ὁ ἀγχίνους ἐκ τοῦ ἀκολούθου τὸ ἄτοπον, κἂν μὴ τῇ λέξει τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην παραγυμνώσωμεν. Ἀλλὰ παραδράμωμεν τὴν τῶν νοημάτων τούτων δυσ ωδίαν, τοσοῦτον παρασημηνάμενοι μόνον ὅτι, εἰ προαιώνιος ἡ σάρξ, οὐ κεκένωται ἡ θεότης, οὐχ ὑπῆρχεν ἐν θεοῦ μορφῇ ὁ υἱός, οὐ μετημφιάσατο τὸ δουλικὸν πρόσωπον· ἀλλ' ὅπερ 3,1.149 ἦν τῇ φύσει, τοῦτο ἐφανερώθη νῦν, οὐκ ἐταπεινώθη. ἵλεως δὲ εἴη τῷ λόγῳ ὁ Λόγοςἀλλὰ σιωπῶ τὸ λειπόμενον. εἰ πρὸ πάντων ἡ σάρξ, ἐξ ἀσθενείας ἄρα τὰ πάντα, οὐκ ἐκ δυνάμεως· Τὸ γὰρ πνεῦμα πρόθυμον, ἡ δὲ σὰρξ ἀσθενής. ἄρα εἰ καὶ μέχρι τούτου μόνον τὴν ἀτοπίαν ἵστησι, καὶ τίς οὐκ ἂν ἐκ τοῦ ἀκολούθου καὶ τὰ συνημμένα τούτοις κατανοήσειεν; πάντως γὰρ πάντα τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς ἰδιώματα συνεπινοήσει τῷ μετὰ τῆς