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of the argument, what he then constructs, is this: The prophetic word shows through these things, he says, that he is not of one substance with God according to the flesh, but according to the spirit united to the flesh. How then is his fleshly god united to flesh before the foundation of the world, when the ages did not exist nor was there anything else of creation? But the flesh is very much and the last of the things that have come into being in creation. To what flesh, then, was he united, when human nature had not yet come into being? But he knows some other flesh besides man. And how does he say that the man himself, who spoke to us the things of the Father, is that God the creator of the ages? Who will interpret for us the absurdity of these new riddles? A man before man came to be, and flesh earlier than its own creation, and the pre-eternal being that came to be in the last times, and as many other such things as he goes through confusedly in his account.

But let the speech-writer wander astray as he pleases in the pathless ways of his reasonings; but we, having set forth the apostolic 3,1.159 teaching mentioned by this very man for the refutation of impious suppositions, will hasten on to what follows in the argument. Who, being in the form of God, he says. He did not say 'having a form like God,' which is said of him who was made in the likeness of God, but 'being in the form of God itself'; for all things of the Father are in the Son. Therefore also the eternal and the unquantifiable and the immaterial and the incorporeal, so that through all things the form of the paternal character might be preserved in the Son; and being equal to God. What notion of difference or variation does equality leave? How could 'the equal' be applied to things that are varied by nature? For if one is fleshly by nature, and the other is pure from flesh, how could one bring such a one to equality with one who is not so? He emptied himself, he says, taking the form of a servant. What is the servile form? Assuredly the body; for we have heard nothing else than this from the fathers. Therefore, he who said that he took the form of a servant, and the form is flesh, says that he, being something else according to the divine form, took the servile form which is by nature something else. But the word 'emptied' also clearly shows that he was not always this which appeared to us, but was in the fullness of the Godhead, equal to God, unapproachable and inaccessible, and especially incomprehensible to the littleness of human nothingness; but became comprehensible to the mortal nature of the flesh then, when he emptied, as the apostle says, the ineffable glory of his Godhead and condescended to our littleness, so that what he was, was great and perfect and incomprehensible, but what he took, was of equal size to our measure of nature. For being made in the likeness of man, he says, and in form, as one who clearly did not have about himself from the beginning the likeness of such a nature nor was fashioned into any bodily type. For how could a type of form 3,1.160 be impressed upon the incorporeal? But he comes to be in a form then, when being fashioned he puts it on himself. And this is the nature of the body.

Being found then as a man—for he was also a man, even if not wholly a man, but as a man through the mystery of the virgin birth—so that through this it might be manifest that he was not in all things a slave to the laws of human nature, but having divinely introduced himself into life and not needing the cooperation of marriage for the fashioning of his own creation—he is found not to be in all things a common man because of the altered character of his constitution, but as a man. And thus he humbled himself, becoming man without change. For if he were this from the beginning, in what did the humbling consist? But now the most high humbled himself through the union with our humble nature. For having been united to the form of the servant, which he took, and having become one with it, he makes his own the passions of the servant, and just as it also happens in us through the natural connection with the members, <that>, if anything should happen to the tip of the nail, the whole is affected with the suffering part, with the ... extending through the whole body

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λόγου, ὃ δ' οὖν κατασκευάζει, τοῦτό ἐστι· ∆ηλοῖ, φησί, διὰ τούτων ὁ προφητικὸς λόγος, ὅτι οὐ κατὰ τὴν σάρκα ὁμοούσιος τῷ θεῷ, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἡνωμένον τῇ σαρκί. πῶς τοίνυν ἑνοῦται σαρκὶ πρὸ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου συστάσεως ὁ σαρκώδης αὐτοῦ θεός, ὅτε οἱ αἰῶνες οὐκ ἦσαν οὐδὲ ἄλλο τι τῶν τῆς κτίσεως ἦν; ἡ δὲ σὰρξ πολλοστόν τε καὶ ἔσχατον τῶν ἐν τῇ κτίσει γεγονότων ἐστίν. ποίᾳ τοίνυν ἡνώθη σαρκὶ μήπω τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως παρελθούσης εἰς γένεσιν; ἀλλ' ἑτέραν τινὰ οἶδε σάρκα παρὰ τὸν ἄνθρωπον. καὶ πῶς φησιν, ὅτι αὐτὸς ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ὁ λαλήσας ἡμῖν τὰ τοῦ πατρός, ἐκεῖνός ἐστι θεὸς ποιητὴς τῶν αἰώνων; τίς ἡμῖν ἑρμηνεύσει τῶν καινῶν τούτων αἰνιγμάτων τὴν ἀτοπίαν; ἄνθρωπος πρὸ τοῦ γενέσθαι ἄνθρωπον καὶ σὰρξ τῆς ἰδίας δημιουργίας προγενεστέρα καὶ προαιώνιον τὸ ἐπ' ἐσχάτων χρόνων γενό μενον καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα τοιαῦτα κατὰ τὸν λόγον συγκεχυ μένως διέξεισιν.

Ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν λογογράφος κατὰ τὸ δοκοῦν ἐν ταῖς τῶν λογισμῶν ἀνοδίαις διαπλανάσθω· ἡμεῖς δὲ τὴν ἀποστολικὴν 3,1.159 διδασκαλίαν τὴν παρ' αὐτοῦ τούτου μνημονευθεῖσαν εἰς ἔλεγχον τῶν ἀσεβῶν ὑπολήψεων παραθέντες πρὸς τὰ ἑξῆς τοῦ λόγου δραμούμεθα. Ὃς ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ, φησίν, ὑπάρχων. οὐκ εἶπε μορφὴν ἔχων ὁμοίαν θεοῦ, ὅπερ ἐπὶ τοῦ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν θεοῦ γεγονότος λέγεται, ἀλλ' ἐν αὐτῇ ὑπάρχων τοῦ θεοῦ τῇ μορφῇ· πάντα γὰρ τὰ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐν τῷ υἱῷ. οὐκοῦν καὶ τὸ ἀΐδιον καὶ τὸ ἄποσον καὶ τὸ ἄϋλον καὶ ἀσώ ματον, ὡς ἂν διὰ πάντων σῴζοιτο τοῦ πατρικοῦ χαρακτῆρος ἐν τῷ υἱῷ ἡ μορφή· καὶ ὢν ἴσα θεῷ. ποίαν ἡ ἰσότης διαφορᾶς τινος ἢ παραλλαγῆς ἔννοιαν ὑπολείπεται; πῶς δ' ἂν ἐφαρ μοσθείη τοῖς κατὰ τὴν φύσιν παρηλλαγμένοις τὸ ἴσον; εἰ γὰρ ὁ μὲν σαρκώδης τὴν φύσιν, ὁ δὲ καθαρεύων ἀπὸ σαρ κός, πῶς ἄν τις εἰς ἴσον ἄγοι τὸ τοιοῦτον τῷ μὴ τοιούτῳ; Ἐκένωσεν ἑαυτόν, φησί, μορφὴν δούλου λαβών. τίς ἡ δουλικὴ μορφή; πάντως τὸ σῶμα· οὐ γὰρ ἕτερόν τι παρὰ τοῦτο παρὰ τῶν πατέρων ἠκούσαμεν. οὐκοῦν ὁ εἰπὼν ὅτι μορφὴν ἔλαβε δούλου, σὰρξ δέ ἐστιν ἡ μορφή, ἄλλο τι ὄντα αὐτὸν κατὰ τὴν θείαν μορφήν, ἄλλο τι οὖσαν τῇ φύσει τὴν δουλικὴν μορφὴν εἰληφέναι λέγει. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ τοῦ ἐκένωσε λέξις σαφῶς παρίστησι τὸ μὴ ἀεὶ τοῦτο εἶναι, ὅπερ ἡμῖν ὤφθη, ἀλλ' εἶναι μὲν ἐν τῷ πληρώματι τῆς θεότητος ἴσα θεῷ ἀπρόσιτον καὶ ἀπροσπέλαστον καὶ μάλιστά γε τῇ βραχύτητι τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης οὐδενείας ἀχώρητον· χωρητὸν δὲ τῇ ἐπικήρῳ τῆς σαρκὸς φύσει τότε γενόμενον, ὅτε ἐκένωσε, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, τὴν ἄφραστον αὐτοῦ τῆς θεότητος δόξαν καὶ τῇ βραχύτητι ἡμῶν συγκατεσμίκρυ νεν, ὥστε ὃ μὲν ἦν, μέγα καὶ τέλειον καὶ ἀπερίληπτον ἦν, ὃ δὲ ἔλαβεν, ἰσομέγεθες ἦν τῷ ἡμετέρῳ μέτρῳ τῆς φύσεως. Ἐν ὁμοιώματι γάρ, φησίν, ἀνθρώπου γενόμενος καὶ σχή ματι, ὡς οὐκ ἔχων δηλονότι ἐξ ἀρχῆς περὶ ἑαυτὸν τῆς τοιαύτης φύσεως τὸ ὁμοίωμα οὐδὲ πρός τινα σωματώδη τύπον σχηματι ζόμενος. πῶς γὰρ ἂν περιτυπωθείη τῷ ἀσωμάτῳ σχήματος 3,1.160 τύπος; ἀλλὰ τότε ἐν σχήματι γίνεται, ὅτε σχηματιζόμενος ἑαυτῷ περιτίθησιν. τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ σώματος φύσις.

Εὑρεθεὶς τοίνυν ὡς ἄνθρωπος καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἄνθρωπος, εἰ καὶ μὴ δι' ὅλου ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλ' ὡς ἄνθρωπος διὰ τὸ κατὰ τὴν παρθενίαν μυστήριον, ὡς ἂν φανερὸν διὰ τοῦτο γένοιτο, ὅτι οὐ διὰ πάντων τοῖς νόμοις τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ἐδούλευσε φύσεως, ἀλλὰ θεϊκῶς ἑαυτὸν εἰσοικίσας τῷ βίῳ καὶ μὴ δεηθεὶς τῆς ἐκ τοῦ γάμου συνεργίας πρὸς τὴν κατασκευὴν τοῦ ἰδίου πλάσματοςεὑρίσκεται οὐ διὰ πάντων κοινὸς ἄνθρωπος διὰ τὸ παρηλλαγμένον αὐτοῦ τῆς συστά σεως, ἀλλ' ὡς ἄνθρωπος. καὶ οὕτως ἐταπείνωσεν ἑαυτὸν ἀτρέπτως γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος. εἰ γὰρ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς τοῦτο ἦν, ἐν τίνι γέγονεν ἡ ταπείνωσις; νῦν δὲ ὁ ὕψιστος διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὸ ταπεινὸν τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν ἑνώσεως ἑαυτὸν ἐταπείνωσεν. ἑνωθεὶς γὰρ τῇ μορφῇ τοῦ δούλου, ἣν ἔλαβε, καὶ ἓν πρὸς αὐτὴν γενόμενος, οἰκειοῦται τὰ τοῦ δούλου πάθη καὶ καθάπερ καὶ ἐν ἡμῖν γίνεται διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὰ μέλη συμφυΐας, <ὅτι>, ἐάν τι τῷ ἄκρῳ συμπέσῃ τοῦ ὄνυχος, τὸ πᾶν τῷ πεπονθότι συνδιατίθεται ἐφ' ὄλον τὸ σῶμα διηκούσης τῆς