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Paul, throughout all the Epistle, preaches the properties of the natures and the union of the person; wherefore he calls Jesus Christ both man and God; "For," he says, "one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things." And again, writing to Timothy: "One mediator," he says, "between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" and in the same to the Hebrews: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever;" and if one wished, one could find countless other testimonies from the divine Scripture proclaiming the perfect man, and refuting the folly of the heretics. But we do not have the leisure to collect these at present. Therefore, leaving this labor to the industrious, we shall hold to the treatise before us. 23. Concerning the ineffable birth from the Virgin. Therefore the Creator, pitying His own image being warred against and delivered over to death, bowed the heavens and came down, not by changing place, nor by moving elsewhere; for He fills all things, or rather, He is infinite and uncontained, and holds all things, according to the prophet, in His hand. "For who," he says, "has measured the water in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and the whole earth with a measure?" And again David: "For in his hand are the ends of the earth." And God Himself through the prophet: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool." Therefore, let us understand the "coming down" as a "condescension." He bowed the heavens, therefore, and came down, and choosing the virginal womb of a holy maiden nourished in piety, through an angelic voice that foretold the birth, and fore-explained the manner of the conception, and by its explanation loosed the fear for her virginity, He takes up His abode, and builds a temple for Himself, and fashions the unsown and unplowed tabernacle; since he who was first enslaved to sin happened to be fatherless, and had only the earth for a mother; "For," it says, "God took dust from the earth, and formed man." Wherefore the blessed Paul also says: "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven." For this reason the only-begotten Word of God, taking the beginnings of His formation from a Virgin alone, and in this manner creating the uncultivated temple and uniting it to Himself, comes forth from the Virgin, not loosening the 75.1461 virginal girdle by the conception, nor breaking it by the birth, but preserving it pure and untouched, and working this great and ineffable wonder; for it is truly great and inexplicable, and surpassing the power of speech, to see a cluster of grapes sprouting from the earth without vines, grain grown without seed, a tunic woven without threads and weaving hands, bread created not by mill and hands and fire, but ineffably made from virginal flour and covering the world; and in addition to these things, a Virgin offering her breast to her own infant, and providing fountains of milk, and having become a mother, she who had not accepted the law of marriage, having become a mother, she who did not know how one becomes a mother, having become a mother, she who had not first become a wife, but in virginity both showing the swelling of the womb and carrying the fruit in her hands, and doing the works of a mother, while her virginity was preserved, and being called a virgin mother, and bringing together contrary names and realities at the same time. 24. A summary narrative of the life of Christ after the birth. Thus was born the Lord Christ (for it is not right after the birth to call him either God the Word alone, or a man stripped of divinity, but Christ, who both

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Παῦλος, διὰ πάσης τῆς Ἐπιστο λῆς, τάς τε τῶν φύσεων ἰδιότητας, καὶ τοῦ προσώπου κηρύττει τὴν ἕνωσιν· διὸ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν καὶ ἄν θρωπον καὶ Θεὸν προσαγορεύει· «Εἷς γὰρ, φησὶ, Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα.» Καὶ πάλιν Τιμοθέῳ γράφων· «Εἷς μεσίτης, φησὶ, Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, ἄνθρωπος Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς·» καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ δὲ τῇ πρὸς Ἑβραίους· «Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς χθὲς καὶ σήμερον ὁ αὐτὸς, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας·» καὶ ἄλλας δ' ἄν τις ἐθελήσας εὕροι μυρίας μαρτυρίας ἐκ τῆς θείας Γραφῆς τὸν τέλειον ἄνθρωπον κηρυττούσας, καὶ τῶν αἱρετικῶν ἐλεγχούσας τὴν ἄνοιαν. Ἀλλ' ἡμῖν οὐ σχολὴ ταῦτα συλλέγειν ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος. Τοῖς φιλοπόνοις τοίνυν τὸν πόνον τοῦτον καταλιπόντες, ἡμεῖς τῆς προ κειμένης πραγματείας ἐχώμεθα. ΚΓʹ. Περὶ τῆς ἀῤῥήτου τῆς Παρθένου γεννήσεως. Τοιγαροῦν τὴν οἰκείαν εἰκόνα πολεμουμένην οἰ κτείρας ὁ Ποιητὴς, καὶ θανάτῳ παραπεμπομένην, ἔκλινεν οὐρανοὺς, καὶ κατέβη, οὐ τὸν τόπον ἀμεί ψας, οὐδ' ἑτέρωσε μεταβάς· πληροῖ γὰρ τὰ σύμπαντα, μᾶλλον δὲ ἄπειρός ἐστι, καὶ ἀχώρητος, καὶ πάντα ἔχων, κατὰ τὸν προφήτην, ἐν τῇ χειρί. «Τίς γὰρ, φησὶν, ἐμέτρησε τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ τὸ ὕδωρ, καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν σπιθαμῇ, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν δρακί;» Καὶ πάλιν ὁ ∆αβίδ· «Ὅτι ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ τὰ πέρατα τῆς γῆς.» Καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ Θεὸς διὰ τοῦ προφήτου· «Ὁ οὐρανός μου θρόνος, ἡ δὲ γῆ ὑποπόδιον τῶν ποδῶν μου.» Οὐκοῦν τὴν κατάβασιν νοήσωμεν συγκατάβασιν· ἔκλινε τοίνυν οὐρανοὺς, καὶ κατέβη, καὶ παρθενικὴν ἐκλε ξάμενος νηδὺν κόρης ἁγίας καὶ εὐσεβείᾳ συντεθραμ μένης, δι' ἀγγελικῆς φωνῆς τὸν τόκον προμηνυσά σης, καὶ τῆς συλλήψεως τὸν τρόπον προερμηνευσά σης, καὶ τῆς παρθενίας τὸν φόβον τῇ ἑρμηνείᾳ λυ σάσης, εἰσοικίζεταί τε, καὶ ναὸν ἑαυτῷ κατασκευάζει, καὶ τὴν ἄσπαρτον, καὶ ἀνήροτον σκηνὴν διαπλάττει· ἐπειδὴ ὁ πρώτως δουλεύσας τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ, ἀπάτωρ ἐτύγχανε, μητέρα δὲ μόνην εἶχε τὴν γῆν· «Ἔλαβε γὰρ, φησὶν, ὁ Θεὸς χοῦν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἔπλασε τὸν ἄνθρωπον.» ∆ιὸ καὶ ὁ μακάριος Παῦλός φησιν· «Ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἐκ γῆς χοϊκὸς, ὁ δεύτερος ἄνθρω πος ὁ Κύριος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ.» Τούτου χάριν ὁ μονογε νὴς τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος ἐκ μόνης Παρθένου τὰς ἀφορ μὰς λαβὼν τῆς διαπλάσεως, καὶ τούτῳ τῷ τρόπῳ τὸν ἀγεώργητον δημιουργήσας ναὸν, καὶ ἑαυτῷ συνάψας, πρόεισιν ἐκ τῆς Παρθένου, οὐ λύσας τῇ συλλήψει τὴν 75.1461 παρθενικὴν ζώνην, οὐ τῇ γεννήσει διαῤῥήξας, ἀλλ' ἀκήρατον καὶ ἀνέπαφον διαφυλάξας, καὶ τὸ μέγα τοῦτο καὶ ἄῤῥητον θαῦμα θαυματουργήσας· μέγα γὰρ τῷ ὄντι καὶ ἀνερμήνευτον, καὶ λόγου δύναμιν ὑπερβαῖνον, βότρυν ἰδεῖν ἐκ γῆς ἄνευ κλημάτων βλα στήσαντα, σῖτον ἄνευ σπερμάτων φύντα, χιτῶνα χωρὶς νημάτων καὶ χειρῶν ὑφαντικῶν ὑφασμένον, ἄρτον οὐ μύλῃ καὶ χερσὶ καὶ πυρὶ δημιουργηθέντα, ἀλλ' ἀῤῥήτως ἐκ παρθενικῶν ἀλεύρων γεγενημένον, καὶ τὴν οἰκουμένην καλύψαντα· πρὸς δὲ τούτοις, Παρθένον οἰκείῳ βρέφει θηλὴν ὀρέγουσαν, καὶ γά λακτος χορηγοῦσαν πηγὰς, καὶ μητέρα γενομένην τὴν γάμου νόμον οὐ δεξαμένην, μητέρα γενομένην τὴν πῶς γίνεται μήτηρ οὐκ ἐπισταμένην, μητέρα γενομένην τὴν γυναῖκα πρότερον οὐ γενομένην, ἀλλ' ἐν παρθενίᾳ καὶ τὸν ὄγκον τῆς γαστρὸς ἐπιδεικνῦ σαν, καὶ τὸν καρπὸν ἐν ταῖς χερσὶ περιφέρουσαν, καὶ τὰ μητρὸς ἐργαζομένην, σωζομένης τῆς παρθε νίας, καὶ παρθένον μητέρα καλουμένην, καὶ τἀναν τία ὀνόματά τε καὶ πράγματα κατὰ ταὐτὸν συν άγουσαν. Κ∆ʹ. Ἐν κεφαλαίῳ διήγησις τῆς μετὰ τὴν γέννη σιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ πολιτείας. Οὕτως τεχθεὶς ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστὸς (οὐ γὰρ εὐαγὲς μετὰ τὸν τόκον ἢ Θεὸν Λόγον μόνον αὐτὸν προσ αγορεύειν, ἢ ἄνθρωπον γεγυμνωμένον θεότητος, ἀλλὰ Χριστὸν, ὃ ἑκατέραν