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all things were created through him. It is clear, then, that those things which by nature and specifically belong to the Word who is from the Father have been preserved for him again even when he became flesh. Therefore, it is perilous to dare to divide. For there is one Lord Jesus Christ, and through him the Father has created all things. {B} True. {A} He is, therefore, also divinely a Creator, and a life-giver as life, composed into one thing in between, with both human and superhuman properties. For he is the Mediator between God and men, according to the Scriptures, being by nature God, and not without flesh, and truly man, and not a mere man like us, but being what he was even when he became flesh. For it is written that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. For do we not believe that Emmanuel was born of the holy Virgin in the last times of the age? {B} Yes. For we do not contradict the divine Scriptures. {A} But "yesterday," tell me, and "today," my friend, would they not signify for us the present time and the time already past? {B} I agree. {A} How then could he be the same in the time that has passed, when he had not yet received his birth according to the flesh? {B} Because the Word was in the beginning, and having appeared from the eternal and immutable God and Father, he himself also has in his own nature the eternal and immutable. {A} I praise this opinion; for it is thus and very correct. But nevertheless, would you tell me, good sir, as I am eager to learn. {B} What? {A} Is not the name Jesus Christ altogether recent for the Word, and concurrent with the times of the incarnation? {B} And indeed, this was shown to us through very many arguments. {A} Understand, then, that he says Jesus Christ, and not the Word singularly, is the same yesterday and today and forever. But how could the nature of man have immutability and permanence in sameness, although it undergoes change, and above all else, its coming into being and life from non-being? {B} Has the sacred Scripture then erred from the truth for us, and says that he who was not yesterday, existed before? {A} I would not say that. Far from it. Christ Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever. I will not at all deny the precedence and unchangeableness of the Word, even though he became flesh. But I shall suppose that, in union with his own flesh, he is again shown to be existing yesterday and pre-existing. And at any rate the frenzied Jew was disgusted, and tried to stone him, not accepting the faith. For he was astonished that, although seen as a man like us, he testified to his own precedence with a more-than-human antiquity, saying as God: "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." At which they also said to this: "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" And John also said: "He who comes after me has come to be before me, because he was first of me." And yet how, knowing and naming Emmanuel a man, does he say that the one born late and after him has come to be before and first of him? {B} He says he has come to be before him and first in glory, as it occurs to me to understand. {A} And indeed, you will know from not many words that it is both spurious and ignorant to understand it in this way. For if we take "before" to mean "better in glory," by the same reasoning we shall say that "after" very clearly indicates being second in renown. It has come about then, as it seems, to unintelligently suppose that Christ is inferior to John's glory, and runs behind. For he said, "A man comes after me." {B} Alas for the absurdity. For we shall not suppose it is so, having rightly understood what is written in the Psalms: "For who in the clouds shall be equal to the Lord? And who shall be likened to God among the sons of God?" {A} Therefore, then, we must attribute precedence to him even with his flesh, as to God by nature united to the flesh and accustomed to making the goods of his own nature common to his own body. {B} You have spoken most excellently. {A} And you might learn that this is so and has been rightly said also from other testimonies, my friend, if you should choose. For he said

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ἐκτίσθη δι' αὐτοῦ τὰ πάντα. Πρόδηλον οὖν ὅτι τὰ φύσει τε καὶ ἰδικῶς ἐνυπάρχοντα τῷ ἐκ Πατρὸς ὄντι Λόγῳ τετήρηται πάλιν αὐτῷ καὶ ὅτε γέγονε σάρξ. Ἐπισφαλὲς οὖν ἄρα τὸ διατέμνειν ἀποτολμᾶν. Εἷς γὰρ Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, καὶ δι' αὐτοῦ τὰ πάντα δεδημιούργηκεν ὁ Πατήρ. {Β} Ἀληθές. {Α} Ἔστι τοιγαροῦν καὶ ∆ημιουργὸς θεϊκῶς, καὶ ζωοποιὸς ὡς ζωή, ἀνθρωπίνοις τε αὖ καὶ τοῖς ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον ἰδιώμασιν εἰς ἕν τι τὸ μεταξὺ συγκείμενος. Μεσίτης γάρ ἐστι Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, κατὰ τὰς Γραφάς, φύσει μὲν ὑπάρχων Θεός, καὶ οὐ δίχα σαρκός, ἄνθρωπος δὲ ἀληθῶς, καὶ οὐ ψιλὸς καθ' ἡμᾶς, ἀλλ' ὢν ὅπερ ἦν καὶ εἰ γέγονε σάρξ. Γέγραπται γὰρ ὅτι Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς χθὲς καὶ σήμερον ὁ 710 αὐτὸς καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Ἦ γὰρ οὐχὶ διὰ τῆς ἁγίας Παρθένου τετέχθαι πιστεύομεν ἐν ἐσχάτοις τοῦ αἰῶνος καιροῖς τὸν Ἐμμανουήλ; {Β} Ναί. Ταῖς γάρ τοι θείαις οὐκ ἀντεροῦμεν Γραφαῖς. {Α} Τὸ δὲ δὴ χθές, εἰπέ μοι, καὶ τήμερον καιρὸν ἡμῖν, ὦ φιλότης, οὐχὶ τὸν ἐνεστηκότα καὶ τὸν ἤδη παρῳχηκότα κατασημήνειαν ἄν; {Β} Φημί. {Α} Πῶς οὖν ὁ αὐτὸς εἴη ἂν εἴς γε τὸν παρῳχηκότα, καίτοι γένεσιν οὔπω τὴν κατὰ σάρκα λαβών; {Β} Ὅτι ἦν ὁ Λόγος καὶ ἐν ἀρχῇ, καὶ ὡς ἐξ ἀϊδίου καὶ ἀτρέπτου πεφηνὼς τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρός, ἔχει καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν ἰδίᾳ φύσει τὸ ἀΐδιον τε καὶ ἄτρεπτον. {Α} Ἐπαινῶ τὴν δόξαν· ἔχει γὰρ ὧδε καὶ λίαν ὀρθῶς. Φιλοπευστοῦντι δ' οὖν ὅμως φράσαις ἄν, ὠγαθέ. {Β} Τὸ τί; {Α} Ἦ οὐχὶ νεώτατον κομιδῇ, καὶ τοῖς τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως χρόνοις συνδεδραμηκὸς ὄνομα τῷ Λόγῳ τὸ Ἰησοῦς Χριστός; {Β} Καὶ μὴν τοῦτο ἡμῖν διὰ πλείστων ὅσων ἐδείχθη λόγων. {Α} Σύνες οὖν ὅτι Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν, καὶ οὐ μονοειδῶς τὸν Λόγον, χθές τε καὶ σήμερον τὸν αὐτὸν εἶναί φησι, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. Πῶς δ' ἂν ἔχοι τὸ ἄτρεπτόν τε καὶ τὴν ἐν ταυτότητι διαμονὴν ἡ ἀνθρώπου φύσις, καίτοι κίνησιν ὑπομένουσα, καὶ πρό γε τῶν ἄλλων τὴν ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων εἰς τὸ εἶναι καὶ ζῆν; {Β} ∆ιημάρτηκεν οὖν ἄρα τἀληθοῦς ἡμῖν τὸ Γράμμα τὸ ἱερόν, καὶ τὸν χθὲς οὐκ ὄντα προεῖναί φησι; {Α} Φαίην ἂν οὐχὶ τοῦτο ἐγώ. Πολλοῦ γε καὶ δεῖ. Χθὲς καὶ σήμερον ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς. Τὸ δὲ τοῦ Λόγου πρεσβύτατον καὶ ἀκλινὲς ἥκιστα μὲν ἀρνήσομαι, καὶ εἰ γέγονε σάρξ. Οἰήσομαι δὲ καθ' ἕνωσιν μετὰ τῆς ἰδίας σαρκὸς ὡς χθὲς ὄντα καὶ προϋπάρχοντα καταδηλοῦσθαι πάλιν αὐτόν. Καὶ γοῦν ἐμυσάττετο μὲν ὁ παράφρων Ἰουδαῖος, καὶ καταλιθοῦν ἐπεχείρει, τὴν πίστιν οὐ προσιέμενος. Κατατεθήπει γὰρ ὅτι, καίτοι καθ' ἡμᾶς ὁρώμενος ἄνθρωπος, τῆς ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον ἀρχαιότητος ἑαυτῷ τὸ πρεσβύτερον ἐπεμαρτύρει, λέγων ὡς Θεός· Ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι, ἐγὼ εἰμί. Ὅτε καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο ἔφασκον ἐκεῖνοι· Πεντήκοντα ἔτη οὔπω ἔχεις, καὶ Ἀβραὰμ ἑώρακας; Ἔφη δὲ καὶ Ἰωάννης·Ὁ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος ἔμπροσθέν μου γέγονεν, ὅτι πρῶτός μου ἦν. Καίτοι πῶς ἄνδρα τε εἰδὼς καὶ ὀνομάζων τὸν Ἐμμανουὴλ ἔμπροσθέν τε αὐτοῦ καὶ πρῶτον γενέσθαι φησὶ τὸν ὀψιγενῆ τε καὶ μετ' αὐτόν; {Β} Ἔμπροσθεν αὐτὸν καὶ πρῶτον γενέσθαι φησὶ κατά 711 γε τὴν δόξαν, ὥσπερ οὖν ἔπεισί μοι νοεῖν. {Α} Καὶ μὴν ὅτι κίβδηλόν τε καὶ ἀμαθὲς τὸ τῇδε νοεῖν οὐκ ἐκ μακρῶν εἴσῃ λόγων. Παραδεξάμενοι γὰρ τὸ ἔμπροσθεν εἰς τὸ ἄμεινον ἐν δόξῃ, κατὰ τὸν ἴσον που λόγον καὶ τὸ ὀπίσω φήσομεν τὸ ὡς ἐν εὐκλείᾳ δεύτερον εὖ μάλα καταδηλοῦν. Περιέστη δὴ οὖν, ὡς ἔοικε, τῆς Ἰωάννου δόξης ἡττᾶσθαι Χριστόν, καὶ ὀπίσω δραμεῖν, ἀσυνέτως ὑπονοεῖν. Ἔφη γὰρ ὅτι Ὀπίσω μου ἔρχεται ἀνήρ. {Β} Φεῦ τῆς ἀτοπίας. Οἰησόμεθα γὰρ οὐχ ὧδε ἔχειν, ἐννενοηκότες ὀρθῶς τὸ ἐν Ψαλμοῖς γεγραμμένον· Ὅτι τίς ἐν νεφέλαις ἰσωθήσεται τῷ Κυρίῳ; Καὶ τίς ὁμοιωθήσεται τῷ Θεῷ ἐν υἱοῖς Θεοῦ; {Α} Ἀναθετέον οὖν ἄρα καὶ μετὰ σαρκὸς αὐτῷ τὸ πρεσβύτατον, ὡς Θεῷ κατὰ φύσιν ἑνωθέντι σαρκὶ καὶ τὰ τῆς ἰδίας φύσεως ἀγαθὰ κοινοποιεῖν εἰωθότι τῷ ἰδίῳ σώματι. {Β} Ἄριστα ἔφης. {Α} Τοῦτο δ' ἂν μάθοις ὧδέ τε ἔχον καὶ εἰρημένον ὀρθῶς καὶ ἐξ ἑτέρων, ὦ τᾶν, εἴπερ ἕλοιο, μαρτυριῶν. Ἔφη μὲν γάρ