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the human will and the divine will are different, He who made our passions his own utters, on the one hand, as from the human, what is suitable to the weakness of nature; but he adds the second voice, the lofty and God-befitting will to be established over the human will for the salvation of men. willing. For he who said "not my will" signified the human will by this phrase; but by adding "but yours," he showed the connection of his own divinity with the Father, of which there is no difference of will on account of the communion of nature; for in speaking of the will of the Father, he also demonstrated the will of the Son. And this is that he wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; which could not 3,1.182 otherwise happen unless death, which hinders the way to life, was swallowed up. But the Lord makes his own the humble words and passion of human cowardice, showing that what is ours was truly about him, confirming the nature from the communion of sufferings. But that which was assumed into union with him, says Apollinarius, was not of a man from the earth, as they suppose, but of God who came down from heaven. In these words, the feeble and insignificant aspect of the interpretation disregards the sequence of thought that follows what is written, except the meaning is not entirely hidden by the confusion of the wording. Not of a man from earth, he says, are those passionate cries, but of God who came down from heaven.
Up to this point, the intention is clear from what has been said, that he represents the divinity as being subject to passion. Then with the absurdity of his wording he confuses the meaning. For having said "of God who came down from heaven," he adds "that which was assumed into union with him," as if someone, changing the phrase to be clearer, were to say that it was not a man who was speaking, but God was speaking through the man, having taken into union with himself that which appeared. From where, then, was that man assumed? From the earth? He says not. But in the heavens there is no race of men. It remains to say "from nowhere," by which it is co-established that what appeared was an illusion and not a reality; for what is from nowhere does not exist at all. But from the words he has quoted, he says the man has come down from heaven. And yet Mary is on earth, and the cave in the earth, and the manger earthly. And how does this man relocate for us a man from heaven to the earth? For while all <the> scripture confesses the virgin, the birth, the flesh, 3,1.183 the swaddling clothes, the breast, the manger, the human fashioning, this man, abandoning everything, refashions in his argument another man, rootless and unconnected with our nature.
But as for all the slanders that he interweaves in his words, by which he thinks to strengthen the absurdity of his dogma, through which he might more vehemently assail us with blasphemies, I think that one who has sense ought to overlook them and entrust the judgment to the hearing of his readers, who are the counterfeiters of the apostolic faith: we who according to the voice of Paul, though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer, or he who always, both before the economy according to man and after this, carries about in his discourse his own fleshly god. And he adds the blasphemy made against him by the Jews, that he was called by them a glutton and a wine-drinker, and he says these things are necessary in the case of the man. Who then is the man reproached by the Jews for eating and drinking: one who partakes of these things or one who does not? But if he did not partake, it was an illusion; but if he did partake, that which was partaken of was earthly; but the heavenly thing is not nourished by earthly things. Oh, the contradiction of absurdities! How in the same matter he is thrown down by opposite falls! Now he says that the one who appears bodily is superior to human nature, but again he shows him to be inferior even to men, mutilated in what is better. For the pre-eminent part in us is the intellect, of which the flesh is to be devoid
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ἀνθρώπινον βούλημα καὶ τὸ θεῖον ἄλλο, φθέγγεται μὲν ὡς ἐκ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸ τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ τῆς φύσεως πρόσφορον ὁ τὰ ἡμέτερα πάθη οἰκειωσάμενος· ἐπάγει δὲ τὴν δευτέραν φωνήν, τὸ ὑψηλόν τε καὶ θεοπρεπὲς βούλημα κυρωθῆναι παρὰ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον ὑπὲρ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων σωτηρίας. θέλων. ὁ γὰρ εἰπὼν μὴ τὸ ἐμὸν τὸ ἀνθρώπινον τῷ λόγῳ ἐσήμανε· προσθεὶς δὲ τὸ σὸν ἔδειξε τὸ συναφὲς τῆς ἑαυτοῦ πρὸς τὸν πατέρα θεό τητος, ἧς οὐδεμία θελήματός ἐστι διαφορὰ διὰ τὴν κοινωνίαν τῆς φύσεως· τὸ γὰρ τοῦ πατρὸς εἰπὼν θέλημα καὶ τὸ τοῦ υἱοῦ ἐνεδείξατο. τοῦτο δέ ἐστι τὸ πάντας ἀνθρώπους θέλειν σωθῆναι καὶ εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἀληθείας ἐλθεῖν· ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν 3,1.182 ἄλλως γενέσθαι μὴ τοῦ θανάτου καταποθέντος τοῦ πρὸς τὴν ζωὴν ἐμποδίζοντος. τὰ δὲ ταπεινὰ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης δειλίας καὶ ῥήματα καὶ πάθος οἰκειοῦται ὁ κύριος, δεικνὺς ὅτι ἀληθῶς ἦν περὶ αὐτὸν τὸ ἡμέτερον, ἐκ τῆς τῶν παθημά των κοινωνίας τὴν φύσιν πιστούμενος. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἦν, φησὶν ὁ Ἀπολινάριος, ἀνθρώπου τοῦ ἐκ γῆς, ὡς αὐτοὶ νομίζουσιν, ἀλλὰ θεοῦ τοῦ καταβάντος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ τὸ εἰς ἕνωσιν αὐτοῦ προσ ειλημμένον. ἐν τούτοις δὲ τὸ μὲν ἄτονόν τε καὶ ἀσήμαντον τῆς ἑρμηνείας παράγει τῆς κατὰ τὸν νοῦν ἀκολουθίας τὸ τοῖς γεγραμμένοις ἑπόμενον, πλὴν οὐ παντελῶς ἀποκέκρυπται ἡ διάνοια τῇ συγχύσει τῆς λέξεως. οὐκ ἀνθρώπου, φησί, τοῦ ἐκ γῆς εἰσιν αἱ περιπαθεῖς ἐκεῖναι φωναί, ἀλλὰ θεοῦ τοῦ καταβάντος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ.
Μέχρι τούτου δῆλον ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων τὸ βούλημα, ὅτι τὴν θεότητα ἐμπαθῆ εἶναι κατασκευάζει. εἶτα συγχεῖ τῇ ἀτοπίᾳ τῆς λέξεως τὴν διάνοιαν. εἰπὼν γὰρ ὅτι θεοῦ τοῦ καταβάντος ἐξ οὐρανῶν προστίθησι τὸ εἰς ἕνωσιν αὐτοῦ προσειλημμένον, ὡς ἄν τις ἐπὶ τὸ σαφέστερον μεταβαλὼν τὸν λόγον εἴποι, ὅτι οὐκ ἄνθρωπος ἦν ὁ λαλῶν, ἀλλὰ θεὸς διὰ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐφθέγγετο ὁ εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἕνωσιν προσλαβὼν τὸ φαινόμενον. πόθεν οὖν προσελήφθη ἐκεῖνος ὁ ἄνθρωπος; ἐκ γῆς; οὔ φησιν. ἐν οὐρανοῖς δὲ γένος ἀνθρώπων οὐκ ἔστι. Λείπεται τὸ μηδαμόθεν λέγειν, ᾧ συγκατασκευάζεται τὸ δόκησιν τὸ φαι νόμενον εἶναι καὶ οὐκ ἀλήθειαν· τὸ γὰρ μηδαμόθεν ὂν οὐδὲ ἔστιν ὅλως. ἀλλ' ἐξ ὧν παρέθετο λόγων, ἐξ οὐρανοῦ κατα βεβηκέναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον λέγει. καὶ μὴν ἐπὶ γῆς ἡ Μαρία καὶ ἐν γῇ τὸ σπήλαιον καὶ γηΐνη ἡ φάτνη. καὶ πῶς ἡμῖν οὗτος οὐρανόθεν ἄνθρωπον ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν μετοικίζει; πάσης γὰρ ὁμο λογούσης <τῆς> γραφῆς τὴν παρθένον, τὸν τόκον, τὴν σάρκα, 3,1.183 τὰ σπάργανα, τὴν θηλήν, τὴν φάτνην, τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην δια σκευήν, οὗτος πάντα καταλιπὼν ἕτερον ἄνθρωπον ἄρριζον καὶ ἀσυναφῆ πρὸς τὴν ἡμετέραν φύσιν ἀναπλάσσει τῷ λόγῳ.
Ἀλλ' ὅσας διὰ μέσου λοιδορίας τοῖς λόγοις συμπλέκων διὰ τούτων οἴεται κρατύνειν τὴν ἀτοπίαν τοῦ δόγματος, δι' ὧν ἂν σφοδρότερον ἡμῶν ταῖς βλασφημίαις καθικνῆται, παριδεῖν οἶμαι χρῆναι τόν γε νοῦν ἔχοντα καὶ τῇ ἀκοῇ τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων ἐπιτρέψαι τὴν κρίσιν, τίνες οἱ παραχαράκται τῆς ἀποστολικῆς εἰσι πίστεως, ἡμεῖς οἱ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ Παύ λου φωνὴν γνόντες μὲν κατὰ σάρκα Χριστὸν νῦν δὲ οὐκ ἔτι γινώσκοντες ἢ ὁ πάντοτε καὶ πρὸ τῆς κατὰ ἄνθρωπον οἰκονομίας καὶ μετὰ τοῦτο τὸν σάρκινον ἑαυτοῦ θεὸν περι φέρων τῷ λόγῳ. προστίθησι δὲ τὴν παρὰ τῶν Ἰουδαίων γεγενημένην κατ' αὐτοῦ βλασφημίαν, τὸ φάγον αὐτὸν λέγεσθαι παρ' ἐκείνων καὶ οἰνοπότην, καί φησιν ἀναγκαῖα εἶναι ταῦτα ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. τίς οὖν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὁ παρὰ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἐπὶ τῇ βρώσει τε καὶ τῇ πόσει ὀνειδιζόμενος, μετέχων τού των ἢ ἀμέτοχος ὤν; ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν μὴ μετεῖχε, δόκησις ἦν· εἰ δὲ μετεῖχε, γήϊνον τὸ μετεχόμενον· τὸ δὲ οὐράνιον διὰ τῶν γηΐνων οὐ τρέφεται. ὢ τῆς τῶν ἀτόπων ἐναντιότητος! πῶς ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ τοῖς ἐναντίοις καταβάλλεται πτώμασιν! νῦν μὲν λέγει κρείττονα τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως εἶναι τὸν σωματικῶς προφαινόμενον, πάλιν δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων καταδεέστερον δείκνυσιν, ἠκρωτηριασμένον τῷ κρείττονι. τῶν γὰρ ἐν ἡμῖν τὸ ὑπερέχον ἐστὶν ἡ διάνοια, ἧς ἄμοιρον εἶναι τὴν σάρκα