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he transgressed the commandment, or even after transgressing, if he repented, He deemed him worthy of glory and honor and sympathy by allowing him to be inside paradise?

Thus therefore for ages, being taught the things concerning God by one another in succession, the ancients recognized their maker. But later, when men multiplied and had given over their own minds from youth to wicked things, they were brought down to forgetfulness and ignorance of God who made them, and not only did they worship idols and demons as gods, but also, deifying creation itself which was given to them by God for their service, they served it, and gave themselves over to all licentiousness (60) and unclean practice, defiling the earth, the air, the heaven and all things under it with their wicked deeds. For nothing else of all other things so defiles and renders unclean the pure work of God, as for this itself to be deified and worshiped equally with God, other than the one who made and created it. Therefore all creation, being deified and worshiped by men, was polluted and brought down to complete corruption; and when the summit of excessive evil was fulfilled and all were shut up together in disobedience, according to the divine Apostle, then the Son of God, and God, came down to earth to remold the one who was shattered, to give life to the one put to death, and to recall His own creature from error.

But attend, I beseech you, to the precision of the discourse; for the discourse will be profitable both to us and to future generations. But it is necessary from a certain image to contemplate the incarnation of the Word and His ineffable birth from the ever-virgin Mary and to know well from that the mystery of the economy which was hidden before the ages for the salvation of our race.

3. Concerning the incarnation of the Word and in what way He was incarnate for us. (60) Just as, therefore, long ago in the forming of the foremother Eve, the rib of Adam

animated God took and built it into a woman - for this reason He did not breathe into her a breath of life as He did into Adam, but the part which He had taken from his flesh, He completed into the whole body of a woman; and the first-fruit of the spirit, which He had taken together with the animated flesh, (61) He made into a perfect living soul, having worked both together into a human being, in the very same way, having taken animated flesh from the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary as if a leaven and a small first-fruit from the lump of our nature, that is, from the soul together with the body, God the craftsman and creator united it to His own incomprehensible and unapproachable divinity, or rather, having united essentially the whole hypostasis of His divinity to our substance, and mixing it with that one without confusion, the human with His own, He built this into a holy temple for Himself and unalterably and immutably He, the maker of Adam, became a perfect man.

For just as from his rib He made the woman, as we have said before, so from His daughter Mary the ever-virgin and Theotokos, having borrowed and taken up flesh without seed, He was born similarly to the first-formed man, so that just as that one through transgression became the beginning of our birth in corruption and death, so Christ and God through the fulfillment of all righteousness might become the first-fruit of our re-creation in incorruption and immortality. For this is what the divine Paul also means when he says thus: "The first man from earth, of dust, the second man the Lord from heaven; as is the man of dust, so also are the men of dust; and as is the heavenly man, so also are the heavenly men".

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παρέβη τήν ἐντολήν, ἤ καί μετά τό παραβῆναι εἰ μετενόησε, δόξης καί τιμῆς καί συμπαθείας ἠξίωσεν ἔνδον ἐάσας εἶναι τοῦ παραδείσου αὐτόν;

Οὕτως οὖν ἐπί χρόνους τά περί Θεοῦ κατά διαδοχήν διδασκόμενοι ὑπ᾿ ἀλλήλων τόν ποιητήν αὐτῶν οἱ παλαιοί ἐπεγίνωσκον. Ὕστερον δέ πληθυνθέντων τῶν ἀνθρώπων καί τήν ἑαυτῶν διάνοιαν ἐκ νεότητος ἐπί τά πονηρά ἐκδεδωκότων, εἰς λήθην καί ἄγνοιαν τοῦ πεποιηκότος αὐτούς Θεοῦ κατηνέχθησαν καί οὐ μόνον εἴδωλα καί δαίμονας ὡς θεούς ἐσεβάσθησαν, ἀλλά καί αὐτήν τήν κτίσιν τήν εἰς ὑπηρεσίαν αὐτῶν ὑπό τοῦ Θεοῦ δοθεῖσαν αὐτοῖς θεοποιήσαντες, ταύτῃ ἐλάτρευσαν, εἰς πᾶσάν τε ἀσέλγειαν (60) καί ἀκάθαρτον πρᾶξιν ἑαυτούς ἐκδεδώκασι καταμιάναντες τήν γῆν, τόν ἀέρα, τόν οὐρανόν καί τά ὑπ᾿ αὐτόν ἅπαντα ταῖς πράξεσι ταῖς ἀτόποις αὐτῶν. Οὐδέν γάρ ἕτερον τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων οὕτω μιαίνει καί ἀκάθαρτον τό καθαρόν ἔργον ἀπεργάζεται τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὡς τό θεοποιηθῆναι αὐτό τοῦτο καί λατρευθῆναι ἴσα καί θεῷ παρά τόν πεποιηκότα καί κτίσαντα. Τοιγαροῦν καί πᾶσα ἡ κτίσις παρά τῶν ἀνθρώπων θεοποιηθεῖσα καί προσκυνηθεῖσα κατερρυπώθη καί εἰς τελείαν κατήχθη φθοράν· ὅτε δέ ὁ κολοφών ἐπληρώθη τῆς ἄγαν κακίας καί εἰς ἀπείθειαν ἅπαντες συνεκλείσθησαν, κατά τόν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον, τότε κατῆλθεν ἐπί γῆς ὁ Υἱός τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Θεός ἀναπλάσαι τόν συντριβέντα, ζωοποιῆσαι τόν τεθανατωμένον καί τό ἑαυτοῦ πλάσμα ἐκ τῆς πλάνης ἀνακαλέσασθαι.

Ἀλλά προσέχετε, παρακαλῶ, τῇ ἀκριβείᾳ τοῦ λόγου· ἔσται γάρ ἡμῖν τε ὠφέλιμος ὁ λόγος καί ταῖς μετέπειτα γενεαῖς. Χρεών δέ ἐξ εἰκόνος τινός τήν τοῦ Λόγου σάρκωσιν καί τήν ἐκ τῆς ἀειπαρθένου Μαρίας ἀπόρρητον γέννησιν αὐτοῦ θεωρῆσαι καί γνῶναι καλῶς τό τῆς οἰκονομίας ἐκεῖθεν μυστήριον τό ἀποκεκρυμμένον πρό τῶν αἰώνων εἰς σωτηρίαν τοῦ γένους ἡμῶν.

γ΄. Περί τῆς τοῦ Λόγου σαρκώσεως καί κατά τίνα τρόπον δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἐσαρκώθη. (60) Καθάπερ οὖν ἐν τῇ πλάσει πάλαι τῆς προμήτορος Εὔας τήν τοῦ Ἀδάμ πλευράν

ἐψυχωμένην ἔλαβεν ὁ Θεός καί εἰς γυναῖκα ταύτην ἀνῳκοδόμησε - διά τοῦτο γάρ οὐδέ ἐνεφύσησεν εἰς αὐτήν ὡς εἰς τόν Ἀδάμ πνοήν ζωῆς, ἀλλά τό μέρος, ὅ ἐκ τῆς σαρκός αὐτοῦ εἴληφεν, εἰς σῶμα γυναικός ὁλόκληρον ἀπετέλεσε· καί τήν ἀπαρχήν τοῦ πνεύματος, ἥν σύν τῇ ἐμψυχωμένῃ σαρκί εἴληφεν, (61) εἰς ψυχήν ζῶσαν τελείαν πεποίηκε, τά ἀμφότερα ἄνθρωπον ἐργασάμενος ἅμα , τόν αὐτόν δή τρόπον καί ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας θεοτόκου καί ἀειπαρθένου Μαρίας ἐψυχωμένην σάρκα λαβών ζύμην οἱονεί καί μικράν ἀπαρχήν ἐκ τοῦ φυράματος τῆς φύσεως ἡμῶν, ἤτοι ἐκ τῆς ψυχῆς ὁμοῦ καί τοῦ σώματος, ὁ πλαστουργός καί κτίστης Θεός ἥνωσε τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ἀκαταλήπτῳ καί ἀπροσίτῳ θεότητι, μᾶλλον δέ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ οὐσίᾳ ὅλην τῆς θεότητος αὐτοῦ τήν ὑπόστασιν ἑνώσας οὐσιωδῶς, ἀμίκτως τε μίξας αὐτήν ἐκείνῃ, τήν ἀνθρωπίνην τῇ ἑαυτοῦ, ᾠκοδόμησε ταύτην εἰς ναόν ἅγιον ἑαυτῷ καί ἀναλλιώτως καί ἀτρέπτως αὐτός ὁ τοῦ Ἀδάμ ποιητής τέλειος ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος.

Ὥσπερ γάρ ἐκ τῆς ἐκείνου πλευρᾶς τήν γυναῖκα ἐποίησε, καθά πρόσθεν εἰρήκαμεν, οὕτως ἐκ τῆς αὐτοῦ θυγατρός Μαρίας τῆς ἀειπαρθένου καί θεοτόκου σάρκα δανεισάμενος καί ἀναλαβών ἄνευ σπορᾶς ὁμοίως ἐγεννήθη τῷ πρωτοπλάστῳ, ἵνα καθάπερ ἐκεῖνος διά τῆς παραβάσεως ἀρχή τῆς ἐν φθορᾷ καί θανάτῳ γενέσεως ἡμῶν ἐχρημάτισεν, οὕτως ὁ Χριστός καί Θεός διά τῆς ἐκπληρώσεως ἁπάσης δικαιοσύνης ἀπαρχή τῆς ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ ἀναπλάσεως καί ἀθανασίας ἡμῶν γένηται. Τοῦτο γάρ βούλεται καί Παῦλος οὕτω λέγων ὁ θεῖος· "Ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἐκ γῆς χοϊκός, ὁ δεύτερος ἄνθρωπος ὁ Κύριος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ· οἷος ὁ χοϊκός, τοιοῦτοι καί οἱ χοϊκοί· καί οἷος ὁ ἐπουράνιος, τοιοῦτοι καί οἱ ἐπουράνιοι".