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And again: "Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ’s." For since He was a perfect man in soul and body, like us in all things except sin, through faith in Him imparting to us from His own divinity, He makes us also His kinsmen according to the nature and essence of His divinity. And behold for me the new and paradoxical aspect of the mystery. God the Word took on flesh which He did not have by (62) nature and became man, which He was not; He imparts to those who believe in Him His divinity, which no one, neither angel nor man, had yet acquired, and they become gods, which they were not, by adoption and by grace; for thus He grants them the power to become sons of God, for which reason they both became and always in like manner are becoming and will never cease from becoming. And hear the divine Paul exhorting this: "And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man." And these things, then, concerning these matters; but let the discourse again keep to its sequence.

For since God over all came to earth through His bodily presence to refashion and renew man and to bless all creation that was cursed on his account, listen attentively! First, the soul which He assumed He vivified and, having made it incorruptible, deified, but His immaculate and divine body, even if He deified it, He still bore about as corruptible and material. For that which eats and drinks, which toils and bears sweat, which is bound and beaten, and hung on a cross and nailed, is clearly corruptible and material; for all these have been established as properties of a corruptible body, whence He also died and was laid in a tomb, dead. But after rising incorruptible, He also co-raised the body itself spiritual, entirely divine and immaterial; whence indeed He did not break the seals of the tomb on going out, but also entered and exited unhindered though the doors were closed. But why did He not immediately, along with the soul, also make the body which He assumed spiritual and incorruptible? Because Adam also, having eaten from the tree from which God commanded him not to eat, immediately, having transgressed, died the death of the soul, but the death of the body (63) many years later, and for this reason He first resurrected and vivified and deified the soul that had received the penalty of the punishment of death, then thus He ordained for the body, according to the sentence long ago pronounced to return to the earth through death, to receive incorruption through the resurrection; and not only this, but descending into Hades, He freed the souls of the saints held there from eternal bonds, raised them up, and assigned them to a place of rest and unwaning light, but their bodies no longer, but He left them in tombs until the general resurrection.

Indeed, this mystery has not only occurred in the aforementioned manner from the beginning of Christ throughout the whole world, but it also happened for each one of the ancient saints and is always happening even until now. For receiving the Spirit of our Lord and God, we become partakers of His divinity and of His essence; and eating His all-blameless flesh, I mean the divine mysteries, we become completely of the same body with Him and kinsmen in truth, as the divine Paul himself says that "we are bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh," and again, that "from the fullness of His divinity, we, that is, all, have received, and grace for grace." And becoming this, we become like Him, our philanthropic God and Lord, by grace, being refashioned and renewed in soul, and being made incorruptible and rising as living from the dead, that is, seeing Him who deigned to become like us, and being seen by Him, those who have been deemed worthy to become like Him, as if someone from afar beholds the face of his friend and converses with him and speaks with him and hears his voice.

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Καί πάλιν· "Ἀπαρχή Χριστός, ἔπειτα οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ". Ἐπειδή γάρ ψυχῇ καί σώματι τέλειος ἐχρημάτισεν ἄνθρωπος ὅμοιος ἡμῶν κατά πάντα πλήν ἁμαρτίας, διά τῆς εἰς αὐτόν πίστεως μεταδιδούς ἡμῖν ἐκ τῆς αὐτοῦ θεότητος, συγγενεῖς καί ἡμᾶς αὐτοῦ κατά τήν τῆς θεότητος αὐτοῦ φύσιν καί οὐσίαν ἐργάζεται. Καί ὅρα μοι τοῦ μυστηρίου τό καινόν καί παράδοξον. Ἔλαβεν ὁ Θεός Λόγος ἥν κατά (62) φύσιν οὐκ εἶχε σάρκα καί ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος, ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν· μεταδίδωσι τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς αὐτόν τῆς αὐτοῦ θεότητος, ἥν οὐδείς οὐδέπω ἀγγέλων ἤ ἀνθρώπων ἐκτήσατο, καί γίνονται θεοί, ὅπερ οὐκ ἦσαν, θέσει καί χάριτι· οὕτω γάρ χαρίζεται αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τοῦ υἱούς Θεοῦ γίνεσθαι, διό καί ἐγένοντο καί ἀεί ὡσαύτως γίνονται καί οὐδέποτε τοῦ μή γίνεσθαι λήξουσι. Καί ἄκουε Παύλου τοῦτο παραινοῦντος τοῦ θείου· "Καί καθώς ἐφορέσαμεν τήν εἰκόνα τοῦ χοϊκοῦ, φορέσομεν καί τήν εἰκόνα τοῦ ἐπουρανίου". Καί ταῦτα μέν περί τούτων· ἐχέσθω δέ καί αὖθις τῆς ἀκολουθίας ὁ λόγος.

Ἐπειδή γάρ διά τῆς σωματικῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ ὁ ἐπί πάντων Θεός τοῦ ἀναπλάσαι καί ἀνακαινίσαι τόν ἄνθρωπον ἐλήλυθεν ἐπί γῆς καί τήν δι᾿ αὐτόν καταραθεῖσαν ἅπασαν κτίσιν ἐπευλογῆσαι, ἄκουε νουνεχῶς! Πρῶτον μέν τήν ψυχήν ἥν ἀνέλαβεν ἐζώωσε καί ἀφθαρτώσας ἐθεοποίησε, τό δέ ἄχραντον αὐτοῦ καί θεῖον σῶμα, εἰ καί ἐθέωσεν, ἀλλ᾿ ἔτι φθαρτόν αὐτό καί ὑλικόν περιέφερε. Τό γάρ ἐσθίον καί πῖνον, τό κοπιοῦν καί ἱδρῶτας φέρον, τό δεσμούμενον καί τυπτόμενον, ἐπί σταυροῦ τε ἀναρτώμενον καί καθηλούμενον, φθαρτόν ἐστι δηλονότι καί ὑλικόν· ταῦτα γάρ ἅπαντα φθαρτοῦ σώματος ἰδιώματα καθεστήκασιν, ὅθεν καί ἀπέθανεν καί ἐν μνημείῳ κατετέθη νεκρός. Μετά δέ τό ἀναστῆναι ἄφθαρτον, καί αὐτό τό σῶμα πνευματικόν, θεῖον πάντῃ και ἄϋλον, συνανέστησεν· ἔνθεν τοι οὐδέ τάς σφραγῖδας τοῦ μνήματος ἔλυσεν ἐξελθών, ἀλλά καί τῶν θυρῶν κεκλεισμένων ἀκωλύτως εἰσήρχετο καί ἐξήρχετο. ∆ιατί δέ οὐκ εὐθύς σύν τῇ ψυχῇ καί τό σῶμα ὅπερ ἀνέλαβε πνευματικόν καί ἄφθαρτον ἀπειργάσατο; Ἐπειδή φαγών καί ὁ Ἀδάμ ἐκ τοῦ ξύλου, οὗ ἐνετείλατο αὐτῷ ὁ Θεός μή φαγεῖν, εὐθύς μέν τόν τῆς ψυχῆς παραβάς ἀπέθανε θάνατον, τόν δέ τοῦ σώματος (63) μετά πολλούς ὕστερον ἐνιαυτούς, καί διά τοῦτο τήν τό ἐπιτίμιον δεξαμένην ψυχήν τῆς τοῦ θανάτου τιμωρίας πρῶτον ἀνέστησέ τε καί ἐζώωσε καί ἐθέωσεν, εἶθ᾿ οὕτως τό σῶμα, κατά τήν πάλαι ἐξενεχθεῖσαν ἀπόφασιν ἀποστρέφειν διά τοῦ θανάτου εἰς γῆν, τήν ἀφθαρσίαν διά τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἀπολαβεῖν ᾠκονόμησεν· οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλά κατελθών ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ, τῶν μέν ἐκεῖσε κατεχομένων ἁγίων τάς ψυχάς τῶν αἰωνίων ἐλευθερώσας δεσμῶν ἐξανέστησε καί εἰς τόπον ἀναπαύσεως καί φωτός ἀνεσπέρου κατέταξε, τά δέ σώματα αὐτῶν οὐκέτι, ἀλλ᾿ εἴασεν αὐτά ἐν σοροῖς μέχρι τῆς κοινῆς ἀναστάσεως.

Τό γοῦν μυστήριον τοῦτο οὐ μόνον τῷ ῥηθέντι τρόπῳ γέγονεν ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς Χριστοῦ ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ κόσμῳ, ἀλλά καί ἐφ᾿ ἑνί ἑκάστῳ τῶν πάλαι ἁγίων ἐγένετο καί μέχρι τοῦ νῦν ἀεί γίνεται. Λαμβάνοντες γάρ τό τοῦ ∆εσπότου ἡμῶν καί Θεοῦ Πνεῦμα, συμμέτοχοι αὐτοῦ τῆς θεότητος καί τῆς οὐσίας γινόμεθα· ἐσθίοντες δέ τήν παναμώμητον αὐτοῦ σάρκα, τά θεῖα λέγω μυστήρια, σύσσωμοι αὐτοῦ καί συγγενεῖς ἐν ἀληθείᾳ ὁλοκλήρως γινόμεθα, καθώς καί αὐτός ὁ θεῖος Παῦλός φησιν ὅτι "ὀστοῦν ἐσμεν ἐκ τῶν ὀστέων αὐτοῦ καί σάρξ ἐκ τῆς σαρκός αὐτοῦ " καί πάλιν, ὅτι "ἐκ τοῦ πληρώματος αὐτοῦ τῆς θεότητος, ἡμεῖς, δηλονότι πάντες, ἐλάβομεν καί χάριν ἀντί χάριτος". Τοῦτο δέ γινόμενοι, ὅμοιοι αὐτῶ τῷ φιλανθρώπῳ Θεῷ καί ∆εσπότῃ ἡμῶν κατά χάριν γινόμεθα, ἀνακαινιζόμενοι καί ἀνανεούμενοι τήν ψυχήν, ἀφθαρτοποιούμενοί τε καί ὡς ἐκ νεκρῶν ζῶντες ἐξανιστάμενοι, αὐτόν δηλαδή τόν ὅμοιον ἡμῖν γενέσθαι καταξιώσαντα βλέποντες καί βλεπόμενοι ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ οἱ ἀξιωθέντες ὅμοιοι γενέσθαι αὐτῷ, ὡς εἴ τις ἀπό μακρόθεν πρόσωπον φίλου αὐτοῦ καθορᾷ καί διαλέγεται αὐτῷ καί προσομιλεῖ καί φωνῆς ἀκούει αὐτοῦ.