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man, through whom the divine was mingled with human life. But neither, he says, does He loose the sin of men without becoming a sinless man, nor does He abolish the kingdom of death over all men, unless as a man He died and rose again. Would that he were grateful to the end, speaking the things of the church! But again he returns to himself and, accusing the ecclesiastical account that we contemplate the passion in connection with the man, he brings forward his own argument to refute our supposition, which runs thus: "But the death of a man," he says, "does not abolish death." In constructing what argument does he say these things? That the Godhead of the Only-begotten itself, the Power itself, the Truth itself, the Life itself was put to death in the passion on the cross, so that during that three-day period of time there was no life, no power, no justice, no light, no truth, not the Godhead itself. For he does not say that when one Godhead died another was left, because in many places he is shown fighting Arius about this and establishing that the Godhead of the Trinity is one, and since this was put to death, as he co-constructs with his argument, there was certainly no other. And how anyone could suppose that he does not make the Godhead mortal, I cannot see. For death in the case of a man is nothing other than the dissolution of the composite; for not even in us, when the body is resolved into the elements of which it is composed, does the soul perish along with the dissolution of the body, but the composite is dissolved, while the incomposite remains indissoluble. If, then, death does not touch a soul, how is the Godhead put to death, let them say who do not know what they are saying. But the things following these, as many as are of the same construction, I will pass over; for he says in the following sections, establishing 3,1.219 that the Godhead of the Only-begotten itself died, that "The death of a man does not abolish death," nor is he who did not die raised; from all of which, he says, it is clear that God himself died, inasmuch as, he says, it was not possible for Christ to be held by death. These things, as having their absurdity manifest, I think ought to be passed over unexamined, since everyone with sense is able on his own to see the impiety and absurdity of one who declares outright that God himself died, having undergone death in his own nature. Except perhaps it is reasonable to note this much, that not even those things which he says from our perspective are free from falsehood, but there are things in them which have been slanderously fabricated for the defamation of our account. For he says that Christ is said by us not to have been from the beginning, so that the Word is God. But we do not deny that in the last days the power of God and the wisdom and the light and the life, all of which Christ is, were manifested through the flesh; but to say that the Lord and Christ, who is signified and named by these things, was ever not these things, we judge to be no more tolerable in impiety than the complete denial of the name. For one who says Christ was not from the beginning (and Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God and every high and God-befitting name) would not say that anything else exists, which is understood through this great name. For just as in the designation "man" there is the rational and the receptive of knowledge and whatever other characteristic property of the nature is spoken of, if someone were to say that man does not exist, the other properties of the nature are certainly destroyed along with the rejection of the name, in the same way if Christ is the power, the wisdom, the character, the radiance,3,1.220 he who says He was not from the beginning will certainly also reject the things understood along with Him. Therefore we say, being guided by the holy scriptures, that Christ is always contemplated along with the eternity of the Father. For as the only-begotten God is always God and does not become so by participation nor by any progress from a humbler state does He advance to the Godhead, so also the power and the wisdom and every God-befitting name is co-eternal with the Godhead, so that nothing is added by way of addition to the glory of the nature, which was not from the beginning. But that of the

39

ἄνθρωπον, δι' οὗ τὸ θεῖον τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ κατεμίχθη ζωῇ. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ λύει, φησί, τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἁμαρτίαν μὴ γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ἀναμάρτητος οὐδὲ τὴν κατὰ πάντων ἀνθρώπων τοῦ θανάτου βασιλείαν καταλύει, εἰ μὴ ὡς ἄνθρωπος ἀπέθανε καὶ ἀνέστη. εἴθε μέχρι τέλους ἦν εὐγνώμων τὰ ἐκ τῆς ἐκκλησίας φθεγγόμενος! πάλιν δὲ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐπανέρχεται καί φησι τὸν ἐκκλησιαστι κὸν αἰτιώμενος λόγον, ὅτι περὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον θεωροῦμεν τὸ πάθος, καὶ ἐπάγει τὸν ἴδιον λόγον εἰς ἔλεγχον τῆς ὑπολήψεως ἡμῶν ἔχοντα οὕτως· Ἀνθρώπου δέ, φησί, θάνατος οὐ καταργεῖ τὸν θάνατον. τί κατασκευάζων ταῦτά φησιν; ὅτι αὐτὴ τοῦ μονογενοῦς ἡ θεότης, αὐτὴ ἡ δύναμις, αὐτὴ ἡ ἀλήθεια, αὐτὴ ἡ ζωὴ ἐν τῷ κατὰ τὸν σταυρὸν πάθει ἀπενεκρώθη, ὥστε κατὰ τὴν τριήμερον ἐκείνην τοῦ χρόνου περιγραφὴν μὴ ζωὴν εἶναι, μὴ δύναμιν, μὴ δικαιοσύνην, μὴ φῶς, μὴ ἀλήθειαν, μὴ αὐτὴν τὴν θεότητα. οὐ γὰρ μιᾶς ἀποθανούσης θεότητος ἑτέραν ὑπολελεῖφθαι λέγει, διότι πολλαχοῦ δείκνυται Ἀρείῳ περὶ τούτου μαχόμενος καὶ μίαν εἶναι κατασκευάζων τῆς τριάδος θεότητα, ἧς ἐν τούτῳ νεκρωθείσης, καθὼς συγκατασκευάζει τῷ λόγῳ, πάντως ἑτέρα οὐκ ἦν. καὶ πῶς ἄν τις ὑπονοήσειεν αὐτὸν μὴ θνητὴν ποιεῖν τὴν θεότητα, συνιδεῖν οὐκ ἔχω. οὐδὲν γὰρ ἕτερόν ἐστιν ἐπ' ἀνθρώπου θάνατος, εἰ μὴ τοῦ συνθέτου διάλυσις· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐν ἡμῖν τοῦ σώματος εἰς τὰ ἐξ ὧν σύγκειται λυομένου καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ συνδιαπίπτει τῇ διαλύσει τοῦ σώματος, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν σύνθετον διαλύεται, τὸ δὲ ἀσύνθετον ἀδιάλυτον μένει. εἰ οὖν ψυχῆς οὐχ ἅπτεται θάνατος, πῶς ἡ θεότης ἀπονε κροῦται, λεγέτωσαν οἱ μὴ εἰδότες ἃ λέγουσιν. Τὰ δὲ ἐχόμενα τούτων, ὅσα τῆς αὐτῆς ἐστι κατασκευῆς, ὑπερβήσομαι· φησὶ γὰρ ἐν τοῖς ἐφεξῆς, κατασκευάζων 3,1.219 τὸ αὐτὴν τεθνάναι τοῦ μονογενοῦς τὴν θεότητα, ὅτι Ἀν θρώπου θάνατος οὐ καταργεῖ τὸν θάνατον οὐδὲ ἀνίσταται ὁ μὴ ἀποθανών· ἐξ ὧν, φησίν, ἁπάντων δῆλον, ὅτι αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς ἀπέθανε, καθὸ, φησίν, οὐκ ἦν δυνατὸν κρατεῖσθαι τὸν Χριστὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ θανάτου. ἅπερ ὡς πρόδηλον ἔχοντα τὴν ἀτοπίαν παραδραμεῖν οἶμαι δεῖν ἀνεξέταστα, παντὸς τοῦ γε νοῦν ἔχοντος καθ' ἑαυτὸν συνιδεῖν δυναμένου τὸ ἀσεβές τε καὶ ἄτοπον τοῦ διαρρήδην ἀποφαινομένου αὐτὸν τὸν θεὸν τεθνά ναι, τῇ ἰδίᾳ ἑαυτοῦ φύσει ὑποστάντα τὸν θάνατον. πλὴν τοσοῦτον εὔλογον ἴσως ἐστὶ παρασημήνασθαι, ὅτι οὐδὲ ὅσα ἐκ τοῦ ἡμετέρου προσώπου λέγει, καθαρεύει τοῦ ψεύδους, ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς, ἃ συκοφαντικῶς ἐπὶ διαβολῇ συμ πέπλασται τοῦ ἡμετέρου λόγου. λέγει γὰρ μὴ ἐξ ἀρχῆς εἶναι τὸν Χριστὸν παρ' ἡμῶν λέγεσθαι, ὥστε τὸν λόγον εἶναι θεόν. ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸ ἐπ' ἐσχάτων ἡμερῶν διὰ σαρκὸς πεφανερῶσθαι τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν σοφίαν καὶ τὸ φῶς καὶ τὴν ζωήν, ἅπερ πάντα ὁ Χριστός ἐστιν, οὐκ ἀρνούμεθα· τὸ δὲ λέγειν μὴ εἶναί ποτε ταῦτα τὸν διὰ τούτων δηλούμενόν τε καὶ ὀνομαζόμενον κύριον καὶ Χριστόν, οὐδὲν ἀνεκτότερον εἰς ἀσέβειαν τῆς παντελοῦς ἀρνήσεως τοῦ ὀνόματος κρίνομεν. ὁ γὰρ μὴ ἐξ ἀρχῆς λέγων εἶναι Χριστὸν (Χριστὸς δὲ θεοῦ δύναμις καὶ θεοῦ σοφία καὶ πᾶν ὑψηλόν τε καὶ θεοπρεπές ἐστιν ὄνομα) οὐδ' ἂν ἄλλο τι λέγοι εἶναι, ὃ διὰ τοῦ μεγάλου τούτου νοεῖται ὀνόματος. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου προσηγορίᾳ τὸ λογικόν ἐστι καὶ τὸ ἐπι στήμης δεκτικὸν καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο γνωριστικὸν τῆς φύσεως ἰδίωμα λέγεται, εἰ δέ τις μὴ εἶναι λέγοι τὸν ἄνθρωπον, συνανῄρηται πάντως τῇ τοῦ ὀνόματος ἀθετήσει καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῆς φύσεως ἰδιώματα, κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον εἰ Χριστός ἐστιν ἡ δύναμις, ἡ σοφία, ὁ χαρακτήρ, τὸ ἀπαύγασμα3,1.220, ὁ ἐκεῖνον ἐξ ἀρχῆς μὴ εἶναι λέγων ἀθετήσει πάντως καὶ τὰ μετ' ἐκείνου νοούμενα. διό φαμεν διὰ τῶν ἁγίων γραφῶν ὁδηγούμενοι ἀεὶ τὸν Χριστὸν εἶναι τῇ τοῦ πατρὸς ἀϊδιότητι συνθεωρούμενον. ὡς γὰρ πάντοτε θεὸς ὁ μονογενὴς θεὸς καὶ οὐκ ἐκ μετουσίας γίνεται οὐδὲ διά τινος προκοπῆς ἀπὸ ταπεινοτέρας καταστάσεως ἐπὶ τὴν θεότητα μέτεισιν, οὕτω καὶ ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ σοφία καὶ πᾶν θεοπρεπὲς ὄνομα συναΐδιόν ἐστι τῇ θεότητι, ὡς μηδὲν ἐπιγίνεσθαι κατὰ προσ θήκην εἰς δόξαν τῆς φύσεως, ὃ μὴ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἦν. τὸ δὲ τοῦ