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he has offered; the just, because when man was defeated, He does not make another to conquer the tyrant nor does He by force snatch man from death, but him whom death long ago enslaved through sin, this one the good and just One has made a victor again and by like has saved like, which was impossible; and the wise, because He found a most fitting solution for the impossibility; for by the good pleasure of God the Father, the only-begotten Son and Word of God and God, Who is in the bosom of the Father, Who is of one substance with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the pre-eternal, the without beginning, Who was in the beginning and was with God the Father and was God, Who being in the form of God, bowed the heavens and came down, that is, His unhumbled height having humbly humbled, He condescends to His own servants with a condescension both ineffable and incomprehensible (for this the "coming down" signifies) and being perfect God He becomes perfect man and the newest of all new things is accomplished, the only new thing under the sun, through which the infinite power of God is made manifest. For what is greater than God becoming man? And the Word became flesh unchangeably from the Holy Spirit and Mary the holy ever-virgin and Theotokos and is named mediator between God and men, the only lover of mankind, not conceived from will or desire or union of man or a birth of pleasure in the undefiled womb of the virgin, but from the Holy Spirit and the first creation of Adam; and He becomes obedient to the Father in that which He assumed from us and of us, healing our disobedience and becoming for us an example of obedience, without which it is not possible to attain salvation. 46 Concerning the manner of the conception of God the Word and of His divine incarnation For an angel of the Lord was sent to the holy virgin, who was descended from the stock of David; "for it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah," "of which tribe no one gave attendance at the altar," as the divine apostle said; concerning which we will speak more accurately later. To whom, bringing good tidings, he said: "Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee. But she was troubled at his saying" and the angel says to her: "Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with the Lord and thou shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins." Whence "Jesus" is interpreted as saviour. But she being perplexed: "How shall this be to me, since I know not a man?" Again the angel says to her: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born shall be called the Son of God." And she said to him: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." Therefore, after the consent of the holy virgin, the Holy Spirit came upon her according to the word of the Lord, which the angel spoke, purifying her and providing a power receptive of the divinity of the Word, and at the same time generative. And then the hypostatic wisdom and power of God the Most High overshadowed her, the Son of God who is of one substance with the Father, as a divine seed, and formed for Himself from her pure and most chaste bloods, flesh animated with a rational and intellectual soul, a first-fruit of our lump, not seminally but creatively through the Holy Spirit, the form not being perfected by small additions, but being completed all at once. The Word of God Himself having become the hypostasis for the flesh; for the Word of God was not united to flesh that had a pre-existing subsistence of its own, but dwelling in the womb of the holy virgin, He uncircumscribably in His own hypostasis gave subsistence from the pure bloods of the virgin to flesh animated with a rational and intellectual soul, taking on the first-fruit of the human lump, the Word Himself becoming the hypostasis for the flesh. So that at once it was flesh, at once flesh of the Word of God, at once flesh animate, rational and intellectual, at once flesh of the Word of God, animate, rational and intellectual. Wherefore we do not speak of a man who was deified, but of God who became man; for being by nature perfect God, the same became by nature perfect man, not having changed His nature nor having imagined the economy, but to the [flesh] from the holy

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ὤρεξε· τὸ δίκαιον, ὅτι ἀνθρώπου ἡττηθέντος οὐχ ἕτερον ποιεῖ νικῆσαι τὸν τύραννον οὐδὲ βίᾳ ἐξαρπάζει τοῦ θανάτου τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' ὃν πάλαι διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας καταδουλοῦται ὁ θάνατος, τοῦτον ὁ ἀγαθὸς καὶ δίκαιος νικητὴν πάλιν πεποίηκε καὶ τῷ ὁμοίῳ τὸν ὅμοιον ἀνεσώσατο, ὅπερ ἄπορον ἦν· τὸ δὲ σοφόν, ὅτι εὗρε τοῦ ἀπόρου λύσιν εὐπρεπεστάτην· εὐδοκίᾳ γὰρ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς καὶ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ θεὸς ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρός, ὁ ὁμοούσιος τῷ πατρὶ καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι, ὁ προαιώνιος, ὁ ἄναρχος, ὁ ἐν ἀρχῇ ὢν καὶ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν καὶ πατέρα ὢν καὶ θεὸς ὤν, ὁ ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχων κλίνας οὐρανοὺς κατέρχεται, τουτέστιν τὸ ἀταπείνωτον αὐτοῦ ὕψος ἀταπεινώτως ταπεινώσας συγκαταβαίνει τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ δούλοις συγκατάβασιν ἄφραστόν τε καὶ ἀκατάληπτον (τοῦτο γὰρ δηλοῖ ἡ κατάβασις) καὶ θεὸς ὢν τέλειος ἄνθρωπος τέλειος γίνεται καὶ ἐπιτελεῖται τὸ πάντων καινῶν καινότατον, τὸ μόνον καινὸν ὑπὸ τὸν ἥλιον, δι' οὗ ἡ ἄπειρος τοῦ θεοῦ ἐμφανίζεται δύναμις. Τί γὰρ μεῖζον τοῦ γενέσθαι τὸν θεὸν ἄνθρωπον; Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἀτρέπτως ἐγένετο ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ Μαρίας τῆς ἁγίας ἀειπαρθένου καὶ θεοτόκου καὶ μεσίτης θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων χρηματίζει ὁ μόνος φιλάνθρωπος, οὐκ ἐκ θελήματος ἢ ἐπιθυμίας ἢ συναφείας ἀνδρὸς ἢ γεννήσεως ἐνηδόνου ἐν τῇ ἀχράντῳ μήτρᾳ τῆς παρθένου συλληφθείς, ἀλλ' ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ τῆς πρώτης τοῦ Ἀδὰμ γενέσεως· καὶ γίνεται ὑπήκοος τῷ πατρὶ τῷ καθ' ἡμᾶς καὶ ἐξ ἡμῶν προσλήμματι τὴν ἡμετέραν παρακοὴν ἰώμενος καὶ ὑπογραμμὸς ἡμῖν ὑπακοῆς γινόμενος, ἧς ἐκτὸς οὐκ ἔστι σωτηρίας τυχεῖν. 46 Περὶ τοῦ τρόπου τῆς συλλήψεως τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου καὶ τῆς θείας αὐτοῦ σαρκώσεωσ Ἄγγελος γὰρ κυρίου ἀπεστάλη πρὸς τὴν ἁγίαν παρθένον ἐκ δαυιτικοῦ φύλου καταγομένην· «πρόδηλον γὰρ ὡς ἐξ Ἰούδα ἀνατέταλκεν ὁ κύριος», «ἐξ ἧς φυλῆς οὐδεὶς προσέσχηκε τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ», ὡς ὁ θεῖος ἔφη ἀπόστολος· περὶ οὗ ὕστερον ἐροῦμεν ἀκριβέστερον. Ἣν εὐαγγελιζόμενος ἔλεγε· «Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ. Ἡ δὲ διεταράχθη ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ» καί φησι πρὸς αὐτὴν ὁ ἄγγελος· «Μὴ φοβοῦ, Μαριάμ· εὗρες γὰρ χάριν παρὰ κυρίῳ καὶ τέξῃ υἱὸν καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν. Αὐτὸς γὰρ σώσει τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν.» Ὅθεν τὸ «Ἰησοῦς» σωτὴρ ἑρμηνεύεται. Τῆς δὲ διαπορούσης· «Πῶς ἔσται μοι τοῦτο, ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω;» Πάλιν φησὶ πρὸς αὐτὴν ὁ ἄγγελος· «Πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σέ, καὶ δύναμις ὑψίστου ἐπισκιάσει σοι. ∆ιὸ καὶ τὸ γεννώμενον ἅγιον κληθήσεται υἱὸς θεοῦ». Ἡ δὲ πρὸς αὐτόν· «Ἰδοὺ ἡ δούλη κυρίου· γένοιτό μοι κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμά σου». Μετὰ οὖν τὴν συγκατάθεσιν τῆς ἁγίας παρθένου πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπῆλθεν ἐπ' αὐτὴν κατὰ τὸν τοῦ κυρίου λόγον, ὃν εἶπεν ὁ ἄγγελος, καθαῖρον αὐτὴν καὶ δύναμιν δεκτικὴν τῆς τοῦ λόγου θεότητος παρέχον, ἅμα δὲ καὶ γεννητικήν. Καὶ τότε ἐπεσκίασεν ἐπ' αὐτὴν ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου ἐνυπόστατος σοφία καὶ δύναμις, ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ τῷ πατρὶ ὁμοούσιος, οἱονεὶ θεῖος σπόρος καὶ συνέπηξεν ἑαυτῷ ἐκ τῶν ἁγνῶν καὶ καθαρωτάτων αὐτῆς αἱμάτων σάρκα ἐψυχωμένην ψυχῇ λογικῇ τε καὶ νοερᾷ, ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ ἡμετέρου φυράματος, οὐ σπερματικῶς ἀλλὰ δη μιουργικῶς διὰ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος, οὐ ταῖς κατὰ μικρὸν προσθήκαις ἀπαρτιζομένου τοῦ σχήματος, ἀλλ' ὑφ' ἓν τελειωθέντος. Αὐτὸς ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγος χρηματίσας τῇ σαρκὶ ὑπόστασις· οὐ γὰρ προϋποστάσῃ καθ' ἑαυτὴν σαρκὶ ἡνώθη ὁ θεὸς λόγος, ἀλλ' ἐνοικήσας τῇ γαστρὶ τῆς ἁγίας παρθένου ἀπεριγράπτως ἐν τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ὑποστάσει ἐκ τῶν ἁγνῶν τῆς παρθένου αἱμάτων σάρκα ἐψυχωμένην ψυχῇ λογικῇ τε καὶ νοερᾷ ὑπεστήσατο ἀπαρχὴν προσλαβόμενος τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου φυράματος, αὐτὸς ὁ λόγος γενόμενος τῇ σαρκὶ ὑπόστασις. Ὥστε ἅμα σάρξ, ἅμα θεοῦ λόγου σάρξ, ἅμα σὰρξ ἔμψυχος λογική τε καὶ νοερά, ἅμα θεοῦ λόγου σὰρξ ἔμψυχος λογική τε καὶ νοερά. ∆ιὸ οὐκ ἄνθρωπον ἀποθεωθέντα λέγομεν, ἀλλὰ θεὸν ἐνανθρωπήσαντα· ὢν γὰρ φύσει τέλειος θεὸς γέγονε φύσει τέλειος ἄνθρωπος ὁ αὐτὸς οὐ τραπεὶς τὴν φύσιν οὐδὲ φαντάσας τὴν οἰκονομίαν, ἀλλὰ τῇ ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας