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of the holy apostles speaking has nowhere applied suffering or death to this name. {ERAN.} If he attributes the passion to Christ, and the God Word having become man was named Christ, I think I do nothing amiss in saying that God the Word suffered in the flesh. 217 {ORTH.} The attempt is certainly most audacious and very rash. But let us examine the argument in this way. The divine Scripture says that God the Word is from God the Father. {ERAN.} You speak truly. {ORTH.} And yet it also teaches that the Holy Spirit is likewise from God. {ERAN.} It is agreed. {ORTH.} But it names God the Word the only-begotten Son. {ERAN.} So it names him. {ORTH.} But it has nowhere called the Holy Spirit Son. {ERAN.} Indeed not. {ORTH.} And yet this too has its existence from God the Father. {ERAN.} True. {ORTH.} Since, therefore, we agree that both the Son and the Spirit are from God the Father, would you ever dare to name the all-holy Spirit Son? {ERAN.} In no way. {ORTH.} Why? {ERAN.} Because I do not find this name in the divine Scripture. {ORTH.} But begotten? {ERAN.} Not that either. {ORTH.} For what reason? {ERAN.} I was not taught this either by the divine Scripture. {ORTH.} But what name could that which is neither begotten nor created reasonably receive? {ERAN.} We call it uncreated and unbegotten. {ORTH.} But we say the all-holy Spirit is neither created nor indeed begotten. {ERAN.} In no way. {ORTH.} Would you therefore dare to call the all-holy Spirit unbegotten? {ERAN.} Indeed not. {ORTH.} And why do you not call unbegotten that which is by nature uncreated, but in no way begotten? {ERAN.} Because I have not learned this from the divine Scripture, and I greatly fear to say what has been passed over in silence by it. 218 {ORTH.} Maintain for us then, good sir, this reverence also concerning the saving passion, and whatsoever of the divine names Scripture has left free of the passion, you leave them too, and do not attach the passion to them. {ERAN.} And what are these? {ORTH.} It has nowhere joined the passion to the name God. {ERAN.} Nor do I say that God the Word suffered apart from the body, but I say that he suffered in the flesh. {ORTH.} You are speaking of a mode of suffering, not of impassibility; but no one would say this even about a human soul. For who, unless he were utterly mad, would say that Paul's soul died in the flesh? For not even about some utterly wicked person could this ever be said, for the souls even of the wicked are immortal. But we say that such-and-such a murderer has been killed, but no one would say that his soul has been slaughtered in the flesh. If we say that the souls of murderers and grave-robbers are free from death, it is surely much more just to know that the soul of our Savior is immortal, seeing that it has not tasted sin in the least. For if those souls that have sinned the most have escaped the experience of death on account of their nature, how could that soul, having both an immortal nature and having received not even the smallest stain of sin, have received the hook of death? {ERAN.} In vain have you brought these long arguments against us. For we confess that the Savior's soul is immortal. {ORTH.} And what punishment would you not deserve, saying that the soul, which has a created nature, is immortal, while rendering the divine essence mortal by your argument? And while not saying that the Savior's soul tasted death in the flesh, yet daring to say that God the Word himself, the creator of all things, suffered the passion? {ERAN.} We say that he suffered impassibly. {ORTH.} And who in his right mind would put up with these ridiculous riddles? For no one has ever heard of an impassible passion, nor an immortal death. For that which is impassible has not suffered, and that which has suffered could not remain impassible. But we hear the divine Paul crying out: "Who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light." 219 {ERAN.} What then do we say of the invisible powers and of the

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ἁγίων ἀπο στόλων φθεγξάμενον οὐδαμοῦ πάθος ἢ θάνατον τῇδε τῇ προσηγορίᾳ προσήρμοσεν. {ΕΡΑΝ.} Εἰ τῷ Χριστῷ προσάπτει τὸ πάθος, ὁ δὲ θεὸς λόγος ἐναν θρωπήσας ὠνομάσθη Χριστός, οὐδὲν ἄτοπον οἶμαι δρᾶν λέγων τὸν θεὸν λόγον πεπονθέναι σαρκί. 217 {ΟΡΘ.} Πάντολμον μὲν οὖν καὶ μάλα θρασὺ τὸ ἐγχείρημα. Ἐξε τάσωμεν δὲ ὧδέ πη τὸν λόγον. Τὸν θεὸν λόγον ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς εἶναι ἡ θεία λέγει γραφή. {ΕΡΑΝ.} Ἀληθῆ λέγεις. {ΟΡΘ.} Καὶ μέντοι καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ὡσαύτως ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ εἶναι διδάσκει. {ΕΡΑΝ.} Ὡμολόγηται. {ΟΡΘ.} Ἀλλὰ τὸν μὲν θεὸν λόγον υἱὸν ὀνομάζει μονογενῆ. {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οὕτως ὀνομάζει. {ΟΡΘ.} Τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον υἱὸν οὐδαμοῦ προσηγόρευσεν. {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οὐ δῆτα. {ΟΡΘ.} Καίτοι ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦτο ἔχει τὴν ὕπαρξιν. {ΕΡΑΝ.} Ἀληθές. {ΟΡΘ.} Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν συνομολογοῦμεν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς εἶναι καὶ τὸν υἱὸν καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα, τολμήσαις ἄν ποτε υἱὸν ὀνομάσαι τὸ πανάγιον πνεῦμα; {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οὐδαμῶς. {ΟΡΘ.} ∆ιατί; {ΕΡΑΝ.} Ἐπειδήπερ οὐχ εὑρίσκω τόδε τὸ ὄνομα παρὰ τῇ θείᾳ γραφῇ. {ΟΡΘ.} Ἀλλὰ γεγεννημένον; {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οὐδὲ τοῦτο. {ΟΡΘ.} Τοῦ δὴ χάριν; {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οὐκ ἐδιδάχθην οὐδὲ τοῦτο παρὰ τῆς θείας γραφῆς. {ΟΡΘ.} Τὸ δὲ μὴ γεγεννημένον μήτ' αὖ ἐκτισμένον ποίας ἂν εἰκότως τύχοι προσηγορίας; {ΕΡΑΝ.} Ἄκτιστον αὐτὸ καὶ ἀγέννητον ὀνομάζομεν. {ΟΡΘ.} Τὸ δὲ πανάγιον πνεῦμα οὔτε ἐκτίσθαι οὔτε μὴν γεγεννῆσθαί φαμεν. {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οὐδαμῶς. {ΟΡΘ.} Καλέσαι οὖν ἀγέννητον θαρσήσαις ἂν τὸ πανάγιον πνεῦμα; {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οὐ δῆτα. {ΟΡΘ.} Καὶ τί δήποτε μὴ καλεῖς ἀγέννητον τὸ φύσει μὲν ἄκτιστον, μηδαμῶς δὲ γεγεννημένον; {ΕΡΑΝ.} Ὅτι τοῦτο οὐ μεμάθηκα παρὰ τῆς θείας γραφῆς, καὶ σφόδρα δειμαίνω λέγειν τὰ παρ' ἐκείνης σεσιγημένα. 218 {ΟΡΘ.} Ταύτην δὴ οὖν ἡμῖν, ὦ ἀγαθέ, τὴν εὐλάβειαν καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ σωτηρίου διατήρησον πάθους, καὶ ὅσα τῶν θείων ὀνομάτων ἀφῆκεν ἡ γραφὴ τοῦ πάθους ἐλεύθερα, ἄφες καὶ σύ, καὶ μὴ προσάψῃς τούτοις τὸ πάθος. {ΕΡΑΝ.} Καὶ τίνα ταῦτά ἐστιν; {ΟΡΘ.} Οὐδαμοῦ τῇ θεὸς προσηγορίᾳ τὸ πάθος συνέζευξεν. {ΕΡΑΝ.} Οὐδὲ ἐγὼ τὸν θεὸν λόγον δίχα σώματος λέγω παθεῖν, ἀλλὰ σαρκὶ πεπονθέναι φημί. {ΟΡΘ.} Τρόπον οὖν πάθους οὐκ ἀπάθειαν λέγεις· τοῦτο δέ γε οὐδὲ ψυχῆς πέρι ἀνθρωπείας φαίη τις ἄν. Τίς γὰρ εἴποι ἄν, μὴ κομιδῇ παραπαίων, ὅτι σαρκὶ τέθνηκεν ἡ Παύλου ψυχή; οὐδὲ γὰρ περὶ παμ πονήρου τινὸς τοῦτό γε ἂν ῥηθείη ποτέ· ἀθάνατοι γὰρ καὶ τῶν πονη ρῶν αἱ ψυχαί. Ἀλλὰ τὸν δεῖνα μὲν τὸν ἀνδροφόνον ἀνῃρῆσθαί φαμεν, τὴν τούτου δέ γε ψυχὴν οὐκ ἄν τις εἴποι κατεσφάχθαι σαρκί. Εἰ δὲ τὰς τῶν ἀνδροφόνων καὶ τυμβωρύχων ψυχὰς ἐλευθέρας εἶναι θανάτου φαμέν, πολλῷ δήπουθεν δικαιότερον ἀθάνατον εἰδέναι τὴν τοῦ σωτῆ ρος ἡμῶν ψυχήν, ἅτε δὴ καὶ ἁμαρτίας ἥκιστα γεγευμένην. Εἰ γὰρ αἱ τὰ μέγιστα πλημμελήσασαι τοῦ θανάτου τὴν πεῖραν διὰ τὴν φύσιν διέφυγον, πῶς ἂν ἐκείνη, καὶ φύσιν ἀθάνατον ἔχουσα καὶ μηδὲ σμι κρᾶς ἁμαρτίας δεξαμένη κηλῖδα, ἐδέξατο ἂν τοῦ θανάτου τὸ ἄγκι στρον; {ΕΡΑΝ.} Μάτην ἡμῖν τοὺς μακροὺς τούτους προσενήνοχας λόγους. Ὁμολογοῦμεν γὰρ ἀθάνατον εἶναι τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ψυχήν. {ΟΡΘ.} Καὶ ποίας οὐκ ἂν εἴητε ἄξιοι τιμωρίας, τὴν μὲν ψυχήν, ἣ κτιστὴν ἔχει τὴν φύσιν, ἀθάνατον λέγοντες, θνητὴν δὲ τῷ λόγῳ τὴν θείαν οὐσίαν κατασκευάζοντες; Καὶ τὴν μὲν τοῦ σωτῆρος ψυχὴν οὐ λέγοντες γεύσασθαι θανάτου σαρκί, αὐτὸν δὲ τὸν θεὸν λόγον, τὸν τῶν ἁπάντων δημιουργόν, τοῦτον λέγειν τολμῶντες πεπονθέναι τὸ πάθος; {ΕΡΑΝ.} Ἀπαθῶς αὐτὸν πεπονθέναι φαμέν. {ΟΡΘ.} Καὶ τίς σωφρονῶν τῶν καταγελάστων τούτων ἀνάσχοιτ' ἂν γρίφων; ἀπαθὲς γὰρ πάθος οὐδεὶς ἀκήκοε πώποτε, οὐδὲ ἀθάνατον θάνατον. Τὸ γὰρ ἀπαθὲς οὐ πέπονθε, καὶ τὸ πεπονθὸς οὐκ ἀπαθὲς μείνοι ἄν. Ἡμεῖς δὲ ἀκούομεν τοῦ θείου Παύλου βοῶντος· "Ὁ μόνος ἔχων ἀθανασίαν, φῶς οἰκῶν ἀπρόσιτον." 219 {ΕΡΑΝ.} Τί οὖν φαμεν καὶ τὰς ἀοράτους δυνάμεις καὶ τὰς τῶν