83

is contained, imprisoned, just as liquid and dry materials are shut up inside vessels, and are contained rather than containing their containers. But a certain divine and ineffable power, embracing both the innermost and outermost parts of the temple, strengthens it, and from there extending beyond, it holds and contains all masses together. 234 Of the same, from the same discourse. If the sun, being a visible body and perceptible to the senses, enduring so many and such outrages everywhere on earth, does not change its order, nor does it feel a small or great blow, do we suppose that the incorporeal wisdom is stained and changes its nature, if its temple is nailed to a cross, or endures dissolution, or suffers wounding, or receives corruption? But the temple suffers, while the unspotted essence remains altogether inviolate in its dignity. Of the same, from the discourse on the inscriptions of the graduals. But the Father does not accept an acquired glory, being perfect, infinite, incomprehensible, in need of neither beauty nor any virtue. Nor does His Word, being God who was begotten from Him, through whom angels and heavens and the infinite magnitudes of the earth and all created matter and compositions, in a word, came to be; but the man of Christ, being raised from the dead, is exalted and glorified, with his adversaries taking on their shame directly. Of the same, from the same discourse. But those who took up hatred against him out of envy and were barricaded in hostile array are scattered, when the Word and God raised up his own temple in a worthy manner. Of the same, from the interpretation of the 2nd psalm. For at last the prophet Isaiah, recounting the very traces of his sufferings, adds this among the others with a louder cry: "And we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty; but his form was dishonored and failing beyond the sons of men." Then, showing clearly that the forms and sufferings of comeliness are related to the man, but not to the divine, he immediately adds again: "A man in affliction, and knowing how to bear weakness." Of the same, from the same interpretation. This, then, is he, who after the insults was seen as unsightly, without form, and then again by a change was clothed in comeliness. For not the God dwelling 235 in him was led like a lamb to death, and slaughtered in the manner of a sheep, being by nature invisible. Of the holy Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria and confessor. From the letter to Epictetus. Who was so impious as to say and at the same time to think that the Godhead itself, which is consubstantial with the Father, was circumcised, and became imperfect from being perfect, and that which was nailed to the wood was not the body, but the very creative essence of wisdom? Of the same, from the same letter. For what the human element of the Word suffered, these things he consistently referred to himself, so that we might be able to partake of the divinity of the Word. And it was a paradox that he was the one who was suffering and not suffering. Suffering, because his own body was suffering, and he was in it while it was suffering; but not suffering, because the Word, being God by nature, is impassible. And he, the incorporeal, was in the passible body, but the body had in itself the impassible Word, who was abolishing the weaknesses of the body itself. Of the same, from the same letter. For being God and Lord of glory, he was in the body that was ingloriously nailed; and the body indeed suffered, being pierced on the wood, and from its side flowed blood and water, but being the temple of the Word, it was filled with the Godhead. For this reason, then, the sun, seeing its own creator enduring in the outraged body, drew back its rays and darkened the earth; but the body itself, having a mortal nature, rose above its own nature through the Word in it, and has ceased from natural corruption, and having put on the Word who is above man, it has become incorruptible. Of the same, from the longer discourse concerning faith. That which is raised from

83

καθειργμένη περιέχεται, καθάπερ αἱ τῶν ὑγρῶν καὶ ξηρῶν ὕλαι τῶν μὲν ἀγγείων εἴσω κατακλείονται, περιέχονται δὲ μᾶλλον ἢ περιέχουσι τὰς θήκας. Ἀλλὰ θεία τις οὖσα καὶ ἀνέκφραστος δύναμις τά τε ἐνδοτάτω καὶ ἐξωτάτω τοῦ νεὼ περιλαμβάνουσα κραταιοῖ, κἀντεῦ θεν ἐπέκεινα διήκουσα, πάντας ὁμοῦ τοὺς ὄγκους κρατεῖ περιέχουσα. 234 Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου. Εἰ δ' ὁ ἥλιος, σῶμα ὢν ὁρατὸν καὶ αἰσθήσει καταληπτόν, τοσαύτας καὶ τοιαύτας πανταχοῦ γῆς ὑπομένων αἰκίας οὐ μεταβάλλει τὴν τάξιν, οὐδὲ αἰσθάνεται μικρᾶς ἢ μεγάλης πληγῆς, τὴν ἀσώματον σοφίαν οἰόμεθα χραίνεσθαι καὶ μεταλλάττειν τὴν φύσιν, εἰ ὁ ναὸς αὐτῆς σταυρῷ προσηλοῦται, ἢ λύσιν ὑπομένει, ἢ τρῶσιν ὑφίσταται, ἢ δια φθορὰν δέχεται; Ἀλλὰ πάσχει μὲν ὁ νεώς, ἡ δὲ ἀκηλίδωτος οὐσία παντάπασιν ἄχραντος τὴν ἀξίαν καθέστηκεν. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ λόγου τοῦ εἰς τὰς ἐπιγραφὰς τῶν ἀναβαθμῶν. ∆όξαν δὲ ἐπίκτητον ὁ πατὴρ οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται, τέλειος, ἄπειρος, ἀπερι νόητος ὤν, ἀπροσδεὴς κάλλους καὶ παντοίας ἀρετῆς. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ, θεὸς ὢν ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐξ αὐτοῦ, δι' οὗ γεγόνασιν ἄγγελοι καὶ οὐρανοὶ καὶ γῆς ἄπειρα μεγέθη καὶ πᾶσαι συλλήβδην τῶν γενητῶν ὕλαι τε καὶ συστάσεις· ἀλλ' ὁ ἄνθρωπος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν ἐγειρόμενος, ὑψοῦται καὶ δοξάζεται, τῶν ἐναντίων αἰσχύνην ἄντικρυς ἀραμένων. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου. Οἱ δὲ φθόνῳ τὸ μῖσος ἀράμενοι κατ' αὐτοῦ καὶ πεφραγμένοι πολεμίᾳ παρατάξει σκορπίζονται, τοῦ λόγου τε καὶ θεοῦ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ναὸν ἀξιοπρεπῶς ἀναστήσαντος. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς ἑρμηνείας τοῦ βʹ ψαλμοῦ. Πέρας γοῦν ὁ προφήτης Ἡσαΐας αὐτὰ μὲν τὰ τῶν παθῶν αὐτοῦ διεξιὼν ἴχνη πρὸς τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐπιφέρει καὶ τοῦτο μεγαλοφωνοτέρᾳ βοῇ τό· "Καὶ εἴδομεν αὐτόν, καὶ οὐκ εἶχεν εἶδος οὔτε κάλλος· ἀλλὰ τὸ εἶδος αὐτοῦ ἄτιμον καὶ ἐκλεῖπον παρὰ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων." Εἶτα διαρρήδην ἐκφαίνων, ὡς εἰς τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἀλλ' οὐκ εἰς τὸ θεῖον ἀνήρτηται τὰ τῆς εὐπρεπείας εἴδη τε καὶ πάθη, παραυτίκα πάλιν ἐπάγει προσθείς· "Ἄνθρωπος ἐν πληγῇ ὤν, καὶ εἰδὼς φέρειν μαλακίαν." Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς ἑρμηνείας. Αὐτὸς ἄρ' οὗτός ἐστιν, ὁ μετὰ τὰς ὕβρεις ἀειδής, ἄμορφος ὁραθείς, εἶτα πάλιν ἐκ μεταβολῆς εὐπρέπειαν ἐνδυσάμενος. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ὁ κατοικῶν 235 ἐν αὐτῷ θεὸς ἀμνοῦ δίκην εἰς θάνατον ἤγετο, καὶ προβάτου τρόπον ἀπεσφάττετο, φυσικῶς ἀόρατος ὤν. Τοῦ ἁγίου Ἀθανασίου ἐπισκόπου Ἀλεξανδρείας καὶ ὁμολογητοῦ. Ἐκ τῆς πρὸς Ἐπίκτητον ἐπιστολῆς. Τίς τοσοῦτον ἠσέβησεν ὡς εἰπεῖν ἅμα καὶ φρονεῖν, ὅτι ἡ θεότης αὐτὴ ἡ ὁμοούσιος τῷ πατρὶ περιετμήθη, καὶ ἀτελὴς ἐκ τελείου γέγονε, καὶ τὸ ἐν ξύλῳ καθηλωμένον οὐκ ἦν τὸ σῶμα, ἀλλ' αὐτὴ ἡ δημιουργὸς οὐσία τῆς σοφίας; Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς ἐπιστολῆς. Ἃ γὰρ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον ἔπασχε τοῦ λόγου, ταῦτα συνομολόγως εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἀνέφερεν, ἵνα ἡμεῖς τῆς τοῦ λόγου θεότητος μετασχεῖν δυνη θῶμεν. Καὶ ἦν παράδοξον, ὅτι αὐτὸς ἦν ὁ πάσχων καὶ μὴ πάσχων. Πάσχων μέν, ὅτι τὸ ἴδιον αὐτοῦ ἔπασχε σῶμα, καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ πάσχοντι ἦν· μὴ πάσχων δέ, ὅτι τῇ φύσει θεὸς ὢν ὁ λόγος ἀπαθής ἐστι. Καὶ αὐτὸς μὲν ὁ ἀσώματος ἦν ἐν τῷ παθητῷ σώματι, τὸ δὲ σῶμα εἶχεν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸν ἀπαθῆ λόγον, ἀφανίζοντα τὰς ἀσθενείας αὐτοῦ τοῦ σώματος. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς ἐπιστολῆς. Θεὸς γὰρ καὶ κύριος τῆς δόξης ὢν ἦν ἐν τῷ ἀδόξως καθηλουμένῳ σώ ματι· τὸ δὲ σῶμα ἔπασχε μὲν νυττόμενον ἐν τῷ ξύλῳ, καὶ ἔρρεεν ἀπὸ τῆς τούτου πλευρᾶς αἷμα καὶ ὕδωρ, ναὸς δὲ τοῦ λόγου τυγχάνον, πεπληρωμένον ἦν τῆς θεότητος. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο γοῦν ὁ μὲν ἥλιος ὁρῶν τὸν δημιουργὸν αὑτοῦ ἐν τῷ ὑβριζομένῳ σώματι ἀνεχόμενον τὰς ἀκτῖνας συνέστειλε, καὶ ἐσκότασε τὴν γῆν· αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ σῶμα φύσιν ἔχον θνητὴν ὑπὲρ τὴν αὑτοῦ φύσιν ἀνέστη διὰ τὸν ἐν αὐτῷ λόγον, καὶ πέπαυται μὲν τῆς κατὰ φύσιν φθορᾶς, ἐνδυσάμενον δὲ τὸν ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον λόγον γέγονεν ἄφθαρτον. Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ περὶ πίστεως λόγου τοῦ μείζονος. Τὸ ἐγειρόμενον ἐκ