Chapter XXIII.

He continues in this strain:  “If he had determined upon these things, and underwent chastisement in obedience to his Father, it is manifest that, being a God, and submitting voluntarily, those things that were done agreeably to his own decision were neither painful nor distressing.”  But he did not observe that here he was at once contradicting himself.  For if he granted that He was chastised because He had determined upon these things, and had submitted Himself to His Father, it is clear that He actually suffered punishment, and it was impossible that what was inflicted on Him by His chastisers should not be painful, because pain is an involuntary thing.  But if, because He was willing to suffer, His inflictions were neither painful nor distressing, how did He grant that “He was chastised?”  He did not perceive that when Jesus had once, by His birth, assumed a body, He assumed one which was capable both of suffering pains, and those distresses incidental to humanity, if we are to understand by distresses what no one voluntarily chooses.  Since, therefore, He voluntarily assumed a body, not wholly of a different nature from that of human flesh, so along with His body He assumed also its sufferings and distresses, which it was not in His power to avoid enduring, it being in the power of those who inflicted them to send upon Him things distressing and painful.  And in the preceding pages we have already shown, that He would not have come into the hands of men had He not so willed.  But He did come, because He was willing to come, and because it was manifest beforehand that His dying upon behalf of men would be of advantage to the whole human race.

Μετὰ ταῦτα λέγει ὅτι, εἰ δέδοκτο αὐτῷ ταῦτα, καὶ τῷ πατρὶ πειθόμενος ἐκολάζετο, δῆλον ὅτι θεῷ γε ὄντι καὶ βουλομένῳ οὔτ' ἀλγεινὰ οὔτ' ἀνιαρὰ ἦν τὰ κατὰ γνώμην χρώμενα. Καὶ οὐχ ἑώρακέ γε αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ παρὰ πόδας ἐναντία εἰπών. Εἰ γὰρ ἔδωκεν ὅτι ἐκολάζετο, ἐπεὶ δέδοκτο αὐτῷ ταῦτα, καὶ τῷ πατρὶ πειθόμενος ἐμπαρεῖχεν ἑαυτόν, δῆλον ὅτι ἐκολάζετο, καὶ οὐχ οἷόν τε ἦν μὴ εἶναι ἀλγεινὰ τὰ προσαγόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν κολαζόντων· ἀπροαίρετον γὰρ ὁ πόνος. Εἰ δὲ βουλομένῳ οὔτε ἀλγεινὰ οὔτε ἀνιαρὰ ἦν τὰ προσαγόμενα, πῶς ἔδωκε τὸ ἐκολάζετο; Οὐχ ἑώρακε δὲ ὅτι ἅπαξ ἀναλαβὼν τὸ διὰ γενέσεως σῶμα ἀνείληφεν αὐτὸ καὶ πόνων δεκτικὸν τυγχάνον καὶ τῶν τοῖς σώμασι συμβαι νόντων ἀνιαρῶν, εἰ τοῦ ἀνιαροῦ μὴ ὡς προαιρετικοῦ ἀκούοιμεν. Ὥσπερ οὖν βουληθεὶς ἀνείληφε σῶμα οὐ πάντῃ ἄλλης φύσεως παρὰ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην σάρκα, οὕτως συνανεί ληφε τῷ σώματι καὶ τὰ ἀλγεινὰ αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ ἀνιαρά, ὧν πρὸς τὸ μὴ παθεῖν κύριος οὐκ ἦν, ἐπὶ τοῖς διατιθεῖσιν ὄντος προσάγειν αὐτῷ τὰ ἀλγεινὰ καὶ τὰ ἀνιαρά. Προαπε λογησάμεθα δὲ ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω ὅτι βουληθεὶς μὴ ἥκειν εἰς χεῖρας ἀνθρώπων οὐκ ἐληλύθει ἄν. Ἦλθε δέ, ἐπεὶ ἐβούλετο, διὰ τὸ προαποδεδομένον ἐκ τοῦ αὐτὸν ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπων ἀποθανεῖν τῷ παντὶ χρήσιμον.