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the logoi are held together by wisdom, while the logoi of particular things, variously held within the logoi of general things, are encompassed by prudence, according to which they were previously simplified, and divesting the symbolic variety in the underlying things, are unified by wisdom, having received a connaturality into identity with the more general ones.

And the wisdom and prudence of God the Father is the Lord Jesus Christ, who holds together all beings by the power of wisdom, and encompasses their complementary parts by the prudence of understanding, as by nature the creator and provider of all things, and brings what is divided into one through himself, and abolishes the war among beings, and binds all things to a peaceful friendship and undivided concord, things in heaven and things on earth, as the divine Apostle says.

104. ANOTHER CONTEMPLATION ON THE SAME PROBLEM

(14D_438> Another contemplation on the same problem. Natures are again made new, the divine nature, on the one hand, on account of its immeasurable goodness and love for humanity, supernaturally enduring a voluntary birth in the flesh according to our nature, while our nature, on the other hand, paradoxically cultivating flesh endowed with a rational soul for the incarnate God without seed, by a law foreign to nature, being in all things the same and identical to us, without sin, and what is more paradoxical, the law of virginity of the one who became mother was in no way diminished at all through the birth. And an innovation, properly speaking, is not only that God the Word, who was already inexpressibly begotten without beginning from God the Father, was born in time according to the flesh, but also that our nature gave flesh without seed, and that a virgin gave birth without corruption. For each of these things, having a manifest innovation, both completely conceals and demonstrates the ineffable and unknowable logos according to which it came to be, the one by its mode beyond nature and knowledge, the other by the logos of faith, by which all things beyond nature and knowledge are naturally apprehended.

1316 Thus, then, to speak for myself, the problem has been resolved as much as possible, and I do not know how else it should be explained. It would be for your philosophy either to approve what has been said, or to discover and state better things more wisely from itself, and to share with me the fruit of a lofty knowledge that has nothing of the earthly.

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λόγους ὑπό τῆς σοφίας συνέχεσθαι, τούς δέ μερικῶν ποικίλως τοῖς τῶν γενικῶν ἐνισχημένους ὑπό τῆς φρονήσεως περιέχεσθαι, καθ᾿ ἥν ἁπλούμενοι πρότερον, καί τήν ἐν τοῖς πράγμασι τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις ἀπολύοντες συμβολικήν ποικιλίαν, ὑπό τῆς σοφίας ἑνίζονται, τήν εἰς ταὐτότητα τοῖς γενικωτέροις συμφυΐαν δεξάμενοι.

Σοφία δέ τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός καί φρόνησίς ἐστιν ὁ Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, ὁ καί καθόλου τῶν ὄντων συνέχων τῇ δυνάμει τῆς σοφίας, καί τά συμπληρωτικά τούτων μέρη περιέχων τῇ φρονήσει τῆς συνέσεως ὡς πάντων φύσει δημιουργός καί προνοητής, καί εἰς ἕν ἄγων τά διεστῶτα δι᾿ ἑαυτοῦ, καί τόν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι καταλύων πόλεμον, καί πρός εἰρηνικήν φιλίαν τά πάντα καί ἀδιαίρετον συνδέων ὁμόνοιαν, τά ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καί τά ἐπί τῆς γῆς, καθώς φησιν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος.

Ρ∆ (104). ΑΛΛΗ ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΑΥΤΟ ΑΠΟΡΟΝ ΘΕΩΡΙΑ

(14∆_438> Ἄλλη εἰς τό αὐτό ἄπορον θεωρία. Καινοτομοῦνται πάλιν αἱ φύσεις, τῆς μέν θείας δι᾿ ἀγαθότητα καί

φιλανθρωπίαν ἄμετρον τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς κατά θέλησιν ἑκούσιον σαρκικῆς ὑπερφυῶς ἀνεχομένης γεννήσεως, τῆς ἡμετέρας δέ παραδόξως ἄσπορον τῷ σαρκωθέντι Θεῷ ξένῳ παρά τήν φύσιν θεσμῷ τήν λογικῶς ἐψυχωμένην γεωργούσης σάρκα, κατά πάντα τήν αὐτήν ἡμῖν οὖσαν καί ἀπαράλλακτον χωρίς ἁμαρτίας, καί τό δή παραδοξότερον, μηδέν τοῦ νόμου τῆς παρθενίας τῆς γενομένης μητρός διά τῆς γεννήσεως τό σύνολον μειωθέντος. Καινοτομία δέ κυρίως οὐ μόνον τό γεννηθῆναι χρονικῶς κατά σάρκα τόν ἀνάρχως ἤδη γεγεννημένον ἀφράστως ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ καί Πατρός Θεόν Λόγον, ἀλλά καί τό δοῦναι σάρκα τήν ἡμετέραν φύσιν ἄνευ σπορᾶς, καί τό τεκεῖν παρθένου ἄνευ φθορᾶς. Τούτων γάρ ἕκαστον φανεράν ἔχον τήν καινοτομίαν τόν καθ᾿ ὅν γέγονεν ἄῤῥητόν τε καί ἄγνωστον λόγον παντελῶς ἀποκρύπτεται κατά ταὐτόν καί ἀποδείκνυσι, τό μέν τῷ ὑπέρ φύσιν καί γνῶσιν τρόπῳ, τό δέ τῷ λόγῳ τῆς πίστεως, ᾧ πάντα τά ὑπέρ φύσιν καί γνῶσιν ἁλίσκεσθαι πέφυκεν.

1316 Οὕτω μέν οὖν, κατ᾿ ἐμέ φάναι, τό ἄπορον ὡς δυνατόν ἐπιλέλυται, καί οὐκ οἶδ᾿ ὅπως ἑτέρως αὐτό χρή διεξελθεῖν. Τῆς σῆς δ᾿ ἄν εἴη φιλοσοφίας ἤ ἐγκρῖναι τά εἰρημένα, ἤ τά κρείττω παρ᾿ ἑαυτῆς σοφώτερον ἐξευρεῖν τε καί φράσαι, καί μεταδοῦναί μοι καρπόν γνώσεως ὑψηλῆς καί μηδέν ἐχούσης ἐπίγειον.