,

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death, but rather set up against it, and might abolish the just end of nature through death, not having the unlawful pleasure—for which reason it entered(7) and is justly punished by it—as the cause of its existence.

For it was truly necessary, it was necessary for the Lord, being by nature wise and just and powerful: as wise, not to be ignorant of the way of healing; as just, not to effect tyrannically the salvation of man, who was seized by sin through his own will; and as all-powerful, not to fail in the fulfillment of the healing.

He therefore made manifest the principle of wisdom in the manner of healing, by becoming man without change or any alteration. And he showed the equity of justice in the magnitude of his condescension, by willingly undergoing the condemnation of nature in passibility and making that very thing a weapon for the abolition of sin and of the death that is through it, that is, of pleasure and the pain that is through it, wherein existed the dominion of sin and of death,(8) both the tyranny of sin through pleasure (14Γ_204> and the power of death through pain because of it. For in the passible aspect of nature, there manifestly exists the dominion of pleasure and of pain. For, wishing to flee the laborious sensation of pain,(9) we take refuge in pleasure, attempting to console nature which is oppressed by the torment of pain; but in hastening to blunt the movements of pain by means of pleasure, we ratify even more the bond against ourselves, being unable to have pleasure freed from pain and labors.

And he made clear the strength of his surpassing power,(10) by bringing into existence for nature, unchangeably, the opposites of what he himself suffered. For by giving to nature impassibility through suffering, repose through labors, and eternal life through death, he restored it again, renewing the dispositions of nature by his own privations in the flesh, and through his own incarnation bestowing upon nature the grace that is beyond nature, deification.

God, therefore, truly became man and gave to nature another beginning of a second generation, which begins in pain and ends in the pleasure of the life to come. For just as Adam the forefather, having transgressed the divine commandment, introduced into nature, contrary to the first, another beginning of generation, one which consists in pleasure but ends in death through pain, and, having devised according to the counsel of the serpent a pleasure that was not the successor of preceding pain, but rather passed over into pain, he caused all those born of him in the flesh according to him, because of the unjust beginning from pleasure, to be justly subjected along with him to the end through pain in death; so also the Lord, having become man and having fashioned for nature another beginning of a second generation from the Holy Spirit, and having accepted the most just death of Adam through pain (14Γ_206> (a death which in his case was, of course, most unjust, since he did not have as the beginning of his own generation the most unjust pleasure of the forefather from disobedience), effected the abolition of both extremes, I mean the beginning and the end, of the human generation according to Adam, since they were not originally from God, and he set free from their guilt all those mystically reborn of him by the Spirit, having indeed the pain of Adam,(11) but no longer the pleasure of generation from Adam, but only the pain because of Adam active in them, not as a debt for sin, but by an economy, on account of the natural circumstance against sin, namely death. And this death, whenever it does not have as its mother the pleasure of which it is by nature the avenger, manifestly becomes the father of eternal life. For as Adam’s life according to pleasure is of death and

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θάνατον, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον κατ᾽ αὐτῆς προβεβλημένον, καὶ τὸ διὰ τοῦ θανάτου δίκαιον τέλος ἐξαφανίσῃ τῆς φύσεως, οὐκ ἔχον τήν, δι᾽ ἣν ἐπεισῆλθεν(7) καὶ ὑπ᾽ αὐτοῦ δικαίως τιμωρουμένην, ὡς αἰτίαν τοῦ εἶναι, παράνομον ἡδονήν.

Ἔδει γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς, ἔδει σοφὸν καὶ δίκαιον καὶ δυνατὸν ὄντα κατὰ φύσιν τὸν Κύριον, ὡς μὲν σοφόν, μὴ ἀγνοῆσαι τὸν τρόπον τῆς ἰατρείας, ὡς δίκαιον δέ, μὴ τυραννικὴν ποιήσασθαι τοῦ κατειλημμένου κατὰ γνώμην ὑπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀνθρώπου τὴν σωτηρίαν, ὡς δὲ πάντα δυνάμενον, μὴ ἀτονῆσαι πρὸς τὴν τῆς ἰατρείας ἐκπλήρωσιν.

Φανερὸν οὖν ἐποίησε τὸν μὲν τῆς σοφίας λόγον ἐν τῷ τρόπῳ τῆς ἰατρείας, χωρὶς τροπῆς καὶ τῆς οἱασοῦν ἀλλοιώσεως γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος· τὴν ἰσότητα δὲ τῆς δικαιοσύνης ἐν τῷ μεγέθει τῆς συγκαταβάσεως ἔδειξεν, τὸ ἐν τῷ παθητῷ κατάκριμα τῆς φύσεως κατὰ θέλησιν ὑποδὺς κἀκεῖνο ποιήσας ὅπλον πρὸς τὴν τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀναίρεσιν καὶ τοῦ δι᾽ αὐτὴν θανάτου, τουτέστι τῆς ἡδονῆς καὶ τῆς δι᾽ αὐτὴν ὀδύνης, ἐν ᾧ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὑπῆρχε καὶ τοῦ θανάτου τὸ κράτος(8) καὶ ἡ κατὰ τὴν ἡδονὴν (14Γ_204> τῆς ἁμαρτίας τυραννὶς καὶ ἡ δι᾽ αὐτὴν κατὰ τὴν ὀδύνην τοῦ θανάτου δυναστείαἐν γὰρ τῷ παθητῷ προδήλως ὑπάρχει τῆς φύσεως τὸ τῆς ἡδονῆς κράτος καὶ τὸ τῆς ὀδύνης· θέλοντες γὰρ ἐκφυγεῖν τὴν κατὰ τὴν ὀδύνην ἐπίπονον αἴσθησιν(9) πρὸς τὴν ἡδονὴν καταφεύγομεν, τῷ τῆς ὀδύνης αἰκισμῷ πιεζομένην τὴν φύσιν ἐπιχειροῦντες παραμυθεῖσθαι· σπεύδοντες δὲ διὰ τῆς ἡδονῆς τὰ τῆς ὀδύνης ἀμβλῦναι κινήματα, πλέον αὐτῆς τὸ καθ᾽ ἑαυτῶν ἐπικυροῦμεν χειρόγραφον, ὀδύνης καὶ πόνων ἀπολελυμένην ἔχειν τὴν ἡδονὴν οὐ δυνάμενοι.

Τὴν δὲ τῆς ὑπερβαλλούσης δυνάμεως ἰσχὺν(10) δήλην κατέστησεν, τῶν οἷς αὐτὸς ἔπασχεν ἐναντίων ὑποστήσας τῇ φύσει τὴν γένεσιν ἄτρεπτον· διὰ πάθους γὰρ τὴν ἀπάθειαν καὶ διὰ πόνων τὴν ἄνεσιν καὶ διὰ θανάτου τὴν ἀΐδιον ζωὴν τῇ φύσει δούς, πάλιν ἀποκατέστησεν, ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ κατὰ σάρκα στερήσεσι τὰς ἕξεις ἀνακαινίσας τῆς φύσεως καὶ διὰ τῆς ἰδίας σαρκώσεως τὴν ὑπὲρ φύσιν χάριν δωρησάμενος τῇ φύσει, τὴν θέωσιν.

Γέγονεν οὖν ὁ Θεὸς κατ᾽ ἀλήθειαν ἄνθρωπος καὶ δέδωκεν ἄλλην ἀρχὴν τῇ φύσει δευτέρας γενέσεως, διὰ πόνου πρὸς ἡδονὴν μελλούσης ζωῆς καταλήγουσαν. Ὡς γὰρ Ἀδὰμ ὁ προπάτωρ, τὴν θείαν ἐντολὴν παραβάς, ἄλλην ἀρχὴν γενέσεως, ἐξ ἡδονῆς μὲν συνισταμένην, εἰς δὲ τὸν διὰ πόνου θάνατον τελευτῶσαν, τῇ φύσει παρὰ τὴν πρώτην παρεισήγαγε καί, ἐπινοήσας κατὰ τὴν συμβουλὴν τοῦ ὅφεως ἡδονὴν οὐκ οὖσαν προλαβόντος πόνου διάδοχον, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον εἰς πόνον περαιουμένην, πάντας τοὺς ἐξ αὐτοῦ σαρκὶ κατ᾽ αὐτὸν γεννωμένους διὰ τὴν ἐξ ἡδονῆς ἄδικον ἀρχὴν εἶχε συνυπαγομένους αὐτῷ δικαίως πρὸς τὸ διὰ πόνου κατὰ τὸν θάνατον τέλος, οὕτως καὶ ὁ Κύριος, γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἄλλην ἀρχὴν δευτέρας γενέσεως ἐκ Πνεύματος ἁγίου τῇ φύσει δημιουργήσας καὶ τὸν διὰ πόνου τοῦ Ἀδὰμ (14Γ_206> δικαιότατον καταδεξάμενος θάνατον, ἐν αὐτῷ δηλαδὴ γενόμενον ἀδικώτατον, ὡς οὐκ ἔχοντα τῆς ἰδίας γενέσεως ἀρχὴν τὴν ἐκ παρακοῆς ἀδικωτάτην τοῦ προπάτορος ἡδονήν, ἀμφοτέρων τῶν ἄκρων, ἀρχῆς τε λέγω καὶ τέλους, τῆς κατὰ τὸν Ἀδὰμ ἀνθρωπίνης γενέσεως, οἷα δὴ προηγουμένως οὐκ ὄντων ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τὴν ἀναίρεσιν ἐποιήσατο καὶ πάντας τοὺς ἐξ αὐτοῦ Πνεύματι μυστικῶς ἀναγεννωμένους τῆς ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῖς ἐνοχῆς ἐλευθέρους κατέστησεν, ἔχοντας μὲν τοῦ Ἀδὰμ(11) οὐκέτι τὴν ἐκ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ἡδονὴν τῆς γενέσεως, μόνην δὲ τὴν διὰ τὸν Ἀδὰμ ὀδύνην ἐνεργοῦσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς, οὐ κατὰ χρέος ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτίας, ἀλλὰ κατ᾽ οἰκονομίαν, διὰ τὴν κατὰ φύσιν περίστασιν κατὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τὸν θάνατον· ὅς, ὁπόταν μὴ ἔχῃ γεννῶσαν αὐτὸν μητέρα τήν, ἧς γίνεσθαι πέφυκε τιμωρός, ἡδονήν, ἀϊδίου ζωῆς προδήλως καθίσταται πατήρ. Ὡς γὰρ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ἡ καθ᾽ ἡδονὴν ζωὴ θανάτου καὶ