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on earth and, to speak concisely, being thus and remaining such in the Father and having the Father remaining in him, not separated from him, not leaving him at all, he came down to earth and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and Mary the virgin; and became man, becoming equal to us in all things, without change, apart from sin, so that by passing through all that is ours, he might recast and renew that first man and through him all those born and being born from him, who are like the one who bore them. For since Adam who begot became corruptible and mortal—and I will add deaf and blind—from the transgression, and was stripped of his divine garment and became senseless, as was this man of dust, so also have all who were born of him become men of dust: corruptible, mortal, deaf, blind, naked and senseless, differing in nothing from irrational animals, or rather, to speak more truly, being even worse than them, inasmuch as they encompassed the particular passions of those animals and drew these into themselves.

For to such ignorance of God and of his divine commandments were those born of this man of dust brought down, that the honor which they ought to have rendered to God they rendered to this visible creation, and not only to heaven and earth and sun, moon and stars and fire and water and the rest, but even deifying the shameful passions themselves, which God forbade them even to think of, let alone to do, - O what insensibility! - they set them up as gods and worshipped them. What are these? Fornication, adultery, pederasty, murder, and whatever is similar to these, which not God—far be the blasphemy—but the devil (359) both commands and suggests and approves, through which he has enslaved and is enslaving the entire human race and has made and is making them subject to him and his slaves. Wherefore, even if someone was found of old among those countless myriads and thousands who did not submit to his shameful commands and these desires, yet since he too, because he was descended from the seed of those who had sinned, was a slave of the tyrant death and was delivered over to his corruption and was sent pitilessly to Hades, there being indeed no one able to save and ransom him, for this very reason God the Word who made us, having compassion, came down, as he knows how, and became man, not from intercourse or flux, but from the Holy Spirit and Mary the ever-virgin. For having taken from her all-pure blood flesh endowed with a soul, he became man, having been named and having become wholly flesh himself, that is, the Son and Word of God, without change, without alteration, as it is written: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” This is the miracle that is incomprehensible to all and unintelligible to all, that he remained the same and unchanged in his divinity and became a perfect man.

For just as God formed Adam from the earth and bestowed on him a spirit of life, and he became a perfect man, a living soul, without intercourse and flux, so he who created him becomes man without intercourse and flux; and just as it is written there in the Old [Testament] that God cast a trance upon Adam and he slept, and taking one of his ribs he built up and made the woman, so also has he done here. How and in what way? Pay attention. The rib of Adam is the woman. From this very rib of Adam, that is, from the woman herself, (360) God the Word took flesh endowed with a soul and built it into a perfect man, that he might become truly a son of Adam; and having been named and having become a man like us in all things except sin, he immediately became a kinsman of all men according to the flesh.For one of our predecessors also said this, speaking thus: “In putting on the flesh, he also put on brotherhood.” But he himself is at once God and man, and his flesh and his soul were and are holy and all-holy; God is holy, just as he was, the same he is and will be; blameless and

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ἐπί τῆς γῆς καί, ἵνα συνελών εἴπω, οὕτως ὤν καί τοιοῦτος μένων ἐν τῷ Πατρί καί τόν Πατέρα ἔχων μένοντα ἐν αὐτῷ, μή χωρισθείς ἐξ αὐτοῦ, μή καταλιπών ὅλως αὐτόν, κατῆλθεν ἐπί τῆς γῆς καί ἐσαρκώθη ἐκ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου καί Μαρίας τῆς παρθένου· καί ἐνηνθρώπησεν, ἴσος ἡμῖν ἀτρέπτως κατά πάντα γενόμενος χωρίς ἁμαρτίας, ἵνα διά πάντων τῶν ἡμετέρων διελθών ἀναχωνεύσῃ καί ἀνακαινίσῃ τόν πρῶτον ἐκεῖνον ἄνθρωπον καί δι᾿ ἐκείνου πάντας τούς ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεννηθέντας καί γεννωμένους, ὁμοίους ὄντας τῷ τεκόντι αὐτούς. Ἐπειδή γάρ ὁ τεκών Ἀδάμ φθαρτός καί θνητός, προσθήσω δέ καί κωφός καί τυφλός, ἀπό τῆς παραβάσεως γέγονε, γυμνός τε τῆς ἐνθέου καταστολῆς καί ἀναίσθητος ἐχρημάτισεν, οἷος οὗτος ὁ χοϊκός, τοιοῦτοι καί πάντες οἱ ἐκ αὐτοῦ γεννηθέντες χοϊκοί γεγόνασι, φθαρτοί, θνητοί, κωφοί, τυφλοί, γυμνοί καί ἀναίσθητοι, μηδέν τῶν ἀλόγων διαφέροντες ζῴων, ἤ χείρονες μᾶλλον εἰπεῖν καί αὐτῶν ἐκείνων ὑπάρξαντες, ὡς τά καθ᾿ ἕκαστον πάθη συμπεριλαβόντες ἐκείνων καί ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ταῦτα ἐπισπασάμενοι.

Εἰς τοσαύτην γάρ ἄγνοιαν Θεοῦ καί τῶν θείων αὐτοῦ ἐντολῶν κατηνέχθησαν οἱ ἐκ τοῦ χοϊκοῦ τούτου χοϊκοί γεννηθέντες, ὥστε ἥν ὤφειλον ἀπονεῖμαι Θεῷ τήν τιμήν τῇ ὁρωμένῃ ταύτῃ κτίσει ἀπένειμον, καί οὐ μόνον οὐρανῷ καί γῇ καί ἡλίῳ, σελήνῃ τε καί ἄστροις καί πυρί καί ὕδατι καί λοιποῖς, ἀλλά γάρ καί αὐτά τά αἰσχρά θεοποιήσαντες πάθη ἅ μηδέ ἐννοεῖν, μή ὅτι γε πράττειν, αὐτούς ὁ Θεός ἀπηγορεύσεν, ὡς θεούς ὤ τῆς ἀναισθησίας - στήσαντες προσεκύνησαν. Τίνα ταῦτα; Πορνείαν, μοιχείαν, ἀνδρομανίαν, ἀλληλοφονίαν, καί εἴ τι τούτοις παρόμοιον, ἅτινα οὐχ ὁ Θεός ἄπαγε τῆς βλασφημίας ἀλλ᾿ ὁ διάβολος (359) καί προστάττει καί ὑποβάλλει καί ἀποδέχεται, δι᾿ ὧν κατεδουλώσατο καί καταδουλοῦται ἅπαν τό τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος καί ὑποχειρίους αὐτοῦ καί δούλους πεποίηκε καί ποιεῖ. Ὅθεν, κἄν εὑρέθη τις πάλαι ἐκ τῶν ἀπείρων ἐκείνων μυριάδων καί χιλιάδων μή ὑποκύψας αὐτοῦ τοῖς αἰσχροῖς προστάγμασι καί θελήμασι τούτοις, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπεί καί αὐτός διά τό κατάγεσθαι ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος τῶν ἁμαρτησάντων δοῦλος ἦν τοῦ τυράννου θανάτου καί τῇ φθορᾷ τούτου παρεδίδοτο καί τῷ ᾅδῃ ἀσυμπαθῶς παρεπέμπετο, μηδενός ὄντος δηλαδή τοῦ δυναμένου σῶσαι καί αὐτόν ἐκλυτρώσασθαι, διά δή τοῦτο οἰκτειρήσας ὁ ποιήσας ἡμᾶς Θεός Λόγος κατῆλθεν, ὡς οἶδε, καί ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος οὐκ ἐκ συνουσίας ἤ ῥεύσεως , ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου καί Μαρίας τῆς ἀειπαρθένου. Ἀναλαβών γάρ ἐκ τῶν πανάγνων αὐτῆς αἱμάτων σάρκα ἐψυχωμένην, ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος, σάρξ ὅλος αὐτός χρηματίσας καί γεγονώς, ὁ Υἱός καί Λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ δηλονότι, ἀτρέπτως, ἀναλλοιώτως, καθώς γέγραπται· «Καί ὁ Λόγος σάρξ ἐγένετο καί ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν». Τοῦτο τό πᾶσιν ἀκατάληπτον καί πᾶσιν ἀκατανόητον θαῦμα, ὅτι ὁ αὐτός καί ἄτρεπτος ἔμεινε τῇ θεότητι καί ἄνθρωπος γέγονε τέλειος.

Καθάπερ γάρ τόν Ἀδάμ ἀπό τῆς γῆς ἔπλασεν ὁ Θεός καί πνεῦμα ζωῆς αὐτῷ ἐχαρίσατο, καί ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος τέλειος εἰς ψυχήν ζῶσαν ἄνευ συνουσίας καί ῥεύσεως, οὕτως ὁ ἐκεῖνον δημιουργήσας ἄνευ συνουσίας καί ῥεύσεως ἄνθρωπος γίνεται· καί ὥσπερ ἐκεῖ γέγραπται ἐν τῇ παλαιᾷ ὅτι ἔβαλεν ὁ Θεός ἔκστασιν ἐπί τόν Ἀδάμ καί ὕπνωσε καί λαβών μίαν τῶν πλευρῶν αὐτοῦ ἀνῳκοδόμησε καί ἐποίησε τήν γυναῖκα, οὕτω καί ἐνταῦθα πεποίηκε. Πῶς καί τίνα τρόπον; Πρόσεχε. Ἡ πλευρά τοῦ Ἀδάμ ἐστιν ἡ γυνή. Ἐξ αὐτῆς οὖν τῆς πλευρᾶς τοῦ Ἀδάμ, ἤγουν ἀπό τῆς γυναικός αὐτῆς, (360) ἔλαβεν ὁ Θεός Λόγος σάρκα ἐψυχωμένην καί ᾠκοδόμησεν αὐτήν εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον, ἵνα γένηται υἱός ἐπ᾿ ἀληθείας τοῦ Ἀδάμ· ἄνθρωπος δέ χρηματίσας καί γεγονώς ὅμοιος ἡμῖν κατά πάντα πλήν ἁμαρτίας, πάντων εὐθύς ἀνθρώπων συγγενής τό κατά σάρκα ἐγένετο.Τοῦτο γάρ καί ἕτερός τις τῶν πρό ἡμῶν ἔφη οὕτως εἰπών· «Τήν σάρκα ἐνδυσάμενος, ἐνεδύσατο καί τήν ἀδελφότητα». Ἀλλ᾿ αὐτός Θεός ὁμοῦ καί ἄνθρωπος, καί ἡ σάρξ αὐτοῦ καί ἡ ψυχή αὐτοῦ ἁγία καί ὑπεραγία ἦν καί ἔστι· Θεός ἅγιος, ὥσπερ ἦν, ὁ αὐτός καί ἔστι καί ἔσται· ἄμωμος καί