218

QUESTION 62.

What is it that Zechariah the holy Prophet says, "And I lifted up my eyes, and saw; and behold, a flying sickle, twenty cubits in length, and ten cubits in breadth. And he said to me, This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth." And after a little, "And I will bring it forth, says the Lord Almighty, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely in my name; and it shall consume it, and its timbers, and its stones." What is the sickle, and the measure of this length and breadth; and why is it flying? and who is the thief and the perjurer, and what is his house; what are the timbers, and what are the stones?

(648) Answer. The God who said: I have multiplied visions, and in the hands of the prophets I was represented; of the

wondrous visitation in the flesh for the salvation of men, laid down in advance prefigurations, varying them with symbols; foreshowing one thing through one prophet, another through another, according to what each was capable of receiving; therefore also to the great prophet Zechariah, granting him initiation into his own mysteries, and as it were bringing before his sight for the understanding of the power of his future presence in the flesh, he wisely fashioned a sickle for him in the vision; teaching that he himself, who had mystically fashioned himself in many forms in the visions of the prophets through types, was about to undergo willingly in truth the formation of our nature, so that he might show in deeds the truth present that was foretold through the types.

The sickle, therefore, is our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son and Word of God; who on his own account is and always remains simple by nature; but on my account, by the assumption of flesh intellectually ensouled, as he himself knows, became composite in hypostasis; neither admitting confusion into one nature by the ultimate hypostatic union with the flesh, nor being cut into a dyad of sons by the ultimate difference of nature with the flesh. And by "ultimate" I mean, for the hypostatic union, that which is completely indivisible; and for the difference of nature, that which is completely unconfused and unchangeable; because the mystery of the divine incarnation does not at all entail a hypostatic difference on account of the natural otherness of that from which He is composed; nor, indeed, a confusion into one nature on account of the hypostatic union; the one, so that the mystery of the Trinity might not receive an addition; the other, so that nothing might be by nature of the same kind and consubstantial with the divinity. For there was a coming together of two natures into one hypostasis, but not into one nature; so that the one in hypostasis might be shown to be constituted in the union from the natures that came together; and that which is different in the things that came together into the indivisible union might be believed, according to its natural property, to be apart from any change or confusion.

For if the coming together of the natures had been for the generation of a nature, the mystery of our salvation would have been entirely unknowable to us; as we would have had no way of being able to learn of God's condescension to us; if the flesh were changed into the divine nature through the divine union, or the divine nature turned into the substance of the flesh; or both were comingled by some mixture for the generation of another nature besides themselves; with neither of the natures from which he is, preserving its own principle inviolate. For whether the flesh was changed into the nature of divinity, or the nature of divinity was changed into flesh; or whether the manner of the union to one nature pushed the natures together toward the generation of another nature besides these (649), I do not recognize the mystery of the divine incarnation, not finding a natural after the union in the

218

ΕΡΩΤΗΣΙΣ ΞΒ΄.

Τί ἐστιν ὅ λέγει Ζαχαρίας ὁ ἅγιος Προφήτης, "Καί ἦρα τούς ὀφθαλμούς μου, καί ἴδον· καί ἰδού δρέπανον πετόμενον, μῆκος πήχεων εἴκοσι, καί πλάτος πήχεων δέκα· καί εἶπε πρός με, Αὕτη ἐστίν ἡ ἀρά ἡ ἐκπορευομένη ἐπί πρόσωπον πάσης τῆς γῆς." Καί μετ᾿ ὀλίγα, "Καί ἐξοίσω αὐτό, λέγει Κύριος παντοκράτωρ, καί εἰσελεύσεται εἰς τόν οἶκον τοῦ κλέπτου, καί εἰς τόν οἶκον τοῦ ὀμνύοντος ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου ψευδῶς· καί καταλύσει αὐτόν, καί τά ξύλα αὐτοῦ, καί τούς λίθους αὐτοῦ." Τί τό δρέπανόν ἐστι, καί τό μέτρον τοῦτε μήκους καί τοῦ πλάτους· καί διά τί πετόμενον; καί τίς ὁ κλέπτης καί ἐπίορκος, καί τίς ὁ τούτου οἶκος· τίνα τά ξύλα, καί τίνες οἱ λίθοι;

(648) Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ φήσας Θεός· Ὁράσεις ἐπλήθυνα, καί ἐν χερσί τῶν προφητῶν ὡμοιώθην· τῆς

ἐπί τῆ σωτηρίᾳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων διά σαρκός αὐτοῦ θαυμαστῆς ἐπιδημίας, τοῖς συμβόλοις διαποικίλας προκατεβάλετο ὑποτυπώσεις· ἄλλην δι᾿ ἄλλου τῶν προφητῶν, ὧν ἕκαστος ἦν χωρητικός, προδεικνύμενος· οὐκοῦν καί τῷ μεγάλῳ προφήτῃ Ζαχαρίᾳ, τῶν οἰκείων μυστηρίων δωρούμενος τήν μύησιν, καί οἷον ἐπ᾿ ὄψιν ἄγων αὐτῷ πρός κατανόησιν τῆς μελλούσης αὐτοῦ διά σαρκός παρουσίας τήν δύναμιν, δρέπανον αὐτῶ κατά τήν θεωρίαν σοφῶς διεσκεύασε· διδάσκων ὡς αὐτόν ἔμελλεν, ὁ τοῖς τύποις ἑαυτόν πολυειδῶς ταῖς τῶν προφητῶν ὁράσεσι μυστικῶς διαπλάσας, τήν ἡμετέραν ἑκουσίως κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν ὑπελθεῖν φύσει διάπλασιν, ἵνα δείξῃ τοῖς πράγμασι παροῦσαν τήν προμηνυθεῖσαν διά τῶν τύπων ἀλήθειαν.

∆ρέπανον οὖν ἐστιν ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ μονογενής Υἱός καί Λόγος· ὁ δι᾿ ἑαυτόν μέν κατά φύσιν ἁπλοῦς καί ὤν, καί ἀεί διαμένων· δι᾿ ἐμέ δέ κατά πρόσληψιν σαρκός νοερῶς ἐψυχωμένης, ὡς οἶδεν αὐτός, γινόμενος καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν σύνθετος· οὔτε τῇ κατ᾿ ἄκρον πρός τήν σάρκα καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἑνώσει τήν εἰς μίαν φύσιν παραδεχόμενος σύγχυσιν, οὔτε τῇ κατ᾿ ἄκρον πρός τήν σάρκα κατά τήν φύσιν διαφορᾷ, πρός υἱῶν δυάδα τεμνόμενος. Ἄκρον δέ φημι, τῆς μέν καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἑνώσεως, τό παντελῶς ἀδιαίρετον· τῆς δέ κατά φύσιν διαφορᾶς ἄκρον, τό παντελῶς ἀσύγχυτον καί ἀναλλοίωτον· ὅτι μηδέ συνεπάγεται παντελῶς, τῆ κατά φύσιν τῶν ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκεν ἑτερότητι, καί τήν καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν διαφοράν, τό μυστήριον τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως· οὔτε μήν τῇ καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἑνώσει, τήν εἰς μίαν φύσιν σύγχυσιν· τό μέν, ἵνα μή προσθήκην λάβῃ τό τῆς Τριάδος μυστήριον· τό δέ, ἵνα μηδέν ᾗ τῇ θεότητι ὁμογενές κατά φύσιν καί ὁμοούσιον. ∆ύο γάρ φύσεων πρός ὑπόστασιν· ἀλλ᾿ οὐ πρός φύσιν μίαν γέγονε σύνοδος· ἵνα καί τό καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἕν, ἐκ τῶν ἀλλήλαις συνδραμουσῶν φύσεων δειχθῇ κατά τήν ἕνωσιν ἀποτελούμενον· καί τό διάφορον τῶν συνελθόντων πρός τήν ἀδιάσπαστον ἕνωσιν, κατά τήν φυσικήν ἰδιότητα πιστευθῇ πάσης ἐκτός μόνον τροπῆς καί συγχύσεως.

Εἰ γάρ πρός φύσεως γένεσιν ἡ τῶν φύσεων γέγονε σύνοδος, ἀδιάγνωστον ἄν ἦν ἡμῖν παντελῶς τό τῆς ἡμῶν σωτηρίας μυστήριον· οὐκ ἔχουσιν πόθεν, ἤ πῶς δυνηθῆναι μαθεῖν τήν πρός ἡμᾶς τοῦ Θεοῦ συγκατάβασιν· εἰς τήν θείαν φύσιν διά τήν θείαν ἕνωσιν τῆς σαρκός μεταβληθείσης, ἤ τῆς θείας εἰς τήν σαρκός οὐσίαν μετατραπείσης· ἤ ἀμφοῖν πρός ἄλλης παρ᾿ ἑαυτάς γένεσιν κατά τινα μίξιν συμφυρεισῶν· καί μηδετέρας τῶν ἐξ ὧν ἐστι φύσεων, τόν λόγον ἀλώβητον φερούσης. Εἴτε γάρ εἰς θεότητος φύσιν ἡ σάρξ, εἴτε πρός σάρκα ἡ τῆς θεότητος μετεβλήθη φύσις· εἴτε πρός ἄλλης γένεσιν φύσεως παρά ταύτας (649) ὁ τῆς πρός φύσιν μίαν ἑνώσεως τρόπος τάς φύσεις συνώθησεν, ἐγώ τό μυστήριον τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως οὐκ ἐπιγινώσκω, φυσικήν οὐχ εὑρίσκων μετά τήν ἕνωσιν ἐν τῷ