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becomes what he was not before? Just as, therefore, he who knew no sin becomes sin, that he might take away the sin of the world, so again the flesh that received the Lord becomes Christ and Lord, which it was not by nature, being transformed into this through the union. Through these things we learn that God would neither have been manifested in the flesh, if the Word had not become flesh, nor would the flesh of the man about him have been transformed to the divine, if that which appeared had not become 3.4.47 Christ and Lord. But those who intrude upon the essence of God through their reasonings spit upon the simplicity of our preaching, and wish to prove that he who brought all beings into existence through creation is himself a part of creation, and for this endeavor they drag in the voice of Peter as an ally for the establishment of their blasphemy, who said to the Jews that "Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." This they put forward as proof that the essence of the only-begotten God 3.4.48 is created. What then, tell me, were the Jews, to whom the word came, before the ages? Was the cross before the world? Was Pilate before all creation? Was Jesus first and the Word afterwards? Is the flesh older than the divinity? Does Gabriel bring the good news to Mary before the world? Does not the man who is Christ take his beginning through birth under Caesar Augustus, while the Word who was in the beginning, God our king, is pre-eternal, as the prophecy testifies? Do you not see what confusion you bring upon the Word, turning things upside down according to the 3.4.49 proverb? It was the fiftieth day after the passion when Peter was addressing the Jews with these things, saying that "this one whom you crucified, God has made Christ and Lord." Do you not pay attention to the order of the statement, what is first and what is second in what was said? For he did not say, "The one whom God made Lord, you crucified," but, "The one whom you," he says, "crucified, this one God made both Christ and Lord," so that from this it is clear that Peter is speaking not of that which is before the ages, but of that which is after the economy 3.4.50. How then do you not see the whole meaning of the statement turning on what is being demonstrated, but you jest in the boyish complexity of your sophism, saying, if we have believed that the one who appeared has been made Christ and Lord by God, that it is necessary for the Lord to be emptied into a man again and undergo a second birth? How is your doctrine strengthened more through these things? How through what has been said is the essence of the king of creation proven to be created 3.4.51? For I say on the contrary that our positions are supported by those who fight against us, and that the speaker, from his excessive attention, has not perceived that while supposedly pushing the argument to absurdity, by the very means he attempts to overturn it, he fights on the side of those he opposes. For if one must believe that the transition of the Son has occurred from the superior to the lowly, and only the divine and uncreated nature is superior to creation, while man is created, perhaps having looked through his own argument to the truth, he will change his position, agreeing that the uncreated came to be in the created out of love for humanity 3.4.52. But if he thinks to prove the Lord created by showing that he, being God, partook of human nature, many such things will be found for the establishment of the same point, filling out the argument from a similar case. For since he was Word and was God, "but after this," as the prophet says, "he was seen upon earth and conversed with men," he will be proven through these things to be one of the created things. But if these things are far from what is being sought, neither are similar things at all appropriate to the present matters. For it is the same in meaning to say that the Word who was in the beginning was afterwards manifested to men through flesh, and that he, existing in the form of God, took on the form of a servant. If one of these is useless for establishing the blasphemy, it is necessary to cast away the remaining one as well. 3.4.53 But he advises philanthropically

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γίνεται ὃ μὴ πρότερον ἦν; ὥσπερ οὖν ὁ μὴ γνοὺς ἁμαρτίαν ἁμαρτία γίνεται, ἵνα ἄρῃ τὴν ἁμαρ τίαν τοῦ κόσμου, οὕτως πάλιν ἡ δεξαμένη τὸν κύριον σὰρξ Χριστὸς καὶ κύριος γίνεται, ὃ μὴ ἦν τῇ φύσει, εἰς τοῦτο μεταποιουμένη διὰ τῆς ἀνακράσεως. δι' ὧν μανθάνομεν ὅτι οὔτ' ἂν ἐν σαρκὶ ὁ θεὸς ἐφανερώθη, εἰ μὴ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο, οὔτ' ἂν μετεποιήθη πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ἡ περὶ αὐτὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σάρξ, εἰ μὴ τὸ φαινόμενον ἐγένετο 3.4.47 Χριστός τε καὶ κύριος. ἀλλὰ διαπτύουσι τὸν ἰδιωτισμὸν τοῦ ἡμετέρου κηρύγματος οἱ τῇ οὐσίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ διὰ τῶν συλλογισμῶν ἐμβατεύοντες καὶ βούλονται τὸν πάντα τὰ ὄντα διὰ κτίσεως παραγαγόντα εἰς γένεσιν αὐτὸν ἀποδεῖξαι μέρος ὄντα τῆς κτίσεως, καὶ σύμμαχον τῆς τοιαύτης σπουδῆς τὴν φωνὴν τοῦ Πέτρου πρὸς κατασκευὴν τῆς βλασφημίας ἐφέλ κονται τοῦ πρὸς τοὺς Ἰουδαίους φήσαντος ὅτι Γνωστὸν ἔστω παντὶ τῷ οἴκῳ Ἰσραὴλ ὅτι κύριον αὐτὸν καὶ Χριστὸν ἐποίησεν ὁ θεός, τοῦτον τὸν Ἰησοῦν ὃν ὑμεῖς ἐσταυρώσατε. ταύτην τοῦ κτιστὴν εἶναι τοῦ μονογενοῦς θεοῦ τὴν οὐσίαν 3.4.48 προβάλλονται τὴν ἀπόδειξιν. τί οὖν, εἰπέ μοι, μὴ πρὸ αἰῶνος οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι, πρὸς οὓς ὁ λόγος ἐγένετο; μὴ προ κόσμιος ὁ σταυρός; μὴ πρὸ πάσης κτίσεως ὁ Πιλάτος; μὴ πρῶτον Ἰησοῦς καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα λόγος; μὴ πρεσβυτέρα ἡ σὰρξ τῆς θεότητος; μὴ πρὸ τοῦ κόσμου ὁ Γαβριὴλ τὴν Μαρίαν εὐαγγελίζεται; οὐχ ὁ μὲν κατὰ Χριστὸν ἄνθρωπος ἐπὶ Καίσαρος Αὐγούστου τὴν ἀρχὴν λαμβάνει διὰ γεννή σεως, ὁ δὲ ἐν ἀρχῇ ὢν λόγος θεὸς βασιλεὺς ἡμῶν προ αιώνιος, καθὼς ἡ προφητεία μαρτύρεται; οὐχ ὁρᾷς οἵαν ἐπάγεις τῷ λόγῳ τὴν σύγχυσιν τὰ ἄνω κάτω κατὰ τὴν 3.4.49 παροιμίαν κυκῶν; πεντηκοστὴ μετὰ τὸ πάθος ἡμέρα ἦν ὅτε ταῦτα τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις ἐδημηγόρει ὁ Πέτρος λέγων ὅτι τοῦτον ὃν ὑμεῖς ἐσταυρώσατε Χριστὸν καὶ κύριον ὁ θεὸς ἐποίησεν. οὐ προσέχεις τῇ τάξει τοῦ λόγου, τί πρότερον καὶ τί δεύτερον ἐν τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἐστίν; οὐ γὰρ εἶπεν ὅτι ὃν ὁ θεὸς ἐποίησε κύριον, ὑμεῖς ἐσταυρώσατε, ἀλλ' ὃν ὑμεῖς, φησίν, ἐσταυρώσατε, τοῦτον ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς Χρι στόν τε καὶ κύριον, ὡς δῆλον ἐκ τούτων εἶναι ὅτι οὐ τὸ πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων, ἀλλὰ τὸ μετὰ τὴν οἰκονομίαν ὁ Πέτρος 3.4.50 λέγει. πῶς οὖν οὐχ ὁρᾷς ὅλην περὶ τὸ δεικνύμενον ἀνα στρεφομένην τοῦ λόγου τὴν ἔννοιαν, ἀλλὰ γελοιάζεις ἐν τῇ μειρακιώδει πλοκῇ τοῦ σοφίσματος λέγων, εἰ τὸν φαινόμενον Χριστόν τε καὶ κύριον πεποιῆσθαι παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ πεπιστεύ καμεν, ἀνάγκην εἶναι πάλιν εἰς ἄνθρωπον μετακενοῦσθαι τὸν κύριον καὶ δευτέραν ὑποδύεσθαι γέννησιν; τί μᾶλλον διὰ τούτων τὸ καθ' ὑμᾶς δόγμα κρατύνεται; πῶς διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων ἡ τοῦ βασιλέως τῆς κτίσεως οὐσία κτιστὴ ἀπο 3.4.51 δείκνυται; ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ τοὐναντίον φημὶ τὰ ἡμέτερα διὰ τῶν μαχομένων ἡμῖν συναγορεύεσθαι καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς ἄγαν προσοχῆς μὴ συνεωρακέναι τὸν ῥήτορα ὅτι πρὸς τὸ ἄτοπον δῆθεν ἐξωθῶν τὸν λόγον, δι' ὧν ἀνατρέπειν ἐπιχειρεῖ, διὰ τούτων τοῖς πολεμουμένοις συναγωνίζεται. εἰ γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ ὑπερέχοντος πρὸς τὸ ταπεινὸν πιστεύειν χρὴ γεγενῆσθαι τοῦ υἱοῦ τὴν μετάστασιν, μόνη δὲ ὑπέρκειται τῆς κτίσεως ἡ θεία τε καὶ ἄκτιστος φύσις, κτιστὸς δὲ ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τάχα διαβλέψας διὰ τοῦ ἰδίου λόγου πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν μετατάξεται, συνθέμενος ἐν τῷ κτιστῷ κατὰ φιλανθρωπίαν 3.4.52 γεγενῆσθαι τὸ ἄκτιστον. εἰ δὲ οἴεται κτιστὸν ἀποδεικνύειν τὸν κύριον διὰ τοῦ δεῖξαι θεὸν ὄντα τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύ σεως μετεσχηκέναι, πολλὰ τοιαῦτα πρὸς τὴν τοῦ ἴσου κατασκευὴν εὑρεθήσεται ἐκ τοῦ ὁμοίου τὴν συνηγορίαν πλη ροῦντα τῷ λόγῳ. καὶ γὰρ ἐπειδὴ λόγος ἦν καὶ θεὸς ἦν, Μετὰ ταῦτα δέ, καθώς φησιν ὁ προφήτης, ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ὤφθη καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συνανεστράφη, ἓν τῶν κτισμάτων εἶναι διὰ τούτων ἀποδειχθήσεται. εἰ δὲ ταῦτα πόρρω τῶν ζητουμένων, οὐδὲ τὰ ὅμοια πάντως τοῖς προκειμένοις ᾠκεί ωται. ἴσον γάρ ἐστι κατὰ τὴν ἔννοιαν τὸν ἐν ἀρχῇ ὄντα λόγον μετὰ ταῦτα πεφανερῶσθαι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις διὰ σαρκὸς λέγειν καὶ ἐν μορφῇ θεοῦ ὑπάρχοντα τὴν τοῦ δούλου μορφὴν ὑποδύεσθαι. ὧν εἰ τὸ ἕτερον εἰς κατασκευὴν τῆς βλασφημίας ἀνόνητον, συναποβαλεῖν ἀνάγκη καὶ τὸ λει πόμενον. 3.4.53 Ἀλλὰ συμβουλεύει φιλανθρώπως