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a virgin betrothed to a man,” so that from the betrothed man he might show that Mary was truly human. And scripture mentions "giving birth" and says "he was wrapped in swaddling clothes," and "blessed were the breasts which he suckled," and a sacrifice was offered, as for one who "opened the womb" when he was born. And all these were the marks of a virgin giving birth. And Gabriel securely evangelized her, saying not simply "what is born" in you, so that it might not be thought a body introduced to her from outside, but "from you," so that what was born might be believed to be from her by nature, nature itself also clearly showing this, as it is impossible for the body of a virgin who has not given birth to produce milk, and impossible for a body to be nourished with milk and wrapped in swaddling clothes without first having been born by nature. This is he who was "circumcised on the eighth day"; this is he whom Simeon "received into his arms"; this is he who "became a child and grew," becoming twelve years old and came to his thirtieth year. For it was not, as some have supposed, 20the substance of the Word itself that was changed and circumcised20, being unalterable and immutable, as the Savior himself says, "See me, that it is I, and I have not changed," and Paul writes, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." But in the body that was 20circumcised20 and carried and ate and grew weary and was 20nailed to the tree3.423 20 and suffered, was the impassible and incorporeal Word of God. This was what was placed in the tomb, when he himself "went and preached to the spirits in prison," as Peter said. 8. Which especially shows the folly of those who say that the Word was changed into bones and flesh. For if this were so, there would have been no need of a tomb. For the body itself would have gone by itself to preach to the spirits in Hades. But as it was, he himself went to preach, while "Joseph, wrapping the body in a linen shroud, laid it away" in Golgotha; and it has been shown to all that the Word was not the body, but it was the body of the Word. And this Thomas touched after he had risen from the dead and saw in it "the prints of the nails," which the Word himself endured, seeing them nailed into his own body, and though able to prevent it, did not prevent it, but even made the properties of the body his own, as his own, he who is incorporeal. Indeed, when the body was struck by the servant, as if he himself were suffering, he said, "Why do you strike me?" And though untouchable by nature, nevertheless he said, "I gave my back to the whips, and my face I did not turn away from spitting." For what the human nature of the Word suffered, these things the Word, being with it, referred to himself, in order that we might be able to partake of the divinity of the Word. And it was a paradox that he himself was the one suffering and not suffering; suffering, because his own body suffered and he was in it as it suffered; not suffering, because being God by nature the Word is impassible. And he himself, the incorporeal one, was in the passible body, and the body had in itself the impassible Word, who made the weaknesses of the body itself disappear. And he did this and it happened thus, so that by accepting our things and offering them as a sacrifice, he might abolish them, and then, clothing us with his own, might make the apostle say, "For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality." 9. But these things did not happen by 20arrangement20, God forbid, as some again have supposed, but with the Savior truly having become man in reality, the salvation of the whole man came to be. For if the Word was in the body by arrangement, according to them, and what is called by arrangement is a phantom, then the salvation and resurrection of men are found to be spoken of in appearance, according to the most impious Manichaeus. But indeed, our salvation was not a phantom, nor was it of the body only, but the salvation of the whole man, soul and body, truly came to be in him. Therefore, human by 20nature20 3.424 was that which was from 20Mary20 according to the divine scriptures, and a true body of the Savior. And it was true because it was the same as ours. A sister

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παρθένον μεμνηστευμένην ἀνδρί», ἵν' ἐκ τοῦ μνηστῆρος δείξῃ τὴν Μαρίαν ἀληθῶς ἄνθρωπον οὖσαν. καὶ τοῦ «τίκτειν» μνημονεύει ἡ γραφὴ καί φησιν «ἐσπαργάνωσε», καὶ «ἐμακαρίζοντο μαστοὶ οὓς ἐθήλασε», καὶ προσηνέχθη θυσία, ὡς «διανοίξαντος» τοῦ τεχθέντος «τὴν μήτραν». ταῦτα δὲ πάντα τικτούσης ἦν παρθένου γνωρίσματα. καὶ ὁ Γαβριὴλ δὲ ἀσφαλῶς εὐηγγελίζετο αὐτῇ λέγων οὐχ ἁπλῶς «τὸ γεννώμενον» ἐν σοί, ἵνα μὴ ἔξωθεν ἐπεισαγόμενον αὐτῇ σῶμα νομισθείη, ἀλλ' «ἐκ σοῦ», ἵνα φύσει τὸ γεννώμενον ἐξ αὐτῆς εἶναι πιστευθείη, φανερῶς καὶ τοῦτο τῆς φύσεως δεικνυούσης, ὡς ἀδύνατον σῶμα παρθένου φέρειν γάλα μὴ τεκούσης καὶ ἀδύνατον γάλακτι τραφῆναι σῶμα καὶ σπαργανωθῆναι μὴ πρότερον φύσει τεχθέν. τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ «περιτμηθὲν ὀκταήμερον»· τοῦτο Συμεὼν «εἰς τὰς ἀγκάλας ἐδέξατο»· τοῦτο γέγονε «παιδίον καὶ ηὔξησε» δωδεκαετὴς γενόμενος καὶ εἰς τὸν τριακοστὸν ἐνιαυτὸν ἦλθεν. οὐ γάρ, ὥς τινες ὑπενόησαν, 20ἡ οὐσία αὐτὴ τοῦ λόγου τραπεῖσα περιετμήθη20, ἀναλλοίωτος οὖσα καὶ ἄτρεπτος, λέγοντος μὲν αὐτοῦ τοῦ σωτῆρος «ἴδετέ με ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι καὶ οὐκ ἠλλοίωμαι», τοῦ δὲ Παύλου γράφοντος «Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς χθὲς καὶ σήμερον ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας». ἀλλὰ ἐν τῷ 20περιτμηθέντι20 σώματι καὶ βασταχθέντι καὶ φαγόντι καὶ καμόντι καὶ 20ἐν ξύλῳ καθη3.423 λωθέντι20 καὶ παθόντι ἦν ὁ ἀπαθὴς καὶ ἀσώματος τοῦ θεοῦ λόγος. τοῦτο ἦν ἐν τῷ μνημείῳ τεθέν, ὅτε αὐτὸς «ἐπορεύθη κηρῦξαι καὶ τοῖς ἐν φυλακῇ πνεύμασιν», ὡς εἶπεν ὁ Πέτρος. 8. ὃ μάλιστα δείκνυσι τὴν ἄνοιαν τῶν λεγόντων εἰς ὀστέα καὶ σάρκα τετράφθαι τὸν λόγον. εἰ γὰρ τοῦτο ἦν, οὐκ ἦν χρεία μνημείου. αὐτὸ γὰρ ἂν ἐπορεύθη δι' ἑαυτοῦ τὸ σῶμα κηρῦξαι τοῖς ἐν τῷ Ἅιδῃ πνεύμασι. νῦν δὲ αὐτὸς μὲν ἐπορεύθη κηρῦξαι, τὸ δὲ σῶμα «εἰλίξας Ἰωσὴφ σινδόνι ἀπέθετο» ἐν τῷ Γολγοθᾷ· καὶ δέδεικται πᾶσιν ὅτι μὴ τὸ σῶμα ἦν ὁ λόγος, ἀλλὰ σῶμα ἦν τοῦ λόγου. καὶ τοῦτο Θωμᾶς ἀναστὰν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐψηλάφησε καὶ εἶδεν ἐν αὐτῷ «τοὺς τύπους τῶν ἥλων», οὓς ὑπέμεινεν αὐτὸς ὁ λόγος ὁρῶν καθηλουμένους ἐν τῷ σώματι τῷ ἰδίῳ καὶ δυνάμενος κωλύειν οὐκ ἐκώλυσεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἰδιοποιεῖτο τὰ τοῦ σώματος ἴδια, ὡς ἑαυτοῦ, ὁ ἀσώματος. ἀμέλει τοῦ σώματος τυπτομένου παρὰ τοῦ ὑπηρέτου, ὡς αὐτὸς πάσχων ἔλεγε «τί με δέρεις;» καὶ ἄψαυστος ὢν τῇ φύσει ὅμως ἔλεγε «τὸν νῶτόν μου ἔδωκα εἰς μάστιγας, καὶ τὸ πρόσωπόν μου οὐκ ἀπέστρεψα ἀπὸ ἐμπτυσμάτων». ἃ γὰρ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον ἔπασχε τοῦ λόγου, ταῦτα συνὼν αὐτῷ ὁ λόγος εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἀνέφερεν, ἵνα ἡμεῖς τῆς τοῦ λόγου θεότητος δυνηθῶμεν μετασχεῖν. καὶ ἦν παράδοξον ὅτι αὐτὸς ἦν ὁ πάσχων καὶ μὴ πάσχων, πάσχων μέν, ὅτι τὸ ἴδιον αὐτοῦ ἔπασχε σῶμα καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ πάσχοντι ἦν, μὴ πάσχων δέ, ὅτι τῇ φύσει θεὸς ὢν ὁ λόγος ἀπαθής ἐστι. καὶ αὐτὸς μὲν ὁ ἀσώματος ἦν ἐν τῷ παθητῷ σώματι, τὸ δὲ σῶμα ἔσχεν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸν ἀπαθῆ λόγον ἀφανίζοντα τὰς ἀσθενείας αὐτοῦ τοῦ σώματος. ἐποίει δὲ τοῦτο καὶ ἐγίνετο οὕτως, ἵνα τὰ ἡμῶν αὐτὸς δεχόμενος καὶ προσενεγκὼν εἰς θυσίαν ἐξαφανίσῃ καὶ λοιπὸν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ περιβαλὼν ἡμᾶς ποιήσῃ τὸν ἀπόστολον εἰπεῖν «δεῖ τὸ φθαρτὸν τοῦτο ἐνδύσασθαι ἀφθαρσίαν καὶ τὸ θνητὸν τοῦτο ἐνδύσασθαι ἀθανασίαν». 9. Οὐ 20θέσει20 δὲ ταῦτα ἐγίνετο, μὴ γένοιτο, ὥς τινες πάλιν ὑπέλαβον, ἀλλὰ ὄντως ἀνθρώπου ἀληθείᾳ γενομένου τοῦ σωτῆρος, ὅλου τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σωτηρία ἐγένετο. εἰ γὰρ θέσει ἦν ἐν τῷ σώματι ὁ λόγος κατ' ἐκείνους, τὸ δὲ θέσει λεγόμενον φαντασία ἐστίν, εὑρίσκεται δοκήσει καὶ ἡ σωτηρία καὶ ἡ ἀνάστασις τῶν ἀνθρώπων λεγομένη κατὰ τὸν ἀσεβέστατον Μανιχαῖον. ἀλλὰ μὴν οὐ φαντασία ἡ σωτηρία γέγονεν ἡμῶν οὐδὲ σώματος μόνου, ἀλλ' ὅλου τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος ἀληθῶς ἐν αὐτῷ ἡ σωτηρία γέγονεν. ἀνθρώπινον ἄρα 20φύσει20 3.424 τὸ ἐκ 20Μαρίας20 κατὰ τὰς θείας γραφὰς καὶ ἀληθινὸν σῶμα τοῦ σωτῆρος. ἀληθινὸν δὲ ἦν, ἐπειδὴ ταυτὸν ἦν τῷ ἡμετέρῳ. ἀδελφὴ