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but flesh from the seed of David” and from the flesh of Mary became man, as Paul said. This one the Father also showed at the Jordan and on the mountain, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This one the Arians denied, but we acknowledge and worship him, not dividing the Son and the Word, but knowing that the Word himself is the Son, through whom all things were made and we were set free. Wherefore we also wondered how on earth contention has arisen among you concerning things so manifest. But thanks be to God, as much as we were grieved in reading the memoranda, so much did we rejoice at their conclusion. For they departed in agreement and made peace on the confession of the pious and orthodox faith. This, at any rate, after much prior consideration, has made me write these few things, reasoning lest perhaps from silence, instead of joy, grief should arise for those who have given us cause for rejoicing by their agreement. I ask, therefore, firstly your Reverence and secondly the hearers, to receive these things with a good conscience, and if anything is lacking with respect to piety, to correct it and make it known to me, but if it has been written as by an unskilled person in speech, not worthily nor completely, for all to forgive our weakness in speaking. Farewell. It is fulfilled. 3.428 14. Since, therefore, the letter was also inserted and not only from what we heard from them or from others against what was said did we set out to write, but it also became manifest to all that we slandered no one. Next I shall take up the argument against them, so that we may not be supposed by anyone from any quarter to be slandering our brothers, although I pray for them even now to correct the things that seem to grieve us, so that they may not be lost to us, nor we to them. For many times have we made this plea and exhorted and still we persist in exhorting, to put away contention and to follow the divine rule and confession of the apostles and evangelists and fathers, of the faith that is without curiosity and firm and immovable and most just in all things. But others have spoken into our ears that the Lord, when he came, did not take this our flesh nor one like ours, but another besides ours. And would that they said this in doxology and in praise. For we ourselves also say that the body is holy and undefiled; “for he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.” And this is clear to anyone who speaks and thinks piously concerning Christ. But we, if we say the body itself, just as he has taken our own, * with him his body is undefiled, but in us who have sinned *, not because the body is alien and strange, inferior and lessened, but because of our sins and transgressions, for this reason *. For the Lord did not take one body and we have another, but the body itself preserved in him and kept undefiled *. 15. But others of them, even to this day, being carried away by a certain contentiousness, led on by strange suspicions, not according to the teaching of the fathers nor holding fast to “the head of faith, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God,” as the apostle says, but perhaps as having had their ears confused by some strangers, more closely to Valentinus and Marcion and Manichaeus, they themselves also, ostensibly for the honor of Christ, imagine things rather 3.429 than speak the truth. When they hear from us that Christ had our body, they immediately turn to the private myths of their contentiousness, saying that he had fingernails and flesh and hair and whatever else, but not such as we have, but that he had other fingernails and other flesh and all the other things not such as we have, but different from ours, ostensibly again wishing sophistically something for Christ

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δὲ σάρκα ἐκ σπέρματος ∆αυὶδ» καὶ τῆς σαρκὸς Μαρίας γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, ὡς εἶπεν ὁ Παῦλος. τοῦτον καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἐδείκνυεν ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ καὶ ἐν τῷ ὄρει λέγων «οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱός μου ὁ ἀγαπητός, ἐν ᾧ ηὐδόκησα». τοῦτον οἱ μὲν Ἀρειανοὶ ἠρνήσαντο, ἡμεῖς δὲ ἐπιγινώσκομεν προσκυνοῦντες, οὐ διαιροῦντες τὸν υἱὸν καὶ τὸν λόγον, ἀλλ' αὐτὸν τὸν λόγον εἰδότες εἶναι τὸν υἱόν, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα γέγονε καὶ ἡμεῖς ἠλευθερώθημεν. διὸ καὶ ἐθαυμάσαμεν πῶς ὅλως ἐν ὑμῖν περὶ τῶν οὕτως φανερῶν γέγονε φιλονεικία. ἀλλὰ χάρις τῷ θεῷ, ὅσον ἐλυπήθημεν ἐντυγχάνοντες τοῖς ὑπομνήμασι, τοσοῦτον ἐχάρημεν ἐπὶ τῷ τέλει τούτων. μετὰ γὰρ συμφωνίας ἀνεχώρησαν καὶ εἰρήνευσαν ἐπὶ τῇ ὁμολογίᾳ τῆς εὐσεβοῦς καὶ ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως. τοῦτο γοῦν κἀμὲ πολλὰ πρότερον σκεψάμενον πεποίηκε γράψαι τὰ ὀλίγα ταῦτα, λογισάμενον μὴ ἄρα ἐκ τῆς σιωπῆς ἀντὶ χαρᾶς λύπη γένηται τοῖς ἐκ τῆς συμφωνίας πρόφασιν τοῦ χαίρειν παρασχοῦσιν ἡμῖν. ἀξιῶ τοίνυν προηγουμένως τὴν σὴν εὐλάβειαν καὶ δεύτερον τοὺς ἀκούοντας, μετὰ συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς ταῦτα δέξασθαι, καὶ εἰ μέν τι πρὸς εὐσέβειαν λείπει, τοῦτο διορθώσασθαι καὶ δηλῶσαί μοι, εἰ δὲ ὡς παρὰ ἰδιώτου τῷ λόγῳ μηδὲ κατ' ἀξίαν μηδὲ τελείως γέγραπται, συγγνῶναι πάντας τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ περὶ τὸ λέγειν ἀσθενείᾳ. ἔρρωσθε. Πεπλήρωται. 3.428 14. Ἐπεὶ οὖν καὶ ἡ ἐπιστολὴ ἐνετάγη καὶ οὐ μόνον ἐξ ὧν παρ' αὐτῶν ἠκούσαμεν ἢ παρ' ἑτέρων κατὰ τῶν λεγομένων ὡρμήσαμεν γράψαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶσι φανερὸν κατέστη ὅτι οὐδένα ἐσυκοφαντήσαμεν. ἑξῆς δὲ ἐπιλήψομαι τῆς κατ' αὐτῶν ὑποθέσεως, ἵνα ἐκ πανταχόθεν μὴ ὑποληφθῶμέν τισιν ὡς συκοφαντοῦντες τοὺς ἡμετέρους ἀδελφούς, καίτοι γε εὐχόμενος αὐτοῖς καὶ εἰς δεῦρο διορθῶσαι τὰ δοκοῦντα ἡμᾶς λυπεῖν, ἵνα μὴ αὐτοὶ ἡμᾶς ζημιωθῶσι μηδὲ ἡμεῖς αὐτούς. πολλάκις γὰρ τοῦτο ἐπρεσβεύσαμεν καὶ παρεκαλέσαμεν καὶ ἔτι ἐπιμένομεν παρακαλοῦντες, ἆραι τὴν φιλονεικίαν καὶ ἀκολουθῆσαι τῷ τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ εὐαγγελιστῶν καὶ πατέρων θείῳ θεσμῷ καὶ ὁμολογίᾳ τῆς πίστεως τῆς ἀπεριέργου καὶ ἑδραίας καὶ ἀμετακινήτου καὶ δικαιοτάτης ἐν πᾶσιν. Ἄλλοι δὲ εἰς ἡμῶν ὦτα εἰρήκασιν ὅτι οὐ ταύτην τὴν ἡμετέραν σάρκα οὐδὲ ὁμοίαν ἡμῶν ἐλθὼν ἔλαβεν ὁ κύριος, ἀλλὰ ἄλλην παρὰ τὴν ἡμῶν. καὶ εἴθε κατὰ δοξολογίαν ἔλεγον καὶ κατὰ ἔπαινον. καὶ αὐτοὶ γάρ φαμεν ἅγιον εἶναι τὸ σῶμα καὶ ἄχραντον· «ἁμαρτίαν γὰρ οὐκ ἐποίησεν, οὐδὲ εὑρέθη δόλος ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτοῦ.» καὶ παντί τῳ δῆλόν ἐστι τοῦτο τῷ εὐσεβῶς περὶ Χριστοῦ λέγοντι καὶ νοοῦντι. ἡμεῖς δὲ εἰ καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ σῶμα λέγομεν, ὥσπερ καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ ἡμῶν εἴληφε, * παρ' αὐτῷ ἄχραντον τὸ αὐτοῦ σῶμα, ἐν ἡμῖν δὲ τοῖς πεπλημμεληκόσιν *, οὐ διὰ τὸ ἀλλότριον εἶναι τὸ σῶμα καὶ ἀλλόκοτον τὸ ὑποδεὲς καὶ ἠλαττωμένον, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὰ ἡμῶν ἁμαρτήματα καὶ παραπτώματα, τούτου ἕνεκα *. οὐ γὰρ ἄλλο σῶμα ὁ κύριος ἔλαβε καὶ ἄλλο ἡμεῖς ἔχομεν, ἀλλ' αὐτὸ τὸ σῶμα ἐν αὐτῷ πεφυλαγμένον καὶ ἄχραντον διατετηρημένον *. 15. Ἄλλοι δὲ ἐξ αὐτῶν καὶ ἄχρι τῆς δεῦρο φιλονεικίᾳ τινὶ φερόμενοι, ὑπονοίαις ἀλλοτρίαις προαχθέντες, οὐ κατὰ τὴν διδαχὴν τῶν πατέρων οὐδὲ κατέχοντες «τὴν κεφαλὴν τῆς πίστεως, ἐξ οὗ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα διὰ τῶν ἁφῶν καὶ τῶν συνδέσμων ἐπιχορηγούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον αὔξει τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ θεοῦ», ὡς ὁ ἀπόστολος λέγει, ἀλλὰ τάχα ὡς ὑπὸ ἀλλοτρίων τινῶν θολωθέντες τὰς ἀκοάς, πλησιαιτέρως Οὐαλεντίνῳ καὶ Μαρκίωνι καὶ Μανιχαίῳ καὶ αὐτοὶ δῆθεν εἰς τιμὴν Χριστοῦ φαντάζονται μᾶλλον 3.429 ἤπερ ἀληθεύουσιν. ἐπὰν ἀκούσωσι παρ' ἡμῶν ὅτι ἔσχε Χριστὸς σῶμα τὸ ἡμέτερον, εὐθὺς εἰς τοὺς μύθους τρέπονται τοὺς ἰδίους τῆς φιλονεικίας, λέγοντες ὄνυχας αὐτὸν ἐσχηκέναι καὶ σάρκα καὶ τρίχας καὶ εἴ τι ἕτερον, οὐ τοιούτους δὲ ὁποίους ἡμεῖς ἔχομεν, ἀλλὰ ἄλλους ὄνυχας ἐσχηκέναι καὶ σάρκας ἄλλας καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα οὐχ ὁποῖα ἡμεῖς ἔχομεν, ἀλλὰ ἀλλοῖα παρὰ τὰ ἡμέτερα, δῆθεν πάλιν βουλόμενοι σοφιστικῶς τι Χριστῷ