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at his entrance through the pregnancy of the holy virgin. But being born and lying in a manger he did not escape the notice of a choir of angels. Indeed, hosts were sent to serve as a bodyguard at the entrance of the king of the age, victory hymns were performed, peace was proclaimed among the shepherds. But what obscured his power? For while he was still an infant and being carried, signs of a star came from the east, the arrival of magi, both adoration and the bearing of gifts, the inquiry of the scribes to the king, the response and confession concerning him. But all the other things, which the sequence contains, what assailed his divinity? What covering, as in us, did the possession of the flesh have? He rebukes the waves and the winds and the sea, and the power of his divinity is not restrained by the flesh, accomplishing that which is according to the nature of divinity. But though the flesh has bulk and weight, he is not constrained by weight. For he walks upon the waters as on dry land, as the unchangeable God, existing in the flesh, but not altered by the flesh. And he calls with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth," not having the flesh as an opponent, nor with the divinity enslaved by the flesh in the perfect incarnation. 29. And I have many things to say concerning this; but he also rises from the dead and breaks open the things in Hades and, having taken it, brought up the captivity, and rising on the third day in his holy flesh and holy soul and mind and the whole vessel, and united in the divinity, he became a perfect man, uniting his incarnation to his divinity, "death no longer having dominion over him." And united to the divinity he perfected the dense into the fine, "entering while the doors were shut," and after the entrance showing "flesh and bones," so that the saving power might be revealed, so that he might show our hope that the Word, having come, perfected all things and, having been taken up in the body itself, gloriously sat 3.442 at the right hand of the Father, not being pressed by its bulk, not existing outside the body, but having raised the body as spiritual. If our own "is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body," how much more that of the only-begotten Son of God? Therefore it is fulfilled, "you will not give your Holy One to see corruption, nor will you leave my soul in Hades." But all these things have been said by me concerning his perfect incarnation, so that some might not think that because he took up perfect flesh, he then also did the irrational things of the flesh. For no one of those who piously believe in him thinks or says this. And if no one thinks that he has done the irrational things of the flesh, neither should he think that he has done the irrational things of the mind. And that the Word, having come, became incarnate perfectly, this is clear. And if we say perfectly, we do not have two Christs, not two kings sons of God, but the same God the same man, not as one dwelling in a man, but he himself wholly becoming incarnate, not being a man who came to a progression of divinity, but God having come from heaven and having fashioned for himself his own incarnation according to his powerful divinity, as it says that "the Word became flesh." But "the Word became flesh," so that some might not think that first he was a man and Christ came into a man, for this reason the divine gospel put the Word first, then it confessed the flesh that "the Word became flesh." For it did not say, the flesh became Word, in order to show first the Word coming from heaven, and having given substance in himself to the flesh from the womb of the holy virgin and having perfectly fashioned the whole incarnation in himself. For even if it says, "the Word became flesh," it is not that the Word was turned into flesh and the Word became flesh or the divinity was changed into flesh, but with the divinity God the Word, having come, took his own incarnation. 30. And "Jesus advanced," it says, "in age and wisdom." But he who does not have a mind

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εἰσόδῳ διὰ τῆς ἐγκυμονήσεως τῆς ἁγίας παρθένου. γεννηθεὶς δὲ καὶ ἐν φάτνῃ κείμενος οὐ λέληθεν ἀγγέλων χορόν. παρεμβολαὶ δὲ ἐπὶ τῇ τοῦ βασιλέως τοῦ αἰῶνος εἰσόδῳ δορυφορεῖν ἀπεστέλλοντο, ὕμνοι ἐπινίκιοι ἐτελοῦντο, εἰρήνη ἐν τοῖς ποιμέσιν ἐκηρύττετο. ἀλλὰ τί ἠμαύρωσε τὴν αὐτοῦ δύναμιν; ἔτι γὰρ ὄντος αὐτοῦ βρέφους καὶ βασταζομένου ἀστέρος μὲν γίνεται σημεῖα ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν, μάγων παρουσία, προσκύνησίς τε καὶ δωροφορία, γραμματέων ζήτησις βασιλεῖ, ἡ περὶ αὐτοῦ ἀπόκρισις καὶ ὁμολογία. τὰ δὲ ἄλλα πάντα, ὅσα περιέχει ἡ ἀκολουθία, τί ἐνέσκηψε τῇ αὐτοῦ θεότητι; ποῖον ἐπικάλυμμα ἔσχεν, ὡς ἐν ἡμῖν, ἡ σαρκὸς κατοχή; ἐπιτιμᾷ μὲν κλύδωνι καὶ τοῖς ἀνέμοις καὶ τῇ θαλάσσῃ, καὶ οὐκ ἐπέχεται ἀπὸ τῆς σαρκὸς ἡ τῆς αὐτοῦ θεότητος δύναμις, ἐπιτελοῦσα τὸ κατὰ φύσιν τῆς θεότητος. ἀλλὰ καὶ ὄγκου καὶ βάρους τῆς σαρκὸς ὑπαρχούσης οὐ βάρει συνέχεται. περιπατεῖ γὰρ ὡς ἐπὶ ξηρᾷ ἐπὶ τοῖς ὕδασιν, ὡς ἄτρεπτος θεός, ἐν σαρκὶ μὲν ὑπάρχων, οὐκ ἀπὸ σαρκὸς δὲ ἀλλοιούμενος. καὶ καλεῖ μεγάλῃ φωνῇ «Λάζαρε, δεῦρο ἔξω», οὐκ ἀντίθετον ἔχων τὴν σάρκα, οὐδὲ τῆς θεότητος ἐν σαρκὶ τῇ τελείᾳ ἐνανθρωπήσει δεδουλωμένης. 29. Καὶ πολλά μοί ἐστι περὶ τούτου λέγειν· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνίσταται καὶ ἀναμοχλεύει τὰ καθ' Ἅιδου καὶ ἑλὼν ἀνήνεγκε τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν καὶ ἀναστὰς τὸ τριήμερον ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ἁγίᾳ σαρκὶ καὶ ψυχῇ τῇ ἁγίᾳ καὶ νῷ καὶ παντὶ τῷ σκεύει καὶ ἐν τῇ θεότητι ἡνωμένος τέλειος γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος, συνενώσας τὴν ἐνανθρώπησιν ἑαυτοῦ τῇ θεότητι, «θανάτου αὐτοῦ μηκέτι κυριεύοντος». τῇ δὲ θεότητι συνηνωμένος τὸ παχυμερὲς λεπτομερὲς ἐτελείου, «εἰσερχόμενος θυρῶν κεκλεισμένων», καὶ μετὰ τὴν εἴσοδον δεικνὺς «σάρκα καὶ ὀστέα», ἵνα τὸ σωτήριον τῆς δυνάμεως ὑποφάνῃ, ἵνα τὴν ἡμῶν ἐλπίδα ὑποδείξῃ ὅτι τὰ πάντα ἐτελείωσεν ἐλθὼν ὁ λόγος καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ σώματι ἀναληφθεὶς ἐνδόξως ἐκάθισεν 3.442 ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ πατρός, οὐκ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄγκου πιεζόμενος, οὐκ ἐκτὸς τοῦ σώματος ὑπάρχων, τὸ δὲ σῶμα πνευματικὸν ἐγείρας. εἰ τὸ ἡμέτερον «σπείρεται ἐν φθορᾷ, ἐγείρεται ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ· σπείρεται σῶμα ψυχικόν, ἐγείρεται σῶμα πνευματικόν», πόσῳ γε μᾶλλον τοῦ μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ; διὸ πεπλήρωται «οὐ δώσεις τὸν ὅσιόν σου ἰδεῖν διαφθοράν, οὐδὲ ἐάσεις τὴν ψυχήν μου εἰς Ἅιδην». ἀλλὰ ταῦτά μοι πάντα περὶ τῆς τελείας αὐτοῦ ἐνανθρωπήσεως εἴρηται, ἵνα μή τινες νομίσωσι διὰ τὸ σάρκα αὐτὸν ἀνειληφέναι τελείαν μὴ ἄρα καὶ τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς ἄλογα ἔπραξεν. οὐδεὶς γὰρ τῶν εὐσεβῶς πιστευόντων εἰς αὐτὸν τοῦτο νοεῖ ἢ λέγει. εἰ δὲ οὐδεὶς νοεῖ περὶ αὐτοῦ τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς ἄλογα πεπραχέναι, οὔτε τὰ τοῦ νοῦ ἄλογα αὐτὸν πεποιηκέναι νοήσειεν. καὶ ὅτι μὲν τελείως ἐνηνθρώπησεν ἐλθὼν ὁ λόγος, τοῦτο δῆλον. καὶ ἐὰν εἴπωμεν τελείως, οὐ δύο Χριστοὺς ἔχομεν, οὐ δύο βασιλέας υἱοὺς θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ τὸν αὐτὸν θεὸν τὸν αὐτὸν ἄνθρωπον, οὐχ ὡς ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ οἰκήσαντα, ἀλλ' αὐτὸν ὅλον ἐνανθρωπήσαντα, οὐκ ἄνθρωπον ὄντα ἐλθόντα εἰς προκοπὴν θεότητος, ἀλλὰ θεὸν ἀπ' οὐρανῶν ἐλθόντα καὶ εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἀναπλασάμενον τὴν ἰδίαν ἐνανθρώπησιν κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ δυνατὴν θεότητα, ὡς λέγει ὅτι «ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο». τὸ δὲ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο, ἵνα μή τινες νομίσωσιν ὅτι πρῶτον ἄνθρωπος ἦν καὶ ἦλθε Χριστὸς εἰς ἄνθρωπον, διὰ τοῦτο λόγον πρῶτον ἔταξε τὸ θεῖον εὐαγγέλιον, εἶτα τὴν σάρκα ὡμολόγησεν ὅτι «ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο». οὐ γὰρ εἶπεν, ἡ σὰρξ λόγος ἐγένετο, ἵνα δείξῃ πρῶτον λόγον ἀπ' οὐρανῶν ἐλθόντα, εἰς ἑαυτὸν δὲ ὑποστήσαντα τὴν σάρκα ἀπὸ τῆς μήτρας τῆς ἁγίας παρθένου καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ἐνανθρώπησιν τελείως εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἀναπλασάμενον. κἄν τε γὰρ εἴπῃ, «ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο», οὐχ ὅτι ἐτράπη ὁ λόγος εἰς σάρκα καὶ γέγονεν ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἢ ἡ θεότης μετεβλήθη εἰς σάρκα, ἀλλὰ σὺν τῇ θεότητι ἔλαβε τὴν ἰδίαν αὐτοῦ ἐνανθρώπησιν ἐλθὼν ὁ θεὸς λόγος. 30. Καὶ «προέκοπτε», φησίν, «ἐν ἡλικίᾳ Ἰησοῦς καὶ σοφίᾳ». ὁ δὲ νοῦν μὴ