12. And it is not only in the case of the theology that the use of the terms varies,  44  According to patristic usage the word “theology” is concerned with all that relates to the divine and eternal nature of Christ, as distinguished from the οἰκονομία, which relates to the incarnation, and consequent redemption of mankind. cf. Bishop Lightfoot’s Apostolic Fathers, Part II. Vol. ii. p. 75, and Newman’s Arians, Chapter I. Section iii. but whenever one of the terms takes the meaning of the other we find them frequently transferred from the one subject to the other. As, for instance, Adam says, “I have gotten a man  through God,”  45  Gen. iv. 1, lxx. A.V. renders “she conceived and bare Cain and said,” and here St. Basil has been accused of quoting from memory. But in the Greek of the lxx. the subject to εἶπεν is not expressed, and a possible construction of the sentence is to refer it to Adam. In his work adv. Eunom. ii. 20, St. Basil again refers the exclamation to Adam. meaning to say the same as from God; and in another passage “Moses commanded…Israel through the word of the Lord,”  46  Num. xxxvi. 5, lxx. and, again, “Is not the interpretation through God?”  47  Gen. xl. 8, lxx. Joseph, discoursing about dreams to the prisoners, instead of saying “  from God” says plainly “  through God.” Inversely Paul uses the term “  from whom” instead of “  through whom,” when he says “made from a woman” (A.V., “of” instead of “  through a woman”).  48  Gal. iv. 4. And this he has plainly distinguished in another passage, where he says that it is proper to a woman to be made of the man, and to a man to be made through the woman, in the words “For as the woman is from [A.V., of] the man, even so is the man also through [A.V., by] the woman.”  49  1 Cor. xi. 12. Nevertheless in the passage in question the apostle, while illustrating the variety of usage, at the same time corrects  obiter the error of those who supposed that the body of the Lord was a spiritual body,  50  The allusion is to the Docetæ. cf. Luke xxiv. 39. and, to shew that the God-bearing  51  The note of the Benedictine Editors remarks that the French theologian Fronton du Duc (Ducæus) accuses Theodoret (on Cyril’s Anath. vii.) of misquoting St. Basil as writing here “God-bearing man” instead of “God bearing flesh,” a term of different signification and less open as a Nestorian interpretation. “God-bearing,” θεοφόρος, was an epithet applied to mere men, as, for instance, St. Ignatius. So Clement of Alexandria, I. Strom. p. 318, and Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. xxxvii. p. 609. St. Basil does use the expression Jesus Christ ἄνθρωπον Θεόν in Hom. on Ps. xlix. flesh was formed out of the common lump  52  φυραμα. cf. Rom. ix. 21. of human nature, gave precedence to the more emphatic preposition.

The phrase “through a woman” would be likely to give rise to the suspicion of mere transit in the generation, while the phrase “of the woman” would satisfactorily indicate that the nature was shared by the mother and the offspring. The apostle was in no wise contradicting himself, but he shewed that the words can without difficulty be interchanged. Since, therefore, the term “from whom” is transferred to the identical subjects in the case of which “through whom” is decided to be properly used, with what consistency can these phrases be invariably distinguished one from the other, in order that fault may be falsely found with true religion?

[12] Οὐ μόνον δὲ ἐπὶ τῆς θεολογίας αἱ χρήσεις τῶν φωνῶν ἐπαλλάττονται, ἀλλ' ἤδη καὶ πρὸς τὰ ὑπ' ἀλλήλων σημαινόμενα πολλάκις ἀντιμεθίστανται, ὅταν ἑτέρα τὴν τῆς ἑτέρας σημασίαν ἀντιλαμβάνῃ. Οἷον: «Ἐκτησάμην ἄνθρωπον διὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ», φησὶν ὁ Ἀδάμ, ἴσον λέγων τῷ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Καὶ ἑτέρωθι: «Ὅσα ἐνετείλατο Μωϋσῆς τῷ Ἰσραὴλ διὰ τοῦ προστάγματος Κυρίου.» Καὶ πάλιν: «Οὐχὶ διὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡ διασάφησις αὐτῶν ἐστιν;» ὁ Ἰωσὴφ περὶ τῶν ἐνυπνίων τοῖς ἐν τῷ δεσμωτηρίῳ διαλεγόμενος, σαφῶς καὶ αὐτὸς ἀντὶ τοῦ ἐκ Θεοῦ εἰπεῖν διὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ εἴρηκε. Καὶ ἀνάπαλιν τῇ ἐξ οὗ προθέσει, ἀντὶ τῆς δι' οὗ, κέχρηται Παῦλος: ὡς ὅταν λέγῃ: «Γενόμενος ἐκ γυναικός», ἀντὶ τοῦ διὰ γυναικός. Τοῦτο γὰρ ἡμῖν ἑτέρωθι σαφῶς διεστείλατο, γυναικὶ μὲν προσήκειν λέγων τὸ ἐκ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς γεγεννῆσθαι, ἀνδρὶ δὲ τὸ διὰ τῆς γυναικός, ἐν οἷς φησιν ὅτι «Ὥσπερ γυνὴ ἐξ ἀνδρός, οὕτως ἀνὴρ διὰ τῆς γυναικός». Ἀλλ' ὅμως ἐνταῦθα, ὁμοῦ μὲν τὸ διάφορον τῆς χρήσεως ἐνδεικνύμενος, ὁμοῦ δὲ καὶ τὸ σφάλμα τινῶν ἐν παραδρομῇ διορθούμενος τῶν οἰομένων πνευματικὸν εἶναι τοῦ Κυρίου τὸ σῶμα, ἵνα δείξῃ ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ ἀνθρωπείου φυράματος ἡ θεοφόρος σὰρξ συνεπάγη, τὴν ἐμφατικωτέραν φωνὴν προετίμησε_τὸ μὲν γὰρ διὰ γυναικὸς παροδικὴν ἔμελλε τὴν ἔννοιαν τῆς γεννήσεως ὑποφαίνειν: τὸ δὲ ἐκ τῆς γυναικὸς ἱκανῶς παραδηλοῦν τὴν κοινωνίαν τῆς φύσεως τοῦ τικτομένου πρὸς τὴν γεννήσασαν_, οὐχ ἑαυτῷ που μαχόμενος, ἀλλὰ δεικνὺς ὅτι ῥᾳδίως ἀλλήλαις ἀντεπιχωριάζουσιν αἱ φωναί. Ὁπότε τοίνυν καὶ ἐφ' ὧν διωρίσθη τὸ δι' οὗ κυρίως λέγεσθαι, ἐπὶ τῶν αὐτῶν τούτων τὸ ἐξ οὗ μετελήφθη, τίνα λόγον ἔχει ἐπὶ συκοφαντίᾳ τῆς εὐσεβείας, πάντῃ ἀλλήλων ἀφορίζειν τὰς λέξεις;