Chapter XII.—That the holy Virgin is the Mother of God: an argument directed against the Nestorians.

Moreover we proclaim the holy Virgin to be in strict truth660    See especially Greg. Naz., Ep. 1 ad Cled.; Theod., Hær. fab., v. 18. the Mother of God661    Greg. Naz., Epist. I. ad Cledon.. For inasmuch as He who was born of her was true God, she who bare the true God incarnate is the true mother of God. For we hold that God was born of her, not implying that the divinity of the Word received from her the beginning of its being, but meaning that God the Word Himself, Who was begotten of the Father timelessly before the ages, and was with the Father and the Spirit without beginning and through eternity, took up His abode in these last days for the sake of our salvation in the Virgin’s womb, and was without change made flesh and born of her. For the holy Virgin did not bare mere man but true God: and not mere God but God incarnate, Who did not bring down His body from Heaven, nor simply passed through the Virgin as channel, but received from her flesh of like essence to our own and subsisting in Himself662    Ibid.. For if the body had come down from heaven and had not partaken of our nature, what would have been the use of His becoming man? For the purpose of God the Word becoming man663    Infr. ch. 18. was that the very same nature, which had sinned and fallen and become corrupted, should triumph over the deceiving tyrant and so be freed from corruption, just as the divine apostle puts it, For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead664    1 Cor. xv. 21.. If the first is true the second must also be true.

Although665    Greg. Naz., ibid., however, he says, The first Adam is of the earth earthy; the second Adam is Lord from Heaven666    1 Cor. xv. 47., he does not say that His body is from heaven, but emphasises the fact that He is not mere man. For, mark, he called Him both Adam and Lord, thus indicating His double nature. For Adam is, being interpreted, earth-born: and it is clear that man’s nature is earth-born since he is formed from earth, but the title Lord signifies His divine essence.

And again the Apostle says: God sent forth His only-begotten Son, made of a woman667    Gal. iv. 4.. He did not say “made by a woman.” Wherefore the divine apostle meant that the only-begotten Son of God and God is the same as He who was made man of the Virgin, and that He who was born of the Virgin is the same as the Son of God and God.

But He was born after the bodily fashion inasmuch as He became man, and did not take up His abode in a man formed beforehand, as in a prophet, but became Himself in essence and truth man, that is He caused flesh animated with the intelligent and reasonable to subsist in His own subsistence, and Himself became subsistence for it. For this is the meaning of “made of a woman.” For how could the very Word of God itself have been made under the law, if He did not become man of like essence with ourselves?

Hence it is with justice and truth that we call the holy Mary the Mother of God. For this name embraces the whole mystery of the dispensation. For if she who bore Him is the Mother of God, assuredly He Who was born of her is God and likewise also man. For how could God, Who was before the ages, have been born of a woman unless He had become man? For the son of man must clearly be man himself. But if He Who was born of a woman is Himself God, manifestly He Who was born of God the Father in accordance with the laws of an essence that is divine and knows no beginning, and He Who was in the last days born of the Virgin in accordance with the laws of an essence that has beginning and is subject to time, that is, an essence which is human, must be one and the same. The name in truth signifies the one subsistence and the two natures and the two generations of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But we never say that the holy Virgin is the Mother of Christ668    χριστοτόκος, as opposed to θεοτόκος. because it was in order to do away with the title Mother of God, and to bring dishonour on the Mother of God, who alone is in truth worthy of honour above all creation, that the impure and abominable Judaizing Nestorius669    Cyril, ad Monachos, Epist. 1., that vessel of dishonour, invented this name for an insult670    ὡς ἐπηρεαζομένην is absent in Vegelinus.. For David the king, and Aaron, the high priest, are also called Christ671    i.e. Anointed One., for it is customary to make kings and priests by anointing: and besides every God-inspired man may be called Christ, but yet he is not by nature God: yea, the accursed Nestorius insulted Him Who was born of the Virgin by calling Him God-bearer672    θεοφόρος, Deigerus. See Greg. Naz., Ep. 2, ad Cled. Basil, De Spir. Sanc., ch. 5, &c.. May it be far from us to speak of or think of Him as God-bearer only673    Cyril, cont. Nest., bk. 1., Who is in truth God incarnate. For the Word Himself became flesh, having been in truth conceived of the Virgin, but coming forth as God with the assumed nature which, as soon as He was brought forth into being, was deified by Him, so that these three things took place simultaneously, the assumption of our nature, the coming into being, and the deification of the assumed nature by the Word. And thus it is that the holy Virgin is thought of and spoken of as the Mother of God, not only because of the nature of the Word, but also because of the deification of man’s nature, the miracles of conception and of existence being wrought together, to wit, the conception the Word, and the existence of the flesh in the Word Himself. For the very Mother of God in some marvellous manner was the means of fashioning the Framer of all things and of bestowing manhood on the God and Creator of all, Who deified the nature that He assumed, while the union preserved those things that were united just as they were united, that is to say, not only the divine nature of Christ but also His human nature, not only that which is above us but that which is of us. For He was not first made like us and only later became higher than us, but ever674    ἀεί is absent in Vegelinus. from His first coming into being He existed with the double nature, because He existed in the Word Himself from the beginning of the conception. Wherefore He is human in His own nature, but also, in some marvellous manner, of God and divine. Moreover He has the properties of the living flesh: for by reason of the dispensation675    οἰκονομίας λόγῳ, by reason of the incarnation. the Word received these which are, according to the order of natural motion, truly natural676    Reading γινόμενα, for which Cod. R. 2930 gives ὑπῆρχον..

Ὅτι θεοτόκος ἡ ἁγία παρθένος

Θεοτόκον δὲ κυρίως καὶ ἀληθῶς τὴν ἁγίαν παρθένον κηρύττομεν: ὡς γὰρ θεὸς ἀληθὴς ὁ ἐξ αὐτῆς γεννηθείς, ἀληθὴς θεοτόκος ἡ τὸν ἀληθινὸν θεὸν ἐξ αὐτῆς σεσαρκωμένον γεννήσασα. Θεὸν γάρ φαμεν ἐξ αὐτῆς γεγεννῆσθαι, οὐχ ὡς τῆς θεότητος τοῦ λόγου ἀρχὴν τοῦ εἶναι λαβούσης ἐξ αὐτῆς, ἀλλ' ὡς αὐτοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου τοῦ πρὸ αἰώνων ἀχρόνως ἐκ τοῦ πατρὸς γεννηθέντος καὶ ἀνάρχως καὶ ἀιδίως ὑπάρχοντος σὺν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ τῷ πνεύματι ἐπ' ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν ἐν τῇ γαστρὶ αὐτῆς ἐνοικήσαντος καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀμεταβλήτως σαρκωθέντος καὶ γεννηθέντος. Οὐ γὰρ ἄνθρωπον ψιλὸν ἐγέννησεν ἡ ἁγία παρθένος, ἀλλὰ θεὸν ἀληθινόν, οὐ γυμνὸν ἀλλὰ σεσαρκωμένον, οὐκ οὐρανόθεν τὸ σῶμα καταγαγόντα καὶ ὡς διὰ σωλῆνος δι' αὐτῆς παρελθόντα, ἀλλ' ἐξ αὐτῆς ὁμοούσιον ἡμῖν σάρκα ἀναλαβόντα καὶ ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὑποστήσαντα. Εἰ γὰρ οὐρανόθεν τὸ σῶμα κεκόμισται καὶ οὐκ ἐκ τῆς καθ' ἡμᾶς φύσεως εἴληπται, τίς χρεία τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως; Ἡ γὰρ ἐνανθρώπησις τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου διὰ τοῦτο γέγονεν, ἵνα αὐτὴ ἡ ἁμαρτήσασα καὶ πεσοῦσα καὶ φθαρεῖσα φύσις νικήσῃ τὸν ἀπατήσαντα τύραννον καὶ οὕτω τῆς φθορᾶς ἐλευθερωθῇ, καθώς φησιν ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος: «Ἐπειδὴ δι' ἀνθρώπου ὁ θάνατος, καὶ δι' ἀνθρώπου ἀνάστασις νεκρῶν»: εἰ τὸ πρῶτον ἀληθῶς, καὶ τὸ δεύτερον.

Εἰ δὲ καὶ λέγει: «Ὁ πρῶτος Ἀδὰμ ἐκ γῆς χοϊκός, ὁ δεύτερος Ἀδάμ, ὁ κύριος, ἐξ οὐρανοῦ», οὐ τὸ σῶμά φησιν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, ἀλλὰ δηλῶν ὡς οὐ ψιλὸς ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν. Ἰδοὺ γὰρ καὶ Ἀδὰμ αὐτὸν ὠνόμασε καὶ κύριον τὸ συναμφότερον σημαίνων. Ἀδὰμ μὲν γὰρ ἑρμηνεύεται γηγενής: γηγενὴς δὲ δῆλον, ὡς ἔστιν ἡ ἀνθρώπου φύσις ἡ ἐκ χοὸς πλασθεῖσα: κύριος δὲ τῆς θείας οὐσίας ἐστὶ παραστατικόν.

Πάλιν δέ φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος: «Ἐξαπέστειλεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ γεννώμενον ἐκ γυναικός». Οὐκ εἶπε διὰ γυναικός, ἀλλ' «ἐκ γυναικός». Ἐσήμανεν οὖν ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος, ὡς αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ θεὸς ὁ ἐκ τῆς παρθένου γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος καὶ αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ ἐκ τῆς παρθένου γεννηθεὶς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ θεός, γεννηθεὶς δὲ σωματικῶς, καθὸ γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος, οὐ προδιαπλασθέντι ἀνθρώπῳ ἐνοικήσας ὡς ἐν προφήτῃ, ἀλλ' αὐτὸς οὐσιωδῶς καὶ ἀληθῶς γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ἤτοι ἐν τῇ ὑποστάσει αὐτοῦ ἐψυχωμένην σάρκα ψυχῇ λογικῇ τε καὶ νοερᾷ ὑποστήσας, αὐτὸς γεγονὼς αὐτῇ ὑπόστασις: τοῦτο γὰρ σημαίνει τὸ «γενόμενον ἐκ γυναικός». Πῶς γὰρ ἂν αὐτὸς ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγος ὑπὸ νόμον γέγονεν, εἰ μὴ ἄνθρωπος ἡμῖν ὁμοούσιος γέγονεν;

Ὅθεν δικαίως καὶ ἀληθῶς θεοτόκον τὴν ἁγίαν Μαρίαν ὀνομάζομεν: τοῦτο γὰρ τὸ ὄνομα ἅπαν τὸ μυστήριον τῆς οἰκονομίας συνίστησι. Εἰ γὰρ θεοτόκος ἡ γεννήσασα, πάντως θεὸς ὁ ἐξ αὐτῆς γεννηθείς, πάντως δὲ καὶ ἄνθρωπος. Πῶς γὰρ ἂν ἐκ γυναικὸς γεννηθείη θεὸς ὁ πρὸ αἰώνων ἔχων τὴν ὕπαρξιν, εἰ μὴ ἄνθρωπος γέγονεν; Ὁ γὰρ υἱὸς ἀνθρώπου ἄνθρωπος δηλονότι. Εἰ δὲ αὐτὸς ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ γυναικὸς θεός ἐστιν, εἷς ἐστι δηλονότι ὁ ἐκ θεοῦ πατρὸς γεννηθεὶς κατὰ τὴν θείαν καὶ ἄναρχον οὐσίαν καὶ ἐπ' ἐσχάτων τῶν χρόνων ἐκ τῆς παρθένου τεχθεὶς κατὰ τὴν ἠργμένην καὶ ὑπὸ χρόνον οὐσίαν ἤτοι τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην. Τοῦτο δὲ μίαν ὑπόστασιν καὶ δύο φύσεις καὶ δύο γεννήσεις σημαίνει τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.

Χριστοτόκον δὲ οὔ φαμεν τὴν ἁγίαν παρθένον, διότι ἐπ' ἀναιρέσει τῆς θεοτόκος φωνῆς ὁ μιαρὸς καὶ βδελυρὸς καὶ ἰουδαιόφρων Νεστόριος, τὸ σκεῦος τῆς ἀτιμίας, καὶ ἐπὶ ἀτιμίᾳ τῆς μόνης ὄντως τετιμημένης ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν κτίσιν θεοτόκου, κἂν αὐτὸς διαρρήγνυται σὺν τῷ πατρὶ αὐτοῦ τῷ σατανᾷ, ἐξηύρατο ὡς ἐπηρεαζομένην: χριστὸς γὰρ καὶ Δαυὶδ ὁ βασιλεὺς καὶ Ἀαρὼν ὁ ἀρχιερεύς (ταῦτα γὰρ τὰ χριόμενα, βασιλεία τε καὶ ἱερωσύνη) καὶ πᾶς θεοφόρος ἄνθρωπος Χριστὸς λέγεσθαι δύναται, ἀλλ' οὐ θεὸς φύσει, ὡς καὶ Νεστόριος ὁ θεήλατος τὸν ἐκ παρθένου τεχθέντα θεοφόρον εἰπεῖν ἐφρυάξατο. Ἡμᾶς δὲ μὴ γένοιτο θεοφόρον αὐτὸν εἰπεῖν ἢ νοῆσαι, ἀλλὰ θεὸν σεσαρκωμένον. Αὐτὸς γὰρ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο, κυηθεὶς μὲν ἐκ τῆς παρθένου, προελθὼν δὲ θεὸς μετὰ τῆς προσλήψεως, ἤδη καὶ αὐτῆς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ θεωθείσης ἅμα τῇ εἰς τὸ εἶναι ταύτης παραγωγῇ, ὡς ὁμοῦ γενέσθαι τὰ τρία, τὴν πρόσληψιν, τὴν ὕπαρξιν, τὴν θέωσιν αὐτῆς ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου, καὶ οὕτω νοεῖσθαι καὶ λέγεσθαι θεοτόκον τὴν ἁγίαν παρθένον οὐ μόνον διὰ τὴν φύσιν τοῦ λόγου, ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τὴν θέωσιν τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνου, ὧν ἅμα ἡ σύλληψις καὶ ἡ ὕπαρξις τεθαυματούργηται, ἡ μὲν σύλληψις τοῦ λόγου, τῆς δὲ σαρκὸς ἡ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ λόγῳ ὕπαρξις, αὐτῆς τῆς θεομήτορος ὑπερφυῶς χορηγούσης τὸ πλασθῆναι τῷ πλάστῃ καὶ τὸ ἀνθρωπισθῆναι τῷ θεῷ καὶ ποιητῇ τοῦ παντὸς θεοῦντι τὸ πρόσλημμα, σῳζούσης τῆς ἑνώσεως τὰ ἑνωθέντα τοιαῦτα, οἷα καὶ ἥνωνται: οὐ τὸ θεῖον λέγω μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ἀνθρώπινον τοῦ Χριστοῦ τὸ ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς καὶ καθ' ἡμᾶς. Οὔτε γὰρ γενόμενος πρότερον καθ' ἡμᾶς ὕστερον γέγονεν ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς, ἀλλ' ἢ ἐκ πρώτης ὑπάρξεως ἄμφω ὑπῆρξε διὰ τὸ ἐξ ἄκρας συλλήψεως ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ λόγῳ τὴν ὕπαρξιν ἐσχηκέναι: ἀνθρώπινον μὲν οὖν ἐστι κατὰ τὴν οἰκείαν φύσιν, θεοῦ δὲ καὶ θεῖον ὑπερφυῶς. Ἔτι δὲ καὶ τῆς ἐμψύχου σαρκὸς τὰ ἰδιώματα ἔσχε: κατεδέξατο γὰρ αὐτὰ ὁ λόγος οἰκονομίας λόγῳ, φυσικῆς κινήσεως τάξει κατὰ ἀλήθειαν φυσικῶς γινόμενα.