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Epistula ad Eupsychium

26.1245.50 Athanasius in the aforementioned letter to Eupsychius, of which the beginning is:

For those things for which you thought us, most reverend, after other things he says: The fruit of the sheep is common; that is, this harvest of the back, the wool set forth for 26.1248 common use for all. But when it has been treated with the dye from the sea, it is called purple, and its name being changed, and its use being allotted to belong exceptionally to kings alone. And it is wool, and it is not; by nature it is that which it was before, but in use no longer. For it shuns commonness because of the dignity of the one who wears it; so indeed also the flesh, taken from our common nature, since it has become the garment of a king, has been deemed worthy of the same glory as the one who wore it, even if it did not become so by nature. So that he is rightly called the Lord of glory even as man; his nature in itself admitting the suffering, but the insult passing over to him who used the flesh as if it were a garment. For just as one who tears the purple robe undergoes punishment as if having assaulted the king himself; and yet the king himself has suffered nothing terrible, but the suffering of the purple has been referred to him; so also the suffering of the flesh is said to have come upon him in the impassibility of the Word through the insult. And because of this Paul presents the Lord Christ, as man, as the Son of God, and before him Gabriel the archangel, evangelizing the paradoxical birth to Mary, says, Hail, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you. Behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and they will call him Jesus; he will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. So Jesus is called the Son of God, not by the flesh being changed into the divine nature, but by its having received the homonymous dignity through its union with God the Word.

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Epistula ad Eupsychium

26.1245.50 Ἀθανάσιος μὲν ἐν τῇ προλεχθείσῃ πρὸς Εὐψύχιον ἐπιστολῇ, ἧς ἡ ἀρχή·

Ἐφ' οἷς μὲν ᾠήθης ἡμᾶς, εὐλαβέστατε, μεθ' ἕτερά φησι· Κοινὸς ὁ τῶν προβάτων καρπός· τοῦτο δὲ τὸ νωτιαῖον θέρος, τὸ ἔριον εἰς 26.1248 κοινὴν χρῆσιν τοῖς ἅπασι προκείμενον. Ἀλλ' ὅταν τῇ ἐκ τῆς θαλάττης προσομιλήσῃ βαφῇ, προφύρα λέγεται, καὶ τῆς προσηγορίας ἀμειβομένης, καὶ τῆς χρήσεως κατ' ἐξαίρετον βασιλεῦσι μόνοις ἁρμόττειν λαχούσης. Καὶ ἔστιν ἔρια, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι· τὴν μὲν φύσιν ἐκεῖνο ὅπερ πρότερον ἦν, τὴν δὲ χρῆσιν οὐκέτι. Φεύγει γὰρ τὴν κοινότητα διὰ τὸ τοῦ χρωμένου ἀξίωμα· οὕτω γοῦν καὶ ἡ σὰρξ τῆς κοινῆς ληφθεῖσα φύσεως, ἐπειδὴ γέγονε περιβόλαιον βασιλέως, τῆς αὐτῆς ἠξιώθη δόξης τῷ χρησαμένῳ, κἂν μὴ τὴν φύσιν ἐγένετο. Ὥστε Κύριος δόξης λέγεται εἰκότως καὶ καθὸ ἄνθρωπος· τῆς μὲν καθ' αὑτὸν φύσεως προσιεμένης τὸ πάθος, τῆς δὲ ὕβρεως διαβαινούσης ἐπ' αὐτὸν τὸν ὥσπερ ἐσθῆτι χρησάμενον τῇ σαρκί. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ τὴν ἁλουργίδα διαῤῥήξας, ὡς ἐπιβεβηκὼς αὐτῷ τῷ βασιλεῖ τὴν τιμωρίαν ὑπέχει· καί τοι γε οὐδὲν δεινὸν αὐτὸς πέπονθεν ὁ βασιλεὺς, τῆς δὲ πορφύρας τὸ πάθος ἐπ' αὐτὸν ἀνήνεκται· οὕτω καὶ τὸ τῆς σαρκὸς πάθος μὲν ἐν τῇ ἀπαθείᾳ τοῦ λόγου διὰ τῆς ὕβρεως ἐπ' αὐτὸν ἐληλυθέναι λέγεται. Καὶ διὰ τοῦτο Παῦλος τὸν ∆εσπότην Χριστὸν, καθὸ ἄνθρωπον Υἱὸν Θεοῦ παραδίδωσι, καὶ πρὸ τούτου Γαβριὴλ ὁ ἀρχάγγελος τὸν παράδοξον τόκον εὐαγγελιζόμενος τῇ Μαρίᾳ, Χαῖρε, φησὶ, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ. Ἰδοὺ σὺ ἐν γαστρὶ ἕξεις, καὶ τέξῃ υἱὸν, καὶ καλέσουσιν αὐτὸν Ἰησοῦν· οὗτος ἔσται μέγας, καὶ Υἱὸς Ὑψίστου κληθήσεται. Ὥστε καλεῖται Υἱὸς Θεοῦ Ἰησοῦς, οὐκ εἰς θείαν φύσιν τῆς σαρκὸς μεταβληθείσης, ἀλλὰ τῇ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν Λόγον ἑνώσει τὴν ὁμώνυμον ἀξίαν λαβούσης.