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De incarnatione unigeniti

OF SAINT CYRIL ON THE INCARNATION OF THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN and that Christ is one and lord according to the scriptures.

{A} Does the discourse about the divinity of the Only-begotten seem to you to have been well-proportioned and sufficiently worked out by us? {B} Indeed. {A} But I think it is by no means lacking in subtle examination, at least as it seems to me; but what do you say, O Hermias? {B} I would praise it as being rightly and finely chiseled. {A} Leaving off, then, any further delay on these matters, do you wish to speak about the incarnation of the Only-begotten? And to try to articulate as clearly as possible whatever the mystery concerning him is, at least to the extent possible for those who see in a mirror and in a riddle and know in part according to the measure of the gift of the supply of the Spirit, just as the divine Paul also writes? {B} You have spoken excellently. For no one says Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit, and no one says Jesus is anathema except in Beelzebul. But since it seems good to enter the arena on this matter, and to endure a labor so weighty and hard to bear, know that you will benefit me before all others. For I would most gladly inquire about the precise, unadulterated, and blameless account concerning Christ. For some are intoxicated with different opinions, distorting into ugliness the oracles spoken concerning him by both the new and older Scripture. {A} Nothing is unattempted by the senseless, my friend, but they leap most readily into the pit of Hades, as it is written, and into the snare of death, not understanding either what they say or about what they make confident assertions. 679 But what might be the tales and the solemn fables among each of them, would you say, noble one? {B} Certainly. For some have dared to declare that the Logos from God appeared as a man, but not that he also wore the flesh from the Virgin. They lie about the mere appearance of the mystery. Others, again, pretending to blush at the thought of worshipping a man, and refusing to crown the earthly flesh with the highest glories, and from their excessive ignorance, being sick with a certain spurious and corrupt piety, say that the Logos who was begotten from God the Father was changed into the nature of bones and nerves and flesh, loudly laughing, the wretches, at the birth of Emmanuel from the Virgin, and ascribing unseemliness to this most excellent and God-befitting economy. And others have believed that the God Logos, who is co-eternal with the Father, is of recent origin, and was called into bare existence at the time when he also received the beginning of his birth according to the flesh. And there are those who have been impiously driven to such a madness as to say that the Logos from God is insubstantial, but is simply a word understood as mere utterance, which became in a man. These are Marcellus and Photinus. And it seems good to others to believe that the Only-begotten was truly incarnate and became in the flesh, but not that the assumed flesh was completely ensouled with a rational soul and a mind like ours, but binding together into a complete unity, as they think, both the Logos from God and the temple from the holy Virgin, they say that the Logos dwelt in it, and made the assumed flesh his own body, but that he himself filled the place of the rational and intellectual soul. But others again hold doctrines contrary to these, and oppose their opinions, affirming that the

1

De incarnatione unigeniti

ΤΟΥ ΑΓΙΟΥ ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΥ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΕΝΑΝΘΡΩΠΗΣΕΩΣ ΤΟΥ ΜΟΝΟΓΕΝΟΥΣ καὶ ὅτι Χριστὸς εἳς καὶ κύριος κατὰ τὰς γραφάς.

{Α} Ἆρά σοι δοκεῖ συμμεμετρῆσθαί τε καὶ ἐκπεπονῆσθαι καλῶς καὶ ἀποχρώντως ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος, ὁ περὶ τῆς θεότητος τοῦ Μονογενοῦς; {Β} Καὶ μάλα. {Α} Βασάνου δὲ οἶμαι λεπτῆς ἀμοιρεῖν οὔτι που κατά γε τὸ αὐτῷ μοι δοκοῦν· σὺ δὲ δὴ τί φής, ὦ Ἑρμεία; {Β} Ἐπαινέσαιμ' ἂν εἰκότως ὀρθῶς ἔχοντά τε καὶ διεσμιλευμένως. {Α} Μεθέντα δὴ οὖν τουτοισὶ διαμέλλειν ἔτι, βούλει λέγειν τὰ περὶ τῆς ἐνανθρωπήσεως τοῦ Μονογενοῦς; Καὶ ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστι τὸ ἐπ' αὐτῷ μυστήριον διαρθροῦν ὅτι μάλιστα πειρᾶσθαι σαφῶς, κατά γε τὸ ἐγχωροῦν τοῖς ἐν ἐσόπτρῳ καὶ αἰνίγματι βλέπουσι καὶ ἐκ μέρους γινώσκουσι κατὰ τὸ μέτρον τῆς δωρεᾶς τῆς ἐπιχορηγίας τοῦ Πνεύματος, καθὰ καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος γράφει Παῦλος; {Β} Ἄριστα ἔφης. Οὐδεὶς γὰρ λέγει Κύριος Ἰησοῦς εἰ μὴ ἐν Πνεύματι ἁγίῳ, καὶ οὐδεὶς λέγει Ἀνάθεμα Ἰησοῦς εἰ μὴ ἐν Βεελζεβούλ. Ἀτὰρ ἐπειδή τοι καὶ τῆς ἐπὶ τούτῳ κόνεως ἅψασθαι δοκεῖ, καὶ τὸν οὕτω καταβριθῆ καὶ δύσοιστον ἀνατλῆναι πόνον, ὀνήσων ἴσθι τοι καὶ πρό γε τῶν ἄλλων ἐμέ. ∆ιαπυθοίμην γὰρ ἂν ἥδιστά γε τὸν ἀτρεκῆ τε καὶ ἀκιβδήλευτον καὶ ἁπάσης αἰτίας ἀπηλλαγμένον ἐπὶ Χριστῷ λόγον. ∆ιαφόροις γὰρ δόξαις καταμεθύουσί τινες, παραπλάττοντες εἰς τὸ ἀκαλλὲς τὰ ἐπ' αὐτῷ κεχρησμῳδημένα παρά γε τῆς νέας καὶ ἀρχαιοτέρας Γραφῆς. {Α} Ἀνεπιτήδευτον μέν, ὦ φιλότης, τοῖς ἀσυνέτοις οὐδέν, ἑτοιμότατα δὲ καταθρώσκουσιν εἰς πέταυρον ᾅδου, κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, καὶ εἰς παγίδα θανάτου, μὴ νοοῦντες μήτε ἃ λέγουσι μήτε περὶ τίνων διαβεβαιοῦνται. 679 Τίνες δ' ἂν εἶεν οἱ παρ' ἑκάστῳ θρύλλοι καὶ τὰ σεμνὰ μυθάρια, φαίης ἄν, ὦ γενναῖε. {Β} Πάνυ μὲν οὖν. Οἱ μὲν γάρ, ὅτι πέφηνε μὲν ἄνθρωπος ὁ ἐκ Θεοῦ Λόγος, οὐ μὴν ὅτι καὶ πεφόρεκε τὴν ἐκ τῆς Παρθένου σάρκα διειπεῖν τετολμήκασι. Καταψεύδονται δὲ μόνην τοῦ μυστηρίου τὴν δόκησιν. Ἕτεροι δ' αὖ, κατερυθριᾶν σκηπτόμενοι τὸ δοκεῖν ἀνθρώπῳ προσκυνεῖν, καὶ τὴν ἀπὸ γῆς σάρκα ταῖς ἀνωτάτω δόξαις στεφανοῦν παραιτούμενοι, καὶ ἐκ τῆς ἄγαν ἀμαθίας, νόθην τινὰ καὶ παρεφθαρμένην νοσοῦντες εὐλάβειαν, παρατετράφθαι φασὶ τὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς φύντα Λόγον εἰς ὀστέων τε καὶ νεύρων καὶ σαρκὸς φύσιν, τὴν ἐκ Παρθένου γέννησιν τοῦ Ἐμμανουὴλ πλατὺ γελῶντες οἱ τάλανες, καὶ τὸ ἀπρεπὲς καταγράφοντες τῆς οὕτως ἀρίστης καὶ θεοπρεποῦς οἰκονομίας. Οἱ δὲ καὶ ὀψιγενῆ τὸν συναΐδιον τῷ Πατρὶ Θεὸν Λόγον εἶναι πεπιστεύκασι, καὶ εἰς τὸ μόλις ὑπάρξαι διακεκλῆσθαι τότε ὅτε καὶ τῆς κατὰ σάρκα γενέσεως ἔλαχε τὴν ἀρχήν. Εἰσὶ δὲ οἱ καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο μανίας δυσσεβῶς ἠγμένοι ὥστε καὶ ἀνυπόστατον τὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ φασιν εἶναι Λόγον, ῥῆμα δὲ ἁπλῶς τὸ κατὰ μόνην νοούμενον προφορὰν ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ γενέσθαι. Μάρκελλος δὲ οὗτοι καὶ Φωτεινός. ∆οκεῖ δὲ μὴν καὶ ἑτέροις ἐνανθρωπῆσαι μὲν ἀληθῶς τὸν Μονογενῆ καὶ ἐν σαρκὶ γενέσθαι πιστεύειν, μὴ μὴν ἔτι καὶ ἐψυχῶσθαι τελείως τὴν ἀναληφθεῖσαν σάρκα ψυχῇ λογικῇ καὶ νοῦν ἐχούσῃ τὸν καθ' ἡμᾶς, εἰς ἑνότητα δὲ τὴν εἰσάπαν, ὥσπερ οὖν οἴονται, κατασφίγγοντες τόν τε ἐκ Θεοῦ Λόγον καὶ τὸν ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας Παρθένου ναόν, κατοικῆσαί φασιν ἐν αὐτῷ τὸν Λόγον, καὶ ἴδιον μὲν ποιήσασθαι σῶμα τὸ ἀναληφθέν, ψυχῆς δὲ αὐτὸν τῆς λογικῆς τε καὶ νοερᾶς ἀναπληροῦν τὸν τόπον. Ἕτεροι δὲ αὖ πρεσβεύουσι μὲν ταῖς τούτων δόξαις τὰ ἐναντία, καὶ ἀντιφέρονται τοῖς φρονήμασιν, ἔκ τε Θεοῦ Λόγου καὶ ψυχῆς τῆς λογικῆς καὶ σώματος, ἤτοι τελείας ἁπλῶς ἀνθρωπότητος, συνεστάναι τε καὶ ἀναπεπλέχθαι διαβεβαιούμενοι τὸν