Homiliarum incertarum fragmenta

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They are foolish who say the Son is of a different nature and alien to the substance of God the Father; for it is impossible for the one who is from God by nature to be created and made; for if everything is naturally disposed to bear offspring, it begets what is consubstantial with itself, and the Father has truly begotten the Son, then surely He has also begotten one who is consubstantial with Himself. For is it not absurd that from a man is not born an animal of another kind, and indeed also from an ox and a horse; for each begets what is by nature like itself; but the 462 divine and supreme nature, should we not think it is even in those things in which creation is? Therefore, if the one begotten is a creature, then the one who begot is also created; but the Father is uncreated, for He has not come into being from another, therefore the Son is also uncreated; and if He is the character of the hypostasis of the one who begot Him, and the one who begot is truly God, then His character is also God; for God characterizes God, and creation characterizes creation. For just as if someone wished to show to some people the created and made creation, he cannot say, "Behold for me the nature of the Godhead, and from this you will understand that;" for he who says this will be seen to be ignorant; for the nature of the Godhead will not in itself show the created substance; so if someone wished to see the uncreated nature, he would not see it as in an image in creation; wherefore the Lord said to Philip, "He who has seen me has seen the Father;" and the likeness of the Son to the Father is certainly natural and the character is essential.

VI. Do you see that God is anointed by God? For when He became man, remaining what He was, then also according to us He is anointed humanly for a mission; for His humanity is anointed by the divine Spirit, not activated as in the case of mere men, such as prophets and patriarchs; and the anointing is, as it were, the whole presence of the one anointing; and the Son is anointed when He was brought into the world, that is, when He was incarnate; for then He partook of creation, uniting the created to Himself, and anointing humanity with divinity, so as to make both one.

463VII. He who brought many sons to glory would not slip from being truly Son; for He did not neglect to be what He is, having become what He was not, but remains Lord in the form of a servant.

VIII. He who in like manner with us partook of blood and flesh would be understood by us as being other than us by nature; for surely no one would say that it is fitting for a man to partake of humanity; for what one is by nature, how could one be thought to have received it as being something other than what one is? What then is it. In like manner "He partook of the same things," is surely this, that He became like us in blood and flesh, taking a body from the holy virgin, not without a soul, as it seemed to some of the heretics, but ensouled with a rational soul; and thus He came forth a man from a woman, not disregarding being God, but also in the assumption of the flesh, remaining what He always was? But since the account is deep, attend with a roused mind to how we have partaken of blood and flesh; for the soul is of a different nature from blood and flesh, but we have been composed into one man through both by the skills of Him who formed us, the things contrary to each other by nature having run together into some ineffable unity. Do you wish, as Isaiah says, that we should measure "the water in the hand, and the heaven with a span, and all the earth in a handful?" Do you wish that we see the things above us from the things among us? Therefore, setting forth as a brief example the man made of soul and body, let us leap up to the concepts concerning Christ; we say that a true union has occurred

Homiliarum incertarum fragmenta

461

̓Ανοηταίνουσι δὲ καὶ οἱ λέγοντες τὸν Υἱὸν ἑτεροφυᾶ καὶ ἀλλότριον τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Πατρὸς οὐσίας· ἀμήχανον γὰρ τὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ κατὰ φύσιν, κτιστὸν ειναι καὶ γενητόν· εἰ γὰρ πᾶν οπέφυκε τίκτειν, ὁμοούσιον ἑαυτῷ γεννᾷ, γεγέννηκε δὲ κατὰ ἀλήθειαν τὸν Υἱὸν ὁ Πατὴρ, πάντως που καὶ ὁμοούσιον ἑαυτῷ γεγέννηκεν. ηγὰρ οὐκ ατοπον ἐξ ἀνθρώπου μὲν οὐχ ἑτεροειδὲς τίκτεσθαι ζῷον, καὶ μὴν ἐκ βοός γε καὶ ιππου· τίκτει γὰρ εκαστον τὸ κατὰ φύσιν ομοιον ἑαυτῷ· τὴν δέ γε 462 θείαν καὶ ἀνωτάτω φύσιν, μηδὲ ἐν τούτοις ειναι νομίζειν ἐν οις ἐστιν ἡ κτίσις; οὐκοῦν εἰ κτίσμα τὸ γεννηθὲν, κτιστὸς αρα καὶ ὁ τεκών· ἀλλ' εστιν ἀγένητος ὁ Πατὴρ, οὐ γὰρ γέγονε παρά τινος, ἀγένητος αρα καὶ ὁ Υἱός· καὶ εἰ χαρακτήρ ἐστι τῆς ὑποστάσεως τοῦ γεγεννηκότος, Θεὸς δὲ κατὰ ἀλήθειάν ἐστιν ὁ τεκὼν, Θεὸς αρα καὶ ὁ χαρακτὴρ αὐτοῦ· χαρακτηρίζει γὰρ, Θεὸν μὲν Θεὸς, κτίσιν δὲ κτίσις. ωσπερ γὰρ ειτις βούλοιτο τὴν γενητὴν καὶ πεποιημένην κτίσιν καταδεῖξαί τισιν, οὐ δύναται λέγειν Ορα μοι τὴν τῆς θεότητος φύσιν, καὶ ἐκ ταύτης νοήσεις ἐκείνην· ὀφθήσεται γὰρ ἀμαθὴς ὁ τοῦτο λέγων· οὐ γὰρ ἡ τῆς θεότητος φύσις ἐφ' ἑαυτῇ καταδείξει τὴν γενητὴν οὐσίαν· ουτως ει τις βούλοιτο τὴν ακτιστον φύσιν ἰδεῖν, οὐκ αν ιδοι ταύτην ὡς ἐν εἰκόνι τῇ κτίσει· διὸ ελεγε τῷ Φιλίππῳ ὁ Κύριος " ̔Ο ἑωρακὼς ἐμὲ "ἑώρακε τὸν Πατέρα·" φυσικὴ δὲ πάντως ἡ ὁμοιότης Υἱῷ πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα καὶ οὐσιώδης ὁ χαρακτήρ.

VI. ̔Ορᾷς οτι Θεὸς χρίεται παρὰ Θεοῦ; οτε γὰρ γέγονεν ανθρωπος μεμενηκὼς

οπερ ην, τότε καὶ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἀνθρωπίνως χρίεται πρὸς ἀποστολήν· χρίεται γὰρ ἡ ἀνθρωπότης τῷ θείῳ Πνεύματι, οὐκ ἐνεργεῖται καθάπερ ἐπὶ τῶν ψιλῶν ἀνθρώπων, οιον προφητῶν πατριαρχῶν· χρίσις δέ ἐστιν οιον ολη τοῦ χρίοντος ἡ παρουσία· χρίεται δὲ ὁ Υἱὸς οτε εἰς τὴν οἰκουμένην εἰσήχθη, τουτέστιν οτε ἐσαρκώθη· τότε γὰρ ἐκοινώνησε τῇ κτίσει, ἑνώσας ἑαυτῷ τὸ κτιστὸν, καὶ χρίσας τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα τῇ θεότητι, ωστε ποιῆσαι τὰ ἀμφότερα εν.

463VII.̔Ο πολλοὺς υἱοὺς εἰς δόξαν ἀγαγὼν οὐκ αν ὀλισθήσειε τοῦ ειναι κατὰ ἀλήθειαν Υἱός· οὐ γὰρ ἠμέλησε τοῦ ειναι ο ἐστιν, οπερ οὐκ ην γεγονὼς, μένει δὲ Κύριος ἐν τῇ τοῦ δούλου μορφῇ.

VIII. Νοοῖτο δ' αν πρὸς ἡμῶν ὁ παραπλησίως ἡμῖν μετεσχηκὼς αιματος καὶ σαρκὸς, ὡς ετερος ων παρ' ἡμᾶς κατὰ φύσιν· οὐ γάρ τοι φαίη τις αν ἀνθρώπῳ πρέπειν τὸ ἀνθρωπότητος μετασχεῖν· ο γάρ ἐστι κατὰ φύσιν, πῶς αν τις νοοῖτο λαβὼν ὡς ετερον ων τι παρ'οπερ ἐστί; τί δέ ἐστι. Παραπλησίως "μετέσχε τῶν αὐτῶν," η ἐκεῖνό που πάντως, οτι γέγονε καθ' ἡμᾶς ἐν αιματι καὶ σαρκὶ, σῶμα λαβὼν ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας παρθένου, οὐκ αψυχον, καθάπερ εδοξέ τισι τῶν αἱρετικῶν, ἐψυχωμένον δὲ ψυχῇ λογικῇ· καὶ ουτω προῆλθεν ανθρωπος ἐκ γυναικὸς, οὐκ ὀλιγωρήσας τοῦ ειναι Θεὸς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν προσλήψει σαρκὸς, μεμενηκὼς οπερ ην ἀεί; ἐπειδὴ δὲ βαθὺς ὁ λόγος, πρόσεχε διεγηγερμένῳ νοῒ πῶς ἡμεῖς κεκοινωνήκαμεν αιματος καὶ σαρκός· ἑτεροφυὴς μὲν γὰρ ἡ ψυχὴ πρὸς αιμα καὶ σάρκα, ἀλλ' εἰς ανθρωπον ενα δι' ἀμφοῖν συντεθείμεθα, ταῖς τοῦ πλάσαντος ἡμᾶς εὐτεχνίαις, εἰς αφραστόν τινα συνδεδραμηκότων ἑνότητα τῶν ἀλλήλοις ἐναντίων κατὰ τὴν φύσιν. βούλει καθά φησιν ̔Ησαΐας, μετρήσωμεν "τῇ χειρὶ "τὸ υδωρ, καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν σπιθαμῇ, καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν "δρακί;" βούλει τὰ ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς ιδωμεν ἐκ τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς; οὐκοῦν παραθέντες εἰς παράδειγμα βραχὺ τὸν ἐκ ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος ανθρωπον, ἀναπηδήσωμεν εἰς ἐννοίας τὰς ἐπὶ Χριστῷ· ενωσιν ἀληθῆ γενέσθαι φαμὲν