錨定之書 第 1 章 第 7/12 段

then we would altogether have to grant that he also sinned in the flesh, having taken flesh —

'For I know,' says the apostle, 'that nothing good dwells in me' — that is, in my flesh.

But who will dare to say that, because the Savior took flesh, he was thereby led astray together with the flesh, and performed the unreasonable deeds of the flesh, following the sequence proper to the whole vessel of humanity — good alike and base — even though it was indeed human flesh, yet stumbling in nothing?

For God the Word, having come forth from above from the Father, and having been well pleased to become flesh, held the vessel in rein; and had he wished to restrain it from every useless fleshly deed, he was able to do so.

but he yielded to those bodily needs that were reasonable and fitting to his divinity.

For neither, though he truly possessed a mind — just as he truly possessed the whole becoming-man — did his mind extend itself toward irrational desires; nor did he do or reckon the things of the flesh as we do; but as God, having come to be in true flesh from the Virgin Mary, he acted through flesh and soul and mind and the whole vessel, having sojourned among the race of men — he, the hypostatic God the Word from above, from the Father.

But let no one be misled by this being said in an improper (loose) sense, as in 'Attend to the voice of my crying.'

For the one is said improperly, for the sake of prayer, and it is clear that its usage pertains to that; but the other was prophesied as a token of his fleshly presence.

But the statement 'and he advanced in stature' is true.

'For he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.' For if he breathed his own power into the saints, and those into whom he breathed are attested to have been holy, righteous, advanced in their days, and blameless, how much more the Word himself — in whom all the fullness of the divinity was well pleased to dwell bodily — even though he took true flesh from Mary the ever-virgin, and a truly human soul and mind, and whatever else there is in man; he himself, holding all these things in himself, being God, kept them from being divided toward wickedness, from being broken by the evil one, from being taken captive by pleasure, from falling under the transgression of Adam? And for this reason the apostle says, 'made of a woman, made under the law,' and again, 'being found in fashion as a man.'

And 'in fashion,' and 'as a man,' and 'made,' and 'under the law' — taken together through both terms — signify perfection and impassibility: from 'made,' that he was perfect; from 'under the law,' that it was not by mere semblance; from 'in the fashion of his form,' its certainty; and from 'as a man,' his sinlessness.

Since, then, these things stand thus, let no one be deceived by empty myths.

For if, having been truly begotten from above from the Father, he was likewise truly begotten from Mary, then he is true above and true below; and if he is imperfect below, then he is also imperfect above.

But if he is perfect above, then he is also perfect below.

He did not dwell in another who was already perfect, but he perfected all things in himself.

And he rose from the dead, no longer divided in the tomb into body, and divinity, and soul among those in the places beneath the earth; no longer subject to touch, no longer held back, but entering while the doors were shut, and yet being touched by Thomas, so that he might not be taken for a phantom, but be known in truth.

He who was believed by Thomas, after the thing spoken beforehand was fulfilled — 'With my hands I sought out God, and I was not deceived' — the same is God, the same is man; he who wrought no confusion, but blended the two into one;

not passing away into non-existence, but having empowered the two together, he united the earthly body with the divinity into one power, and gathered it into one divinity;

being one Lord, one Christ, not two Christs nor two Gods.

In him is a spiritual body; in him is the incomprehensible divinity: that which suffered was not corrupted; that which is impassible is incorruptible; the whole is incorruption.

God the Lord, sitting at the right hand of the Father, has not abandoned the flesh, but having united all into one, and into one divinity, sits at the right hand of the Father.

This one, then — the only-begotten, the perfect, the uncreated, the unchangeable, the unalterable, the incomprehensible, the invisible — who became man among us, and rose spiritually, and no longer dies, no longer is poor, he who for our sake became poor while being rich, who is wholly spirit, who unites the fleshly and the divine, one Lord, King Christ, the Son of God, seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father above all rule and authority, power, and every name that is named — he it is who says in the Gospel, 'Go, baptize all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.'

And this, being also in the midst (text corrupt), did not signify a fusion of the Son with the Father, nor a fusion of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son; but he knows the Father as true Father, and showed himself to be the true hypostatic Word, and his Holy Spirit to be the hypostatic Spirit, and the Spirit of truth, uncreated, unchangeable, unalterable.

Not that anyone should suspect me of being carried along deceitfully toward the faith, hiding my feet and dealing craftily with the truth — for God tries the hearts and the reins.

Clearly I believe that the Father is Father, and the Son is Son, and the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit, and I confess three hypostases in one essence;

one divinity — not another divinity apart from the essence, but, in order to be thus precise, we call it one essence, lest we should say that the divinity of the Trinity is one form and another, different form.

For such a one, concealing himself, as I said, again speaks knavishly and deceitfully:

'I believe that the Father is Father, the Son is Son, the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit;'

but he holds this hidden notion, having likened the divine to ourselves, saying within himself: 'As I have a body and a soul and a human spirit, so also is the divinity —'

the Father being, so to speak, the form; the Son being as the soul in man; and the Spirit being like the breath that breathes through man.

For some deal deceitfully, and thus imagine the divinity to be.

But we have not learned it thus; rather, behold, the Father bears witness in heaven by a voice; behold the Son in the Jordan; behold the Holy Spirit, descending in the form of a dove, took shape —

but it took shape by itself, being in itself a hypostasis, not other than that of the Father and the Son, but of the same essence — a hypostasis from a hypostasis, of that same essence belonging to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Behold, the Father sits in heaven.

But do not again understand 'sits' in a human manner; rather, hold it as something ineffable and incomprehensible.

And it did not say, 'the Son went up into the Father,' but 'he sat down at the right hand of the Father.'

And again, speaking concerning the Holy Spirit, the only-begotten taught: 'I depart, and that one will come' — the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth.

'If I do not depart, that one will not come.'

But if the Spirit were a fusion with the Son himself, he would not have said, 'I depart and that one comes,' but he said it in order to show —

yet there is one divinity, one God, one truth.

And thus I have written for anyone who desires to know the sequence of our life and the sure confession — that faith which, from the Law and the Prophets and the Gospels and the Apostles, and from the times of the apostles down to our own times, has been kept undefiled in the catholic Church; which faith, on account of the envy stirring up disturbance against the one and true faith, has at various times, through the heresies, been persecuted — this same faith and hope and our salvation — yet has endured in its own truth, while the heresies, in each period, defile themselves and are estranged from the Church.

As indeed we again recently hear of certain persons — who seem to carry off the first prizes among some of the ascetics in Egypt and the Thebaid and other regions elsewhere — thinking things similar to the Hierakites, and saying that there is indeed a resurrection of our flesh, but not of this flesh, but of some other in its place; such men having been turned aside, and having turned the truth of God and our sure hope into myths.

Therefore we are compelled to speak again concerning this.

For unbelievers deny the resurrection altogether, but those of false belief have, confusedly and senselessly, fallen away from the true hope, by thinking thus concerning the resurrection.

And the Greeks are those who completely deny the resurrection, on account of the impiety arising from the multitude of lawless deeds committed among them;

for they hate the resurrection, on account of which they are going to undergo shame at the resurrection, having failed to know God and his commandments.

Nevertheless, they will rise, even though they are unwilling.

For creation itself openly convicts them, displaying every day the pattern of the resurrection.

For the day sets, and we thereby intimate the manner of the dead, the night suggesting a falling asleep;

the day rises, waking us up and displaying the sign of the resurrection;

the aspect of it marking out our departure from this life.

The earth is sown and sprouts, showing that the things buried, after the cutting, will rise again;

the locust dies, having buried in the earth the offspring cast forth from itself, and after a time the earth restores what was buried;

the seeds of the crops are sown, and first die, then afterward come to fruition;

for unless it dies, it is not brought to life.

God has made in us, through our twenty fingernails and toenails, seals of the resurrection, bearing witness to our hope;

but also, as it were by a crown upon the head, through the hair, he has proclaimed our resurrection.

For that which seems in us to be a dead body — that is, hair and nails — though cut every day, and being cut, flourish again, signifying the hope of the resurrection.

And countless things could be said, drawn from examples, for the full conviction of unbelievers.

But neither the wood-pigeon, the bird, nor the dormouse, the creature, persuaded them.

For such a creature dies for six months, and the wood-pigeon for forty days, and again after their appointed times they come back to life.

But dung-beetles, when about to die, hide themselves upon a ball of dung, having buried such a ball in the earth and covered it over, and thus from their own moisture they are again found, coming back to life out of their own remains.

But concerning the phoenix, the Arabian bird, it is superfluous for me to speak.

For it has already come to the hearing of many, both believers and unbelievers.

But the account concerning it appears to be as follows:

Completing its five-hundredth year, when it knows that the time of its death has arrived, it makes a nest of spices, and carrying it comes to the city of the Egyptians called Heliopolis, which is interpreted 'On' from the Egyptian dialect and Hebrew; and beating its own breast many times with its own wings, bringing forth fire from its own body it sets ablaze the material lying beneath it in that place, and thus offers itself as a whole burnt-offering, and all its flesh together with its bones is reduced to ashes.

And by God's providence a cloud is sent, and it rains and extinguishes the flame that has consumed the body of the bird, the bird being already dead and thoroughly roasted;

And when the flame has been quenched, remnants of its flesh, still raw, are left behind, and within a single day, having disappeared, they generate a worm;

The worm grows feathers, becoming a fledgling, and on the third day it matures, and having matured it shows itself to those who serve that place, and again runs back to its own homeland and rests.

But it occurs to me to marvel at the mind of the unbelieving Greeks and other barbarians, deceived in all things, in that in their myths they are not ashamed to signify resurrection in every way, and to sing often concerning resurrection — as their myths record that Alcestis, daughter of Pelias, having died on behalf of her husband Admetus, was raised up by Heracles after three days and brought back up from the inner sanctuary; and Pelops, son of Tantalus, after being carved up as meat for their falsely-named gods by his own father...

Amphiaraus, son of Oecles, brought back to life by Asclepius; Glaucus, son of Minos, brought back to life by Polyeidus, son of Coeranus, by means of a certain herb; Castor, on account of Polydeuces his brother, who chose willingly to exchange life with him every other day; and Protesilaus, on account of Laodamia...

But also that Sisyphus and Tantalus, and the daughters of Caucasus, whom they have called Erinyes, and Tiresias along with these, have been cast down to Tartarus, to pay the penalty there — the one by means of a rock, the other beneath a wheel — and that others in various ways have been punished and still exist in punishment, as not having passed into non-existence, but existing in bodies.

How were they handed over to punishments beneath a rock and a wheel? And much could be said about these things in support of the faith that is in us, and as a refutation directed against them.

But those also who set out from the heresies sing songs akin to these, and in harmony with unbelief, in that some of the heretics — I mean the Manichaeans — say that the resurrection will be not of the body but of the soul, and likewise the aforementioned Greeks hold and glorify the same opinion together with them, so that their account is more foolish nonsense than something put forward out of understanding.

For if the heresies speak of resurrection, and hold to a resurrection at all, yet define this concerning souls, such a thing is foolish.

For how will a soul rise again, which has not fallen? For we do not bury souls in tombs, but bodies.

For souls do not fall, but flesh does;

just as custom is also accustomed to call dead bodies 'the fallen ones' [corpses].

Therefore, if resurrection is confessed by them, it is clear to everyone that it is not of the soul, but of the body that has fallen.

But again, the Greeks who deny the whole of the resurrection are refuted.

For carrying food and drink to the tombs on the days called 'Pandemia,' they burn the foods as whole offerings and pour out the wines as libations, benefiting the dead not at all, but rather harming themselves.

Yet they are compelled by custom to confess the resurrection of the dead.

For where the bodies of the deceased were laid, they come and address the buried dead by name, saying:

'Arise, so-and-so, eat and drink and be merry.'

And if they suppose that the souls remain present there, where the remains of the deceased have been buried, such an expectation concerning souls is a good one;

for they remain present, awaiting the day that is to come and the resurrection of regeneration, until they receive back their composite and conjoined bodies — even though the children of the Greeks abhor the flesh as being base and as utterly vanishing away and having no hope of coming back to life.

But if they do not do this in this manner, by what reasoning do they, binding the better souls — souls better than the essence of bodies — within tombs, instead wrap them in condemnation by such a supposition, determining that they sit in attendance upon the remains of the deceased? Or on what expectation of hope do they come there? Let them say. But it is clear that they do not suppose the souls to be in the tombs, but in certain chambers apportioned by God to each soul, according to the worth of what they did and how they conducted themselves in life;

But as for the bodies, each person laid the body of his neighbor with his own hands in the receptacles for bodies, that is, for bones.

It would be foolish for there to be, on the one hand, among all people one supposition and consistent practice regarding these things, as has been confessed from every side, while on the other hand among the unbelievers the opposite — to deny the true things and for the things that are possible with God not to be confirmed among them as objects of hope.

But concerning these matters I think enough has been said, since we have set forth a few examples out of many.

...unto the glory of the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, in return for the body that has toiled in fastings and vigils and persecutions on behalf of the name of God.

But how will the soul be judged alone, according to the reasoning of the heresies, when the body that sinned along with it is not present? For such a soul would speak against the judgment of God, saying that the sins came to be from the body.

For it even has proof, according to the reasoning of those carried away by contentiousness and not by truth.

'It was not I who sinned, but the body.'

'For from the time I departed from the body, I have not committed fornication nor adultery, I have not stolen, I have not murdered, I have not worshipped idols, I have done none of the evil and incurable deeds.'

And its defense will be found reasonable.

But when it makes its defense reasonably, what shall we say? Is the judgment of God then idle? Or does God unjustly bring wrath upon mankind? May it never be!

But we know that all things are possible for God, and He is able even to sustain a body without a soul, and He is able to make bodies that have vanished away live again, and to move them by themselves without souls, if He wills — just as He has already accomplished such a dispensation through the most holy Ezekiel.

For He said to the holy prophet, 'Say, son of man, that bone should be joined to bone and joint to joint;'

and it was possible to marvel at the power of God, in that although the souls had not yet been put into them, but the bones were still dry, they possessed not only the power of moving at God's command, but the bones were also filled with understanding and with no ordinary knowledge.

For the bones belonging to the feet did not, out of forgetfulness, walk toward the parts near the head, nor did the vertebrae of the neck wander about the joints of the ankles seeking their place; but each of the bones both moved and walked according to understanding, and was joined to its own proper joint.

If, then, God wills, He is able also to raise a body without a soul.

For in this He showed His power, in that He first caused that thing to come to life, which was despaired of among men, by having commanded Ezekiel:

'Say, son of man' — not for the spirit to come first, but after making easy what was difficult for the sake of faith, that is, the bodies being assembled — then He commanded the souls to enter into those very bodies;

'And there arose,' it says, 'a great host.'

I have said, then, that God is able to cause even a body without a soul to live again, as has been shown beforehand; but the body is not able to be judged by itself.

For it has a just defense to make before the judgment of God.

For it too speaks, saying:

'The sin was from that soul; I was not the cause.'

'For from the time I was dissolved and that soul departed from me, have I committed adultery? Have I committed fornication? Have I stolen? Have I worshipped idols? Have I done any of such transgressions?' And so, according to the reasoning of the contentious, the judgment of God will be ineffective.

For this reason, just as the body and the soul together, being composite, were made one man by God, so again the righteous Judge raises up the body and gives its soul back into it.

And thus the judgment of God will be just, both partaking together either of the punishment through sin, or of the †piety through virtue† and of the reward that is about to be rendered to the saints.

And thinking these things sufficient for the demonstration of the truth of our hope, we have set forth a few things instead of many.

But on account of those who say that a different body is raised in place of the one that falls, we again add to our labor, wishing to benefit those who wish to understand, and not wishing that those who do not make the attempt should lose their life.

...not to deny the resurrection of our flesh, in which all the treasure and foundation of every sound reasoning and the hope of every good work is laid up, according to what is said: 'having this treasure in earthen vessels,' and so forth.

For we who are weak practice self-control, we who are humble keep ourselves chaste, we who are powerless long to do acts of mercy, on account of the receiving back of the things hoped for — the resurrection of the dead;

and thus the rule of faith and of hope in God, of love, and of martyrdom on behalf of the name of God amid persecutions of tortures and other inhuman punishments, has been established firmly in those who do not deny the resurrection of our flesh, but believe that the very thing that is sown in the earth will be raised up.

For the divine Scriptures have given us two clear and true testimonies, through which we are able to know the hope of our resurrection and not be led astray by the myths of vainglorious men, who were themselves deceived and wrote deception for life.

Therefore, in order that I may not make use of many testimonies — for they are not few, in both the New and the Old [Testament], concerning our hope and resurrection — I will say this briefly:

that if that which is raised were something else, as some assert, the Apostle would not have affirmed, saying, 'For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.'

But since it is also necessary [to speak] concerning the glory of the saints, how they are to be made radiant and changed in glory after the resurrection, just as it says, 'it is raised in glory,' that we may be established in hope, the holy Scripture says: 'Fool, that which you sow is not made alive, unless it die;'

'and you do not sow the body that shall come to be, but perhaps a bare grain of wheat, or of some other seed, and God gives it a body as He willed.'

This he said with regard to the glory of those who are raised in radiance;

but in order to show that it is the very grain itself that receives the glory, He who also spoke in Paul concerning the resurrection said in His own person in the Gospel:

'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies,' He says, 'it remains alone;'

'but if it dies, it bears much grain.'

Therefore, the Apostle spoke of a grain, and the Savior in His own person demonstrated that same grain to be the body.

What then shall we say? Did not that very thing which was sown, His own body — that is, the grain — rise again? Or was that which arose from the tomb after the third day something other than it? As the angels say:

'He is risen, He is not here'; and as He says to Mary, 'Do not touch Me.'

For “I have not yet ascended to my Father”; and how he shows his hands and his side to Thomas, saying, “Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

For it belongs to unbelievers to say that he did not rise at all; and it belongs also to those of evil faith to say that it was not the very same [body], which existed and had fallen asleep, that rose; but it belongs to the faithful to say that the very body rose, and that from that same body which he raised, our own body was established in a hope of truth.

For it was to this end that he left the marks of the nails, not erasing them, nor the mark of the spear, even though he had entered while the doors were shut.

For his fleshly [body] rose as spiritual, yet not as something other than what it was, but the very same thing, united together into the Godhead, adorned into the subtlety of spirit.

For if there had not been a subtlety of spirit, what kind of opening would have received so bulky a body? But it was in order to show that this very corruptible [body] of ours truly puts on incorruption — for even though it is mortal, it puts on immortality — that he entered while the doors were shut: to show that the coarse becomes fine, and the mortal immortal, and the corruptible incorruptible.

That which rose was not something else sprung from it, but the very thing that had suffered, now impassible, and the very grain that had fallen, having risen — and having risen, incorruptible.

And again, so that we should not suppose that only some part of it had been raised, it — the whole — did not see corruption; for it says, “You will not give your holy one to see corruption”; and it — the whole — rose; for it says, “He is risen, he is not here.”

But if he was raised and is not here, he truly rose.

And the Scriptures do not deceive, being our life.

And so that those who had been deceived should not find a pretext, he showed bones and flesh to Thomas, and said to his disciples, “See me, that it is I.”

For a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see me having.

But if someone, playing the sophist, should say:

“But the body of our Savior was exceptional, because it was conceived from Mary alone and without the seed of a man” — was, then, Adam’s [body] too something other than ours, because it was taken from the earth alone, without the seed of a man? But no one is able to say this, nor to demonstrate it.

But if someone again, playing the sophist, should say:

“Only Christ’s [body] rose whole, but ours is not itself raised, but another in its place” — how then does it say, “Christ is risen, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”? It is one and the same body [that is] the firstfruits of those who are raised.

But let them learn how Christ became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, and let them not again turn aside into another error and suppose that the other Scriptures are lying.

For before him he raised Lazarus, and the son of the widow in Nain, and Elijah raised a dead man; but Elisha too raised two dead men, one while he himself was still alive, and one after he had been buried.

But those, having risen, died again, and they are awaiting the one and universal resurrection.

But Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, because, having risen, he no longer dies; death no longer has lordship over him, according to what is written.

For he died once, having endured the passion for us on account of our own sufferings.

Once he tasted death, and a death of the cross — the Word coming willingly to death for our sake, that by death he might put death to death.

The Word, having become flesh, did not suffer in his Godhead, but suffered together with his manhood while remaining in impassibility, the suffering being reckoned to him while he himself remained in impassibility.

Death being reckoned to him while he remained in immortality — or rather, being wholly immortality itself.

For he himself said, “I am the life.”

Nor is our hope through flesh.

For it says, “Cursed is he who hopes in man.”

“And he shall be like the wild tamarisk.” What then shall we say? Is Christ not man? From what has been said before, it is clear to everyone that we confess without doubt that the Lord God the Word became man, not in appearance, but in truth.

But he did not come as a man who advanced by progress into Godhead.

For our hope of salvation is not in man.

For none of all the men descended from Adam was able to work out salvation, but [it was] God the Word, having become man, so that our hope might not be in man, but in the living and true God, who became man.

For every priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men, according to what is written.

Wherefore the Lord, coming, took the flesh from our own flesh, and God the Word became man, like us, so that in his Godhead he might give us salvation, and in his manhood might suffer on behalf of us men, dissolving suffering through suffering, and putting death to death through his own death.

And the suffering was reckoned to the Godhead, even though the Godhead is impassible — the suffering being reckoned to the Godhead because the holy and impassible God the Word, having come, was pleased that it should be so.

The illustration is something like this:

When blood is sprinkled on a garment, it stains the garment, but does not reach the body of the one wearing it; yet the stain from the blood is reckoned to the wearer of the garment. Thus Christ suffered in the flesh — I mean, in the very Lord’s-man which the holy God the Word himself, coming from the heavens, fashioned for himself.

As holy Peter says: “Put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit”; and again: “Christ therefore having suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind.”

Just as the blood on a garment is reckoned to the one who wears it, so the suffering of the flesh was reckoned to him with regard to the Godhead, though it suffered nothing at all, so that the world might not place its hope in man, but in the Lord’s-man — the Godhead undertaking that the suffering should be reckoned to it, so that the salvation coming from the impassible Godhead might come to be on behalf of the world; so that the suffering that occurred in the flesh might be reckoned to the Godhead, even though it suffered nothing at all — that the Scripture which says, “For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,” and what follows, might be fulfilled.