書信集 第 1 章 第 10/11 段

So too, then, calling our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, God the Word who became man, both Son of God and Son of Man, as we have been taught by the divine Scripture, we do not speak of two Sons, but confess the properties of his divinity and of his humanity.

But these men, denying the nature taken from us, are vexed to hear such words.

But it is fitting for us to show from where they embraced this impiety.

For Simon and Menander, Cerdo and Marcion, deny the incarnation altogether, and call the birth from the Virgin a myth.

But Valentinus, and Basilides, and Bardaisan, and Harmonius, and those of their faction, accept the Virgin's conception and her giving birth;

yet they say that God the Word took on nothing at all from the Virgin, but made a certain passage through her as through a pipe, and appeared to men making use of a mere semblance, seeming to be a man, in the way he appeared to Abraham and certain others of the ancients.

But Arius and Eunomius said that he took a body, but that the divinity performed the functions of the soul, so that by this means they might attach the lowly things of both words and deeds to it.

But Apollinarius said that he took a soul along with the body, yet not the rational soul, but that which is called the vital, or rather the vegetative, soul.

For, he says, the divinity fulfilled the function of the mind.

This division he learned from the philosophers outside the Church.

For the divine Scripture says that man consists of soul and body.

"For God," it says, "formed man of dust from the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul."

And the Lord said to the apostles in the sacred Gospels—

"Do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul."

The doctrines of the heretics, then, are in such great conflict with one another.

But these men, striving to surpass Apollinarius, and indeed Arius and Eunomius, in impiety, have now attempted to plant again the heresy sown long ago by Valentinus and Bardaisan, which was afterward uprooted, root and all, by the best husbandmen.

For just as he took a body, not because he needed a body, but procuring immortality for all bodies through that one; so too he took a soul that governs the body, that every soul might through it partake of unchangeableness.

For although souls are immortal, yet they are not unchangeable.

For they undergo many sudden changes, at one time pleased with these things, at another with those.

For this reason indeed we sin by turning aside, and admitting the inclination toward the worse.

But after the resurrection, bodies enjoy immortality and incorruptibility, while souls enjoy impassibility and unchangeableness.

and he is called high priest not as God, but as man.

And he himself offers as man, but receives the sacrifice together with the Father and the Holy Spirit as God.

For if only Adam's body had sinned, it would have been fitting for that alone to enjoy the healing.

But since the soul not only sinned along with the body, but sinned even before it—for reasoning first sketches out the sin, and only then carries it out through the body—

it was surely right that it too should obtain healing.

But perhaps it is superfluous to construct proofs of this from reasoning, since the divine Scripture proclaims it clearly.

Thus speaks the first of the apostles:

And in these few words he taught us many things at the same time.

and next, that he took not only a body, but also an immortal soul;

and besides this, that he delivered over to death these things which he had taken, and, having taken them again, raised them up as he willed.

"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."

We have also learned that the divine nature is immortal.

For the passible suffered, while the impassible remained impassible.

For God the Word became man, not in order to render the impassible nature passible, but in order to grant, through the suffering, impassibility to the passible nature.

And the Lord himself, in the sacred Gospels, says at one point:

"I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again."

"No one takes it from me;

I lay it down of myself, that I may take it again." And elsewhere:

"that I lay down my life for the sheep."

"Now is my soul troubled." And again:

"My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death."

And concerning the body he also says:

"And the bread which I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."

And when he handed down the divine mysteries, and broke and distributed the symbol, he added:

"This is my body, which is broken for you for the remission of sins."

"This is my blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."

"Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves."

"He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life in himself."

And Joseph of Arimathea, going to Pilate, asked for the body of Jesus.

And the fourfold company of the sacred Gospels teaches us explicitly both how he took the body, and how he wrapped it in the linen cloth, and how he laid it in the tomb.

But I mourn and lament that the proofs which I formerly brought against those who had received the plague of Marcion — by which, through divine grace, I persuaded and led more than ten thousand to holy baptism — these same proofs the disease that has now assailed us compels me to bring against those who were thought to share our faith.

That celebrated Athanasius was five times driven out from his flock, and compelled to dwell in exile.

And Alexander too, his teacher, contended for these same doctrines.

And Eustathius, and Meletius, and Flavian, the luminaries of the East, and Ephrem, the lyre of the Spirit, who day by day waters the nation of the Syrians with the streams of grace, and John and Atticus, the loud-voiced heralds of truth;

and those still more ancient than these, Ignatius and Polycarp, and Irenaeus, and Justin, and Hippolytus, the greater number of whom shine forth not only among the high priests, but also adorn the chorus of the martyrs.

And indeed the most holy Leo also, who now guides great Rome, and who extends the rays of right doctrine from the West to every quarter, has set before us this same stamp of the faith through his own teachings.

All these have clearly taught that the one Son, the only-begotten Son of God and God, was begotten ineffably of the Father before all ages;

and that after the incarnation he was also called Son of man and man, not by being changed into this — for his nature is unchangeable — but by taking on that which is ours;

and that he himself was both impassible and immortal as God, and mortal and passible as man;

but after the resurrection, even according to his manhood, he received both impassibility and immortality.

For although the body has remained a body, yet it is impassible and immortal, and a truly divine body, glorified with divine glory;

and this the blessed Paul has clearly taught us:

"For our citizenship," he says, "is in heaven, from which also we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory."

And he did not say "to his glory," but "to the body of his glory."

And the Lord himself, having said to the apostles:

"...death, until they see the Son of man coming in the glory of the Father," took them after six days up onto a very high mountain, and was transfigured before them, and his face became like the sun, and his garments bright as the light.

And by this he taught the manner of his second appearing.

And that the nature which he took is indeed not uncircumscribed — for this belongs to the Godhead alone — yet it will emit flashes of divine glory and send forth rays of light exceeding the measure of visual perception.

With this glory he was taken up;

thus the angels declared that he would come:

"This one who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him going into heaven."

And having appeared to the divine apostles after the resurrection, he showed them his hands and his feet;

and to Thomas also his side, and the scars of the nails and of the spear.

And while he raised other bodies free from every blemish, he left on his own body the marks of his sufferings, so that by these sufferings he might refute those who erringly deny the taking up of the body, and by the imprint of the nails might teach those who suppose the body to have been changed into another nature, that it has remained in its own characteristics.

But if anyone thinks he has proof that the Lord's body did not remain a body after the resurrection, on the ground that he entered to the disciples while the doors were shut, let him recall how he walked upon the sea while his body was still mortal; and moreover how he was born while keeping the seals of virginity unbroken; and again how he often escaped the hands of those plotting against him, though surrounded by them.

It is fitting also, in addition to what has been said, to know this: that after the resurrection our bodies too will be incorruptible.

And immortal, and freed from what is earthy, they become light and buoyant.

And this the divine Paul has taught us explicitly and clearly.

"It is sown," he says, "in corruption; it is raised in incorruption;

it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power;

it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory."

"We shall be caught up," he says, "in the clouds into the air, to meet the Lord."

And it is easy to adduce countless other prophetic and apostolic testimonies as well.

But what has been said suffices to show the aim of our teaching.

For we believe in one Father, in one Son, in one Holy Spirit;

and we confess one Godhead, one Lordship, one substance, three hypostases.

For the incarnation of the Only-begotten did not increase the number of the Trinity, nor make the Trinity into a Quaternity, but even after the incarnation the Trinity has remained the Trinity.

But while believing that the only-begotten Son of God became man, we do not deny the nature which he took; rather we confess, as I have said, both the nature that took and the nature that was taken.

For the union did not confuse the properties of the natures.

The air, though wholly and entirely receiving the light, does not lose its being air, nor does it corrupt the nature of the light; rather, with our eyes we see the light, and by touch we perceive the air — for it comes to us either cold, or warm, or moist, or dry — so it is the height of folly to call the union of the Godhead and the manhood a confusion.

For if natures which are fellow-servants, of the same time, and created, when united and as it were mingled together, remain unimpaired, and when the light withdraws the nature of the air remains by itself, how much more just is it, then, to confess that the nature which fashioned all things, having been conjoined to and united with the nature taken from us, has itself remained unimpaired, and has likewise preserved the nature which it took unimpaired.

For gold also, when in contact with fire, partakes of the fire's color and activity, but does not lose its own nature; rather it both remains gold, and performs the works of fire.

For it is not separated from the Godhead, nor does it belong to anyone else, but to the Only-begotten Son of God himself.

For he displays to us no other person, but the Only-begotten himself, clothed with our nature.

This is the teaching which we continue to proclaim.

But those who deny the dispensation accomplished on our behalf have called us heretics, doing something like what licentious women do.

For those women, publicly selling their beauty, surround chaste women with the reproaches of harlotry, and impose upon those who abhor licentiousness the very names of their own licentiousness.

This the Egyptian woman also did.

For having embraced the slavery of shameful desire, and having offered a slavish flattery to the chaste man, then, not having enticed him nor ensnared him in the traps of sensual pleasure, she called the lover of chastity a violator of another man's marriage bed.

But these men will render account to God, both for their machinations against the faith and for their intrigues against us.

But I entreat those who have been led astray by the falsehoods that have been spread, to keep one of their two ears for the accused, and not to lend both to the accusers.

For thus they will fulfill the divine law, which cries out explicitly:

"You shall not accept a false report"; and:

Judge righteous judgment between a man and his neighbor.

For my part, tranquility is dear to my heart, and a life free from cares would be welcome.

But since I have learned that an innovation is being stirred up against the evangelical faith, I do not consider silence to be without danger.

For if, when a man allotted to reign has been insulted by certain persons, danger hangs not only over those who did the insulting, but also over those who, though present, did least to check the offenders — what punishment would not those justly deserve who allow themselves to overlook the blasphemies now being dared against our God and Savior? This fear has, for the present, compelled me to write now and to disclose what I have learned certain persons are innovating.

For many, as some say, are talking widely in the city, claiming that when certain presbyters prayed and set the customary ending upon the prayer, some of them said, 'To you belongs glory, and to your Christ, and to your Holy Spirit;'

'by the grace and loving-kindness of your Christ, with whom glory belongs to you together with your Holy Spirit' — the most wise archdeacon ruled that one ought not to say 'Christ,' but should rather glorify 'the Only-begotten.'

For either he divides our one Lord Jesus Christ into two sons, and supposes the Only-begotten Son to be genuine and begotten by nature, but Christ to be adopted and illegitimate, and therefore unworthy of doxology;

or else he is attempting to bolster the heresy that has now come storming in like revellers.

And if a most grievous storm were pressing upon us, one might conjecture that he, fearing the power of those who had begotten the heresy, was making a concession of the blasphemy to the circumstances of the time.

And this very thing is easy to learn from those who have returned from there.

But he, presiding over the ecclesiastical order, ought to know the divine Scripture and to learn from it that, just as the heralds of truth rank the Only-begotten Son together with the Father, so likewise, again, setting the appellation 'Christ' in place of 'Son,' they number it sometimes with the Father, sometimes with the all-holy Spirit — since Christ is no other than the Only-begotten Son of God.

And writing to the Thessalonians, he spoke thus:

Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you.

And in the second Epistle to these same Thessalonians he even placed Christ before the Father, not overturning the order, but teaching that the order of the names does not indicate a difference of dignity and of natures.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.

And at the very end of the Epistle to the Romans, having given certain exhortations, he added:

I urge you, brothers, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit

But if he had known Christ to be someone other than the Son, he would not have placed him before the all-holy Spirit.

And writing to the Corinthians, in the very preface itself, he set down the name of Christ alone, as sufficient by itself to move the believers to due reverence;

Now I urge you, brothers, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing

And having written to them twice, he set this same ending in the letters:

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.

And here he has placed the appellation of Christ before not only that of the Spirit, but also before that of the Father himself.

And this is, in all the Churches, the preface of the mystical liturgy.

It is fitting, then, according to this marvellous rule, that the most venerable name of our God and Savior Jesus Christ also be omitted from the mystical writings.

But indeed it is superfluous to dwell at length on this.

For the divine Apostle adorns the preface of each Epistle with this appellation, saying at one time:

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle; and at another time:

Paul, a called apostle of Jesus Christ;

Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

And joining the blessing to the preface, he draws it from this same source, and yokes together the appellation of the Son with that of God the Father, saying:

And he also adorns the endings of his Epistles with this same blessing:

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

And many other testimonies besides can be found, by which it is easy to learn that our Lord Jesus Christ is no other person than the Son who completes the Trinity.

For the same one, before the ages, was the Only-begotten Son and God the Word, but after the enanthropesis he was named also Jesus and Christ, receiving these appellations from the corresponding realities.

For 'Jesus' is interpreted 'Savior';

You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

And he has been called 'Christ' inasmuch as, according to the humanity, he was anointed by the all-holy Spirit, and was constituted our high priest, and apostle, and prophet, and king.

For the divinely-inspired Moses cries out from of old:

The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me.

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

And the divine Apostle again confirms the prophecy:

Having then a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

And that he is also king before the ages, as God, the prophetic song again teaches us:

Your throne, O God, it says, is forever and ever;

a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

And it also shows us his human dominion.

For possessing lordship over all things as God and Creator, he receives it also as man.

You have loved righteousness, and hated lawlessness;

therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.

And in the second Psalm, indeed, the Anointed One himself says:

But I have been established king by him upon Zion, his holy mountain, proclaiming the decree of the Lord:

You are my Son, today I have begotten you.

Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.

And he said these things as man.

For as man he receives the very things which he has as God.

And even in the very preface of the psalm, the prophetic grace ranked him together with God the Father.

For why, it says, did the nations rage, and the peoples devise vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers gathered together, against the Lord, and against his Christ.

Let no one, then, foolishly suppose Christ to be someone other than the Only-begotten Son;

nor let us suppose ourselves wiser than the grace of the Spirit.

But let us hear the great Peter crying out:

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

For upon this rock, he said, I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

For I, he says, as a wise master-builder, have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it.

But let each one watch how he builds upon it.

For no one can lay another foundation than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

How then do they contrive another foundation, when they have been charged not to fix a foundation, but to build upon the one already laid? But that divine man knows Christ to be the foundation, and glories in this very appellation.

yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

But when he who set me apart from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him as good news among the Gentiles

But writing to the Corinthians he did not say, "We preach the Son," but "Christ crucified";

not doing anything contrary to what he had been commanded, but knowing the very same one to be Jesus, and Christ, and Lord, and Only-begotten, and God the Word

For this very reason, when he began writing to the Romans, he called himself a servant of Jesus Christ

And indeed, also in the middle of the Epistle, having made mention of the Jews, he added:

Whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

And he brought to us this same teaching also through what he wrote to the admirable Titus

"For," he says, "awaiting the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ"

And he addressed the very same one as both Savior, and great God, and Jesus Christ

In the kingdom of Christ and God

And indeed, the choir of angels also said to the shepherds:

But it would be superfluous to gather together all such testimonies when writing to men who meditate in the law of the Lord day and night;

and these suffice to persuade even the most obstinately unpersuadable not to divide the divine appellations

That point, however, I will not permit myself to pass over

For they say that he affirmed there are many who are christs, but one who is the Son

But I have supposed that in this, if he so erred, he erred out of ignorance

For Moses the lawgiver, who composed the ancient history, says:

The sons of God, seeing the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, took for themselves wives from among them

And the God of all things himself said to this prophet:

Israel is my firstborn son

"Rejoice," he says, "O nations, with his people, and let all the sons of God be strong for him"

I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have rejected me

You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High

And the all-wise Paul wrote thus to the Romans:

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God

For you did not receive again a spirit of slavery unto fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, in whom we cry:

The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God

And if children, then heirs also; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together with him

And writing to the Galatians he spoke thus:

And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying:

So that you are no longer a slave, but a son;

and if a son, then also an heir of God through Jesus Christ

And he taught these same things also to the Ephesians:

"For in love," he says, "having predestined us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself"

If, then, because the name of Christ is common, we ought not to glorify Christ as God, then neither shall we worship him as Son;

for many have also partaken of this name

And why do I speak of the name "Son"? For many have received even the very appellation "God," since God himself gave it

The Lord spoke, and called the earth

And many, having also seized this title for themselves, have held it

For the demons who deceived mankind imposed this appellation upon the idols

For which reason Jeremiah cries out:

The gods that did not make heaven and earth shall perish from the face of the earth, and from under this heaven

They made for themselves gods of silver and gods of gold

And Isaiah, mocking the making of idols, having said that "Half of it he burned in the fire, and having roasted flesh he ate," and said:

"It is pleasant to me that I am warmed, and I have seen the light," and he added:

"But the rest of it he carved into a god, and worships it, saying:"

"Deliver me, for you are my god"

For which reason, lamenting over them, he says:

Know that their heart is ashes;

For all the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens

But this sharing of names does no harm to those who know how to be pious

For we know that the demons falsely imposed the divine appellation both upon themselves and upon the idols

But the saints received this honor by grace;

whereas truly and by nature God is the God of all, and his only-begotten Son, and the all-holy Spirit

And this the ever-renowned Paul clearly taught us

For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many gods and many lords—yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we unto him;

and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him

And the all-holy Spirit of God is indeed called "spirit";

but so also is the soul of man

"For," he says, "his spirit shall go forth"

Bless the Lord, you spirits and souls of the righteous

"For," he says, "he makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire"

"For," he says, "it will take along seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they will enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man will be worse than the first"

But neither does this sharing of a name injure the pious man

For one by nature is God—the Father, and his only-begotten Son, and his all-holy Spirit;

and one by nature is the Son, the only-begotten of God, God the Word who became man, our Lord Jesus Christ;

and one Holy Spirit, who is the Paraclete, who completes the number of the Trinity

Thus, though many are called fathers, we worship one Father—the Father before the ages, who has also given this appellation to men, according to the word of the Apostle

"For," he says, "I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named"

Let us not, then, because others are called christs, deprive ourselves of the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For just as, although many are named gods and fathers, there is one God over all and Father before the ages; and although many are called sons, there is one true Son who is Son by nature; and although many are termed spirits, there is one all-holy Spirit; so also, although many have been called christs, there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things.

And quite fittingly does the Church cling to this name.

For she has heard Paul, the escort of the bride, crying out:

"I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ."