and afterwards they brought Him up into the temple to present Him to the Lord, performing the offerings of purification, so as to give a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. If, therefore, the gifts of purification were offered on His behalf according to the law, and He bore circumcision on the eighth day, in this respect too he writes, not unreasonably, that He was made under the law.
But neither was the Word subject to the law, as the calumniators suppose, being Himself the Law, nor did God have need of sacrifices of purification, He who by a single inclination cleanses and sanctifies all things;
nor did He endure to receive ministrations from the supply of these things, but rather that He might redeem out of the bondage of the law those who had been sold to the sentence of the curse.
And just as we would not have been set free from sin and from the curse, unless the flesh which the Word put on had been by nature human flesh—for we had nothing in common with what is alien to us—
1:1455
οὐδὲνγὰρκοινὸνἦνἡμῖνπρὸςτὸἀλλότριον·
——因為我們與那外來之物並無相通之處——
—for we had nothing in common with what was alien—
Therefore let those who deny that the Son is by nature from the Father and proper to His essence also deny that He took true and human flesh from Mary the ever-Virgin.
1:1458
ΤοῦαὐτοῦἐκτῆςπρὸςἘπίκτητονἐπιστολῆς
同一位作者,摘自致埃皮克提圖的書信。
From the same author, from the letter to Epictetus.
If, because it is and is said in the Scriptures that the body of the Saviour is from Mary and is human, they think that instead of a Trinity a Quaternity is spoken of, as though an addition were made on account of the body, they greatly err, equating the thing made with the Maker, and supposing that the Godhead can receive an addition.
How, then, is it possible that the body which was redeemed and made alive through the Word should make an addition of Godhead to the Word that made it alive? From the same author, from the same letter.
For what help is there for creatures from a creature, when it itself also stands in need of salvation? But since the Word, being Creator, Himself became the fashioner of the creatures, for this reason at the consummation of the ages He Himself framed the created thing, that again, as Creator, He might renew it and be able to create it anew.
1:1465
Τοῦαὐτοῦἐκτοῦπερὶπίστεωςλόγουτοῦμείζονος
同一位作者,摘自論信仰的較長篇講道。
From the same author, from the greater homily concerning the faith.
For if the Lord says, 'I fill heaven and earth,' as Jeremiah declares, and God contains all things but is contained by none, upon what kind of throne does He sit? It is, then, the body to which He says, 'Sit thou on my right hand.' From the same author, from the same homily.
It is, then, the body to which He says, 'Sit thou on my right hand,' the body of which the devil, together with the wicked powers, and both Jews and Greeks, became the enemy.
For it is not the Most High who is exalted, but the flesh of the Most High that is exalted; and to the flesh of the Most High He granted the name that is above every name.
Therefore this One is true God, both before He became man and after He became man—the mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, who is united to the Father according to spirit, but to us according to flesh; who mediated between God and men; who is not only man, but also God.
We confess our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father without beginning before all ages according to His divinity, and in these last days the same One made flesh of the holy Virgin Mary, having taken a complete manhood consisting of a rational soul and a body, of one substance with the Father according to His divinity, and of one substance with us according to His humanity.
God the Word did not take His beginning from the Virgin, but existing coeternal with His own Father, out of His great goodness He deigned to unite the firstfruits of our nature to Himself—not by being mingled, but appearing as one and the same in both essences, according to what is written:
'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' For Christ as God is destroyed according to the essence I possess, which He assumed, and the same One raises up the destroyed temple according to the divine essence, according to which He is also the Creator of all things.
Never after the union—which from the very conception He deigned to unite to Himself—did He either depart from His own temple, nor, on account of His unspeakable love for mankind, was He able to depart.
1:1488
Ἀλλ'ἔστινὁαὐτὸςπαθητὸςκαὶἀπαθής·
然而這同一位既能受苦,又不能受苦;
But the same One is both passible and impassible;
1:1489
παθητὸςκατὰτὴνἀνθρωπότητα, ἀπαθὴςκατὰτὴνθεότητα
按著人性能受苦,按著神性不能受苦。
passible according to His humanity, impassible according to His divinity.
1:1490
Ἴδετεγάρ, ἴδετέμε, ὅτιἐγώεἰμι, καὶοὐκἠλλοίωμαι
「你們看,看我,我就是那一位,並且我未曾改變。」
'For see, see Me, that I am He, and I am not changed.'
Having therefore raised up His own temple, God the Word, and having wrought in it the resurrection and renewal of our nature, and having shown it to His own disciples, He said, 'Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see Me having'—not being them, but having them—so that, contemplating both the one who has and the one who is had, you might behold that no mingling, no change, no alteration, but a union has come to pass.
And that, according to the blessed essence of His divinity remaining unchangeable, immutable, impassible, immortal, and lacking nothing, He permitted all the sufferings by way of concession to be brought upon His own temple, and raised it up by His own power, and through His own temple wrought the complete renewal of our nature.
Those who say that God the Word is passible, or that He was changed into flesh, or that He possessed a body consubstantial with Himself, or that He brought this body from heaven, or that it was a phantom, or who call God the Word mortal and in need of resurrection from the Father, or that He assumed a soulless body, or a mindless man, or that the two natures of Christ, being confused by commingling, became one nature, and who do not confess that in our Lord Jesus Christ there are two unconfused natures but one person—inasmuch as He is one Christ, one Son—these the catholic and apostolic Church anathematizes.
Therefore, if the flesh of all men has in Christ been subjected to indignities, how is it reckoned to be of one hypostasis with the divinity? For if the Word and the flesh, which has its nature from the earth, are of one hypostasis, then the Word and the soul, which He assumed complete, are of one hypostasis.
For the Word is of one nature with God, according to the confession of the Father and the Son Himself, which says, 'I and the Father are one.' Therefore the Father too ought to be reckoned of the same essence with the body.
And why then are you still incensed at the Arians, who say that the Son of God is a creature, while you yourselves say that the Father is of one essence with the creatures? From the same author, from the letter to the emperor Gratian.
1:1497
Φυλάξωμενδιαίρεσινθεότητοςκαὶσαρκός
讓我們保守神性與肉體之間的分別。
Let us preserve the distinction of divinity and flesh.
If the Son of God answers on behalf of both, since in Him both natures exist, it is the same One who speaks, yet not always to us in one and the same manner.
But since this One is both God and man—according to His divinity God, and according to His assumption of the flesh man, Jesus Christ—He is said to be the Lord of glory who was crucified.
For in the nature of the man He endured the suffering, so that undividedly the One who suffered may be called both Lord of glory and Son of man, as it is written, 'He who came down from heaven.' Of the same author.
1:1507
Σιγάτωσαντοιγαροῦναἱπερὶτῶνλόγωνμάταιαιζητήσεις
所以,讓那些關於言辭的虛妄爭辯止息吧。
Let the vain disputes about words therefore be silent.
What Hades belched forth so great a blasphemy? For the Arians are by now more tolerable, whose unbelief is strengthened by these men, so that there is even greater contention against confessing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be of one essence;
As therefore the Lord accepted hunger, when the solid nourishment in Him had been consumed, and admitted thirst, when the moisture in the body had been used up;
For just as to have taken the form of a servant signifies that our Lord came to be in the essence of humanity, so he who says 'existing in the form of God' establishes the propriety of the divine essence.
No longer flesh, yet not incorporeal either, but clothed in a body more godlike, by means known to Himself, so that He may both be seen by those who pierced Him and remain God beyond all grossness of matter.
And if one must speak concisely: the elements out of which the Saviour is are one thing and another, since the visible is not the same as the invisible, nor the timeless the same as that which is subject to time;
1:1549
οὐκἄλλοςδὲκαὶἄλλος, μὴγένοιτο
然而祂並非一位又是另一位——斷乎不是!
yet He is not one person and another—by no means!
1:1550
ΤοῦαὐτοῦἐκτῆςπρὸςΚληδόνιονπροτέραςἐκθέσεως
同一位作者,摘自〈致克利多尼前篇陳述〉。
By the same, from the earlier statement to Cledonius.
If anyone says that the flesh has now been laid aside, and that the Godhead is bare of a body, and does not confess that He both is and shall come with that which He assumed, may he not behold the glory of His advent.
For where is the body now, if not with Him who assumed it? For surely it is not, according to the ravings of the Manichaeans, deposited in the sun, that it might be honoured through dishonour;
or was poured out into the air and dissolved, like the nature of a voice, or the flow of a fragrance, or the course of a lightning-flash that does not stand still.
And where then is the being touched after the resurrection, in which He shall one day be seen by those who pierced Him? For the Godhead in itself is invisible.
1:1555
Τοῦαὐτοῦἐκτοῦπερὶυἱοῦλόγουβʹ
同一位作者,摘自〈論子〉第二篇講道。
By the same, from the second oration concerning the Son.
1:1556
Ὡςμὲνγὰρλόγος, οὔτεὑπήκοοςἦν, οὔτ'ἀνήκοος·
因為就其為道而言,祂既非順從,也非不順從;
For as Word, He was neither obedient nor disobedient;
1:1557
τῶνγὰρὑπὸχεῖραταῦτα, καὶτῶνδευτέρων·
因為這些事乃屬於那些在權下的、屬於次等地位的;
for these things belong to those who are under authority, and to those of a lower rank;
1:1558
τὸμὲντῶνεὐγνωμονεστέρων, τὸδὲτῶνἀξίωνκρίσεως
順從屬於較為順服者,不順從屬於那些該受審判者。
the one belonging to the more well-disposed, the other to those deserving of judgement.
But as the form of a servant, He condescends to His fellow servants and takes the form of what is alien, bearing in Himself the whole of me together with all that is mine, that in Himself He may consume the worse, as fire consumes wax, or as the sun consumes the vapour of the earth.
What could be more familiar than these things? Let a fifth point be stated: that He receives life, or judgement, or the inheritance of the nations, or authority over all flesh, or glory, or disciples, or whatever else is said.
For He is with the body which He assumed, until He make me God by the power of His incarnation, even though He is no longer known according to the flesh—I mean the fleshly passions, and apart from our sin.
Surely it is plain to all, that He knows as God, but is ignorant, as He says, as man, if one separates the visible from that which is conceived by the mind.
For the fact that the appellation of the Son is absolute and unrelated, since there is not added to 'the Son' any 'of something,' gives rise to this supposition.
And who says this, that the infinity of the Godhead was circumscribed by the boundary of the flesh, as though by some vessel? By the same, from the same oration.
But if the soul of a man, being mingled with the body by the necessity of nature, comes to be everywhere by its power, what necessity is there to say that the Godhead is enclosed within the nature of the flesh? By the same, from the same oration.
What hinders us, having recognized a certain union and approach of the divine nature to the human, from also preserving in that approach the conception befitting God—believing that the divine is beyond all circumscription, even though it be among men? By the same, from the oration Against Eunomius.
but He who comprehends all things—in whom, as the apostle says, all things were created, and in whom all things hold together—has nothing among existing things outside of Himself, which might come to be by any motion or change of place.
'Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God.' Who then was exalted? The lowly, or the Most High? And what is the lowly, if not the human? And what else besides the divine is the Most High? But surely God has no need to be exalted, being Himself the Most High;
1:1592
τὸἀνθρώπινονἄραὁἀπόστολοςὑψωθῆναιλέγει
因此使徒說被高舉的乃是人性。
therefore the apostle says that the human was exalted.
Accordingly, the apostle, by the word 'He made,' does not set forth the pre-eternal existence of the Lord, but the transformation of the lowly into the exalted, which came about at the right hand of God.
For He who said, 'Being exalted by the right hand of God,' openly reveals the ineffable economy of the mystery: that the right hand of God, which is the maker of all existing things—which is the Lord, through whom all things came to be, and apart from whom nothing that has come to be subsisted—this same right hand raised up to its own height, through the union, the man who was united to it.
By the same, from the oration on the text, 'The Son can do nothing of Himself.' For after the resurrection the Lord shows both things: both that the body is not of such a kind, and that this is the very thing that rose.
But He did not do it before the passion, lest you should think the economy an illusion or a semblance, nor should you suppose that Christ's flesh was spiritual, nor descended from heaven, nor of a different substance from our own flesh.
For certain persons, having imagined all these things and supposing that they thereby honour the Lord, have unwittingly, through their thanksgiving, blasphemed against themselves, and have charged the truth with falsehood, to the point that the falsehood proves altogether irrational.
For if He assumed another body, what is that to my body which stands in need of salvation? If He brought down flesh from heaven, what is that to my flesh which was taken from the earth? By the same, from the same oration.
But that you might not again think the risen thing to be something else, when Thomas doubted the resurrection, He shows him the marks of the nails, He shows him the traces of the wounds.
Was He not able to heal Himself, and that after the resurrection, He who had healed all men even before the resurrection? But by those things through which He shows the marks of the nails, He conveys that it is this same body;
The one, that He might fulfil the manner of the economy, having raised up that which had been put to death; but not of such a kind, that it might not again fall under corruption, nor again undergo death.
Just as the Son and the Father are one, so also the soul which the Son assumed and He Himself are one — being ignorant that the Son and the Father are one on account of the one essence and the same Godhead;
For if, just as the Father and the Son are one, so also the soul of the Son and the Son are one, then the Father and the soul will also be one, and the soul of the Son will at some point also say:
but the soul and the Son are other both in nature and in essence, since the soul too came into being through Him, being of the same essence as ourselves.
For if in the manner in which the Father and the Son are one, in that same manner also the soul and the Son are one — according to Origen's argument — then the soul too will be, like the Son, 'the radiance of the glory of God, and the express image of His substance.' But surely this is impossible;
For God the Word, being superior to the soul, is Himself the Son who says, 'I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again.' If then the Son is superior to His own soul — as indeed He is confessed to be superior — how can His soul be equal to God and in the form of God? For by declaring that this very soul is the one that emptied itself and took the form of a servant, he became, by the excess of his impieties, more notorious than the other heretics, as we have noted.
For if the Word exists in the form of God and is equal to God, and he supposes that the soul of the Saviour exists in the form of God and is equal to God — having dared to write thus — how is that which is equal 'superior'? For things that surpass in nature bear witness to the 'superiority' over those beneath them.
Paul does not cease, even to this day, saying, 'On behalf of Christ we are ambassadors, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.' And he did not even stop there, but taking a first-fruits from your own nature, He seated it 'far above all rule and authority and power and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.' What could be equal to this honour? The first-fruits of our race — which had so greatly offended, which had been dishonoured — sits in such exaltation, and enjoys such honour.
1:1634
Τοῦαὐτοῦπερὶτῆςγλωσσῶνδιαιρέσεως
同一位作者,論眾方言的分別。
By the same author, concerning the division of tongues.
For he did not simply say 'grace,' nor simply 'riches,' but 'the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness.' By the same author, from a doctrinal sermon, that the lowly things spoken and done by Christ were not through weakness of power, but through diverse dispensations.
For just as some generous and munificent man, seeing someone who has escaped from a shipwreck and been able to save only his naked body from the waves, receives him with open hands, wraps him in a splendid robe, and brings him to the highest honour — so also did God do with our nature.
Man cast away all that he had — his boldness, his converse with God, his dwelling in Paradise; he exchanged it for a wretched life, and just like one naked from a shipwreck, so he came forth from there.
And Paul cries out, saying, 'He raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.' By the same author, to those who fast at the first Passover.
He opened the heavens, He made friends of those who were hated, He led them back into heaven, He seated our nature at the right hand of the throne, and He bestowed on us ten thousand other good things.
1:1649
Τοῦαὐτοῦἐκτοῦεἰςτὴνἀνάληψινλόγου
同一位作者,出自論升天的講道。
By the same author, from the sermon on the Ascension.
'According to His good pleasure,' he says, 'which He purposed in Him' — that is, what He desired, this He travailed to bring forth, so to speak, namely to declare to us the mystery.
1:1655
Ποῖονδὴτοῦτο;ὅτιἄνθρωπονἄνωκαθίσαιβούλεται
這是甚麼呢?就是祂願意使一個人坐在高處。
And what is this? That He wills to seat a man on high.
For by the union and conjunction God the Word and the flesh are one, no confusion having taken place, nor any obliteration of the essences, but a certain ineffable and unutterable union.
1:1671
ΤοῦαὐτοῦἐκτοῦκατὰΜατθαῖονεὐαγγελίου
同一位作者,出自馬太福音。
By the same author, from the Gospel according to Matthew.
And just as someone, standing in the space between two parties separated from one another, stretching out both his hands and taking hold of each side, might join them together — so also He Himself did, joining the old to the new, the divine nature to the human, His own things to ours.
1:1673
ΤοῦαὐτοῦἐκτοῦλόγουτοῦεἰςτὴνἀνάληψιντοῦΧριστοῦ
同一位作者,出自論基督升天的講道。
By the same author, from the sermon on the Ascension of Christ.