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TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 03 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 23.01.25 The Immutable Part 3
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Eran.-I am much struck by the agreement.
Orth.-Now do you not suppose that the rule of the apostolic faith was kept by John, who first nobly watered the field of the church of the Antiochenes, and then was a wise husbandman of that of the imperial city?
Eran.-I hold this teacher to be in all respects an admirable one.
Orth.-Well, this most excellent man has interpreted this passage of the Gospel. He writes,hyperlink "When you hear that the Word was made flesh, be not startled or cast down, for the substance did not deteriorate into flesh-an idea of the uttermost impiety-but continuing to be just what it is, so took the form of a servant. For just as when the apostle says `Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,'hyperlink he does not say that the substance of Christ departed from His own glory, and took the substance of a curse, a position which not even devils would imagine, nor the utterly senseless, and the naturally idiotic-so remarkable being the connection between impiety and insanity. But what he does assert is that after receiving the curse due to us, He does not suffer us to be cursed for the future. It is in this sense that He is stated to have been made flesh, not because he had changed the substance into flesh, but because he had assumed the flesh, the substance remaining all the while unimpaired."hyperlink
You may like to bear also Severianus, Bishop of Gabala.hyperlink If so, I will adduce his testimony and do you lend your ears.
"The text `the Word was made flesh' does not indicate a deterioration of nature but the assumption of our nature. Suppose you take the word `was made' to indicate a change; then when you hear Paul saying `Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us,' do you understand him to mean a change into the nature of a curse? Just as being made a curse had no other meaning than that He took our curse upon Himself, so the words was made flesh and dwelt among us mean nothing other than the assumption of flesh."
Eran.-I admire the exact agreementhyperlink of these men. For they are as unanimous in giving the same interpretations of evangelical writings as if they had met in the same place and written down their opinion together.
Orth.-Mountains and seas separate them very far from one another, yet distance does not damage their harmony, for they were all inspired by the same gift of the spirit. I would also have offered you the interpretations of the victorious champions of piety Diodorus and Theodorus, had I not seen that you were ill disposed towards them, and had inherited the hostility of Apollinarius; you would have seen that they have expressed similar experiences, drawing water from the divine Fount, and becoming themselves too, streams of the spirit. But I will pass them by, for you have declared a truceless war against them. I will, however, shew you the famous teacher of the Church, and his mind about the divine incarnation, that you may know what opinion he held concerning the assumed nature. You have no doubt heard of the illustrious Ignatius, who received episcopal grace by the hand of the great Peter,hyperlink and after ruling the church of Antioch, wore the crown of martyrdom. You have heard too of Irenaeus, who enjoyed the teaching of Polycarp, and became a light of the western Gauls;-of Hippolytus and Methodius, bishops and martyrs, and the rest, whose names I will append to their expressions of opinion.
Eran.-I am exceedingly desirous of hearing their testimony too.
Orth.-Hear them now bringing forward the apostolic teaching. Testimony of Saint Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, and martyr.
From the letter to the Smyrnaeans (I.):-
"Having a full conviction with respect to our Lord as being truly descended from David according to the flesh, son of God according to Godheadhyperlink and power, born really of a virgin, baptized by John that all righteousness might be fulfilledhyperlink by Him, really in the time of Pontius Pilate and of Herod the tetrarch crucified for our sake in the flesh."hyperlink
Of the same in the same epistle:-
"For what advantageth it me if a man praises me but blasphemes my Lord, in not confessing him to be a bearer of flesh? but he who does not make this confession really denies Him and is himself bearer of a corpse."hyperlink
Of the saint from the same epistle:-
"For if these things were done by our Lord in appearance only, then it is in appearance only that I am a prisoner in chains; and why have I delivered myself to death, to fire, to sword, to the beasts? But he who is near to the sword is near to God.hyperlink Only in the name of Jesus Christ that I may share his sufferings I endure all things while He, Perfect Man whom some in their ignorance deny, gives me strength."hyperlink
From the same in the letter to the Ephesians:-
"For our God Jesus Christ was born in Mary's womb by dispensation of God of the seed of Davidhyperlink and of the Holy Ghost who was born and was baptized that our mortality might be purified."hyperlink
From the same epistle:-
"If ye all individually come together by grace name by name in one faith, and in one Jesus Christ according to the flesh of David's race Son of God and Son of man.hyperlink
Of the same from the same epistle:-
"There is one Physician of flesh and of spirit generate and ingenerate, God in man, true life in death, Son of Mary and of God, first passible and then impassible, Jesus Christ our Lord."hyperlink
Lastly of the same in his epistle to the Trallians:-
"Be ye made deaf therefore when any man speaks to you apart from Jesus Christ, who was of David's race and of Mary, who was really born and really ate and drank and was persecuted in the time of Pontius Pilate, was crucified and died, while beings on earth and beings in heaven and beings under the earth were looking on."hyperlink
Testimony of Irenaeus bishop of Lyons, from his third book Against the heresies:-
"Why then did they add the words 'In the city of David,hyperlink save to proclaim the good news that the promise made by God to David, that of the fruit of his loins should come an everlasting king, was fulfilled; a promise which indeed the Creator of the world had made."hyperlink
Of the same from the same book:-
"And when he says `Hear ye now, Oh House of David'hyperlink he means that the everlasting King whom God promised to David that he would raise up from his body is He who was born of David's Virgin."
Of the same from the same book:-
"If then the first Adam had had a human father and had been begotten of seed, it would have been reasonable to say that the second Adam had been begotten of Joseph. But if the former was taken from earth, and his creator was God, it was necessary also that He who renews in himself the man created by God should have the same likeness of generation with that former. Why then did not God again take dust? Why did he on the other hand ordain that the formation should be made of Mary? That there might be no other creation; that that which was being saved might be no other thing; but that the former might himself be renewed without loss of the likeness. For then do they too fall away who allege that He took nothing from the Virgin, that they may repudiate the inheritance of the flesh and cast off the likeness."hyperlink
Of the same from the same book:-
"Since his going down into Mary is useless; for why went He down into her if He was designed to take nothing from her? And further, if He had taken nothing from Mary He would not have accepted the food taken from earth whereby is nourished the body taken from earth, nor would He like Moses and Elias, after fasting forty days, have hungered, on account of His body demanding its own food, nor yet would John his disciple when writing about him have said-`Jesus being wearied from his journey sat,'hyperlink nor would David have uttered the prediction about him `And they added to the pain of my wounds,'hyperlink nor would he have wept over Lazarus,hyperlink nor would He have sweated drops of blood,hyperlink nor would He have said, `my soul is exceedingly sorrowful,'hyperlink nor yet when He was pierced would blood and water have issued from His side.hyperlink For all these things are proofs of the flesh taken from earth, which He had renewed in Himself in the salvation of his own creature."hyperlink
Of the same from the same book:-
"For as by the disobedience of the one man who was first formed from rude earth the many were made sinnershyperlink and lost their life, so also was it fitting that through obedience of one man, the firstborn of a virgin, many should be made righteous and receive their salvation."hyperlink
Of the same from the same work:-
"`I have said ye are gods and all of you children of the Most High but ye shall die like man.'hyperlink This He says to them that did not accept the gift of adoption, but dishonour the incarnation of the pure generation of the word of God, deprive man of his ascent to God, and are ungrateful to the Word of God who for their sakes was made flesh. For this cause was the word made man that man receiving the word and accepting the adoption should be made God's son.hyperlink "
Of the same from the same book:-
"Since then on account of the fore-ordained dispensationhyperlink the spirit came down, and the only begotten Son of God, who also is Word of the Father, when the fulness of time was come, was made flesh in man and our Lord Jesus Christ-being one and the same-fulfilled all the human dispensation as the Lord himself testifies, and the apostles confess, all the teachings of men who invented the ogdoads and tetrads and similitudes are proved plainly false."hyperlink
Testimony of the Holy Hippolytus, Bishop and Martyr, from his discourse on "The Lord is my shepherd":-
"And an ark of incorruptible wood was the Saviour Himself, for the incorruptibility and indestructibility of His Tabernacle signified its producing no corruption of sin. For the sinner who confesses his sin says `My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.'hyperlink But the Lord was without sin, made in His human nature of incorruptible wood, that is to say, of the Virgin and the Holy Ghost, overlaid within and without, as it were, by purest gold of the word of God."
Of the same from his discourse on Elkanah and Hannah:-
"Bring me then, O Samuel, the Heifer drawn to Bethlehem, that you may shew the King begotten of David, and anointed King and Priest by the Father."
From the same discourse:-
"Tell me, O Blessed Mary, what it was that was conceived by thee in the womb; what it was that was borne by thee in a Virgin's womb. It was the Word of God, firstborn from Heaven, on thee descending, and man firstborn being formed in a womb, that the first born Word of God might be shewn united to a firstborn man."
From the same discourse:-
"The second, which was through the prophets as through Samuel, he revokes, and turns his people from the slavery of strangers. The third, in which He took the manhood of the Virgin and was present in the flesh; who, when He saw the city wept over it."
Of the same from his discourse on the beginning of Isaiah:hyperlink -
"He likens the world to Egypt; its idolatry, to images; its removal and destruction to an earthquake. The Word he calls the `Lord' and by a `swift cloud' he means the right pure tabernacle enthroned on which our Lord Jesus Christ entered into life to undo the fall."
Testimony of the Holy Methodius,hyperlink bishop and martyr, from his discourse on the martyrs:-
"So wonderful and precious is martyrdom that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Son of God, testified in its honour that He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, that He might crown with this grace the Manhood into whom He had come down."
Testimony of the holy Eustathius, bishop of Antioch, confessor. From his interpretation of the xvith Psalm:-
"The soul of Jesus experienced both. For it was in the place of the souls of men and being made without the flesh, lives and survives. So it is reasonable and of the same substance as the souls of men, just as the flesh is of the same substance as the flesh of men, coming forth from Mary."
Of the same from his work about the soul:-
"On looking at the education of the child, or at the increase of his stature, or at the extension of time, or at the growth of the body, what would they say? But, to omit the miracles wrought upon earth, let them behold the raisings of the dead to life, the signs of the Passion, the marks of the scourges, the bruises and the blows, the wounded side, the prints of the nails, the shedding of the blood, the evidences of the death, and in a word the actual resurrection of the very body."
From the same work:-
"Indeed if any one looks to the generation of the body, he would clearly discover that after being born at Bethlehem He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and was brought up for some time in Egypt, because of the evil counsel of the cruel Herod, and grew to man's estate at Nazareth."
From the same work:-
"For the tabernacle of the Word and of God is not the same, whereby the blessed Stephen beheld the divine glory."hyperlink
Of the same from his sermon on "the Lord created me in the beginning of His way":hyperlink -
"If the Word received a beginning of His generation from the time when passing through His mother's womb He wore the human frame, it is clear that He was made of a woman; but if He was from the first Word and God with the Father, and if we assert that the universe was made by Him, then He who is and is the cause of all created things was not made of a woman, but is by nature God, self existent, infinite, incomprehensible; and of a woman was made man, formed in the Virgin's womb by the Holy Ghost."
From the same work:-
"For a temple absolutely holy and undefiled is the tabernacle of the word according to the flesh, wherein God visibly made his habitation and dwelt, and we assert this not of conjecture, for He who is by nature the Son of this God when predicting the destruction and resurrection of the temple distinctly instructs us by His teaching when He says to the murderous Jews, `Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.'"hyperlink
From the same work:-
"When then the Word built a temple and carried the manhood, companying in a body with men, He invisibly displayed various miracles, and sent forth the apostles as heralds of His everlasting kingdom."
Of the same from his intrepretation of Psalm xcii:-
"It is plain then if `He that anointeth' means God whose throne He calls `everlasting,' the anointer is plainly by nature God, begotten of God. But the anointed took an acquired virtue, being adorned with a chosen temple of the Godhead dwelling in it."
The testimony of the holy Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria and Confessor. From the defence of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria:-
"`I am the vine, ye are the branches My Father is the husbandman.'hyperlink For we according to the body are of kin to the Lord, and for this reason He himself said `I will declare thy name unto my brethren.'hyperlink And just as the branches are of one substance with the vine, and of it, so too we, since we have bodies akin to the body of the Lord, receive them of His fulness, and have it as a root for our resurrection and salvation. And the Father is called a husbandman, for He Himself through the Word tilled the vine which is the Lord's body."
Of the same from the same treatise:-
"The Lord was called a vine on account of His bodily relationship to the branches which are ourselves."
Of the same from his greater oration concerning the faith:-
"The scripture `in the beginning was the Word'hyperlink clearly indicates the Godhead. The passage `the Word was made flesh'hyperlink shews the human nature of the Lord."
From the same discourse:-
"`He shall wash His garments in wine'hyperlink that is His body, which is the vestment of the Godhead in His own blood."
Of the same from the same discourse:-
"The Word `was'hyperlink is referred to His divinity, the words `was made flesh'hyperlink to His body, the Word was made flesh not by being reduced to flesh, but by bearing flesh, just as any one might say such an one became or was made an old man, though not so born from the beginning, or the soldier became a veteran, not being previously such as he became. John says, `I became,' or `was in the island of Patmos on the Lord's day.'hyperlink Not that he was made or born there, but he says `I became or was in Patmos' instead of saying `I arrived;' so the Word `arrived' at flesh, as it is said `the Word was made flesh.' Hear the words `I became like a broken vessel,'hyperlink and `I became like a man that hath no strength, free among the dead.'"hyperlink
Of the same from his letter to Epictetus:-
"Whoever heard such things? Who taught them? Who learnt them? `Out of Zion shall go forth the law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'hyperlink But whence did these things come forth? What hell vomited them out? To say that the body taken of Mary was of the same substance as the Godhead of the Word, or that the Word was changed into flesh and bones and hairs and a whole body; whoever heard in a church or at all among Christians that God bore a body by adoption and not by birth?"hyperlink
Of the same from the same Epistle:-
"But who, hearing that the Word made for Himself a passible body, not of Mary, but of His own substance, would call the sayer of these things a Christian? Who has invented so unfounded an impiety, as even to think and to say that they who affirm the Lord's body to be of Mary, conceive no longer of a Trinity, but of a quaternity in the godhead? As though they that are of this opinion described the flesh which the Saviour clothed himself with of Mary as of the substance of the Trinity.
"Whence further have some men vomited forth an impiety as bad as the foregoing, and alleged that the body is not of later time than the godhead of the Word, but has always been co-eternal with it, since it is formed of the substance of wisdom."
Of the same from the same letter:-
"So the body taken of Mary was human according to the scriptures, and real in that it was the same as our own. For Mary was our sister, since we are all of Adam, a fact which no one could doubt who remembers the words of Luke."hyperlink
Testimony of the holy Basil, bishop of Caesarea:-
From the interpretation of Psalm LX.
"All strangers have stooped and been put under the yoke of Christ, wherefore also `over Edom' does he `cast out' his `shoe.'hyperlink Now the shoe of the Godhead is the flesh which bore God whereby he came among men."
Of the same from his writings about the Holy Ghost to Amphilochius:-
"He uses the phrase `of whom' instead of `through whom;' as when Paul says `made of a woman.'hyperlink He clearly made this distinction for us in another place where he says that the being made of the man is proper to a woman, but to a man the being made by the woman, in the words `For as the woman is of the man so is the man by the woman.'hyperlink But with the object at once of pointing out the different use of these expressions, and of correcting obiter an error of certain men who supposed the body of the Lord to be spiritual, that he may shew how the God-bearing flesh was composed of human matter, he gives prominence to the more emphatic expression, for the expression `by a woman' was in danger of suggesting that the sense of the word generation was merely in passing through, while the phrase `of the woman' makes the common nature of the child and of the mother plain enough."
Testimony of the holy Gregory bishop of Nazianus. From the former exposition to Cledonius:-
"If any one says that the flesh came down from heaven, and not from this earth, and from us, let him be Anathema. For the words `The second man is from heaven,'hyperlink and `as is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly'hyperlink and `no man hath ascended up to heaven but the son of man that came down from heaven,'hyperlink and any other similar passage, must be understood to be spoken on account of the union with man, as also the statement that `all things were made by Christ,'hyperlink and that `Christ dwells in our hearts,'hyperlink must be understood not according to the sensible, but according to the intellectual conception of the Godhead, the terms being commingled together just as are the natures."
Of the same from the same work:-
"Let us see from their own words what reason they give for the being made man, that is for the incarnation. If indeed it was that God otherwise not contained in space, might be contained in space and, as it were under a veil, might converse with men in the flesh, then their mask and their stage play are exquisite: not to say that it was possible for Him otherwise to converse with us, as of yore, in a burning bush and in human form, but if that He might undo the damnation of sin by taking like to likehyperlink then just as He required flesh on account of the condemned flesh, and a soul on account of the soul, so too he required a mind on account of the mind, which in Adam not only fell but,-to employ a term which physicians are accustomed to use about diseases-was affected with original malady.hyperlink For that which did not keep the commandment was what had received the commandment; and that which dared transgression was what had not kept the commandment; and that which specially needed salvation was what had transgressed, and that which was assumed was what needed salvation; so the mind was assumed. Now this point has been demonstrated, whether they will or no, by proofs which are so to say mathematical and necessary. But you are doing just as though, if a man were to have a diseased eye and a limping foot you were to cure the foot but leave the eye uncured; or, if a painter had painted a picture badly, were to alter the picture, but leave the painter alone, as though he were doing his work well. But if they are so constrained by these arguments as to take refuge in the statement that it is possible for God to save man, even without a mind, why then clearly He might have done so even without flesh, by the mere expression of His will, just as He works and has worked in the universe without a body. Away then with the flesh as well as with the mind! Let there be no inconsistency in your absurdity."
Testimony of the Holy Gregory, bishop of Nyssa. From his sermon on Abraham:-
"So the Word came down not naked, but after having been made flesh, not in the form of God, but in the form of a servant.hyperlink This then is He who said that He could do nothing of Himself.hyperlink For the not being able is the part of powerlessness. For as darkness is opposed to light, and death to life, so is weakness to power. But yet Christ is Power of God. Power is wholly inconsistent with not being able. For if power were powerless what is powerful? When then the Word declares that He can do nothing it is plain that He does not attribute his powerlessness to the Godhead of the Only-begotten, but connects his not being able with the powerlessness of our nature. The flesh is weak, as it is written, `The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.'"hyperlink
Of the same from his Book "on the Perfection of Life":-
"Again the true lawgiver, of whom Moses was a type, hewed for Himself out of our earth the slabs of nature. No wedlock fashioned for Him the flesh that was to receive the godhead, but He Himself is made the hewer of His own flesh, graven as it is by the finger of God. For the Holy Ghost came upon the Virgin, and the power of the Highest overshadowed her.hyperlink And when this had come to pass, nature once again took its indestructible character, being made immortal by the marks of the divine finger."
Of the same from his Book against Eunomius:-
"We assert therefore that when He said above that wisdom built for herself a house,hyperlink he intimates by the phrase the formation of the flesh of the Lord, for the very wisdom made its home in no strange dwelling, but built itself its dwelling of the Virgin's body."
Of the same from the same treatise:-
"The Word was before the ages, but the flesh was made in the last times, and no one would say on the contrary either that the flesh was before the ages, or the Word made in the last times."
Of the same from the same treatise:-
"The expression `created me'hyperlink is not to be understood of the divine and the undefiled, but, as has been said, of our created nature, according to the dispensation of the incarnation."hyperlink
Of the same from the first discourse on the Beatitudes:-
"`Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, and took the form of a servant.'hyperlink What poorer, in respect of God, than the form of a servant? What more lowly, in respect of the King of all, than approach to fellowship in our poor nature? The King of Kings and Lord of Lordshyperlink voluntarily dons the form of servitude."
Testimony of the Holy Flavianus, bishop of Antioch. From his sermon on John the Baptist:-
"Do not think of connexion in any physical sense, nor entertain the idea of conjugal intercourse. For thy Creator is creating His own bodily temple now being born of thee."
Of the same from his book on "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me":- "Hear Him saying, `The Spirit is upon me because He hath anointed me.'hyperlink You do not know, He says, what you read, for I, the anointed with the Spirit, am come to you. Now what is akin to us, and not the invisible nature, is anointed with the Spirit."hyperlink
Testimony of Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium. From his Discourse on "My Father is greater than I:"hyperlink -
"Distinguish me now the natures, the Divine and the human. For man was not made from God by failing away, nor was God made of man by advancement. I am speaking of God and man. When, however, you attribute the passions to the flesh and the miracles to God, you of necessity and involuntarily assign the lowly titles to the man born of Mary, and the exalted and divine to the Word Who in the beginning was God. Wherefore in some cases I utter exalted words, in others lowly, to the end that by means of the lofty I may shew the nature of the indwelling Word, and by the lowly, own the weakness of the lowly flesh. Whence sometimes I call myself equal to the Father and sometimes greater than the Father, not contradicting myself, but shewing that I am God and than, for God is of the lofty, man of the lowly; but if you wish to know how my Father is greater than I, I spoke of the flesh and not of the person of the Godhead."
Of the same from his discourse on "The Son, can do nothing of Himself:"hyperlink -
"How was Adam disobedient in Heaven, and how of heavenly body was he formed first-formed beside the first formation? But it was the Adam of the earth who was formed at the beginning; the Adam of the earth disobeyed; the Adam of the earth was assumed. Wherefore also the Adam of the earth was saved that thus the reason of the incarnationhyperlink may be proved necessary and true."hyperlink
Testimony of the Holy John Bishop of Constantinople. From the speech which he made when the Gothic envoy had spoken before him:-
"See from the beginning what He does. He clothes Himself in our nature, powerless and vanquished, that by its means He may fight and struggle and from the beginning He uproots the nature of rebellion."
Of the same from his discourse onhyperlink The Festival of the Nativity:-
"For is it not of the very last stupidity for them to bring down their own gods into stones and cheap wooden images, shutting them up as it were in a kind of prison, and to fancy that there is nothing disgraceful in what they either say or do, and then to find fault with us for saying that God made a living temple for Himself of the Holy Ghost, by means of which he brought succour to the world? For if it is disgraceful for God to dwell in a human body, then in proportion as the stone and the wood are more worthless than man is it much more disgraceful for him to dwell in stone and wood. But perhaps mankind seems to them to be of less value than these senseless objects. They bring down the substance of God into stones and into dogs;hyperlink but many heretics into fouler things than these. But we could never endure even to hear of these things.hyperlink But what we say is that of a virgin's womb the Christ took pure flesh, holy and without spot, and made impervious to all sin, and restored the bodyhyperlink that was His own."
A little further on: "And we assert that when the divine Word had fashioned for Himself a holy temple by its means he brought the heavenly state into our life."
Of the same from the oration: That the lowly words and deeds of Christ were not spoken and done through lack of power, but through distinctions of dispensation.
"What then are the causes of many humble things having been said about Him both by Himself and by His apostles? The first and greatest cause is the fact of His having clothed Himself with flesh, and wishing all his contemporaries and all who have lived since, to believe that He was not a shadow, nor what was seen merely a form, but reality of nature. For if when He Himself and His apostles had spoken about Him so often in humble and in human sense, the devil yet had power to persuade some wretched and miserable men to deny the reason of the incarnation, and dare to say that He did not take flesh and so to destroy all the ground of His love for man, how many would not have fallen into this abyss if He had never said anything of the kind?"
I have now produced for you a few out of many authorities of the heralds of the truth, not to stun you with too many. They are quite enough to show the bent of the mind of the excellent writers. It is now for you to say what force their writings seem to have.
Eran.-They have all spoken in harmony with one another, and the workers in the vineyard of the West agree with them whose husbandry is done in the region of the rising sun. Yet I perceived a considerable difference in their sayings.
Orth.-They are successors of the divine apostles; some even of those apostles were privileged to hear the holy voice and see the goodly sight. The majority of them too were adorned with the crown of martyrdom. Does it seem right for you to wag the tongue of blasphemy against them?
Eran.-I shrink from doing this; at the same time I do not approve of their great divergence.
Orth.-But now I will bring you an unexpected remedy. I will adduce one of your own beautiful heresy-your teacher Apollinarius,hyperlink and I will shew you that he understood the text "The Word was made flesh" just as the holy Fathers did. Hear now what he wrote about it in his "Summary."
The testimony of Apollinarius from his "Summary":-
"If no one is turned into that which he assumes, and Christ assumed flesh, then He was not turned into flesh."
And immediately afterward he continues:-
"For also He gave himself to us in relationship by means of the body to save us. Now that which saves is far more excellent than that which is being saved. Far more excellent then than we are, is He in the assumption of a body! But He would not have been more excellent had He been turned into flesh."
A little further on he says:-
"The simple is one, but the complex cannot be one; he then that alleges that He was made flesh affirms the mutation of the one Word. But if the complex is also one, as man, then he who on account of the union with the flesh says the Word was made flesh means the one in complexity."
And again a little further on he says-"To be made flesh is to be made empty,hyperlink but the being made empty declares not man, but the Son of man, who `emptied Himself' not by undergoing change, but by investiture."
There; you see the teacher of your own doctrines has introduced the word `investiture' and indeed in his little work upon the faith he says-"We then believe that he was made flesh, while His Godhead remained unchanged for the renewal of the manhood. For in the holy power of God there has been neither alteration nor change of place, nor inclusion"-and then shortly again-"We worship God who took flesh of the blessed virgin, and on this account in the flesh is man, but in the spirit God." And in another exposition he says-"We confess the Son of God to have been made the Son of man, not nominally but verily, on taking flesh of the Virgin Mary."
Eran.-I did not suppose that Apollinarius held these sentiments. I had other ideas about him.
Orth.-Well; now you have learnt that not only the prophets and apostles, and they who after them were ordained teachers of the world, but even Apollinarius, the writer of heretical babbling, confesses the divine Word to be immutable, states that He was not turned into flesh but assumed flesh, and this over and over again, as you have heard. Do not then struggle to throw your master's blasphemy into the shade by your own, For, says the Lord "the disciple is notabove his master."hyperlink
Eran.-Yes, I confess that the divine Word of God is immutable and took flesh. It were the uttermost foolishness to withstand authorities so many and so great.
Orth.-Do you wish to have a solution of the rest of the difficulties?
Eran.-Let us put off their investigation until to-morrow.
Orth.-Very well; our synod is dismissed. Let us depart, and bear in mind what we have agreed upon.
Footnotes
117 Chrys. Ed. Sav. II. p. 598.
118 Gal. iii. 13.
119 The modern reader will not omit to note the bearing of these patristic interpretations of the scriptural statements that the word was "made" flesh and that Christ was "made" a curse on later controversies concerning Transubstantiation.
120 On the northern seaboard of Syria. Severianus was at one time Chrysostom's commissary and afterwards his determined opponent.
121 The value of Chrysostom and Severianus as independent witnesses is somewhat weakened by the fact, pointed out by Schulze, that among the writings of the former some are attributed to the latter.
122 The Apost. Const. vii. 46. represent Ignatius as ordained by St. Paul. Malalas describes St. Peter as ordaining Ignatius on the death of Euodius. Vide article "Euodius" in Dict. Christ. Biog.
123 Bp. Lightfoot (Ap. Fathers pt. II. ii. 290.) adopts the reacting kata qelhma kai dunamin for kata qeothta, and notes "Theodoret strangely substitutes qeothta for qelhma. This reading ...may be due to ...ignorance of the absolute use of qelhma. The Armenian translator likewise has substituted another word.
124 Matt. iii. 15.
125 Ig. ad Smyrn. I.
126 There is a play here on the sapkoforoj, nekroforoj, and, possibly, qeoforoj. Vide Pearson and Lightfoot ad loc. (Ignat. ad Smyrn. V.)
127 "A saying to this effect is attributed to Our Lord by Didymus on Ps: lxxxviii 8. It is mentioned also by Origen Hom. XX. In Jerem: Sec. III." Bp. Lightfoot l. c.
128 Ignat. ad Smyrn. IV.
129 Compare note on page 72.
130 Bp. Lightfoot adopts the reading of Cod. Med. "that by his passion he might cleanse the water." Ig. ad Eph. XVIII.
131 Ig. ad Eph. XX.
132 Ignat. ad Eph. VII.
133 Ig. ad Trall. ix.
134 Luke ii. 4.
135 Ps. cxxxii. 11.
136 Is. vii. 13.
137 Cont. Haer. iii. 31.
138 John iv. 6.
139 Ps. lxix. 26. A. V. They talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. lxx. R. V. They tell of the sorrow of those whom thou hast wounded.
140 John xi. 35.
141 Luke xxii. 44.
142 Mat. xxvi. 28.
143 John xix. 34.
144 Cont. Haer. iii. 32.
145 Rom. v. 19.
146 Cont. Haer. iii. 20.
147 Ps. lxxxii. 67.
148 Cont. Haer. iii. 21.
149 Vide note on page 72.
150 Adv. Haer. iii. 26. The allusion is to the gnostics and mainly to Valentinus and his school who imagined seven heavens, and a supercelestial space termed "Ogdoad." "The doctrine of an Ogdoad of the commencement of finite existence having been established by Valentinus, those of his followers who had been imbued with the Pythagorean philosophy introduced a modification. In that phiiosophy the tetrad was regarded with peculiar veneration, and held to be the foundation of the sensible world." Cf. Hippolytus Ref. vi. 23, p. 179 "We read there (Iren. i. xi.) of Secundus as a Valentinian who divided the Ogdoad into a right hand and a left hand tetrad, and in the case of Marcus who largely uses Pythagorean speculations about numbers the tetrad holds the highest place in the system." Dr. Salmon, Dict. Christ. Biog. iv. 72. Irenaeus wrote a work, no longer extant, "on the Ogdoad." Euseb. H. E. v. 20.
151 Ps. xxxviii. 5.
152 Vide Isaiah xix. 1.
153 Bishop first of Olympus and then of Patara at the beginning of the 4th c. This is the only fragment preserved by Theodoret.
154 Acts vii. 57.
155 Prov. viii. 22. Sept.
156 John ii. 19.
157 John xv. 5and John xv. 1.
158 Ps. xii. 22.
159 John i. 1.
160 John i. 14.
161 Gen. xlix. 11, lxx.
162 John i. 1.
163 John i. 14.
164 Rev. 1. 9.
165 Ps. xxi. 12.
166 Ps. lxxxviii. 4. Ps. lxxxviii. 5.
167 Isaiah ii. 13.
168 The antithesis is between the Greek words qesij and fusij. cf. "Krinotelhn Pindarou, qesei de Filocenou." Corp. Ins. (add.) 2480. d.
169 Luke iii. 38.
170 Ps. lx. 8.
171 Gal. iv. 4.
172 I. Cor. xi. 12.
173 I. Cor. xv. 47.
174 I. Cor. xv. 48.
175 John iii. 13.
176 John i. 3.
177 Ephes. iii. 17.
178 The original for arpasaj, "seizing" has agiasaj i.e. hallowing.
179 The word used is prwtopaqein, a late and rare one. Galen uses the correlative prwtopaqeia to express a condition distinguished from sumpaqeia.
180 Phil. ii. 7.
181 John v. 19.
182 Matt. xxvi. 41.
183 Luke i. 35.
184 Prov. ix. 1.
185 Prov. viii. 22; lxx. "ektioe."
186 oikonmia. cf. note on p. 72.
187 Phil. ii. 6. Phil. ii. 7.
188 Deut. x. 17; Rev. xvii. 14. and Rev. xix. 16.
189 Is. lxi. 1.
190 Of these two works no fragments exist but these two preserved by Theodoretus.
191 John xiv. 28.
192 John v. 19.
193 oikonouia. cf. note on p. 72.
194 cf. I. Cor. xv. 47.
195 Migne II. 356.
196 e.g. Anubis, the barket Anubis - cf. Virg. Aen. viii. 698, and the common oath "by the dog," unless indeed the common adjuration of Socrates nh ton kuna may have been only a vernacular substitute for nh ton Dia, like the vulgar "law" for "Lord." The Benedictine Ed. adds "cats."
197 cf. Ephes. v. 12.
198 skeuoj. cf. 2 Cor. iv. 7. 1 Thess. iv. 4. 1 Peter iii. 7. Cicero. Tusc. 1. 22 calls the body "vas animi."
199 cf. p. 132.
200 sarkwsij kenwsij. cf. Phil. ii. 7.
201 Matt. x. 24.