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| Chapter XVIII.—Continuation of the foregoing argument. Proofs from the writings of St. Paul, and from the words of Our Lord, that Christ and Jesus cannot be considered as distinct beings; neither can it be alleged that the Son of God became man merely in appearance, but that He did so truly and actually.
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Chapter XVIII.—Continuation of the
foregoing argument. Proofs from the writings of St. Paul, and from the words of
Our Lord, that Christ and Jesus cannot be considered as distinct beings;
neither can it be alleged that the Son of God became man merely in appearance,
but that He did so truly and actually.
1.3632
| 3632
Again a Syriac fragment supplies some important words. See Harvey, vol.
ii. p. 440. | proved from the writings of Paul to be one and the same" title="445" id="ix.iv.xix-p2.1"/>Paul to be one and the same" title="445" id="ix.iv.xix-p2.2"/>As
it has been clearly demonstrated that
the Word, who existed
in the beginning with God, by whom all things were made, who was also
always present with mankind, was in these last days, according to the
time appointed by the Father, united to His own workmanship, inasmuch as
He became a man liable to suffering, [it follows] that every objection is
set aside of those who say, “If our Lord was born at that time,
Christ had therefore no previous existence.” For I have shown that
the Son of God did not then begin to exist, being with the Father from
the beginning; but when He became incarnate, and was made man, He
commenced afresh3633
| 3633 So the
Syriac. The Latin has, “in seipso recapitulavit,” He
summed up in Himself. [As the Second Adam, 1 Cor. xv.
47.] | the long line of human beings, and furnished
us, in a brief, comprehensive manner, with salvation; so that what we had
lost in Adam—namely, to be according to the image and likeness of
God—that we might recover in Christ Jesus.
2. For as it was not possible that the man who had once
for all been conquered, and who had been destroyed through disobedience,
could reform himself, and obtain the prize of victory; and as it was also
impossible that he could attain to salvation who had fallen under the
power of sin,—the Son effected both these things, being the Word
of God, descending from the Father, becoming incarnate, stooping low,
even to death, and consummating the arranged plan of our salvation, upon
whom [Paul], exhorting us unhesitatingly to believe, again says,
“Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring down Christ; or
who shall descend into the deep? that is, to liberate Christ again from
the dead.”3634
Then he continues,
“If thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shall
be saved.”3635
And he renders the reason why
the Son of God did these things, saying, “For to this end Christ
both lived, and died, and revived, that He might rule over the living and
the dead.”3636
And again, writing to the
Corinthians, he declares, “But we preach Christ Jesus
crucified;”3637
and adds, “The cup
of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of
Christ?”3638
3. But who is it that has had fellowship with us in the
matter of food? Whether is it he who is conceived of by them
as the Christ above, who extended himself through Horos, and imparted a
form to their mother; or is it He who is from the Virgin, Emmanuel, who
did eat butter and honey,3639
of whom
the prophet declared, “He is also a man, and who shall know
him?”3640
He was likewise preached
by Paul: “For I delivered,” he says, “unto you first of
all, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that
He was buried, and rose again the third day, according to the
Scriptures.”3641
It is plain, then, that
Paul knew no other Christ besides Him alone, who both suffered, and was
buried, and rose gain, who was also born, and whom he speaks of as man.
For after remarking, “But if Christ be preached, that He rose from
the dead,”3642
he continues, rendering
the reason of His incarnation, “For since by man came death, by man
[came] also the resurrection of the dead.” And everywhere, when
[referring to] the passion of our Lord, and to His human nature, and His
subjection to death, he employs the name of Christ, as in that passage:
“Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died.”3643
And again: “But now, in Christ, ye who
sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”3644
And again: “Christ has redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written,
Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree.”3645
And again: “And
through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ
died;”3646
indicating that the impassible
Christ did not descend upon Jesus, but that He Himself, because He was
Jesus Christ, suffered for us; He, who lay in the tomb, and rose again,
who descended and ascended,—the Son of God having been made the
Son of man, as the very name itself doth declare. For in the name of
Christ is implied, He that anoints, He that is anointed, and the unction
itself with which He is anointed. And it is the Father who anoints, but
the Son who is anointed by the Spirit, who is the unction, as the Word
declares by Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He
hath anointed me,”3647
—pointing out both
the anointing Father, the anointed Son, and the unction, which is the
Spirit.
4. The Lord Himself, too, makes it evident who it was
that suffered; for when He asked the disciples, “Who do men say
that I, the Son of man, am?”3648
and when
Peter had replied, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God;” and when he had been commended by Him [in these words],
“That flesh and blood had not revealed it to him, but the Father
who is in heaven,” He made it clear that He, the Son of man, is
Christ the Son of the living God. “For from that time forth,”
it is said, “He began to show to His disciples, how that He must go
unto Jerusalem,
and suffer many things of the priests, and
be rejected, and crucified, and rise again the third day.”3649
cross" title="447" id="ix.iv.xix-p22.2"/>He who was
acknowledged by Peter as Christ, who pronounced him blessed because the
Father had revealed the Son of the living God to him, said that He must
Himself suffer many things, and be crucified; and then He rebuked Peter,
who imagined that He was the Christ as the generality of men
supposed3650
| 3650 Literally,
“supposing Him to be Christ according to the idea of
men.” | [that the Christ should be], and was averse to
the idea of His suffering, [and] said to the disciples, “If any man
will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow Me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; and whosoever
will lose it for My sake shall save it.”3651
For these things Christ spoke openly, He being
Himself the Saviour of those who should be delivered over to death for
their confession of Him, and lose their lives.
5. If, however, He was Himself not to suffer, but
should fly away from Jesus, why did He exhort His disciples to take up
the cross and follow Him,—that cross which these men represent
Him as not having taken up, but [speak of Him] as having relinquished the
dispensation of suffering? For that He did not say this with reference to
the acknowledging of the Stauros (cross) above, as some among them
venture to expound, but with respect to the suffering which He should
Himself undergo, and that His disciples should endure, He implies when He
says, “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; and
whosoever will lose, shall find it.” And that His disciples must
suffer for His sake, He [implied when He] said to the Jews,
“Behold, I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some
of them ye shall kill and crucify.”3652
And to
the disciples He was wont to say, “And ye shall stand before
governors and kings for My sake; and they shall scourge some of you, and
slay you, and persecute you from city to city.”3653
He knew, therefore, both those who should suffer persecution, and
He knew those who should have to be scourged and slain because of Him;
and He did not speak of any other cross, but of the suffering which He
should Himself undergo first, and His disciples afterwards. For this
purpose did He give them this exhortation: “Fear not them which
kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who
is able to send both soul and body into hell;”3654
[thus exhorting them] to hold fast those professions of faith
which they had made in reference to Him. For He promised to confess
before His Father those who should confess His name before men; but
declared that He would deny those who should deny Him, and would be
ashamed of those who should be ashamed to confess Him. And although these
things are so, some of these men have proceeded to such a degree of
temerity, that they even pour contempt upon the martyrs, and vituperate
those who are slain on account of the confession of the Lord, and who
suffer all things predicted by the Lord, and who in this respect strive
to follow the footprints of the Lord’s passion, having become
martyrs of the suffering One; these we do also enrol with the martyrs
themselves. For, when inquisition shall be made for their blood,3655
and they shall attain to glory, then all shall
be confounded by Christ, who have cast a slur upon their martyrdom. And
from this fact, that He exclaimed upon the cross, “Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do,”3656
the long-suffering, patience, compassion, and goodness of Christ
are exhibited, since He both suffered, and did Himself exculpate those
who had maltreated Him. For the Word of God, who said to us, “Love
your enemies, and pray for those that hate you,”3657
Himself did this very thing upon the cross; loving the human race
to such a degree, that He even prayed for those putting Him to death. If,
however, any one, going upon the supposition that there are two
[Christs], forms a judgment in regard to them, that [Christ] shall be
found much the better one, and more patient, and the truly good one, who,
in the midst of His own wounds and stripes, and the other [cruelties]
inflicted upon Him, was beneficent, and unmindful of the wrongs
perpetrated upon Him, than he who flew away, and sustained neither injury
nor insult.
6. This also does
likewise meet [the case] of those who maintain that He suffered only in
appearance. For if He did not truly suffer, no thanks to Him, since there
was no suffering at all; and when we shall actually begin to suffer, He
will seem as leading us astray, exhorting us to endure buffering, and to
turn the other3658
cheek, if He did not
Himself before us in reality suffer the same; and as He misled them by
seeming to them what He was not, so does He also mislead us, by exhorting
us to endure what He did not endure Himself. [In that case] we shall be
even above the Master, because we suffer and sustain what our Master
never bore or endured. But as our Lord is alone truly Master, so the Son
of God is truly good and patient, the Word of God the Father having been
made the Son of man. For He fought and conquered; for He was man
contending for the fathers,3659
| 3659 “Pro patribus, ἀντὶ
τῶν πατρῶν. The reader
will here observe the clear statement of the doctrine of atonement,
whereby alone sin is done away.”—Harvey. | and
through obedience doing away with disobedience completely: for
He bound the strong man,3660
and set free the weak,
and endowed His own handiwork with salvation, by destroying sin. For He
is a most holy and merciful Lord, and loves the human race.
7. Therefore, as I have already said, He caused man
(human nature) to cleave to and to become, one with God. For unless man
had overcome the enemy of man, the enemy would not have been legitimately
vanquished. And again: unless it had been God who had freely given
salvation, we could never have possessed it securely. And unless man had
been joined to God, he could never have become a partaker of
incorruptibility. For it was incumbent upon the Mediator between God and
men, by His relationship to both, to bring both to friendship and
concord, and present man to God, while He revealed God to man.3661
| 3661 The Latin text, “et
facere, ut et Deus assumeret hominem, et homo se dederet Deo,” here
differs widely from the Greek preserved by Theodoret. We have followed
the latter, which is preferred by all the editors. | For, in
what way could we be partaken of the adoption of sons, unless we had
received from Him through the Son that fellowship which refers to
Himself, unless His Word, having been made flesh, had entered into
communion with us? Wherefore also He passed through every stage of life,
restoring to all communion with God. Those, therefore, who assert that He
appeared putatively, and was neither born in the flesh nor truly made
man, are as yet under the old condemnation, holding out patronage to sin;
for, by their showing, death has not been vanquished, which
“reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned
after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.”3662
But the law coming, which was given by Moses,
and testifying of sin that it is a sinner, did truly take away his
(death’s) kingdom, showing that he was no king, but a robber; and
it revealed him as a murderer. It laid, however, a weighty burden upon
man, who had sin in himself, showing that he was liable to death. For as
the law was spiritual, it merely made sin to stand out in relief, but did
not destroy it. For sin had no dominion over the spirit, but over man.
For it behoved Him who was to destroy sin, and redeem man under the power
of death, that He should Himself be made that very same thing which he
was, that is, man; who had been drawn by sin into bondage, but was held
by death, so that sin should be destroyed by man, and man should go forth
from death. For as by the disobedience of the one man who was originally
moulded from virgin soil, the many were made sinners,3663
and forfeited life; so was it necessary that, by the obedience of
one man, who was originally born from a virgin, many should be justified
and receive salvation. Thus, then, was the Word of God made man, as also
Moses says: “God, true are His works.”3664
But if, not having been made flesh, He did appear as if flesh,
His work was not a true one. But what He did appear, that He also was:
God recapitulated in Himself the ancient formation of man, that He might
kill sin, deprive death of its power, and vivify man; and therefore His
works are true.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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