Topic III.
If any one affirms that Christ, just like one of
the prophets, assumed the perfect man, and refuses to acknowledge that,
being begotten in the flesh of the Virgin,393
| 393
Reading ἐκ
παρθένου for
ἐκ
παθόντος. |
He became man and was
born in Bethlehem,
and was brought up in
Nazareth, and advanced in age, and on completing
the set number of years (appeared in
public and) was
baptized in the
Jordan, and received this
testimony from the
Father, “This is my
beloved Son,”
394
even as it is
written, let him be anathema.
Explication.
How could it be said that Christ (the Lord)
assumed the perfect man just like one of the prophets, when He, being
the Lord Himself, became man by the incarnation effected through the
Virgin? Wherefore it is written, that “the first man was of
the earth, earthy.”395
But whereas he that was formed of
the
earth returned to the
earth, He that became the second man returned
to
heaven. And so we read of the “first
Adam and the last
Adam.”
396
And as it
is admitted that the second came by the first according to the
flesh,
for which reason also
Christ is called man and the Son of man; so is
the witness given that the second is the
Savior of the first, for whose
sake He came down from
heaven. And as the Word came down from
heaven, and was made man, and ascended again to heaven, He is on that
account said to be the second Adam from heaven.
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