On the Three Doctors

On the Fathers and Teachers of the Greeks A Memra: 10. On the Fathers and Teachers of the Greeks. Again, it is his, when it is his tenth memra, which is concerning the Greek Fathers and Teachers. A question. I give thanks to that one who placed the treasure of his wisdom for the friends who chose him. My brothers. A great deal of toil, which in place of toils, they endured, because of the matter of the unjust excess of the profit from their labors. I have seen their profits, that they are sufficient for the house of the earths, and I greatly desired how and how much the unjust toils are. A great injustice the masters did to the knowers of truth, and they bitterly persecuted and darkened with their words. In their words I saw the medicine of truth manifest, and the untrue darkened from the light of faith. As with salt, they seasoned the world with their concepts, and they turned the heart away from the taste of the word of life. The way of life which they set in creation for the death of medicine, and the dead of iniquity did not restrain themselves from their sins. The supports of life were the chosen ones in their freedom, in that they raised up the word of truth among the knowers. The word of truth the true ones loved above everything, and in their errors they concealed the vessels of truth. Manifest truth proclaims the power of their words, and the foolish cry out that the word of their thoughts is false. As a trumpet, truth cries out within their books, and the knowledge of the foolish was like brass that cannot be bent.

The wicked one of the divine books saw the true ones. And clearly he interpreted the power of their understanding. To the truth in which he saw the rebellious one, a multitude of deceits, and he bent deceits that were woven like garments. The evil error cast a shadow in foolish thoughts, that they might mock the word of truth among the knowledgeable. It is a seed of his, this teaching that he sowed in the earth, which brings forth deceits for the knowledgeable through foolish eyes. Through the mouth of the unlearned he vomited his poison against the knowledgeable, for he knew that the meditation of their hearts is swift to receive his words. With blasphemies he mocked the blasphemy, and through them he cast the arrows of his blasphemies at the side of the faithful. Through their mouths he offered with the true ones throughout all generations, and through their tongues he destroyed the orders of faith. That one is his work from the beginning of the establishment of man, that through deceit he might order a crown against men. Bodily he fought with bodies, in that his purity is without mixture and without sight. With a thick serpent he offered before the daughter of voices. And through his tongue he sowed error in the ears of Eve. By the hand of flesh he killed Abel, the firstborn of the faithful, and through envy he completed the desire of his envy. Through the mouth of the wanton he mocked the faithful one who was from iniquity, and he rejoiced and laughed, a despicable son, at his begetter. Of the brothers, through envy Joseph sold Joseph, and made a servant of his seed, that the servant of servants might be struck.

The wicked one drove out Moses from the house of Pharaoh, and he burdened himself with the magician, the priest of demons. In Saul, the demon, the dwelling-place of demons, pursued David, and he suffered and was troubled when he sat among the tombs. For all the true ones, how was he able to prevail by his cunning? And there was no shame that he did not cast upon them through the mouth of the arrogant. Through the mouth of the arrogant, his desire was known in all generations, and he did not cease to be silent from the contest with the true ones. One of the men, his contest alone was sufficient for his contest, and after the tumult he turned to the battle of his skill. The battle of iniquity he loved, that he might wage with the earth-dwellers, and behold, he spreads out prepared nets to accomplish his purpose. With the true ones he again contends, all of him is deceit, and through deceits he shows the power of his skill. Through the mouth of the blasphemers he interprets his blasphemy in a blasphemous manner, and in their tongues he begins to mock the shameful and the true ones. Against the true ones he set up evil to contend, for he knows that he is able to hide the height of his blasphemy. The true ones concealed his blasphemy by the power of their words, and because of this he barks constantly at their utterances. In the manner of a dog, his purpose barks through the mouth of the arrogant, and he makes pleasant the hearing of the foolish by his sweetness. The custom of dogs: a barking dog, a speaking dog, and what he sees, a man who does not hear him, he tears and is silent. Three men he saw also now who are rightly guided, and he begins to bark like that tumult before the Lord.

The wicked one drove out Moses from the house of Pharaoh, and he burdened himself with the magician, the priest of demons. In Saul, the demon, the dwelling-place of demons, pursued David, and he suffered and was troubled. He was bound with the chain of that of the apostles, his chain was bound, and he was troubled and distressed by the harshness of their word. Three arrows shot into him, the servants of paganism, and the power of divinity taught him, which is hidden in humanity. Through faith they examined for him the mystery of faith, and they revealed and showed him to the hearers and the terrestrials. The sign of humanity placed humanity before divinity, that they might be a sign of humanity to call the Word and the body. The Word and the body proclaimed humanity, the skilled ones of the time, and behold, the demons, the aged, and the foolish humans are heated. One essence, which is three, the skilled ones interpreted, and they joined with it a single person in unity. With one name, the true ones called the Word and the body, a son of essence and a son of humanity, one person. One is the Word, the son of the Father without beginning, and one is the son of humanity from the Adamite humanity. Two natures, all that belongs to the sign and to the person, one in honor and in authority, the son of God. The son of God, one person, not two natures, for the sign is the sign and humanity is humanity, two that were one. This is the word that the skilled ones proclaimed in the ears of humans, and the foolish humans heard it and were troubled by its proclamation. For this reason, the true ones saw the three that I mentioned, and they were not disturbed by the voice of the mockery of demons and humans.

Demons and men cried out against Moses like madmen, because of the word of faith that he proclaimed in the land. They put on faith like a garment before all the peoples, and they did not accept the arrows of the small ones in their members. Spiritually they were mingled while their bodies were separate, and in their bodies they were hidden from the sword of pains. A great ditch filled with the noise of their laughter, for when they died they performed deeds, and they were not dead. They were dead from the taste of the clay formed from dust, and behold, the ditch in which they wept overcame their weeping. The affliction of pains was not from the persecution of their members, and it sought their heart, the pure word of pure truth. The pure word sought from pure men the soul, and it troubled its drink, evil demons and foolish men. Evil bitterness cast down Moses to the persecutors of the soul, and they did not wish to receive the sweet drink of faith. Through faith the soul sees faith, and it makes it wise to see a vision that is not seen. The hidden ones did not enter among the true ones in their revelations, and like light they showed themselves to the eyes of the seers. The mystery of one person of being and man was hidden, and it was concealed from minds that did not know. To those who did not know, the mystery of which I spoke was hidden, for those who know how to wonder well, for those who are revealed.

To the knowledgeable, everything hidden and revealed is manifest. And clearly he examined the mystery of the secret things. Clearly he showed the mystery of faith, and like a seal he fixed it in the earth before the beholders. The vision of the cave showed the signs to the seekers, and by the seekers it was not rejected in its glory. Glorious was the word that he proclaimed among the peoples, and gloriously the men, lovers of truth, heard it. Only the foolish did not wish to accept the persuasion concerning it, nor did they perceive the beauty of the splendor of its fairness. The blind placed a blind covering on the blind of their own soul, and they did not see the light that is brighter than all lights. The light of the sun is nothing so bright when compared with the light of the word of truth. The word of truth pursues the erring ones of the darkness of the two, and behold, evil men assist it to cast down the tempter. To the destruction outside, the envious drove her, the fear of demons, so that the dwelling of men would not confess the power of her knocking. Our dwelling was knocked and the conduct of our life was troubled, until one man was able to settle everything. One man from among the people chose that power which settles people, and he gave it the power to become one who settles every people with everything. For the tempter of men, his chosen ones from all, he settles everything, and nothing remains that he does not settle with his greatness.

The power of his greatness was revealed in the assemblies of the humble creatures, and in his splendor he honored the body of clay formed from dust. The scattered dust swallowed his assemblies and his gatherings, and he began to bark like a dog at the lord who formed him. At the lord who formed them, the dogs of the days barked through the clarities of the flesh, their mouths upon the true ones. Through the true ones he revealed his will, desiring in their lives, and through them he became wise to know the mystery of his secrets. He placed the treasure of his love in the hands of the lovers of his love, so that they might distribute his love spiritually to our needs. The body was needy and was deprived of all goods, and he placed his will in the prayers of the church. According to his will, the poor ones groaned for their poverty, and without restraint they spread out their lives in spiritual things. Spiritually they showed the power of spiritual things, and in the revelations they painted for us the likeness of the hidden things. The mystery of the test of flesh and spirit was hidden from them, and they did not know that there are things without beginning. The poor ones made their ignorance and the hidden things wise, and they taught them to read in the order of the three names. For this order, the dogs of the days set up, and they overturned the labors of the signs of his order through their labors. The hidden labors labored, the worthy ones in this order, and the wise ones sealed that the workers were mighty.

The hidden works called out, "Lies!" to the fair servants, and why should he not be angry at this tumult that terrified his hearing? At this tumult, many were amazed, and also I myself, and its causes were confirmed greatly in the path of words. I saw the word of the afflicted, that it was oppressed by oppressors, and I sought to know what the cause of this oppression was. I chose three men from the whole company of the afflicted, through whom the cause of all of them might be revealed. The afflicted oppressed the oppressors in the generations of their own hands, and more than all I have said, they increased and oppressed. Without measures, they dried up the faces of the freeborn, and they taught this madness of blasphemies to the demons more than to the demons. The demons cast a foolish error into foolish men, that they might corrupt the word of truth with the tongue of flesh. With the tongue of flesh, the demons prepare blasphemy, and with fleshly ones they conceal the filth of their blasphemies. I saw their blasphemies, that they were solitary and rejected many, and I greatly marveled that the cry of the afflicted was not followed from them. Instead of knowers, I myself contended with the unrighteous, who were companions of the slanderer in the circle of their people. The circle is the great one that arranges men against men, and there is none who inquires what the cause of this contention is. As at the beginning, all the companies were immersed from this narrative, and behold, I myself desire to awaken their faces, that they might be examined by it.

Now openly he reveals the account of the three who were known as the fair servants of the word, the meaning of the words. The foolish men cast down the fair servants. It is right that the oppressed should be revealed, and what oppression! The oppressed were three who were called fair: one Diodorus, one Theodore, and one Nestorius. These were the oppressed of whom I spoke from the beginning, and their oppressors were demons and heretical men. The heretics saw that the foul ones among them had been scattered, and the men put on the armor of the truthful. The truthful ones concealed the errors of the erring, and better than all, Diodorus was valiant in battle. He contended with the gatherings of the heretics, and scattered and revealed their foulness before every man. With the sword of his word he destroyed the words of the blasphemers, and they were not able to stand before the severity of the word of his mouth. There were those who, like wolves, were scattered by the sound of his utterances, and he struck down the assemblies that were scattering in their cities. In Antioch the city he began the contest with the erring one, and after a time he completed his victory in the city of Tarsus. In Tarsus the city he reached the pinnacle of his teaching, where that preacher of all peoples was born. In this city he perfected his teaching, the glorious priest, and in it he was crowned like a victor who did not sin and was humbled.

The great victors strengthened the word against the toiling servants, and the word placed light and salt upon the remainder of the man. He sent Theodore to the sick fortress of sin, which was called by the vain name of Mopsuestia. The demon set up an image for his name and called it Mopsuestia, and that city also was called Mopsuestia. From one fortress came forth the three lamps of light, and the light of their conduct shone in three fortresses. In one city was the birthplace of all three of them, and when they grew up, they began a contest on behalf of truth, as the word strengthened truth with its power and sent them to wage a contest against Satan. Love cast the bonds of love upon the three of them, and each of them went to the work that his command had indicated. The hidden sign was concealed in the words of Theodore, and he interpreted the hidden mysteries to the Mopsuestians. The Mopsuestians were called after Mopsuestia, by the name of that demon which was set up as an image in his name, a sorcerer. The pure names he denied from them, the keen-minded one, and he made vessels of honor for the name of the Creator. In the name of the Creator he set a snare for the demon of the fortress, and taught him that three names are one substance. The three names the servant of righteousness put on, and he cast them like arrows at the heretics.

His voice was mighty as he cried out in their divisions, and they were unable to weary the hearing of the understanding of his words. By the understanding of his words the toiling demons were amazed, wondering what this was, that a human being should move them with his voice. Great wonder seized the Creator at the doors of his house, and demons and physicians hid from the sound of their utterances. Demons and physicians heard the sound of the sweet voice, and they grew weary and came and set up a chair opposite his words. The flood of spiritual words flowed from his mouth, and like a torrent it swept away the power of the heretics. In the likeness of ships, Arians and Eunomians floated, and with them perished the Domaritae and the Paulicians. Like a fire in a field, they went out to the divided sects, and they fled and hid in the holes of their falsehoods. A fearful flight fled the ranks of the seekers of error from before the man who was interpreting the pure truth. The pure truth the liars heard from the truthful, and they trembled and were confounded like a woman in the pain of her childbirth. The power of the signs showed them to the toiling servants, and they cast down the weapon of their teaching and fled naked. O how mighty was the power of his strength for the servant of the Spirit, that from his voice the toiling labors that had wearied the demons hid! O how mighty was the understanding of the words of his transformations, which scattered the little ones of the teachings of all his schools!

Oh how skilled was the swiftness of the exposition beyond all that is skilled, leaving nothing that it concealed without revealing and showing it. Oh how clever he was at interpreting the divine books, distinguishing the voices of prophecy and apostleship. Oh how his mental faculties raced with his members, and he directed the course of all the books toward his words. Oh that swift and hard-strung soul of the exposition, which vanquished and conquered both ranks of demons and men. He conquered demons and men, the athlete of righteousness, and was not distracted from any contest with every difficult one. He set a straight contest in creation for the battles, that they might live in fear of truth in his likeness. Salt and light were his words among the nations, and men learned to purify the garments of humanity. He cut a good taste for humanity by his intellects, and he cast down and overthrew the perversity of the fear of demons. For this man, strength and swiftness of exposition were mighty. Men sought him to help the soul and fill the void. The word of truth made him a herald of truth, and the foolish called him divided in mind and a teacher of falsehood. Oh how perverse are the perverters of their perversity, who called the luminous one darkness and darkness light. Woe to the word of prophecy that equates with the unjust, who overturned the order of the expositions into perversities.

They loved the perversions, the perverters of the soul, and they rejected and despised the faithful of the faith. The faith that cannot be stained they proclaimed, the priests of Diodore, Theodore, and with them Nestorius. Through their threefold teaching, the power of the Trinity was shown, and it taught the way to discern the hidden error of false teaching. You placed the gaze upon the threefold circles, which healed severe pains through their words. They were true healers of men in every age, and they brightly tended the flock of eloquent Arabs. The worthy ones heard the voice that was for the hearing, and they taught and instructed men, women, and children. Through their deeds they completed the name of the name of the pastorate, and each of them tended his flock without blemish. For the Tarsians, Theodore, skilled in discourse, was a shepherd; he was wise in loosening the knots of the heretics. For the Mopsuestians, Theodore, a shepherd, examined the mysteries and taught the way to discern clearly without concealment. For the Constantinopolitans, Nestorius, sharp in his movement, was a shepherd; and he was wise in breaking the pride of the heresies. The cities of kings reached the sound of his governance, to show the fruits of his teaching according to his rank. Wisely he sought the truth of the word of righteousness, whose disturbances the confused ones of the heretics do not disturb.

The heretics despised the lover of truth and mounted steeds of falsehood against his words. They fashioned twisted steeds, the perverters of the soul, to bind words that cannot be stained in the hand of perversion. Perversely, they drove the maddened against the true and without cause they bound a cause of deceit. They chose false witnesses, the liars, in the vineyard of the priest, in the same manner as the deed of Jezebel in the vineyard of Naboth. The woman killed Naboth the priest because of his vineyard, and the true one’s vines she drove from his priesthood. The priests of perversion hired vines in the vineyard of perversion and made them scholastics of falsehood. With gold they bought the pure truth that cannot be bought, and in the house of purchase they wronged the priests for the buyer. The silver of the magician bought the priest beyond measure, and when the magician was good, he raised his voice against the priesthood. O, how the priesthood was silenced from its pursuits, and it did not conceal the open perversion like a stain. O, how great was the iniquity that entered priests among priests, and they did not tremble nor fear the priesthood that they were clothed in. Then the priests saw what the priests of the iniquitous priesthood had done from the priesthood.

Rashly he approached the cup of his pain from his priesthood, and not painfully did he cut and cast it to the ground. And if someone says that I did not speak painfully these words, let him show openly, and I will pay the penalty of the words. Come, show me the man who dares against the words, what is the cause of his condemnation, this man. Reveal and examine for me the error of his folly, and helpfully I will deliver to you that you have rightly convicted him who erred. To your mockers I spoke these words, and again I say, I will show you the error of the folly of which he was convicted. There is no one who can speak words against the words without knowing how to tread the path of the solution of words. You do not know how to mount the saddle of words. If you wish, hear from me and say that you do not know. And I say, I will say what is the cause of this confusion, and from where does the slanderer seek against this man. An evil end of evil men, their support of the righteous, because of the cause of the faith which translates well. The head of Egypt was sick and was established in this manner, and when he heard the voice that cut his pain, he was strengthened. The cutting of his word which heals well, the Egyptian saw, and the word of the one full of the limbs of health did not please him. Why does he not proclaim two names, word and body, and why does he call the word the death of the maker and the made?

Why did he not say that Mary is the mother of God? [...] For she gave birth to the Being in a fleshly manner, and he was flesh. This is the cause of the envy of Agapetus, and because of this they deposed the righteous one as if he were a criminal. Envy drove his envious one against the priest, because of the arrival of the one who administered the kingdoms of kings. The envious one, with his power, shook the foundations of the whole, and took the staff in the hand of the laity to trample the truth. The dust of the envious ones stirred up and came upon the true one. And he named the staff with the name of Synod, a chosen and pure one. Behold, this dust cast down the priest from his priesthood, through the participation of the laity who helped the form of the priests. This is the cause for which the innocent one was condemned, and he unjustly received the penalty of his guilt. The powerful envious one buried the envious ones for the pure soul, while he displayed his zeal as if for the sake of the faith. Behold, I have shown the cause of the judgment of the unjust man, that the laity and the powerful condemned him without pain. Behold, I have also revealed the envy of the envious one, who unjustly condemned the worthy priest with unworthy things. It was not painful that the priest went out from his priesthood, nor was it fitting that the powerful ones should cut off his rank. Behold, see how many tumults the envious ones have stirred up, and they have seen and investigated how evil envy is. Behold, the hiddenness of the envious ones' envy has been revealed, that without pain they sought pain in the judgment they decreed.

And if someone says that it is not fittingly that he interpreted the matter, let him tell me what he has understood from the reading. What is it that you said, that you spoke not as it is? Show openly everything that the word has, a clear word. You have no man to turn words against my words, nor to prove that the one who condemns the fitting is just. And let it be that he says, "Behold, this priest has cut off the heretic," condemning the one who condemns as guilty. Behold, Diodorus and Theodore are just; there is no one who says that they were accusers of the heresy of men. Why do they sharpen the points of their hearts against the doctrines, and against what do they flee from the wisdoms of their interpretation? Behold, you did not seek in the hour of words against their words, until a bad end drowns in evil men. Behold, in their days there was no council of the Synod, nor a decree that deposed priests to the heresies. Three councils there were in the land of the Romans, and each one of them knew its time and its cause was clear. One council was in the days of the king Constantine, because of the wickedness that flowed from the mouth of Arius. That second one was in the days of Theodosius, because of the drunken madness of Macedonius who begot. The third was in the reign of the two kings, and its cause is the envy of Agapetus.

Behold, the three synods which were in three times, and not in one; they were not three persons, as you said. In the first, they were not born in the house of Theodore, and what can he say that he knew the unborn? In the second, moreover, they did not know the beginning of wickedness; for it is evident that he did not read the books of the Chaldeans to know. In the third, they were accustomed from the house of life, and what can they say about the accustomed, that they cut off the Magian? Behold, the cause of the following of the two natures has been revealed, and it is sought therefore why the books are silent. Why are the silent persons silent against the canons, and they err, seeing the many destroy themselves over the beautiful? Why are the books called not true which they wrote, since the light of the sun is not clear like their words? Why do they falsify the words of the anathema of the synod, since there is no silence of the Magian in anything that is written? And if one follows this earthly synod, how near is this to the persons who were bringing death? And if one follows the history of Nestorius, in which time, behold, he did not even hear the history of the decree of his own. He was not near to the knowledge of those who condemned him as a Magian, in that he was accustomed until the end came to his knowledge. What, from the beginning, did he hear like this that the priests of Pasak did? He knew, when he was not near, it is known.

Behold, the three synods which were in three times, and not in one; they were not three persons, as you said. In the first, they were not born in the house of Theodore, and what can he say that he knew the unborn? In the synod they acted with faces, the synods of this synod, and from the person they were, they showed the truth openly. From Egypt they were, the wise men for them, and the measure of the twigs they arranged, they were not able to speak the truth. And behold, they were being pleased with the evil of the words of the Egyptian, and they were not agreeing to the anathemas which they wrote anathematically. Anathematically they anathematized the knowers of the truth, and their anathematizing was not hidden from their eyes. Behold, also they anathematized him to the anathemas of his own, and it was not to his anathemas only, but also him they bound in anathema. Thus it is written in the book of their faith, that he anathematizes everyone who says the name of mixture. And behold, the Egyptian placed the anathema against this, that no one is permitted to say body and divinity. And what then shall he do, he who hears these things, that he anathematizes him who confesses rightly and him who does not confess? Behold, what did Masabbe act with faces in the schools? They judged unjustly and turned, they condemned wrongfully. For what was the anathema that loosed the words of the Egyptian? And it was not just that the man who killed him should be destroyed. A great quarrel made enmity against his anathemas, and they mixed them together to loose the anathemas and to bind the anathemas. Anathema with anathema was mixed, a worldly tumult, and they cast confusion among the knowers and the non-knowers.

cannot remove the curse from before it in that which contains both curses under one curse. Behold, the confusion that has no end in its Babylon and behold, love is divided and there is no equality between one and another. There is no equality at all among the lands and especially among the people whom Christ chose for his name. Among Christians there are many disputes without number and no one knows how to judge rightly in the path of truth. In the path of truth I saw the idle from discipline and I marveled greatly at how much evil of the teeth did. Of the evil of the teeth I saw that it disturbed the dwelling of men and I said, I myself, that not without pain I saw and was silent. I myself came among those who can speak the word of truth that concerning what the seal from the followers by hand of words. It is very easy for the wicked to take the word to eat in iniquity and it is easy to silence the evil shoots. The evil shoots. I saw that they were divided among the lands and I have the kings of thought to say that it is in words of pain. I have the word of words to say with the speakers that why did they cease from words that are worthy of words. The speech of the unworthy I heard that foolish men spoke and I composed words against words that are not fitting. I saw that worthy men were oppressed by the laity and I do not desire to hear the clamor of the foolish.

In the books which they wrote I read and studied how much I looked. And I wondered greatly how much they wronged the wronged ones. To their wrongdoings I sought to reply with a voice of words concerning how much they wrong the poor with bitterness from the church. To how many wrongdoings have they wronged greatly the pure of soul and cast away from them the good thought from their words. Where is the injustice which the priests committed when they did not commit, for behold they are persecuted from their words like the unjust. If it is the one of injustice who suffers and meditates in faith, behold all the priests in this thought ended their lives. And if it is the one of blasphemy who speaks truth or concealment, behold the apostolic heralds who set out on this path. Behold the head of the Trinity who cried out to the Jews that the man is Jesus also a son of man from God. Behold also Paul, chosen among the apostles, who agrees to this and places for him a middle of being and of ours. Luke and Matthew without concealment wrote his lineage and arranged his genealogies one after another. Also Bar Ra'ma with a clear voice revealed his humanity, that what is dissolved is established by divine power. To those heralds do not cease to show what is just, for behold in their books is written the distinction of word and body. Also the Lord under authority must be that he show in his body the place of thorns and a spear which he swallowed.

He and his disciples investigated the path of this distinction, and they examined and scrutinized the nature of substances and the nature of persons. They distinguished natures without confusing the order of the hypostasis, and they united the two into the single personhood of one person. The heralds called one person the Word and the flesh, and to this same Jesus the teachers of the fear of truth bore witness. To the Jesus of his companions, Theodore and Diodore, bore witness, and what is this that only the foolish condemn? There are other wise men who reflected on this matter, and no one condemns their interpretations except these. The heretics alone corrupted this incarnation, and they refused to accept a single confession of the Word and the flesh. To these erring ones, even the simple have submitted, and according to their thought they walk on a path that is not true. Not true is the path that the heretics investigated, and I will show from their books that it is not true. The Symmachians considered the body to be a dream, and like a magician they interpreted the natures of the persons. Bar Buryae wronged the entire Word and flesh, and they mounted the madness of unspeakable blasphemies. The Manichaeans erred concerning the entire that has no substance, and they placed the name of creator on the angels. The Photinians called one person the Trinity, and they confounded the order of fatherhood and sonship.

Paulicians placed the Son under the beginning, and after the likeness of man they made a beginning for his divinity. The Marcionites fled from these and from those, and they introduced the "essence" of the name of "Son" into the name of "substance," and to the nature they did not even approach with a word, because they raised the name of "substance" from their books. The Bardaisanites considered everything as nothing, and they denied and sought a vain and unstable inquiry. And to the blasphemy of Valentinus, he added to all blasphemies, and he declared and said that it was not a body that the mother Mary bore. Sabellius confounded humanity and divinity, mixing the hypostases and destroying the order that exists in substance. The Arians separated the Son from his Begetter, and they made him a servant and a minister like all creatures. The Eunomians called him "Son" in name only, and they abolished the name of fatherhood and sonship. The Dormitians divided the man, placing the Lord in him, and they did not permit him to be complete even in himself. Macedonius deprived the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit of its life, and he cast it out from the ranks of the Father and the Son. The Severians denied the body that he took from her, in that they said that it was not a man who suffered and was crucified. Behold, the confession of the heretics, many in number, see how many blasphemies their sects are full of.

Look intently, how many are the forms of error in the faith, and how many are the assaults that shake the foundations. Distinguish justly, like a just divider of words, how many divisions there are between the just and the unjust. The just have many tongues of blood shed for their words, and the truth they proclaimed is true and pure among the assemblies of men. Because of them, the memory of the heretics has come to an end, who showed men how far they are from righteousness. I wished to show their wickedness before the wicked, to make known that they unjustly persecuted the orthodox. The heretics concealed themselves from those who know the truth, and because of this, the knot of their wickedness has come to an end. The truth that is in them, my words have mixed with the lies, to show men how many forms of truth are mixed with falsehood. The truth is manifest, which was proclaimed in the land by the simple and the foolish, who considered it like the error of the heretics. The true ones waged a great war against the liars, and this is the ditch they dug for themselves in the name of liars. Seventy years and a little more lived Theodorus, and he did not cease and keep silent from the struggle against the erring. The armor of the spirit the just one wore throughout all his life, and he contended against the factions of the heretics. With the sword of the spirit he destroyed their assemblies of error, and he scattered the seeds of their teachings.

Athletically he contended with the heresies, and with a piercing sound he loosed the knots of their error. In the manner of an athlete he held the contest with them, and as with a finger he showed their condemnation. As truth was revealed in his refutations, and he dashed the lie to the ground before the eyes of the beholders. Like a tragic actor his contests were accounted, and he never withdrew from victory throughout all his days. From his youth he began with the zeal of athleticism, and he did not rest nor cease until death put an end to his course. He considered the course of the years of his life as one day, and he did not separate the day of youth from old age. The worn-out old age completed the days of the strenuous laborer, and firmly he began and finished in the service of his Lord. The love of his Lord urged him to contend rightly, and he did not rest nor sleep until he reached victory. That victory of which the word of Paul was being fulfilled, that he runs to meet the trophy of the victory of Rome. O victor over suffering, to the beautiful course of my races, and the weakness of the body and the pains of the soul did not turn him aside. O valiant one, how much he was strengthened for the contests of life, and he gave no place to the weariness that steals from his contests. O wise one, how much he was wise to see the hidden things, and not one secret was hidden from his mind.

Or like a merchant who traded in the talents of the Spirit, whose profits covered every herald of his proclamation. The talents of the Spirit he took from his Lord, the good servant, and diligently sowed their profit in the ears of all. In every place the profits of his labors were placed, and no people remained who were not nourished by the taste of his words. In the manner of a light he showed his meanings among the lands, and he pursued the errors that were hidden in the thoughts of men. The light of life saw humanity through his words, and it learned to discern by means of the revealed the hidden. As if from a feast men rested from strife until the morning of his words dawned and the mind awoke. The table of the feast was spread over them from the books of the Spirit, and he raised them up by the good meditation of the movements of his soul. Without knowledge the readers of books were murmuring until they read his writings and became wise. The scribe of scribes deserves to be called the enlightener of the age, for otherwise there would be no scribe who teaches well. From the treasury of his writings everyone who became rich grew wealthy, and from his interpretations they found a solution for the perplexed. From him also learned the one who learned to interpret, and through his inquiries I found the inquiry of the meditation of words. His meditation was for me like a guide to the scriptures, and he raised me up to the meaning of the books of the Spirit.

Instead of his profits, I would contend with his creditors, and I would show that it was not unjustly that his profits were stolen. A great injustice, the thieves who stole from him, men clothed in deceit, and much dust was stirred up from the course of his city. The cities of his city, the paths that were stirred up from the word of words, and his reasons followed the path of transformations. I saw him and his companions that the heretics were making a noise, and the measure of what he said, the true one, with their words. Beside their words, my word hastens from the beginning, and again, I would set their limit for the narrative of my word. For them, the chief of the heads of words of knowledge, who, when the simple are stirred up and make a noise against the schools. The great meaning that they showed in the earth, the skilled ones of thought, and no one knew how to understand their meaning. Wisely they wrote everything that they wrote in the books that they wrote, and there is no wise one who placed a blemish in their interpretations. Only the foolish cried out, "They are like the possessed," in that they were sick to understand the power of their words. With severe pains of ignorance, the idle were sick, and there was no hope for them to hear the good of the health of the soul. In the soul, the sick of soul are sick, without remedies, for that reason they go to the cutters of severe pains of the soul. They know well that their hardness is incurable, because of this they put on a rage without reason.

A harsh anger stirred up the simple against the learned concerning the distinction of the natures of the Word and the body. The body of the Son took the Word of the Father, the Creator, and bound it in love, the Son of God, in his own order. He gave his own, while he himself was not diminished from what he was, so that there is no nature of his that is increased or decreased. His nature is high above natures and changes, and the natures of the nature of man do not approach it. To the nature of man approached the economy of the nature of man, not to the nature that is high and elevated above natures. Of man, everything that is written concerning man is born: birth, begetting, also upbringing, suffering, and death. This distinction of the Word and the body the true ones revealed, and the foolish were struck down, who, concerning what they showed to the non-manifest, this is the cause that made the books of the heretics for the afflicted, and because of it they were shut up and confined in the lands of the earth. And behold, it was fitting that because of this, the beloved ones would be according to the investigation of the mysteries that they would show in the earth. To the glory is equal he who reveals the non-manifest and searches out a way for the childhood of man to seek the hidden. For the childhood of men, the wisdom of the Word among the learned, and from not being bitter, the foolish plunder this advantage. Two advantages intertwined the friends of truth: the Word of truth and the glory of their conduct.

The toil of their teachings was glorious, and no one knew that the error was fairer than their labors. In the labors of Theodore the Mighty, until the senses of his body were amazed at the depth. Of Theodore the Great, it is much more than history, that his eye was darkened by the meditation of books and did not cease and was silent. Also Nestorius labored his labor more than all laborers, in vain giving place to his bosom to contend with error. Behold, the labors of wretched men, how they were entangled, and behold, the evil of their errors, how it was exalted. Behold, how many men saw, how many men erred against men, common people against the sources filled with wisdom. The sweet springs were true for the thirst of men, and all who drank from their springs went astray in their thoughts. The simple did not wish to receive the drink from them, and behold, they are tormented by the dullness of their minds. Or like the blind who see and are blind from weeping, and it is easy for them to blind themselves by proclaiming themselves pure. Like partridges that hide their heads in their holes, who love the darkness of nights more than the light. Or like the wise man who silences himself and submits to the course of separation that was placed in him. There is no opportunity for ignorance to know, nor a decree that cuts off the word of the Lord.

The word of our Lord cut off Eutyches from within the Church, and cast Eutyches into the exile of the pagans. In the likeness of the envious and the heretics, he made his body a garment of thought, and was not mingled with the tares of their minds. Their customs Paul also cut off with the sword of his words, and delivered Eutyches, who were companions to the devourer. To the devourer resemble the men who hate the truth, who devour the reputation of the friends of truth like a serpent. And the serpent made Eutyches drunk with this madness, that the impulse of his nature might be inflamed in the hair of the envious. To the envious, the foolish and the false, he ministers as a merchant, and it does not occur to him to see envy, nor does he cease at all. The forms of envy he sees even now in envious men, and he prepares his soul for the consummation of the portion of the company of his people. It is the portion of him who makes fools act with the wise, and the heroes of his wrath cast into their mouths the ranks of truth. The ranks of truth he desires to destroy by the mouth of the slanderers, and the power of truth does not give him the strength to complete his nature. The evil of his nature shows only the bitter nature, and the impulse of his soul is not elevated toward perfection. And if he were able to complete his nature according to his desire, there would be no name of envy in the earth, nor would it cease at all. And if there were a possibility for the slanderers against the true ones, the name of the house of Theodore would have perished from the house of the living.

To this company came also the good old man from every people, who knows how to loosen the knot of his wickedness. All the wise men of the ecclesiastical assembly gathered, and they showed his error to the world of earth and heaven. With heretics he used to conceal the seeds of his error; they spread out the thorns of the soul to the world of all creatures. The lowly workers chose for him a lowly place opposite the thorns, and they were not able to cut the root of the thorns with the true ones. As with a sword, the thorns cut down his error, and the wicked ones remained, who were witnesses of his guilt. The guilty one saw his guilt, full of sins, and behold, he is agitated and groans, his bitterness against the laity. He seeks the assembly of the judges to be judged by the victors, by Diodorus, Theodore, and Mar Nestorius. "O guilty one, you have no power to contend, for behold, in the assembly you learned the error of the strong workers. Behold, in death you became a root of the thorns you made with your companies, which were destroyed and hidden, and they were not able to cut on the day of the contest. But show me from your workers who conquered the true ones, and when, and where, and in whose days was your victory. Where is the firstborn you begot in your assemblies, and hand in hand all who learned his error? Behold, all the righteous he begot in the earth have perished and disappeared, and not one of them remained except a remnant for your disgrace.

To this company came also the good old man from every people, who knows how to loosen the knot of his wickedness. All the wise men of the ecclesiastical assembly gathered, and they showed his error to the world of earth. The remnant of heresy, small in number, stood in envy, like fathers at the time of the feast. At the time of the feast, the heretics are always troubled, and they are not able to cast away and throw off their errors. The words of the priests of the Church went out beyond the feast, and especially the priestly order of the house of Diodorus. The house of Diodorus humbled the pride of every heresy, and the books of their writings bear witness to their labors. In their writings is inscribed the memory of their victories, when they began and when they ended in the contest with their people. In the days of Valens was the beginning of their troubles; in the days of the man who helped the rage of the house of Arius. He raised up the bent head of the house of Arius, and drove the true priests out beyond the feast. At this time, the true priests were a bitter and hard time, and truly they humbled the time and its harshness. The lords of the times sent against the times, in the likeness of a king who chooses workers for hard contests. Hard was the time of their three strong workers, and it was the beginning of the writing of the heretics. Beyond the order, the side of the house of Arius was written, and the written king helped their writing. The king and the people were raised together against the priests, and they were not able to prevail against the priests.

O the victory that they showed on earth to the earthly ones, that they cut him off from the world and cast him down to the earth of mortality. O the deaths that showed the skill of the immortals. And they left on earth the name of their victory for the generations to come. O the guides who taught the path whose labor is toilsome, that they instructed men to follow rightly to the goal of Rome. To the goal of Rome the wise ones among the wisest of men pursued, and that wonder they performed while on earth, of heaven. The great wonder filled with their conduct of the earthly ones, and the earthly ones did not rightly see in their conduct. In their conduct the bones of their errors were gathered, and their injustice made the food for their oppressors. Their oppressors ate the judgment of their injustice, so that when they were victorious they condemned themselves as liars. For this oppression I sought to be avenged from the oppressors, and the bones of my thought gave birth to words of reproach. Words of fools, my passing, that I might become a changer of words, and when no man saw, I came to the history of the conduct of the true ones. The true ones loved every one who is true in his thought, and in their thoughts he sought himself throughout all his life. A life that did not spoil, he made the meditation of the true ones his companion, then he conversed in the meditation of the life from their words. For the life of men, the true ones loved more than anything, and because of men they received scorn from the hosts.

To the lover of the contest, see that he has ceased over the mortal, and they have prepared a contest to liken to the contest of his lovers. To the contest of his lovers, see the athletes of righteousness, and he was arrayed to strike the contest of their ways. Their ways are placed like an image before the mind, and it sees itself, lest it err in the evil error. The voice of error is expelled every hour from the mind, so that it is not ensnared in that trial which burns in its trial.