Ancoratus

just as Elizabeth said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb," which the Logos, being impassible, received from humanity, having suffered; this is "the living bread, which came down from heaven" and gives life; this is the fruit of the true olive tree, the oil of anointing and of composition, which Moses prefigured; this is "the true vine," which the Father alone cultivates, having produced for us a cluster of joy; this is "the living water, which a thirsty man, having taken, will not thirst again, but it leaps in his belly into eternal life." From this the new farmers partook and distributed into the world, but the old farmers dried up and corrupted through unbelief. With his own blood he sanctifies the nations, and with his own spirit he leads the called into the heavens. "Therefore, as many as are led by his spirit, these" live for God; but as many as are not, are still counted among the dead, being called psychic or

fleshly. Therefore he commands to reject the works of the flesh, which are strongholds of sin, and to mortify the members of death through his grace, and to receive the Holy Spirit which we did not have, which gives life to me who was once dead, and without receiving which I will die; for without his spirit everyone is dead. "If therefore his spirit is in us, the one who raised him from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies through his spirit dwelling in us." But, I think, both dwell in the righteous man, Christ and his spirit.

If Christ is believed to be God from God, from the Father, and the Spirit from Christ or from both, as Christ says, "that which proceeds from the Father" and "this one will take from me," and Christ from the Holy Spirit—for "that which is in her," it says, "is from the Holy Spirit," the voice of an angel—I understand the mystery that redeems me, by faith, by hearing alone, by the love for the one who came to me. For God knows himself, Christ proclaims himself, the Holy Spirit reveals itself to the saints; in the holy scriptures a Trinity is proclaimed to us and believed, without curiosity, without contention, from the tokens of hearing. From this faith comes the salvation of grace, "from faith comes righteousness without works of the law"; for it is written that from the hearing of faith the Spirit of Christ is given to those being saved. Faith, the universal one, is signified by the voices of heralds, as I, being catechized from the scriptures, think: three holy, three co-holy, three existent, three co-existent, three formed, three co-formed, three active, three co-active, three hypostatic, three co-hypostatic, existing together with one another; this is called the holy Trinity, three beings, one harmony, one divinity, of the same essence, of the same divinity, of the same hypostasis, like from like, equality of grace working of Father and Son and Holy Spirit; but how this is for them is left to teach. "For no one knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father and to whomever the Son reveals"; and he reveals through the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, these three, being either from him or by him or toward him, understood worthily in each case as they reveal themselves—light, fire, spirit, and other analogies of visions, I think, as the ministering human is worthy. So God himself, who in the beginning said, "Let there be light, and there was light"—the visible light—he who enlightened us to see "the true light that enlightens every man coming into the world," "send forth your light and your truth," David says; he is the Lord who said, "In the last days I will pour out from my spirit upon every flesh, and their sons and their daughters and their young men will see visions," showing us three persons of holy ministry from a trihypostatic substance. "I say then that Christ has become a minister of circumcision for the truth of God to fulfill the promises," and the Holy Spirit serves together. For we have received from the divine scriptures thus: Christ is sent from the Father; the Holy Spirit is sent. Christ speaks in the saints; the Holy Spirit speaks. Christ heals; the Holy Spirit heals. Christ sanctifies; the Holy Spirit sanctifies. Christ baptizes in his own name; the Holy Spirit baptizes. Thus the scriptures say: "You will send your spirit and renew the face of the earth," similar to saying "You will send forth your word and melt them." "And while they were ministering," it says, "to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said: 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them,'" similar to saying "And the Lord said,

Enter the city, and there it will be told to you what you must do." "So they themselves, sent out by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia," as if Christ were to say, "Behold, I send you as sheep among wolves." "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit to impose no other burden except what is necessary," as if he were to say, "I say not I, but the Lord, that a woman should not be separated from her husband." "They passed through Phrygia and the Galatian region, being prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the word in Asia; and when they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit did not allow them," as if Christ were to say, "Go and baptize all nations," or "Do not carry a bag, a staff, or sandals." "Who, it says, told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem," or Agabus, "The Holy Spirit says this: the man to whom this belt belongs," similar to when Paul said, "If you seek a test of the Christ speaking in me?" or "Remember the words of the Lord, that he himself said, it is better to give than to receive." "And now behold, I go bound by the Spirit," as if he were to say, "Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ." "But the Spirit testifies to me, saying in each city," similar to saying, "The Lord testifies to my soul that I do not lie." "In power according to the Spirit of holiness," similar to saying, "Holy is he who rests among holy ones." And "circumcision of heart in spirit," similar to saying, "And you were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hands, in the stripping away of the body of sins, in the circumcision of Christ.

If the spirit of God dwells in you" is similar to saying "just as you received Christ, walk in him" and "the spirit of the Lord spoke in me and his word is in my mouth"; and "having the firstfruits of the spirit" is similar to saying "Christ is the firstfruit"; "but the spirit itself intercedes on our behalf" is similar to saying "who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes on our behalf"; "so that the offering of the nations may be acceptable, sanctified by the holy spirit" is similar to saying "but the Lord sanctify you, that you may be pure and unhindered until the day of Christ"; "and God revealed to us through his spirit" is similar to saying "when the one who separated me from my mother's womb deigned to reveal his son in me through his grace"; "and we did not receive the spirit of the world, but the spirit from God" is similar to saying "test yourselves whether Christ is in you"; "you are a temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you" is similar to saying "I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their god and they will be my people.

But he speaks of justification from both and grace: "having been justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God" is similar to saying "having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"; "no one can say 'Lord Jesus' except in the Holy Spirit" and no one can receive the Holy Spirit except from the Lord; "there are divisions of gifts, but the same spirit, and there are divisions of ministries, but the same Lord, and there are divisions of operations, but the same God who works all things in all"; and "from glory to glory, just as from the Lord of the spirit"; and "do not grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" is similar to saying "or do we provoke the Lord? Are we not stronger than him?"; "the spirit expressly says" is similar to saying "thus says the Lord Almighty"; and "my spirit stands in your midst" is similar to saying "if someone opens to me, I and the

Father and we will make our dwelling with him.” And Isaiah: “and upon him the spirit of God.” And Christ: “the spirit of the Lord is upon me, for which reason he anointed me,” and “Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit,” or “the Lord has sent me and his spirit.” And the voice of the Seraphim is also clear, crying out: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth.” But if you hear that “having been raised by the right hand of God and having received the promise of the spirit from the Father,” or “to await the promise of the Father which you heard,” or that “the spirit casts him out into the desert,” or that he himself says: “Do not be anxious about what you say, for the spirit of my Father is speaking in you,” or “if I cast out demons by the spirit of God,” or “he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven,” and so forth, or “Father, I will entrust my spirit into your hands,” and so forth, or “the child grew and was strengthened in spirit,” or “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan,” or “Jesus returned by the power of the spirit,” or “that which is born from the spirit is spirit,” similar to saying “that which came to be in him was life,” or “and I will call upon the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, the spirit of truth,” or “why did Satan fill your heart, Ananias, for Peter to make you lie to the Holy Spirit?” and after this: “you did not lie to men, but to God.” Therefore, God from God and God the Holy Spirit, to whom those who embezzled the price of the field lied, or “he who was manifested in flesh was justified in spirit”—I have nothing greater to say than this. And the Son is God.

From which,” he says, “Christ according to the flesh, the God who is over all,” “Believe,” he says, “in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved,” and “He spoke,” he says, “to them the word of the Lord,” “And having brought them up into the house, he set before them a table and rejoiced with his whole household, having believed in God,” or that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” or “So that they might adorn the teaching of our savior God,” or “For the grace of God and savior appeared to all men, instructing us,” or “Receiving the blessed hope and epiphany of the glory of the great God and our savior Jesus Christ.” And the ministry of the Spirit and of the Word is the same: “Pay attention,” he says, “to yourselves and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit placed you as bishops to shepherd the church of God,” similar to saying, “I have gratitude to the one who strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me faithful, placing me into ministry.

The Son and the Holy Spirit, then, cooperate with the Father, as has been demonstrated: "For by the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and by the spirit of his mouth all their power." And the Holy Spirit is to be worshipped: "For those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth." If these cooperate, creation does not produce creation, nor does the divinity become created, nor is God known by measure or circumscription. For he is unconfined, uncontained, incomprehensible, containing all the works of God. Nor is creation to be worshipped: "For they worshipped," it says, "the creation instead of the creator, and they were foolish." For how is it not foolish to theologize about creation and to reject the first commandment which says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one"; "There shall not be in you a new god." In the holy scriptures, different names are called for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: for the Father, Father Almighty, Father of all, Father of Christ; for the Son, Logos, Christ, true light; for the Holy Spirit, Paraclete, Spirit of truth, Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ. Further, then, God is conceived as Father, light,

but as superluminous, power, wisdom, life. If God and Father is light, then the Son is light from light, and because of this, "light dwelling in the unapproachable." And the whole God is power, and because of this the Son is "Lord of the powers." The whole God is wisdom, therefore the Son is wisdom from wisdom, "in whom are all the hidden treasures of wisdom." And the whole God is life, therefore the Son is life from life: "For I am the truth and the life." And the Holy Spirit is from both, spirit from spirit. "For God is spirit," † the giver of the gifts of divinity, most truly illuminating, the Paraclete, the messenger of the Father's counsels. For just as the Son is "angel of great counsel," so also is the Holy Spirit. "But we have received," he says, "the spirit of God, that we might see the gifts given to us by God, which we also speak, not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit of God, comparing spiritual things with spiritual."

But someone will say: Do we then say there are two sons, and how is he only-begotten? "Nay, who are you to argue with God?" For if he calls the one from himself the Son, and the Holy Spirit the one from both, which are understood only by faith, luminous, light-giving, having a luminous energy and making harmony with the "Father" of "light" himself, listen by faith, O man, that the Father is father of a true Son, wholly light, and the Son is son of a true Father, light from light, not like things made or created in name only; and the Holy Spirit is a spirit of truth, a third light from Father and Son. But all other things are by position or appellation, not like these in energy or power or light or concept.

as if one were to say, "I have begotten sons and raised them up," or as if one were to say, "I said, you are gods and all sons of the Most High," or as if one were to say, "the one who has begotten clods of dew," or as if one were to say, "from whom is every fatherland in the heavens and on earth," or as if one were to say, "I am the one who strengthens thunder and creates wind." For the true Father is not like the other fathers or patriarchs, having begun to be a father or ceasing at some time to be a father. For if he begins to be a father, then the Son was once the son of another father before he himself was father of the only-begotten; and by analogy, fathers of fathers are understood as children, and one can find the true father of the archeology ad infinitum. Nor is the true Son like the other children by adoption, new to being a son. For if he is new to being a son, there was once a time when the Father was not father of the only-begotten. Nor is the Spirit of truth like the other spirits, created or made, nor is the "angel of the great council" called like the other angels. For some have a beginning and an end, while others have an inconceivable beginning and power; and some create all things for infinite ages, working together with the Father, while others are created by these, as they might wish; and some serve these, while others are served by all creatures; and some heal the creations, while others receive healing from them; and some are judged according to merit, while others have just judgment; and some are in time, while others are not in time; and some illuminate all things, while others are illuminated by these; and some call infants to the height, while others are called by the perfect one.

And some things are granted to all, while others receive gifts; and to speak once for all, some things hymn holiness in the heavens of heavens and other invisible places, while other things, being hymned, worthily provide gifts to the worthy.

Now Scripture speaks of very many spirits: "He who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire," and "All you spirits, praise the Lord." And a gift is given to the worthy, "of discernment of spirits." For some are

heavenly, "rejoicing in the truth," while others are earthly, suited for deceit and error, and others are subterranean, children of the abyss and darkness; for the Gospel says, "he besought that he not send them to go into the abyss"; and likewise he commanded the spirits and drove out spirits with a word, and "he did not allow them to speak." And it is said, "spirit of judgment and spirit of burning," and it is said, spirit of the world, "but we," it says, "did not receive the spirit of the world," and also spirit of man, "for who among men knows the things of man, except the spirit of man?" and "a spirit that goes and does not return"; "because a spirit passed through him and will not exist," and "you will destroy their spirit and they will cease," and spirit of prophets: "spirits of prophets," it says, "are subject to prophets," and "behold, a false spirit stood before the Lord and said to him, 'With what will you deceive Ahab?'

And I will be, he says, a false spirit in the mouth of the prophets, and it is said that there is a spirit of compunction and a spirit of cowardice and a spirit of Python and a spirit of fornication and a spirit of storm and a spirit of much-speaking and a spirit of weakness and an unclean spirit and a deaf spirit and a speechless spirit and a stammering spirit and a very grievous spirit, which is called legion, and the spiritualities of wickedness. The sayings about spirits are infinite to the wise. But just as many sons are sons by adoption or by name but not in truth, because they have a beginning and an end in a sinful manner, so also very many spirits are so by adoption or by name, even if they are sinful, but the Holy Spirit alone is called the spirit of the Father and of the Son, the spirit of truth and the spirit of God and the spirit of Christ and the spirit of grace. For it bestows the good upon each differently, to one a spirit of wisdom, to another a spirit of knowledge, to another a spirit of strength, to another a spirit of healings, to another a spirit of prophecy, to another a spirit of discernment, to another of tongues, to another of interpretations, and the remaining gifts, as he says, one and the same spirit distributing to each as it wills; for your good spirit will lead me, O God, says David, or the spirit blows where it wills, showing us the hypostasis through such things of the Holy Spirit, and you hear its voice, but you do not know whence it comes and whither it goes, and unless you are born of water and spirit, similar to what Paul said, for in Christ Jesus I gave you birth.

Concerning this, the Lord says: "When the Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you, the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, that one will bear witness concerning me," and "I still have many things to say, but you cannot bear them now. When that one comes, the Spirit of truth, he will lead you into all truth. For he will not speak from himself, but he will speak whatever he hears and will announce to you the things that are coming. That one will glorify me, because he will receive from mine and will announce everything to you."

If, then, it proceeds from the Father and will receive from mine, as the Lord says, in the same way that "no one knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father," so I dare to say that neither does anyone know the Spirit except the Son from whom it receives and the Father from whom it proceeds, nor does anyone know the Son and the Father except the Holy Spirit, which truly glorifies, which teaches all things, which bears witness concerning the Son, which is from the Father, which is from the Son, the sole guide of truth, the interpreter of holy laws, the expounder of spiritual law, the guide of prophets, the teacher of apostles, the illuminator of evangelical doctrines, the elector of saints, the true light from true light. Son by nature, true Son, genuine Son, only from only, and with him also the Spirit, not called Son but Spirit. This is God glorified in the Church: Father always, Son always, and

The Holy Spirit always, lofty from the lofty and highest, intellectual, possessing immeasurable glory, beneath which have been placed the created and the made things, simply all things that are measured and each thing contained. One divinity is especially proclaimed in Moses, a duality is vehemently proclaimed in the prophets, a trinity is revealed in the Gospels, fitting more according to times and generations for the righteous one for knowledge and faith. Knowledge of it is immortality, and from faith in it adoption as sons occurs. But first it expresses the ordinances of the flesh, raising up the outer enclosure of the temple in Moses; second it expounds the ordinances of the soul, adorning the sanctuary in the remaining prophecies; third the ordinances of the spirit, arranging the mercy seat and the holy of holies in the Gospels for its own dwelling. A holy tabernacle, a holy temple, which has only the righteous one who is present with these. One infinite divinity dwells in it, one imperishable divinity, one incomprehensible divinity, inconceivable, indescribable, invisible, knowing only itself, manifesting itself to whom it wishes, raising up witnesses for itself, calling, predestining, glorifying, raising from Hades, sanctifying, unifying again to its own glory and faith these three: the heavenly, the earthly, and the subterranean; spirit, soul, flesh; faith, hope, love; past, present, future; eternity, eternity of eternity, eternities of eternities, sabbaths of sabbaths; circumcision of flesh, circumcision of heart, "circumcision of Christ in the stripping off of the body of sins." In general, it purifies everything for itself, the invisible and the visible, thrones, lordships, principalities, authorities, powers.

In all things the same holy voice, from glory to glory, crying out "Holy, holy, holy," glorifying the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father together with the Holy Spirit, to whom is the glory and the power unto the ages of the ages, amen. And he who thus believes will say, "So be it, so be it." And concerning the Trinity and the consubstantiality of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we who are weak and unlearned, devising nothing and not entrusting ourselves to "the dice game of men," have rather gathered testimonies from the divine Scriptures for those who wish, for the discovery of the faithful and the refutation of the ill-intentioned and vainglorious, assembling them in part. For great is the power of faith in the Holy Spirit, proclaimed in various ways in all the divine Scriptures. Since the security of our salvation is the sure confession and confirmation of hope concerning the incarnation and bodily presence of our Savior, and concerning the resurrection of the dead and our regeneration, we again add a little to this our labor for those who wish to examine more precisely, persisting in gathering from the same divine Scriptures and adding to the discourse. For since, as we have already been taught in what has been written above, our Lord himself said in his Gospel to his disciples, "Go forth and baptize all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep the commandments which I have given you" — he himself is the holy hypostatic Word, who proceeded from the Father, through whom the ages came to be, through whom times and seasons exist. For there was neither season nor time before the Son.

If there was time before the Son, then time is greater than the Son, and how is it that "through him all things were made, and without him nothing was made that has been made"? Because if anything has been made, it has been made through him, but he himself is uncreated and always existing; for the Father always was and his holy Spirit always was. For if there was time before the Son, then again another will be sought through whom the time before the Son existed, and countless things thereafter will turn our reasoning into fantasy lurking in human opinion, or rather into fornication of thoughts and not concerning sobriety. There was not, therefore, time before the Son, since the Son did not come into being through times, but through the Son times and the angels and all other creatures came into being. There was never a time when the Son was not, nor was there ever a time when the Spirit was not.

But some, misreading and not understanding, think to divide the reading when it says "all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made," placing the text up to this point, and take a suspicion of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit; but they err in the reading and from the error of the reading they limp, turning to blasphemy. The reading, however, is as follows: "all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that has been made in him," that is, that if anything has been made, it was made through him. Therefore the Father always was, and the Son always was, and the Spirit breathes from Father and Son, and neither is the Son created nor is the Spirit created.

All things after Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, being created and generated, not having existed at some time, came into being from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the eternally existing Word together with the eternally existing Spirit. Through this Word, therefore, all created things have come into being, the King of the heavenly realm, the hypostatic Word, our Savior and Benefactor. For this same holy Savior, who came down from the heavens, who deigned to accomplish our salvation in a virginal workshop, who was born again from Mary, conceived through the Holy Spirit, who took flesh, the Word become flesh, who did not change his nature, who took humanity together with divinity, who is perfect from the Father, who fulfilled the perfect economy, came into the world for us and for our salvation; who took human flesh and soul, being perfect from the Father, having become incarnate among us not in appearance but in truth, having refashioned a perfect human being in himself from Mary the Theotokos through the Holy Spirit; not having dwelt in a human being, as is customary for him to speak and dwell in prophets in power and to act, but the Word himself became flesh, not having changed from being God, not having transformed divinity into humanity, but having included being human and whatever a human being is together with the fullness of his own divinity and the hypostasis of the God Word and hypostatic Word. By human being I mean a perfect one, having everything that is in a human being and such as a human being is.

The Only-Begotten came and took this [human nature] so that, being God, he might work the whole of salvation perfectly in the perfect human, leaving nothing of the human behind, lest the part left behind become again a portion of the devil's food. And if some say that he took only flesh but not soul, weaving myths and twisting scripture into fables, from the saying "But we have the mind of Christ," let them understand from this very saying that those who say "But we have the mind of Christ" had their own mind and did not spit it out. But if, having their own mind, they were also with the mind of Christ, they were filled with both, the mind of Christ being able to improve, and their own mind thinking rightly. Let them recognize the same concerning Christ, that being God and being mind in himself, he had the human mind along with the flesh and took soul. Therefore, he did not pervert it as a human, but he himself became the orderer, corrector, and improver of the mind. For just as he took flesh without being overcome by flesh, so also, having taken the mind, he is not overcome by mind. On the contrary, then, such persons fall all the more grievously into contradiction. For the divine scriptures cry out explicitly up and down, not declaring harsh things against the mind, but

against the flesh. "For the fruits of the flesh," he says, "are fornication, adultery, licentiousness, and things like these," and "those who are in the flesh cannot please God," and "the flesh desires against the spirit." And concerning the mind he says, "I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the mind," and "my mind is either fruitless or fruitful." For God established the mind, which scripture is accustomed to call the heart, as the leader, so to speak, and charioteer of the whole vessel, a discerner of good and bad, a tester of the things that arise in us. "For the mind distinguishes words, while the throat tastes food." The mind is discerning in the human being, but not yet consenting, unless it gives itself over to change. Why then did some think to exclude this from the incarnation of the Lord? And what did they benefit life, rather turning it into disorder? Or how did this harm or benefit us, so to speak, that they might assist Christ? Or that they might do him this great favor and say concerning him that he did not take a mind? "For Galatians are senseless" and "Cretans are always liars" and "Ephraim is a mindless dove"; but our Lord, having become incarnate into life, took up everything perfectly, or rather he himself, having become the shaper of his own body, took the soul for himself or placed it in. But some, wishing to make the incarnate presence of Christ and the perfect economy in him deficient, I do not know what they were thinking, said incorrectly that Christ did not take a mind. And they do not appear to be through the mind.

For they consider the mind to be a hypostasis and dare to say that by nature it is what is customarily called in Scripture the spirit in a person, as the apostle says, "so that your entire spirit and soul and body might be preserved on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." They are therefore mistaken; for if the spirit is mind and the mind is spirit, as they themselves suppose, and the soul is a different hypostasis from the mind and from the spirit, then there are no longer two hypostases in a person gathered into one hypostasis, nor is the soul alone enhypostatic and the body enhypostatic, but we have found four: mind as one hypostasis, soul as another hypostasis, spirit as another hypostasis, body as another hypostasis. And if we investigate further, there will be even more; for since a person possesses many names, both "the inner person" and "the outer person," and Scripture has said all these things conceptually, constraining our understanding so that we leave nothing of salvation and no pretext arises for us to depart from the matter at hand. For these things exist in a person; but one ought not to meddle excessively. Nevertheless, according to their argument, if the mind is the spirit and the spirit is the mind, and these exist apart from the soul, then by what reasoning does it say, "I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind"? For by this it has demonstrated that the spirit is not the mind nor the mind the spirit. Then again, "the soul that sins, this will die" did not declare it apart from the body; or "for there were," it says, "in the ship about seventy souls," and they were not at all souls without body, but bodies with souls.

And again, custom is accustomed to call a person by a single name, because a master is of eighty bodies, not entirely without souls. Therefore, the Word having become flesh was not without soul, just as it was not without every function. For when it says "soul," it did not declare it without body, nor when we say "bodies" do we conceive of them as being without soul. What then seemed good to those who wish to say that the mind has been extruded? Or how has this benefited the church? Or rather, how has it not disturbed it? And how does one who conceives of such things not render our salvation deficient? For we are able to conceive of the mind as nothing else, nor can we say that this is a hypostasis in itself, but rather the composite and the rational and the thinking element in each of those not in error, so to speak, the thought of a person; as eyes are in the body, so is the mind in the soul. Again, we do not say this contentiously, but simply the thinking faculty of humans. What then is a human? Soul, body, mind, and whatever else there is. What then did the Lord come to save? A complete human, assuredly. Therefore, he took up everything in it completely. For whence were these things fulfilled in him, which were prophesied and accomplished in a human from mind and body and soul and every incarnation without sin? For the divine word clearly sets before us, saying, "Behold, my beloved son, whom I have chosen, on whom my soul has delighted, will understand; I will place my spirit upon him," and so forth. Therefore, in what has the understanding been fulfilled? If in the divinity, then is the divinity in need of understanding? Far from it; for this is fulfilled in the Lord's human.

If it is fulfilled in the Lord's man, how will the incarnation be understood as existing without mind? This is impossible. For if the understanding is entirely referred to Christ, and Christ is the God Word from above, who became flesh from Mary, and who, having become incarnate, "lived among us" according to what is written, then undoubtedly he received the economy with mind, since understanding is fitting to it. For this reason the Gospel says about him, "he advanced in wisdom and in stature"—not that the divinity admits of stature or lacks wisdom, being itself all wisdom. Rather, the Savior's incarnation advanced in wisdom, not existing without mind, since otherwise it could not even be wise; and it advanced in stature as the child grew, as is true. But if, because he received a mind, this is thought to be a sin, then all the more so if we grant that he received flesh, apart from which sin is not accomplished—"for the works of the flesh are manifest." Certainly we would grant that he also sinned in the flesh, having taken the flesh. "For I know," says the Apostle, "that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh." Yet who will dare to say that because the Savior took flesh, he was carried away by the flesh and accomplished the unreasonable things of the flesh, following the entire vessel's own course, both good and bad, even though the flesh was human but did not err in anything? For the God Word, coming forth from above from the Father, having consented to become flesh, reined in the vessel, and if he wished, he could restrain it from every worthless fleshly action; if he wished, he permitted it.

He yielded, however, to the reasonable and bodily needs that accompanied his divinity. For he did not have his mind in truth, just as he had the whole incarnation in truth; the mind did not extend to irrational desires, nor did he do or think the things of the flesh as we do, but as God become true flesh from the Virgin Mary, he acted in flesh and soul and mind and the whole instrument, having come to dwell among the human race from above, from the Father, the hypostatic God Word. But let some not sophistically take this as said by misuse, like "understand my cry"; for the one is said by misuse for the sake of prayer, and it is clear that the usage is for the example of his fleshly presence, which was prophesied; but the other, "and he advanced in age," is true. But what do such people think we are saying, if we say that Christ became a perfect man from Mary or had a mind, that we might suspect him of falling into sins? Far from it. "For he committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth." For if he breathed his power into the saints, and those into whom he breathed are attested to have been holy, righteous, advanced in their days, blameless, how much more so the Word himself, "in whom the whole fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell bodily," even if he took true flesh from Mary the ever-virgin and a human soul truly and a mind and whatever else is in man, he himself, being God, held all things in himself, not divided toward evil, not broken by the wicked one, not caught in pleasure, not falling into the transgression of Adam?

And for this reason the apostle says, "born of a woman, born under the law," and again, "found in form as a man." The phrase "in form" and "as a man" and "born" and "under the law," taken together through both, signify perfection and impassibility: from "born" the being perfect, and from "under the law" the not being in semblance, and from "in form" the stability of the idea, and from "as a man" the sinlessness. These things being so, let no one be deceived by empty fables. For if, having been born from above from the Father truly, he was truly born also from Mary, then both above is true and below is true; and if he is imperfect below, he is also imperfect above. But if he is perfect above, he is also perfect below. He did not dwell in another perfect one, but perfected all things in himself. And he rose from the dead, no longer divided in a tomb into body and divinity and soul in the underworld, no longer subject to touch, no longer confined, but entering through closed doors, yet being touched by Thomas, so that he might not be likened to an apparition, but to truth. He who was believed by Thomas after the fulfillment of the aforementioned, "I sought God with my hands, and I was not deceived," the same God, the same man, who did not produce confusion, but blended the two into one; not passing into non-existence, but joining earthly body with divinity into one power, he united, he brought together into one divinity; being one Lord, one Christ, not two Christs nor two gods. In him, a spiritual body; in him, incomprehensible divinity; the part that suffered not corrupted; the impassible part incorruptible; the whole incorruptible.

Lord God, seated at the right hand of the Father, not having set aside the flesh, but having united it into one and into a single whole divinity, seated at the right hand of the Father. This one, then, is the only-begotten, the perfect, the uncreated, the immutable, the unalterable, the incomprehensible, the invisible, who became incarnate among us and rose spiritually and "no longer dies," no longer is poor, he who "became poor for our sake, though being rich," he who is entirely spirit, who unites the fleshly and the divine, one Lord, King Christ, the Son of God, seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father "above every beginning and authority, power and every name that is named," says in the Gospel, "Go forth and baptize all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." And this, being intermediate, did not signify a blending of the Son with the Father, nor a blending of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, but it knows the Father as true Father, and it demonstrated itself as a true hypostatic Word, and its Holy Spirit as a hypostatic Spirit and "Spirit of truth," uncreated, immutable, unalterable; not so that one might suspect someone acting deceitfully toward the faith and hiding his feet and playing false toward the truth, "for God examines hearts and kidneys." And the heretic says: evidently I believe that the Father is Father, and the Son is Son, and the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit, and I confess three hypostases in one essence; but I do not say another essence besides

divinity, not another divinity besides the substance, but because we thus precisely define it we call it one substance, so that we may not speak of one and another form of the divinity of the Trinity. For such a person, as I said, acting deceitfully and craftily, says again: I believe that Father is Father, Son is Son, Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit; but he has a hidden suspicion of this kind, having likened the divine to ourselves, saying to himself, that just as I have a body and a soul and a human spirit, so also does the divinity. The Father is, so to speak, the form, the Son is like the soul in a human, and the Spirit is like that which breathes through a human. For some act deceitfully and think of the divinity in this way. But we have not learned thus, but behold the Father in heaven testifies through a voice, behold the Son in the Jordan, behold the Holy Spirit was formed in the form of a dove descending; but it was formed by itself, being a hypostasis by itself, not different from that of the Father and Son, but of the same substance, a hypostasis from the same hypostasis of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. And again in another way: behold the Father sits in heaven, *. But do not again understand "sits" in a human way, but hold it as ineffable and incomprehensible. And he did not say, the Son ascended to the Father, but "he sat at the right hand of the Father." And again, speaking about the Holy Spirit, the only-begotten taught, "I go away, and that one will come, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of truth. If I do not go away, that one does not come." For if the Spirit were a coalescence with the Son himself, he would not have said "I go away and that one comes," but in order to show hypostasis and hypostasis.

There is one divinity, one God, one truth.

And thus I have written for whoever wishes the course of our life and the firm confession, which has been preserved immaculately in the catholic church from the law and the prophets and the gospels and the apostles and from the times of the apostles down to our own times, but which has been persecuted at various times by the heresies out of envy of the instability of the one true faith—the same faith and hope and salvation of ours—yet has endured in its own truth, while the heresies at each time defile themselves and are alienated from the church. As also recently we hear of some who seem to carry off the first places among certain ascetics in Egypt and the Thebaid and in other regions elsewhere, thinking and saying things similar to the Hieracites, that there is a resurrection of our flesh, but not of this flesh, but of some other in its place, such persons having been perverted and having turned the truth of God and our firm hope into myths. For this reason we are compelled to speak again about this. For unbelievers deny the whole of the resurrection, while the ill-minded have fallen away in a confused and senseless manner from the true hope by thinking thus about the resurrection. And the Greeks, who completely deny the resurrection because of the impiety of the multitude of lawless deeds committed among them—for they hate the resurrection because of the shame they will undergo in the resurrection, having ignored God and his commandments—nevertheless they will rise, even if they do not wish it.

For creation itself refutes them outright, revealing each day the form of resurrection. The day sets, and we are reminded of the manner of the dead, the night hinting at sleep; the day rises, waking us and showing the sign of resurrection. Fruits are plucked, and the state of beings is cut off, the face of our departure from here being defined. The earth is sown and sprouts, because what is buried after the cutting will rise. A locust dies, having buried its cast-off offspring in the earth, and after a time the earth gives back what was buried; the seeds of crops are sown and first die, then come to full growth; "for if it does not die, it is not brought to life." God has made seals in us through the ten nails and ten [seals] of resurrection, bearing witness concerning our hope. But also, as through a crown on the head, through the hair he proclaimed our resurrection. For what seems in us a dead body, that is, hair and nails, cut each day and cut again, flourish anew, signifying the hope of resurrection. And there are countless things to say for the assurance of the unbelievers from examples. But the ringdove, the bird, did not persuade these men, nor the dormouse, the animal. For that creature dies for six months, and the ringdove for forty days, and again after their seasons they revive. And dung beetles, when about to die, hide themselves on a ball of dung, burying that ball in the earth and covering it, and thus from their own moisture they are found again, reviving from their own remains.

Concerning the Arabian bird called the phoenix, it is superfluous for me to speak. For it has already come to the hearing of many believers and unbelievers. The account concerning it appears as follows: When it has completed its five-hundredth year, if it perceives that the time of its own death has arrived, it constructs a pyre of spices and, carrying it, comes to the city of the Egyptians called Heliopolis, which is interpreted as On from the Egyptian and Hebrew dialect, and, having struck its own breast many times with its own talons, it brings forth fire from its body, ignites the material placed beneath in that place, and thus cremates itself, and all its flesh together with its bones is reduced to ashes. But by divine economy a cloud is sent and rains and extinguishes the flame that consumed the body of the bird, the bird being already dead and roasted to the utmost. When the flame is extinguished, remnants of its flesh still raw remain, and after disappearing for one day, they generate a worm. The worm grows feathers, becoming a fledgling, and on the third day it matures, and having matured, it shows itself to those who serve in that place, and again returns to its own homeland and rests.

I am moved to wonder at the deceived understanding of the unbelieving Greeks and other barbarians in every respect, how in their myths they are not ashamed to signify resurrection entirely and to sing often concerning resurrection, as their myths record: Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias, who died for her husband Admetus and was raised by Heracles after three days and brought back from the innermost sanctuary; Pelops, the son of Tantalus, after being butchered for their falsely named gods by his own father; Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles, revived by Asclepius; Glaucus, the son of Minos, revived by Polyidus, the son of Coeranus, with a certain herb; Castor, through Polydeuces his brother, who chose willingly to exchange life with him day by day; and Protesilaus, through Laodameia. But also Sisyphus and Tantalus and the daughters of Caucon, whom they have called Erinyes, and Teiresias along with them, are said to be confined in Tartarus paying penalty there, the one under a rock, the other under a wheel, and others punished in other ways and still existing in punishment, as not having passed into non-existence, but existing in bodies. For if they did not have bodies,

how they were subjected to punishments under a rock and a wheel; and there is much to say about these things for the demonstration of the faith in us, but for refutation against them. But also those who come from the heresies sing things akin to these and in harmony with unbelief, in that some of the heretics, I mean the Manichaeans, say that there will be a resurrection not of the body but of the soul, and likewise the aforementioned Greeks think and concur in the same thing, so that their account is more foolish than put forward from understanding. For if the heresies speak of resurrection and at all conceive of resurrection, but define this concerning souls, such a thing is foolish. For how will a soul rise that has not fallen? For we do not bury souls in the tombs, but bodies. For souls do not fall, but the flesh does; as custom is accustomed to call dead bodies "falls." Therefore, if resurrection is confessed by them, it is clear to everyone that it is not of the soul, but of the body that has fallen. But the Greeks are again refuted, who deny the whole of resurrection. For they carry to the tombs foods and drinks on the so-called public days, burning the edibles and pouring out the wines, benefiting the dead in no way but rather harming themselves. Nevertheless, they are compelled by custom to confess the resurrection of the dead. For where the bodies of the deceased are placed, they go and address the buried dead by name, saying, "Arise, so-and-so, eat and drink and be merry.

And if they suppose that souls remain there where the remains of the departed are buried, that is a good expectation concerning souls; for they remain until the coming day and the resurrection of regeneration, until they receive their composite and yoked bodies, even if the children of the Greeks abhor the flesh as base and utterly perishable and having no hope of revival. But if they do not do this in this manner, for what reason do they bind the better souls, which are of a substance superior to that of bodies, to tombs, thus rather surrounding them with condemnation in their conception, defining them as attending to the remains of the dead? Or on what expectation of hope do they come, let them say? But it is clear that they do not think the souls are in tombs, but in some treasuries assigned to each soul by God, according to the worth of what they did and how they lived in life; but each person placed the bodies of their neighbor with their own hands in the repositories of bodies or bones. But it would be naive for there to be among all a single conception and consistency of these things as if agreed upon from all sides, while among the unbelievers the opposite is the case: to deny the true things and for the things possible in God not to be confirmed among them as hopes.

But concerning these matters I consider enough to have been said, having set forth a few from among many examples. As for those who seem to be Christians but are persuaded by Origen, and who confess the resurrection of the dead—both of our flesh and of that holy body of the Lord taken from Mary—yet say that this flesh is not raised, but another is given in its place by God, how should we not say that they hold a more impious and more foolish notion than that among Greeks and the other heresies? For first, if another flesh is raised in place of this one according to their account, then God's judgment is not just according to their myth, judging another flesh instead of the one that sinned, or bringing another body into the glory of the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven instead of the body that labored in fasts, vigils, and persecutions for the name of God. And how will the soul be judged alone according to the account of the heresies, when the body that sinned together with it is not present? For such a soul will speak against God's judgment, claiming that the sins were committed by the body. For it also has the proof according to the argument of those carried by contentiousness and not by truth. For it can say: "I did not sin, but the body did. For ever since I left the body, I have neither fornicated nor committed adultery, nor stolen, nor murdered, nor worshipped idols, nor done any of the evil and irreparable things." And its defense will be found reasonable. And if it defends itself reasonably, what shall we say? Is God's judgment then idle? But "does God unjustly bring wrath upon men? Far from it.

We know that “all things are possible for God,” and He is able to bear a body without a soul, and He can make the bodies that have become invisible live again and move of themselves without souls, if He wishes, just as He already performed such an economy through the most holy Ezekiel. For He said to the holy prophet, “Say, son of man, that bone be gathered to bone and joint to joint.” And one could marvel at the power of God, because, although the souls had not yet been inserted and the bones were dry, they not only received the power of motion at God’s command, but the bones were also filled with understanding and with no ordinary knowledge. For the bones near the feet did not wander in forgetfulness toward the parts of the head, nor did the vertebrae of the neck, straying around the joints of the ankle-bones, seek their place; rather, each of the bones both moved and walked with understanding and was added to its own joint. If, then, God wills, He can also raise a body without a soul. For He showed His power in this: in first making that which is despaired of by men come to life again through His command to Ezekiel. And He did not say, “Say, son of man, let the spirit come first,” but after making the difficult thing easy for the sake of faith—I mean the gathering together of the bodies—then He commanded the souls to enter into those bodies: “and a great multitude arose,” it says. I therefore said that God can make even a body without a soul come to life, as has been shown above, but the body cannot be judged by itself. For it has a just defense before God’s judgment.

For it also asserts, saying: “The sin was from that soul; I was not the cause. For from the time I was released and that soul departed from me, did I not commit adultery, did I not fornicate, did I not steal, did I not worship idols, did I not do any such transgressions?” And according to the argument of the contentious, the judgment of God would be ineffectual. Therefore, just as the body and the soul were compounded into one human being created by God, so the righteous judge raises the body again and gives its soul back into it. And thus the judgment of God will be just, with both sharing either the punishment due to sin or the reward for virtue, piety, and the future recompense to be given to the saints. Considering these things sufficient for demonstrating the truth of our hope, we have set forth a few in place of many. But on account of those who say that another body is raised instead of the one that falls, we again add to our labor, wishing to benefit those who desire to understand and not to attempt to destroy their own life. For may we, the least and most insignificant, labor, and may both ourselves and all be benefited, and

not to deny the resurrection of our flesh, in which all the treasure and foundation of every prudent thought and the hope of every good work lies, according to the saying, "having this treasure in earthen vessels," and so forth. For we who are weak practice self-control, we who are humble practice chastity, we who are powerless yearn to do alms because of the anticipated recovery, the resurrection of the dead. And thus the canon is founded on faith and hope, love of God, and martyrdom for the name of God in persecutions, tortures, and other inhuman punishments among those who do not deny the resurrection of our flesh, but believe that what is sown in the earth will be raised. For the divine scriptures have given us two clear and true testimonies, by which we can know the hope of our resurrection and not be led astray by the myths of vainglorious men who have been deceived and have written deception for life. So that I may not use many testimonies—for they are not few in the New and Old Testament concerning our hope and resurrection—I will say this briefly: that if it were something else that is raised, as some claim, the apostle would not have affirmed, saying, "For this perishable thing must put on imperishability, and the mortal must put on immortality." But since it is also necessary that we be confirmed in the hope concerning the glory of the saints, how they are to be resplendent and transformed in glory after the resurrection, as it says, "he is raised in glory," the holy scripture says, "Fool, what you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.

and you do not sow the body that will come to be, but rather, if it happens, a grain of wheat or some other seed, and God gives it a body as he wished." This he said to the glory of those who rise in radiance; but to show that the grain itself receives the glory, he himself said in the Gospel, he who also "spoke in Paul" concerning resurrection: "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies," he says, "it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears many grains." So then, the apostle spoke of a grain, and the Savior himself demonstrated the same grain of the body through himself. What then shall we say? Did the thing sown itself, that is, the grain, rise as its own body? Or was it something else that rose from it after the third day from the tomb? As the angels say: "He has risen; he is not here," and as he says to Mary, "Do not touch me; for I have not yet ascended to my Father," and as he shows his hands and side to Thomas, saying, "Do not be faithless, but faithful." For it is characteristic of the faithless to say that he did not rise at all, and it is characteristic of the ill-faith to say that it was not the very thing that slept that rose; but it is characteristic of the faithful to say that the same body rose, and from that same body which he raised, he established ours in hope of truth.

For this reason he also allowed the marks of the nails to remain, not erasing them nor the mark of the spear, even though he entered through closed doors. For his fleshly body rose spiritually, but not as something other than what it was, but that very thing, united with divinity, adorned with the fineness of spirit. For if it were not the fineness of spirit, what kind of opening would receive a bulky body? But in order to show that our corruptible body truly puts on incorruption—for even though it is mortal, it puts on immortality—he entered through closed doors, to show that the coarse becomes fine, the mortal immortal, and the corruptible incorruptible. And in order to refute all who disbelieve in our salvation, I mean the resurrection, he who transforms the body into fineness and blends the flesh with spirit after the resurrection did not erase the scars of the nails nor the mark of the spear, but showed that the very thing that suffered on the cross was not something other than what rose, nor did something else spring from it, but the same suffering thing became impassible, and the same fallen grain rose, and rose incorruptible. And again, so that we might not think that some part of him was raised, the whole of him did not see corruption, for it says, "You will not let your holy one see corruption," and the whole of him rose, for it says, "He rose, he is not here." If he rose and is not here, he truly rose; and the scriptures, which are our life, are not mistaken. And so that the deceived might find no pretext, he showed bones and flesh to Thomas and said to his disciples, "See me, that I am I. For spirit has no bones and flesh, as you see me having.

If someone should argue sophistically, saying: "But the body of our Savior was exceptional because it was conceived only from Mary and without the seed of a man," then was the body of Adam different from ours, since it was taken only from the earth without the seed of a man? But no one can say this or prove it. And if someone again argues sophistically, saying: "Only the body of Christ rose entirely, but ours does not rise as the same body, but another replaces it," then how does it say, "Christ rose as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep"? The body itself is one and the same, the firstfruits of those who rise. And how Christ became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, let them learn, and not again turn to another error and think that the other scriptures are false. For before him, he raised Lazarus and the son of the widow in Nain, and Elijah raised a dead man, and Elisha raised two dead men, one still present and one buried. But those, having risen, died again, and they await the one and universal resurrection. But Christ is the "firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" because, having risen, "he no longer dies, death no longer rules over him," according to what is written. For he died once, undergoing the passion for our sake because of our passions; he tasted death once, "death by crucifixion," the Word willingly coming into death for us, so that by death he might put death to death. The Word become flesh, not suffering in his divinity, but suffering together with humanity in impassibility, passion being attributed to him while he remains in impassibility; death being attributed to him while he remains in immortality, or rather, being wholly immortality. For he himself said, "I am the life.

nor is our hope through the flesh. "Cursed," it says, "is he who hopes in a man. And he shall be like the wild tamarisk."

What then shall we say? Is Christ not a man? From what has been said previously, it is clear to everyone that we confess without doubt that the Lord God Word became a man not in appearance but in truth. But he is not a man who came in the progression of divinity. For our hope of salvation is not in a man; for none of all the men from Adam was able to work salvation, but the God Word became a man, so that our hope might not be in a man, but in a living and true God who became a man. "For every priest taken from among men is appointed over men," according to what is written. Hence the Lord, coming, took flesh from our flesh and became a man like us, the God Word, so that in his divinity he might give us salvation and in his humanity he might suffer for us men, dissolving passion through passion and destroying death through his own death. The passion was attributed to the divinity, although the divinity is impassible, but the passion is attributed to the divinity because the holy and impassible God Word, coming, so willed it. The example is something like this: as if someone were clothed in a garment,

If blood splattered on a garment stains the garment, but does not reach the body of the one who wears it, yet the stain from the blood is reckoned to the one wearing the garment, so Christ suffered in the flesh—in that human nature of the Lord, I mean, which he formed for himself, coming from the heavens, he himself, the holy God Logos. As the holy Peter says, "Put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit," and again, "Since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same understanding." Just as blood on a garment is reckoned to the wearer, so the suffering of the flesh was reckoned to his divinity, though it suffered nothing, so that the world might not place its hope in a man, but in the human nature of the Lord, the divinity accepting that the suffering be reckoned to it, so that salvation from the impassible divinity might come for the world, so that the suffering that occurred in the flesh might be reckoned to the divinity, even though it suffered nothing, so that the scripture which says might be fulfilled, "For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory," and so forth.

He was crucified, therefore; the Lord was crucified, and we worship the crucified one, the one buried and risen on the third day and ascended into the heavens. "O depth of wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God," according to what is written: "for we know in part and we prophesy in part," as though drawing a drop from an ocean of the knowledge of God and grasping an example of such an economy, the grace of our hope by the Father's good pleasure, by the Son's will, together with the will of the Holy Spirit, of the same economy of God. Now all the Scriptures scattered here and there contained the proclamation of the resurrection, but the perfect was reserved for the presence of the hypostatic Word himself. "For Christ is the fulfillment of the law," according to what is written. For where did the divine text not speak about resurrection? First, the blood of Abel proclaims it; for after he died, "it still speaks," as the Scripture says. "Enoch was translated and was not found and did not see death; for he pleased God." Noah built an ark by God's command, working out for himself a rebirth in his own house. Abraham, aged, receives a son, "the body already dead," and God has granted the hope from the dead, especially with "the womb of Sarah dead," and "the aged and nearly vanished," the dried-up source of the customary female flow, again receives power for the sowing of seed, and the aged woman conceives as a young one. And Isaac was delivered alive from death to his father; for God, handing over the child alive from the dead to his father, proclaimed the hope of resurrection.

Jacob demonstrates the transaction, not placing the hope of bones in second place; for he cared for such things not as if they were perishing, but as if they were about to live again, and he commanded that they be brought up from the land of the Egyptians not casually. And Joseph signified this, saying, "You shall carry up my bones; for the Lord will visit you with oversight." If there were no hope of resurrection, what care would there be for bones in commanding the righteous concerning bones that perish? The first testimony to Moses is that of God: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob," of those who sleep in the world but are alive with me. One and the same spirit spoke in the law and in the gospel, teaching. For this the Savior also signified to the Sadducees: "The one speaking in the prophets, behold, I am present."

And the rod of Aaron, being dry for many years perhaps and left in the tent from evening until dawn, also demonstrates. For with toil, living trees produce fruit through twelve months as the cycle of the year is completed, with the sun warming, rains irrigating, dews spreading, and night and day nourishing, but in a single night God made the difficult easy. For the dry rod sprouted and put forth leaves and ripe fruits. For God indicated similar things concerning the resurrection that would come from him. And when children are conceived in the holy marriage that the Lord indicated, first the seed of succession is deposited, as the Lord showed, in the generative wombs.

As the cycles of time roll on, what is deposited in the womb is brought to completion over a period of nine months; I mean, the embryo is perfected and born after nine months in number. But in the resurrection it is not so; for the work is accomplished in an instant. "For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible." As the Lord showed in the tent of testimony, that the nuts on living trees, which are gestated over twelve months, are packed into dry wood and become shoots, and in a single night—nay, not only that, but in the instant of a single hour, he brought to completion what normally occurs over twelve months, as has been said; and likewise the infant that is formed in the womb over nine months, which is perfected after a long period of time, in the resurrection rises completed in an instant.

Let the power of the Lord convince the unbelievers, for no one "resists his will." Let Moses listen and show. "What is in your hand?" says the Lord; and he said, "A staff." This staff was made of wood, and certainly dry. And he says, "Throw it on the ground. And he threw" the dry staff. And God made the dry thing moist, and not only moist, but also animate, and moreover altered in nature and differently formed in substance. The work was not an illusion; for the truth of God works by command, not by fantasy. For in all things he presented our understanding being corrected through Moses toward the truth. For the prophet knew that what happened was not in appearance, but in truth, when it fled; for if he had known that what happened was an illusion, he would not have fled from the face of the serpent.

but let this not again become a stumbling block for the contentious, and let them not say that the rod was one thing, and God gave it a different body, as he wished. And first of all, let them learn that he did not ensoul one thing instead of another, but he ensouled that same rod, which was dry; for this body given to the rod, and the kind or species moving by his agency, God did not summon to judgment, nor did he wish to judge the serpent instead of the rod, but he wrought a confirmation of resurrection through the rod, and God demonstrated his own power, so that no one might disbelieve in his power in all things. And he did this with complete security; for he did not raise a part of the rod, but transformed the whole rod as he wished.

And that these things are so, and that the dead have hope of eternal life, and that those in tombs will rise, call again as witness the trustworthy Moses. For when Reuben transgressed, his father, the holy patriarch Jacob, curses him and says: "Reuben, my firstborn and beginning of my children, you have raged like water; do not boil over. For you went up into your father's bed and uncovered," he says, "where you went up." And in the Hebrew it is elthothar, which is interpreted as "do not

you may not return, or you may not be added, or again you may not exceed, but do not boil over in the bare wording; the translators have published it thus. And if you wish to learn that these things are so, and that death from the father was determined for this one who had sinned, Moses will clarify it for you. For blessing the twelve tribes himself, when he came to Reuben and knew that the priest Levi—for in the hand of the priesthood sins were loosed and bound—he says, "Let Reuben live and not die." But how could he live, he who had been buried for one hundred twenty-six years? But since he knew that the resurrection was going to happen in every respect, and he knows a second death, that through condemnation on the day of judgment, wishing to lighten him from the future punishments instead of the single one, he says, "Let him live" in the resurrection, indicating: for he knew that all will live, "and not die," that is, not be enveloped in a second death, that through condemnation and eternal torment. For if he were concerned about the loss of life for him, it would have sufficed to say only "Let Reuben live"; but since he indicates the future things, he says, "Let Reuben live and not die." And from where will one not be able to collect so many testimonies concerning our hope and expectation of the resurrection, which is in truth and not in semblance? For let the vain and contentious ones argue in vain, whether a part of the bodies rises and all in part, or again some rise wholly and some in part, or some the whole body. What sort of favoritism is this? "Favoritism on the part of God?" Far from it. Let us investigate where or when the saints raised a dead person from a part and not the whole body.

the son of the widow in Sarepta rose entirely and no part was left behind; the son of the Shunammite woman rose entirely and left no member of his unrisen. And the Lord raised Lazarus and left no remnant in the tomb, but with the graveclothes and the other garments—and certainly there is no need of garments on the day of judgment—he raised the son of the woman in Nain entirely, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, the daughter of the centurion. And vain is the suspicion of those who reason such things, that he raises part and leaves part behind. But let us see from the very subjects already set before us and from those that have become for us equal in hope. Enoch was wholly translated and has not seen death to this day, and Elijah was wholly taken up in body and has not seen death to this day, so that by two living bodies he might present to us the complete resurrection. And that no one might doubt, two types of the two firstborn of our resurrection: Enoch was in uncircumcision, and uncircumcision did not hinder the resurrection nor the reception of the body through a life of living; Elijah in circumcision, so that the resurrection might not be thought to be for some and not for others, but universal and whole. Elijah was in virginity, so that the preeminence of virginity might proclaim immortality to the world and incorruption with the body; but that the resurrection and the permanence of the body might not be thought to belong only to virginity because of its exceptional character, Enoch was not a virgin, but continent and had begotten children. And these two are among the living, remaining in body and soul for our hope.

And so that no one might again doubt, he also brought others down to Hades with their bodies. For the earth opened its mouth and swallowed Dathan and Abiron, the sons of Kore and Aunan, and they descended into Hades alive, with body and soul. From that very hour they were handed over for judgment, neither their bodies being dissolved nor any remnant or part being delivered, but all of them, with body and soul, were handed over for punishment. Job says, "until I become again" and "you will raise this body that endures these things" and "you will renew me" and again "your youth will be renewed like an eagle's." Isaiah says, "the dead will rise and those in the tombs will be raised," for he came "who looses the fettered in manliness, likewise those who embitter, those dwelling in tombs." Job says, "a man who has fallen asleep will never again rise nor will he know his place." And indeed, truly, resurrection does not happen every day, but is appointed for one day. Showing that he knew to what term he looked forward, he immediately resolved the question: "until the sky is not sewn together." For as long as the sky and the earth exist, the bodies also remain in the earth. But when "the one who rolls up the sky like a scroll" comes and shakes the earth, then "those on the earth's mound will also rise." For this reason he says to Ezekiel, "Son of man, command that bone be gathered to bone and joint to joint," and it happened thus; and "that there come upon them sinews and veins, flesh and hair and nails.

And again, "Say, son of man, come, the spirit from the four corners of the earth," that is, from the places reserved for souls. And for what reason does the Lord himself not speak, but commands the man to speak? Because what the Lord says, he also does, and it is no longer undone; but he commanded the man to speak, so that after the resurrection, at that hour, our hope of salvation might be signified, but the word of a man might be undone and not that of the Lord. For those bones were destined to die again. But when the Lord says, "Arise," they rise and do not die; for the word of God will not be undone.

For this reason also the Lord, coming in the flesh, raised the dead, so that what was through the flesh might sleep again, until this flesh itself rises and dies no more, and this speaking ceases, saying to only one, "Arise," "Come out," until he comes and no longer says in the singular, "Arise," but "Arise, all of you," effecting the universal resurrection; for he himself is the resurrection of the dead. For here, after rising from the dead, he raised no one except those who had recently died. For "many bodies of the sleeping saints arose and were seen by many," "entering with him into the bridal chamber," according to what is written in the Gospel. And it did not say, a part of the bodies of the saints arose, but bodies of the saints; and "they were manifested to many," not being others than those who had died, but being recognized by their own people, because they had not died long before. And wishing to show the miracle to others, our Lord accomplished those difficult things, showing them to be easy.

And when he comes to the girl who had just died, the daughter of the archisynagogos, since she had died at that very hour, he deigned to say to her, "Child, arise." With this "arise" he strengthened what was already dissolved, because she was still on the bed. But the son of the widow in Nain, since he was already being carried out in the coffin, he raised more easily: "for he touched the coffin" and said nothing to the boy, but only touched the coffin and he arose. But the most profound and far beyond human expectation, when he came to the four-day Lazarus, he neither said "arise" nor touched the tomb with his hand, but thus, as if ready, he calls in his own authority, "Lazarus, come out." And "come out" is much easier and more ready than touching, and touching again is much easier than calling "Child, arise." Here the holy Logos of God does all things, in order to show us the hope of the resurrection.

But if I wished to select all the testimonies from all the scriptures, our mind is small, short, and unlearned, yet because of the multitude I fear I might extend the discourse to great length. In summary, I will say that our salvation is concise, and in all things alike, with one hope of the resurrection proclaimed to us. But these things unbelievers disbelieve, the heterodox corrupt, the contentious do not accept, the vainglorious reject. May God grant mercy to all and illuminate the darkened thoughts.

For the Greeks, not having received the Holy Spirit, will be refuted by the truth and by all the testimonies previously mentioned, and especially by you, the sons of the holy Church of God and of the orthodox faith. For you teach, having received the Holy Spirit and having been deemed worthy of fitting speech "in the opening of the mouth," first, that having been deemed worthy to be disciples of Christ, the "chief shepherd" and "protector of our souls," you gather together the nourishment for the flocks of Christ for your own peoples, and you take care that you yourselves and the flocks of God—I mean everyone who wishes to be benefited—you nourish from the holy land hinted at by Moses. And who among the right-minded, looking to you, the pious and faithful, O orthodox and sons of the Church—for in saying "some" I mean all the sons of the truth, according to what is written—who would doubt concerning these things? For being sons of a wise and most courageous woman, whose fame is spoken of by Solomon when he says, "Who will find a courageous woman?"—as she is rare, or rather one—you will choose the better and love the beneficial. And by "courageous woman" understand for me the Church of God, your mother, than whom nothing is more courageous, dying in each persecution that arises for the sake of the name of her own husband.

This, then, is the most gentle one who precisely questions her own bridegroom in the Song of Songs: "Where do you pasture? Where do you rest at midday?" And Christ pastures in the holy land previously mentioned, and not only does he pasture, but he also commands to untie the sandal from the feet of the shepherds, as he first says to Moses; from whom you, having received the tradition, safely guide those who are introduced into the holy knowledge, first taking care to untie the sandals of each. And the sandals of each of us have a difference; for each has put on sandals according to his own action. And then each of you, the disciples and good shepherds, obeying, one who had put on idolatry untied it by your admonition, another untied adultery, another fornication, another theft, another greed. And not only that, but also renouncing hateful words and shameful speech, with blessed hopes, each entrusts himself to be tended "under the strong hand" of the good shepherd through you, the good disciples; for each will certainly abstain from error. And you set the truth before their eyes, counterfeiting idols and openly proclaiming the error concerning them; for you consider these neither as dead, since they never lived, but as empty and vain and non-existent, rightly teaching all always. For they never were, so that they might be something; but they are evil spirits, a product of human thought, strengthening occasions for pleasures; and from this, each one's own passion, having been confirmed as an object of veneration, has been dared.

First, as soon as this was innovated among men through the malice of demons, this woman was the first to proclaim "fornication" and to prefigure the idols with shadow-paintings. Then each person handed down to his own children the particular craft which he had in hand, by which he had gained his livelihood, as an object of veneration, and through the material of their own craftsmanship they molded gods: the potter from clay, the carpenter from wood, the goldsmith from gold, and the silversmith likewise. Moreover, each one again delineated his own passion in likenesses before his own eyes: a bloodthirsty man claiming Ares, an adulterer or adulteress the promiscuous Aphrodite, a tyrant representing Victory with wings. For a squalid man gaping after worldly things drew the type of Kronos, while an effeminate man represented Cybele and Rhea, I suppose because of the flux of promiscuous intercourse from bodies. Another wanderer or wandering woman prefigured Artemis the huntress, and a drunkard Dionysus, and a much-toiling man Heracles, and a promiscuous man Zeus and Apollo. And why should I recount the multitudes of countless passions existing among men? But more than all, the Egyptians, having gone astray, venerated not only their own passions, but also birds and quadrupeds, land animals and water creatures, and certain untamed beasts, and even those things delivered to them as servants by the holy God they "changed" in order.

And being bestial in mind, they excessively venerate the animals they deify among themselves, and are not ashamed: the dog, the barker; the cat, the serpent-eater; the goat, the lascivious one; the sheep, the bleating one; the crocodile, the many-toothed and most unsmiling one; the ibis, the venom-eating one; and the kite, the hawk, and the raven, the most servile ones; and the serpent, the crooked and most unpleasant one. And in a word—oh, the great shame of those who neither perceive with their eyes their own refutation, nor receive perception through their ears, nor understand with their mind the things vainly done among them. For they are struck by an evil fate, neither being illuminated by their own philosophers nor becoming fellow spectators with the seekers of truth. For they do not hear Diagoras, who, when his own Heracles was made of wood, burned him due to a lack of firewood and said to him mockingly: "Come now, Heracles, performing the thirteenth labor, pass by, to cook our meal for us." And taking him and splitting him into kindling, laughing at his own god as not existing, he fed himself on the meal set before him, jesting.

Another, Heraclitus, says to the Egyptians: if they are gods, why do you mourn them? For they lament Typhon and Osiris and other chthonic beings with shrill dirges, mourning them as if they were buried. So this man says: if they are gods, why do you mourn them? But if they are dead, you mourn them in vain. Another, a comic poet named Eudaimon, says: "If there are gods, I cannot speak about them nor indicate what sort they are in form. For many things hinder me." And Homer says: "Many-rule is not good." And Philemon, another comic poet, says: "Those who worship one god have good hopes for salvation." For Apis, the straw-eating calf, is immediately struck in the thigh by a sword by Kampys, the king of the Assyrians, so that, if blood flows, he might be proven not to be a god. The Chronikoi do not deny that their own god is confined in iron chains, thus they believe. But if someone is in confinement, not only is he subject to a greater one, but also such a one is in confinement as a malefactor. And if I am to speak about Isis, who is also called Atthis and Io, daughter of Apis the Cappadocian, who is also called Inachus, I am perhaps ashamed to proclaim their deeds; but I will not be ashamed to say what they themselves are not ashamed to worship. Let those who worship her and Aphrogeneia be ashamed of their own daughters and wives and sisters, the deeds of their gods.

urging them to imitate. And immediately, being in love with their own brother Osiris and with the other brother Typhon, they set their own brothers in arms against each other. Great is the shame of a goddess who felt no shame for her own brother, but was in love and not satisfied with men from outside, but even reached as far as her own brother. Not only that, but she also exhibits fratricide to her dearest ones because of the insatiability of her own desire. And she bears one child, Horus, whom she was unable to present, who his true father really is. For if she names Typhon, she hesitates that he might not be his parent; but if she names Osiris, who could present the accuracy of this? A good god this mother taught him to become, taking him and prostituting in Tyre for ten years. And Serapis, the king called Apis, the children of the Sinopeans deified, were enslaved more by tyranny than by truth.

These are the rewards of the gods honored among the Egyptians, to speak of which in detail would consume much time. But the Greeks, who think themselves to be something, philosophizing only with words and the sharpness of their tongue and not with deeds, have gone astray more than all; they bring down Cronus from Uranus, saying that he was born from Uranus and cut off the genitals of his own father—what an evil deed, and a shameful suspicion; if he had not been cut, there would have been many Cronions.

This noble fellow, who had reached as far as his father, was not satisfied with his first impiety, but while still young wronged his father, and when he became old, his own children, swallowing Poseidon and Pluto, and seeking after Zeus, being mocked by Rhea and swallowing a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead of an infant, as if he were a god. And his child, Zeus by name, born of noble parents, so to speak, was in danger of becoming the husband of all women, and his son Hermes. And would that he had been a lawful suitor with a dowry, and not always an adulterer and evildoer: for he corrupts Penelope, becoming a goat for pleasure; and he became a goat, I think, because of the vigor of his beard's entanglement. With Danae, Zeus, whom we first call gold, became gold in order to corrupt a chaste maiden confined to her chamber; but that gold could never have become such, but being a sorcerer, he deceived the maiden by bribing her with gold. And with Leda he again becomes a swan, signifying the soaring of the heat of his pleasure. And becoming an eagle, though he never actually flew, he sits as a teacher of pederasts; he never became an eagle, but on a ship with an ensign, called an eagle because of its speed, sailing past Troy and seizing Ganymede, the son of the king of the Trojans, he accomplished the corruption. And with Pasiphae he became a bull, and likewise with Europa. And why should I recount the multitude of corruptions of this noble corrupter of virgins and teacher of corrupters, whose tomb is evident to not a few?

In Crete, on the island, on the mountain called Lasius, it is pointed out to this day. And there was not one or two Zeus figures, but three and four in number. For one of them was the son of Cronus, the aforementioned one who cast his own father into Tartarus on the Caucasian mountain; another was called Latarius, from whom the gladiators originated; another was the tragedian, who also burned his own hand. Perhaps, being a god, he forgot that fire burns, and did not have the foreknowledge of the one who said to the goat satyr, who first discovered fire and came to kiss it: "Do not touch, goat; for if you touch, you will set your beard on fire." And there was not one Athena, but many: one wandering and roaming around the Tritonian lake, another the daughter of Oceanus, another the daughter of Cronus, and many others. There were many Artemises: one the Ephesian, another the daughter of Zeus, and others likewise not few. And there were also Dionysuses: the Theban, another the son of Semele, the one among the Corybantes, and the one torn apart by the Titans, and the one of the Curetes who taught the distribution of meat. And Heracles, called by them the averter of evil, whose deeds I will pass over in silence, but I will indicate one from among all that is perhaps praised by them: it will suffice for him to undergo this labor, so that salvation might come to the world. For if he had not defiled fifty virgins in one night, how would the world have been saved? Rather, it would have perished. And I simply confess to you, I am weary of writing down their evil deeds in prose.

Moreover, the most savage kings and tyrants, having had certain beloved persons and buried them in the earth, having nothing more to bestow upon them, being themselves perishable like them, handed over their tombs to their own subjects for the deception of life, on the evil pretext that they be worshipped as gods, as Antinous, who was buried in Antinoöpolis, and lying in a pleasure boat, was thus enrolled by Hadrian. Timogenes in Asia, and Canobus the helmsman of Menelaus and his wife Enmenuthis, buried in Alexandria, are honored by the shore of the sea, standing apart by twelve signs, and Marnas, the slave of Asterius the Cretan, among the Gazans, and Casius the shipowner among the Pelusians. Therefore, when you examine all these things in the midst of the church, you undermine the evil example of a deadly path for those thus promoted, and you bring others from adultery to chastity, and you not only deliver them from secret marriage, but also to despise their own wife in continence, as "the time is compressed," as the holy apostle says, and you catechize fornicators, so that they may not be punished for their unlawful act before God and men. And when you have accomplished and handed over all these things through word and deed, you persuade them to accept everything from you, having first done everything in deed and impressed it upon yourselves, confirming the words through the deeds, which you first taught yourselves, so that you may also instruct others.

For you hold fast, even in silence, like the sun, which by its very silence teaches everyone everywhere; for as soon as it rises, even in silence, it instructs all in their crafts. And when you hand over the benefit of all these things to your own children or most faithful brothers, you advance them to walk on earth while having "their citizenship in heaven," and you engender in most the zeal of monks. Through the steadfastness and unfeigned faith in you, abhorring heretics, silencing Manichaeans and Marcionists and others like them, you drive them from the fold of God, dissolving all their pretexts and muzzling them. For how many things do they rashly utter against God and against his holy prophets, being light and empty of the Holy Spirit, blaspheming the creator of all and hating all the good things that God, through his holy prophets, granted to all men by prophecy in spirit? These things, being earthy and corporeal, they examine psychically and do not understand the deepest things of the law and the prophets. But they blaspheme in vain. Do not hesitate to shake off their error from those who hear, refuting them from the true

of proofs. For through such words, the foolish-minded are carried away like dry twigs in the current of a full river.

They say that the God of the Law is base, who, not knowing where Adam was, asked, saying, "Adam, where are you?" and says to Cain, "Where is Abel, your brother?" and to Abraham, "Where is Sarah, your wife?" and many other such things. But those who say such things believe in the Savior God in word and not in truth, who is God and has foreknowledge, and yet similarly asks in the New Testament, "Where have you placed Lazarus?" and "Who touched me?" and "Do you have bread with you?" and "Whom do you want?" or "Whom do you seek?" The refutation against them is therefore easy and simple. For just as the Son asks, having foreknowledge, so also the Father himself asks in the Law, being the same always and not changing. For if he says, "Where have you placed Lazarus?" he is ignorant of neither the Gospel nor the Old Testament. For he says, "Where have you placed him?" wishing to expose those who have not shown even equal faith to the Shunammite woman, although she had faith toward a man, that is, Elisha the holy prophet, while those around Martha had faith toward God. And if he says, "Who touched me?" he does not say it in ignorance, but to persuade the woman to confess of her own accord, so that the Son of God may not bear witness about himself, but be glorified by others. And when he says, "Do you have bread with you?" he says this so that the smallness of the loaves may be indicated to all and the greatness of his miracle may be marveled at, since such a crowd was fed by so many loaves.

And when he says, "Whom do you seek?" he shows that those who seek are deceived and are "seeking Jesus," who is interpreted as the healer and savior, so that when they kill him, they may cease from this salvation. Just as we have demonstrated concerning the economy of our Lord, that the things said are spoken in human terms but are not devoid of foreknowledge—for no one of sound mind would say that he did not know where they had placed Lazarus, being near the place, even if he asked in the manner we have described, being previously far away in Galilee and having shown from himself that Lazarus had died—so also concerning the Old Testament we analyze these things intelligently. The statement of God, "Adam, where are you?" was not from ignorance, but from showing from what height to what depth of shame Adam had fallen. And "Where is Abel, your brother?" means that he whom you ought to have always carried in your arms and always been with, this one has been cast to the ground by you. For he shows from what follows that he was not asking out of ignorance, but was refuting by saying, "Cursed is the earth in your works, and cursed are you from the earth, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand"; "Behold," he says, "his voice cries out to me." And "Where is Sarah, your wife?" he did not say out of ignorance. For how could he be ignorant, knowing her laughing inside the house? Therefore he was not asking out of ignorance, but in order to present to her daughters who "profess piety" the lesson of her conduct, when they attempt to serve the saints from their own labors.

For she, being in such great service, herself preparing the unleavened bread and the hearth cakes and having prepared such great service together with her own servants, did not see the face of those being served, leaving behind a model of modest temperance for our generations. And these things will suffice for a demonstration against the vain contradictions.

If they say that the god of the law is good, who defrauded the Egyptians and taught his own people to plunder when they departed from the land of Egypt, the vain ones do not know that nothing is lost to God and that it is righteous judgment and "God is not mocked." For what did the Egyptians think, that they sought to have the Jews work these things without payment, and not for a few years, but for two hundred fifteen years, together with the two hundred fifteen years of Joseph? For a sojourn of four hundred and thirty years having been determined for Abraham and his seed, as it says, "Your seed will be a sojourner in a foreign land," then what was determined was being fulfilled. Therefore, in his compassion, God divided the years of his sojourn. And immediately, through one hundred fifteen years, while they were still in the land of Canaan, he took hold of them, and the other one hundred fifteen he divided among those who went over to Egypt. For the number of these years is calculated thus: it was then the seventy-fifth year of Abraham. Therefore, from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham until the birth of Isaac, there are twenty-five years. Isaac, at sixty years of age, begets Jacob, and there are eighty-five years. Jacob, having become eighty-nine years old, begets Levi, and there are one hundred seventy-four years.

Levi, having become forty-four years old, begets Kohath. And in the forty-seventh year, Jacob goes down into Egypt, and there are two hundred eleven years. And after their entry into Egypt, another four years, and the two hundred fifteen are completed. From this point, the remaining two hundred fifteen years of the sojourn of the Israelites are again counted for me. And Kohath, after the descent into Egypt, in his sixty-fifth year, begets the father of Moses, Amram. Therefore, from the first Abraham, in his seventy-fifth year, until the birth of the last Abraham, there are two hundred eighty years, and from the descent into Egypt, sixty-five years. And Amram, being seventy years old, begets Moses, and there are from the first Abraham three hundred fifty years, and from the descent into Egypt, one hundred thirty-five years. And Moses, in his eightieth year, treads the Red Sea, departing from Egypt together with the Israelites. And there are from the great Abraham three hundred eighty years, and from the descent into Egypt, one hundred sixty-five years. And the remaining fifty years they consumed after the crossing of the Red Sea until the arrival in Palestine, not because of the length of the road, but because of fighting and being hindered by the nations found along their way. Therefore, from the seventy-fifth year of the great Abraham, from which this prophecy was given to him by God, until Moses and the arrival of the sons of Israel in Palestine, there are four hundred thirty years, and from the descent into Egypt until their arrival in Palestine, two hundred fifteen years.

So then, after the Israelites had labored for so many years without pay, was it not just, both before God and men, that their wages be given to them, even if at the end? Therefore God is not unjust, having driven out his own people from there with the spoils. But if anyone disputes that the years are not counted in this way, let him listen to Moses saying, "And the dwelling of the sons of Israel in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt was 430 years." Since the Lord takes care of the most just wage, what vain contradiction still remains for those who wish to bring blame against the holy God? But no one could ever blame the true God; rather, those who blame blame themselves. Another vain contradiction is proclaimed by them, similar to the first, that the God of the law is good, who defrauded the Canaanites in order to give the Israelites their place, "houses which they did not build, and olive groves, and fig groves, and vineyards which they did not plant." To these I will say: O vain ones, if God were like a man, the things said or done today would pass by and nothing would be in his thought; but since God "is God and not a man," he does not forget to avenge the things referred to him over many generations. For if they are ignorant of this matter, let them learn. All know the righteous Noah, who became the remnant of the world after the flood.

As then he was left behind, he and his three sons, being a just man and trying to make his own children reverent, so that they might not fall into the same evils as those in the flood, he not only handed down reverence to them through words, but also demanded from each of them, by oath, goodwill toward their brother. And he divides the whole world, as one appointed by God as heir of the world, among his three sons, having divided it by lot and assigning each portion according to the lot to each: and to Shem, the firstborn, the lot fell from Persia and Bactria as far as India in length, and in breadth from India as far as the land of the Rhinocorurae; this Rhinocorurae lies between Egypt and Palestine, opposite the Red Sea. To Ham, the second, from the same Rhinocorurae as far as Gadeira, the southern parts. To Japheth, the third, from Media as far as Gadeira and Rhinocorurae, the northern parts.

To Shem, then, were born children and children's children, 225 until the time when the languages were divided; and they are scattered among languages and tribes and kingdoms. Their names are these:

Elymaeans Paeonians Lazonians Cossaeans Gasphenians Palestinians Indians Syrians Arabians who are also Tayani Ariani Mardi Hyrcani Magusaeans Troglodytes Assyrians Germans Lydians Mesopotamians Hebrews Coelenians Bactrians Adiabenians Camelians Saracens Scythians † Chiones Gymnosophists Chaldeans Parthians Eetae Cordylenians Massynians Phoenicians Madianaeans Commagenians Dardanians Elamasenians Cedrusians Elamites Armenians Cilicians Egyptians Cappadocians Phoenicians Pontians Marmaridae † Biones Carians Chalybes Psyllitae Lazi Mossynoeci Iberians Phrygians. To Ham the second son, children and children's children thirty-two up to the same division of languages: Ethiopians Troglodytes Angaei Taieni Sabini Ichthyophagi Hellenic Egyptians Phoenicians Marmaridae Carians Psyllitae Mossynoeci Phrygians Macones Macrones Syrtitae Leptimagnitae Bithynians Nomades Lycians Mariandeni Pamphylians † Moschesidians Pisidians Augalaei Cilicians Maurusians Cretans Magardae Numidians Afri who are also Bizaceni Nasamones Phasgeni Mazices Garamantes Getuli Blemmyes Axumites; these occupy from Egypt to the Ocean. And islands belonging to them: Cursula Lopadusa Gaulos Ride Melite Corcyra Mene Sardanis Gortyna Crete Glaucus Ride Thera Carianthus Astypalaea Chios Lesbos Tenedos Imbros Iasos Samos Coos Cnidos Nisyros Megiste and Cyprus. To Japheth the third son, children and children's children fifteen up to the same division of languages.

Medes Albani Gargiani Armenii Arraei Amazones Coli Corzeni Beneageni Cappadoci Galatae Paphlagonians Mariandyni Tibareni Chalybes Mossynoeci Colchi Melanchlaeni Sauromatae Germani Maeotae Scythae Tauri Thraci Bastarni Illyrii Macedones Hellenes Libyans Phrygians Pannonians Istri Veneti Daunii Iapyges Calabri Hippici Latini who are also Romans Tyrrheni Galli who are also Celts

Ligustini Campani Celtiberi Iberes Galli Aquitani Illyriani Basantes Cannii Cartani Lusitani Vaccaei Britannici Scotti Spani. Their islands are Britannia Sicilia Euboea Rhodos Chios Lesbos Cythera Zacynthus Cephallenia Ithaca Corcyra Cyprus. If any name of a nation or island is entered twice in the lot of one and again of another, according to common boundaries or according to the colonies that occurred at some time or according to the encroachment of Ham, who took more and took parts of Shem, let no one wonder or doubt.

Now of these nations thus born from the three sons of Noah and the world divided into three parts for the three sons, as I said before, an oath was required of them by the father that no one should encroach upon the lot of his brother; and they said that the one who transgressed the ordinance of the oath would be destroyed by the oath, along with all his seed.

Since, then, in the allotment of Shem, Palestine fell and all the places near it, but Canaan, son of Ham, being covetous, later came upon the land of the Palestinians, that is, Judaea, and seizes it, God was patient, giving times for repentance, that those from Ham might repent and return to those of Shem their own allotment, but they did not repent, but wished to fill up their measure; then God, after many later generations, being just, avenges the violation of the oath; for thus it was necessary that the measure of the Amorites be filled. For Shem begets Arpachshad; Ham begets Canaan, and Canaan begets after the covetous act the Amorite and the Girgashite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Arkite and the Arvadite and the Sidonian. So the generations are counted thus until the vengeance of Shem: Shem, who was wronged, begets Arpachshad, as we said; Arpachshad begets Kenan, Kenan begets Shelah, Shelah begets Eber, and the tower-building occurs; Eber begets Peleg, and the division of land and languages occurs; Peleg begets Reu, Reu begets Serug, Serug begets Nahor, Nahor begets Terah, Terah begets Abraham, Abraham begets Isaac, Isaac begets Jacob, who was named Israel, from whom come the Israelites, Jacob begets Judah, Judah begets Perez, Perez begets Hezron, Hezron begets Ram, Ram begets Aminadab, Aminadab begets Nahshon, and Nahshon begets Salmon. This is the generation of those born from Shem. So these, having been wronged by the sons of Ham and deprived of their own place, God avenges by destroying the people of Canaan according to their oath, and the seed of Shem receives back its own land.

God did not do wrong, then, apportioning what is just to each part: "for God is not mocked," as I said before.

In the exodus, then, fitting a gathering to himself, God says to Moses, "Take off the sandals from your feet." For everyone who is about to approach pure baths first removes his sandals. Since, then, much time has passed and each one "in his own way we have gone astray," and this gathering remained in its own evils, God had not yet revealed "the bath of regeneration," but put it off for many years, and later revealed the all-holy bath to the holy church: in Moses, removing sandals; in the prophets, stripping off the outer tunic, leaving only a loincloth for Jeremiah; in John, changing all the garments of the world, he refashioned them from camel hair; in the savior himself and his disciples, he stripped off "the form of the world," and from above, from the heavens, after the cleansing of the waters, he clothed them with "fire and spirit." But seeing, the

The Israelites did not recognize the grace of this one, that he is God. Therefore the prophet also lamented them reproachfully because of the dishonor they would inflict upon the Savior, saying, "Do you repay these things to the Lord, a foolish and heartless people?" For they did not recognize that this was the one with whom the Father consulted in the beginning, saying, "Let us make man according to our image and likeness"; for the "let us make" is not indicative of a single number, but rather the Father consulted with the Son and the Holy Spirit: "for by the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and by the spirit of his mouth all their power." Nor would they have understood the one speaking explicitly in the same book, that "the Lord rained fire and brimstone from the Lord upon Sodom and Gomorrah from heaven." For "the Lord rained fire," the one who had come to Abraham, from "the Lord from heaven," the one who sent him. Nor did they recognize him when he drove them out of Egypt, nor did they understand the prophet saying, "And you, Bethlehem, are you not the least?" For how is it possible to call a city the least which contained the one whom heaven and all things are not able to contain? And that "from you a leader will go forth for me": if he goes forth from Bethlehem and is a man, how is he then spoken of as divine?

It disturbs them that he is both God and man. For in the same passage it says, "His goings forth are from the beginning, from the creation of the world"; but this is no longer of a man, but of God. Yet they do not remember that "Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel"; and "they will call" signifies the manner of the saints and faithful, the sons of the church. For when examined by the Lord-killing Jews concerning the Savior, as to how they believe in the crucified one, they confess; they hear from these same faithful that "He was crucified among you, but with us he is God." But they did not hear David and did not know his word, which he, seeing in the Holy Spirit, spoke, shuddering at the Lord's own future economy, saying, "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand,'" and so forth. The ancient Sabbaths, then, "have passed away," but a true Sabbath is proclaimed among us. The first circumcision, which circumcised one very small member, has ceased, but the heavenly circumcision, which circumcises the whole body, is very much in effect. For the waters and the holy invocation do not occur on one member of a man, but seal, purify, circumcise the whole body of a man, and deliver him from all evils. So the holy church has received these mysteries. But terrible "enemies, called domestics," have risen up against her, not being from the true faith of the Lord's apostles, "for if they were from them, they would have remained with them.

But being bastard and mixed, they again desire the evil desire for the Egyptian food of fish and cucumbers, blaspheming up and down the Son of God—the Ariomanites, whom we have already pilloried in the preceding discourses, and others, the Sabellians. And the Sabellians completely deny that the Son and the Holy Spirit exist, saying that the Son is himself the Father and the Father is himself the Son, and the Holy Spirit is himself the Father, as if the Son and the Holy Spirit do not exist—second Jews and Deicides, as they are refuted. The Ariomanites, the most impious of all, who dare to separate and alienate the Son from the Father's substance, do not deem the Son to be of equal honor with the Father nor that he was begotten from the substance of the Father. And others, their offspring, who before this along with the others previously mentioned *—would that they counted themselves among the Jews, those blaspheming the Holy Spirit, second Sadducees and Samaritans and

Unknown dead and unbelievers.

But so that we do not make our testimonies against them lengthy "with ink and paper," to avoid wearying the readers, for the Sabellians, along with the other testimonies, the testimony of the Jordan will suffice, as I have already said. For the Son truly appears in the Jordan, God become man, not undergoing change but taking on flesh, not from the seed of a man but from the holy Virgin, having assumed a body conceived by the Holy Spirit, a perfect body, that is, a perfect man in soul and body. Thus God and man came to John in the Jordan, being one and the same Son, Christ, and Lord; and the Father cries out from above, bearing witness to the Son who has come in the Jordan, "This is my beloved Son"; and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove as he entered the waters, to show them pure for the sake of those who are to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For the Arians, along with what has already been said, it will suffice to say that the Son said, "I am in the Father and the Father is in me"; for here he demonstrated the equality and genuineness of the Son with the Father. For the offspring of the Arians who blaspheme the Holy Spirit, two testimonies already set forth with the other testimonies will suffice, one from Daniel as follows: in the fiery furnace, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, praising God, include with themselves the whole creation of God and say, "Bless all the works of the Lord, the Lord.

And they numbered heavens and angels and moon and sun and powers, earth and sea and all things in them, and nowhere did they number Son and Holy Spirit among the creations. The Seraphim, however, sanctify the Trinity perhaps, saying the "holy" not once, not twice, not four times, but three times. Let Peter again refute these men, rebuking those around Ananias and saying, "You have tempted the Holy Spirit"; and he says, "You have not lied to a man, but to God." And the apostle knows, as we have often said, that the Spirit is not alien to God, saying, "It searches even the depths of God"; but that which is not from the substance of God is unable to search the depths of God. But we know Father as Father, Son as Son, Holy Spirit as Holy Spirit, a Trinity in unity. For there is one unity of Father and Son and Holy Spirit, one substance, one lordship, one will, one church, one baptism, one faith. And let those who oppose the holy virgin of Christ and pure bride, that is, our mother the holy church, cease. For the children of this church received from the holy fathers, that is, the holy apostles, the faith to guard, and also to hand down and proclaim to their own children. From whom you yourselves, most honorable brothers, are also sons, and you hand down this teaching to your own children.

Saying these things and similar things from the divine Scriptures, confirm yourselves and those who hear you, teaching, paving the way, catechizing, do not cease, you faithful and orthodox, this holy faith of the catholic church, as the holy and only virgin of God received it from the holy apostles of the Lord, to guard. And thus each of the catechumens who are about to approach the holy washing, you ought not only to declare the faith to your own sons in the Lord, but also to teach explicitly, as the same mother of all, both yours and ours, to say: We believe in one God, Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, who was born from the Father before all ages, that is, from the substance of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, through whom all things came to be, both those in the heavens and those on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down from the heavens and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and Mary the Virgin and became man, was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate and suffered and was buried, and rose on the third day according to the Scriptures and ascended into the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father, and is coming again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver, who proceeds from the Father, who is worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son, who spoke through the prophets; in one holy catholic and apostolic church; we confess one baptism for the remission of sins, we look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come. Amen. But those who say there was once when he was not, and before he was begotten he was not, or that he came into being from non-existent things, or from another hypostasis or substance, or that the Son of God is mutable or alterable, these the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes. And this faith was handed down from the holy apostles and in the holy city church by all the holy bishops of that time together, more than three hundred and ten in number.

Since in our generation certain other heresies have arisen one after another, that is, in the time of the emperors Valentinian and Valens in the tenth year of their reign and again in the sixth year of Gratian, that is, in the ninetieth year of the tyrant Diocletian, for this reason you and we and all the orthodox bishops and, collectively, the entire holy catholic church, in accordance with the faith previously set forth by those holy fathers, speak thus against the heresies that have arisen, especially to those approaching the holy bath, so that they may declare and say as follows: We believe in one God, Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible.

and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, only-begotten, born of God the Father, that is, from the essence of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father, through whom all things were made, both those in the heavens and those on earth, visible and invisible; who for us men and for our salvation came down and was incarnate, that is, was perfectly born of holy Mary the ever-virgin through the Holy Spirit, becoming man, that is, taking a perfect man, soul and body and mind and everything that is man, without sin; not from the seed of a man nor begotten in a man, but having refashioned flesh into himself into one holy unity; not as he inspired and spoke and acted in the prophets, but having become perfectly man; for the Word became flesh, not having undergone change nor having transformed his own divinity into humanity, but having united into one his own holy perfection and divinity; for there is one Lord Jesus Christ and not two, the same God, the same man, who did not produce confusion, but blended the two into one; not having passed into non-existence, but having conjoined an earthly body with the divinity into one power, he united into one divinity; being one Lord, one Christ, not two Christs nor two gods. In him body

the spiritual in him is an incomprehensible divinity; that which suffered was not corrupted, the impassible is incorruptible, the whole is incorruption; God the Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father, not having abandoned the flesh, but having united it into one and the whole into one divinity, seated at the right hand of the Father.

This then is the only-begotten, the perfect, the uncreated, the unchangeable, the immutable, the incomprehensible, the invisible, who became incarnate among us and rose spiritually and "no longer dies," no longer is impoverished, he who "became poor for us, though being rich," he who is entirely spirit, he who unites the fleshly and the divine, one Lord, King Christ, the Son of God, seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father "above every beginning and authority, power and every named name," as he says in the Gospel, "Go and baptize all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." And this * and in between † being, it did not signify a blending of the Son with the Father, nor a blending of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, but it knows the Father as true Father, and it demonstrated itself as true, as a hypostatic Word, and its Holy Spirit as a hypostatic Spirit and "Spirit of truth," uncreated, unchangeable, immutable; not so that one might suspect someone acting deceitfully toward the faith and hiding his feet and dealing treacherously toward the truth, "for God examines hearts and kidneys." And the heretic says: evidently I believe that the Father is Father, and the Son is Son, and the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit, and I confess three hypostases in one essence.

I do not say another substance besides the divinity, nor another divinity besides the substance, but to be precise in this way we call it one substance, so that we may not speak of one kind and another kind of the divinity of the Trinity. For such a person, as I said, acting deceitfully and craftily again, says: I believe that Father is Father, Son is Son, Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit; but he has a hidden suspicion of this sort, having likened the divine to ourselves, saying to himself, that as I have a body and a soul and a human spirit, so also does the divinity. The Father is, so to speak, the form, the Son is like the soul in a human, and the Spirit is like that which breathes through a human. For some act deceitfully and think of the divinity in this way. But we have not learned thus; rather, behold the Father in heaven testifies through a voice, behold the Son in the Jordan, behold the Holy Spirit was formed in the form of a dove descending; but it was formed by itself, being a hypostasis by itself, not different from that of the Father and Son, but of the same substance, a hypostasis from the same hypostasis of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. And again in another way: behold the Father sits in heaven, *. But do not understand "sits" again in a human way, but hold it as ineffable and incomprehensible. And he did not say, the Son ascended into the Father, but "he sat at the right hand of the Father." And again, speaking about the Holy Spirit, the Only-begotten taught, "I go away, and that one will come, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. If I do not go away, that one does not come.

If the Spirit were a coalescence with the Son himself, he would not have said, "I go away, and that one comes," but rather to show hypostasis and hypostasis. Yet there is one divinity, one God, one truth.

And thus I have written for whomever wishes the sequence of our life and the firm confession, that which has been preserved immaculately in the catholic church from the law and the prophets and the gospels and the apostles and from the times of the apostles up to our own times, while the same faith and hope and our salvation have been persecuted from time to time through the heresies out of envy of the instability of the one and true faith, yet have endured in their truth, the heresies in each period defiling themselves and being alienated from the church. As also recently we hear of some who seem to carry off the first places among certain ascetics in Egypt and the Thebaid and in other regions elsewhere, holding views similar to the Hieracites and saying that there is a resurrection of our flesh, but not of this one, rather of some other in its place, such persons having turned aside and twisted the truth of God and our firm hope into myths. For this reason we are compelled to speak again about this. For the faithless deny the whole of the resurrection, while the ill-faithful have fallen away from the true hope in a vulgar and senseless manner by thinking thus about the resurrection. And the Greeks, who completely deny the resurrection because of the impiety of the multitude of lawless deeds committed among them.

They hate the resurrection because of the shame they are about to suffer at the resurrection, having ignored God and his commandments; but they will rise, even if they do not wish it. For creation itself refutes them plainly, revealing the form of resurrection each day. For the day sets, and we are given a hint of the manner of the dead, the night hinting at sleep; the day rises, waking us and showing the sign of resurrection. Fruits are plucked, and the state of existing things is cut off, the face of our departure from here being defined. The earth is sown and sprouts, because what is buried after the cutting will rise. A locust dies, having buried its rejected offspring in the earth, and after a time the earth gives back what was buried; the seeds of crops are sown and first die, then come to full growth; "for if it does not die, it is not brought to life." God has made seals in us through the ten nails and ten [toenails] of resurrection, bearing witness to our hope. But also, as through a crown on the head, through the hair he proclaimed our resurrection. For what seems in us to be dead body, that is, hair and nails, cut and cut again each day, yet again flourish, signifying the hope of resurrection.

And there are countless things to say for the assurance of the unbelievers from examples. But the ringdove, the bird, and the dormouse, the animal, have not persuaded them. For that creature dies for six months, and the ringdove for forty days, and again after their seasons they revive. And dung beetles, when about to die, hide themselves in a ball of dung, burying that ball in the earth and covering it, and thus from their own moisture they are found again, reviving from their own remains. But concerning the phoenix, the Arabian bird, it is superfluous for me to speak. For it has already come to the hearing of many, both believers and unbelievers. And the account concerning it appears as follows: when it has completed five hundred years, if it perceives that the time of its death has come, it makes a pyre of spices and, carrying it, comes to the city of the Egyptians called Heliopolis, which is interpreted as On from the Egyptian and Hebrew language, and with its own wings it beats its own breast many times, and producing fire from its body, it ignites the material placed in the place, and thus it cremates itself, and all its flesh together with its bones is reduced to ash. But by divine economy a cloud is sent and rains and extinguishes the flame that consumed the body of the bird, the bird being already dead and thoroughly roasted.

When the flame was extinguished, remnants of his flesh still raw remain, and after vanishing for a single day, they generate a worm; the worm grows wings, becoming a fledgling, and on the third day it matures, and having matured, it reveals itself to those who serve the place, and again runs up to its own homeland and rests. I am moved to wonder at the utterly deceived mind of the unbelieving Greeks and other barbarians, how in their myths they are not ashamed to signify resurrection entirely and often sing about resurrection, as their myths record: Alcestis, daughter of Pelias, who died for her husband Admetus and was raised by Heracles after three days and brought back from the innermost sanctuary; Pelops, son of Tantalus, after being butchered for their falsely named gods by his own father; Amphiaraus, son of Oicles, revived by Asclepius; Glaucus, son of Minos, revived by Polyidus, son of Coeranus, with some herb; Castor, through his brother Polydeuces, who willingly chose to exchange life with him day by day; and Protesilaus, through Laodameia. But also Sisyphus and Tantalus and the daughters of Caucasus, whom they have called Erinyes, and Teiresias along with them, are confined in Tartarus paying penalty there, the one under a rock, the other under a wheel, and others punished in various ways and still existing in punishment, as not having passed into non-existence, but existing in bodies. For if they did not have bodies, how would they be subjected to punishments under a rock and a wheel?

And there is much to say about these matters for the demonstration of the faith within us, and for refutation against them. But also those who come from the heresies sing things akin to these and in harmony with unbelief, in that some of the heretics, I mean the Manichaeans, say that there will be a resurrection not of the body but of the soul, and likewise the aforementioned Greeks think and concur in the same opinion, so that their argument is more foolish than one put forward from understanding. For if the heresies speak of resurrection and at all conceive of resurrection, but define this concerning souls, such a thing is foolish. For how will a soul rise that has not fallen? For we do not bury souls in the tombs, but bodies. For souls do not fall, but flesh does; as custom is wont to call dead bodies "fallings." Therefore, if resurrection is acknowledged by them, it is clear to everyone that it is not of the soul, but of the body that has fallen. But the Greeks are again refuted, who deny the whole of resurrection. For they bring to the tombs foods and drinks on the so-called public days, burning the edibles and pouring out the wines, benefiting the dead not at all but rather harming themselves. Nevertheless, they are compelled by custom to acknowledge the resurrection of the dead. For where the bodies of the deceased are placed, they come and address the buried dead by name, saying, "Arise, so-and-so, eat and drink and be merry.

If they suppose that souls remain there where the remains of the departed are buried, that is a good expectation concerning souls: for they remain until the coming day and the resurrection of regeneration, until they receive their composite and yoked bodies, even if the children of the Greeks abhor the flesh as being base and utterly annihilated and having no hope of revival. But if they do not do this in this manner, by what reasoning do they bind the better souls, of the substance of bodies, to tombs, rather enveloping them in condemnation by the supposition, defining that they attend the remains of the departed? Or on what expectation of hope do they come, let them say? But it is clear that they do not suppose the souls to be in tombs, but in some treasuries assigned by God to each soul, according to the worth of what they did and how they conducted themselves in life; but the bodies each person laid with his own hands in the repositories of bodies, that is, of bones, for his neighbor. It would be naive for there to be one single supposition and sequence of these matters among all, as if agreed upon from all sides, while among the unbelievers the opposite is the case: to deny the true things and for the things possible in God not to be confirmed in hopes among them.

But concerning these matters I consider enough to have been said, having set forth a few from among many examples. As for those who seem to be Christians but are persuaded by Origen, and who confess the resurrection of the dead—both of our flesh and of that holy body of the Lord taken from Mary—yet say that this flesh is not raised, but another is given in its place by God, how can we not say that they hold a more impious and foolish notion than that found among Greeks and the other heresies? For first, if another flesh is raised in place of this one according to their account, then God’s judgment is not just, according to their myth, judging another flesh instead of the one that sinned, or bringing another body into the glory of the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven instead of the body that labored in fasts, vigils, and persecutions for the name of God. And how will the soul be judged alone, according to the reasoning of the heresies, when the body that sinned together with it is not present? For such a soul will object to God’s judgment, claiming that the sins were committed by the body. For it has the proof, according to the argument of those driven by contentiousness and not by truth. For it can say: “I did not sin, but the body did. For ever since I left the body, I have neither fornicated nor committed adultery, nor stolen, nor murdered, nor worshipped idols, nor done any of the evil and irremediable things.” And its defense will be found reasonable. And if it defends itself reasonably, what shall we say? Is God’s judgment then idle? But “does God unjustly bring wrath upon men? Let it not be so.

We know that “all things are possible for God,” and he is able to bear a body without a soul, and he can make the bodies that have become invisible live again and move of themselves without souls, if he wishes, just as he already performed such an economy through the most holy Ezekiel. For he said to the holy prophet, “Say, son of man, that bone be gathered to bone and joint to joint”; and one could marvel at the power of God, because, although the souls had not yet been inserted, but the bones were dry, they not only received the power of motion at God’s command, but the bones were also filled with understanding and with no ordinary knowledge. For the bones near the feet did not wander in forgetfulness toward the parts of the head, nor did the vertebrae of the neck, straying about the joints of the ankles, seek their place, but each of the bones both moved and walked with understanding and was added to its own joint. If, then, God wishes, he can also raise a body without a soul. For in this he showed his power, in that he first made that which is despaired of by men come to life again through his command to Ezekiel. And he did not say, “Say, son of man, first let the spirit come,” but after smoothing over the difficulty through the

faith—I mean the gathering of the bodies—then he commanded the souls to enter into those bodies: “and a great assembly arose,” it says. Therefore I said that God is able to make even a body without a soul live again, as has been shown previously, but the body cannot be judged by itself. For it has a just defense before God’s judgment. For it also speaks, saying: the sin was from that soul; I was not the cause. For from the time I was dissolved and it departed from me, did I commit adultery, did I fornicate, did I steal, did I worship idols, did I do any such misdeed? And according to the argument of the contentious, God’s judgment would be ineffectual. For this reason, just as the body and the soul were compounded into one human being created by God, so again the just judge raises the body and gives its soul into it. And thus God’s judgment will be just, with both sharing either in the punishment for sin or in the reward for piety and the future recompense to be given to the saints. Considering these things sufficient for demonstrating the truth of our hope, we have set forth a few in place of many. But for those who say that another body is raised instead of the one that falls, we again add to our labor, wishing to benefit those who want to understand and not to try to lose their own life.

For it would be that we, the least and most insignificant, might labor and benefit ourselves and all, and not deny the resurrection of our flesh, in which all the treasure and foundation of every sound reasoning and the hope of every good work lies, according to what is said: “having this treasure in earthen vessels” and so forth. For we, the weak, practice self-control; we, the humble, practice chastity; we, the powerless, desire to do alms because of the anticipated recovery, that is, the resurrection of the dead. And thus the rule of faith and hope, of love of God and of martyrdom for the name of God, has been established in persecutions, tortures, and other inhuman punishments among those who do not deny the resurrection of our flesh, but believe that what is sown in the earth will itself be raised. For the divine scriptures have given us two clear and true testimonies, by which we are able to know the hope of our resurrection and not be led astray by the myths of vainglorious men who have been deceived and have written deception for life. So that I may not use many testimonies—for they are not few in the New and Old Testaments concerning our hope and resurrection—I will say this briefly: that if it were something else that is raised, as some claim, the apostle would not have affirmed, saying, “For this perishable thing must put on imperishability, and the mortal must put on immortality.

Since it is necessary also that we be established in hope concerning the glory of the saints, how they are to be brightened and altered in glory after the resurrection, just as it says "he rises in glory," holy scripture says, "Fool, what you sow is not brought to life unless it dies; and you do not sow the body that will come to be, but, for example, a grain of wheat or some other seed, and God gives it a body as he wished." This it said for the glory of those who rise in radiance; but to show that the grain itself receives the glory, he who also "spoke in Paul" said in the Gospel concerning resurrection: "Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies," he says, "it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears many grains." So then the apostle spoke of a grain, and the Savior demonstrated the same grain of the body through himself. What then shall we say? Did the thing sown itself, that is, the grain, rise as its own body? Or was it something else that rose from it after the third day from the tomb? As

The angels say, "He has risen, he is not here," and as he says to Mary, "Do not touch me; I have not yet ascended to my father," and as he shows his hands and his side to Thomas, saying, "Do not be unbelieving, but believing." For it is characteristic of unbelievers to say that he did not rise at all, and it is characteristic of the ill-believing to say that it was not the same being that slept that rose, but it is characteristic of the faithful to say that the same body rose and that from the same body which he raised, he established our hope in truth.

For this reason he also left the marks of the nails, not erasing them nor the mark of the spear, although he entered through closed doors. For his fleshly body rose as spiritual, but not as something other than the existing one, but the existing one itself, united with divinity, adorned with the fineness of spirit. For if it were not for the fineness of spirit, what kind of opening would receive a bulky body? But in order to show that our corruptible body puts on incorruption in truth—for even if it is mortal, it puts on immortality—he entered through closed doors, to show that the coarse becomes fine and the mortal immortal and the corruptible incorruptible; and in order to refute all who disbelieve in our salvation, I mean the resurrection, he who transforms the body into fineness and blends the flesh with spirit after the resurrection did not erase the scars of the nails nor the mark of the spear, but showed that the very thing that suffered on the cross—that it was not something else that rose nor another thing that grew from it, but the same suffering thing became impassible and the same fallen grain rose, and rose incorruptible.

and so that we may not again suppose that some part of him was raised, * the whole itself did not see corruption, for it says, "You will not let your holy one see corruption," and the whole itself rose, for it says, "He has risen, he is not here." But if he was raised and is not here, he truly rose; and the scriptures, which are our life, are not in error. And so that the deceived may find no pretext, he showed bones and flesh to Thomas and said to his disciples, "See me, that I am I. For a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see me having."

But if someone sophistically says: But the body of our Savior was exceptional because it was conceived only from Mary and without the seed of a man, then was the body of Adam also different from ours, because it was taken only from the earth without the seed of a man? But no one can say this or prove it. And if someone again sophistically says: Only the body of Christ rose whole, but ours does not rise as itself, but another is substituted for it, how then does it say, "Christ rose as the firstfruits of the sleeping?" The body itself is one and the same * firstfruits of those who rise. But let them learn how Christ became the firstfruits of the sleeping, and let them not again turn to another error and suppose that the other scriptures lie. For before him he raised Lazarus and the son of the widow in Nain, and Elijah raised a dead man, and Elisha raised two dead men, one still living and one buried. But those, having risen, died again, and they await the one and universal resurrection.

But Christ is "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep," because having risen "he no longer dies, death no longer rules over him" according to what is written. For he died once, having endured the passion for our sake on account of our passions; he tasted death once, "death by crucifixion," willingly for us, the Word having come into death, so that by death he might put death to death; the Word become flesh, not suffering in his divinity, but suffering together with his humanity in impassibility, the passion being reckoned to him while he himself remains in impassibility; death being reckoned to him while he himself remains in immortality, or rather being wholly immortality. For he himself said, "I am the life." * Nor is our hope through the flesh. "Cursed," it says, "is he who hopes in a man. And he will be like the wild tamarisk."

What then shall we say? Is Christ not a man? From what has been said previously it is clear to everyone that we confess without doubt that the Lord God Word has become a man not in appearance but in truth. But he is not a man who came by way of advancement to divinity. For neither is our hope of salvation in a man; for none of all the men from Adam was able to work salvation, but the God Word become man, so that our hope might not be in a man, but in a living and true God, who became man. "For every priest taken from among men is appointed for men" according to what is written.

Therefore, the Lord, coming from our flesh, took up flesh and became a man like us, the God Word, so that in his divinity he might give us salvation and in his humanity he might suffer for us humans, having dissolved suffering through suffering and having killed death through his own death. The suffering was attributed to the divinity, although the divinity is impassible, the suffering being attributed to the divinity because the holy and impassible God Word, having come, so willed it. The example is something like this: as if someone were clothed in a garment, and blood sprinkled on the garment stains the garment, but the body of the one clothed is not reached, yet the stain from the blood is attributed to the one wearing the garment; thus Christ suffered in the flesh, in that very thing, I mean, the Lord's man, whom he formed into himself, having come from the heavens, the holy God Word himself. As the holy Peter says, "killed in flesh, but made alive in spirit," and again, "Christ, therefore, having suffered for us in flesh, you also arm yourselves with the same thought." Just as the blood in a garment is attributed to the wearer, the suffering of the flesh was attributed to him in divinity, though it suffered nothing, so that the world might not have hope in a man, but in the Lord's man, the divinity undertaking that the suffering be attributed to it, so that salvation from the impassible divinity might come for the world, so that the suffering that occurred in the flesh might be attributed to the divinity, although it suffered nothing, so that the scripture which says, "For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory," and so forth, might be fulfilled.

He was crucified, therefore; the Lord was crucified, and we worship the crucified one, the one who was buried and rose on the third day and ascended into the heavens. "O depth of wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God," according to what is written: "for we know in part and we prophesy in part," as if drawing a drop from an ocean of the knowledge of God and grasping an example of such an economy, the grace of our hope by the good will of the Father, the will of the Son, together with the will of the Holy Spirit, of the same economy of God. All the Scriptures contained the proclamation of the resurrection scattered here and there, but the perfection was reserved for the presence of the hypostatic Word himself. "For Christ is the fulfillment of the law," according to what is written. For where did the divine writing not speak about resurrection? First, the blood of Abel proclaims it; for after his death "it still speaks," as the Scripture says. "Enoch was translated and was not found and did not see death; for he pleased God." Noah built an ark by God's command, working out for himself a rebirth in his own house. Abraham, in his old age, receives

a child "of the body already dead" and from the dead God has granted hope, especially with "the womb of Sarah having been deadened" and "the thing grown old and near to vanishing," the dried-up spring of the customary female cycle, again receives power for the deposit of seed, and the aged woman conceives like a younger one. And Isaac, living, was delivered to his father from death; for God, handing over the child alive to his father from the dead, proclaimed the hope of resurrection. Jacob shows the import of the matter, not placing the hope of bones in second place; for he cared for such things not as if they were perishing, but as if they were going to live again, and he gave orders for them to be brought back from the land of the Egyptians not as a secondary matter. And Joseph signified this, saying "you will carry up my bones" and "for the Lord will visit you with oversight." If there were no hope of resurrection, what care would there be for bones, when the righteous give orders concerning bones that are subject to decay? The first utterance to Moses is the testimony of God: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob," of those who sleep in the world but are alive with me. One and the same Spirit spoke in the Law and teaches in the Gospel. For this the Savior also signified to the Sadducees: "the one speaking in the prophets—behold, I am present.

Let Aaron’s rod also demonstrate, being dry for perhaps many years and left in the tent from evening until dawn. For with toil, the living trees produce fruit through twelve months as the yearly cycle is completed, the sun warming, rains watering, dews spreading, and night and day nourishing; but in a single night God made the difficult easy. For the dry rod sprouted, put forth leaves, and produced ripe fruit. For God showed similar signs of the resurrection that was to come from him. In the conception of children according to the holy marriage that the Lord indicated, first the seed of the succession is deposited, as the Lord showed, in the generative wombs; as time rolls on, what is deposited in the womb is brought to completion over a nine-month period—I mean, the fetus is perfected and born after nine months in number. But in the resurrection it is not so; for the work is instantaneous. “For he will sound the trumpet, and the dead will rise incorruptible.” As the Lord showed in the tent of witness, that the nuts which in living trees are gestated over twelve months are covered in the dry wood and become shoots, and in a single night—not only that, but in an instant of one hour he brought to completion what is done over twelve months, as has been said; and likewise the infant formed in the womb over nine months, which is gathered and perfected over a long time, in the resurrection is completed in an instant and rises. Let the power of the Lord convince the unbelievers, for no one “resists his will.

Let Moses also listen and demonstrate. “What is in your hand?” says the Lord; and he said, “A rod.” And this rod was wooden, and certainly dry. And He says, “Cast it upon the ground. And he cast” the dry rod. And the dry thing God made moist, and not only moist, but also animate, and also altered in nature and differently formed in substance. The work was not a phantasm; for the truth of God works by command and not by illusion. For in all things He presented through Moses our mind being corrected toward the truth. For the prophet knew that what happened was not in appearance, but in truth, by the fact that it fled; for if he had known that what happened was an illusion, he would not have fled from the face of the serpent. But let this not again become a stumbling block to the contentious, and let them say that the rod was something else, “but God gave” it a different “body, as He wished.” And first, then, let them learn that He did not ensoul one thing instead of another, but He ensouled that very same rod which was dry; because this body given to the rod, and the kind or species moved by Him, God did not call to judgment, nor did He wish the serpent to judge instead of the rod, but He worked a confirmation of resurrection through the rod, and God demonstrated His own power, so that no one might disbelieve in His power in all things. And He did this with all security; for He did not raise a part of the rod, but transformed the whole rod as He wished.