Author: Athanasius of Alexandria
Date: c. AD 318
Related:
• Athanasius of Alexandria
Introduction
About AD 318, Athanasius, a deacon in Alexandria, wrote to answer the questions: Why did God the Word become man? What did he accomplish? Why is it impossible to ascribe these things to a created being?
This article is especially important because it was also in this decade that the Alexandrian presbyter Arius began teaching that “there was a time when the Son was not,” challenging the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
On the Incarnation of the Word
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In our last bookAthanasius’s treatise Against the Heathen, we dealt fully enough with a few points about the error of the nations regarding the worship of idols, and how those false fears originally arose. And by God’s grace, we briefly pointed out that the Word of the Father is Himself divine, and his providence and power in all things, that it is through him that the Father gives order to creation. By him all things live and move and have their being.Acts 17:28.
Now, MacariusGreek makarios means “blessed,” so Athanasius may have been writing to a man named Macarius or he may simply have meant, “O blessed one.” , true lover of Christ, let us take a step further in the faith of our religion, and consider also how the Word became Man and was divinely manifest in our midst.
The Jews slander that mystery and the Greeks mock it, but we venerate it. So that, even more because of his apparent degradation, you may have an even greater and fuller piety towards him. For it is a fact that the more unbelievers pour scorn on Him, so much the more does He make His Godhead evident. The things which they, as men, rule out as impossible, he plainly shows to be possible; and what they deride as unworthy, His goodness makes most fitting; and things which these wise men laugh at as merely human, by his own power he shows these to be divine. Thus by what looks like utter poverty and weakness on the cross, he overturns the pretense and parade of the idols, and quietly and hiddenly wins over the mockers and unbelievers to recognize him as God.
In dealing with these matters it is necessary first to recall what has already been said. You must understand why it is that the Word of the Father, so great and so high, has been made manifest in bodily form. He has not assumed a body as if it were proper to his own nature; rather, being by nature bodiless and existing as the Word, by the love for humankind and goodness of his own Father he appeared to us in a human body for our salvation.
So we will begin with the creation of the world and with God its Creator, for the first fact that you must grasp is this: The renewal of creation has been brought about by the Word who made it in the beginning. There is no contradiction if the Father accomplishes its salvation in the same One by whom he created it.
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There have been many different opinions about the making of the universe and the creation of all things. Each person has proposed the theory that seemed best to him.
Some, such as the Epicureans, say that all things came into being spontaneously and by chance. They deny that there is any Mind behind the universe. But this view is contrary to all experience, even to the fact of their own existence. For if all things had come into being spontaneously, as they claim, then everything would have come into being in the same way, without distinction or difference. In the universe, everything would be sun, or moon, or whatever else it happened to be, and in the human body the whole would be a hand or eye or foot.
But this is not what we see. The sun, the moon, and the earth are distinct from one another. Likewise, the human body has different members: the foot, the hand, the head, and so on. This ordered distinction shows that things did not arise spontaneously. Rather, it points to a Cause that existed before them. And from that Cause we may come to know God, the Designer and Maker of all.
Others hold the view taught by Plato, that great figure among the Greeks. He said that God made all things from uncreated matter that already existed, just as a carpenter makes things from wood that already exists. But those who say this do not realize that they are implying weakness in God. For it is certainly a limitation of the carpenter that he cannot make anything unless he first has wood.
How could God truly be called Maker and Creator if his power to make depended on something else, namely matter itself? If God merely worked upon matter that already existed, and did not himself bring matter into being, then he would not be the Creator but only a craftsman.
There is also the theory of the Gnostics, who have invented for themselves a maker of all things other than the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But in saying this, they are deeply blinded. For the Lord said to the Jews, “Have you not read that He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” Then, referring to the Creator, He adds, “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” Matthew 19:4-6.
How, then, can they claim that creation is independent of the Father? And again, Saint John makes no exception when he says, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made.” John 1:3. How, then, could there be another creator besides the Father of Christ?
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Such are the notions which men put forward. But the inspired teaching and faith according to Christ casts out their vain talk as godlessness. From it we know that, because there is Mind behind the universe, it did not originate itself; because God is infinite, not finite, creation was not made from pre-existent matter, but out of absolute and utter nothing, and out of non-existence, God brought it into being through the Word.
He says as much in Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,”Genesis 1:1. and again through that most helpful book The Shepherd, “First of all, believe that there is one God who created and finished all things, and made all things out of nothing.”Shepherd of Hermas 2:1. Paul also indicates the same thing when he says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”Hebrews 11:3.
For God is good, or rather, he is the fountainhead of all goodness, and one who is good grudges nothing, so that grudging nothing its existence, he made all things through his own Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. Among all these his earthly creatures he had mercy especially on the human race.
And seeing that, because of the way humanity came into being, it could not endure eternally, he granted a grace which other creatures lacked: He made man in his own image, giving them a share in the power of his own Word; so that, reflecting him and expressing the Mind of God even as he does, they might be able to abide in blessedness, living the true life which is really that of the holy ones in paradise.
But since the will of man could turn either way, God secured this grace that he had given by making it conditional from the first upon two things – namely, a law and a place. He brought them into his own paradise, and gave them a law. If they guarded the grace and retained the loveliness of their original innocence, then the life of paradise should be theirs, without sorrow, pain or care, besides having the promise of their incorruptibility in heaven. But if they transgressed and became evil, they would know that they were incurring that corruption in death according to nature, and no longer live in paradise, but thereafter dying outside of it, would remain in death and in corruption.
This is what holy scripture foretells, proclaiming the command of God, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”Genesis 2:16–18. This “You shall surely die” – what else might it be except not merely to die, but to remain in the corruption of death?
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You may be wondering why we are discussing the origin of men when we set out to talk about the Incarnation of the Word. But this also properly belongs to the aim of our writing.
For speaking of the manifestation of the Savior to us, it is necessary also to speak of the origin of human beings, so that you may know that it was our own cause that caused the Word to come down, our transgression that called out his love for us, so that the Lord both came to us and appeared among human beings.
It is we who were the purpose of his embodiment, and for our salvation he so loved us as to born and manifested in a human body. For this is how God had made man, and had willed that man should remain in incorruption.
But when humans turned from the contemplation of God to evil of their own devising, they came inevitably under the law of death. Instead of remaining in the state in which God had created them, they were in process of becoming corrupted entirely, and death had them completely under its dominion. For the transgression of the commandment was making them turn back again according to their nature; and as at the beginning they had come into being out of non-existence, so now they were on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again.
Humankind, whose nature once did not exist, had been called into being by the presence and love of the Word. Inevitably, therefore when they lost the knowledge of God, they lost existence with it. For it is God alone who is; evil is non-being, the good is being, since it has come into being from the existing God.
By nature, of course, man is mortal, since he was made from nothing; but he bears also the likeness of the One Who Is, and if he preserves that likeness through constant contemplation, then his nature is deprived of its power and he remains incorrupt, as Wisdom says: “The keeping of his laws is the assurance of incorruption.”Wisdom 6:18. And being incorrupt, man would be henceforth as God, as holy scripture says, “I said you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High; but you die like men and fall like any prince.”Psalm 81:6-7.
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God had not only made us out of nothing, but had also granted life according to God, by the grace of the Word. But men, turning from eternal things to things corruptible, by counsel of the devil, had themselves become the cause of corruption in death. For, as we said before, though they were by nature subject to corruption, the grace of their participation in the Word granted them to escape from the natural law, had they remained good.
Because of the Word present in them, even natural corruption did not come near them, just as Wisdom says, “God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity, but through the devil’s envy death entered the world.”Wisdom 2:23-24.
When this happened, humans began to die, and corruption prevailed among them and held sway over them to an even more than natural degree, because it was the penalty of which God had forewarned them for transgressing the commandment. For even in their transgressions, for, having invented wickedness in the beginning and so involved themselves in death and corruption, they had gone on gradually from bad to worse, not stopping at any one kind of evil, but continually, as with insatiable appetite, devising new kinds of sins.
Adulteries and thefts were everywhere, murder and plunder filled the earth, law was disregarded in corruption and injustice, all kinds of iniquities were carried out by all, both individually and jointly. Cities warred against cities, and nations rose up against nations, and the whole earth was torn apart with factions and battles, while each strove to outdo the other in wickedness. Even acts contrary to nature were not far from them, but as the martyr and apostle of Christ says: “Their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving natural relations with the woman, were consumed in their lust for one another, men committing shameful acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.”Romans 1:26-27
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For these reasons, then, because death and corruption were gaining ever firmer hold on them, the human race was perishing. Man, who was created rationalRational in the original is logikos, from logos, meaning word or reason. Athanasius will continue to emphasize this connection between the race of man, created rational in the image of God, and Christ himself, the Word of God. and in God’s image was disappearing, and the work of God was being undone. For by the law, death, which followed from the transgression, prevailed against us, and from the law there was no escape, for it had been established by God because of the transgression.
The thing that was happening was in truth both monstrous and unfitting. It would, of course, have been unthinkable that God should go back upon His word and that man, having transgressed, should not die; but it was equally monstrous that beings which once had shared the nature of the Word should perish and turn back again into non-existence through corruption.
It was unworthy of the goodness of God that who had been made rational and partakers of the Word should perish, and once again return to non-being through corruption. And it was unworthy of the goodness of God that those created by him should be corrupted through the deceit wrought by the devil upon men; and it was especially improper that the workmanship of God in human beings should be done away, either through their own negligence or through the deceit of the demons.
So, as the rational creatures were being corrupted and such works were perishing, what then was God, being good, to do? Was He to let corruption and death have their way with them? In that case, what was the use of having made them in the beginning? Surely it would have been better never to have been created at all than, having been created, to be neglected and perish; and, besides that, such indifference to the ruin of His own work before His very eyes would argue not goodness in God but limitation – and that far more than if He had never created man at all. It was impossible, therefore, that God should leave man to be carried off by corruption, because it would be unfitting and unworthy of the goodness of God.
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Yet, while this is true, it is not the whole matter. As we have already noted, it was unthinkable that God, the Father of Truth, should go back upon His word regarding death in order to ensure our continued existence. He could not falsify Himself; what, then, was God to do? Was He to demand repentance from men for their transgression? You might say that that was worthy of God, and argue further that, just as through the transgression they became subject to corruption, so through repentance they might return to incorruption again. But repentance would not guard the consistency of God. For he again would not have remained true if human beings were not held fast by death, for repentance does not recall men from what is natural; all that it does is to make them cease from sinning. If it were only a case of an offence, and not of a subsequent corruption, then repentance would have been well enough; but once transgression had begun, men came under the power of natural corruption, and were deprived of the grace of being in the image of God.
No, repentance could not meet the case. What – or rather Who was needed for such grace and such recalling as we required? Who, but the Word of God himself, who also in the beginning had made all things out of nothing? It was his once more to bring the corruptible to incorruptibility and to maintain for the Father his consistency of character above all. For he alone, being the Word of the Father and above all, was as a result both able to recreate everything, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador for all with the Father.
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For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God entered our world. In one sense, indeed, he was not far from it before, for no part of creation had ever been without him who, while ever abiding in union with the Father, yet fills all things in every place. But now he entered the world in a new way, condescending to us in his love and manifestation to us.
He saw the rational race wasting out of existence, and death reigning over them through corruption. He saw that corruption held us all the closer, because it was the penalty for the transgression. And he saw how unthinkable it would be for the law to be dissolved before it was fulfilled. He saw how unseemly it was that the very things of which he himself was the Creator should be disappearing. And seeing how the surpassing wickedness of men was mounting up against them, he saw also their universal liability to death.
All this He saw and had mercy on our race, moved with compassion for our limitation, unable to endure that death should have the mastery, rather than let his creatures perish and the work of his Father for mankind should be in vain, he took for himself a body, a human body no different from our own. Nor did he will merely to become embodied or merely to appear; had that been so, he could have revealed his divine majesty in some other and better way. No, he took our body – and not only so, but directly from a spotless, stainless virgin, without the agency of human father, a pure body, unmixed from intercourse with man.
The Mighty One, the Creator of all, prepared this body in the virgin as a temple for himself, and made it his own, as the instrument, making himself known and dwelling in it. Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, he surrendered his body to death on behalf of all, and offered it to the Father.
This He did out of love for us, so that in his death all might die, and the law of death thereby be undone because – having in his body fulfilled that for which it was appointed – it was thereafter voided of its power against men. He did this so that as human beings had turned towards corruption he might turn them again to incorruptibility and give them life from death by making the body his own, and by the grace of His resurrection banishing death from them as straw from the fire.
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The Word perceived that corruption could not be got rid of otherwise than through death; yet he himself, as the Word, being immortal and as the Son of the Father, was not able to die. For this reason, therefore, he assumed a body capable of death, in order that it, through participating in the Word who is above all, might be sufficient for death on behalf of all; and, remaining incorruptible through his indwelling, it might thereafter put an end to corruption for all others as well, by the grace of the resurrection.
It was by surrendering to death the body he had taken, as an offering holy and free from spot, that he immediately abolished death for all who were like him, by offering the like. For since the Word of God was above all, when he offered his own temple and bodily instrument as a substitute for the life of all, he fulfilled in death all that was required. Naturally also, through this union of the immortal Son of God with our human nature, we were all clothed with incorruptibility in the promise of the resurrection.
For the solidarity of mankind is such that, by virtue of the Word’s indwelling in a single human body, the corruption which goes with death has lost its power over all. Just as when a great king enters a large city and dwells in one of its houses; because of his dwelling in that single house, the whole city is honored, and enemies and robbers cease to descend on it. Even so is it with the King of all; he has come into our country and dwelt in one body like the others, and so the designs of the enemy against mankind have been foiled, and the corruption of death, which formerly held them in its power, has perished. For the human race would have been utterly dissolved had not the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, come among us to put an end to death.
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In truth this great work was supremely worthy of the goodness of God. For if a king founded a house or a city, and it is attacked by bandits because of the carelessness of its inhabitants, he in no way abandons it, but avenges it and reclaims it as his own work, having regard not to the people’s neglect but rather to his own honor. Much more, then, God the Word of the all-good Father did not neglect the human race that he had created, when it was going to corruption; but rather he blotted out the death which had occurred through the offering of his own body, and corrected their carelessness by his own teaching. In this way he restored the whole nature of man by his own power.
One may be convinced of these things by the theologians of the Savior himself, who have said, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” from the dead, our Lord Jesus Christ.”2 Corinthians 5:14–15 And again another says: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.”Hebrews 2:9. The same writer goes on to point out why it was necessary for none other than God the Word to become incarnate: “For it became Him, for Whom are all things and through Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering.”Hebrews 2:10.
He means that bringing mankind back from corruption belonged only to him who made them in the beginning. He points out also that the Word assumed a human body, expressly in order that he might offer it in sacrifice for other bodies like his own: “Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself assumed the same, in order that through death He might bring to nought Him that hath the power of death, that is to say, the Devil, and might rescue those who all their lives were enslaved by the fear of death.”Hebrews 2:14-16.
For by the sacrifice of his own body he did two things: He put an end to the law of death which was against us; and he made a new beginning of life for us, by giving us the hope of resurrection.
For since by man death seized power over men; so by the Word made Man death has been destroyed and life raised up anew. That is what Paul says, that true servant of Christ: “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. Just as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,”1 Corinthians 15:21-22 and that which follows.
Now, therefore, when we die, we no longer do so as men condemned to death, but as those who will arise; we await the common resurrection of all, which God, who brought this about and granted it to us, “in his own time will reveal.”1 Timothy 6:15; Titus 1:3.
This, therefore, is the first cause of the Savior’s becoming Man. But there are other reasons that show how wholly fitting is his gracious coming into our midst; and these we must now go on to consider.
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When God, who has the power over all things. was making mankind through his own Word, he saw the weakness of their nature, that it was not sufficient of itself to know its Maker, nor to get any idea at all of God. He took pity on them, therefore, and did not leave them destitute of the knowledge of himself, lest their very existence should prove purposeless.
For he is uncreated whereas they had come into being from nothing, and as he is incorporeal whereas human beings had been fashioned here below with a body; and because in every way the things made fell far short of understanding and knowing their Maker, he had mercy on the human race. Because he is good, he did not leave them deprived of the knowledge of himself, lest they should find no profit in existing at all.
For of what use is existence to the ones who were made if they could not know their Maker? How could men be reasonable beings if they had no knowledge of the Word and Reason of the Father, through whom they came to be? Mankind would not have differed at all from the irrational animals if they had knowledge of nothing but earthly things.
And why would God have made them at all if he did not wish to be known by them?
But, in fact, the good God has given them a share in his own Image, that is, in our Lord Jesus Christ, and has made them after the same image and likeness. Why So that, understanding through such grace the image – the Word of the Father – through him they might be able to receive a notion of the Father; and through Him to apprehend the Father; and knowing their Maker they might live the only happy and truly blessed life.
But, as we have already seen, men became foolish, and thought nothing of the grace they had received, and turned away from God. They darkened their own soul so completely that they not only lost the idea of God, but invented for themselves other gods of various kinds. They fashioned idols for themselves in place of the truth, and honored things that are not, rather than God who is, as St. Paul says, “worshipping the creature rather than the Creator.”Romans 1:25.
But worst of all, they transferred the honor which is due to God to wood and stones and to every material object, and even to human beings; and went even further, as we said in our former book. Indeed, they were so darkened that they worshipped demons as gods in fulfilling their own lusts. They sacrificed irrational animals and offered human sacrifices as these gods demanded, and in this way brought themselves more and more under their insane control. Magic arts were taught among them, oracles in various places led men astray, and the cause of everything in human life was traced to the stars as though nothing existed but what can be seen.
Impiety and lawlessness were everywhere, and neither God nor his Word were known. Yet he had not hidden himself from the sight of men nor given the knowledge of himself in only one way; but rather he had unfolded it in many forms and by many ways.
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The grace of being made in the image of God was sufficient to know the Word, and through him the Father. But as a safeguard against their neglect of this grace, he provided the works of creation so that they might not be ignorant of the Creator.
But since men’s carelessness descended gradually to lower and lower things, God made provision by giving them a law, and by sending prophets, men whom they knew. So that if they were not ready to look up to heaven, they might still gain knowledge of their Maker from those close at hand. For men can learn directly about higher things from other men.
Three ways thus lay open to them, by which they might obtain the knowledge of God. They could look up into the immensity of heaven, and by pondering the harmony of creation come to know its Ruler, the Word of the Father, whose providence for all things makes the Father known to all. Or, if they were not ready for this, they could converse with holy men, and through them learn to know God, the Creator of all things, the Father of Christ, and recognize that the worship of idols is godlessness and full of all impiety. Or else, in the third place, they could cease from lawlessness and lead a good life merely by knowing the law. For the law was not given only for the Jews, nor was it solely for their sake that God sent the prophets, though it was to the Jews that they were sent and by the Jews that they were persecuted. The law and the prophets were a sacred school of the knowledge of God and the conduct of the spiritual life for the whole world.
So great, indeed, were the goodness and the love of God. Yet men, bowed down by the pleasures of the moment and by the frauds and illusions of the demons, did not lift up their eyes towards the truth, but sated themselves with evils and sins so that they seemed to be irrational animals, not reasonable men reflecting the likeness of the Word.
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What was God to do, then, in face of this dehumanizing of mankind, this universal hiding of the knowledge of himself by the wiles of evil spirits? Keep silence before so great a wrong and let men go on being deceived and kept in ignorance of himself? If so, what was the point of having made them in his own image in the beginning? Then it would have been better for them always to have been brutes, rather than to be made in the image of the Word and then to live like animals.
What was the use of man’s ever having had the knowledge of God? Surely it would have been better for God never to have bestowed it, than that men should subsequently be found unworthy to receive it.
And what possible profit could it be to the God who made men, if when made they did not worship him, but regarded others as their makers? He would be found to have made them for others and not for himself. Even an earthly king, though he is only a man, does not allow lands that he possesses to pass into other hands or to go over to other rulers, but he sends letters and friends and even visits them himself to recall them to their allegiance, rather than allow His work to be undone. How much more, then, will God be patient and painstaking with his creatures, that they be not led astray from him to the service of things that do not exist? Especially when such error means for them the cause of their ruin and undoing, and because it is not right that those who had once shared his image should perish.
What then was God to do? What else could he possibly do, being God, but renew his image in mankind, so that through it men might once more come to know him? And how could this be done save by the coming of the very image himself, our Savior Jesus Christ? Men could not have done it, for they are only made “in the image,”Genesis 1:26. nor could angels have done it, for they are not even images of God. The Word of God came himself, because he alone, the image of the FatherColossians 1:15., could recreate man made after the image.
But in order to effect this re-creation, first he had to do away with death and corruption. So he rightly assumed a human body, so that in it death might once for all be destroyed, and that men be renewed again according to the image. Only the image of the Father was sufficient for this need.
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You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through stains from outside. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait must come again, and then the likeness is repainted on the same material. Even so the all-holy Son of God, the image of the Father, came and dwelt in our midst, to renew mankind made according to himself, and seek out his lost sheep, even as he says in the Gospel: “I came to seek and to save that which was lost.”Luke 19:10. This also explains his saying to the Jews: “Except a man be born anew.”John 3:5. He was not referring to a man’s natural birth from his mother, as they thought, but to the re-birth and re-creation of the soul in the image of God.
But when the madness of idolatry and godlessness filled the world and the knowledge of God was hidden, whose part was it to teach the world about the Father? A man, one might say? But a man cannot traverse the whole world, nor would their words carry sufficient weight if they did; nor were they able by themselves to withstand the deceit and illusion of the demons. For since even the best of men were confused and blinded by the deceit and illusion of demons, how could they convert the souls and minds of others? You cannot put straight in others what is warped in yourself.
But perhaps you will say, then, that creation was enough to teach men about the Father. But if that had been so, such great evils would never have occurred. For there was creation already, but it did not prevent men from wallowing in error.
Again, it was God the Word, who sees both soul and mind, who moves everything in creation, who alone could meet the needs of the situation. He alone, whose ordering of the universe reveals the Father, could renew the same teaching.
But how could it be done? Perhaps by the same means as before, through the works of creation. But this was no longer a sure means. Quite the contrary; for men had already missed seeing this before, and had turned their eyes no longer upward but downward.
So, rightly wishing to do good to men, he sojourned here as a man, taking to himself a body like theirs; and through his actions done in that body, on their own level, he taught those who would not learn by other means to know himself, the Word of God, and through him the Father.
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He deals with them as a good teacher with his pupils, coming down to their level and using simple means, as Paul says: “Because in the wisdom of God the world in its wisdom knew not God, God thought fit through the simplicity of the news proclaimed to save those who believe.”1 Corinthians 1:21.
Men had turned from the contemplation of God above, and were looking for him in the opposite direction, down among created things and things of sense. The Savior of us all, the Word of God, in His great love took to himself a body and moved as Man among men, meeting their senses, so to speak, halfway. He became himself an object for the senses, so that those who were seeking God in sensible things might apprehend the Father through the works which he, the Word of God, did in the body. Human and human-minded as men were, therefore, to whichever side they looked in the sensible world they found themselves taught the truth. Were they awe-struck by creation? They beheld creation confessing Christ as Lord. Did their minds tend to regard men as gods? The uniqueness of the Savior’s works marked him, alone of men, as Son of God. Were they drawn to demons? They saw the demons driven out by the Lord and learned that the Word of God alone was God, and that the evil spirits were not gods at all. Were they inclined to hero-worship and the cult of the dead? Then the fact that the Savior had risen from the dead showed them how false these other deities were, and that the Word of the Father is the one true Lord, the Lord even of death.
This is the reason he both born and manifested as Man, for this he died and rose – eclipsing all other human works by his own works and recalling men from all the paths of error to know the Father. As he says himself, “I came to seek and to save that which was lost.”Luke 19:10
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When the minds of men had descended to the level of perceptible things, then the Word submitted to appear in a body, so that, as a Man, he might center their senses on himself, and convince them through his human acts that he is not only a Man but God, the Word and Wisdom of the true God.
This is what Paul tells us when he says: “That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and height and depth, and to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge, so that ye may be filled unto all the fullness of God.”Ephesians 3:17-19.
For the Word revealed himself everywhere – above, in creation; below, in the incarnation; in the depth, in hades; in the breadth, throughout the world. All things have been filled with the knowledge of God.Cf. Habakkuk 2:14.
For this reason he did not offer the sacrifice on behalf of all immediately when he appeared. For if he had surrendered his body to death and then raised it again at once, we would have seen nothing of him. Instead of that, he stayed in his body and let himself be seen in it, doing acts and giving signs that showed him to be not only a man, but God the Word.
There were thus two things which the Savior did for us by becoming man. He banished death from us and renewed us; and, though he was invisible and imperceptible, he became visible through his works and revealed himself as the Word of the Father, the Ruler and King of the universe.
17
The Word was not enclosed in his body, nor did his presence in the body prevent his being present elsewhere as well. When he moved his body he did not cease also to direct the universe by his providence. Rather, the marvelous truth is that, being the Word, he was not contained by anything, but rather himself contained all things.
In creation he is present everywhere. He is in essence outside everything but fills all things by his own power, ordering, directing, giving life to all, containing all yet not being contained, being wholly, in every respect, in his Father alone. So also, being in a human body, to which he himself gives life, he is the Source of life to all the universe, present in every part of it, yet outside the whole; and he is revealed both through the works of His body and through his activity in the world.
It is, indeed, the function of soul to behold things that are outside the body through thought, but it cannot affect or move things at a distance. A man cannot transport things from one place to another, for instance, merely by thinking about them; nor can you or I move the sun and the stars just by sitting at home and looking at them.
But for the Word of God in his human nature, it was otherwise. His body was not a limitation for him, but an instrument, so that he was both in it and in all things, and outside all things, resting in the Father alone. And the wonderful thing is that at one and the same time, as Man he was living a human life, and as the Word he was sustaining the life of the universe, and as the Son he was in constant union with the Father.
So that not even his birth from a virgin changed him in any way, nor was he defiled by being in the body – rather, he made the body holy by being in it. For his being in everything does not mean that he shares the nature of everything, only that he gives all things their being and sustains them in it. Just as the sun is not polluted by the contact of its rays with earthly objects, but rather enlightens and purifies them, so much more the all-holy Word of God, the Lord who made the sun, is not polluted by being made known in a body. Rather, the body is cleansed and quickened by the indwelling of the incorruptible One, “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.”Cf. 1 Peter 2:22; Isaiah 53:9.
18
You must understand, therefore, that when writers on this matter speak of him as eating and drinking and being born, they mean that the body, as a body, was born and sustained with the food proper to its nature; even as God the Word, present in the body yet arranging all things, made known through the works wrought in the body that he was not himself a human being but God the Word. Those acts are rightly said to be His acts, because the body which did them did indeed belong to him and no one else; and it was right for these things to be said of him as a man, to show that his body was a real one and not merely an appearance. From such ordinary acts as being born and taking food, he was recognized as being actually present in the body; but by the extraordinary acts which he did through the body, he proved himself to be the Son of God. This is why he said to the unbelieving Jews: “If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not; but if I do, even if ye believe not Me, believe My works, that ye may know that the Father is in Me and I in the Father.”John 10:37–38.
Though he is invisible, he is known from the works of creation. So also, when his Godhead is veiled in human nature, His bodily acts still declare him to be not man only, but the Power and Word of God.
To speak authoritatively to evil spirits, for example, and to drive them out, is not a human act but a divine one; and who could see him curing all the diseases to which mankind is prone, and still think he is human and not God? He cleansed lepers, he made the lame to walk, he opened the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind; there was no sickness or weakness that he did not drive away. Even the most casual observer can see that these were acts of God. The healing of the man born blind, for instance: Who but the Father and Maker of man, could thus have restored the faculty denied at birthLiterally, at genesis. unless he is himself the Lord of creation?Literally, Lord of genesis.
Therefore, when he came down to us in the beginning, he fashioned for himself a body from the Virgin, in order to provide to all no small proof of his divinity, since he who made the body was the maker of everything else as well. And who, seeing this body coming forth from a Virgin alone without man, would not think that he who is revealed in this body is the Maker and Lord of other bodies also?
Again, consider the miracle at Cana. Would not anyone who saw the substance of water turned into wine understand that he who did it was the Lord and Maker of the water that he changed? It was for the same reason that he walked on the sea as on dry land – to prove to all who saw that he had mastery over all. And the feeding of the multitude, when he made little into much, so that from five loaves five thousand mouths were filled – did that not prove him none other than the very Lord whose providence is over all?
19
All these things the Savior thought fit to do, so that, recognizing his bodily acts as works of God, men who were blind to his presence in creation might regain knowledge of the Father. For, as I said before, who, seeing his authority over demons and their response to it, could doubt that he was, indeed, the Son, the Wisdom and the Power of God?
He made even the creation itself break silence, in that in his death, most wonderfully, before the cross, that monument of victory, all creation confessed with one voice that he who was revealed and suffered in the body was not merely a man but Son of God and Savior of all. The sun veiled its face, the earth quaked, the mountains were rent asunder, all men were struck with awe. These things showed that Christ on the cross was God, and that all creation was his servant and was bearing witness by its fear to its Master’s presence. In this way, then, God the Word revealed himself to men through his works.
We must next consider the end of his earthly life and the nature of his bodily death, especially since this is the very center of our faith, and everywhere you hear men speak of it. And by it, too, no less than by his other acts, Christ is revealed as God and Son of God.
20
We have dealt as far as circumstances and our own understanding permit with the reason for his manifestation in the body. We have seen that to change the corruptible to incorruption was proper to none other than the Savior himself, who in the beginning made all things out of nothing; that only the Image of the Father could re-create the likeness of the Image in men, that none save our Lord Jesus Christ could give immortality to mortals, and that only the Word who orders all things and is alone the Father’s true and only-begotten Son could teach men about him and abolish the worship of idols.
But beyond all this, there was a debt owing which needed to be paid; for, as I said before, all men were due to die. Here, then, is the second reason why the Word dwelt among us: So that having proved his divinity by his works, he might offer the sacrifice on behalf of all, surrendering his own temple to death in place of all, to settle man’s account with death and free him from the primal transgression. In this act he showed himself mightier than death, displaying his own body as incorruptible, the first-fruits of the resurrection of all.
You must not be surprised if we repeat ourselves in dealing with this subject. We are speaking of the good pleasure of God and of the things which he in his loving wisdom thought fit to do, and it is better to put the same thing in several ways than to run the risk of leaving something out.
Therefore the body of the Word, being a real human body, in spite of its having been uniquely formed from a virgin, was mortal and, like other bodies it was liable to death. Yet by the coming of the Word into it, it was no longer corruptible by its own nature, but because of the indwelling Word of God, corruption could not touch it. Thus it happened that two opposite marvels took place at once: the death of all was consummated in the Lord’s body; yet, because the Word was in it, death and corruption were in the same act utterly abolished. Death there had to be, and death for all, so that the due of all might be paid. Therefore, as I said, the Word, since he was immortal, assumed a mortal body so that he might offer it as his own in place of all, and suffering for the sake of all through his union with it, “he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage”Hebrews 2:14-15.
21
Now that the common Savior of all has died on our behalf, we who believe in Christ no longer die as before, according to the threat of the law. That condemnation has come to an end. But now, corruption has been destroyed by the grace of the resurrection, and henceforth according to the mortality of the body we are dissolved only for the time which God has set for each, “that we may obtain thereby a better resurrection.”Hebrews 11:35. Like seeds cast into the earth, we do not perish in our dissolution, but like them we shall rise again, death having been destroyed by the grace of the Savior. That is why blessed Paul, who became a guarantor of the resurrection to all, says: “This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality; but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?’”1 Corinthians 15:53–55.
“Well then,” some people may say, “if the essential thing was that he should surrender his body to death in place of all, why did he not do so as a man privately, instead of going so far as to be crucified? For it would have been more fitting for him to have laid aside his body with honor than to endure such a shameful death. But look at this argument closely, and see how merely human it is, whereas what the Savior did was truly divine and worthy of his divinity for several reasons. First, the death of men under ordinary circumstances is the result of the weakness of their nature. They are essentially impermanent, so after a time they fall ill, and when worn out they die. But the Lord is not weak; he is the Power of God, the Word of God and the very Life himself.
If He had died quietly in his bed like other men it would have looked as if he did so in accordance with nature, and as though he were indeed no more than other men. But because he was himself Word and Life and Power, his body was made strong; and because the death had to be accomplished, he took the occasion to complete the sacrifice, not from himself but from others. For it was not fitting either that the Lord should fall ill, who healed the sicknesses of others; nor again for that body to lose its strength, in which he strengthened to the weaknesses of others also. Here, again, you may say, why then did he not prevent death, as he did sickness? Because it was precisely in order to be able to die that he had taken a body, and to prevent the death would have been to impede the resurrection. And it was equally unfitting for sickness to precede his death, lest it should be thought weakness on the part of him who was in the body. Did he not hunger, then? Yes, he hungered, because that was the property of the body, but he did not die of hunger because he whose body hungered was the Lord. Therefore though he died for the ransom of all, “he did not see corruption”Cf. Acts 2:31; 13:35; Psalm 15:10. but his body rose in perfect soundness, for it belonged to none other than the Life himself.
22
One might say, that it would have been better for the Lord to have avoided the designs of the Jews against him, to preserve his body from death altogether. But see how unfitting this also would have been for him. For it would not have been fitting for the Word and the Life to inflict death Himself on His own body, so also it was suitable to flee a death inflicted by others. Rather, he pursued it to the uttermost, and in pursuance of his nature neither laid aside his body of his own accord nor escaped the plotting of the Jews. This action showed no limitation or weakness in the Word; for he both waited for death in order to make an end of it, and hastened to complete it for the salvation of all. In addition, since it was not his own death that the Savior came to complete, but that of all mankind, he did not lay aside His body by a death of his own, for he had none, being the Life; but he accepted death at the hands of men, thereby completely to destroy it in his own body.
Again, from the following also one might understand the Lord’s body meeting this end. The supreme object of his coming was to bring about the resurrection of the body. The Lord was especially concerned for the resurrection of the body which he was set to accomplish. For he was about to show the incorruption of his own body to all as a monument of victory over death and the blotting out of corruption, a pledge of the future resurrection.
If his body had fallen sick, and the Word had been separated from it in the sight of all, how unbecoming that he who healed the diseases of others should permit his own instrument to waste in illness! How would his miracles of healing be believed, if this were so? People would either laugh at him as unable to drive out disease or else consider him lacking in proper human feeling because he could do so, but did not.
23
But if, without any illness, he had just concealed his body somewhere privately, “in a corner,”Acts 26:26. and then suddenly reappeared and said that he had risen from the dead. he would have been regarded merely as a teller of tales; and because there was no witness of his death, nobody would believe his resurrection. Death must precede resurrection, for there could be no resurrection without it. A secret and unwitnessed death would have left the resurrection without any proof or evidence to support it.
Again, since he proclaimed his resurrection openly, why would he die a secret death? Why should he drive out evil spirits in the sight of all, and heal the man blind from birth and change water into wine, in order to convince men that he was the Word, yet not also declare publicly that incorruptibility of his mortal body, so that he might himself be believed to be the Life? And how could his disciples have had boldness in speaking of the resurrection unless they could state it as a fact that he had first died? Or how could their hearers be expected to believe their assertion, unless they themselves also had witnessed his death? For if the Pharisees at the time refused to believe and forced others to deny also, even though the things had happened before their very eyes, then how many excuses for unbelief would they have contrived if it had taken place secretly? How could the end of death and the victory over it be demonstrated, unless the Lord challenged it before the sight of all, proving by the incorruption of his body that henceforward death was null and void?
24
We must also answer some other questions that might be asked. Some might wonder, even if witnessing a public death was necessary in order that the resurrection may be believed, then he ought to have arranged an honorable death for himself, and avoided the shame of the cross. But even this would have given ground for suspicion that his power over death was limited to the particular kind of death which he chose for himself; and again, that would furnish excuse for disbelieving the resurrection. So, death came to his body not from himself but from enemy action, in order that the Savior might utterly abolish death in whatever form they offered it to him. A noble wrestler, manly and strong, does not choose his antagonists for himself, lest it be thought that he is afraid of some of them. Rather, he lets the spectators choose them, especially if they are hostile, so that he may overthrow anyone they match against him and thus show forth his superior strength.
Even so Christ, the Life of all, our Lord and Savior, did not arrange the manner of his own death lest he should seem to be afraid of some other kind of death, but accepted and endured on the cross a death inflicted by others, specifically by his enemies, a death which to them was supremely terrible and humiliating; and he did this in order that, by destroying even this death, he might himself be believed to be the Life, and the power of death be finally annihilated.
Something marvelous and mighty has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death’s defeat. Therefore he neither endured the death of John, who was beheaded, nor was he sawn asunder, like Isaiah: even in death he preserved his body whole and undivided, so that there should be no excuse for those who would divide the Church.
25
So much for the objections of those outside the Church. But if anyone from among us, not from love of debate, but from love of learning, wants to know why he suffered death on the cross and not in some other way, we answer that in no other way was it expedient for us, indeed it was good that the Lord endured this for us. He had come to bear the curse that lay on us; and how could he “become a curse”Galatians 3:13. otherwise than by accepting death according to the curse? And that death is the cross, for it is written “Cursed is every one that hangs on tree.”Deuteronomy 21:23. Again, the death of the Lord is the ransom of all, and by it “the middle wall of partition”Ephesians 2:14. is broken down and the calling of the nations comes about. How could he have called us if he had not been crucified? For it is only on the cross that a man dies with arms outstretched. Therefore it was fitting for the Lord to bear this also and to spread out His hands; with the one to draw His ancient people, and with the other those from the nations, and unite both together in himself. For this is what he himself said, indicating the manner of his death,John 12:33. “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Myself.”John 12:32.
The devil, the enemy of our race, having fallen from heaven, wanders about our lower atmosphere, and lords it here over his fellow spirits, his equals in disobedience. Through them he not only works illusions in deceived people, but tries to prevent them from ascending upward. About this the apostle says, “According to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience.”Ephesians 2:2. But the Lord came to overthrow the devil, to purify the air, and to open up for us the way to heaven, as the apostle says, “through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.”Hebrews 10:20. This had to be done through death, and by what other kind of death could it be done, save by a death in the air, that is, on the cross? for only he that completes his life on the cross dies in the air. So it was fitting that the Lord suffered this death; for being lifted up, He cleansed the air from all the evil influence of the enemy, saying, “I beheld Satan as lightning falling,”Luke 10:18. and opening the road to heaven, saying again, “Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors.”Psalm 23:7. For it was not the Word himself who needed the gates opened since he is Lord of all, nor was any of his works closed to their Maker. No, it was we who needed it, we whom he himself carried up in his own body – that body which he first offered to death on behalf of all, and then made through it a path to heaven.
26
The death on the Cross for our sakes has therefore proved suitable and fitting; and we can see how reasonable it was, and why the salvation of the world could be accomplished in no other way. Even on the cross he did not hide himself from sight; rather, he made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker. Then, having once let it be seen that the temple of his body was truly dead, he did not allow it to remain so for long, but immediately on the third day raised it up, impassable and incorruptible, the pledge and token of his victory over death.
Of course it was within his power to have raised his body and shown it alive immediately after death. But the all-wise Savior did not do this. For some would have denied that it had really or completely died. Besides this, had the interval between his death and resurrection been only two days, the glory of his incorruption might not have appeared. He waited one whole day to show that his body was really dead, and then on the third day showed it to all as incorruptible. The interval was not longer than this, for people might have forgotten about it and grown doubtful whether this were in truth the same body. No, while the affair was still ringing in their ears and their eyes were still straining and their minds in turmoil, and while those who had put him to death were still on the spot and witnessing to the fact of it, the Son of God after three days showed forth the body which had been dead as immortal and incorruptible; and it was evident to all that the body in which the Word dwelt had died, not from any natural weakness, but so that death might be destroyed in it through the power of the Savior.
27
A very strong proof that death has been destroyed and conquered by the cross is supplied by the fact that all the disciples of Christ disdain death. They take up the offensive against it and, instead of fearing it, they trample on it by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ, like a dead thing. Before the divine sojourn of the Savior, even the holiest of men were afraid of death, and mourned the dead as those who perish. But now that the Savior has raised his body, death is no longer fearsome, but all those who believe in Christ trample it underfoot as nothing, and would rather die than deny their faith in Christ. For they know well that when they die they do not perish, but truly live become incorruptible through the resurrection. But that devil who formerly exulted wickedly in death, “its pangs having been loosed,”Acts 2:24. is now the only one who remains truly dead.
There is proof of this, too. For before people believe in Christ, they fear death and are terrified by it; but after they are converted, they disdain death so completely that they go eagerly to meet it, and thereby become witnessesOr “martyrs” (Greek: martyres). of the Savior’s resurrection. Even the young hasten to die, and not only men but women exercise themselves by bodily discipline to meet it. Death has become so weak that even women, who used to be deceived by it, now mock it as dead and paralyzed. Death has become like a tyrant who is completely conquered by a real king, and bound hand and foot. All who pass by laugh him to scorn, buffeting and reviling him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and rage, because of the king who has conquered him. Death has been conquered and exposed by the Savior on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, and all who are in Christ trample it as they pass and deride it, scoffing and saying, “O Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy sting?”1 Corinthians 15:55.
28
Is this a weak proof of the weakness of death, do you think? Or is it only a slight indication of the Savior’s victory over it, when boys and young girls in Christ look beyond this present life and train themselves to die? Everyone is by nature afraid of death and of bodily dissolution; the most amazing thing is that the one who has put on the faith of the cross scorns this natural fear and is no longer afraid because of the cross.
The natural property of fire is to burn. Suppose that there was a substance such as the Indian asbestos is said to be, which had no fear of being burnt, but rather showed forth the weakness of fire by proving itself unburnable. Then anyone who did not believe the story, if he wished to put it to the test, could put on the fireproof material and touch the fire, thereby being convinced of the weakness of the fire. Or if anyone wanted to see the tyrant bound and helpless, who used to be such a terror to others, he could do so simply by going into the country of the tyrant’s conqueror. Even so, if anyone still doubts the conquest of death, even after such great things and after so many have become martyrs in Christ, after the daily scorn shown towards death by his truest servants, he certainly would do well to marvel at so great a thing, but let him not be obstinate in unbelief and shameless in the face of plain facts. Rather, he must be like the man who proves the property of the asbestos, and like him who enters the conqueror’s dominions to see the tyrant bound, and he must embrace the faith of Christ, this disbeliever in the conquest of death, and come to his teaching. Then he will see how powerless death is and how completely conquered. For many who at first disbelieved and mocked, afterward believed, and so scorned death as even themselves to become martyrs for Christ’s sake.
29
Now if it is by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ that death is trampled down, then it is clear that Christ alone is the victor who has displayed trophies and victories over death, and robbed it of its power. Death used to be strong and terrible, but now, since the sojourn of the Savior and the death and resurrection of his body, it is despised; and obviously it is by the Christ who was raised up on the cross that death has been destroyed and conquered. When the sun rises after the night and the whole world is lit up by it, nobody doubts that it is the sun which has shed its light everywhere and driven away the dark. So also, now that death has been despised and trampled down since the saving manifestation of the Savior in the body and the consummation of the cross, it is clear that he is the Savior: Revealed in the body, destroying death, and daily displaying the trophies against it in his disciples.
For when you see men, weak by nature, hastening to death, not fearing the prospect of corruption, fearless of the descent into Hades, but even with eager soul challenging it, not shrinking from torture, but rather for the sake of Christ preferring instead of this present life to rush toward death; or if you see with your own eyes men and women and children, welcoming death for the sake of devotion to Christ, who is so silly or incredulous or maimed in your mind as not to realize that Christ, to whom these all bear witness, is the one who gives the victory to each, making death completely powerless over those who keep his faith and bear the sign of the cross?
No one in his right mind doubts that a snake is dead when he sees it trampled underfoot, especially when he knows how savage it used to be; nor, if he sees boys making fun of a lion, does he doubt that it is either dead or has completely lost all its strength. These things can be seen with our own eyes, and it is the same with the conquest of death. Doubt no longer, then, when you see death mocked and scorned by those who believe in Christ, that by Christ death has been destroyed, and its corruption dissolved and brought to end.
30
What we have said so far is no small proof that death has been destroyed and that the cross of the Lord is the monument to his victory. But the resurrection of the body to immortality, which now results from the work of Christ, the common Savior and true Life of all, is more effectively proved by facts than by words to those whose mental vision is sound.
For if death has been destroyed, as we have shown, and everyone tramples it down because of Christ, then all the more he himself trampled and destroyed it in his own body. Death having been slain by Christ, what other result could there be, than the rising of his body and its being shown forth as the trophy of his victory? How could the destruction of death have been revealed at all, if the Lord’s body had not been raised? But if anyone finds proof of his resurrection is not sufficient, then let him be assured by what takes place before his eyes.
Dead men cannot take action; their power lasts only till the grave. Deeds and actions toward others belong only to the living. So look at the facts in this case; the Savior is working mightily among men, and every day he is invisibly persuading many people all over the world, both within the Greek-speaking world and beyond, to turn to his faith and be obedient to his teaching. Can anyone still doubt whether the resurrection has been accomplished by the Savior, or that he is himself the Life? Does a dead man prick the consciences of men, so that they deny the traditions of their fathers and bow down before the teaching of Christ? If he is no longer active in the world, as is proper to the dead, then how is it that he causes the living to cease from their activities – the adulterer from his adultery, the murderer from killing, the unjust from greed, while the profane and godless man becomes faithful? If he did not rise, but is still dead, how is it that he drives away and pursues and overthrows the false gods, whom unbelievers think to be alive, and the demons they worship? For where Christ and his Faith are named, idolatry is destroyed and the fraud of demons is exposed; indeed, no such spirit can endure that name, but flees at the sound of it.
This is not the work of one who is dead, but of one who is alive; and specifically the work of God. It would be absurd to say that the evil spirits whom he drives out and the idols which he destroys are alive, but that he who drives out and destroys them, he whom they themselves acknowledge to be the Son of God, is dead!
31
Those who disbelieve in the resurrection have no support in facts, if their gods and demons do not drive away the supposedly dead Christ. Rather, it is he who convicts them of being dead. We are agreed that a dead man can do nothing: yet the Savior works mightily every day, drawing men to piety, persuading them to virtue, teaching them about immortality, leading them to thirst for heavenly things, revealing the knowledge of the Father, inspiring strength in face of death, manifesting himself to each, and displacing the godlessness of idols; while the gods and demons of the unbelievers can do none of these things, but rather fall dead at Christ’s presence, all their show being futile and empty. By the sign of the cross, on the contrary, all magic ceases, all witchcraft is brought to nought, all the idols are abandoned and deserted, and all irrational desire ceases, as every one looks up from earth to heaven.
Whom, then, should we call dead? Shall we call Christ dead, who brings all this to pass? But the dead have no power to do anything. Or shall we rather call death dead: death, which in no way acts, whatever, but lies as lifeless and ineffective as the dead demons and idols? The Son of God, “living and effective,”Hebrews 4:12. works daily and brings about the salvation of all; but death is daily proved to be stripped of all its strength, and it is the idols and the demons who are dead. So no room for doubt remains concerning the resurrection of His body.
32
He who disbelieves this bodily rising of the Lord is ignorant of the power of the Word and Wisdom of God. For if he had fully taken to himself a body, and made it his own with proper consistency, as our argument has shown, what should the Lord do with it? What was ultimately to become of that body upon which the Word had descended? Being mortal, and offered to death on behalf of all as it was, it could not do otherwise than to die; indeed, it was for that very purpose that the Savior had prepared it for himself. But it could not remain dead, because it had become the very temple of Life. It therefore died, as mortal, came again to life because of the Life within it; and its resurrection is made known through its works.
But if his resurrection is disbelieved, because he is not seen, then it is now time for those not believing to deny the very course of nature. For it is a property of God not to be seen, but to be known by his works, just as was said above. So if there were no works, then they would have grounds for disbelief; but when the works cry out and prove the fact so clearly, why do they choose too deny the risen life that is so manifestly shown? Even if their mental faculties are defective, surely their eyes can give them indisputable proof of the power and divinity of Christ. A blind man cannot see the sun, but he knows that it is above the earth from the warmth it gives; so let those who are still in the blindness of unbelief recognize the divinity of Christ and the resurrection he has accomplished through his manifested power in others.
It is clear he would not be expelling demons and despoiling idols if he were dead, for the spirits would not obey a dead man. But if his very name drives them out, then clearly he is not dead; but rather the demons, who see things unseen by men, would know if Christ were dead and would refuse to obey him. But the demons see what ungodly men do not believe – that he is God – and for that reason they flee and fall down before him, crying out what as they said while he was in the body, “We know who you are, the Holy One of God,”Luke 4:34. and, “Ah, what have I to do with you, Son of God? I implore you, do not torment me!”Matthew 8:28; Mark 5:7.
Since the demons confess him, and his works bear witness to him day by day, it must be evident, and let none presume to doubt it, that the Savior has raised his own body, and that he is the true Son of God, being from him as the Father’s own Word and Wisdom and Power. This is he who in these last days assumed a body for the salvation of us all, and taught the world about the Father, destroyed death, and granted incorruption to all through the promise of the resurrection, having raised his own body as its first-fruits, and displayed it by the sign of the cross as the monument to his victory over death and its corruption.
Answering the Jews
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We have dealt thus far with the Incarnation of our Savior, and have found clear proof of the resurrection of his body and his victory over death. Let us now go further and respond to the unbelief and the ridicule with which Jews and Gentiles respectively regard these same facts. It seems that in both cases the points at issue are the same, namely the unseemliness of the cross and of God the Word’s becoming man. But we have no hesitation in taking up the argument against these objections, for the proofs on our side are extremely clear.
The unbelieving Jews may be refuted from the scriptures which they themselves read; for from beginning to end the inspired book clearly teaches these things both in its entirety and in its actual words. Prophets foretold the marvel of the Virgin and of the birth from her, saying, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Emmanuel,Isaiah 7:14. which means God with us.”Matthew 1:23 And Moses, that truly great man in whose word the Jews trust so implicitly, also recognized the importance and truth of the matter. He puts it thus: “A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall rise out of Israel. He shall break in pieces the rulers of Moab.”Numbers 24:17. And, again, “How beautiful are your dwellings, O Jacob, your tents, O Israel. Like wooded valleys offering shade, and like gardens by the rivers, like tents the Lord pitched, like cedars beside the waters. A man shall come forth from his seed, and he shall rule many nations.”Numbers 24:5-7. And, again, Isaiah says, “Before the child shall be old enough to call father or mother, one shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria from under the eyes of the king of Assyria.”Isaiah 8:4. These words, then, foretell that a man shall appear.
And scripture proclaims further that the one who is to come is Lord of all, saying, “Behold, the Lord sits on a swift cloud and shall come to Egypt, and the man-made images of Egypt shall be shaken.”Isaiah 19:1. And it is from Egypt also that the Father calls him back, saying, “Out of Egypt have I called my Son.”Hosea 11:1.
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Moreover, the Scriptures are not silent even about his death. On the contrary, they refer to it with the utmost clearness. For they have not feared to speak also of its cause – that he endured it not for his own sake, but for the immortality and salvation of all – and they record also the plotting of the Jews against him and all the indignities which he suffered at their hands. Certainly no one who reads the scriptures can plead ignorance of the facts as an excuse for error. There is this passage, for instance: “A man that is afflicted and knows how to bear weakness, for his face is turned away. He was dishonored and not esteemed. He bears our sins and suffers for our sakes, and we considered him to be distressed and afflicted and ill-treated. But he was wounded because of our lawlessness and was made weak because of our sins. Chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his bruise we are healed.”Isaiah 53:3-5.
Be amazed at the Word’s love for human beings, that he is dishonored for our sake, that we might be honored “For we all,” it goes on, “have strayed like sheep, man has strayed from his path, and the Lord has delivered him up for our sins; and he himself did not open his mouth at the ill-treatment. Like a sheep he was led to slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he opened not his mouth; in his humiliation his judgment was taken away.”Isaiah 53:6-8. Then, so that no one may suppose from his suffering that he is a mere human being, scripture shows what power worked in him: “Who shall declare of what lineage he comes?” it says, “for his life is taken away from the earth. By the lawlessnesses of my people he was brought to death. I will appoint evil men for his burial and the rich men for his death. For he committed no lawlessness, nor was deceit found in his mouth. The Lord wishes to cleanse him of his wound.”Isaiah 53:8-10.
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You have heard the prophecy of his death. Do you now want to know what is indicated about the cross? For even this is not passed over in silence: on the contrary, the saints proclaim it with great plainness. Moses foretells it first, with a loud voice, saying, “You shall see your Life hanging before your eyes, and shall not believe.”Deuteronomy 28:66. After him the prophets also testified, saying, “But as an innocent lamb I was brought to be offered, though I was ignorant of it. They plotted evil against me, saying, ‘Come, let us cast wood into his bread, and wipe him out from the land of the living.”Jeremiah 11:18-19. And, again, “They pierced my hands and my feet, they counted all my bones, they divided my garments among them, and cast lots for my clothing.”Psalm 21:17-19. Now a death lifted up taking place on wood can be none other than the cross; it is only in that death that the hands and feet are pierced.
Besides this, since the time the Savior dwelt among men, all nations everywhere have begun to know God; and this too holy scripture expressly mentions. “There shall be the Root of Jesse,” it says, “and he shall arise up to rule the nations. On Him the nations shall set their hope.”Isaiah 11:10.
These are just a few things in proof of what has taken place; but indeed all scripture is full of things that refute the unbelief of the Jews. For which of the righteous and holy prophets and patriarchs named in the divine scriptures ever had his bodily birth from a virgin only? Was not Abel born from Adam, Enoch from Jared, Noah from Lamech, Abraham from Terah, Isaac from Abraham, and Jacob from Isaac? Was not Judah from Jacob, and Moses and Aaron from Amram? Was not Samuel the son of Elkanah, David the son of Jesse, Solomon the son of David, Hezekiah of Ahaz, Josiah of Amon, Isaiah of Amos, Jeremiah of Hilkiah and Ezekiel of Buzi? Did not each of these have a father as author of his being? Then who is born of a virgin only? For the prophet makes much of this sign. And of all those people, which had his birth announced to the world by a star in the heavens? When Moses was born his parents hid him. David was unknown even in his own neighborhood, so that mighty Samuel himself was ignorant of his existence and asked whether Jesse had yet another son. Abraham had already become great when he was known to his kin. But with Christ it was otherwise. The witness to his birth was not a human, but a star, shining in the heavens from which he came down.
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But what king ever reigned and took trophies from his enemies “before he was able to cry out ‘father’ or ‘mother,’”Isaiah 8:4. Was not David thirty years old when he came to the throne and Solomon a grown young man? Did not Joash begin his reign at the age of seven, and Josiah, after him, at about the same age, both of them fully able by that time to call father or mother?
Who is there, then, that was reigning and despoiling his enemies almost before he was born? Let the Jews, who have investigated the matter, tell us if there was ever such a king in Israel or Judah – a king upon whom all the nations set their hopes and had peace, instead of being at enmity with him on every side! As long as Jerusalem stood, there was constant war between them, and they all fought against Israel. The Assyrians oppressed Israel, the Egyptians persecuted them, the Babylonians fell upon them, and, strange to relate, even the Syrians their neighbors were at war with them. And did not David make war against Moab and smite the Syrians, and Hezekiah fear the boasting of Sennacherib? Did not Amalek make war on Moses and the Amorites oppose him, and did not the inhabitants of Jericho array themselves against Joshua the son of Nun? Did not the nations always regard Israel with implacable hostility? Then it is worth inquiring who it is, on whom the nations are to set their hopes. Obviously there must be someone, for the prophet could not have told a lie.
But did any of the holy prophets or patriarchs of old die on a cross for the salvation of all? Was any of them wounded and destroyed for the healing of all? Did the idols of Egypt fall down before any righteous man or king that came there? Abraham certainly went to Egypt, but idolatry prevailed just the same; and Moses was born there, but the deluded worship was unchanged.
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Again, does Scripture tell of anyone who was pierced in hands and feet or hung upon a tree at all, and by means of a cross perfected his sacrifice for the salvation of all? It was not Abraham, for he died in his bed, as did also Isaac and Jacob. Moses and Aaron died on the mountain, and David in his house, without anybody plotting against him. For though he had been sought by Saul, he was preserved unharmed. Isaiah was sawn asunder, but he was not hung on a tree. Jeremiah was shamefully treated but he did not die under condemnation. Ezekiel suffered, but he did so not on behalf of the people, but indicating what was going to happen to them. Moreover, all these, even when they suffered, were but men, like other men. But he whom the scriptures declare to suffer on behalf of all is called not merely man but the Life of all, even though in fact he shared our human nature. “You shall see your life hanging before your eyes,”Deuteronomy 28:66. they say, and “Who shall declare of what lineage he comes?”Isaiah 53:8. With all the saints we can trace their descent from the beginning, and see exactly how each came to be; but the divine scripture maintains that the lineage of him who is the Life cannot be declared.
Who is it, then, of whom divine scriptures say these things? Who is so great that even the prophets foretell such mighty things about him? No one in the scriptures at all, save the common Savior of all, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who proceeded from a virgin, and appeared on earth as man, whose earthly lineage cannot be declared, because he alone derives his body from no human father, but from a virgin alone. We can trace the paternal descent of David and Moses and of all the patriarchs. But with the Savior we cannot do so. For it was he himself who caused the star to announce his bodily birth, and it was fitting that the Word, when he came down from heaven, should have his sign in heaven too, and fitting that the King of creation, on his coming forth, should be clearly known by all the world. He was born in Judea, yet men from Persia came to worship him.
It is he who, even before his appearing in the body, won the victory over the opposing demons and a triumph over idolatry, that is, all the heathen who from every region have turned from the tradition of their fathers and the false worship of idols and are now placing their hope in Christ and dedicating themselves to him. The thing is happening before our very eyes, here in Egypt; and thereby another prophecy is fulfilled, for at no other time have the Egyptians ceased from their false worship save when the Lord of all, riding as on a cloud, came down here in the body and brought the error of idols to nothing and won over everyone to himself, and through himself to the Father.
He is the one who was crucified with the sun and moon as witnesses; and by his death salvation has come to all men, and all creation has been redeemed. He is the Life of all, and it is he who, like a sheep, gave up his own body to death, his life for ours and our salvation.
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Yet the Jews disbelieve this. This argument does not satisfy them. Therefore let them be persuaded by other reasons in their own oracles. Of whom, for instance, do the prophets say “I was made manifest to those who did not seek me; I was found by those who had not asked for me. I said, ‘See, here I am,’ to the nation that did not call on my name. I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and rebellious people.”Isaiah 65:1-2.
Who is this that was made manifest, one might ask the Jews? If the prophet is speaking of himself, then they must tell us how he was first hidden, in order to be manifested afterwards. And, again, what kind of prophet is this, who was not only revealed after being hidden, but also stretched out his hands upon the cross? Those things happened to none of those righteous men: they happened only to the Word of God who, being bodiless by nature, appeared in a body for our sake and suffered for us all.
And if even this is not enough for them, there is other overwhelming evidence by which they may be silenced. The scripture says, “Strengthen the weak hands feeble knees; take courage, you of little faith, be strong and do not fear. Behold, our God will recompense judgment, he himself will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear, and the mute tongue shall speak clearly.”Isaiah 35:3-6. What can they say to this, or how can they look it in the face at all? For the prophecy does not only declare that God will dwell here, it also makes known the signs and the time of his coming. When God comes, it says, the blind will see, the lame will walk, the deaf will hear and the stammerers will speak distinctly. Can the Jews tell us when such signs occurred in Israel, or when anything of the kind took place at all in Judea? The leper Naaman was cleansed, it is true, but no deaf man heard nor did any lame man walk. Elijah and Elisha raised the dead, but no one blind from birth received his sight.
Raising the dead is truly a great thing, but it is not like the wonder wrought by the Savior. And surely, since the Scriptures have not kept silence about the leper and the dead son of the widow, if a lame man had walked and a blind man had received his sight, they would have mentioned these as well. Their silence on these points proves that the events had never taken place before.
So when did these things happen, apart from when the Word of God himself came in the body? Was it not when he came that lame men walked and stammerers spoke clearly and men blind from birth were given sight? And even the Jews who saw it testified to the fact that such things had never before occurred. “Since the world began, it has never been heard of that anyone should open the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”John 9:32-33.
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But surely they cannot fight against plain facts. So it may be that, without denying what is written, they will maintain that they are still waiting for these things to happen, and that the Word of God is yet to come, for that is a topic about which they are always chattering most brazenly, in spite of all the evidence against them. But on this one point, above all, they shall be refuted all the more, not by ourselves but by the most wise Daniel, for he signifies the actual date of the Savior’s coming as well as his Divine sojourn in our midst, saying, “Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to make an end of sin, and for sins to be sealed up and iniquities blotted out, and to make reconciliation for wrongdoings, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holy One of holies. You shall know therefore and understand from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, until Christ the Prince.”Daniel 9:24-25.
Perhaps regarding the other prophecies, they could find excuses to put off what is written to a future time, but what can they say to this? How can they face it at all? Not only does it expressly refer to the Anointed One, that is the Christ, it declares that he who is to be anointed is not merely human but is himself the holy of holies! And it says that Jerusalem is to stand until his coming, and then prophet and vision shall cease in Israel.
David was anointed of old, and Solomon, and Hezekiah, but Jerusalem and the place still stood, and prophets were prophesying – Gad and Asaph and Nathan, and later Isaiah and Hosea and Amos and the others. Moreover, those men who were anointed were called holy, but none of them was called the holy of holies.
Nor is it any use for the Jews to take refuge in the Babylonian captivity, and say that Jerusalem did not exist then, for what about the prophets? It is a fact that when the people went into exile, Daniel and Jeremiah were there, and Ezekiel and Haggai and Zechariah also prophesied.
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So the Jews are indulging in fiction, and putting off to the future what has actually now come to pass. When did prophecy and visions cease from Israel? Was it not when Christ, the Holy of holies came? In fact, it is a sign and an important proof of the coming of God the Word that Jerusalem no longer stands, nor do prophets arise nor are visions revealed among them any longer. And it is natural that it should be so.
For, when he who was indicated has come, what need is there any longer of to indicate him? And when the truth had come, what further need is there of the shadow? They prophesied for this reason alone, until the true righteousness should come, and he that was to redeem the sins of all. This is the reason Jerusalem stood so long, so that the types might prepare them until the truth came.
Therefore, once the Holy of holies had come, both vision and prophecy were sealed, and the kingdom of Jerusalem ceased at the same time. Kings were anointed among them only until the Holy of holies should be anointed. Moses also prophesied that the kingdom of the Jews would stand until this One, saying, “A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a prince from his loins, until the coming of the one to whom it belongs; and he is the expectation of nations.” Genesis 49:10.
So the Savior himself proclaimed “The law and the prophets prophesied until John.” Matthew 11:13. So if there were still king or prophet or vision among the Jews, they could deny that Christ has come; but since there is neither king nor vision, and all prophecy has now been sealed up and the city and the temple are taken, how can they be so impious and perverse as to deny Christ Who has made all this come to pass?
And when they see the nations abandoning idols and setting their hopes through Christ on the God of Israel, why do they deny Christ, who is from the root of Jesse according to the flesh and reigns forevermore?
If the nations were worshipping some other god, and not confessing the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses, then they would do well to argue that God had not come. But if the nations are honoring the same God who gave the law to Moses and the promises to Abraham, the God whose word the Jews dishonored, then why do they not recognize or rather why do they deliberately refuse to see that the Lord who was prophesied in the scriptures has shone forth on the world and been revealed in bodily form?
Scripture declares it repeatedly. “God is the Lord and has appeared to us,” Psalm 117:26. and again, “He sent forth His Word and healed them.” Psalm 106:20. And again, “It was no ambassador, no angel who saved us, but the Lord Himself.” Isaiah 11:9.
The Jews are afflicted like some demented person who sees the earth lit up by the sun, but denies the sun that lights it up. What more can their expected One do when he comes? To call the nations? But they have already been called. To put an end to prophecies and kings and visions? But this too has already happened. To expose the godlessness of idols? It has already been exposed and condemned. Or to destroy death? It is already destroyed!
So then what remains for Christ to do? What is left out or unfulfilled, that the Jews should disbelieve so light-heartedly? The plain fact is, as we have said, that there is no longer any king or prophet nor Jerusalem nor sacrifice nor vision among them, but the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of God, and the nations, abandoning godlessness, are now taking refuge with the God of Abraham through the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ.
It must be plain even to the most obstinate that the Christ has come, and that he has enlightened all people everywhere, and given them the true and divine teaching concerning His Father.
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We come now to the unbelief of the Gentiles. This is truly astonishing, for they mock what ought never to be mocked, while remaining blind to their own shame in worshiping stones and wood. And our argument is not without proofs. Come, then, and let us refute them with sound reasoning, chiefly from the things we ourselves can see.
For what is absurd or ridiculous in our faith? Is it merely that we say the Word has been manifested in a body? If they truly loved the truth, they would have to admit that there is nothing improper in this.
For if they deny that there is any Word of God at all, then they speak foolishly, mocking what they do not understand. But if they confess that there is a Word of God, who rules over all things; and if they confess that in him the Father made creation; that by his providence the whole creation receives light, life, and being; and that he reigns over all things, making all things known, even the Father himself – then are they not, without realizing it, turning their ridicule against themselves?
For the Greek philosophers themselves say that the universe is one great body. And in this they speak truly, since we perceive the universe and all its parts through our senses. But if the Word of God is present in the universe, which is a body, and if he has come into every part of it, then why should it seem strange or absurd to say that he has also entered into humanity?
Indeed, if it were ridiculous for the Word to be present in a body at all, then it would also be ridiculous for him to be present in the universe. For the universe itself is a body. Yet they acknowledge that he gives light and movement to all things by his providence.
But if it is fitting and right for him to enter into the universe and to be made known in it, then it is also fitting for him to appear in a human body, and to enlighten and to work through that. For humanity is part of the universe, and if a part of the universe is unsuitable to reveal his divinity to men, then it would be most ridiculous that he should be made known through the whole universe.
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But perhaps they think the Savior’s manifestation in our nature is unfitting because humanity is a created thing, brought into being out of non-existence. If that is their objection, then they must also reject his presence in creation itself, for creation too was brought from non-being into being by the Word.
But if creation, though made, is not an unworthy place for the Word to be present, then neither is man an unworthy place for him to be present. For man is part of creation, as was said before. Therefore, the same reasoning applies to both. All things receive their light, movement, and life from the Word, just as even their philosophers say: “In him we live and move and have our being.” Acts 17:28, quoting Cretica by Epimenides.
Since this is so, what is improper in saying that the Word dwelt in man? And if, as we say, the Word used the human nature in which he was present as the means of revealing himself, what is ridiculous about that? He could not have used it to reveal himself unless he had first been present in it. But we have already acknowledged that he is present both in the whole of creation and in each of its parts. What, then, is unbelievable about his revealing himself through that in which he already is?
By his own power, he enters wholly into all things and into each thing. He orders all things without stint. Therefore, had he wished, he could have revealed himself and his Father through the sun, the moon, the sky, the earth, fire, or water. And if he had done this, no one could rightly accuse him of acting improperly. For he sustains all things together as one whole, being present in all things and invisibly revealed both in the whole and in each particular part.
Since this is true, and since he chose to reveal himself through humans, who are part of that whole, there is nothing ridiculous in his using a human body to manifest the truth and knowledge of the Father.
For consider the human mind. Does it not pervade the whole person, and yet express itself through one particular part, namely the tongue? Does anyone say, because of this, that the mind has degraded itself? Certainly not. In the same way, it is not degrading for the Word, who pervades all things, to appear in a human body.
For if, as I said before, it were unfitting to have used a body as an instrument, it would be unfitting also for him to be in the whole.
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Now nothing in creation had turned away from the purpose God appointed for it, except mankind. The sun, the moon, the heavens, the stars, the water, and the air had not departed from their proper order. They knew the Word as their Maker and King, and they remained as they had been made.
Mankind alone rejected the good. Instead of truth, men invented empty falsehoods. Instead of giving God the honor due to him, and instead of seeking the true knowledge of him, they gave that honor to demons and to men represented in the form of stones.
Obviously it was not worthy of the goodness of God to overlook such a grave matter. Yet men were no longer able to recognize the Word as the one who orders and governs the whole creation. For this reason he takes to himself as an instrument one part of that whole, namely a human body, and enters into it.
By doing this, he made it possible for men failed to recognize him in the whole, to recognize him in the part. Those who could not raise their minds to his unseen power could now see and know him in a form like their own. Since they were men, they could more readily come to know the Father through a human body like theirs, and through the divine works done in that body. By comparing his works with their own, they would see that his works were not merely human, but the works of God.
And if, as they say, it was ridiculous for the Word to reveal himself through the works of the body, then it would also be absurd for him to reveal himself through the works of the universe. For his presence in creation does not mean that he shares the nature of creation; rather, created things participate in his power. In the same way, although he used the body as his instrument, he did not share in its properties; instead, by dwelling in it, he sanctified it.
Even Plato, whom the Greeks greatly admire, says something similar. He says that the Maker of the universe, seeing it tossed by storms and in danger of sinking into dissolution, takes his place at the helm of the universe’s soul and comes to its rescue, setting all things right.
What, then, is incredible about our claim? When mankind had gone astray, the Word descended into it and was manifested as man. In his own goodness, and by his wise goodness, he came to save mankind from the storm.
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But perhaps, having been forced to admit this much, they will say that if God wished to teach and save ,amkind, he should have done so by a mere command. They may argue that his Word should not have touched a body, just as, in the beginning, he created all things from nothing by his will alone.
To this objection, one may reasonably answer that the circumstances in the two cases are quite different. In the beginning, when nothing yet existed, only God’s command and will were needed for the creation of the universe. But once man had been made, the need was different. The problem was no longer how to bring non-existent things into being, but how to heal beings that already existed and had become corrupt.
For this reason, he became a human being for this, and used his body as a human instrument. For if this was not the proper way, then how should the Word appear when he wished to use an instrument? And from where would he take such an instrument, except from those who already existed and who needed his divinity to come to them through one like themselves?
It was not non-existent things that needed salvation, so that a command alone would have been enough. But the human race already existed, and was already corrupted and perishing, and this is who needed to be saved. Therefore, it was reasonable and good for the Word to use a human instrument and, through it, to reveal himself to all.
You must know, moreover, that the corruption which had set in was not external to the body but established within it. The need, therefore, was that life should cleave to it in corruption’s place, so that, just as death was brought into being in the body, life also might be engendered in it. If death had been exterior to the body, life might fittingly have been the same. But if death was within the body, woven into its very substance and dominating it as though completely one with it, the need was for Life to be woven into it instead, so that the body by thus enduing itself with life might cast corruption off.
Suppose the Word had come outside the body instead of in it, He would, of course, have defeated death, because death is powerless against the Life. But the corruption inherent in the body would have remained in it none the less. Naturally, therefore, the Savior assumed a body for Himself, in order that the body, being interwoven as it were with life, should no longer remain a mortal thing, in thrall to death, but as endued with immortality and risen from death, should thenceforth remain immortal.
For once having put on corruption, it could not rise, unless it put on life instead; and besides this, death of its very nature could not appear otherwise than in a body. Therefore He put on a body, so that in the body He might find death and blot it out. And, indeed, how could the Lord have been proved to be the Life at all, had He not endued with life that which was subject to death?
Straw is naturally destroyed by fire, but if anyone keeps the fire away from the straw, then the straw does not burn, but remains fully straw; yet the straw must still fear the threat of fire, for fire naturally consumes it. But if someone covers the straw with much asbestos, which is said to be fireproof, then the straw no longer fears the fire, for it is safe in its fireproof covering of asbestos.
The same is true of the body in relation to death. If death had merely been kept away from the body by a command, the body would still have remained mortal and corruptible by nature. To prevent this, the body was clothed with the Word of God. Because of this, it no longer fears death or corruption, for it is clothed with life as with a garment, and in that life corruption is completely destroyed.
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So it was fitting that the Word of God took a body and used a human instrument to give life to the body. And just as he is known in creation through his works, so also he acted in a human being, so that he might reveal himself everywhere and leave no place empty of his divinity and knowledge.
As we have said, the Savior did this so that, just as he fills all things everywhere by his presence, he might also fill all things with the knowledge of himself. As the divine Scriptures say, “The whole earth was filled with the knowledge of God”Isaiah 11:9..
For if someone looks up to the heavens, he sees their order and recognizes the Word’s power there. But if he cannot lift his eyes to heaven, and looks only at human beings, then through Christ’s works he sees a power beyond all human power. From this he learns that Christ alone, among men, is the Word of God.
If someone has been led astray by demons and lives in fear of them, he sees Christ casting them out and understands that Christ is their Master.
A man who has sunk into the worship of water and thinks that it is divine, as the Egyptians worship water, then he sees Christ changing the water and comes to know that the Lord is its Creator.
And if he has descended in thought even to Hades, revering the heroes who have gone down there as if they were gods, then he sees Christ’s resurrection and his victory over death. From this he concludes that even there, Christ alone is the true Lord and God.
For the Lord touched all parts of creation and freed and undeceived them all from every error, as Paul said, “Disarming the principalities and powers, he has triumphed on the Cross”Colossians 2:15., that no one could possibly be any longer deceived, but everywhere might find the true Word of God. So mankind, enclosed on every side by the works of creation and seeing everywhere, in heaven, in Hades, in the human race, and on the earth, beholding the revealed Godhead of the Word, is no longer deceived concerning God, but worships Christ alone, and through Him rightly knows the Father.
By these arguments, then, of reason and of principle, the nations will be put to shame. But if they reckon these remarks insufficient to refute them, then let them be convinced of what we say from facts manifest to the sight of all.
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When did people begin to abandon the worship of idols, but since the true Word of God came among men? When did oracles among the Greeks and everywhere cease and become empty of meaning, except since the Savior has revealed himself on earth? When did those whom the poets call gods and heroes begin to be called merely mortal men, except when the Lord raised the banner of victory over death, and preserved incorruptible the body he had taken, raising it from among the dead?
Or when did the deceit and madness of the demons fall into contempt, except when the Word, the Power of God, the Master of all these as well, condescended because of man’s weakness and appeared on earth?
When did the practice and teaching of magic begin to be trampled under foot, if not when the Word was divinely revealed to mankind?
In a word, when did the wisdom of the Greeks become foolish,Cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18–24. but when the true Wisdom of God revealed himself on earth? For of old the whole world and every place in it were led astray by the worship of idols, and men thought the idols were the only gods. But now, all over the world, people are deserting the fear of idols and taking refuge in Christ; and by worshipping him as God, through him they come to know the Father also, of whom they had known nothing.
And what is amazing is that while there were thousands of diverse objects of worship, and every place had its own idol, and the so-called god of one place could not pass over to another to persuade the people there to worship him, but was barely served even among its own people. No one worshipped his neighbor’s god, but every man had his own idol and thought that it was lord of all. But now Christ alone is worshipped, as one and the same among all peoples everywhere. And what the weakness of idols could not do, to convince even those dwelling nearby, Christ has done. He has persuaded not only those nearby, but literally the entire world to worship one and the same Lord and through him God the Father.
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And formerly everywhere was filled with the deceit of the oracles, and the utterances of those in Delphi and Dodona and Boeotia and Lycia and Libya and Egypt and Cabiri and the Pythoness were considered by the minds of men. But now, since Christ has been announced everywhere, their madness has also ceased, and there is no one left among them to give oracles at all.
Demons used to deceive men’s minds by occupying springs or rivers or trees or stones and imposing upon simple-minded people by their frauds. But now, since the divine Word has been revealed, all this fantasy has ceased. For by the sign of the cross, if anyone uses it, he drives out their deceptions.
People used to regard those who are mentioned in the poets as gods – Zeus and Chronos and Apollo and the heroes – and went astray in worshipping them. But now that the Savior has appeared among men, these have been exposed as mortal men, and Christ alone is recognized as true God, the Word of God.
And what is one to say about the magic that they thought so marvelous? Before the sojourn of the Word, it was strong and active among the Egyptians and Chaldeans and Indians, and astonished all who saw it. But the coming of the Truth and the manifestation of the Word has put it to confusion and destroyed it altogether.
As to Greek wisdom, and the philosophers’ noisy talk, I think no one needs an argument from us, for the wonder is clear in the sight of all, that while the Greeks had written so much, they failed to convince even a few from their own neighborhood about immortality and the virtuous life. Christ alone, by means of simple words, and through men not clever with the tongue, has persuaded whole churches full of people all over the world to despise death, and to think rather of things immortal, to think nothing of earthly glory and to strive only for the immortality.
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The things we have said are not mere words; they are confirmed by actual experience. Anyone who wants to can see proof of Christ’s glory in the virgins who dedicate themselves to him, in the youths who live a pure life in chastity, and in the great and joyful company of martyrs, whose courage bears witness to their confidence in immortality.
Anyone may also test what we have said in another way. Let him stand in the face of the illusions of the demons and the frauds of the oracles and the wonders of magic, and let him use the sign of the cross, which they all mock, and speak the name of Christ. He will see for himself that through Christ demons are put to flight, oracles fall silent, and every form of magic and superstition is brought to nothing.
Who is this Christ, then? How great is he, whose name and presence overshadow and overthrow all these things on every side, and who alone is powerful over them all, and has filled the whole world with his teaching? Let the Greeks, who mock him so freely and shamelessly, answer this.
If Christ is merely a man, how has one human being exceeded the power of all their gods, and proved by his power that they are nothing? And if they call him a magician, how is it that through this supposed magician all magic is destroyed rather than confirmed?
If Christ had defeated only a few magicians, or had merely shown himself superior to one of them, then they might reasonably claim that he surpassed the rest by greater skill. But this is not what has happened. His cross has overcome all magic completely, and has conquered even the very name of magic. Clearly, then, the Savior is no magician. For the demons whom magicians invoke flee from him as from their Master.
Who, then, is he? Let the Greeks answer, since their only serious occupation seems to be mockery. Perhaps they will say that Christ himself is a demon, and that this is why he prevailed over demons. But even here their argument turns against them, and we can refute them by the same proof as before.
How could he be a demon if he drives demons out? If he drove out only certain demons, then they might suppose that he did so by the power of a greater demon, as the Jews once said when they wished to insult him.Cf. Matthew 9:34. But in fact at the mere naming of Christ’s name, all demonic madness is uprooted and put to flight. Therefore the Greeks are wrong in this as well. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is not, as they claim, some demonic power.
So, if the Savior is neither a mere man, nor a magician, nor one of the demons, but by his own Godhood has exposed and overcome the delusions of the poets, the deception of demons, and the wisdom of the Greeks, then the truth must be clear to all: he is truly the Son of God, the living Word, Wisdom, and Power of the Father.
For this reason, his works are not merely human. In themselves, and when compared with the works of men, his works are seen to be above human power and truly the works of God.
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What man who ever lived formed a body for himself from a virgin alone? What man ever healed so many diseases as the common Lord of all? Who restored what was lacking in creation,Greek: genesis. giving sight to a man blind from birth?
The Greeks made Asclepius a god because he practiced healing and discovered herbs for bodily diseases. But he did not create those herbs from the earth, he only discovered them by studying nature. What is this compared with what the Savior did? Christ did not merely heal wounds. He restored the very creationGreek: genesis. he had formed and restored what he himself had made.
The Greeks also worship Heracles as a god because he fought men and overcame wild beasts by craft. But what is this compared with what the Word accomplished, driving away from men not only diseases, but demons and even death itself?
They worship Dionysus because he taught mankind drunkenness. Yet they mock the true Savior and Lord of all, who taught men sobriety.
But enough has been said. What about the other wonders of his divinity? At what man’s death was the sun darkened and the earth shaken? People die every day, and they died from the beginning. But when did such signs ever accompany their deaths?
Now passing over the works done in his earthly body, and considering what happened after his resurrection: Whose teaching, at any time or in any place, ever spread everywhere as one and the same teaching, from one end of the earth to the other, so that his worship has spread through the whole world?
Again, if Christ is only a man, as they say, and not God the Word, then why do the gods of the Greeks not prevent him from entering their territories? Or rather, why does the Word, dwelling among us, make their worship cease by His teaching and expose their fraud to shame?
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History tells us that before Christ there were many kings and tyrants on the earth. It also tells us that among the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Indians there were many wise men and magicians. But which of them, not only after death but even during life, ever had such power as to fill the whole world with his teaching? Which of them ever turned so great a multitude away from the cowardly fear of idols, as our Savior has drawn men away from idols to himself?
The Greek philosophers wrote many books with skillful and persuasive language. But what fruit did their writings produce that can be compared with the fruit of the cross of Christ? Their ideas were persuasive only until they died. But even while they lived, their influence was weakened by their rivalry with one another, for they were envious of each other and argued against one another.
But the Word of God, by strangest paradox, teaching in simpler and humbler language, has overshadowed the most skillful philosophers. He has confounded their teachings, drawn all men to himself, and filled his churches.
And this is especially marvelous: by going down to death as man, he silenced all the sounding claims of the wise concerning idols. For whose death ever drove out demons? Whose death did demons ever fear, except the death of Christ? Wherever the Savior’s name is spoken, every demon is driven away.
Again, who has ever so freed men from their passions? Through him, fornicators become chaste. Murderers no longer take up the sword. Those who were once cowardly become courageous.
In short, what persuaded barbarians and pagans everywhere to abandon their madness and turn to peace, except the faith of Christ and the sign of the cross? What has given men such certain confidence in immortality, except the cross of Christ and the resurrection of his body?
The Greeks told all sorts of false tales, but they never claimed that their idols rose from the dead. Indeed, it did not even occur to them that the body could exist again after death at all. In this, they exposed the weakness of their own idolatry, yielding to Christ alone the possibility of resurrection, so that by it he might be known by all as Son of God.
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What man, either living or dead, has ever taught about virginity, and persuaded others that this virtue is not at all impossible for human beings? Yet Christ, our Savior and King of all, has so prevailed by His teaching that even children, not yet of lawful age, promise themselves to virginity, a life that goes beyond what the law requires.
And what man has ever been able to travel so far as to reach the Scythians and Ethiopians, or Persians or Armenians or Goths, or those we hear of beyond the ocean or those beyond Hyrcania, or even the Egyptians and Chaldeans, peoples devoted to magic and savage in their customs, and teach them virtue, self-control, and the rejection of idols? Yet the Lord of all, the Power of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, has done this.
He did not merely preach through his disciples. He also worked so persuasively on the minds of men that they laid aside their savage habits, abandoned the worship of their ancestral gods, but learned to know him, and through him came to worship the Father.
Before this, while they were still idolaters, Greeks and barbarians made war on one another and were cruel toward their own kin. No one could travel by land or sea without carrying a sword, because their fighting was so bitter and unending. Their whole life was conducted with weapons; the sword took the place of the staff and became their chief means of protection.
Yet, all this time, as I said, they were serving idols and offering sacrifices to demons. And even with all the superstitious fear attached to their idol worship, nothing could turn them away from their warlike spirit.
But, since they entered the school of Christ, strangely enough, they have been truly pricked in conscience, and have laid aside their murderous cruelty, and no longer desire war. Instead, peace reigns among them, and nothing remains but a desire for friendship.
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Who, then, has done these things? Who has united in peace those who once hated one another, if not the beloved Son of the Father, the common Savior of all, Jesus Christ? Out of his own love, He endured all things for our salvation.
From the beginning, it was foretold concerning the peace that he would bring, “They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore.” Isaiah 2:4.
Nor is this hard to believe, for even today, the barbarians are savage in their customs. As long as they sacrifice to idols, they rage furiously against one another and cannot bear to be without weapons even for a single hour. But when they hear the teaching of Christ, they immediately turn from fighting to farming. Instead of arming themselves with swords, they stretch out their hands in prayer.
In short, instead of fighting one another, they take up arms against the devil and the demons. They overcome them by self-control and by virtue of soul.
These things prove the Godhead of the Savior, for he has taught men what they could never learn from idols. And the weakness and emptiness of demons and idols is exposed. For the demons knew their own weakness. That is why they were always stirring men up to fight one another. They feared that, if men stopped fighting among themselves, they would turn their battle against the demons instead.
And in fact, instead of fighting one another, the disciples of Christ now stand armed against the demons through their lives and deeds of virtue. They drive them away and mock their leader, the devil.
Even in youth they remain chaste. In trials they endure. In hardships they persevere. When insulted, they are patient. When robbed, they treat the loss lightly. And, what is most wonderful, they even scorn death itself and become martyrs of Christ.
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Here is another proof of the Godhead of the Savior, and it is truly astonishing.
What mere man, magician, tyrant, or king has ever been able, by himself, to accomplish so much? Who has ever fought against the whole system of idol worship, the whole host of demons, all magic, and all the wisdom of the Greeks, especially when all these things were strong, flourishing, and deceiving nearly everyone?
Yet this is what our Lord, the very Word of God, has done. Even now, though invisibly, he exposes every man’s error. Single-handedly, he draws people away from all these false powers. Those who once worshipped idols now trample them underfoot. Those once famous for magic now burn their books. Cf. Acts 19:19. Those considered wise now prefer the interpretation of the Gospels to every other study.
They are abandoning the gods they once worshipped. And the One they once mocked as crucified, they now worship and confess as Christ and God. Their so-called gods are put to flight by the sign of the cross, while the crucified Savior is proclaimed throughout the whole world as God and Son of God.
Moreover, the gods worshipped among the Greeks are now falling into disgrace, even among the Greeks themselves, because of the shameful deeds attributed to them. Those who receive the teaching of Christ live more chastely than those who worship these gods.
If these are merely human works, then let anyone who wishes show us similar works done by men in former times, and so convince us. But if these works are shown to be, not the works of men, but the works of God, then why are unbelievers so irreverent that they refuse to recognize the Master who did them?
They are like a man who fails to recognize God the Maker through the works of creation. For surely, if they had recognized his Godhead through his power over the universe, they would also recognize that the bodily works of Christ are not merely human works. They are the works of the Savior of all, the Word of God.
And if they had recognized this, as Paul says, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Corinthians 2:8.
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Therefore, as someone who wishes to see God, who is invisible by nature and cannot be seen directly, comes to understand and know him through his works, so also someone who does not yet perceive Christ with the mind should learn to know him from the works he did in the body. Let him examine whether these works are merely human or truly from God.
If they are human, then let him mock. But if they are known to be, not human, but divine, then let him stop laughing at things that should not be mocked. Rather, let him marvel that through something so humble, divine things have been revealed to us; that through death, incorruptibility has come to all; and that through the incarnation of the Word, the universal providence of God, and its Giver and Creator, the true Word of God Himself, has been made known.
For he became man that we might be made god. He revealed himself by a body so that we might gain some knowledge of the invisible Father. He endured the insults of men so that we might inherit incorruptibility.
He himself suffered no harm, for he is not subject to suffering or corruption, being himself Word and God. Yet in his own impassibility he upheld and preserved suffering humanity, for whose sake he endured these things.
In short, the works accomplished by the Savior through his incarnation are so great and so many that anyone who tried to explain them all would be like a man standing before the vast sea and trying to count its waves. For just as the eye cannot take in all the waves, since new waves keep coming and escape the sight of the one who tries to count them, so also no one can fully comprehend all the works Christ accomplished in the body. Even if he tries to reckon them up, more escape his thought than he realizes he has grasped.
In short, the things the Savior has accomplished by his incarnation are so great and so many, that to try to number them is like looking at the open sea and trying to count the waves. For just as the eye cannot take in all the waves, since new waves keep coming and escape the sight of the one who tries to count them. So, one cannot comprehend all that Christ accomplished in the body. Even if he tries to reckon them up, more escape his thought than he realizes he has taken in.
It is better, then, not to try to speak of the whole, since one cannot do justice even to a part of it. Instead, after mentioning one more example, I will leave the rest for you to contemplate in wonder.
For all these works are equally marvelous, and wherever a person turns his gaze, he may see the divinity of the Word revealed there, and be filled with profound awe.
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The substance of what we have said so far may be summarized in this way.
Since the Savior came to dwell among us, idolatry has not continued to grow. Instead, it is steadily decreasing and gradually passing away. Likewise, the wisdom of the Greeks is no longer advancing; even what once existed is now disappearing. And the demons no longer deceive people as before through oracles, sorceries, and tricks. If they so much as attempt it, they are driven away by the sign of the cross.
On the other hand, while idolatry and everything else opposed to the faith of Christ grows weaker day by day and falls away, the teaching of the Savior is spreading everywhere. Therefore, worship the mighty Savior, “who is over all,” Romans 9:5. and is truly God the Word. And condemn those powers that he is causing to diminish and disappear.
When the sun rises, darkness can no longer prevail. If any darkness remains anywhere, it is driven away. So also, now that the divine appearing of the Word of God has taken place, the darkness of idols no longer prevails. Every part of the world, in every direction, is being enlightened by his teaching.
This is like a man who reigns as king of some country but remains inside his palace and does not allow himself to be seen. In his absence, some rebellious men may take advantage of his withdrawal and proclaim themselves rulers in his place. Each one, dressed with the appearance of kingship, deceives the simple. Since the people cannot enter the palace and see the true king, they are misled merely by hearing someone called a king.
But when the true king comes out and appears, then everything changes. By his presence, the rebellious impostors are exposed. When the people see the true king, they abandon those who had deceived them.
In the same way, the demons once deceived men by claiming for themselves the honor that belongs to God. But since the Word of God has been manifested in a body and has made known his own Father to us, the fraud of the demons has been stopped and made to disappear. Men now turn their eyes to the true God, the Word of the Father. They forsake idols and come to know the true God.
This is a demonstration that Christ is God, the Word and Power of God. For human things pass away, but the fact of Christ remains. It is clear to all, then, that the things which pass away are temporary, but he who remains is God and the true Son of God, the only-begotten Word.
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Here, then, Macarius, is our offering to you who love Christ: a brief statement of the faith of Christ and of the manifestation of his Godhead to us.
This will give you a beginning. From here, you must go on to confirm its truth by studying the Scriptures. They were written and inspired by God. And we, who have learned from inspired teachers, men who read the Scriptures and became martyrs for the Godhead of Christ, now offer this further help to your desire to learn.
From the Scriptures you will also learn of his second manifestation to us, glorious and truly divine. Then he will come, not in lowliness, but in his proper glory; not in humiliation, but in majesty; not to suffer, but to give us the full fruit of his cross: resurrection and incorruptibility.
At that time he will no longer be judged. Rather, he himself will be the Judge, judging each person according to the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil. For the good, the heavenly kingdom is prepared. But for those who practice evil, there is outer darkness and eternal fire.
The Lord himself says of that day, “Hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Matthew 26:64.
And to prepare us for that day, he also says, “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.” Matthew 24:42,44.
Likewise, blessed Paul says, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil.” 2 Corinthians 5:10.
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But to search the Scriptures and understand them rightly, one needs a good life, a pure soul, and Christian virtue to guide the mind. Only then can one grasp, as far as human nature is able, the truth concerning God the Word.
No one can truly understand the teaching of the saints unless he has a pure mind and is striving to imitate their life. A person who wants to look at the sunlight first naturally wipes and clears his eyes. He purifies himself, becoming as much like the purity of light as possible, so that his eye, made bright, may be able to behold the light of the sun. And someone who wishes to see a city or country must go to that place in order to see it.
In the same way, anyone who wishes to understand the mind of the sacred writers must first be cleansed in his own life. He must approach the saints by imitating their deeds. Then, being united to them in the conduct of a common life, he may understand the things revealed to them by God.
And afterward, having escaped the peril of sinners at the day of judgment, he will receive what has been laid up for the saints in the kingdom of heaven, which “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared” 1 Corinthians 2:9. for those who live a godly life and love the God and Father in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Through him and with him, to the Father himself, with the Son himself, in the Holy Spirit, be honor, might, and glory unto ages of ages. Amen.