13. О том, что Владыка с телом восприял и душу

And that the Only Begotten Son of God, having become man, took upon Himself a rational soul, the Evangelist Luke teaches this, saying: “Jesus excelled in wisdom, stature and grace with God and man” (Luke 2:52). But the body advances in age, and the soul in wisdom, but the Divinity does not accept either one or the other increase, for the Word of God is perfect. And rightly, the Evangelist connected the growth of wisdom with the growth of the body, because as the body grew, the nature of God revealed its wisdom. The Lord teaches more clearly about the perception of the soul upon Himself. For those who assume that His suffering is involuntary, He said before the suffering: “The Imam has laid down the domain” of My soul, “and the Imam has the domain of accepting it again:... no one will take it from Me, I lay it down about Myself,... and again I will receive it” (John 10, 17, 18). And by this he made it clear that one thing is the posited and acceptable soul, and the other is the posited and accepting Divinity; I say: one and another, not dividing into two persons, but showing the difference of natures. This is what the Lord said in another place: “For this reason the Father loves Me, because... I lay down My life for the sheep” (John 10:15, 17). In another place, he clearly showed the confusion that the soul endured during suffering, for he said: “Now my soul is troubled: and what do I say? Father, save Me from this hour. But for this reason I have come to this hour” (John 12:27). And with this he allowed us to see the struggle of thoughts, now fearful of suffering, now reflecting fear. And Luke depicted this fear more clearly, for he said: suffering brought Him into such struggle that His sweat became bloody. “His sweat,” says the Evangelist, “was like drops of blood” (Luke 22:44); He also added that an Angel came, “strengthening Him” (Luke 22:43). From all this, see the weakness of human nature. For why, when the Divinity of the Only Begotten is united with humanity and the Spirit is present as an anointing, does the Angel strengthen the weakness of soul and body? Is it not clear from this that the nature of God allowed all this to happen, so that in subsequent times those who believe in the perception of soul and body can be confirmed by these proofs and those who disbelieve can be exposed by such clear evidence? You might be interested in: