Anchor word (Ankorat)

The treatise “The Anchor Word (Ankorat)” (120 chapters) was written by St. Epiphanius of Cyprus in 374 at the request of the presbyters from the city of Suedra in Pamphylia (the territory of modern Turkey), among whose inhabitants the teaching of the pneumatomachians spread. The title of the work expresses the idea of ​​true faith as a reliable anchor when sailing on the sea of ​​life amid the storm of heresies. Expounding Orthodox teaching, the saint speaks in detail about the Trinity dogma, especially about the deity of the Holy Spirit. Chapters 2-75 expound the doctrine of the unity of the Holy Trinity (against the objections of the Arians and Pneumatomachians). As evidence, the baptismal formula (chapter 8), the angelic Trisagion hymn (chapters 10, 26) and quotations from the Holy Scriptures are given. The divinity of the Holy Spirit and the Son is proven (chap. 5-7, 45-63), the consubstantiality of the Son and the Holy Spirit (chap. 65-74) with God the Father. St. Epiphanius makes a fundamental distinction between “birth” and “creation” (chap. 24, 43). The Son of God was begotten from the very essence of the Father (chap. 118, 119), therefore He is the “true Son” by nature, and not by grace or adoption (chap. 6, 19, 28, 30, 44, 73). In chapters 12-13 St. Epiphanius lists 80 heresies. Chapters 27-38, 75-82 discuss the dogma of the incarnation of the Son. St. Epiphanius speaks about one Person and two natures of Christ, about the voluntary nature of the Savior’s Sacrifice on the Cross (chap. 19, 65, 66, 75, 80, 92, 93, 117, 119). The work reveals the doctrine of the resurrection of bodies against the opinions of the pagans (chap. 83-86) and Origenists (chap. 87-100). The saint refutes the teachings of the Manichaeans and Marcionites about the unjust and evil God of the Old Testament, reveals the reasons for the Jews' unbelief in Christ (chap. 110-118). In the treatise, the Virgin Mary is repeatedly called “Ever-Virgin” (chap. 13, 80, 120) and “Mother of God” (chap. 30, 75). He proves that Mary was a Virgin before the birth of Christ, for His conception took place immaculately, “without the seed of a man” (chap. 30, 32, 44). The doctrine of the Catholic Church as the bearer and custodian of the true faith is also revealed, carefully protecting it from attacks and distortions from various heresies and schisms (chapter 118). In conclusion, there are two symbols of faith that are recommended to be used at Baptism. According to research, in the original text of “Ankorat” the Nicene Symbol was set out as the first one (chapter 118), which was later replaced by scribes with the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol, adopted by the Second Ecumenical Council. The second symbol (chapter 119) was compiled by the saint himself as a lengthy exposition and interpretation of the Nicene Symbol. *The title of the work in Greek is ᾿Αγκυρωτός. *The title of the work in Latin is Ancoratus. This divine and great father of ours, Epiphanius, came from Eleutheropolis, in Palestine, where he was the father of the monks. But first he became a hermit in Egypt and, having stayed there until the end of the twentieth year of his age, again returned to the Eleutheropolis district, founding a monastery in it. His book is called “The Anchor Word,” because it directs the mind, which cares about life and salvation, to the likeness of an anchor; since its content embraces many parts of the teachings of faith: I mean the teaching about the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, about the perfect coming of Christ in the flesh, about the resurrection of the dead, about eternal life and judgment both over the flesh and equally over the soul; also teaching against idols and against heresies each separately, against Jews and others. It also contains the names of eighty heresies and an explanation of various questions from the Divine Scripture. It was written for those living in Suedra of Pamphylia, who asked for this with messages placed at the forefront of all reasoning. And this happened in the ninetieth year from the accession to the throne of Diocletian 1, in the tenth year of the reign of Valens and the sixth of Gratian 2. Epistle written from Pamphylia, from the city of Suedre, by Tarsinus, Matidius and other presbyters to Saint Epiphanius, asking about the faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and about other parts of the teaching of the same faith To the venerable Bishop Epiphanius Matidius and Tarsinus, newly installed presbyters of the universal Church in Suedra, wish to rejoice in the Lord. The human enemy the devil has the habit of confusing in various ways and sowing his seeds in the simplest and not yet confirmed in the faith in the Holy Trinity. “A firm foundation,” according to what is written, “stands, having this seal: The Lord knows His being” (2 Tim. 2:19). But the heretics, who are comfortable with everything, abandon blasphemy against Jesus, otherwise they ungodly against God, lifting their tongues against the Holy Spirit and uttering insults against heaven. However, although countless people have wavered, we ourselves, by the grace of the Lord, stand in sound faith, not deviating in any way from right and sound teaching. And many of those who seemed to have been deceived were strengthened by the grace of the Lord through the writings of the worthy and blessed Bishop Athanasius and your most pious co-servant Proclianus. since some still have remnants of evil teaching, and you who are experienced should graft it onto a good olive tree or cut it off completely (cf. Rom. 11, 17-22): then for this reason, writing for your godliness, we beg your reverence to write down a scripture for our Church and, through the most extensive explanation, to set forth the right and sound faith, so that the simplest and those still wavering in the faith can be confirmed by your sacred writings and the enemy of the Church, the devil, will be put to shame by your holy prayers. Be healthy, most honest father. An epistle written by Palladius, the commander of the same city of Suedre, and sent to the same Saint Epiphanius, in which epistle he also asked about the same To the Lord of my soul, the venerable Bishop Epiphanius, Palladius wishes to rejoice in the Lord. Those who sail across the great and vast sea, while a calm wind guides the ship, care little about the piers adjacent to the shores, thinking that the ship will sail across without difficulty. When an opposing and strong wind blows, and disturbances from everywhere rise to a height and cover the ship, then they really desire a quiet pier and inspect every nearby country; if they cannot land anywhere, then they descend from the ship to a nearby island, if it happens, in every possible way to achieve salvation for themselves. And having approached it and stood under the cover of the protruding cape, they can barely free themselves from the surrounding troubles. And now, Vladyka, we ourselves, proclaimed by the saving word of God, wanting to rid ourselves of worldly rebellion and lead our boat into the quiet haven of Christ, learned from some that some empty and unreasonable, as it seems to me, questions are being raised about the Holy Spirit. They say that He should not be glorified in Divinity and Lordship, but that He should be placed in the place of a servant and messenger, and even worse and lower opinions are accepted about Him. Therefore, as if possessed by incessant anxiety and a heavy storm, but not being able to find anyone among us who would be able to resolve those questions and present to us the sound teaching of the faith, we are forced to relate this matter to your piety, rightly emitting the following cry ourselves: “Master, save us” (Luke 8:24; Matt. 8:25). So, we beg your unfeigned and right faith, which is testified and proclaimed by the former good glory and reliable witnesses, deigned by the Savior to patiently accept our prayer, and deign to expound in your sacred writings as expansively and clearly as possible the doctrine of faith about the Holy Trinity and send it to us, so that we, confirmed by him, achieve what we want, and those already established in this piety rejoiced, and those who had gone astray, if possible, received healing, and God was glorified in all. A response message sent to them from Saint Epiphanius, which includes all the teaching of the Divine Faith they demanded. To my masters and all-honorable brethren and presbyters: Matidius, Tarsinus and Numerius, and the rest of all who are with you, and to our most cherished children, Palladius and Sevirinus, who were jealous with good zeal and chose for themselves a blessed and exalted life in the Orthodox faith and perfect harmony with the Church; fulfilling the saying of the Savior: “If you want to be perfect, sell what you have and give to the poor” (Matthew 19:21) and another: they sold their estates and laid them “before the feet of the Apostle” (Acts 4:37); and to those who gather what is favorable and most useful to their souls, Epiphanius, the least of the bishops, and the brethren who are with me, wish to rejoice in the Lord God. 1. For this very reason, I could consider myself happy, most desirable ones, because, not being capable of the virtuous life of saints and diligent people, and embraced by zeal for God, I was honored by them to be encouraged to awaken my mind and turn it to something useful. For our humble mind, always striving to remain in silence and not to extend beyond the limits set for it, bearing in mind what was said by the Apostle: let me not extend beyond the measure of the rule, “the measure of which God has given us” (2 Cor. 10:13), is now forced to do so. The requests that have come from everywhere, both yours, driven by zeal from God inflamed in you, and others like-minded, I mean those who are zealous for Orthodoxy, as well as the requests of our child Hypatius, who came to me for this purpose from the country of Egypt, prompted me to put aside all cowardice and all slowness, not to remain silent any longer and not to put it off until another time, but to write a doctrine of faith. You and our brethren ask me about what concerns your salvation, about the solid foundation from Divine and Holy Scripture for the teaching of faith about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and about everything else concerning salvation in Christ, namely the resurrection of the dead and the fleshly coming of the Only Begotten; about the Holy Testament, Old and New, and in general about everything in which perfect salvation consists. And I, taking into account this proposal of questions, of which quite a few were transmitted from those who were with Konops, my brother and co-presbyter, and from those who followed him, also from others, and from your honor, my most desired children, as well as from my child Hypatius, who came to me from Egypt for this reason, seeing many unanimous decisions, alarmed in mind and thought, I began to reflect. And I, humble, decided, at your request and in accordance with your written request, to readily and without hesitation begin to write this message of mine. 2. I am greatly amazed at the wondrous look of our Lord and God, Who, out of the abundance of His grace in everything, was pleased to give His Holy Spirit in truth to those who seek Him. For I do not consider your and your like-minded demands, set out in writing, to have occurred without the inspiration of God; but recognized it as a movement that appeared in you through the power of the grace of God. In truth - and you know this well - those who say in agreement with the blessed Peter: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), will clearly be blessed by the Lord Himself, just as this saint himself was blessed, hearing the words: “Blessed are you Simon var Jonah” (Matthew 16:17), that is, the son of Jonah; for his father was called Jonah, and “var” from the Hebrew dialect is interpreted as “son” 3. And this was the life that the Only Begotten Son gave to His disciples, saying: “Let them have life” within themselves (John 10:10), which means to know “the only true God, and Him who He sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). With the words: “the one true God” leads us to unity of command, so that we are no longer enslaved to the elements of the world, so that there is no polytheism in us, and let the thoughts of men not extend to such fornication, but to the unity of the one true God: “the beginning of fornication was the intent of idols,” says Scripture (Wisdom 14:12). “And Jesus Christ sent Him.” Who is this: Jesus Christ? - The True God. If Christ Jesus is God, as John says about Him: “The only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, He is the one who confessed” (John 1:18), then there is one God the Father, and one true God, not like the false gods, which some of the Greeks called gods, whereas they are not gods; but there is one true God, since the Only Begotten is one and only the Holy Spirit is one. The Trinity is in one, and there is one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 3. But the word of God is so frightening to those who are not worthy of the Holy Spirit: “no one can speak of the Lord Jesus except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). For the Jews also pronounce the name of Jesus, but do not consider Him Lord. And the Arians pronounce this name, but claim that He is an adopted God, and not the true one, since they do not partake of the Holy Spirit. If anyone does not receive the Holy Spirit, he does not call Jesus truly Lord, truly God, truly Son of God, and truly eternal King. Let those who have a bad opinion come to their senses about the fact that the Only Begotten Son of God does not want to testify about Himself. For this is what He said in the Gospel: “Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is insignificant. “He is the one who testifies about Me” (John 5:31–32). Who is this “in”? - He who cried from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17, 17:5). And He Who said: “If I testify of Myself, My testimony is insignificant,” then says: “If I testify of Myself, My testimony is truly” (John 8:14); and again: “these works bear witness to what the Father has given Me” (Jn. 5:36); and also: “Moses wrote about Me” (John 5:46) and: Moses testifies of Me. First he said: “If I testify of Myself, my testimony is insignificant,” in order to destroy the self-praise of those who boast and approve of themselves, since many glorify themselves and testify of themselves. And when he says: “If I testify of Myself, My testimony is true,” he shows that His testimony is not human, but that He is God, true in His testimony. So the Father is the true God, the Son is the true God, the Holy Spirit is the true, the Spirit of God and the Spirit of truth, the Trinity in one Spirit. For about the Father the Son Himself says: “That they may know unto You the only true God” (John 17:3), and who calls Him God. the only-begotten (John 1:18), is reliable. The expression: “true God” is not applied to the only-begotten God, but about the Father it is written: “the true God.” But it is also said about the Father that “God is light” (1 John 1:5), and about the Son: “he is the true light” (John 1:9). 4. Pay attention to the accuracy of the Scriptures. The Father is light, but it is not added to the expression about the Father: “true light”; about the Son it is said: “true light”; and no one dares to say otherwise. For what kind of madman, or better yet, who has mental damage within himself, would dare to find a reason for blasphemy in the fact that he did not find the addition to that saying: “true.” Of course, if the true Son born of Him is true light, then the parent of the Son, without a doubt, is true light, just as He Himself, without beginning and without flight, is true light. And how one should not dare to say about the Father that He is not the true light; but we ourselves, out of piety, understand - although this is not written - that He is the true light, and of this we do not doubt, lest we perish: so it is also written about the Son that the Son is God, although it is not added: “true God”; but we would seem crazy if we dared to blaspheme and say that the Son is not the true God. For it is enough for one Person to bear this name, who is in full connection with the Trinity, and by the Father to understand both the Son as the true God and the Spirit as the true, since the equality of truth is applied to each name: to the Father, “true God”; to the Son, - “God”; but in turn to the Son: “true light”, and to the Father: “light”; so that by uniting into one two opinions about the Divinity - about the Father that He is “true God”, and about the Son that He is “true light”, and about the Father that He is “light”, and about the Son that He is “God”, from the concepts: “light” and “God”, we confessed a single Divinity, and from the concepts: “true God” and “true light” - a single unity of power. 5. The same is true about the Holy Spirit: “If I go, He will come,” says the Savior, “the Spirit of truth” (John 16:7, 13). And also about Himself: “I am the truth” (John 14:6); and about the Father: “The Spirit of My Father speaks in you” (Matthew 10:20); and about the Spirit: “And My Spirit shall remain in the midst of you” (Hag. 2:5). The Spirit, ineffably assisting the Son, leads Him “into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1). And the Lord Himself says: “The Spirit of the Lord, for His sake anointing me" (Luke 4:18; Isa. 61:1); and the Holy Spirit says in the prophets: “This saith the Lord Almighty,” saying in the prophets the Lord, “He makes thunder and makes the wind” (Am. 3:11, 4:13): - “thunder,” heard by people; and “makes the wind,” for the production of rains sent from God; to the earth. And about creatures he says this: “he establishes the thunder and creates the wind”: for this is what is created: Proclaiming Christ the Son to people, He is no longer “creator” or “establisher,” but proclaiming Him to people as truly begotten of Him, uncreated, immutable, unchangeable, always existing from the Ever-Bearing One, preached by John, the Ever-Bearing One. For “He hath sent me,” says Moses (Ex. 3:14). And John: “He is in the bosom of the Father, He is the one who confesses” (John 1:18). The Son is existing, the Father is existing, existing with beings, born of Him, not merged with the Father, and not beginning to be (in time); but always akin to the Father, and the Father is always the parent of the Son. For there never was a time when the Father was not the Father; There was also no time when the Son did not exist with the one Father. Because if there had been a time when the Father was not the Father, then the Son Himself would have been the Son of another Father before the Father of the Only Begotten began to be. And those who think to be pious in relation to the Father are completely wicked. In God, neither time, nor time, nor a point in time, nor a minute of an hour, nor a twinkling of an eye, nor a flight of thought is allowed; but to the extent that your mind rises to comprehend the Son and believe in Him, to the same extent understand the Father. The name itself already has a meaning: when you call the Son, when speaking about the Son, understand the Father: for the Father is also thought of from the Son. And when you call the Father, you also designate the Son: for in any case He is called the Father of the Son. 6. How can you dare and say that the Father was not the Father, so as to dare to call the Son non-existent? If you do not dare to add any dignity to the Father (for what exists always remains in identity and does not need either addition, glory, or advancement): then know that you should not blaspheme, fighting against faith, or better yet, removing yourself from faith, but always believe in the eternal Father, who truly begat the Son, who always truly exists, existing with the true Father. Because the Son is always neither merged with the Father, nor fellow with Him, but a true Son born of the Father, a natural son, and not an adopted son. The Son is consubstantial with the Father: not “co-essential,” but “consubstantial,” that is, not born without the Father, as some mockingly say, who want to recognize the Son as Son by adoption, and not by truth. The union of faith consists in recognizing Him as “consubstantial.” If you called Him “consubstantial,” then you broke the power of Sabellius 4 . For “consubstantial” does not mean one hypostasis, but also signifies the hypostatic Father, and the hypostatic Son, and the hypostatic Holy Spirit. Also, when someone speaks of “consubstantiality,” he does not mean something alien to the same Divinity, but God the Son from God, and God the Holy Spirit from the same existing Divinity, and not three gods. Because if we call the Son and Father God, then we are not talking about two gods: for our God is one, as blessed Moses says: “The Lord your God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4). We do not talk about gods, calling God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and not gods, because there is no polytheism in God. The one Deity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is called by three names. And not two Sons: for one Son is the only begotten. So the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, always present with the Father and the Son, not alien to God, but existing from God, proceeding from the Father and receiving from the Son. But the only begotten Son is incomprehensible, and the Spirit is incomprehensible; he comes from God, but is not alien to the Father and the Son; and not so that through Him there was a fusion of the Father and the Son, but the Trinity always existing in one and the same being; not another being besides the Divinity, and not another Divinity apart from the being, but the same Divinity, and from the same Divinity the Son and the Holy Spirit. 7. And the Spirit is the Holy Spirit; and the Son is the Son; The Spirit “proceeds from the Father” (John 15:26) and “receives” from the Son (John 16:14–15); “tests the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:10); “proclaims” what pertains to the Son (John 16:14–15); in the world illuminates the saints through the Trinity; there is a third by name: Father and Son and Holy Spirit. “As you go, it is said, baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19): after all, the Spirit is the seal of grace, the union of the Trinity, not alien to number, not different in name, not alien to gifts, but one God, “one faith, one Lord,” one gift, one church, “one baptism” (Eph. 4:5 For the Trinity is always a Trinity, never accepting addition: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; the Trinity is not fused; there is nothing in it that differs from its own unity; but in the perfect hypostasis there is a perfect Father, a perfect Son, a perfect Holy Spirit: the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For “divisions of gifts are, and also divisions.” they are ministries, and the same is the Lord: and the divisions of actions are, and the same is God, acting all in all” (1 Cor. 12:4-6). Let us not deviate from what is expected; Let us not move away from the truth. We do not speak in defense of God, but we think piously so as not to perish; and we do not speak as those who comprehend everything: we speak what we have understood as people. The honor of God infinitely and immeasurably exceeds our mind, is glorified, does not accept the addition of glory and does not tolerate its taking away: for there is nothing in the Trinity created or surpassed in time. But the Father begets the Son; and there was no time when there was no Son, nor was there any time in which the Father was not called Father; but there was always a Father, and there was always a Son, not a brother, but a Son begotten inexplicably and named incomprehensibly; always existing with the Father, never ceasing to be. So the Father is unbegotten and uncreated and incomprehensible. The Son is begotten, but also uncreated and incomprehensible. The Holy Spirit always exists, not begotten, not a brother, not an uncle according to the Father, not an ancestor, not a grandchild, but from the same being of the Father and the Son there is the Holy Spirit 5 . for “God is Spirit” (John 4:24). 8. Each of the names is the same and has no other meaning. The Father is the Father and does not have anything opposite or associated with another Father, so that there are not two gods. And the only begotten Son, true God from true God, not having the name of the Father and not alien to the Father, but being from the one Father; The Only Begotten, to be the Son of the same name, and God from God, so that the Father and the Son are called one God. And the Holy Spirit is the only one who has not the name of the Son, not the title of the Father, but the so-called Holy Spirit, not alien to the Father. For the Only Begotten Himself says: “The Spirit of the Father” and: “Whoever proceeds from the Father” (John 15:26) and: “He will receive from Mine” (John 16:14–15); so that we do not consider Him to be alien to either the Father or the Son, but to have the same essence, the same Divinity, the Divine Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of God, the Comforter Spirit (John 15:26), called with the same name, without comparison, not equated with any other spirit, not called by the name of the Son, or called by the name of the Father, so that names of the same name are not equivalent. Name: God belongs to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He who is God's is God; for example, the Spirit of God is both the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son, not according to any addition, as in us there is soul and body, but between the Father and the Son, as from the Father (proceeding) and from the Son (receiving), the third by name: for “as you go,” it is said, baptize “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). If the Father baptizes in His name, that is, in the name of God, and the seal imprinted on us in the name of God is perfect; and if Christ baptizes in His name, that is, in the name of God, and the seal imprinted on us about the name of God is perfect: then who dares to fight against his own soul, calling the Spirit alien to the Divine? If (baptism is performed) in the name of God (the Father), and in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, if (in this) there is one seal of the Trinity, then there is one power of the Divinity in the Trinity. If one thing alone is God, and the rest is created and is not God, then how are the two connected into one by the seal of perfection? So we are sealed in one royal name of the Father, and the rest is not royal, but still “under the elements” and creatures “beyond enslavement” (Gal. 4:3). The name of the Father alone could not save, but God created for Himself, in the opinion of those who blaspheme, two other elements, so that His Divinity would receive other powers, and so that He could save the one sealed by Him, and the man He created through atonement would receive remission of sins. 9. Oh idle talk! Oh blasphemy! Where did another, new disbelief, or better yet, malice come into life? Malice is worse than unbelief. Unbelief, accepting faith, will be corrected, but unbelief is incorrigible and can hardly achieve salvation, unless grace comes to the rescue from above. Therefore, blessed Peter says this to those who are of one mind with Ananias: “Why did Satan tempt you to lie to the Holy Spirit?” and further: “Thou didst not lie to man, but to God” (Acts 5:3-4). So, the Spirit from the Father and from the Son, to whom those who hid the price (of the property) lied, is God. And Paul agrees with this word, saying: you “are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you" (1 Cor. 3:16). So, the Spirit is God, as I said above: therefore, holy people can also be called the church of God, who have made themselves the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of God, as the most supreme of the Apostles testifies, being honored by the Lord for what the Father has revealed to him (Matthew 16:17). And He Himself reveals His Holy Spirit: this befitted the first of the Apostles, the solid rock on which the Church of God was created, “and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18); and the gates of hell are heresies and leaders of heresies. In any case, faith is established on him, on him who has received the key of heaven, on the resolver on earth and on the binder in heaven (cf. Matthew 16:19). In it you can find the solution to all the subtle questions of faith. He is the one who renounced three times and who swore three times before the alector spoke. (Matthew 26ff.). Denoting the abundance of his love for his Master, he affirmatively said: “even if everyone denies you, I will not deny you” (cf. Matt. 26:33): I say this, to what extent it depends on the person. He wept at the cock’s crow (Matthew 26:75) in order to truly confess the taking of the Son of God to judgment, as not illusory, but true, so that we weep at the capture of Him, betrayed (by Judas), to show that He is a true man. He is the ally of the one who reclined on Jesus’ breasts (John 13:23). For this one, learning from the Son and receiving from the Son, the power of knowledge; He was naked from a ship on the Sea of ​​Tiberias, after his call (to the apostleship), and he again fished (John 21:3, et al.). “And the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 21:7), that is, John, when the Savior said: “children, what food have you got to eat?” (John 21:5) and: “Cast the stone on the right hand of the ship and you will find it” (John 21:6) and after the disciples were amazed at what had been accomplished according to the word, he says to Peter: “The Lord is” (John 21:7) - a man according to the flesh, born of Mary truly, and not illusively, and the Spirit is God, descended from heaven from the Father. From the Son, Peter hears the words: “Peter, feed My lambs” (John 21:15). Thus, he is awarded shepherd over the flock, governs it well by the power of his Master, confesses the flesh of Christ, truly proclaims about the Son what was revealed to him by the Father, indicates the Spirit and His dignity in the Godhead, gives Paul and Barnabas the right hand of communication with James and John (Gal. 2:9), “that by three witnesses every word may be made” (Matthew 18:16). 10. Nothing can happen without two or three witnesses. There is confirmation of this in one of the Old Testament sacraments. People under the law will know only the Father if they do not accept the power of the Son and are not strengthened by the power of two witnesses: the Father and the Son, and in the third testimony they do not receive the Holy Spirit and are not clearly filled with the voices of the cherubim and seraphim, who cried three times: “holy, holy, holy” (Is. 6:3). The doxology in heaven is not performed in two words, and these saints and invisible spiritual animals do not exclaim four times, they do not utter four voices, and not just one, but three single words: “holy, holy, holy.” And they do not say: “holy, holy,” so as to reveal the singular to the many and not to hide the number of three; but they make the sound “holy” three times, and yet they pronounce the word uniformly and singly, so as not to name many gods. For one is God the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit; and therefore the Holy One resting in the saints, the true Father, and the true hypostatic Son, and the true hypostatic Holy Spirit, there are three of them, but one Divinity, one being, one doxology, one God. Have you named God? – you have embraced the Trinity with your mind. Have you received the Holy Spirit? - you have been awarded the power of the Father and the Son of God. Have you glorified the Father? – you pointed to the Son and the Holy Spirit, but not merged. For the Father is the Father; The Son is the Son; The Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit: the Trinity is not alienated from unity and identity. The Father is honored because He is the Father; the Son is honored because He is the Son; The Holy Spirit is honored, since He is the true Spirit and the Spirit of God. This is what the Only Begotten says: He who honors the Father also honors the Son. For by the very fact that you name the Father, you indicate the Son and honor the Son; and whoever honors the Son honors the Father (cf. John 5:23). For by the very name of the Son you honor the Father, affirming that Christ is not lower than the Father. 11. If even among us people there is such a concept, and we do not want sons to be inferior and to be humiliated by honor against their fathers, because the dishonor of sons is imputed to fathers, then how much more does God and the Father not desire that His Son should ever be humiliated? So, he who recognizes the true Son of the Father as lacking in the glory of the Father, instead of honor, dishonors Him, led by ignorance. Therefore, just as the Father is revealed by the one who says: “no one knows the Father except the Son; and no one knows the Son except the Father” (Matthew 11:27), so, I dare say, no one knows the Spirit except the Father and the Son, from whom He proceeds and from whom He receives. And how do they dare to call the Spirit alien to God, led more by madness than by truth, and do not understand the true word of the reliable and holy Apostle Paul, to whom the most supreme of the Apostles, Peter, who was worthy to have the keys of the kingdom, gave his right hand? - Paul, who heard from heaven: “Saul, Saul, that they persecuted Me” (Acts 9:4), - who was worthy to hear - “unspeakable verbs, which it is not for a man to speak” (2 Cor. 12, 4); - saying: “No one knows what is in a man, but the spirit of man living in him” (1 Cor. 2:11). With this example he wanted to explain the highest, not in order to equate the example of man with God, but in order to at least partially reveal the highest by example. For all creation as a whole, angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim with the heavenly army, that is in heaven and on earth, that is, earthly and heavenly, and underworld, the luminaries and stars, land and water, and everything in general that is in heaven and on earth, cannot represent its Master or be likened to Him in an image. Only by grace does He give His image to man, saying: “God created man, in the image of God created him” (Gen. 1:27). It is only by gift that every person has the image of God. But no one can be like his Master: for one is invisible, the other is visible, one is immortal, the other is mortal; that is, the source of all wisdom and has everything perfect in Himself, but man has the gift only in part, lacks what is most perfect, if God does not desire through the gift to give perfection to everyone according to their dignity. 12. However, using this example, Saint Paul himself says: no man “knows the message that is in a man, but the spirit of man living in him: so also no one knows the message of God”; and did not say: “yet the Spirit of God dwelleth in Him”; but only: “The Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11), lest anyone imagine the Divinity as composed of parts and put together. “Exactly,” he says, “the Spirit of God: the Spirit of God tests all things, even the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:10-11). So, the Spirit is not alien to God, testing the “depths.” For if the Divine Scripture reproaches us, saying: “what you are commanded, understand this” and “you have no need of secret things: do not seek those who are above you, and the deepest do not test yourself” (Sir. 3, 21-22); then shall we say of the Holy Spirit that He tests the depths of God rather out of His own nature? Where does He test the depths of God? But since the saints are worthy of the fact that the Holy Spirit lives in them, then when the Holy Spirit begins to dwell in the saints, He grants them the opportunity to experience the depths of God in order to glorify God from the depths (as David confesses this: “from the depths,” he says, “I cried to You, Lord” - Psalm 129:1), and in an infinitely majestic manner, and not cowardly and imperfectly, like the adherents of the heresy of Arius and all other heresies, which are: eleven heresies that emerged after the law was given through Moses, but before the coming of Christ in the flesh, and the other sixty that arose after His coming in the flesh. In addition to those who were before the law, of which there are five, there were also four Hellenic heresies, and with those who were before the law, nine. All together, with their ancestors, the number is eighty. There are five of them, the following: barbarism, Scythianism, Hellenism, Judaism, Samaritanism. From these, namely from Hellenism, four heresies arose: the Pythagoreans, Platonists, Stoics, Epicureans. From the law, before the coming of Christ in the flesh, eleven: from Judaism seven: scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Nazarenes, Imerobaptists, Herodians; from Samaritanism there are four - Gorofinov, Sevueev, Essin, Dositheev. All together, from the law of Judaism and Samaritanism, there are eleven heresies that arose. 13. So, all the heresies that existed before the coming of Christ in the flesh, starting from Adam and until the coming of Christ, are twenty. After the coming of Christ in the flesh until the reign of Valentinian and Valens and Gratian, all the Jews who falsely used the name of Christ were sixty, and they are counted as follows: Simonians; Menandrians; Satornilians; Basilidians; Nicolaitans; Gnostics, who are also Stratiotics and Thebionites, and some are Secundianites, others are Socrates, others are Zacchaeus, and some are called Coddians and Worvorites; carpocratites; Kerinthians, they are also Myrinthians; Nazarenes; Ebionea; valentines; the Secundians, with whom Epiphanius and Isidore are connected; Ptolemaeonites 6; Marcosia; colorasia; Heracleonites; Ophites; Kayans; Sethians; archontics; Kerdonians; Marcionists; Lucianists; Appellians; Sevirians; Tatians; encratites; Catafriges, who are also Montanists and Taskodrugits; the Pepusians, who are also the Priscillians and Quintillians, with whom the Artothirites are connected; the fourteeners, who celebrate Easter on the same day of the year; alogues who do not accept John's Gospel and the Apocalypse; Adamians; Sampsei, they are also Elkesites; Theodotians; Melchizedekians; Vardisianists; nostians; Valicia; the Kafars, who are also the Novatians and Montesii, as they are called in Rome; angeliki; apostolics, they are also apotactics; Sabellians; Origenists, they are also studodey (shamniks); Adamantic Origenists; heresy of Paul of Samosata; Manichaeans, who are also Akuanites; hierakites; Meletians; Egyptian schism; Arians, they are also Ariomanites; Obedians - a schism, not a heresy; Photinians; Marcellians; semi-Arians; Doukhobors, blasphemers of the Holy Spirit of God; Aerians; Aetians, they are also Anomeans, with whom Eunomius is in connection, or better yet, one who does not recognize the law (ανομος); Dimirites, who do not profess the perfect incarnation of Christ, they are also Apollinarians, who claim that Saint Mary Ever-Virgin, after the birth of the Savior, cohabited with Joseph, whom we called anti-Dicomarianites; in her name those who bring some cookies (collyrida), which are called collyridians; The Massalians, with whom the Martyrians of the Hellenes are in connection, are also Euphimites and Satanians. 14. And in general, before and now it was unpleasant for me to count the names of so many heresies and talk about their lawless deeds, such as, for example, about two schisms, namely the Egyptian one, I mean the above-mentioned Meletians, who, due to the fact that those who fell during the persecution, after repentance, were accepted by us in their rank, split off, but not as a heresy, and the above-mentioned ones who were still in Mesopotamia Obdians, also renegades, but not having an alien faith. They only reason in a peculiar way and love to argue about the expression: “according to the image” (Gen. 1:26-27), but not for the sake of faith they oppose the Church and separate themselves from it, and not for the sake of anything else, but out of a desire for the highest perfection in righteousness, for the reason that they do not have communion with bishops and presbyters who have acquired gold and silver, and for the reason that they celebrate Passover at the time in which the Jews celebrate it. For this reason they have split off and are alienated from unity with the Orthodox Church. Not having received the Holy Spirit, they did not know the depths of God and were divided into heresies and schisms that occurred as a result of irritation: for leaving the truth, they went along many paths, at different times reasoning differently. The holy Apostle himself also says, revealing to us why he said this: “We have received the Spirit of God, that we know what is given to us from God: which we speak not in those who have been taught the wisdom of words, but in those who have been taught the Holy Spirit, the spiritual understanding of the spiritual” (1 Cor. 2:12-13), and so on. So, the Spirit of God is not alien God: for if He is alien to God, then how does he “test the depths of God”? And you, vain, fighting against yourself, not to say, against the Holy Spirit of God, what do you say? Why do you, vain, fight against the invincible? 5). 15. In any case, you say this out of deceit: for I have already heard some superstitious people who blasphemed the truth of God and our Savior and said: “He tests the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:10), but does not “comprehend,” because this word was not added to that saying. The Apostle only said: “experiences the depths of God,” and did not add: “comprehends.” Oh great stupidity! Was there a need, O man offended by God, after the saying: “experiences”, the saying: “comprehends”? According to your narrow-minded way of thinking, it turns out that the matter itself suffers damage if some speech is not added. But in the present case, any pretext for this is taken away from you, for Scripture everywhere presents the truth for the most reverent man. About God Almighty it is written like this: God will search the entrails and “test the secrets of the womb” (Prov. 20:27). If he examines the insides, then does he really not know what he is examining? Or does all knowledge consist of research? To the saying: “will experience the secret womb” is also not added: “comprehends.” So, is it really possible that if the word “comprehends” is not added to that saying, I will cause death to myself by adding to that saying the expression “does not comprehend,” in your opinion, meaningless? So it is precisely said about the Holy Spirit that He “tests,” and there was no need to add: “and comprehends,” since from that very word it is already clear that in the Holy Spirit there is knowledge of God and the depths of God. If it is not said: “comprehends,” then understand this yourself and do not destroy your soul; because as about the Father one should not dare to say: “tests,” and does not “comprehend”; for He Himself, together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, created man; The Trinity is always the Trinity and never accepts addition: this is how we should think about the Holy Spirit. When Scripture speaks of the creation of man: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1), it signifies the voice of the Father calling for creation, saying: “Let us create” (Gen. 1:26) and presuming, I think, the Son and the Holy Spirit. For this is what he says: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their strength” (Psalm 33:6). Thus, together with the Father, the Word also creates; the Holy Spirit also creates. So, does the Almighty God, who created man, not know what is in man, experiencing the “secret womb”? But in saying this, the word of God adds the highest degree of knowledge of God, so that none of those who sin among us would think of hiding from God. For He Himself knows man and what is in man (cf. John 2:25 and 1 Cor. 2:11). 16. So the Father “tests the secret womb” (Proverbs 20:27), and knows; and the Spirit “tests the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:10), and knows; for he reveals the mysteries of God to the saints and teaches them to glorify God from the depths of their souls and shows the incomprehensibility of Him to those who are involved in Him. Thus the Spirit is not alien to God. It is not said either about the angels that they experience the depths of God, or about the archangels. For “no one knows about those days or about that hour,” says the Son of God, “not the angels who are in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32). But do not the foolish, not adorned by the Holy Spirit, think that there is something in the Father that is not in the Divinity of the Son? “Just as the Father has life in Himself, so the Son also has life in Himself” (John 5:26), and everything that belongs to My Father is “My essence” (John 17:10), says the Holy Word of God Himself. What belongs to the Father if not this? Is it the Father's property that He is God? – This is also the property of the Son. Does the Father's life belong? – This belongs to the Son too. Does the Father's light belong? – Obviously, it also belongs to the Son. Does immortality belong to the Father? - It also belongs to the Son. Incomprehensibility belongs to the Father and the Son. Everything that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son. Therefore, if what belongs to the Father belongs to Him, then the knowledge that is in the Father also appears in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. If anyone thinks that the Son does not know about the day (of the Last Judgment), then let the ignorant learn and not blaspheme. I offer him knowledge, and he will know: tell me, beloved: - I call you beloved, for I do not hate anyone, except the devil, and the works of the devil and evil faith, but for you I pray that you come to the truth of God and do not destroy yourself by blasphemy against God. The words of the holy God are profound, and they are given by the Holy Spirit through gifts. “To one,” it is said, “the word of wisdom is given, and to another the word of teaching,” and so on. But “the Spirit dividing equally with each as He wills” (1 Cor. 12:8, 11), in order to show you the identity of the Holy Spirit, since the same Spirit gives gifts to everyone as He wills. So beg the Father that He will reveal the Son to you; and beg the Son that He will reveal it to you Father. And call again on the Father, that He may give you the Son and reveal the Holy Spirit to you, and grant you to have Him within you, so that the Holy Spirit, which has been given to you, may reveal to you all knowledge of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, so that you may know that there is no ignorance in either the Son or the Holy Spirit. 17. If the angels lack much in terms of being and knowledge, then let it not be that both the Son of God and the Holy Spirit lack this! But God, the Holy Word, who came to us from the Father, speaks spiritually; but those of the soul strive (1 Cor. 2:14-15), not understanding the wisdom of the Son, or better, the words of wisdom. I ask you, and tell me: who is greater, the Father or this day of which He speaks? You don’t dare, of course, to say that the Father no longer exists. So, if the Father is greater than that day, and the hour, and all that has come from Him and will come to pass, and no one knows Him “except the Son” (Matthew 11:27), then what is greater, the Father or that day? – It is very clear that to know the Father. So how does one who knows more lack less? If therefore He knows the Father, then, of course, He also knows that day; and there is nothing in which the Son lacks knowledge. But you will say that the Father, who is above all things, has knowledge, but the Son does not at all, as He Himself says: “My Father is sick to me” (John 14:28). But this speaks to honor the Father, as was fitting, the Son, moreover, honored by the Father. In truth, it was necessary for the true Son to honor his own Father, in order to show that He was the true Son. In what way, do you think, is He greater than Him? Circle or gravity? or time? or age? or dignity? or Deity? or immortality? or eternity? Don't think that. There is nothing in His Divinity unequal to the Son. But since He is the Father, He is the Father, and since He is the true Son, He honors His Father; and the Divinity is not determined by gravity, so that the Father is superior to the Son by it; and It is not subject to time, so that the Father would surpass the Son in time; Likewise, the Father does not dwell on any height: so that the Son is thought of as standing lower; for He embraces everything, He Himself is not encompassed by anything. He is “sitting at the right hand” of the Father (Mark 16:19; Heb. 1:8, 8:1, 10:12, 12:2), and it is not said: “entered into the Father” in order to destroy the teaching of Sabellius and overthrow Arius’ blasphemy against Him. 18. Therefore do not seek what you should not seek, but honor the Son, that you may honor the Father also. And when you hear about God: “no one is good, only one God” (Luke 18:19), then do not dare to declare the Son not good because the Son primarily honors the Father. For when He calls the Father good, He does not deny that He Himself is good, but even more so reveals Himself as such in honoring His own Father, so that from the goodness of the Father the goodness of the Son of God, born of the good Father God, may be known. Great weakness is revealed by those who dare to speak about the Son as if you had said: “There is only one good God.” For in many places the Divine Scripture teaches us, calling the poor and wise youth good (Eccl. 4:13) and saying: “Samuel was good before the Lord and men” (1 Sam. 2:26), and: “Good was Saul, the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin, from the shoulders and above, high above all” of the Israelites (1 Sam. 9:2 ; cf. Art. 1) and again: “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting” (Eccl. 7:2), and: “O Lord, open the heavens of Your good treasure” (Deut. 28:12) and: “A good word is better than giving” (Sir. 18:17; cf. Art. 16) and: “A living dog is better than a lion.” dead" (Eccl. 9:4), and: “two are better than one” (Eccl. 4:9), and: “the last word is better than the beginning” (Eccl. 7:8) and: “if you are evil, you know how to give good things to your children” (Matthew 7:11), and we are talking about fish and bread. How can one dare to think that in those words the Son denies His goodness, and not think that He, out of abundance of honor to the Father, ascribes goodness to Him? He saw that the one who said to him: “to a good teacher” (Mark 18:18; cf. Matt. 19:16), said this only with his lips, and not in his heart, and, wanting to convict him, he said those words so that he would not believe in Him with his lips, but test Him with his heart, as in another place he says: “What do you say to Me: Lord, Lord, and do not do the things I say” (Luke 6:46 ; cf. Matthew 1:21)? And in this way he wanted to convict him, because he called Him a good teacher, but did not continue in faith in Him to believe in His goodness. 19. So the Holy Word Himself is living, hypostatic, the heavenly King, the true Son, always existing with the Father, coming from the Father, “the radiance of glory, the image of the hypostasis” (Heb. 1:3), the image of the Father in truth, co-throne with Him who gave birth, whose “Kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:33). He is the “Judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42), - Wisdom from Wisdom, Source from the Source: for “Me,” he says, “forsaken the fountain of living waters, and dug up for himself treasures of brokenness” (Jer. 2:13). He is an ever-flowing river, cheering the city of God with his aspirations (Ps. 45:5), from which the same Source flowed from Whom, as it is said, “rivers will flow out of his belly” (John 7:38). He is the rod of David, “the root of Jesse” (Rom. 15:12), the flower from him, “the lion, the king of the tribe of Judah” (Apoc. 5:5), the “sheep” verbal (cf. Acts 8:32 and Isa. 53:7), “a living stone” (1 Peter 2:4), “a great angel of counsel” (Isa. 9:6), man in truth who was, and God who abides in truth, immutable by nature, not changed by the Divine, born in the flesh, the incarnate Word, “the Word is flesh” who was (John 1:14). Here, between the words: “Word” and “became,” the word “flesh” is placed. It is not said: “The Word was,” but after the saying: “Word” without a member, “flesh” is added; and after the word: “flesh” it is said: “was”, so that through the word: “was” He was understood both as born of Mary, and as the Word descended from above from the Father. This holy, living Word, God who is with the Father, the great council of the Angel, proclaiming the decisions of the Council of the Father, “the Father of the age to come” (Isa. 9:6), Himself said: “no one knows about those days and that hour, not even the angels who are in heaven” (Mark 13:32). Opponents do not know that the Son in a special sense says: “only one Father” (Mark 13:32). If the Son knows the Father, and the Father is more than that day and hour, which no one doubts, then how is it that he who knows the greater does not know the less? For “no one knows the Father but the Son, and no one knows the Son but the Father” (Matthew 11:27). Just as the Father is great because he knows the Son, so the Son is great because he knows the Father. Therefore, if He knows the Father, the greater things, then how does He not know the little things, that is, that day and that hour? Try the Divine Scriptures and know the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit Himself, who knows the Father and the Son, will reveal to you the knowledge of the Word of the Son of God, so that you do not wander from the truth and destroy your soul. 20. Two types of knowledge, two kinds of knowledge are presented in the Divine Scripture: one by action, and the other by knowledge. But in order to present you with similarities from examples, so that your erring mind and those who think like you with many examples can be directed to the right path, find out what Scripture says about Adam: “besta,” he says, “both naked in paradise, and not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25). They were not blind, for they saw with their eyes. If they had not seen, how would they have known that “the tree is good for food, and “And the woman took it,” it says, “and gave it to her husband with her” (Gen. 3:6). So they were not blind, but had open eyes; being naked, they were not ashamed, looking at each other; and being naked, they knew each other: they knew by knowledge, and not by action. For only after they, having eaten from the tree, were expelled from paradise, after a long time, it is said: “Adam knew Eve his wife” (Gen. 4:1). How could this be when they, being naked, saw each other and knew themselves by vision and not by action? And Scripture calls cohabitation with each other knowledge. It uses knowledge in a double sense: for it also says this: Jacob knew Leah his wife, “and conceived and gave birth” (Gen. 29, 32 et al.). First he knew her; for for seven years Laban her father tended the sheep with her. I knew it through knowledge, through vision and through knowledge, and through action. Rachel also knew his wife (cf. Gen. 30:23). And in another place: “And David became old,” it is said, “and he clothed him with many garments, and was not warmed. And he decided to the king: let them look for good maidens. And I found Abishag the Sumanite. And she brought her, it is said, to the king, and she slept with him, and quickly warmed him. And David did not know her” (1 Kings 1:1-4), - the one who was with him, touched him with her body and lay at his side. So what kind of knowledge are we talking about here? Is it about leading through vision, or about leading through action? And again: “The Lord knows Him who is” (2 Tim. 2:19). So does He not know those who are not? And: “Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity: I never knew you” (Luke 13:27). So is there really ignorance in the Son of God? And also: “I knew you from all tribes” (Am. 3:2). So does He really not know the rest of the tribes? Let it not be! But Divine Scripture distinguishes knowledge: one by knowledge, and the other by action. 21. So the Only Begotten, fulfilling the will of the Father, has already shown everything to be accomplished. For the Father knew that hour and day, knew it both by knowledge and action, since He knows everything. And when the Son says: “The Father gave all judgment to the Sons” (John 5:22), and no matter how he judges, then by the very fact that He gave this right to the Son, He showed that He Himself judges: because God is not deprived of the right to judge those who are judged. And the fact that the Father does not judge is that He has already judged. But the Son knows when he will come: for He Himself brings this day, He Himself determines, leads and fulfills it; because he says: “That day will come, like a thief in the night” (2 Pet. 3:10). He also says: “Do not be in the night, lest the day find you in darkness” (cf. John 12:35). So, if the servants of Christ are the children of the day, then does the Son Himself, who brings the day, not know whether that day will find Him? Is it not He Himself, on the contrary, who brings this day? Who who reasons in this way does not blaspheme, thinking indecent things about the Father and the Son? And the Father knows that day and hour in two ways: by knowledge and by action; for He knows when that day will come. And again He has already judged, decreeing that the Son should judge, and knew by action. The Son of God also knows when this day will come, and He Himself brings it and is not ignorant; but has not yet accomplished it by knowledge, that is, by action: for the wicked are still wicked, the unbelievers do not believe, the evil-believing blaspheme, the devil is at work, sins are committed, injustice reigns, and judgment is patient, until it comes, and until the Son recognizes it by action and takes vengeance and saves in truth those who trust in Him and do not blaspheme the Divinity of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit. 22. The holy angels lack this dignity in two respects. They are honored with honor and received it from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But they lack this: they do not know definitely when this will happen. “The Father set the times in His power” (Acts 1:7). If the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, then the Son no longer lacks the power that belongs to the Father. The angels lack it, because angels, like archangels and powers, are created beings. But the Father is not created, the Son is not created, the Spirit of God is not created. Therefore the angels do not know that day and hour either by knowledge or by action. They do not know when the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit will delight to bring that day. And they do not know the action by knowledge: for they have not yet received the command to go out and “gather” the evil ones like “tares” and “bind them in sheaves” to “burn” them with unquenchable fire (Matthew 13:30). So they have not done this yet and do not know; The Father knows and did; but the Son knows, but has not yet done it; that is, “only the Father” is one, but “neither the angels nor the Son” (Mark 13:32). Let us understand the power of Scripture, so that we do not have a letter to death: “the letter,” it is said, “kills, but the spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6). Let us embrace the spirit to benefit from writing. It is not writing itself that kills: life lies in writing; it kills the one who foolishly approaches writing and does not have a speaking spirit that opens the letter of Scripture and reveals what is hidden in it. Thus the Holy Father gave to His holy Church His only begotten Son, the true one born of Him, and His Holy Spirit, in one knowledge of like-mindedness, in one union of perfection; so that in the name of the perfect Father and God we receive a seal, and in the name of the perfect Son and God, and in the name of the Divine and perfect Spirit we receive a seal. O holy Trinity, countable, Trinity in one name, countable! For it is not said: one and two, or: one and one, but one in the Trinity, and the Trinity in one, one in kind, one in one name, one God the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit. 23. Call to me the witnesses of the truth, call to me the youths saved from the furnace of Babylon, who were worthy to be cast into the fire, but not destroyed, not to quench the fire, so as not to appear to oppose it in any new way of art, but to be in the fire, and yet not to be destroyed by the fire because of their right faith. Through them, God teaches us what is created and what is uncreated, what is created and what has not received existence in time, what is always existing and what has come from Him. These saved youths wanted to show their grateful disposition towards God, who saved them, in whom they initially placed their hope and did not retreat, did not bow their necks before the image, with the audacity of the king and unlimited power. And when they wanted to give something to God, then, having experienced the depths in their hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, being holy, and thinking about heaven and everything that is in it, about the earth and everything that is on it, and also about the fact that everything that exists is unworthy to be brought as an offering to God (for what is higher than themselves, they did not have the power to offer to God), and according to dignity and power they decided only with songs sing praises to God. For the following is written: “devour the sacrifice of praise” (Ps. 107:22), and: “the sacrifice of praise will glorify me” (Ps. 49:23). Having changed the Old Testament into the New, prompted by the Holy Spirit, they had no need for animal sacrifice or burnt offerings; because they say: “there is no place to devour, lower than sacrifice,” nor an altar (Dan. 3:38), since everything has been abandoned by them. And desiring to bring such praise and abandoning their humiliation, they humbly ascend in praise to God; “Whoever exalts himself will humble himself, but he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14). Along with the gift of His salvation, they also accept this gift of humility and want to bring praise to God and not become weak, and, having experienced themselves in the ineffable praise of God, they decide to take all creation with them into the praise and begin to praise, having accepted the whole creation. 24. Having distinguished the creatures from the Creator and the creatures from the Creator, they say: “Bless all the works of the Lord, the Lord” (Dan. 3:57). “Everything,” they said, and left nothing. But in order for the Holy Spirit to outline for us an image of perfect knowledge, to know what the Divinity is and what is created from God, so that we do not confuse with the eternal that which is created from non-existence, so that we do not destroy our soul, they reduced them all to one number. For the Holy Spirit revealed to them that they were worthy to be together with the angels and to live together with what is in heaven and what is on earth and what is in the depths of the earth; and they did not overlook anything. And the holy youths themselves say, as I said above: “bless all the works of the Lord, the Lord.” And they begin to count and distinguish which are the essence of the work, which are the creators of the work, which are the creations, what is done and what is done. And they number the heavens, the earth, and the waters that are above the heavens; and angels, since angels are created beings; - thrones and powers, since they too are created; - the sun and the moon, as created, and not uncreated - clouds and blizzards, winds, snow, lightning, thunder, earth, sea, springs, abysses, rivers, all humanity, mountains, birds of the air, cattle and animals; the souls of the saints and the spirits of the righteous, Ananias, Azariah, Mishael, the priests and servants of God (Dan. 3, 57–88). For all this is created and created, coming from God through the Word and the Holy Spirit, because “by the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their power” (Psalm 33:6). Look, beloved brother, how they numbered everything, moved by the Holy Spirit, but did not number either the Son or the Holy Spirit among the creatures. They recognized that the same Divinity is in the Trinity, and the same Trinity in the one Divinity; and they glorified the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father, with the Holy Spirit, one holy thing, one service, one Godhead, one doxology. 25. But the devil dares in every possible way to shake this among people, to slander the holy youths in the audacity of unbelief, to invent and say: they did not know the name of the Holy Spirit to pronounce it, because they were Jews; They did not even know the Son, being Jews. However, the very words of Scripture immediately expose the unbelief of those who think badly. For it is said: “And the form of the fourth was like the Son of God” (Dan. 3:92). This is the name of the Son of God. So there is no ignorance about Him. And even before being cast into the cave, Daniel was filled with the “Holy Spirit” and said: “I am clean from this blood” (Dan. 13:45-46). “And (all people) returned to judgment" (Dan. 13, 49-50), and he condemned the elders, moved by the Holy Spirit (Dan. 13, 61). So the youths knew the Son, they knew the Father and the Holy Spirit, and not out of ignorance they did not name Their names, but out of caution, “Bless,” they said, “all the works of the Lord, the Lord.” Spirit, the Lord, but: “bless all the works of the Lord, the Lord.” And so that any of the hunters would not look for any reason for a dispute to say that they did not mention the cherubim or seraphim, therefore these latter are not the works of God, the Divine Word decided in advance to protect this truth from those plotting intrigues against themselves, foreseeing harm from this for themselves and for the youths. For the holy youths intensified the song in three ways, themselves bringing into the song of God what was created and created, and first saying: “Blessed art thou, O Lord, God of our fathers, and praiseworthy and glorified is Thy name forever” (Dan. 3:52), then a little further they say: “Blessed are thou who sitt upon the cherubim” (Dan. 3:54); and again: “Blessed are you who sits on the throne of the glory of Your kingdom” (Dan. 3:55); and: “Blessed are you who sees the deep, who sits on the cherubim” (Dan. 3:54); all other names, from the number of everything named, you understood that all this is counted among other things. For having called all this into song, they immediately add, saying: “Bless all the works of the Lord, the Lord” (Dan. 3:57), so that Gabriel and Michael may bless the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 26. And the honored angels in heaven sing a song of victory, with the seraphim and cherubim glorifying the Trinity in one glory, in equal dignity and one essence, saying: “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Isa. 6:3), emitting three words, but speaking in unity and not in many names. For they do not say for the fourth time: “holy,” so as not to add to the name of the Trinity; they do not say “holy” twice, so that the glory of perfection is not insufficient; but three times, to consecrate with equal honor the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And they do not say: “holy” and “half-holy,” but they say equally: “holy,” with one voice, one word and one perfection, glorifying the Trinity in unity and unity in the Trinity. The only begotten of God came to teach us this knowledge. This wisdom was revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. This perfection was revealed to us by the Father. Truly this life was given to us by the Word incarnate. This building was erected for us by the Holy Spirit: “If anyone builds on this foundation, gold, silver, honest stone, wood, hay, reeds” (1 Cor. 3:12); because there is no other reason. “No one can lay any other foundation than he who lies down, even Jesus Christ,” the Son of God (1 Cor. 3:11). We are “His building, His labor” (1 Cor. 3:9), “a prophet and an apostle was built upon the foundation” (Eph. 2:20), so that we might know our building, which is solid in truth and our foundation is always existing and has not begun to be. “But not in all is understanding,” according to the word of the Apostle (1 Cor. 8:7), but only in those who have been granted knowledge by the Holy Spirit secrets and truth. For He Himself, revealing Himself and the Father and the Holy Spirit, rebuking some of those who are in foolishness, said: “You do not know the Scriptures, nor their power” (Matthew 22:29). And in another place: “Have ears to hear, that He may hear” (Matthew 11:15). He who asks you for a drink, you would have asked him” (John 4:10). And again: “You do not know what spirit you have” (Luke 9:55). So, the understanding of God is not in everyone, and the holy word says: “To him much is given, and much is to be gained from him” (Luke 12:48), since some accept little, others absolutely nothing. others received in excess. 27. And that this is so can be deduced from what is said in the Divine Scriptures. Divine Scripture, spiritually understood, contains very much that concerns our life and knowledge, that is, the Lord. For those sayings that are deeper in meaning and abundantly confirm our soul serve as a stumbling block for those who have not accepted the knowledge of God, as the prophet Hosea says: “Who is understanding and will understand this?” and to whom was given the “word of reason” of the Lord, “and this message? for the ways of the Lord are right, but the wicked will stumble in them" (Hosea 14:10). The wicked are right, but the wicked stumble in the ways of the Lord, since these in themselves do not serve as stumbling blocks for people. Those who stumble at the stumbling stone stumble through carelessness. For they stumbled at the stumbling stone and were offended, firstly, the Jews, who, seeing the only begotten Son of God come in the flesh, performing Divine signs and not worthy of the knowledge of heaven, they said: “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies” (Luke 5:21) and in another case: “If this man were from God, he would not have broken the Sabbath” (John 9:16). So they did not recognize His Divinity, but considered Him a simple man. Others, who knew Him by God, but did not recognize His perfect glory, having heard in a deep sense the sayings spoken about Him and about the saving economy done for us, stumbling over His Divinity, are inclined to bad opinions: for their minds are mistaken. Just as the Jews fell into error when they heard this, so when they heard, they also fell into error. They saw what was predicted by the prophets, but not recognizing the coming of Christ in the flesh as fulfilled, they were confused: and these again, hearing the predictions about His economy, but understanding them simply, they are confused and turn into their own destruction that which serves for our creation, and say: but He (Christ) said: “I ascend to My God and your God, and to My Father and your Father” (John. 20, 17). You see that He Himself is one of the creatures, they dare to say blasphemously. 28. Do you see then that they are deceived by the dispensation of coming in the flesh? They take into account what was at first, and ask about times and years. For “go forth from Him,” it is said, “from the days of the world” (Mic. 5:2). So let's look at what happened before. The Father says: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). He did not say: I will create man in my image. Be exposed, having a petrified heart, according to what is written: but “their heart was petrified” (John 12:40), and know the Son who always exists with the Father. For the word: “Let us create” does not mean one thing, but the Father speaking to the Son. Let him who says that the Son is not like the Father be exposed. For when he said: “in our image,” he did not distinguish the likeness of the Son from the Father and did not share anything in the identity of the Father with the Son; because he did not say: in my image, or: in your image, but revealed one being and divinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For he says: “in our image and likeness,” so as to understand the one Divinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and man - created in the image of the one Divinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Be exposed too, Arius, and listen to what the Father says to the Son: “Let us create,” calling Him the creator. I have often heard some say that the Son did not create anything, and that nevertheless through Him those things happened that happened (John 1:3). If it happened through Him, then He Himself created it, as we have clearly proven. For the first artist - the Word (cf. Wis. 7:21) is the Creator of everything and through Him the Father does. Let them hear what He says clearly: “My Father is working hitherto, and I am working” (John 5:17). And thus, saying this, He calls the Father His creator. But on the other hand, do not let your mind deceive you, and do not approach the Son as a slave, and not as a true Master; because if He were a servant, and not a true Master, then how would the one who came “in the form of God” take on “the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:6–7)? - How would He call Himself His Creator if He did not have perfection? So approach the Son as perfect God and true Son, who is from the Father. 29. But do not say foolishly: the Father said to the Son: “Let us create,” but the Son did not say to the Father: “Let us create”; and the Son does not say that I do and My Father does, but puts the Father first, who speaks and does. Because you say this unreasonably and want to represent many principles in the Divinity, whereas one is the beginning and one and the same Divinity; and nowhere does the Son say in Divinity: “My God.” I say this not in the sense that the Son denies honor to the Father, but in the sense that this is in accordance with the nature of the Divinity. And again: and he heard “Adam,” it is said, “God walking in paradise at noon” (Gen. 3:8). And nowhere does the Son say: “My God and your God,” but speaks here about the self-perfect God. And again: “And God spoke to Noah” (Gen. 6:13), and nowhere is such a saying given. And “God appeared,” it is said, “to Abraham, who sat with him oak of Mamre: and behold, three men: and they came to meet, and bowed down to the ground, and said, “If I have found grace before Thee” (Gen. 18:1-3). This shows that one is God, and the other two accompanying Him were His angels. For it is said about Him: God ascended from Abraham (Gen. 18:16). He Himself, who came to him, said: “Am I hiding food from My servant Abraham?” (Gen. 18, 17); “The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah,” He says, “has multiplied to Me” (Gen. 18:20), and so on. (And nowhere in these times does the expression “My God and your God” appear). “And two men came into Sodom” (Gen. 19, 1), since the One who ascended on high from Abraham would leave the two who entered Sodom for destruction. About the One who ascended, the Scripture says: “The Lord will rain on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord fire and a bogeyman” (Gen. 19, 24). And here there was no need for the expression: “My God and your God.” And Moses says in the song: “and yes All the angels of God will worship Him” (Deut. 32:43). If he says: “angels of God, fire from the Lord,” and does not say only “angels,” then he says this in order to show the one kingdom of the Father and the Son, and therefore the angels are not divided into beginnings, but are the angels of God, and an angel does not worship an angel. "My God and your God." 30. David also says: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at My right hand, until I will make Your enemies Your footstool” (Psalm 109:1). “Lord,” he says, “to My Lord,” for there has not yet been the dispensation of the incarnation, for the sake of which it would be necessary to say: “My God and your God.” And: “Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Immanuel: it is said, God is with us” (Isa. 7:14 and Matt. 1:23). it is said: “My God and your God.” - “And you were in Bethlehem, the house of Euphrath, and you were a small one, so that you might become a prince in Israel.” (Mic. 5:2). Of Judah: for from you shall come a leader”, and: “My people will shepherd Israel” (Matthew 2:6). Do you see that there was no need yet to say: “My God and your God”? When was the prophecy of Jeremiah fulfilled, as well as that of Isaiah, that the Word would be born of the Virgin and would have flesh, as Jeremiah says: “And man is, and who shall know him?” (Jer. 17:9), then, having become a partaker of the flesh, having formed for Himself without male seed from the Mother of God Mary this very holy flesh, according to what is said: “born of a woman” (Gal. 4:4), and having become a partaker of our nature for the sake of our salvation, then He says: “My God.” And because of the eternity of His relationship with Him by nature, He says: “My Father,” and according to His grace to His disciples: “Your Father,” and according to the natural relationship between the disciples themselves in the consideration of His Divinity and between His eternal Father: “For He was the God of the disciples, but the Father of the Lord by nature, and the Father of the disciples by grace. The same Father is God of the Son according to the flesh, and the Father because of the eternity and incomprehensibility of His birth and relationship with Him, because He is truly His Father, who begot Him without flight; without beginning according to the Divinity. But He considered it necessary to call Him God because of the dispensation that was accomplished for our sake, being always born of the Father without beginning by the Word, and in the flesh of Mary in the last days born according to the flesh, from Mary the Holy Virgins through the Holy Spirit. 31. So let those understand the depths of God’s action and let them not turn to the gift of grace with ingratitude, who dishonor the unspeakable and incomprehensible nature of God that saves us. But about God, they say, it is written: “He neither hungers nor thirsts; below is the invention of His wisdom” (Is. 40:28); and about the Son it is said that He was hungry in the wilderness when tempted (Matthew 4:2). It is also said: “Your God will not be weary” (Is. 40:28); The Lord Jesus became weary from the journey (John 4:6). And again: “He who guards Israel will not sleep, he will fall asleep” (Psalm 120:4); The Lord, it is said, fell asleep on the ship (Matthew 8:24). O vain thoughts of those who reason in this way! Not only did the Holy Word who came take our burdens for us, but it was also tangible and received flesh, and was found like a man, and was seized by the scribes, and “I gave my shoulder to be scourged, and I did not turn away My face from the cold of spitting” (Isa. 50:6). But I also cried, as is found in the uncorrected copies of the Gospel of Luke, and with this Saint Irenaeus uses evidence in his book “Against Heresies” to refute those who say that Christ appeared ghostly 7 . The Orthodox destroyed this word, being afraid and not understanding its purpose and power. “And being in labor, he began to sweat, and His sweat was like drops of blood. And an angel appeared, strengthening Him” (Luke 22:43–44). But not only this, but he also asked like a man: “Where do you put Lazarus” (John 11:34)? And about the bleeding one: “Who is it that touched Me?” (Luke 8:45). And about those who sought Him: “Who are you looking for?” (John 18:4). And he asked the disciples as a man: “Who do men say I am, the Son of man?” (Matthew 16:13). He also said: “How much bread do you have with you?” (Mark 6:38). Weary from the journey, He sat down with a student in Samaria (John 4:6). In the same way, “the child grew more expansive and strengthened in spirit” (Luke 2:40). “And Jesus increased in age and wisdom” (Luke 2:52). And again: “before the child knows to call father or mother, he will receive the power of Damascus, and the covetousness of Samaria” (Isa. 8:4). Being wisdom and teaching people “understanding, plant the ear” of man (Psalm 93:9-10), who gave articulate speech to the sons of men and made clear the tongue of the wicked (Wis. 10:21), endured all this for us, so that, while preserving the entire order of the incarnation arranged for our sake, he would not blot out the image of the truth. 32. But so that the evidence that we have brought, having collected them from the Divine Scriptures, in the opinion of opponents, seems to be contrary to the truth, and poorly understood by them, should not be left uninterpreted, we will present the speculative side of the power contained in each of them, for which reason each is said as if in a human form, and after that we will say a lot more when we talk about the expression: “My God and your God,” namely, that this is said with blessing, How this can be known to anyone with intelligence from the very order of speech. For “man is,” it is said, “and who knows him?” (Jer. 17:9) - In one and the same saying, Divine Scripture reveals something twofold, visible and invisible, in relation to the visible it is blessedly said: “My God,” but in relation to the invisible it is said: “My Father,” and there is no contradiction in meaning. For how could He not be knowable if He were a man? If He was not a man, then how was He called a man? In any case, anyone who comes from people is known from people, from the mother who gave birth, for example, from relatives, from household, from neighbors, from cohabitants or from fellow citizens. And in relation to a simple person this cannot be applied, but it is only possible to apply it to God the Word and the Son of God, precisely in order to say: “man is truly, but who can know him”? Because He is God; because He is involved in a purely nature: He is man and God, not knowable by people due to His incomprehensibility, but as a man born of Mary, truly without the seed of a man. And “The virgin will conceive” (Is. 7:14); for the prophet announced about the future time: “The virgin will conceive with child.” The future was that she would “give birth to a Son.” So, if the Virgin, then the arrangement of conception is no longer from men, because before this time it was said to Ahaz: “Ask for yourself a sign in depth or in height” (Is. 7:11). He humbly says: “Do not ask the imam, lest I tempt the Lord my God” (Is. 7:12), refusing to ask for a sign. Immediately, because he himself did not ask for a sign, God, who gives great gifts to people, grants two signs from “height,” sending the Word according to His will and according to the own will of the Word Himself; and from the “depths” having arranged the Word with His flesh and His favor. After this it is said: “And they will call His name Emminuel”; it does not say: I will name, but “they will name”; because God, unknown to them, was revealed to people. But He does not immediately take this name, for it is not said: I will call His name Immanuel, but “they will call it.” 33. The saying: “he who is born of a woman” (Gal. 4:4), as I explained above, was said so that the expression: “he who is born” was fulfilled in the fact that He was born of a woman, and meanwhile was clearly revealed to everyone as the eternal Word. If the saying: “He will not thirst” should mean about God, but about the Son, that He hungered and thirsted, then this is necessary for us. For how would the economy have been true if there had not been a necessary habit characteristic of man? This shows us the resolution of all the controversial opinions of the heretics. For example, this immediately destroys the opinion of the Manichaeans; souls: they say that He had only flesh, in order, of course, to attribute to God the Word human passion, thirst and hunger, fatigue and crying, sorrow and confusion, and everything that is connected with His coming in the flesh. Meanwhile, it would be unreasonable to talk about the Divinity of the Son of God in this way. But, they say, the flesh by itself neither eats, nor drinks, nor labors, nor does anything else. I myself agree that the flesh itself does not have this. But the Word that came had the whole structure: both flesh and soul, and everything that is in man; and meanwhile the lot of the soul and flesh was: hunger and fatigue, thirst and sorrow, and so on. He weeps to expose the error of the Manichaeans and to show that he was clothed with a body not in a ghostly way, but in truth. And he thirsts to show that he has not only flesh, but also a soul. For it was not His Divinity, of course, that thirsted, but He thirsted with His soul and became weary from the journey in accordance with the nature of the flesh and soul. 34. And that the Word that came had body and soul, let the Divine Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments convince them of this. It is David who speaks about Him, and Peter says in agreement with David: “Do not leave My soul in hell, nor let Your holy one see corruption” (Ps. 15:10; Acts 2:27), so that we could understand the composition of the man of the Lord and clearly have knowledge of this, in order to confirm that His soul was in union with the Divinity for three days, in order to show that this flesh was reverend, and that the Divinity with the soul performed a sacrament in hell not possessed by him. There is another testimony that says this: “there is freedom in the dead” (Psalm 87:6). The word “freedom” does not mean His dominion over hell, but the fact that He, of His own free will, descended to hell with His soul. And Peter says: “As if with no power I could keep Him from being”, that is, from hell (Acts 2:24). Yes, and the Savior Himself says: “I am the place to receive My soul and lay it down” (John 10:18); and: “I am the good shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11); and he also says: “My soul is troubled, and what is the river?” As if speaking about something doubtful: “What is the river? Father, save me from this hour: but for this reason I have come to this hour” (John 12:27), to show that His Divinity voluntarily came to this. And the word: “be disturbed” was said so that the image of the truth of His coming in the flesh would not be confused: because His coming in the flesh was not illusory. But this is like a king who, waging a great war with a less courageous enemy and knowing that his enemy, if he sees him coming in great strength and strength, will abandon the war and take flight, and destroy many countries of his subjects, for this purpose, in his wisdom, resorts to pretense, turns his rear to him and himself flees, until the enemy, having taken courage, thinks that the king is cowardly and powerless, and will not pursue him. Then the king, suddenly turning on the weak enemy with his strength, captures him all into his own hands. Likewise, our Lord was not afraid of death, even before coming to suffering during the journey, he indicated that the Son of Man would be betrayed and crucified and would rise on the third day, and when Peter said: “Thou art merciful, O Lord; 16:22–23; cf. v. 21). So, how does he who foretold this and came after this pray that the cup may pass from Him, so as not to drink it? Before death, he who spoke about death, if only so as not to be taken for a liar, could not pray that His cup would pass. But He summoned His adversary for this purpose, so that, after the latter imagined that the Savior was afraid of death, he could bring death upon him himself for the salvation of the dying. This was done in this way for the sake of economy. But if you also heard that the Lord died, then know why He suffered the passion of death. The basis of His death is explained to you by the highest of the Apostles, Peter, saying: “He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). For His Divinity, having received suffering in the flesh, is passionless, and was passionless, and remained passionless, while the passionlessness did not change and eternity was not destroyed. 35. And again, if the vain say: by this you cannot convince us that Christ had a soul; for we have found in the Divine Scriptures, as Isaiah says on behalf of God and the Father about the Only Begotten: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I was well pleased, whom My soul loved” (Matthew 3:17; Isaiah 42:1). What will you think about the Father, whether He has received a soul into Himself or has a soul? But what fool would think this about the Father? So what do they say? It is obvious that the saying is said in a figurative sense. Therefore, if they say that it is said about the Father in a figurative sense, then it must also be taken about the Son in the same sense. That is, although He said that “My soul was troubled” (John 12:27) and: “I have the power to give my soul and receive it” (John 10:18); however, He did not, they say, have a soul, and this is said in a figurative sense. And this is said by them, it seems, only by inference, while the truth is confirmed by many testimonies. For every image is taken from a type. About the Father, for example, one cannot dare to say this, because He did not bear flesh. And that the Lucianists, as well as the Arians, confess the reality of the flesh in Christ, this cannot be doubted. But, they say, “The Word was made flesh” (John 1:14), but it is not said: “The Word was flesh and soul.” Against their ignorant objection, I will say that “God created man, and removed the dust from the earth” (Gen. 2:7). The saying: “created” embraces everything in its entirety, and the saying: “The Word became flesh” contains everything. In the same sense, we ourselves will object to them, saying: Scripture says: “God created man,” and it does not say: he created his liver, or lungs, or heart, or veins, or nerves, or anything else that is in the body. Therefore, shall we think of man as something single, completely united, precisely because Scripture has not set out in detail the composition of every animal? Of course not. And therefore, just as it is from one species to the whole, so from the concept of flesh it is clear that the Savior took on a soul. 36. Thus, if He took on soul and body, as is said, then they say that His Divinity, no less than the being of the Father, is not subject to suffering in order to thirst, toil, to be hungry, and to be subjected to such things as are necessary for man. But if it is written: “He will not toil; below is the invention of His wisdom” (Is. 40:28), and the Savior turns out to be weary (John 4:6), then this does not mean that for this reason the Word descended from above, originating from the Being of the Father. For He did not labor in heaven, but while in the flesh; because the flesh had to work hard, so that it would not be recognized as illusory, but true. And everything else that has the same meaning as, for example, dozing off, falling asleep, is a sign of a person, just like what is subject to touch. He perceived this and “man was found” (Phil. 2:7): for “by whom the Messiah was found,” it is said, “Moses was His writer” (John 1:45). They found Him by an intelligible nature, that is, carnal; since He could not be found in the incomprehensible. Therefore, He was seized from the scribes and “He gave His shoulders to wounds, and did not turn away His face from the cold of spitting" (Isa. 50:6), wept, and had everything else that is reported about Him. Who could the Word of God in heaven scourge or strike the cheeks, or spit upon such an unspeakable and incomprehensible? If the impassive Word of God suffered in this way, then this is bodily suffering that occurred outside of His impassivity; but on the other hand and not outside, for the reason that He deigned to do so; although He did not suffer Himself, suffering was imputed to Himself. And just as a stain on clothing does not extend to the body of the wearer, and yet this stain is imputed to the wearer as dishonor: so God suffered in the flesh, while His Divinity did not suffer at all, but the suffering of the flesh worn by the Divine was imputed to the Divinity, so that in the Divinity our salvation might be accomplished. 37. I remembered a saying from the Gospel of Luke, and I do not want to leave it uninterpreted. It is written that “while He was in labor, He sweated, and His sweat was like drops of blood. An angel of the Lord appeared, strengthening Him” (Luke 22:43–44). The meaning of the words of Scripture is very deep, as we have often said, and is useful for us, and those who do not understand their power, instead of benefit, expose themselves to destruction. For nothing is stronger than this saying. In the words: “he was in toil,” Scripture reveals the Lord’s man as a true man. And to show that He was a true man, and that the feat was not from the Divine, it says: “he sweated, and his sweat was like drops of blood”: this is a bodily state, not a spiritual one. “The Angel of the Lord appeared, strengthening Him,” not because He who is greater needed the strengthening of the Angel Angels, whom “every tribe worships, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil. 2:10), as the ever-existing God the Word, always existing with the Father and born of Him, but in order to fulfill what was said in the great song of Moses, sung in the wilderness, where he said: “All the sons of God will worship Him, and let the angels of God strengthen Him” (Deut. 32:43). The saying: “Let them strengthen Him” is used not in the sense that they give Him strength, but because in them the wording was strengthened in order to glorify God, since He is glorified incessantly by the angels of heaven and spiritual animals, crying out and saying: “The power is Yours, the power is Yours, the strength is Yours” (1 Chron. 29, 11-12). In this they reveal worship and strengthening, that they give Him His own power of strength. So an Angel appeared before the disciples, who worshiped His Master, did not know the excess of His humane economy, but was amazed at the power of strength that was in Him, defeating the devil, dulling the sting of death, triumphing over the principalities and powers, crushing the power of sin. And out of an abundance of surprise, the Angel spoke in praise, bowing: The fortress belongs to You, Master. For You have strengthened yourself against death, against hell and against the devil, in order to dull its sting and drive it out of humanity. 38. If again He said subserviently to us: “Where will you put Lazarus?” (John 11:34) and about the bleeding one: “Who is it that touched Me?” (Luke 8:45); or: “Who are you looking for?” (John 18:4); or: “Who do men say I am, the Son of man?” (Matthew 16:13), or: “the youth grew stronger and stronger” (Luke 2:40); or: “advanced in age and wisdom” (Luke 2:52); or: “before you know the child, call father or mother” (Is. 8:4): then don’t you see from the very meaning of the speech the truth that surpasses reason, that these sayings refer to the flesh and humanity? For what is found in the Old Testament spoken on behalf of God and the Father to convince people and has the appearance of something unknown, but what is not unknown to God, was accomplished by the Word that came, so that what was said would be fulfilled: “My Father is working hitherto, and I am working” (John 5:17). - “Where do you put Lazarus?” - He asked, being close to the place (of the burial of Lazarus); Before arriving at the place, having not heard from anyone about Lazarus, he told his disciples: “Lazarus is our friend” (John 11:11). And is it really possible that, being at such a long distance from the place where Lazarus was during the journey and knowing that he died, the Savior did not know, being present at this very place? - Not at all. But He wanted to show that while He was doing all this, no one had yet believed in Him completely, in order to thereby demonstrate the great philanthropy of His condescension towards us. For the sisters of Lazarus should not have said: “He is four days old; he already stinks” (John 11:39), nor should they have come and shown, but said: “You know everything, and if you want, he will come to life.” That is why He wept over the petrification of people’s hearts. So he did not ask ignorantly, but by tempting he denounces and loves mankind. And he also says: “Who is it that touched Me?” , not because he did not know who touched Him, but so that it would not be they themselves who would announce the miracle that had taken place, but so that she herself, having heard this question, would come and speak about the grace sent down to her and, having confessed this, would hear: “Your faith has saved you” (Luke 8:48), so that she would convert others to faith, so that they would be healed. “Who am I,” he says, “they say to be, the Son of man?” , just as in the Old Testament it is said on behalf of the Father: “Adam, where are you?” (Gen. 3:9). And God knew where he was; That’s why he denounces him, saying: “You are of the tree” (Gen. 3:11). And to Cain: “Where is your brother Abel?” (Gen. 4:9). And without knowing it he asked this; for he says: “Cursed are you on the earth, even if you opened your mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hand.” Behold, “his blood cries out to Me” (Gen. 4:10–11). So the one who said was not ignorant that “blood cries out,” but asked in order to give him room for repentance to defend himself. 39. But out of ignorance they again turn to ambition and say that all these words found in the Old Testament are the words of the Son Himself. However, their deceit is now being exposed. For he who said to Moses, “What is this in your hand?” (Ex. 4, 2). He himself says: “I am” (Ex. 3:14). And the Lord says to the Sadducees, discussing the resurrection: “But concerning the dead, because they rise, God says: I am God, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: there is no God of the dead, but of the living” (Mark 12:26-27). And in many ways it can be shown that what was said in the Old Testament was said on behalf of the Father. But it is often spoken both on behalf of the Son and also on behalf of the Holy Spirit. And “Where is Sarah your wife?” (Genesis 18:9) - the Son of God, who came from above with two Angels, told Abraham. For if He did not know where she was, he would not have said: “Sarah laughed within herself” (Gen. 18:13) 8. With these words, He wanted to present her modesty as a model for wives who want to be pious in the truth, so that when they welcome strangers, they serve them with their labors, but out of modesty do not show their faces to men. For this blessed wife prepared a meal for them with all care, and having prepared it, she did not appear before the angels, presenting herself as a model of modesty for subsequent generations. But in order to show who was present, he also named the very name of the wife who was received hospitably for that time, so that neither her name, nor the deed, nor the thought of man was hidden from Him. “Whom,” he says, “do men say I am, the Son of man?” (Matthew 16:13). And when He confesses He calls Himself the Son of man, so that they would not think that He is inquiring about the invisible. They say: “Elijah, Jeremiah and John” (Matthew 16:14). “Who are you talking about Me? You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:15–16), says Peter, and is immediately pleased (Matthew 16:17). For He did not ask ignorantly, but wishing to show that the teaching of the Father is that which proclaims to the Church the true Son, so that Peter would be forced to say what he was taught from the Father. 40. And do not be surprised if He said: “By me they come to the Father” (John 14:6), and do not assume the changeability of the Father’s being; for He Himself again teaches: “No one comes to Me unless the Father draws him” (John 6:44). Therefore, just as the Father sends to the Son, so the Son brings to the Father, to show that the Divinity is one and the same. And if it is written: “Abounding in age and wisdom” (Luke 2:52), then this means that He is God’s Wisdom (cf. 1 Cor. 1, 24) and does not need wisdom. But when it is said: “He hath diminished the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:7), this does not mean that the fullness (of the Divinity) has diminished, but this is said in order to show that He descended from heaven into humanity, that is, into the womb of Mary, for “thy name is poured out in peace,” it is said (Song. 1:2). it is said: shed, but poured out from heaven on earth, so that from the earth He is poured into Mary, and from Mary He is conceived, made flesh, born in Bethlehem, from Bethlehem he passes to Nazareth, from Nazareth to Capernaum, from Capernaum to Jerusalem and to the sea, when he walks on the waters. Then he goes to the borders of Tire and to Nain, to Judea and Jericho, to Bethsphagia and Bethany, to Jerusalem and the church, to the Mount of Olives, to Gethsemane, to the house of Caiaphas, to the praetorium, to Herod, to the place called Golgotha, to the tomb, and even to hell; then to earth after the resurrection, and to heaven. Just as myrrh poured from vessel to vessel fills all vessels with fragrance, so Christ’s coming from heaven sanctified the whole earth, that is, those who truly received it. He is a mountain, and a great mountain, as it is said in the book of the prophet Daniel: “a stone cut out of the mountain without hands” (Dan. 2:34), that is, born without the seed of a man. What was small turns out to be great, namely the “stone”, which again acquires size and is again a “great mountain,” and this mountain is not located in just one place, but “fills the whole universe” (Dan. 2:35). And this one, being wisdom and made man, extended His power to the whole world; to fill the universe with grace, “abounding in age and wisdom.” If He is the wisdom of the Father, if He teaches people to speak, gives people an articulate tongue and plants an ear in those who hear, then how could He not know how to “call father or mother before he receives the power of Damascus, and the covetousness of Samaria,” and so on (Is. 8:4)? But if He, as soon as He was born from His mother’s womb, immediately turned out to be speaking and uttered words purely, like a grown-up child, then His carnal birth would be considered untrue, but illusory or apparent. For this reason, He endures even childhood, so as not to destroy the truth of the order of things. 41. But heretics try to attach other vain assumptions to Divine words, they think differently and say: how is it written: “Receive the Holy One of our confession, being faithful to Him who made Him” (Heb. 3:1-2)? and: “Will all the house of Israel understand that this Jesus, whom you crucified, is Lord and His Christ” (Acts 4:10, 2:36)? It is very surprising to me how people who are attached to the order of speech in the Holy Scriptures 9 do not want to know the power expressed in this order. For the saying: “Receive the Holy One, faithful being is to Him who created Him,” is not said about the Divine. And that God came into the world, this is clearly presented to us everywhere by the Divine Scriptures: and there is nothing in them that is said indirectly or with intricacies, but “all rights to those who understand, and rights to those who gain understanding.” For “accept,” it is said, “punishment, and not money” (Prov. 8:9-10). If anyone does not receive instruction (punishment) from God, that is, the true faith, for him everything is “obstinate and corrupt” (Prov. 8:8), but for those who understand what is right and gain reason, everything is right and impeccable. And in order to expose them, the Apostle says: “Everyone is a high priest, acceptable from man, and appointed for men to offer gifts and sacrifices” (Heb. 5:1, 8:3). Therefore, the Only Begotten Himself, since He Himself came to earth to be born for our sake, took flesh from us, so that, having come from us and appearing for us as an offering to His Father, God, the disciples could be called brethren. How does this event take place? - No other way than in His high priesthood: for receive, it is said, “The Holy One, faithful being to Him who created Him.” But to further confirm what has been said, I will use the following example. Suppose someone asked the king about his own Son and boldly said to him: who is this? Having heard a truthful confession from his father: this is my son, he would again ask: is he your son by nature? And when the king would answer him: yes, the questioner would also add: what did you do to him? Then he will in any case say to him: I made him king. So, did the king, by naming his son’s dignity, thereby deny that he was his own son? If he said the latter, then did he really destroy the first? No way. So God the Father begat the Son without beginning, and in the Flesh that which He “made Him a Saint” was fulfilled. 42. It is also written, they say: “The Lord made Me the beginning of His ways for His works” (Prov. 8:22). But first of all, vain-minded people do not want to know the very title of the book. The book is called "The Proverbs of Solomon." And everything that is said in parables is not identical with the power of a simple word. This is what our Lord Jesus Christ says in parables, and we see that these parables do not so closely correspond to our assumption about their meaning. “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of a pea,” He says, for example (Matthew 13:31). And if we want to talk about the details according to our reason, then it is obvious that the kingdom of heaven is a spacious place, if only we should be talking about the place where the King is God and the Father, and God the Word and the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit of God, where the angels and archangels are, and the spiritual armies, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the righteous. So how would all this fit into a mustard seed? Meanwhile, figurative speech is expressed mysteriously here. Therefore, what is verbally expressed is not identical with the power of a simple word. The kingdom of heaven is also likened to a woman who has ten drachmas and loses one, who lights a lamp and seeks her (Luke 15:8), a net cast into the sea (Matt. 13:47), and a seed that is sown on the earth (Matt. 13ff.; Mark 4ff.; Luke 8ff.). But all this is said mysteriously and is not identical with the power of a simple word. Moreover, we do not know whether the tributary Solomon really made that saying about the Son of God. For there is a difference between Wisdom and wisdom. So the Apostle says: “Do not understand the world by the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:21); and: “God shod the wisdom of the world” (1 Cor. 1:20). And he also says: “not in carnal wisdom, but in the power of God” (sn. 2 Cor. 1 and 1 Cor. 2:4). And Solomon names wisdom, saying: “he was a lover of her beauty, and brought her to himself as a bride” (Wis. 8:2). Job also knows about wisdom and says: “Where did you find wisdom from? And what place is there for understanding?” (Job 28:20). It is also said: “The wisdom of the poor is despised,” and he himself is the ruler of his wisdom (Eccl. 9:16). And at the same time: the Only Begotten is the Wisdom of the Father (1 Cor. 1:24). 43. So what shall we say? If, in their opinion, the Son is the Wisdom of the Father, and yet did not come from Him, being the Word, God and Wisdom, then the Father does not have wisdom in Himself. Then how can they say: “To the only God, the wise, the invisible” (1 Tim. 1:17)? And besides, all this is incomprehensible and inaccessible to people. God gave wisdom to Solomon and filled Beselel with wisdom (Ex. 31:2 et al.). And “with wisdom people hide shame” (Prov. 10:14). And much can be said about wisdom. This Wisdom of the Father is the only one and has nothing that could be opposed to It. However, whether a word was said about it, I can neither affirm nor deny, but I leave it to God to know. However, I see that what is expressed from the opposite side has a meaning forcibly imposed on it. For “he created Me,” it is said, - the beginning of His paths into His works. Formerly the basis of Me. Before all the hills I give birth" (Prov. 8:22, 23, 25). So, how is what is born founded? How is what is created born? If created, then no longer born. What we give birth to, we do not create, and what we create, we do not give birth to. We are created, and what we give birth to is created. In God, the uncreated, what is begotten is not what was created: if He gave birth, He no longer created; If, after creation, he gave birth again, then how is it that what was first created after is born? So, if what is said applies to Him, then it is fulfilled in the dispensation of coming in the flesh. And therefore, first he speaks about the nearest, and then he talks about the most ancient. Wanting to convince the people closest to him, he starts with the flesh. For the beginning of the paths of evangelical righteousness is that “the Word in Mary was made flesh for us” (John 1:14), and the soul is founded in her flesh in order to show the higher that was made lower. We say that from the bosom of the Father from heaven He came to earth; since He came to us afterward in order to complete the whole economy. So, is the Word really a created thing? - Let it not be! and nothing confused at least not suggested by Divine Scripture. 44. But this is not how the interpreters actually convey the reading. Aquila 10, for example, says: “The Lord has acquired me”; since in the Hebrew it reads: “Adonai Kanani” 11, which is interpreted exactly as we said. And we also, according to custom, say about those who are born: he acquired children. But the power of interpretation is not so firmly imprinted. For the expression: “Adonai Kanani” can also be interpreted as follows: “The Lord nested (as if hatching in a nest) 12 Me.” And therefore Peter expresses himself clearly when he says: “This Jesus, whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). He did not say: the Word of God came from above, but “This One,” who is flesh, taken from above by the Word who descended in the womb of Mary, “This One,” so called because the man of the Lord came from Mary. It also fulfills what is said about mortification, as Peter says: “having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18); and again: “Christ who suffered in the flesh for us” (1 Pet. 4:1). And again: “from them is Christ according to the flesh,” as Paul says (Rom. 9:5). And the Savior Himself says in the Gospel: “Now you seek Me to kill a man, who told you the truth,” and “I have heard from the Father” (John. 8:40, 15:15), in order to show that suffering is suffered by humanity, and He Himself is the natural Son of the Father from on high. The Holy Apostle Paul also agrees with this word, saying: “There is one God, and one Advocate for God and men, the man Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 2:5), “Who was not equal to God by the rapture of God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took on the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:6–7). Do you see how he called Him a man, but not an ordinary one? For he is called “the Mediator of God and men,” since he mediates between them and His Father, being God by nature and the true Son begotten of Him. In relation to people, He is a natural, true man, born of Mary without the seed of a husband. Thus, He is the “Intercessor of God and men,” being God and having become man, immutable by nature, but being the Intercessor on both sides in relation to both. 45. But again, without understanding, they say: Do you see that “not by admiration is it possible to be equal to God”? And the quarrelsome people do not know the very name of this; because it is not said: I did not want to be equal to God through theft, but “not to be equal to God by rapture,” that is, to be God by nature, which is what I was. For if He were not God, then how would He “take on the form of a servant”? With these words, the Apostle both denoted something new and showed with amazement what was more excellent than this, that is, that although He was “equal to God,” however, He diminished the form of a slave and took upon Himself, not in order to enslave the free, but in order to free the slaves who obey Him in the form that He took upon Himself. And the Jews testify that He was not afraid and did not doubt to call Himself equal with God, but boldly pointed to this, saying: “If I do not flood, I will be like your lie” (John 8:55). Therefore, they say to Him: “We do not kill You for a good deed, but because You have created this man, equal to God" (John 10:33; cf. 5:18). However, our opponents say: if we must recognize what is said figuratively about Him, then many figurative things are said in Scripture and it cannot be denied that this is said about Him mysteriously, such as, for example, that He is called a door, a stone, a pillar, a cloud, a lion, a sheep, a lamp, a candlestick, the sun, an angel, a worm, a rock, a cornerstone, a way, a youth, a calf, and similar names. And we do not deny that in Him what was said mysteriously about Him was fulfilled; We also know why this was written. He is called the way, because by him we march to the kingdom, to Himself and to the Father; - a door, because through Him we enter there; – a pillar, because He Himself is the affirmation of our faith; – a rock, due to immobility; a stone as our foundation; - the sun of truth, as one who illuminated our darkened thoughts. 46. ​​Then they say; since it is written about Him that He is a creature, it must be admitted that He is a creature. But now I have already outlined some of those names of Him used in Scripture, which were mysteriously fulfilled in us. Let them tell us in what sense is the name His creation used? Isn’t He rightly, albeit figuratively, called a door in order to become an entrance for us and bring benefit? or - a way, so that while walking through Him we do not get lost? Why is He a creature in relation to us? What benefit does this have for us? Well, says the vain lover of debate, however: if you do not call Him a creation, then you attribute suffering to the Father; for everyone who gives birth is surrounded by suffering, since it either narrows, or expands, or extends, or flows out, or is burdened, or suffers something similar. Away with such a crafty and false thought! Who will think this about God? What thought dares to do this? Obviously, none of the demons would even think of this. He who confesses the Father also believes that He truly begat the Son. The deity is not surrounded by heaviness and is not, as it were, some kind of pregnant body in order to endure the above. For “the Spirit is God” (John 4:24); the spirit is not subject to flow, division, narrowing, diminution, expansion, or anything like that. And so, since the Father is Spirit, He begat the Son of God, the Word is spiritual, flightless, incomprehensible and without beginning. 47. But in order to convince those who think in this way, we will say something that, although it does not contain similarities, nevertheless, by comparison, overthrows their crafty subterfuge. The creation lacks limitlessly and infinitely much in comparison with its Master. Many in the desert, lacking fire, fill a glass vessel with water; then, having brought some kind of flammable material, made, for example, from flax or tow, they place it against the sun's ray reflected from the glass on the material lying underneath. And immediately matter takes into itself the flame from the fire of the sun and is ignited by fire. Is it possible that through this communication of fire something from his being is cut off from the sun? Does it really suffer any damage due to this? Is it really decreasing? - No, they say. So, if even the creation does not decrease, then how much more limitless, incomprehensible and all-pure is God, Who, being a Spirit, gave birth from Himself to God the Word? He gave birth to the ineffable and the incorruptible in incorruption, not by passion, not by division, not to the detriment of Himself, but the perfect one begot the perfect one in perfection? And the nature of fire kindles many lamps from one, and yet the first of them does not decrease in light. But one and the same being can again be composed of many parts, that is, lamps or candlesticks. Meanwhile, it is not so in the Divinity; no! The Word did not come later and did not undergo merging with the Father; but the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. 48. It is insanely said by the Manichaeans 13 that, according to the thought of Manes, the souls, having originated from the pillar of light, are one body and, renouncing bodies, are again formed by one being into one pillar according to the fable of their invention. But this is not how the Gospel shows it. It says here that Christ broke five loaves and fed five thousand, and did not leave any surplus from them, but “gather them,” he says, “and do not leave anything from the grain.” And: “they gathered together twelve kosha” (John 6:12–13), and they put them together in koshnitsa; however, he did not order the ukruhi to be combined with bread, as they had been before that time. They collected a lot of bread, but in many baskets, and He ordered them to be put into one collection of baskets. Without suggesting a perfect similarity, we have stated this allegorically, as well as the above example of the sun. For we do not call souls either bread or crumbs: let it not be! And we do not equate God with the sun, which He created, nor the Only Begotten with the ray emitted by the sun on the tow. In the same way, born souls are not united in one merger; no! but in the mansions of God, about which it is written that “the Father has many mansions” (Jn. 14:2), not put together in one heap, but each one is counted one by one. Likewise, when we say that God begot His only begotten Son, we do not attribute passion to Him, according to their blasphemy. For everyone who gives birth is oppressed by passion, and the Son should not be called either creation or generation, according to their teaching, lest we recognize God as dejected or suffering. Now, where did we find that He was called Son in this sense, and why, then, does He have the name of God? But these are human wisdom and come from earthly thoughts. For our human passions should not be attributed to God, when God clearly says: “not as your thoughts are my thoughts” (Is. 55:9). And again: “Not as man, so is God” (1 Samuel 16:7). 49. So, let them cease from blasphemy, and let them learn from the Father, who says: “This is My beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17, 17:5). He also says, as if about the future: “You are My beloved Son, whom I have chosen” (Isa. 44:2). And then in the book of Song of Songs: “I have been chosen from those” (Song. 5:10). So, where does this election come from, let them tell us. For when it is said: “I have chosen,” then these idle talkers think that He is called Son by grace, and not by nature. Let them show us who is like Him, so that, having reviewed everyone, God chose him. If He is the only begotten Son, then no one is equal to Him and cannot be placed on a par with Him, being like the Son “in the sons of God” (Psalm 89:7). flesh, so that His favor may rest upon it, as David speaks on behalf of the apostles, who believed in the Lord and joyfully proclaimed His grace to the peoples, because “submit the people to us, and subject our tongues to our feet; the kindness of Jacob, thou shalt love the south” (Psalm. 46:4-5), that is, the pinnacle of His beauty, the beauty of all Jacob, the flesh chosen from Mary through the Holy Spirit. The Father showed the event of the dispensation of the flesh from above to John the Baptist; for the Father was well pleased with the coming of Christ in the flesh; and the Divinity is limitless by nature. 50. The Apostle also calls Him the Son of love: “Deliver us,” he says, “from the power of darkness, and place the Son of Your love into the kingdom” (Col. 1:13). But those who do not understand the meaning of these words say that He is the Son of God’s love after His success. And the ignorant do not know the opposite of this word to other words. For elsewhere the Apostle says that God “love us” in Christ (Eph. 2:4). The truly Only Begotten is the beloved Son; since the Father is love, and the Son is love, since love comes from love. So, He is the Son of love for our sake and for His sake, because in Him He “loved us” and “gave His only begotten Son for us” (cf. Eph. 2:4 and John 3:16). Therefore the one who works does not weary, and the one who gives birth does not suffer. And let them not collect blasphemies against their own destruction in vain. If the Son is created, then He is not worshiped, according to their teaching, because it is insane to worship a creature and reject the first commandment, which says: “Hear to Israel: The Lord your God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4). So, the Holy Word is not created, because it is worshipped. The disciples bowed to Him; Angels worship Him in heaven: “and let all the Angels of God worship Him” (Deut. 32:43); and: Let my strength worship You, O Lord. One thing remains to be said, brief and irrefutable, against which no one can say anything. Can those who are hostile against the Son of God bring such testimony from the Old or New Testament, where the Father said: I created Myself a Son? or where would the Son say: The Father created me? There are four Gospels, containing one thousand one hundred and sixty-two chapters 14. From beginning to end the Son spoke in them and with Him the Father, but nowhere did the Son say: The Father created Me, nor the Father: I created My Son, or: I created My Son. 51. But the ambitious and glory-loving adversary says: What are you saying? Was the body received from Mary? And what is Maria? Created or uncreated? Of course created; we say it ourselves; born of a husband and wife. So what do you call what happened from Mary? Do you worship the Savior in the body, or do you not worship? How can I not bow down? If I do not worship, I will not have life. So, they say, you worship the body, the creature. There is great mental damage to those who speak in this way. And everyone bows to the king clothed in purple; but what is the object of worship: purple or the king? It is very clear that he is a king, but the purple he wears also serves as an object of worship; but as soon as the king took it off and put it in its place, the purple no longer served as an object of worship. The king often sits in his palace on his throne, and those who worship bow to the king in his own palace and on his throne. But as soon as the king rose, no one bowed to either the palace or the throne. No one would be so crazy that, wanting to bow to the king in his palace, he would say to him: come out of your palace so that I bow to you. So no one will say to the Only Begotten: leave your body so that I may worship You; but he worships the uncreated Only Begotten with His body, with the holy church, which He came to take over. And no one says to the king: get up from your throne, so that I can worship you without a throne; but he bows to the king with the throne. So Christ serves as an object of worship along with the body, buried and resurrected. 52. But they say: what are you saying? Did the Father beget the Son by will, or not by will? since you say: the Word always existed, there was no time before the Word, although the Arians themselves, to deceive some, say that the Son of God was born without flight, but do not want to call Him eternal, but say: there was once when He was not; and yet they think that “no time” is not time. But as soon as you study this very word, you will immediately expose the ignorant. For the word “once” indicates time, and those who say that they do not call it time, in their evil faith, fall into an absurd opinion. For they use this word with mockery, in their thoughts cruelly warring against the Son of God, considering Him in all respects alien to the Divinity of the Father. – So, did God give birth to the Son by will, or not by will? If we say: not by will, then we surround the Divine with necessity; and if we say: by will, then we admit that the will was before the Word. And even if something were indivisible and the smallest part of an hour, then this small part still indicates a time before the Word, and again we fall into their error. And if they say that He did not give birth to Him by will, then the Divinity is governed by the necessity of nature, and not by the freedom of will. But none of this relates to God, as you understand, O vain one: for God does not have this. So, He begat Him, not out of unwillingness or desire, but out of the abundance of nature; because the Divine nature transcends council and is not subject to time, nor is it governed by necessity. There is nothing ready in us, because we have never been and that we first consult with ourselves about something, and then do what we do, or, when we have not consulted, it is impossible for anything to be done by us. With God, everything is perfect and clear, and everything is fulfilled in Him, and not out of reluctance He gave birth to the eternally existing, the Holy Word and God born from Him, but in His abundant and ineffable nature. 53. It seems very surprising to me, O sons of faith and the church, how these controversialists turned what was used in the proper sense into an allegorical, and what was said figuratively, out of error, was taken for what was said in the proper sense. For they deny that the Word was begotten, as is characteristic of Him by nature, and say that It is, as it were, one of the generations; and what It was created - what is alien to His Divinity, although it is sometimes said allegorically - they consider this to be said about Him in the proper sense. The truth is hidden, as for example the words of Isaiah: “I saw the Lord of hosts” (Is. 6:5); and: “The Lord appeared to Moses” (Ex. 3:2); and: “The Lord appeared to Abraham” (Gen. 12:7); ​​and: Daniel saw in a vision “Old Day” (Dan. 7:9) and the like; and: the Lord appeared to Ezekiel, and he said: “I saw the form of God” (Ezekiel 1:4). They say that this did not happen, as if the prophets were lying; but they are based on the saying of the Gospel, which the Savior said, teaching that “God was not seen anywhere” (John 1:18). The prophets say that they saw: therefore it is necessary to assume that either the Only Begotten or the prophets lie. And according to those who speak in this way, just like the Manichaeans, everything in the prophets is false. And if the prophets do not lie, but speak the truth, according to the word of the Savior: “I am the one who said in the prophets, I am” (Is. 52:6): then the matter requires special understanding and allegorical explanation. And this often happens: we see, for example, the sea from part of a mountain or valley and say the truth that we saw. But if someone said something that he did not see it, he would also not lies, but speaks the truth; for he did not see its depth, nor its length, nor did it see its vastness 15. So we see through a small hole and a person, but we do not know him in full; and if at the same time someone says: I saw, then he really saw; and if another says: I did not see, then he really did not see; as if through the narrow opening of their own body they were worthy to see God, and truly they saw; but they did not see as the infinity of contemplation requires. And thus the Divine Scriptures are mutually agreed when in one case they say that the prophets saw God, because they truly saw; and in another - the Savior says: “No one can see God anywhere”; for they did not see Him as He is. But He Himself saw the nature of God in a way that surpasses all vision, and He gave grace-filled power to those who could not see, to see by the power of contemplation. 54. But do not speak cunningly again: the prophets saw not with their eyes, but with their minds, barely understanding and seeing. For this is precisely why Isaiah says: “O accursed man, I was touched as if I were a man of unclean lips, among men who have unclean lips I live: and I saw the Lord of Hosts” - he did not say: “I saw with my mind,” but: “with my eyes” (Is. 6:5). So they saw and together they did not see; but, as far as possible, they truly saw; They did not see it, because the immensity of His incomprehensibility demands it. So many talk about paradise allegorically, such as, for example, Origen, persecuted by God, who wanted to bring fiction into life rather than the truth; he says: “there is no heaven on earth” 16, completely contrary to what was said by the holy Apostle: I knew “a man before I was fourteen years old; if he were in the body, I do not know him; if he were apart from the body, I do not know him; God knows: he who was caught up was caught up into the third heaven” (2 Cor. 12:2). Do not judge falsely and do not say: up to the third part of the air; for, having said: “until the third heaven,” he is not talking about the third part, but about three numbers; and says: “This is the man who was caught up into paradise and heard the words that a man should not speak” (2 Cor. 12:3–4). Glory to Almighty God, who explains everything in every possible way and reveals everything to the subtleties, so that those committed to the truth do not stumble. For he did not combine heaven and paradise in one condensed speech, but says: “with all man, she was caught up to the third heaven”; and also says: “caught up into paradise.” The word put with a member must be taken about a special person and transferred to a special species; as, for example, if someone owns a mountain and a plain, and the plain is located around the mountain, and meanwhile he would like to cross to the other side of the mountain located in his plain, then he can, when he wants, make a journey across the plain, and also climb to such place of the mountain as he wants; if he wants first enter the mountain and again cross from the mountain to a certain place in the plain on the other side of the mountain, then it is possible for him to do so. So understand what was said about the Apostle, that first he ascended to heaven, according to what was said: “my brother descended into his helicopter city” (Song. 6, 1). And the Savior says: “Today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). 55. If there is no heaven on earth, and what is not truly written in the book of Genesis, but allegorically stated, then nothing is said in the literal sense, but everything allegorically must be understood. Meanwhile, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1): this is no longer allegorical, but visible. And the firmament, it is said, he created, and the sea, plants and trees, grass, greenery, animals, fish, birds and everything visible and truly happened, and finally man, whom he truly created (Gen. 1:6ff.). This man whom He created, He placed in paradise, “in the image” of creating this man himself, “in the image of God” (Gen. 1:26–27). Do not explore the gifts of God given to man by grace. We do not deny that all people are created in the image of God; but how it is in the image, we do not study. For we do not think of the body as created in an image, nor the soul, nor the mind, nor virtue; because many things prevent me from saying this; but we also do not say that the body was not created in the image or the soul. It is the nature of the faithful to acknowledge Scripture and not reject it; and it is common for the unfaithful to reject grace. So, to man belongs a creature in the image; but how, only God himself knows. For if you say: “He created man in the image,” and you put this image in the body, and yet God is invisible, incomprehensible, incomprehensible to the mind: then how will the visible and comprehensible, and the subject of touch be an image of the invisible and incomprehensible? And if you say: the body was not created in the image, then this is opposed by the saying: “he took dust from the ground and created man” (Gen. 2:7); and Scripture calls man earthy, and also calls him soulful, for “I breathed,” it is said, “in his face: and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). We imagine the soul as created, and the body. How created? “I will breathe,” it is said. And we do not say that the soul is a part of God, nor that it is alien to the one who breathed. And how to understand this subtlety, only God knows. 56. We, without investigation and malice (unrefinedly and without malice), believe in God, who is true in everything. And if you say that the soul is created in the image, while the Apostle says: “the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the division of the soul” (Heb. 4:12); if, therefore, the soul has division, and God is undivided: then how can the soul be created in the image? The soul does not know the future, but God knows everything. We also see the front of the body without knowing about the back. But if you say that the soul is not created in the image, then this would be contradicted by the fact that He, in any case, called the soul man, and man consists of soul and body. But you will say, perhaps, that the mind is created in an image; and yet the Scripture says: “I see another law warring against me in my hearts, and taking me captive in my mind by the law of sin which is in my hearts” (Rom. 7:23). How then will the one who is taken captive be created in his image? In addition, it is said: “I will sing with my mind, and I will sing with my spirit” (1 Cor. 14:15). And if you say that virtue was created in the image, then I will tell you: tell me about Adam, what virtue did he do before he was created? For he was not in the beginning, but was first created in an image. But if you say that virtue is not created in the image, then you are not speaking well; for to what is it proper to be created in the image, if not virtue? But before virtue, man was created in the image. For Adam did not yet live in virtue, he was not yet created. Finally, if you say that baptism is in the image, then it turns out that the righteous who did not receive baptism were not created in the image. For the type began with Moses and the sea, from John (the Baptist) this type was revealed, and in Christ the gift was completed. 57. So, everyone has the image of God in themselves, but not by nature; for it is not out of equality with God that people have the image of God, since God is incomprehensible, incomprehensible to the mind, being Spirit and, moreover, greater than all spirit and light, greater than all light. But what He himself determined, we do not deprive of its significance. True is He who by grace gave man existence in His own image, and the like. For we see that the Savior took bread in his hands, as the Gospel says, stood up at supper, took it and, giving thanks, said: “This is Mine” 17 (body) (Matthew 26:26 et al.). And we see that this (bread) is neither equal nor similar to the incarnate image, nor to the invisible Deity, nor to the features of the members; because it is circular and insensitive in relation to force. Nevertheless, He wanted by grace to say: “This is Mine” (body). And there is no one who does not believe this word: for he who does not believe that He is true falls from grace and salvation, as He said (cf. John 6:53). And whatever we hear and believe, we believe that it is His. About our Lord we know that He is all feeling, all gifted with feeling, all God, all moving, all active, all light, all incomprehensible, but with grace He has given this to us. 58. So, this Adam was placed in paradise and ate from the tree. “Paradise,” it is said, “was in Eden on the east; and a fountain rose up from Eden” (Gen. 2:8, 10). It is not said: “descended,” so that we would not consider Coming from heaven to have happened; because if he were in heaven, it would be said: a source descends from above. But it is said: “a river comes from Eden.” And it does not say: descends. This (river) “is separated into four beginnings. The name of the one is Pison” (Gen. 2:10–11). And we see Pishon with our eyes. Pison is a river called the Ganges by the Indians and Ethiopians, and the Hellenes call this river Indus. It surrounds “the whole land of Evilat” (Gen. 2:11), small and great, parts of the country of Elimaev 18; flows through great Ethiopia, descends to the south and in the country of the Gadirs flows into the great Ocean 19. The second river is “Geon” (Gen. 2:13). And we see a sensual river, not an allegorical one; for it descends through Ethiopia, passes through little Ethiopia, Anuvita, Vlemenia and Exomitis, irrigates parts of Thebaid and Egypt and flows into this sea 20. If anyone does not believe, let him listen to Jeremiah, who says: “Why should you and the land of Egypt drink the muddy water of Geon” (Jer. 2, 18)? “The third,” it is said, “is a river, the Tigris, passing straight through Assyria” (Gen. 2, 14). It crosses parts of the east and then disappears underground, and from Armenia, among the Cardians and Armenians, it rises again and flows to the surface, and, divided in its streams, waters the land of the Assyrians. But also “the fourth river is the Euphrates” (Gen. 2, 14 ) in the same way, hiding underground, it comes up from Armenia and thus waters Persia. So, if there is no sensual paradise, then there is no spring; and if there is no river, then there are no four principles. If there is no Tigris, then there is no Euphrates, then there is no fig tree, there is no Adam, there is no eating of the fruit. tree, there is no Eve; she did not eat from the tree, there was no Adam at all. And if there is no Adam, then there are no people, but the truth is already a fable, and everything must be understood figuratively. And yet Adam is; for we are from him, being all of him by succession, and we see him as if in the multitude of his offspring. 59. Adam gives birth to Seth after his kind. And lest anyone consider what was created to be different and those born from him to be different, Scripture says: “according to their own kind” (Gen. 5:3). Seth gives birth to Enos, Enos to Cainan, Cainan to Maleleel, Maleleel to Jared and Enoch, Enoch to Methuselah, Methuselah to Lamech, Lamech to Noah; and after that there was a flood, not allegorically, but truly, and every soul perished, but eight human souls remained. If you hear about souls, do not consider them fiction: for the whole person is called from one type. For example, Jacob descended into Egypt among seventy-five souls (Gen. 46:27), not in the sense that souls followed him without bodies, but with bodies. And we were “in ships of souls” about eighty, says Luke, who wrote the book of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 27:37). There is also a custom to call slaves bodies: a master, they say, has a hundred bodies, but also has souls; since human dominion relates to bodies, and not to souls, it is therefore prudent that slaves were called bodies connected to the soul, in order to show the use of bodies. Meanwhile, Noah left the ark, giving birth to Shem, Ham and Japheth. She gives birth to Arphaxad, Arphaxad gives birth to Cainan, Cainan to Salah, Salah to Eber, Eber to Peleg, Peleg to Ragam 21, Ragam to Serukh, Serukh to Nahor, Nahor to Terah, Terah to Abraham, Abraham to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, Jacob to Judah, Judah to Peres, Peres to Hezrom, Hezrom - Aram, Aram - Aminadab, Aminadab - Nahson, Nahson - Salmon, Salmon - Boaz, Boaz - Jovid 22 from Rufus, Jovid - Jesse, Jesse - King David, David - Solomon from Uriah 23, Solomon Rehoboam, Rehoboam - Abijah, Abijah - Asaph 24, Asaph - Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat - Joram, Joram - Ahaziah, Ahaziah - Joash, Joash - Emesiah 25, Emesiah - Uzziah, also called Azariah, Uzziah - Jotham, Jotham - Ahaz, Ahaz - Hezekiah, Hezekiah - Manasseh, Manasseh - Amos 26, Amos - Josiah, Josiah - Jeconiah, Jehoiachin, in turn, is Shealtiel, Shealtiel is Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel is Abihu, Abihu is Eliakim, Eliakim is Hazor, Hazor is Zadok, Zadok is Ahim, Achim is Eliud, Elihu is Eleazar, Eleazar is Matthias 27, Matthias is Jacob, Jacob is Joseph (fn. Matt. 1, 1-16; Luke 3, 23-38; Gen. 5:6-32, 1 Chron. 1 and others). 60. Joseph, being old and widowed after taking his first wife and after the birth of four male children from her: James, who is called the brother of the Lord because of his co-education with Him, Simon, Judas and John, and two daughters: Anna and Salome: - this Joseph, being, I say, old and widowed, by necessity, since lots were cast on the widowed and unmarried in each tribe for their acceptance from the church the virgins who were at the church because of the dedication of the firstborn male and female children, he accepted by lot the holy Virgin Mary, from whom our Lord Jesus Christ was born in the flesh through the Holy Spirit, not from male seed and not from bodily copulation. So, the Lord was born from the tribe of Judah, from the seed of David and Abraham according to the flesh, being God, in the fortieth year of the 28th reign of Augustus. Augustus reigned for 66 years, 29 and 6 months. After him, his son Tiberius took power, ruling for 23 years. After Tiberius, Caius (Caligula) - 3 years, 9 months and 22 days 30. After Caius Claudius - 13 years. After Claudius Nero - 13 years. After Nero Vespasian - 9 years. After Vespasian, his son Titus is 2 years old. After Titus, Domitian is his brother - 5 years 31 and 6 months. After Domitian Nerva - 4 years 32. After Nerva Traian - 19 years. After Trajan, Adrian is 22 years old. After Adrian, Antoninus the Pious is 22 years old. After Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who is also called Verus, is 19 years old. Antonin, his son - 7 years old. Antonin is different - 2 years 35. Alexander, but not Macedonian, - 3 years 36. Gallus and Volusian - 3 years. Kar, Karin and Numerian - 2 years. After Diocletian, Maximian. Until the year following the death of Gratian - 70 years. For this is the 90th year of Diocletian, the 10th year of Valentinian and Valens, and the 6th year of Gratian, the 3rd year of the consulate of Gratian Augustus, and the 2nd year of the most glorious Equitius. 61. So, we descend from the above-named Adam in order, and the series is not interrupted, and what is done by God is not spoken of allegorically. Thus Adam exists, there are fig leaves and a fig tree, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life in the midst of paradise, and the serpent, and disobedience and obedience; Rivers exist, Eve exists, and creation exists. For everything is possible for God: to change corruptible things into incorruptibility and to make those things that are on earth to remain incorruptible. And let no one marvel; for He confirmed this by His coming, taking corruptible flesh and clothing it with Divinity and showing it incorruptible. Who would blame God? But let's look at something else. He cast them out of paradise and placed cherubim and “flaming weapons” to guard access to the tree of life (Gen. 3:24). And leaving paradise, Adam and his wife settled “right in paradise” (ibid.). Let no one be deceived by empty fables; because “God is able to raise up children from stones” (Matthew 3:9); God can turn the corruptible into incorruptibility, and can, if He desires, create heavenly peace on earth. For the earth does not belong to one God and heaven to another, but to all one and the same, and He grants incorruptibility to everyone as He wills. And we know that Adam’s body was formed from the same earth from which our bodies are, and we have the hope of eternal life and an incorruptible inheritance; because the body of the Savior was borrowed from Mary and spiritually united with the incorruptibility of the Word in heaven. We have collected all this here and offered it, not wanting to reject anything from Scripture, but on the contrary, to follow simplicity and be faithful to God in what He truly wrote to us and gave us the path of truth and our salvation: He alone is capable of knowing the incomprehensible. 62. And another fabulous absurdity was introduced by this Origen (may God forgive him for offering an allegory to deceive people!) when he said that those “robes of leather”, about which the Divine Scripture says that God created them for Adam and his wife (Gen. 3:21), are not the essence of garments of leather, but this leather garment, he says, is the flesh of the body or the very body in which they are clothed souls after disobedience and eating from the tree 39. Saying this is completely unreasonable. Origen himself philosophizes and says: “Was God really a tanner, so that, having dressed the skins, he could make garments out of them for Adam and Eve”? Such words are rather befitting of beasts. What was easier for God, to bring heaven and earth from non-existence into existence or to make leather garments? When did He, wanting to accomplish His wonderful deeds, not perform them and turn the soulless into the animate? When could He not do something? He turned the dry wooden rod of Moses into an animated serpent, which pursued Moses and from which Moses fled, in order to show that what had happened was not a ghost, but a true something. How is it that in forty years the clothes of the people did not wear out, their hair did not grow, and their shoes did not wear out? Let these madmen tell me, who followed Origen’s mental derangement in this matter: when Christ rose from the dead and left his vestments in the tomb, as it is written (John 20:6; sn. Luke 24:12), he appeared naked to the disciples, having risen from the dead with body and soul; when he showed those with Thomas his bones and flesh, arms and side, then, obviously, he was not naked. So who sewed His clothes after the resurrection? But you will tell me, of course, that He made His own spiritual garments. And if He could make these clothes for himself, then could He not have made leather garments for Adam and his wife according to his will? Truly this allegory of Origen falls with a bang. For if the flesh was created for Adam after eating from the tree, then where did God get the side? - because, having awakened from sleep, Adam says: “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23). 63. Otherwise, let no one give us any trouble. For this is how the Holy Church has thought for a long time. And Origen will not appear to us on the day of judgment. But I am truly amazed how some hold on to him who blasphemed against his Master. Let such people read Origen’s work “On the Principles,” and let those who think of being sons of the Universal Church come to their senses; and let them not dare to separate the Son from the Divinity of the Father; let them know, I say, as Origen openly asserted, that the Son does not see the Father. He says: “just as the Son cannot see the Father, so the Holy Spirit cannot see the Son.” And again: “Angels cannot see the Holy Spirit, and people cannot see angels.” So, he deceived himself, and even more those whom he deceived, but not the one who is reasonable and faithful, and believes the truth and spiritual teaching. Stop it Origen, stop it, students of Origen; for the apostles and prophets speak the truth more than you and your teacher. Let the Gnostics cease, and let the catagnostics cease in their way of life 40 . Let the Valentinians and Manichaeans and Marcionites cease, who are mistaken in everything. May the Arians, Anomeans, Sabellians, Pneumatites (blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God), Doukhobors and Dimirites, who senselessly reject the mind, cease. In everything the Divine Scripture speaks the truth; and wisdom is needed in order to know God, to believe Him and His words, and what is given from God, both already given and about to be given, and to know, according to the promise, the perfect resurrection of the dead. For every heresy is false that has not received the Holy Spirit according to the tradition of the fathers in the holy universal Church of God. 64. But we will speak about this very thing again according to our weakness. Since we, small and humble ones, have been honored by God to belong to God’s holy universal Church and to possess its stronghold, then, by the strength of our humility, we will offer, in part, to everyone who wants to take care of their lives. Enough has been said about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. But in order to try to clarify this for the greater warning, protection and full conviction of the faithful, we, collecting evidence of the Divine Scripture from everywhere in order to bring the most abundant meal and joy to the reading faithful, will not be burdened and also show how unshakable and firm our hope is in God, and that there is no difference in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, but that the Holy The Trinity is of equal dignity and consubstantial. And we do not borrow teaching from somewhere else, and not from our own reflections, but from our life itself, that is, from the prophets and the coming of our Savior and His love for mankind. For our life has come, it has come, and the light has shone for us again, finding us lost; because we were immersed in arrogance, blasphemy, in the worship of images of idols, in the godless veneration of spirits and in submission to everything evil. So, when this was inherent in us, against our will (for I did not do what I wanted, but tried to do what I hated, so that my righteousness was sin) (cf. Rom. 7:15 and 13), the Holy Father sent his holy Son and by His grace saved me and delivered me from all my corruptions. 65. “The grace 41 of our Lord and Savior appeared, punishing us, so that, having rejected wickedness and worldly lusts, we would live chastely and piously in this present world, awaiting the blessed hope and the appearance of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself food for us, that he might deliver us from all iniquity and purify himself, chosen people, zealous for good deed" (Titus 2:11-14), "destroying the handwriting of the teachings against us, even contrary to us, taking it from the environment and nailing it to the cross: he pulled away the principalities and powers, brought them to shame with boldness, exposing them to himself" (Col. 2:14-15), "breaking the gates of brass and breaking the chains of iron" (Ps. 106:16), then showed the light of life, stretching out his hands, guiding, pointing to the ladder to heaven and deigning to dwell in paradise again. So, He “dwelled in us” (John 1:14) and gave us justification by the law of the Spirit, so that we might know Him and what is about Him, which is the beginning and the end of life. The law of righteousness has appeared to us, the law of the Spirit, free from the law of the sinful flesh. Therefore, “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man” (Rom. 7:22); Christ is within us, if he dwells in us. But having died, He became for us the way of life, “so that those who live do not live for themselves, but for him who died for us and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15), the author of life. He remembered the oath that he had sworn for many years, according to David (Ps. 88:4). “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their sins to them” (2 Cor. 5:19), “for he deigned that all fulfillment should dwell in him, and thereby reconcile all things to himself, making peace through the blood of the cross” (Col. 1:19–20). So, He came “to see the fulfillment,” as was promised to Abraham and the other saints, “to preside over all things in Him that are in heaven and on earth” (Eph. 1:10). During the long-suffering of God, there was discord and enmity, but He “reconciled in the body of his flesh” (Col. 1:22), with Himself “making both one” (Eph. 2:14). For “our peace and the middle wall of the fence has come, having destroyed enmity with his flesh, having abolished the law of the commandments of the teachings, so that both may be built into one new man” (Eph. 2:14-15). He commanded “to be a servant of the tongue, a partaker and an heir of the promise” (Eph. 3:6), saying: “Come, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). So, when I was weak in the flesh, the Savior was sent to me “in the likeness of the flesh of sin” (Rom. 8:3), fulfilling such a dispensation, in order to redeem me from slavery, corruption and death. And “righteousness and sanctification and deliverance came to me” (1 Cor. 1:30): truth, because by the power of faith he destroyed sin; sanctification, because he set me free by water and the Spirit and his word; deliverance, because he gave himself and his truly lamb’s blood as an atonement for me, in “purification” (Rom. 3:26) for the purification of the world, for the reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth (Col. 1:20), fulfilling at a certain time “the mystery hidden from time immemorial and from generation to generation” (Col. 1:26). He will “transform the body of our humility, so that it may be conformed to His glory; according to His action we can make all things possible and subject to Him” (Phil. 3:21): “for in this dwells all the fulfillment of the Divine body” (Col. 2:9). ). 66. So, the friend of wisdom and Divinity is Christ, who intercedes and reconciles everything in himself to God, who does not impute sin (2 Cor. 5:19), who fulfills the hidden mysteries, with faith in His covenant, promised by the law and the prophets, is proclaimed as the Son of God and is called the Son of David; for both: God and man, “the intercessor of God and men” (1 Tim. 2:5), the true house of God, “the holiness is holy” (1 Peter 2:5), the giver of the Holy Spirit, regenerating and renewing everything to God. And “the word became flesh and dwelt in us, and we saw His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14). Just as rain, penetrating trees and plants, gives them a body and grows each of the fruits in accordance with nature, so that in the olive there is fatty oil in accordance with its essence, and in the grapes there is sweet wine, on the fig tree a sweet fig grows, and in each seed the vegetation multiplies according to its type: so, I think, the Word of God in Mary “became flesh” (John 1:14 ) and in the seed of Abraham, according to the promise, man was revealed. For “I have found the Messiah,” it is said, “whom Moses wrote” (John 1:45). Moses said: “Let my message come down like rain, and like a drop falling on the ground” (Deut. 32:2 and Ps. 71:6). And David: “let it fall like rain on the fleece” (Ps. 71:6). Wool, which receives dew, increases the splendor of the fleece, and the earth, which receives rain, multiplies the fruit at the command of the Lord, giving the plants strong growth, and longs to receive even more rain from Him. So did the Virgin Mary when she said: how do I know that this will happen to me? I heard in response: “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you: likewise, what is born of you will be holy, and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:34–35). Christ speaks in the person of an Angel, and forms himself in his own form as a Master, “taking on the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:7). And Mary will receive the Word at conception as the earth receives rain; and the Word of God, taking on mortal nature, reveals itself as holy fruit. So from the Virgin, like the earth and the fleece that received Him, came this fruit of true hope, the expectation of the saints, as Elizabeth said: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:42). All this received from human nature the Word that suffered, being dispassionate. “This is the “living bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:50–51) and gives life. He is the fruit of the true olive tree, “the oil of anointing and compounding,” which Moses transformed (Ex. 30:25, 37). He is the “true vine” (John 15:1), which is cultivated by the Father alone, who gave us grapes of joy. He is “water living,” which a thirsty man, having received, “will not thirst again,” but it remains in his womb “flowing into the eternal belly” (John 4:10, 13-14). Having received the offspring from Him, the new farmers gave it to the world, and the old farmers tore it out and destroyed it through unbelief. By His Blood the nations are sanctified, and by His Spirit He leads those who are called; heaven. “Those are led by His Spirit” (Rom. 8:14), those live for God, and those who remain numbered with death are called natural or carnal (1 Cor. 2:14). So, He commands us to reject the works of the flesh, which serve as a stronghold of sin, to mortify the members of death by His grace and to receive the Holy Spirit, which we did not have, which gives life to me, who died of old, and which, if I do not receive, I will die. For without His Spirit everyone is dead. So, “if His Spirit is in us, raising Him from the dead, He will also give life to our dead bodies through His living Spirit in us” (Rom. 8:11). But I think that in a righteous person both Christ and His Spirit dwell. 67. If it is believed that Christ is from the Father, that is, God is from God, and that the Spirit is from Christ (receives), or from both, as Christ says: “He who comes from the Father” (John 15:26) and: “He will receive from Mine” (John 16:14) 42, and Christ (born) of the Holy Spirit, according to the word of the Angel (Matthew 1:20); cf. Luke 1:35): I mean the sacrament that redeemed me through faith and one ear and love for Him who came to me. God knows Himself, Christ preaches about Himself, the Holy Spirit reveals Himself to be holy. In the Holy Scriptures the Trinity is proclaimed to us and accepted with faith, when listening to the symbols, without inquisitiveness, without argument. From this faith comes grace-filled salvation: “from faith there is righteousness without the works of the law,” as it is written: (fn. Gal. 2 and Rom. 3:22); from the hearing of faith the Spirit of Christ is given to those who are being saved. The Catholic faith, as I think, taught from the Scriptures, is expressed in the language of preachers like this: three holy, three holy together, three shaped, three conformable, three active, three active together, three hypostatic, three co-hypostatic, united with each other. This Trinity is called Holy, in which there are three persons, but one agreement, one Divinity of the same being, the same power, the same essence, like from like, according to the equality of grace of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And how this is, it is left to them to teach: for “no one knows the Father but the Son, nor the Son except the Father, and even if the Son reveals it” (Matthew 11:27); and to whomever the Son reveals through the Holy Spirit, to him the Father also reveals. So, these three expressions: either from Him, or from Him, or from Him are thought in a worthy manner in relation to everyone, as Persons reveal Themselves. Such are light, fire, spirit and other similar names for visible objects, as the person who deals with this is able to understand. So, that God, Who in the beginning said: “Let there be light, and there will be” this visible light (Gen. 1:3), enlightened us to see “the true light, which enlightens every man who comes into the world” (John 1:9). “Send your light and your truth,” says David (Psalm 42:3). He is the Lord, Who said: “In the last days I will pour out my Spirit, and their sons, and their daughters, and their young men will see visions” (Joel 2:28; sn. Acts 2:17). He shows us the three faces of holy service in the trinitarian hypostasis. 68. So, “the word of Christ, the minister of the circumcision according to the truth of God, is to fulfill the promises” (Rom. 15:8). And that the Holy Spirit serves together with Him, we received this from the Divine Scriptures. Christ is sent from the Father; the Holy Spirit is also sent. Christ speaks in the saints; the Holy Spirit speaks. Christ heals; The Holy Spirit also heals. Christ sanctifies; The Holy Spirit also sanctifies. Christ baptizes in His name; The Holy Spirit also baptizes. This is what the Scriptures say: “follow your Spirit and renew the face of the earth” (Ps. 103:30); this is similar to the words: “After thy Word, I am consumed” (Ps. 147:7). “And to those who serve the Lord and to those who fast, the Holy Spirit said: Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work for which I called them” (Acts 13:2); this is similar to the words: “But the Lord said: Go into the city, and there it is said to you that it is fitting for you create” (Acts 9:6). “This was sent from the Holy Spirit to Seleucia” (Acts 13:4). Likewise, Christ says: “Behold, I send you like sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matthew 10:16). “The Holy Spirit was pleased to lay no other burden than these needy” (Acts. 15, 28); like this it is said: I say, “not I, but the Lord: a wife shall not be separated from her husband” (1 Cor. 7:10). “They passed through Phrygia and the Galatian country, forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak a word in Asia, but when they came to Mysia, they tried to go to Bithynia: and the Spirit did not forsake them” (Acts 16:6–7). Similarly, Christ said: “Go and baptize all the nations” (Matthew 28:19). “Carry neither sword, nor staff, nor boots” (Luke 10:4, 9:3). “Who,” it is said, “should not go up to Jerusalem with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 21:4). And Agabus says: “Thus says the Holy Spirit: “The man whose belt is” (Acts 21:11). This is similar to what Paul said: or “are you seeking temptation, who speaks in me” (2 Cor. 13:3)? Or: remember the words “The Lord, as he himself said: It is better to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) - “And now, I am bound by the Spirit” (Acts 20:22). Similarly, it is said: “Paul is a servant of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:1). 23). This is similar to the words: “The Lord is witness to my soul, that I do not lie” (Gal. 1:20; fn. Rom. 1:9). The words: “with power, according to the Spirit of holiness” (Rom. 1:4) are similar to what was said: “Holy One, rest in the saints” (Is. 57:15). The words: “circumcision of the heart by the Spirit” (Rom. 2:29) are similar to the words: “circumcision was made quickly with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of sin, in the circumcision of Christ” (Col. 2:11). The words: “if the Spirit of God dwells in you” (1 Cor. 3:16) are similar to the words: “as you have received Christ, walk in Him” (Col. 2:6). And again: “The Spirit of the Lord is in me, and His word is in my mouth: (2 Samuel 23:2). Also, the words: “having the firstfruits of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:23) are similar to the words: “Christ the firstfruits” (1 Cor. 15:23). The words: “but the Spirit himself intercedes for us” (Rom. 8:26) are similar to the words: “who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us” (Rom. 8:34). The words: “let the offering of the tongue be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15:16) are similar to the words: “The Lord sanctify you, that you may be pure and without stumbling in the day Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Phil. 1:10). The words: "Christ hath revealed unto us by His Spirit" (1 Cor. 2:10) are similar to the words: "When God was pleased to choose (me) from the womb of my mother by His grace, to reveal His Son in me" (Gal. 1:15-16). The words: “We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God” (1 Cor. 2:12) are similar to the words: “Test yourselves whether Christ is in you” (2 Cor. 13:5). The words: “You are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you” (1 Cor. 3:16) are similar to the words: “I will dwell in them, and I will be like and be their God, and they will be my people” (2 Cor. 6:16; cf. Lev. 26:11–12). 69. But Scripture produces both justification and grace from both (that is, from Christ and the Holy Spirit): justified “by the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). In a similar way it is said: “having been justified by faith, peace be upon God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). - “No one can speak of the Lord Jesus except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). And one more thing: no one can receive the Holy Spirit except from the Lord (John 20:22). - “The divisions of gifts are, and the same is the Spirit; and the divisions of ministries are, and the same is the Lord; and the divisions of actions are, and the same is God, working all in all” (1 Cor. 12:4-6). And again: “from glory to glory, even as from the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18). And the words: “Do not offend the Holy Spirit, by whom you are marked on the day of deliverance” (Eph. 4:30) are similar to the words: “If we provoke the Lord, we are stronger than him in food” (1 Cor. 10:22)? And the words: “The Spirit speaks clearly” (1 Tim. 4:1) are similar to the words: “Here the Lord Almighty speaks” (Hag. 1:2, 2, etc.). The words: “My Spirit will abide in the midst of you” (Hag. 2:6) are similar to the words: “If anyone opens to Me, I and the Father will come in,” (Apoc. 3:20; John 14:23). Isaiah says: “And the Spirit of God is upon him” (Isaiah 11:2), and Christ says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for the sake of anointing me” (Luke 4:18); and again: “Jesus, who was of Nazareth, whom (God) anointed with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 10:38); or: “The Lord has sent me, and His Spirit” (Is. 48:16). The voice of the Seraphim is also clear, crying out: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:3). If you hear the words: “He is exalted by the right hand of God, and the promise of the Spirit is received from the Father” (Acts 2:33), or: “Wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard” (Acts 1:4), or: “The Spirit brought Him into the wilderness” (Mark 1:12), or, as Christ Himself says: “Do not worry about what you will say, because the Spirit My Father shall speak in you" (Matthew 10:19-20), or: "If I cast out demons because of the Spirit of God" (Matthew 12:28), or: he who blasphemes "against the Holy Spirit shall not have remission" and so on (Mark 3:29; Matthew 12:32) or: "Father, in your hands I commend the Spirit mine" (Luke 23G46), or: "Growing up as a child and strengthened by the Spirit" (Luke 1:80), or: "Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan" (Luke 4:1), or: "Jesus returned by the power of the Spirit" (Luke 4:14), or: "What is born of the Spirit is the spirit" (John 3:6), - then all these words are similar to the following: “it will happen.” There is life in that” (John. 1, 3–4); or: “And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter: the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16–17), or, as Peter said to Ananias: “For Satan fills your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit,” and then: “Thou hast not lied to man, but to God” (Acts 5:3–4). This means that the Holy Spirit is God from God - God, to whom those who hid “the price of the village” lied (Acts 5:3). And again: “God appeared in the flesh, and was justified in Dus” (1 Tim. 3:16). I have nothing more to say than this. And the Son is God. “From them,” says the Apostle, “is Christ according to the flesh, who is God above all” (Rom. 9:5). “Believe,” it is also said, “in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). And again: “And he spoke to them the word of the Lord. So I brought them into the house, set a table for them, and the whole house rejoiced, believing God” (Acts 16:32.34). Or: “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word” (John 1:1). Or: “let the teachings of our Savior God adorn” (Titus 2:10). Or: “The saving grace of God appeared to all mankind, punishing us” (Titus 2:11–12). Or: “waiting for the blessed hope and the revelation of the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Or: here is the ministry of the Spirit and the Word. “Take heed,” it says, “to yourselves and to all the flock, in whom the Holy Spirit has appointed bishops to shepherd the church of God” (Acts 20:28). This is similar to the words: “I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who strengthens me, because He was faithful to put me in service” (1 Tim. 1:12). 70. And so, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as proven, act together with the Father: for “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their power” (Psalm 33:6). We worship the Holy Spirit, because those who worship God must worship “in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). If truth acts together with the Spirit, then creation does not produce creation, neither the Divinity is created, nor God is obviously limited by measure or volume; for He is indescribable, inconceivable, incomprehensible, but embraces all the works of God. The creature should not offer service: because “having served the creature more than the Creator, you become a fool” (Rom. 1:25, 22). Indeed: isn’t it stupid for a creature to attribute the Divinity and violate the first commandment, which reads: “Hear to Israel: the Lord your God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4), “there will not be a new God to you” (Ps. 81:10)? In the holy scriptures the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are called by different names. The Father is called the Almighty Father, the Father of all, the Father of Christ, and the Son is called the Word, Christ, the true Light, and the Holy Spirit is called the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ. So what? And God the Father, of course, is like light, but like light, excessively brilliant, like power and wisdom. If God the Father is light, then the Son is light from light and therefore “in the living light he is unapproachable” (1 Tim. 6:16). God in general is power and therefore is the Lord of powers. God is also wisdom, and thus the Son is wisdom from wisdom, “in whom are all the hidden treasures of wisdom” (Col. 2:3). God is also life, therefore the Son is life from life: “I am the truth and the life” (John 14:6). The Holy Spirit is from both, the Spirit from the Spirit; for “The Spirit is God” (John 4:24); Divinity, dispenser of gifts, most true, enlightening, comforting, announcer of the wills of the Father. For just as the Son is “a great angel of counsel” (Is. 9:6), so is the Holy Spirit. But “we,” it is said, “receive the Spirit of God, so that we may know what has been given to us by God, even speaking not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in the manifestation of the Spirit of God, spiritually discerning spiritual things” (1 Cor. 2:12, 13:4). 71. But someone will say: and so, we say that there are two Sons? How can this be when the Son is the only begotten? “In the same way, who are you against answering God” (Rom. 9:20)? If Scripture calls the Son who came from the Father, and the Holy Spirit from both, then these two Persons, understood from the saints only by faith, are luminous and givers of light, have educational activities and, in the light of faith, maintain agreement with the Father Himself. Listen: the Father truly is the Father of the Son, the whole light, and the Son is the Son of the true Father, light from light, not like creatures or creatures only in name, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, the third light from the Father and the Son. The rest are all called sons by adoption, or by comparison, or by calling, and not by an action similar to the action of the Son, or by strength, or by light, or by thought, as it is said: “I have begotten sons and raised them up” (Is. 1:2), or: “I am a god, and sons of the Most High” (Psalm 81:6), or: “He who has begotten drops of dew” ( Job 38:28), or: “The whole family in heaven and on earth is worthless” (Eph. 3:15), or: “I am the one who makes the thunder and the wind” (Amos. 4:13). The True Father did not begin to be a Father in the same way as other fathers or patriarchs, and will never cease to be a Father. For if He began to be the Father, then the Son would once have been the son of another father before the Father of the Only Begotten existed. Like fathers, children are thought of as fathers, and to discover the true father - the ancestor, one must go to infinity. And the true Son did not just begin to be a Son, like other children by adoption. If He began to be the Son, then there was once a time when the Father of the Only Begotten did not exist. And the Spirit of truth is not a created or created being, like other spirits. And “great angel of counsel” is not called in the same sense as other angels. They have a beginning and an end, and They (the Son and the Holy Spirit) have incomprehensible power and strength. They created everything, cooperating with the Father for endless ages, and they are created by Them as They willed. They serve Them, and They receive service from all creatures. They heal their creations, and these receive healing from them. They are judged according to their deserts, and They carry out righteous judgment. They exist in time, and They are outside of time. They enlighten everyone, and they are enlightened. They call babies to the heights, and they are called from the Perfect One. They give to everyone, and everyone receives gifts. And in general to say: they sing holiness in the heavens of heavens and in other invisible places, and They, worthily sung, give gifts to the worthy. 72. Scripture speaks of many spirits: “angels make their own spirits, and their servants create a flame of fire” (Psalm 103:4), and also: all spirits praise the Lord (Psalm 150:6). Those who are worthy are given the gifts of discernment of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10). Other spirits are heavenly, rejoicing in the truth; others are earthly, subject to deception and error; others are underground, children of the abyss and darkness, “I pray to Him,” says the Gospel, “that He will not send them into the abyss” (Luke 8:31). In the same way, Christ commanded the spirits and cast out the spirits with the word “and will not leave them to speak” (Mark 1:34). It also speaks of the spirit of judgment and the spirit of heat (Is. 4:4); It is also said about the spirit of the world: “we have not received the spirit of the world” (1 Cor. 2:12); It is also said about the spirit of man: “Who is the message of man that is in man, but the spirit of man” (1 Cor. 2:11)? Mention is also made of “a spirit that walks and does not return” (Psalm 77:39): “as a spirit passes through it, and it is not” (Psalm 103:16); and again: “take away their spirit, and they will disappear” (Psalm 103:29). And again: “The souls of the prophet obey the prophecies” (1 Cor. 14:32); or: behold, “there is a lying spirit before the Lord, and the Lord said to him: In what way will you deceive Ahab? I will be,” he says, “a lying spirit in the mouth of a prophet” (1 Kings 22:21–22). It also speaks of a spirit of compunction (Rom. 11:8), a spirit of fear (2 Tim. 1:7), an inquisitive spirit (Acts 16:16), a spirit of wandering (Hos. 4:12), a stormy spirit (Ps. 10:6), a spirit of many words (Job 8:2), and an ailing spirit (Lk. 13:11), about the unclean spirit, the deaf spirit and the dumb spirit (Mark 9:25), about the humming spirit (Mark 7:32), about the fierce spirit, which is called “legion” (Matthew 8:28 and Luke 8:30), and finally about the “spirits of wickedness” (Eph. 6:12). Smart people will find countless testimonies about spirits. But just as there are many sons by adoption or by name, and not true ones, who are inclined to sin because they have a beginning and an end, so there are very many spirits by adoption or by name who are inclined to sin. But the Holy Spirit is the one Spirit from the Father and the Son, “the Spirit of truth” (John 14:17), “the Spirit of God” (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 2:11), “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9) and the Spirit of grace; For each one is given good in a different way: “to another the spirit of wisdom, to another the spirit of understanding, to another the spirit of power, to another the spirit of healings, to another the spirit of prophecy, to another the spirit of understanding, to another the spirit of tongues, to another the spirit of legends” and other gifts, as the Apostle says: “There is one and the same Spirit, dividing to each as he will” (1 Cor. 12, 8–11). And David says: “Your good Spirit will guide me” (Ps. 142:10); or: “Where the Spirit wills, it breathes” (John 3:8). With these words, Scripture points us to the hypostasis of the Holy Spirit. And “you hear his voice, but do not know where it comes from and where it goes” (ibid.). And the words: “Unless you are born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5) are similar to the words of Paul: “In Christ Jesus have you been born” (1 Cor. 4:15). About the Spirit, the Lord said: “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about Me” (John 15:26); and: “Many more Imam speak to you, but you cannot bear it now: when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth; 73. So, if the Spirit “proceeds from the Father and from mine,” says the Lord, “receives,” then, just as “no one knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son but the Father” (Matthew 11:27), and the Spirit, I dare say, no one knows except the Father, from whom He proceeds, and the Son, from whom He receives, just as no one knows the Son and the Father, just as the Spirit The Holy One, who glorifies them truly, who teaches everything, who bears witness to the Son, who proceeds from the Father and who receives from the Son, the only guide to the truth, the interpreter of holy laws, the expounder of the spiritual law, the teacher of the prophets, the teacher of the apostles, the illuminator of gospel dogmas, the selector of saints, the true light from the true light. And the Son is natural, the true Son, the Son. lawful, one from one; with Him is also the Spirit, but is called the Spirit. This God is glorified in the Church - always the Father, always the Son, always the Holy Spirit, high from the highest and highest, having immeasurable reasonable glory, to whom the created and the created, and everything in general imaginable and comprehended by sight, is subordinate. But Moses preaches predominantly a single Deity, the prophets preach predominantly a duality, and in the Gospels the Trinity is revealed, which, according to times and generations, is more conducive to knowledge and faith for the righteous. This knowledge of immortality comes from faith or sonhood itself. But first she expresses the justifications of the flesh, as if erecting the outer fence of the church under Moses, and then she sets out the justifications of the soul in the remaining prophecies, as if decorating the sanctuary, and in the third she sets out the justifications of the spirit in the Gospels, as if arranging for her own habitation a purification and the Holy of Holies. And instead of the holy tabernacle, the holy church, it has one Righteous One abiding in it. In Him dwells one boundless Deity, one incorruptible Deity, one inconceivable, incomprehensible, inexplicable, invisible Deity, one who knows himself, who manifests himself to whomever he wants, who raises up witnesses for himself, who calls, predetermines, glorifies, who raises from hell, who sanctifies, who unites again for his glory and faith in these three witnesses: heavenly, earthly and the grave, spirit, soul and flesh, faith, hope and love, past, present and future, the age of ages, the ages of ages and the Sabbaths of Sabbaths, circumcision of the flesh, circumcision of the heart and the circumcision of Christ “in putting off the body of sin” (Col. 2:11). In general, the Divine purifies for itself everything, invisible and visible, thrones, dominions, principles, authorities, powers. In everything there is the same wisdom and the same holy voice, crying from glory to glory: “holy, holy, holy” (Is. 6:3), and proclaiming the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father with the Holy Spirit, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And the believer will say this: let it be, let it be! 74. About the Trinity and about the consubstantiality of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we, weak and simple, without further ado, nor subjected to deception from people, on the contrary, from the Divine Scriptures, having collected evidence for those who wished, so that the faithful could use them, and they served the evil-believing and vain in refutation, we made a choice of evidence, although incomplete. Great is the power of faith in the Holy Spirit, preached in various ways in all the Divine Scriptures. But since the entire steadfastness of our salvation lies in the unshakable confession of the incarnation of our Savior and His incarnation and in the affirmation of the hope for the resurrection of the dead and our restoration, then, adding a little more to this work of ours, for the benefit of those who wish to read it more carefully, we will continue collecting evidence from the same Divine Scriptures and applying them to study. As we know, already from what was written before, our Lord Himself in His Gospel said to His disciples: “Going baptize all the languages ​​in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep the commandments that I commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20). This was said by the Holy Hypostatic Son Himself, who came from the Father, by Whom the ages, times and seasons were created. For before the Son there was neither term nor time: if time had existed before the Son, then time would have been greater than the Son; and how then “all things came to be, and without Him nothing came into being” (John 1:3)? If anything happened, it happened through Him, and He Himself is uncreated and always existing, because the Father is always; was and His Holy Spirit always was. If the time was before the Son, then we can ask again; Who created the time that preceded the Son? Thus, madness will turn our mind to the fiction hidden in human prejudice, or better to the wandering of thoughts, and not to chastity. So, there was no time before the Son, because the Son was not produced by times, but by the Son times and angels and all other creatures were produced. There was never a time in which the Son did not exist, and there was never a time in which the Spirit did not exist. 75. But some, who read incorrectly and do not understand, think to divide the reading of the saying: “all things were, and without Him nothing came to be,” only separating the text up to this point and taking this as a basis for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. They are mistaken about reading and because of the error in reading they blaspheme. And the reading should be this: “all that was, and without Him there was nothing that was” in him; that is, if anything happened, it happened through Him. So, the Father has always been, and the Spirit from the Father and the Son always breathes. And neither the Son is created, nor the Spirit is created; and everything lower than the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is created and produced, which did not exist at one time, but was produced from the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit through the ever-existing Word with the ever-existing Father. So, everything created came into being through this very Word, the heavenly King, the hypostatic Word, our Savior and benefactor. This is the Holy Savior Himself, who descended from heaven and deigned to accomplish our salvation in the church of the Virgin. He was born of Mary, conceived of the Holy Spirit; took on flesh: “The word became flesh” (John. 1, 14), unchanged by nature; adopted humanity to His Divinity; being perfect from the Father, having completed the economy perfectly, He came into the world for our sake and for the sake of our salvation. He took on human flesh and soul, being perfect from the Father, becoming human among us, not illusively, but truly, so that he created in himself a perfect man from Mary the Mother of God through the Holy Spirit. And he did not dwell in man as he usually did when he spoke in the prophets, but dwelled with power and acted in them; but Himself, “the Word became flesh,” without being transformed into flesh and without changing the Divinity into humanity, but with its own body took humanity into its own hypostasis of the Divinity, the hypostatic Word of God. I mean perfect humanity, that is, everything that is in a person, all the properties that a person possesses, in general, everything that makes up a person. It was precisely such a man that the Only Begotten came and took in, so that in perfect humanity, being God himself, he could complete all salvation, and leave nothing of humanity, so that the part left would not again become part of the devil’s food. 76. And if some say that He took on one flesh, but not a soul, 43, weaving in something fabulous and turning Scripture into a fable, then let them, from what was said: “We are the mind of Christ the imams” (1 Cor. 2:16), from this they themselves will understand that those who say: “We are the mind of Christ the imams” had the same mind, but did not reject this one either. If those who, along with the mind of Christ, had their own mind, owned both, and the mind of Christ could make them better, and their mind was capable of correct understanding, then the same should be recognized regarding Christ, that is, that He, being God and the mind in Himself, accepted the human mind along with flesh and soul. And thus, as a man, He did not reject the mind, but He Himself was its decorator, guide and improver. For just as He took on flesh, not being overcome by the flesh, so having received the mind, He was not overcome by the mind. On the contrary, those who reject the mind in Christ fall into the gravest contradictions. For throughout the Divine Scriptures, clearly crying out, they do not accuse the mind, but against the flesh: the fruits of the flesh, they say, are: “fornication, adultery, adultery” and the like (Gal. 5:19), and also: “but those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8), also: “the flesh lusts after the spirit” (Gal. 5:17). About the mind it is said: “I will sing in the spirit, and I will also sing in the mind” (1 Cor. 14:15), and: “my mind is unfruitful” or with fruit (1 Cor. 14:14). In these places, the mind, which Scripture usually calls the heart, is posited as the leader, so to speak, and the reins of the entire human vessel, the judge of good and evil, the tester of the good that happens in us. For the mind “reasons words, but the throat eats food” (Job 12:11). The mind is the rational ability in a person, and is not the ability to agree to everything, unless it changes itself. 77. If this is so, then why did some decide to reject the mind in the human nature of the Lord? What benefit did those who turned to confusion bring to people? What did this bring us, harm or benefit? Do they not think by this, so to speak, to please Christ? Do they not think to do Him a great favor when they say that He did not accept mind? But the Galatians are called “foolishness” (Gal. 3:1), “The Cretans are ever deceitful” (Tit. 1:12), “Ephraim is a foolish dove” (Hos. 7:11); but our Lord, who became man in this life, accepted everything perfectly, or better, accepted, Himself being the creator of His body, Himself receiving Himself, or putting a soul into Himself. And some, wanting to make them insufficient the coming of Christ in the flesh and the economy completed in Him, I don’t know what they have in mind, they say incorrectly that Christ did not take on the mind. They consider the mind to be a hypostasis 44 and dare to apply to this what Scripture usually says about the spirit in man, as the Apostle says: “May your spirit and soul be perfect, and your body in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). They are wrong; for if the spirit is mind and the mind is spirit, as they also think, and the soul is different from the mind and from the spirit, then there are no longer two hypostases in man, united in one hypostasis; there is no longer one hypostatic soul and a hypostatic body, but we find four hypostases: the mind is one hypostasis, the soul is another hypostasis, the spirit is the third hypostasis, the body is the fourth hypostasis 45 . And if we explore further, it will turn out even more; because many names are attached to man, such as “inner man” and “outer man” (Rom. 7:22; Eph. 3:16; 2 Cor. 4:16). And Scripture uses all these names in a spiritual sense, obliging our minds to ensure that we do not leave behind anything related to salvation, and that there is no reason for us to avoid what is set before us. So this is in man; but you shouldn’t do much of it either. However, in their opinion, if the mind is spirit, and the spirit is mind, and yet both exist outside the soul, then again on what basis does the Apostle say: “I will sing with the spirit, I will sing with the mind also” (1 Cor. 14:15)? With these words he showed that neither the mind is spirit, nor the spirit is mind. 78. Then it is also said: “The soul that sins will die” (Ezek. 18:4); I don’t think it says here about the soul separated from the body. “There were,” it is said, “in the ships there were about seventy souls” (Acts 27:37); of course, souls were not without a body, but bodies were with souls. And again, people are in the habit of calling a person by one name, such as: master of eighty bodies, of course not soulless. So “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14), not without a soul, not without any of its activities. For, even when we speak of the soul, it is not shown that it is without a body; and when we speak of bodies, we do not understand them to exist without a soul. So, what did those who want to deny the presence of the mind in the human nature of Christ think? Or what benefit did this bring to the Church? On the contrary, does not thinking in this way make our salvation incomplete? connected with the soul, rational and thinking in everyone, even among those who are mistaken. Speaking in relation to the human concept: as the eyes are in the body, so is the mind in the soul. But again, we are not asserting this for the purpose of argument, but simply recognizing the mind as a thinking ability in people. So, what is a person? Soul, body, mind, etc. What did the Lord come to save? Of course, a perfect person. Consequently, He accepted absolutely everything that is in man; for otherwise, how could everything that was predicted and proclaimed about Him, as a man consisting of mind, body and soul, and everything human, except sin, be fulfilled in Him? This is clearly offered to us by the Divine Word, saying: “My beloved Child will understand, even more will My soul please. I will lay down My spirit” and so on (Isa. 42:1; Matt. 12:18). So, understanding in what was fulfilled? If in the Divine, then does it mean that the Divinity was devoid of understanding? - Let it not be! This is fulfilled in the Lord's man. If it is fulfilled in the Lord man, then how will mankind understand Him without mind? This is impossible. If in general: “will understand” refers to Christ, and Christ is the Word from above, made flesh from Mary and after His incarnation lived with us, according to what is written (Bar. 3:38), then there is no doubt that He accepted the economy of the incarnation together with the mind, since understanding befits Him. That’s why the Gospel says about Him: “abounding in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52). It was not the Divinity itself that accepted the increase in age, and it was not the Divinity itself, being all wisdom, that needed the addition of wisdom. The humanity of the Savior excelled in wisdom, not existing without mind, since otherwise it could not have been gifted with wisdom. It also matured with age, when the Youth became stronger physically, as required by the truth of the incarnation. 79. If, as the heretics say, because of the acceptance of the mind He is subject to the power of sin, then all the more should we recognize this in Him in view of His acceptance of the flesh, without which sin is not committed: “the essence of the matter of the flesh is revealed” (Gal. 5:19); why, of course, we will have to admit that He sinned in the flesh by taking on flesh. “We know,” says the Apostle, “that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh” (Rom. 7:18). Who will dare to say that the Savior, as a result of taking on the flesh, was carried away by the flesh and did not the blessed deeds of the flesh, as are characteristic of its entire composition? However, although He had weak human flesh, it was not in the least subject to the fall. For God the Word, who descended from above from the Father, deigning to be in the flesh, bridled his vessel (flesh) and, as he wanted, could restrain him from any inappropriate carnal action, and in accordance with his will, allowed him only to satisfy the blessed and befitting of His Divinity bodily needs. For, having a mind in truth, just as He had the whole human nature in truth, He did not stretch to satisfy irrational lusts, nor, like us, did the works of the flesh do or did not conceive, but did everything as God, who appeared in true flesh, received from the Virgin Mary, with flesh, soul, mind and all the composition of the human race, descended from above from the Father, the hypostatic God-Word. But let some not philosophize, abusing such a saying as “understand my calling” (Psalm 5:2). For by incorrect usage this is said about prayer, and such usage is clear; but the image of His fleshly coming was also predicted; because what is said is true: and “advanced in age.” 80. What do they think they are saying when we affirm that Christ was born of Mary a perfect man or had an intellect? Let us not assume that He was subject to sins. It won't happen! He “committed no sin, lest flattery be found in His mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22). For if He breathed His power into the saints, and about those in whom He breathed it there is evidence that they were holy, righteous, and spent their days blameless, then much more is He Himself, in whom God was pleased to dwell “in every fulfillment of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). Although He received from the Ever-Virgin Mary the true flesh and true human soul, and the mind, and everything else that is in man; but having all this in himself, he possessed everything as God, without making all such things involved in evil, without allowing himself to be crushed by the evil one, carried away into pleasures, exposed to the sin of Adam. That is why the Apostle says: “being under the law” (Gal. 4:4), and also: “in the image of a man” (Phil. 2:7). The expressions: “in the manner” and “under the law,” on both sides, reduced to one thing, mean perfection and dispassion. From the expression: “being” it becomes clear that He was perfect, and from the expression: “under the law” it is clear that He was not illusory; the expression: “in a manner” means constancy of appearance; From the expression: “like a man,” sinlessness is visible. If this is so, then let no one be deceived by empty fables. If he who is born again of the Father is truly born of Mary, then the birth below is true. And if He is imperfect from above, then He is also imperfect below. If he is perfect from above, then he is also perfect below. He did not dwell in anything else perfect, but He Himself was perfect in everything. And he rose from the dead, not being divided in the tomb into body and divinity, and into soul in the underworld, no longer being touched and no longer moving away, but entering “by a closed door” (John 20:19), touched by Thomas, so as not to become like a ghost, but to be a true man. When Thomas was convinced, then what was predicted was fulfilled: “My hands sought God, and I was not deceived” (Ps. 77:3). One and the same God and one and the same man, who did not merge, but united the two into one, who did not pass into non-existence, but strengthened the earthly body with the Divinity, united into one force, brought to a single Divinity: one Lord, one Christ, and not two Christs and not two Gods. In Him is a spiritual body, in Him is an incomprehensible Divinity; what has suffered in Him is not corruptible, but what is impassive is incorruptible; everything in Him is incorruptible. He is God the Lord, who sits at the right hand of the Father, having not left flesh, but having united everything into one and into one Divinity, he sits at the right hand of the Father. 81. This Only Begotten, perfect, uncreated, immutable, unchangeable, incomprehensible, invisible, made man among us, risen spiritually and no longer dying, no longer poor, “for our sake he who became poor is rich” (2 Cor. 8:9), the whole Spirit, uniting the physical and the Divine, one Lord, King, Christ, the Son of God, seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father “above all principality and power, power and every name that is named” (Eph. 1:21), says in the Gospel: “as you go, baptize all nations in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The particle “and”, located between their names, does not mean the merging of the Son with the Father, but with it the Son makes it known about the Father, how The true Father, He represents Himself as the true hypostatic Word and His Holy Spirit, the hypostatic Spirit and the Spirit of truth, uncreated, immutable, unchangeable; not as if anyone were drawn by an insidious plot against faith, hiding the movement of his feet and deceiving himself against the truth; The heretic says: I undoubtedly believe that the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and I confess three hypostases in one being; I am not talking about another being besides the Divinity or about Another Divinity besides the being; but for the sake of precision we call this a being, so as not to talk about another and different form of the Divinity in the Trinity. Such a one, hiding behind himself, as I said, frivolously and insidiously says: I believe that the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit; he has such a secret thought that, as if making the Divinity like us, he says in himself: just as I have a body, soul and human spirit, so do I have the Divinity. The Father is, as it were, a species or form; The Son is, as it were, the soul in man; and the Spirit is, as it were, breathing through man. For some are deceitful and think this way about the Divine. We are not so educated; but behold, the Father in heaven bears witness with a voice; behold the Son in Jordan; behold, the Holy Spirit appears descending in the form of a dove (Matthew 3:16–17), but appears in itself, being itself a hypostasis, not a different being compared to the being of the Father and the Son, but the same one. Another way: behold, the Father sits in heaven; at the same time, understand the expression: “sits” again not in the human sense, but in an inexplicable and incomprehensible sense. And it is not said: the Son ascended to the Father, but “sat at the right hand of the Father” (Heb. 1:3, 8:1, 12:2; Col. 3:1, etc.). And again, speaking about the Holy Spirit, the Only Begotten taught: “I go, and He will come, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. Unless I go, and He will not come” (John 16:5–13). And if the Spirit were merged with Him, with the Son, then it would not say: “I go, and He will come”; but He wanted to show special hypostases in Himself and in Him. There is one Divinity, one God, one truth. 82. So, I wrote this for everyone who wants to know and love the order of our life and the undoubted confession, from the law and the prophets, the Gospels and the Apostles, and from the time of the Apostles to our times in the universal Church, preserved intact. Because of envy and rebellion against the one and true faith on the part of the heresies that arose little by little at a certain time, this very faith and hope and our salvation, persecuted by them (the heresies), nevertheless remained in their truth, while the heresies at all times defiled themselves and were alienated from the Church. So recently we heard that some of those who occupy the first place, according to some, among the ascetics in Egypt, in Thebaid and in other countries, think like the Hierakites and talk about the resurrection of our flesh, not this itself, but some other one instead of it 46. Since such people have turned away from the truth and turned the truth of God and our firm hope into fables, therefore we are forced to talk about this again. 83. The infidels (pagans) completely deny the resurrection, but the evil-believers, who have absurdly and insanely fallen away from true hope, have this opinion about the resurrection. And the pagans completely deny the resurrection because of their wickedness and the multitude of iniquities committed among them; they hate the resurrection, through which they will have to suffer shame for ignorance of God and His commandments. But they will be resurrected, although they do not want it. And all creation clearly exposes them, every day showing the appearance of resurrection: the day ends and presents the image of death, pointing to our repose; the day begins, awakening us from sleep, and thereby showing the sign of the resurrection. The fruits are removed and the usual state of affairs ceases, and thereby the manner of our departure from this life is determined. The earth is sown and sprouts, and what is cut down comes to life after being cut down. The locust dies, having buried some of its fruit in the earth, and in time the earth gives up what it buried. Plant seeds are sown and first die, and then bear fruit: for if they do not die, they will not come to life (cf. 1 Cor. 15:36). Even in ourselves, God placed the seals of the resurrection, testifying to our hopes, through ten nails of our hands and ten nails of our feet; also, by means of a crown of hair, He announced our resurrection: for the body that seems dead in us, that is, the hair, which is cut off each time and grows again, testifies to the hope of resurrection. 84. And an untold number of examples can be cited to convince the disbelievers. But neither the bird called the wild pigeon nor the animal called the mole can convince them: of these, the latter remains dead for six months, and the wild pigeon for forty days, and after this time they come to life again. And the beetles, with the approach of their death, hide themselves in a dung ball, constructing such a ball in the ground and burying themselves in it; and after that, having expelled some liquid from themselves, they thus find themselves coming to life again by themselves. It would be unnecessary for me to even talk about the Arabian phoenix bird: for rumors about it reached many faithful and unfaithful. The legend about her appears in this form: completing the five hundredth year of her life and knowing the coming time of her death, she makes a nest of aromas and transfers it to the Egyptian city, the so-called Iliopolis, called in Egyptian and Hebrew dialects: He. Here, with the help of frequent blows of her own wings on her chest, she produces fire from her body, ignites with it any substance found in that place, and thus sacrifices herself and all her flesh and bones as a burnt offering. But according to Divine providence, a cloud is sent down and makes rain, which extinguishes the flame that destroyed the body of the bird, when the bird is already dead and almost completely roasted. When the flame is extinguished, the remnants of its flesh still represent the body and, disappearing one day, give birth to a worm. The worm fledges as a chick, and on the third day it grows completely and, having grown, reveals itself to the eyes of the local residents; but then he flies back to his fatherland and calms down there. 85. I will be surprised at the deluded mind of the unfaithful Greeks and other barbarians, that in their fables they are not ashamed to signify the resurrection in every possible way and to often preach about the resurrection. So, for example, it is conveyed in their fables about Alcistus to the daughter of Pelias, who died for her husband Admitus and was raised three days later by Heracles and raised from the underworld 47 . The same is told about Pelops, the son of Tantalus, after his body was cut up by his own father to be sacrificed to their false gods 48 . Eucleis was also brought to life by Asklipius (Aesculapius) 49 . Castor, for the sake of Polydeuces, his brother, voluntarily wished to exchange lives with him every other day 50. Likewise, Protesilaus for the sake of Laodamia 51. It is also conveyed about Sisyphus, Tantalus, about the daughters of the Caucasus, called Erinnia, and about Tiresia, imprisoned in Tartarus and there suffering punishment, the first through the lifting of a stone, the second through the rotation of a wheel, the rest - a different kind of punishment, and still continuing to bear punishment, as having not passed into non-existence, but existing in bodies 52. For if they had no bodies, how could they be punished by lifting a stone and turning a wheel? And much could be said about this to confirm our faith and expose them. 86. But even those who come from heresies preach something similar to this and consistent with such unbelief, and some of the heretics say that there will be a resurrection not of the body, but of the soul 53. This is precisely what the above-mentioned Hellenes think and reason about, so that their speech is more idle talk and only excites laughter. For if heretics talk about the resurrection and generally recognize the resurrection, but only attribute it to souls, then such an opinion is absurd: because how can a soul that has not died be resurrected? We do not bury souls in coffins, but bodies; It is not souls that fall dead, but bodies, as is the custom of calling dead bodies carrion (corpses) 54 . Thus, if they confess a resurrection, then everyone knows that this is not the resurrection of the soul, but of the body of the deceased. And the pagans who completely deny the resurrection are themselves exposed by taking food and drink to the tombs on the days of the so-called national holidays. They offer burnt offerings of food and pour out wine, bringing no benefit to the dead, but rather causing harm to themselves. Moreover, having such a custom, they thereby, as it were, involuntarily confess the resurrection of the dead: for they come to where the bodies of the deceased are laid, and call out to the buried dead, saying by name: Arise, so-and-so (whereby they call his name), eat, drink and be merry. And if they think that the souls of the dead reside there, where their remains are buried, then such a wait for the souls is aimless: because they expect the coming day and the resurrection into rebirth until they receive bodies akin to themselves and associated with them, although the pagans abhor the flesh, as evil and completely disappearing and having no hope of resurrection. If this is not why they do this, then on what basis, by binding souls that are better than the being of bodies, expose them to more condemnation when they follow such an opinion? Why do they touch the remains of the deceased? or with what expectation of hope do they dwell with them? Let them say! But it is clear that souls, as they think, do not reside in tombs, but in certain separate places appointed by God for each soul, in accordance with the dignity of the life in which they lived, acted and lived; each of them places the bodies with his own hands nearby in the rooms for bodies or bones. And when everyone has a common assumption and opinion about the resurrection, and when this is recognized everywhere, it is stupid that the infidels, on the contrary, reject this truth, and what is possible for God is not confirmed in their hope. 87. But I think enough has been said about this, although from many examples we have offered little. As for those who are considered Christians, and yet trust the teachings of Origen, who profess the resurrection of the dead, the quickening of our flesh and the holy body of the Lord, borrowed from Mary, and who say about our real flesh that it will not rise, but that instead of it another will be given from God, how can we not tell us about their opinion that it is more wicked than others and more unreasonable than pagan opinions? For, first of all, if, in their opinion, another flesh arises instead of this one, then the judgment of God is not righteous, judging another flesh instead of the one who sinned, or leading another body to the glory of the inheritance and the Kingdom of heaven, instead of the body that labored in fasting, vigils and persecutions for the name of God. How can one soul, without being united with the body that sinned with it, be judged according to the teachings of the heretics? Such a soul will object to the judgment of God, saying that sins belong to the body. It also has proof against a teaching that is carried away more by the love of argument than by the truth; for she can say: It was not I who sinned, but the body; Since the time I left the body, I have neither committed fornication, nor committed adultery, nor stolen, nor killed, nor committed idolatry, nor done anything else that was evil or indecent. And her protection will be blessed. If she defends herself with blessing, then what will we say? Isn't God's judgment abolished through this? Is it not unrighteous that God sends his wrath on people? It won't happen! 88. We know that everything is possible for God, and that He can raise one body from the grave, without a soul, and He can revive disappeared bodies again and lead them into independent movement without souls, if He pleases, as He, for example, did such an economy with the bodies that appeared in a vision to Saint Ezekiel. For He said to the holy prophet: “Prophets, son of man, that bone should be joined together, each one to its own composition” (Ezek. 37:4, 7). And one had to be amazed at the power of God, that when souls had not yet been introduced, but the bones were dry, these bones not only had the power to move according to the action of God, but were also filled with intelligence and extraordinary knowledge. For the bones that lay near the head did not move to the feet out of oblivion; and the cervical vertebrae, wandering around the vertebral structures, did not look for a place for themselves there; but each of the bones moved and walked intelligently, and was added to its composition. Thus, if God is pleased, he can raise up bodies without a soul. This is where He showed His power, that by the command given to Ezekiel, He first revived what was unexpected for people. And he did not say: “Prophets, son of man, so that the spirit may come first”; but only after completing the most difficult thing, for the sake of assurance, that is, after the union of bodies, he commanded the souls to enter the bodies. “And stasha,” it is said, “the council is many” (Ezek. 37:10). So, God can, I say, revive the body without the soul, as shown above, but cannot judge the body alone; because it has a right defense against the judgment of God 55. And it will say: sin came from this soul, and I am not guilty of it. For from the time it came out of me, have I committed adultery? did he commit fornication? did he steal? did he serve idols? And did any other of these crimes become vain? Therefore, just as the body and the soul, together, were one made by God, so the righteous Judge will raise up his body and give him his soul. reward for godliness and virtue that will be given to the saints. 89. Considering this sufficient to establish the truth of our hope, we offered a little instead of a lot. Now let us add something else to our work against those who say that another body will be erected in place of the deceased, in order to benefit those who want to understand this and who are trying not to lose their salvation 56 . For we must work for the smallest and most insignificant and bring benefit to everyone, and not deny the resurrection of our flesh, in which lies every treasure and the foundation of every sound understanding, and the hope of every good deed, according to what was said: “Imams this treasure is in scanty vessels,” and so on (2 Cor. 4:7). We practice abstinence, being powerless, observe the purity of the soul, strive to give alms, being weak, in order to enjoy what we hope to receive at the resurrection of the dead. And thus the worker is based on the testimony of faith, hope and love of God and for the name of God is persecuted through torture and other human punishments, along with those who do not deny the resurrection of our flesh, but believe that it, being sown in the earth, will be raised up. The Divine Scriptures have presented us with two clear and true testimonies, through which we can know the hope of our resurrection and not be seduced by the fables of vain people, who themselves are deceived and have deceived the human race with their writings. Therefore, in order not to cite many evidences (and there is quite a lot of them in the New and Old Testaments about our hope and resurrection), I will briefly say the following. 90. If the resurrected body had been different, as some say, then the Apostle would not have affirmed, saying: “It is fitting for this corruptible to put on incorruptibility” (1 Cor. 15:53). And in order to confirm us regarding the glory of the saints, how they are to be enlightened and changed in glory after the resurrection, as it is said: “will rise in glory” (1 Cor. 15:43), the Holy Scripture says: “You are foolish, if you see the hedgehog, he will not live unless he dies: and not the future body of the seesh, but if a grain of wheat or other seeds happens, and God gives him a body as he pleases.” (1 Cor. 15:36–38). This is what Scripture said for the glory of those who will rise in lordship. And in order to show that the grain itself receives glory, the One who also spoke through Paul about the resurrection said in the Gospel: “Unless a grain of wheat falls on the earth, it remains alone; if it dies, it produces much fruit” (John 12:24). So, the Apostle spoke about grain, and the Savior showed the same grain of the body in Himself. So what shall we say? Was it not His own body that was sown, that is, His own grain, that was resurrected? Or another was from him three days later, resurrected from the grave, as the angels say: “There is no rising here” (Mark 16:6); or, as He Himself says to Mary: “Touch Me not, for I shall not sigh unto My Father” (John 20:17); and how, showing Thomas his hands and side, he says: “Do not be unfaithful” (John 20:27)? But it is not common for the faithful to say in general: He was not resurrected; and it is common for the evil-believers to say: it is not the same body that has died that has been resurrected. The faithful tend to say: this very body has risen. And in the same body He will raise us up to establish us in the hope of truth. 91. For this purpose, He preserved the “ulcers of the nails” (John 20:25), not destroying either them or the plague from the spear, although He entered “through a shut door” (John 20:19, 26). For His fleshly body was resurrected spiritually, but not other than what had previously existed, which, having united with the Divinity, was adorned with some spiritual subtlety. If this subtlety were not spiritual, then what hole on earth could even a small body let through? But He wanted to show that “our corruptible things will put on incorruptibility” (1 Cor. 15:53). For, although it is mortal, it is clothed with immortality. He entered through closed doors to show the gross to the subtle, the mortal to the immortal, and the corruptible to the imperishable. And in order to expose all those who do not believe in our salvation, I speak about the resurrection - He who changed the body into a subtle one and merged the resurrection with spirituality did not destroy the wounds of the nails and the wounds from the spear; but he showed that it was the same one that suffered on the cross, that there was no other body that was resurrected and no other that came from it, but this same one that suffered was passionless, and the very grain that fell into the ground was resurrected, and having been resurrected it became incorruptible. And we should not yet think that any part of it was resurrected: it all did not know decay; it has all risen. For it is said: “There is no rising here” (Mark 16:6). He has truly risen, and the Scriptures that contain our life are not false. And so that the deluded would not find a pretext for reinterpretation, He showed Thomas the bones and flesh and said to his disciples: “You see that I am: for a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see Me having” (Luke 24:39). 92. If someone wisely says that the body of our Savior was chosen, since it alone was conceived from Mary without the seed of a husband, then no one can confirm or prove this. If someone again wisely says that only Christ’s body has risen in its entirety, and ours will not be resurrected in the same way, but something else will rise instead: then how does it say: “Christ has risen and become the firstfruits of those who died” (1 Cor. 15:20)? Then the very body of those resurrected should be considered the firstfruits. Let them learn how “Christ was the firstfruits of those who died,” let them not again turn to another error and think that other passages in the Scriptures are false. For before His resurrection, Christ raised Lazarus and the son of the widow of Nain. And Elijah raised the dead; Elisha also raised two dead, one who was still on earth, and the other who was already buried. But those resurrected have died again and are awaiting the one and general resurrection. Christ “was the firstfruits of those who died” in the sense that, “to the one who dies no more, death does not belong to him,” according to what is written (Rom. 6:9). He died once for us, suffering passion for our passions; tasted death once, “the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8), the Word who voluntarily came to death for our sake, in order to put death to death by death. “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14), not suffering in the Divinity, but suffering together with humanity, so that suffering was imputed to Him, but He Himself remained in immortality; for He Himself said: “I am life” (John 11:25, 14:6). And our hope is not in the flesh, because it is said: “Cursed is he that trusteth in man, and it shall be as in the wonder of the world” (Jer. 17:5-6). 93. So what shall we say? Is it not clear from what was said before that Christ is a man? I think it is clear to everyone that we undoubtedly recognize the Lord the Word as a man not illusory, but true. But one should not think that He is a man who has only achieved the glory of the Divine; because our hope of salvation does not lie in man: none of all the people who were from Adam could achieve salvation. But God the Word became man, so that hope was not in man, but in the living God, who had also become true man: “Every priest, accepted from man, is appointed for men,” according to what is written (Heb. 5:1). Therefore, the Lord who came took flesh from our flesh and became man like us, God the Word, in order to grant us salvation in the Divinity, and in humanity to suffer for us men, having resolved passion with passion and put death to death by his death. But passion was imputed to the Divinity, although the Divinity is impassive, because the holy and impassive God the Word so favored. Some similarity to this is when someone is clothed in clothing, and the blood that sprinkles the clothing stains it, without however reaching the body clothed in it: in this case, the uncleanness from the blood is imputed to the one clothed in the clothing. This is how Christ suffered in the flesh, that is, in the Lord’s man himself, whom the holy God the Word Himself, who came from heaven, created for himself. Saint Peter speaks about this: “having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18), and again: “Christ therefore suffered in the flesh for us, and you also arm yourself with the same thought” (1 Peter 4:1). So the blood on the garment is imputed to the one who wears the latter: and His Divinity is imputed to the suffering of the flesh, although the Divinity itself did not suffer in the least, so that the world would have hope not in man, but in the Lord's man, since the Divinity itself wanted suffering to be imputed to Him, so that the passionlessness of the Divinity would become salvation for the world, and so that the suffering that took place in the flesh would be imputed to the Divine, although the Divinity itself did not suffer at all. In this the words of Scripture were fulfilled: “Even if they had understood, they had not crucified the Lord of glory,” and so on (1 Cor. 2:8). 94. So, the Lord is crucified, truly crucified, and we worship him who was crucified, buried, resurrected on the third day, and ascended into heaven. “O the depth of the wealth and wisdom and understanding of God!” - according to what is written (Rom. 11:33). “In part we understand and in part we prophesy” (1 Cor. 13:9), drawing like a drop from the sea from the mind of God and receiving the image of such an economy, the grace of our hope, by the good pleasure of the Father, by the will of the Son and the Holy Spirit, one and the same God. All the Scriptures had the preaching of the resurrection scattered here and there; the perfect preaching about this was observed at the time of the coming of the hypostatic Word itself: for “Christ is the fullness of the law,” according to what is written (Rom. 10:4, cf. Matt. 5:17). Where did the Divine Scripture not speak about the resurrection? First of all, the blood of Abel preaches about him; because even “after death he still speaks,” says Scripture (Heb. 11:4). Then “Enoch was quickly translated, and was not found, and did not see death, so as to please God” (Heb. 11:5; sn. Gen. 5:24). Noah built the ark at the command of God, making it for himself and for his house, as it were, the foundation of a new existence (Gen. 6, 8 et al.). Abraham, already obsolete, receives a child, although his body was dead. And yet, God gave hope to the dead one, when, moreover, Sarah’s womb was dead: that which had become obsolete and was close to disappearing, that is, the woman’s normal current had dried up, again receives the strength to cast the seed, and the old woman, like a young woman, conceives in the womb (Gen. 18:10 et al.). And Isaac, as if passed from death to life, is handed over to his father: God, who handed over the child to the father alive from the revival of the dead, thereby announced the hope of resurrection (Gen. 22:12; fn. Heb. 11:19). And Joseph by his very deed shows that he does not place the hope of the resurrection of his bones in second place: for he cared for them, not as those that would perish, but as those that would live again. And it was not without purpose that he commanded that they be taken out of the land of Egypt, saying: “You will carry my bones with you: for the Lord will greet you with his presence” (Ex. 13:19). If there were no hope of resurrection, then why would there be such concern for the bones? Why should the righteous give the commandment about decaying bones? The first word to Moses was God's testimony about this subject: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” the God of those who have fallen asleep in the world, but who live with Me (Ex. 3:6; fn. Matt. 22:32; Mark 12:26–27; Luke 20:37–38). The same Spirit spoke in the law and teaches in the Gospel. The Savior indicated this to the Sadducees: “say in the prophets, that I am” (Isa. 52:6). 95. Aaron’s rod also shows that it was dry for many years and left in the tabernacle from evening to morning. And living trees, when cared for, periodically, after barely twelve months, give birth to fruits after a year, when the sun warms up, the rains water the earth, the dews help the greenery to unfold, and night and day nourish them: here, in one night, God made the difficult easy. For the dry rod sprouted, put forth leaves and produced ripe fruit (Num. 17:8). In this, God showed a similarity to the future resurrection, the culprit of which He himself will be. Also, when children are conceived in an honest marriage, which the Lord established, the seed is first thrown into the womb of the child in the order that the Lord indicated; then, over time, what is cast into the womb becomes perfect in a period of nine months: I am saying that what is carried in the womb is perfected within nine months and then is born. This is not the case in resurrection. The deed will be accomplished instantly: “the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible” (1 Cor. 15:52), just as the Lord showed this in the Tabernacle of Meeting by the fact that the nuts that grow on living trees only after twelve months grew on a dry tree and became ripe in one night; and not just in one night, in the course of one hour the Lord accomplished what, as it is said, happens only after twelve months (Num. 17:8). And while a baby carried in the womb for nine months becomes perfect only after being carried for a long time, at the resurrection of the dead it instantly becomes perfect. 96. Let the power of God convince the unfaithful: no one will resist His will (dn. 4 and Job 23:13). Let Moses hear and show: “What is in your hand? - says the Lord, - he said: a rod" (Exodus 4:2). And the rod was wooden and completely dry. “And he said: cast it to the ground. And lay down the dry rod" (Exodus 4:3). And God makes the dry moist, and not only wet, but also animated, changed in its nature, changed its appearance in its very essence. This was not a ghost. The command of God a true deed is being accomplished, and not a ghostly one. He presented the truth through Moses, so that in everything the prophet (Moses) himself knew that what had happened was not illusory, but true, showing this by running away; because if he had known that what had happened was a ghost, he would not have run away from the face of the serpent (Ex. 4:3). But so that this again does not serve as a temptation for the disputing, and so that they do not say that the rod was different, and God gave it some other body that He wanted, let them first of all know that He did not animate another rod instead of that one, but He animated the same dry one; that God did not call this (other) body to judgment, (as if) given to the rod, and the genus or species (of the animal) set in motion by it, and did not want to judge the serpent instead of the rod, 57 but fulfilled the whole work through the revival of the rod. And in this God showed His power, so that no one would doubt His omnipotence. And He did this with all foresight; for He did not raise just any part of the rod to life, but He changed the whole rod as He pleased. 97. And that it is so, that the dead have the hope of eternal life, and that those who are in the graves will rise again, call me again as a witness to the trustworthy Moses. When Reuben sinned, his father, the holy patriarch Jacob, adjured him and said: “Thou hast vexed Reuben, my firstborn, and the beginning of my children, as if water should not boil: for thou hast ascended to the bed of thy father, and has opened, he says, where thou hast ascended” (Gen. 49:3-4). In the Hebrew text, “elphofar” is placed here, which means: “do not return”, or “do not increase”, or also: “do not abound” (do not excess). When you read this word with a light breath, it means the same as “let not boil,” as the interpreters conveyed it 58 in Hebrew, expressed in the words: אַל־תּוֹתַר, which really means: “do not have an advantage, do not be the first, do not be strong.” the punishment is death, then Moses will make it clear to you. For he, blessing the twelve tribes, reached Reuben, and knowing that the priesthood belongs to Levi (and sins are resolved and bound by the power of the priesthood), he says: “Let Reuben live, and let him not die” (Deut. 33:6). How could someone buried one hundred and twenty-six years ago live? But since he (Moses) knew that there would be a resurrection in any case, and also knew about the second death through condemnation on the day of judgment (apoc. 2:11, 20:6, 14, 21:8) 59, then, wanting to save him from future punishments with one punishment, he says: “let him live,” that is, in the resurrection. For he knew that everyone would come to life. “And let him not die,” that is, he will not suffer the second death through condemnation and eternal torment. If he cared about punishment in this life, then it would be enough for him to say: “Let Reuben live.” But since he points to the future, he says: “Let Reuben live and not die.” 98. And how much evidence can be collected about our hope and expectation of a resurrection in truth, and not illusory, which is about to happen! Let those who are vain and love to argue in vain say whether some part of the body will be resurrected, or all of it in some part, or again someone’s whole body will be raised, and some will have a part resurrected, and some will have their whole body. What kind of partiality is this? Does God have partiality? It won't happen! Let us examine where or when the saints raised the dead only in part, and not the whole body. The son of the widow of Sarepta was resurrected entirely, and no part of him remained unresurrected (1 Kings 17). The Sumanite's son rose completely, and no member of his body remained unresurrected (2 Kings 4). The Lord also raised up Lazarus and did not leave any remains in the tomb; on the contrary, He resurrected him with swaddling clothes and other coverings, although of course on the day of judgment there would be no need for clothes (John 11). He also raised up the son of the widow of Nain whole (Luke 7). He also did the same over the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue (Mark 5) and over the daughter of the centurion (Matthew 8). O vain thought of those who think so, as if some will be resurrected, and some will remain! From the very subject of our discussion we see this and also from what has already happened as equivalent to the subject of our hope. Enoch was completely transfigured and had not even seen death until now (Gen. 5:22; sn. Heb. 11:5), in order to present to us the perfect resurrection in two living bodies, and so that no one would doubt the two images of the two firstborn of our resurrection. Enoch was uncircumcised, and uncircumcision did not prevent the resurrection and indwelling in the body of this life. Elijah was circumcised, so that the resurrection would not apply only to one or another, but would be universal. Elijah remained in virginity, so that the advantage of virginity would proclaim to the world the immortality and incorruptibility of the body. But so that the resurrection and the continuation of the body incorruptible would not be considered to belong only to virginity on account of its dignity, Enoch was not a virgin, but was chaste and gave birth to children. So, these two (Enoch and Elijah) remain among the living, in body and soul, to confirm our hope and so that no one will doubt the truth of the resurrection any longer. 99. And God sent others down to hell with their bodies. For the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up Dathan and Abiron, the sons of Korah, and Abnan, “and went down into hell and live” body and soul (Num. 16:33; fn. v. 32, 1, 24, 25). From that very hour they were handed over to judgment, so that neither their bodies were destroyed, nor any remains or any part, but they were handed over whole, body and soul, as punishment. Job says: “Until this time I will also endure this body, and You will renew me” (Job 14:14, 19:26; fn. 14:15). And again: “Your youth will be renewed like an eagle” (Ps. 102:5). Isaiah says: “The dead will rise again, and those who are in their graves will rise” (Isaiah 26:19). For the one who resolves came “chained with courage, even those who live in the tombs are grieving” (Ps. 67:7). Job also says: “having fallen asleep, a man will never arise again and will not know his place” (Job 14:12; cf. Psalm 102:16). For in truth there will not be a resurrection every day, but it is appointed for one day. And in order to show that (Job) knew until what predetermined time he should expect the resurrection, he immediately resolves the question, saying: “until there will be heaven and earth, bodies will lie in the earth” (Job 14:12). When the one who rolls up “the heavens like a scroll” comes and shakes the earth (Isa. 34:4), then “those who are like the earth will rise up” (Is. 26:19). For this reason, God says to Ezekiel: “Son of man, the prophets, and let them be assembled bone to bone and composition to composition” (Ezek. 37:4, 7). And it was so. And nerves and veins, flesh and hair, and nails appeared on them (Ezek. 37:8). And the Lord also said: “Rats, son of man; come from the four ends, O soul” (Ezek. 37:9 ), that is, from places set apart for souls. But on what basis does the Lord himself not speak, but commands man to speak? On the basis that what the Lord says, He does, and His word is no longer broken. They rise and die no more; because the word of God cannot be broken. 100. Therefore, the Lord, who came in the flesh, raised up the dead, so that what was called to life by the flesh would die again, until the flesh itself rose again and died no more, and until He ceased to say to one person only the words: Arise, get out of the tomb, until He comes and no longer says in the singular: Arise, but: Arise, all of you, bringing about a general resurrection. For He Himself is the resurrection of the dead. Moreover, after His resurrection from the dead, He no longer resurrected anyone who had recently died. But with Him, “many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep rose up, and appeared to many” (Matthew 27:52–53), together with Him they entered the bridal chamber, according to what is written in the Gospel (cf. Matt. 9:15 and par.). It is not said: part of the bodies of the saints was resurrected, but: “the bodies of the saints, and appeared to many.” They were not different from those who had died, but were recognizable to them as having died not long before that time. And wanting to show others a miracle, our Lord performs it, making the difficult easy. So, for example, when He came to a recently deceased girl, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, since she died at that very hour, he deigned to call out to her: “Little girl, arise” (Luke 8:54). In a word: “Arise” He strengthens the weakened, since she was still on the bed. And the son of the widow of Nain, since he was already carried out on the bed, raised him up even more easily: He touched the bed and did not say anything to the boy, but only touched the bed, and the boy was resurrected (Luke 7:14-15). But what is even more excellent and above every human aspiration is when He came to the four-day-old Lazarus and did not say to him: “Arise”; He did not touch the tomb with his hand, but directly with his authority he called to it: “Lazarus, come out” (John 11:43). It is much easier and more convenient to say: “get out” than to touch. And to touch again is much easier than to cry: “Young girl, arise.” All this is done by the Holy Word of God in order to show us the hope of resurrection. 101. But if I wanted to select all the evidence from all the Scriptures, then first of all it would turn out that our mind is small, insufficient and weak. Moreover, I am afraid that, due to the multitude of them, I will not make my words very lengthy. However, to shorten the word, I will say that the path of our salvation is short, since for all it lies in the one hope of resurrection, preached to us. The infidels do not believe this, the heretics destroy this, the selfish do not accept this, the vain reject this. But God gives mercy to everyone and sheds his light into their darkened minds. For the pagans, when they receive the Holy Spirit, will be convicted by the truth and by all the above testimonies; especially by you, sons of the holy Church of God and the Orthodox faith. Open your mouth and teach, you who have received the Holy Spirit, who have been rewarded with the ability to compose words well, first of all, because you have been honored to be disciples of Christ the Archpastor and Primate of our souls; and as if having collected food for the flock of Christ - for your people, take care to feed yourself and the flock of God, I mean those who want to benefit in every possible way from the holy land indicated by Moses. Who of the right-minded, looking at you reverent and faithful, O Orthodox and sons of the Church - [speaking of some, I mean all the sons of truth, according to what is written (cf. John 8)], who can doubt this? For you are the sons of that wise and most courageous wife, whose glory is described by Solomon in these words: “Who will find a wife of worth” (Prov. 31:10)? And since such a wife is rare, or better yet, she is one, then you choose the best and love the useful. And by a valiant woman you mean the Church of God, your mother, more courageous than whom there is nothing, who dies in every persecution raised for the name of her Husband. 102. This most honest wife carefully questions her groom in the book of Song of Songs; “Where are the pastures? where do you rest at noon? (Song. 1, 6). Christ grazes in the land mentioned above and not only grazes, but also commands his flock to take off their shoes, as Moses said of old (Ex. 3:5). From him you yourselves, having received the tradition, first of all unwaveringly guide those who are being brought to holy knowledge, taking care to remove the sandals of each one. The shoes of each of you are different. Everyone, as it were, puts on his own shoes. And, listening to you, disciples of Christ and good shepherds, let everyone who has bound himself to idolatry free himself from these bonds by your suggestion; Let another renounce adultery, another from fornication, another from theft, and another from covetousness. But not only this, but also renouncing hateful speeches and shameful words, with blessed hopes let everyone give himself up to be grazed under the strong hand of the good shepherd through you, good disciples. Then everyone, of course, will refrain from delusion. And you put the truth above your eyes, suppressing the worship of idols and clearly proclaiming the error regarding them. Don't consider them dead because they never lived; and always teach that in justice they are all vain and vain, and do not exist; for they never lived or existed, but are nothing more than evil demons, an invention of the human mind that gives rise to pleasure. And hence everyone dares to make his passion an object of veneration. Namely, as soon as this was introduced among people due to the evil action of demons, first of all they started talking about fornication and idols were depicted in the paintings. Then his own art, whichever one had at hand and through which he obtained food for himself, passed on to his children as worthy of respect. And from substance; used in the craft, they made gods for themselves, namely the potter - from clay, the carpenter - from wood, the goldsmith - from gold, and the silversmith - from silver. 103. In addition, each described his own passion according to the image that presented itself to his eyes. It was some bloodthirsty man who claimed that God is Ares 60; adulterer or adulteress - that the goddess is common to many Aphrodite 61; the tyrant was inspired by victory; hard-hearted and greedy for the blessings of this world, he drew the image of Kronos 62; woman-loving to Tsibel and Rhea 63, due to the expiration 64, I think, from frequent carnal intercourse. Another frivolous person, whether a man or a woman, recognizes the goddess Artemis, the patroness of the hunt, and the drunken Dionysus, or the hard-working Hercules; and accustomed to copulation with many women - Zeus and Apollo. But what can I say about the countless number of passions that exist in people? Most of all, the lost Egyptians not only deified their passions, but even birds, four-legged, land and water animals, and some indomitable animals, given to them by the holy God for service, changed their purpose and, being bestial in their minds, showed the highest respect to the animals they had, idolizing them. They are not ashamed to idolize the barking dog, the reptile-eating swallow, the lustful goat, the weak sheep, the many-scaled and terrible crocodile, the poison-eating ibis, the kite, the hawk and the raven, and animals fit for work, as well as the writhing and most unpleasant serpent. To say in general: what a great shame for people who do not see with their eyes the incrimination of themselves, who do not accept sensations with their ears, who do not understand with their minds what is happening so vainly among them! Persecuted by evil fate, they are not enlightened by the light of teaching and their own philosophers and are not contemplatives of the truth along with its teachers. They do not hear Diagoras, who, having burnt, due to lack of wood, his own wooden idol of Hercules, mockingly told him: come on, Hercules, complete the thirteenth labor, come and prepare food for us! Then, grabbing the idol and splitting it, mocking his own god as non-existent, he ate, laughing, the dinner prepared with its help 65. 104. Another philosopher Heraclitus says to the Egyptians: “if those you worship are gods, then why do you mourn for them?” Because the Egyptians mourn, as if they were buried, for Typhon, Osiris and other underground gods, accompanying their grief with loud lamentable songs. Therefore this is what that philosopher says: “If they are gods, then why do you mourn them? if they died, then you mourn them in vain.” Likewise, a comedian named Eudaemon says: “If they are gods, then we cannot talk about them, and I am afraid to explain what they are. For many things serve as an obstacle for me to do this.” And Homer says: “There is no good in multiple powers” ​​66. And Philemon the comedian says: “Those who worship one God have good hopes of salvation.” Apis, who feeds on the chaff of a calf, is struck in the thigh by Cambyses, the king of Assyria, in order that if blood flows from the wound, he will be exposed that he is not a god. Likewise, admirers of Kronos do not deny that he was bound with iron chains; on the contrary, they even admit it 67. If someone is in bonds, then he is not only subordinate to someone more powerful, but also remains in bonds as a villain. And if I talk about Isis, otherwise called Atthida and Io, the daughter of Apis of Cappadocia, also called Inach, then I am ashamed to proclaim her deeds 68. However, I am not ashamed to speak about what they are not ashamed to bow to. Let her admirers be ashamed, who exhort their daughters, wives and sisters to imitate the actions of their goddesses. Isis is given divine honors, while she burns with love for her brother Typhon, arming others against her brothers. How great must be the shame of a goddess who is not ashamed of her own brother, but burns with passion for him and is not content with other men, but goes so far as to cohabitate with her own brother! And she shows her friends not only an example of this, but also of fratricide, because of her insatiable lust. She gives birth to one son, Orus, to whom no one could provide information about who is truly his legitimate father: if he began to consider Typhon as his father, then doubt would be raised whether he really was his father; if Osiris, then who will confirm this with accuracy? A good god was raised by a mother who accepted him and who committed fornication in Tire for ten years! 69 And by idolizing Serapis and Apis, king of Sinop 70, the Egyptians enslaved themselves to tyranny rather than to truth. 105. Here is an assessment of the gods revered by the Egyptians, about which, if we talk about each in particular, a lot of time will be spent. The Greeks, who think that they are superior to others, philosophizing only in words and subtleties of language, and not in deeds, have fallen more than all into error. They produce Kronos from Uranus, saying that he was born from Uranus and castrated his own father 71. O evil deed and shameful opinion! As if, if he had not been castrated, there would have been many Kronions. And this brave man, who encroached on his father, was not satisfied with the first wickedness: while, as a young man, he insulted his father, in old age he began to devour his own children: Posidon and Pluto; and while looking for Zeus and deceived by Rhea, instead of a baby, like a god, he soon swallowed up a large swaddled stone 72. His son, named Zeus, descended from such noble parents, seemed to be the husband of almost all women; and his son, by the way, was Hermes. And oh, if only he were their legitimate husband, and not always a secretive adulterer and villain! For example: he corrupts Penelope and for her sake becomes a goat 73; he was a goat, I think, named after the frequent copulation of this noble god with women. He appeared golden to Danae in order to corrupt a chaste maiden imprisoned in a chamber 74 . In fact, it could never have been gold; but, being a sorcerer, he seduced the girl by presenting her with golden gifts. And in Lida he is a swan 75, thereby denoting the flight of the flame of voluptuousness. Without ever actually flying like an eagle, he is rather a teacher of child molestation; he was never an eagle, but in a ship that was called an eagle because of its speed, he sailed to Troy and kidnapped Ganymede, the son of the Trojan king, and committed corruption on him 76 . He appeared to Pasiphae in the form of an ox, just as he did to Europe 77. 106. But what can I say about the many similar deeds of this noble molester and teacher of molesters? His tomb is known to many: it is still indicated on the island of Crete in a mountain called Lasius. There were not one or two Zeus, but three or four in number. One of them is the above-mentioned Kronid, who imprisoned his own father in Tartarus in Mount Caucasus. The other is called Latriarius, from which the martial artists originated; the third is a tragedian who burned his hand. Although he was a god, he forgot that fire burns and did not know that the fire said to the goat Satyr 78, the first inventor of fire, who came to greet this latter: “Don’t touch me, goat; because if you touch me, you will burn your beard.” Athena was not alone, but many: one wandering and walking near the swamp of Tritonia 79; the other is the daughter of Ocean; the third is the daughter of Kronos and many others 80. There are also many Artemis: one is Ephesus; another is the daughter of Zeus and many others as well. And Dionysus is one of Thebes, the other is the son of Semele 81, the third is the ruler of the Coryvantians 82; After that, he was torn to pieces by the Titans and Curetes 83, leaving a legacy of sacraments. I will keep silent about all the deeds of Hercules, who they call the abominator of troubles; but I will present as an example only one of all that is praised by them. It will be enough for him to undertake a feat to save human life. If he had not molested fifty girls in one night, how could the world be saved? On the contrary, he would have completely died! In general, I confess to you, I get tired of listing and describing their evil deeds. Also, kings and the most cruel tyrants, who had favorites and buried them in the ground, having nothing more than they could thank them for, since they themselves were mortal men, as proof of their disposition towards them, under such a bad pretext, made their tombs an object of wicked reverence for their subjects, through which delusion spread more and more among the people. Thus, for example, Antinous, buried in the city of the same name and placed in a coffin with a toy ship, was placed among the gods by Hadrian 84. Also Timagenes in Asia and Canov, the helmsman of King Menelaus and his wife Eumenufida, buried in Alexandria on the seashore, passing twelve gravestones from the city, are revered as deities 85. In the same way Marnas, the slave of Asterius of Crete, is revered among the inhabitants of Gaza, and the captain of the ship Casius among the Pelusians. 107. When all this is clearly explained in the church, you will destroy the bad example of the deadly path for those who were previously led onto this path. And lead others from adultery to chastity, and not only remove them from secret cohabitation with other people’s wives, but exhort them to be abstinent even with their lawful wife, “for time has ceased,” as the holy Apostle says (1 Cor. 7:29). Instruct fornicators, so that when they commit a lawless act before God and people, they will not be punished. And when you convey all this, not only with your lips, but also in deed, to them, then convince them to accept all this from you, first of all, in practice, doing everything and presenting a model in yourself, and thereby making your words reliable: first teach yourself through deeds, so that later you can teach others. For even when you are silent, you imitate the sun, which teaches everyone everywhere through silence: as soon as it rises, it immediately teaches everyone the arts, albeit silently. And when in all this you will benefit your children or your most faithful brothers, then go ahead of them, so that, walking on earth, they may have a heavenly life (Phil. 3:20). Generate zeal for the monastic life in as many people as possible through your own firmness and unfeigned faith. Renounce the heretics, curb the Manichaeans with words, drive the Marcionites and others like them away from the fence of God, destroying all their excuses and closing their mouths. For what these frivolous people, devoid of the Holy Spirit, boldly express against God and His holy prophets, they blaspheme against the Creator of all, and what good things God has given to all people through His holy prophets by prophecy, they hate, and the deepest mysteries of the law and the prophets, as earthly devotees and bodily ones, vying (1 Cor. 2:14), they don't understand. But in vain they blaspheme. You will not be too lazy to remove their error from your listeners through true evidence; for with such words people of superstitious wisdom are carried away like brushwood carried along the current of an abundant river. 108. But they say: the God of this law is good, that He, not knowing where Adam was, asked, saying: “Adam, where are you” (Gen. 3:9)? And he says to Cain: “Where is Abel, your brother” (Gen. 4:9)? and to Abraham: “Where is Sarah your wife” (Gen. 18:9)? Saying this and much more, they believe only with their lips, and not in truth, in God the Savior, who is God and has foreknowledge. But He, just as in the Old Testament, asked: “Where do you put Lazarus” (John 11:84)? and: “Who is it that touched Me” (Luke 8:46)? also: “Have you the loaves with you” (Mark 6:38)? and: “Whom do you want” (Matthew 27:21)? or: “Whom are you seeking” (John 18:4)? However, it is convenient and easy to convict them. For just as the Son, having foreknowledge, inquired, so the Father, being one and the same and unchangeable, is the inquirer in the law. If the Son said: “Where will you put Lazarus?” this does not mean that He does not know either the Gospel or the Old Testament. “Where do you put it?” - He says, wanting to expose the sisters of Lazarus in the fact that they did not even have the faith that the Sumanite had, although this latter had to do with a man, that is, with the holy prophet Elisha, and Martha and her sister had to do with God. And if He said: “Who is it that touched Me?” It was not out of ignorance that he said this, but in order to induce the bleeding woman to confess herself, so that the Son of God would not testify about Himself, but would be glorified by others. And when he said: “Have you any bread with you?” He said this in order to point out to everyone the small number of loaves and to amaze everyone with the greatness of his miracle, revealed in feeding such a great crowd of people with so few loaves. Finally, when he said: “Who are you looking for?” then he showed how deceived those who seek Him are, those who seek Jesus, whose name means “Physician” and “Savior,” 86 so that when they kill Him, they will be deprived of the salvation He has done. 109. So, just as we have shown that what was said about the economy of our Lord was said in relation to human understanding, but does not exclude His foreknowledge (for no one who is prudent will say that He did not know where they laid Lazarus, since He was near this place, and asked for the purpose that we said above, especially since, having previously been away from Galilee 87, He Himself said that Lazarus died): this is exactly how we wisely resolve these confusions regarding the Old Testament. For example, the words of God: “Adam, where are you?” They don’t mean that He didn’t know this, but they show from what heights and to what depths of shame Adam fell. Also the words: “Where is Abel, your brother?” have the same meaning as if they were expressed like this: the one whom you should have in your arms and be with him constantly will be thrown to the ground by you. And by what followed, He shows that He did not ask out of ignorance, but to expose Cain with these words. For further it is said: “Cursed is the earth because of your deeds, and cursed are you from the earth, even though you opened your mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hand”: for “behold his voice (cries) to Me” (Gen. 3:17, 4:10–11). And again: God said: “Where is Sarah your wife” (Gen. 18:9)? not without knowing it; because how could He not know this when He knew that she was laughing inside the house? So He did not ask because he did not know, but in order to provide an opportunity for her daughters 88, who take a vow of piety, to learn from the example of her behavior when they try to serve the saints with their labors. For she, being in such service, herself preparing unleavened bread and baked bread and performing such service herself together with her own servants, did not see the faces of those whom she served, and in this she left for our generations an example of modesty and chastity. This is enough to refute the objections of vain people. 110. And if they say: good is the God of the law, who offended the Egyptians and taught his people to take for themselves the goods of others during the exodus from the land of Egypt: then the vain do not know that with God nothing perishes, that one of His essential properties is justice and that “God is not mocked” (Gal. 6:7), For what did the Egyptians think when they demanded that the Jews worked for them without compensation and not just for some years, but for two hundred and fifteen, to which should be added another two hundred and fifteen years until the time of Joseph? 89 For since the abode of Abraham and his seed was determined to be four hundred and thirty years old, when it was said to him: “Your seed will be brought to a foreign land” (Gen. 15:13): then this definition was fulfilled 90, it is clear that, in order to remain faithful to the biblical chronology, it must be assumed that the Apostle, in his calculation, has in mind the very first promise to Abraham, given in the land of the Chaldeans (Gen. 12:1–2).. So, in His goodness, God divided the years of his sojourn into two: he separated 215 years for him and his offspring, which they spent in the land of Canaan, and separated the other 215 for their dwelling in Egypt. The number of these years is calculated as follows: Abraham was then seventy-fifth year from birth. From the seventy-fifth year of Abraham's life to the birth of Isaac, 25 years passed. Isaac gives birth to Jacob in the sixtieth year of his life. Thus it turns out to be 85 years. Jacob, being eighty-nine years old, gave birth to Levi. It turns out 174 years old. Levi, being about forty-four years old, gives birth to Kohath. And in the forty-seventh year of Levi's life, Jacob came to Egypt. Thus it became 211 years. In addition, another four years passed after their entry into Egypt. And now all 215 years. Now I will calculate the remaining 215 years of the Israelites’ residence in Egypt. Kohath, after their migration to Egypt, in the sixty-fifth year of his life 92 gave birth to Moses' father Abraham 93 . Thus, from the seventy-fifth year of the life of the first Abraham to the birth of the last Abraham, 280 years passed. From resettlement to Egypt - 65 years. Abraham (the last), being seventy years old, gives birth to Moses. So it comes out from the first Abraham 350 years; from the resettlement to Egypt 135 years. Moses, in the thirtieth year of his life, crosses the Red Sea with the Israelites upon leaving Egypt. And thus it comes from the great Abraham 380 years; and from the entry into Egypt 565 years 94. The remaining 50 years passed in the Israelites' journey through the Red Sea until they arrived in Palestine, not because of the length of the journey, but because of the battles and obstacles from the nations they met along the way 95 . Thus, from the seventy-fifth year of the life of the great Abraham, in which this prediction was given to him by God, until Moses and the arrival of the children of Israel in Palestine, 430 years passed. From their entry into Egypt until their arrival in Palestine, 215 years passed. 111. So, if the Jews worked for the Egyptians for so many years without compensation, would it not be fair both before God and before people that they should be given the reward they deserved, although at the end of their work? Thus, God was not unjust when he brought his people out from there with spoils. If anyone doubts the accuracy of such a calculation of years, let him listen to Moses, who says: “The residence of the children of Israel in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt was four hundred and thirty years” 96 (Ex. 12:40). So, if the Lord was concerned about the most just retribution, then what other vain objection remains for those who want to pronounce censure against the holy God? But no one can ever reproach the true God. Those who blame Him blame themselves. Another vain objection they proclaim is similar to the first, namely: the God of the law is good, who offended the Canaanites by giving the Israelites their place: “houses they did not build, olive gardens, fig trees and vineyards, which they did not plant” (Deut. 6:10-11). I will answer them: O vain ones! if God were a man, then He would ignore with His attention what is said or done today, and nothing would remain in His memory. But since God is God, and not a man, He does not forget to avenge the sins committed against Him over many generations. If they didn't know it, then let them find out. 112. Everyone knows the righteous Noah, who was the remnant of the world after the flood. When he and his three sons remained, he, as a righteous man himself and trying to make his children reverent, so that they would not fall into the same misfortunes that the people who were exposed to during the flood, not only instilled this reverence in them with words, but also through an oath forced from each of them individually goodwill towards his brother. And as appointed heir of the world by God, he divides the whole world to his three sons, distributing it by lot, allotting to each a special part by lot. At the same time, the first-born Shem received the lot from Persis and Bactria and from the Indian country to the country of Rhinocorur. This country of Rhinocorur lies between Egypt and Palestine opposite the Red Sea. To the second son of Ham, from the country of the Rhinokorurs to the country of the Gadirs to the south. To the third Japheth, from Media to the country of the Gadir and Rhinokorur to the north. 113. Shem had children and children's children until the languages ​​were divided. From then on, they scattered across languages, tribes and kingdoms. Their names are as follows: Elymaea 97, Paeons 98, Lazes 99, Kossesui 100, Gasthines 101, Palestinians, Indians, Syrians, Arabs, who are Kayans 102, Arians 103, Masesilas 104, Hyrcanians 105, Maguseans, Troglodytes 106, Assyrians, Carmanians 107, Lydians, Mesopotamites, Jews, Kylins 108, Bactrians, Adiavins 109, Camilians, Saracens 110, Scythians, Chionians 111, Gymnosophists, Chaldeans, Parthians, Raccoons 112, Cordylins 113 , Massines, Phoenicians, Madinians 114 , Comagenes 115 , Dardanians 116 , Elamasines, Kedrusians, Elamites 117 , Armenians, Cilicians 118 , Egyptians, Phoenicians, Pontics 119 , Marmarids 120 , Vioni 121 , Carians, Khalivians 122, Psyllites 123, Mossiniki 124, Ivirians 125, Phrygians 126. Ham, the second son of Noah, had thirty-two children and grandchildren, before the division of languages. From them came: Ethiopians, Troglodytes, Haggai, Gangina 127, Savini 128, Ichthyophagi 129, Hellanics 130, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Marmarids 131, Carians, Psyllites, Mossiniki, Phrygians, Macedonians, Craconians, Sirtites 132, Leptites 133, Magnets, Bithynians, Nomads, Lycians 134, Mariandines 135, Pamphylians 136, Moschesidians 137, Pisidians 138, Augaleans, Cilicians, Maurusians 139, Cretans, Magardians, Numidians, Africans, Byzacines, Nasamones 140, Fasgines, Mazici 141, Garams 142, Getuli, Blemmii 143, Auxomites 144. They occupied the land from Egypt to the Ocean. Islands occupied by them: Kurkuda, Lopadusa, Gaul 145, Rida, Melita 146, Kerkyra (Korcyra) 147, Mina, Sardana 148, Gortyna, Crete, Glaucus 149, Thira 150, Arian, Astypalaia 151, Chios, Lesbos, Tenedos, Imvres, Iazos, Samos, Kos, Knida, Nisuros, Megista and Cyprus 152. Japheth, the third son of Noah, had fifteen children and grandchildren before the division of languages. From them came: Medes, Garganians 153, Armenians, Arrei 154, Amazons 155, Kolli 156, Baskets 157, Veneaginians, Galatians, Cappadocians, Paphlagonians 158, Mariandines, Tivarines 159, Khalivians, Mossiniki 160, Colchians 161 , Melanchleni 162 , Sarmatians 163 , Maeots 164 , Scythians, Tauri 165 , Thracians 166 , Vasterni 167 , Illyrians, Macedonians, Libyans, Phrygians, Pannonians 168 , Vesterians, Vennians 169 , Daunians 170 , Iapyges 171 , Calabrians, Ippiki 172 , Latins, or Romans, Tyrrhenians, Gauls, Celts, Livistines, Campanians, Celtivirs, Aquitans 173 , Illyrians, Vasants, Samians, Carpetani 174 , Lusitanians 175 , Vacaea, Britons, Scotts 176 , Spaniards. And the islands that belonged to them are: Britain, Sicily, Euboea, Rhodes, Chios, Lesbos, Kyphira, Zakynthos, Cephalinia, Ithaca, Kerkyra, Cyprus 177. If anyone comes across the name of a people or an island twice mentioned here, then let him not wonder or doubt; this happened either from the fact that different countries were in the possession of one or another people, due to their contiguity, or because of the evictions that happened over time, or because of the capture of Khamov, since he offended Shem and took away part of his possessions. 114. So, when in this way these nations descended from the three sons of Noah, and the world was divided between the three sons into three parts, as I said above, the father demanded an oath from them so that no one would enter into the lot of his brother, and whoever violates the oath decree, he and all his seed will be destroyed according to this oath. By lot, Palestine and the areas adjacent to it went to Shem; Canaan, the son of Ham, being covetous, invaded the country later called Palestine, that is, Judea, and captured it; but God was patient, giving time for repentance, so that the descendants of Ham would repent and give the descendants of Shem their own inheritance. They did not repent, but wanted to fulfill the measure of their sins. Then God, being righteous, many generations later, finally took revenge for the crime of the oath. For in this way the measure of the sins of the Amorites had to be fulfilled (Gen. 15:16); because Shem gave birth to Arphaxad, and Ham gave birth to Canaan, and Canaan, after capturing the land of Shem, gave birth to the Amorites, Gergesites, Perizzites, Hivites, Arukeys, Aradias and Sidonius. This is how the births until the avenging of Shem are counted. The offended one gave birth to Arphaxad, as we said; Arphaxad gave birth to Cainan, Cainan to Salah, Salah to Eber, in whose presence there was pandemonium. Eber gave birth to Peleg, under whom there was a division of the land and languages. Peleg begat Raghav, Raghav gave birth to Serukh, Serukh to Nahor, Nahor to Terah, Terah to Abraham, Abraham to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, who was called Israel, from whom the Israelites came; Jacob - Judah, Judah - Perez, Perez - Hezrom, Hezrom - Aram, Aram - Aminadab, Aminadab - Nahshon and Salmon 178 . This is the race descended from Shem. For them, offended by the sons of Ham and deprived of their own place, God took revenge by destroying the descendants of Canaan in accordance with their oath. And Simovo’s descendants get their country back. Thus, God did not offend, separating to everyone his fair share: “God cannot be mocked,” as I said above. 115. So, establishing a synagogue for himself during the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, God says to Moses: “cut off the boots of your feet” (Ex. 3:5). For anyone who intends to take a clean bath first of all takes off his shoes. When a lot of time had passed, and we were all “lost on our way” (Isa. 53:6), and the synagogue itself remained in its evil, then God had not yet opened the bath of restoration (Titus 3:5); but he missed many years and finally opened the all-holy bathhouse to the Holy Church. In Moses He commanded the removal of shoes; in the prophets - take off outer clothing, leaving the loins only for Jeremiah (Jer. 13:1); and in John (the Baptist) - to throw off all the clothes of the world and put on clothes made of camel's hair (Matthew 3:4); in the Savior himself and His disciples, He took off the clothing of the world and, after purification by the waters, clothed Him with the clothing of fire and the Spirit from above, from heaven. But the Israelites, seeing His grace, did not know that He was God. Therefore, the prophet Moses accusatoryly mourns them in view of the future dishonor that they will inflict on the Savior: “Do you repay the Lord for this, you violent and heartless people” (Deut. 32:6)? For they did not know that it was He who was in the beginning, with whom the Father consulted, saying: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). The word: “Let us create” does not indicate the singular number, but indicates that the Father consulted with the Son and the Holy Spirit. For “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their strength” (Psalm 33:6). They did not understand the saying spoken in the same book, that “The Lord, who came to Abraham, rained down fire from the Lord who sent Him from heaven” (Gen. 19:24). They did not recognize Him, who brought them out of Egypt, and did not understand the words of the Prophet: “And you are in Bethlehem, you have little food” (Mic. 5:2). How can you call a city small that contains Him Whom the sky and the universe cannot contain? Further: “from you a leader will come for me” (ibid.; cf. Matt. 2:6). Who comes from Bethlehem? - Human. But why is He called God? 116. They are also frightened by the fact that He is God and man. For in the same prophecy the words: “He came forth from the beginning, from the creation of the world” (Mic. 5:2) no longer refer to man, but to God. They do not remember the prophecy: “Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14; cf. Matt. 1:28). The word: “they will name” indicates the mode of action of the holy and faithful sons of the Church. For when the murderers of the Lord, the Jews, inquired from them about the Savior: how they confess the crucified One, they hear from the faithful themselves the following answer: “He who was crucified among you is God with us” (Matt. 1:23). They also did not listen to David and did not know his fear, with which he, contemplating in the Holy Spirit and trembling at the incarnation of the Lord Himself, said the words: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand,” and so on. (Psalm 109:1; cf. Matt. 22:44; Acts 2:34; Heb. 1:13). So, the ancient Sabbaths have passed, and the true Sabbath is being preached among us. The old circumcision was abolished, which circumcised one smallest member; The circumcision of heaven operates in full force, circumcising the whole body. For the waters of baptism and the holy invocation do not touch just one member of the human body, but the whole human body is cleansed, circumcised, and delivered from all evils. The Holy Church accepted such sacraments; but terrible enemies, called households, rose up against her, but they did not belong to the true faith of the Apostles of the Lord: for if they had been from them, they would have remained with them (1 John 2:19). But being illegitimate and coming from mixed marriages, they again have an evil lust for the smell of the fish and cucumbers of Egypt (fn. Numbers 11:5), uttering blasphemies on all sides against the Son of God. These are the Ariomanites whom we have already exposed in previous discussions 179 . Such are the Sabellians. These Sabellians completely deny the existence of the Son and the Holy Spirit, saying that the Son is the Father Himself, and the Father is the Son Himself, and the Holy Spirit is the Father Himself, so there is no Son and Holy Spirit. In this way they expose themselves as second Jews and murderers of the Lord. The Ariomanites, the most wicked of all, daring to separate and alienate the Son from the being of the Father, do not recognize the Son as equal in honor to the Father and born from the being of the Father. Others, degenerated from them, before our time became part of other heresies that had already formed before, which can hardly even be counted among the Jews, as uttering blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. These are the second Sadducees and Samaritans, dark people, dead and unfaithful. 117. But in order not to bother much about the evidence against them through ink and charter, so as not to tire the readers, it will be enough for them, the Sabellians, along with other evidence, also the evidence at the Jordan, as I have already said. For the Son truly came to the Jordan, God made man, who did not undergo change, but took on flesh, not through the seed of a man, but from the holy Virgin, receiving a body, a perfect body, conceived through the Holy Spirit, that is, a perfect man in soul and body. Thus, on the Jordan, God and man together, one and the same Son and Christ and Lord, appeared to John. The Father cried from above, testifying about the Son who appeared on the Jordan: “This is My beloved Son” (Matthew 3:17). And the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descended on Him, immersed in the waters, in order to show them clean for the sake of those who were baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. For the Arians, together with what was said before, what was said by the Son will be sufficient: “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me” (John 14:10); for He showed here His equality with the Father and true sonship. For those who have degenerated from the Arians and blaspheme the Holy Spirit, two testimonies already cited after other testimonies will be sufficient. Of these, one from the book of the prophet Daniel is as follows: Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, in the fiery furnace, praising God, call upon all God’s creation with them for praise and say: “Bless all the works of the Lord, the Lord” (Dan. 3:57; cf. v. 23). At the same time they number the heavens and the angels, the moon and the sun, the powers, the earth and the sea, and everything that is in them; but nowhere are they ranked among the creatures the Son and the Holy Spirit (v. 68 et al.) 180 . In the same way, the Seraphim glorify the Trinity, not once, not twice, not four times, but three times, saying: “Holy” (Is. 6:3) 181. 118. Let Peter also expose them, reproaching Ananias and his wife and saying: “You have tempted the Holy Spirit.” And further: “You have not lied to man, but to God” (Acts 5:3-4). The Apostle knew, as we have often said, that the Spirit is not alien to God the Father, saying: “He tests the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). And for one who is not of the being of God, it is impossible to experience the depths of God. We know that the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the Trinity is in unity. For unity belongs to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one being, one Dominion, one will; one Church, “one baptism, one faith” (Eph. 4:5). And let them cease to rebel against the holy virgin of Christ, that is, the mother of our holy Church. The Apostles, the rule of both keeping the faith and passing it on, and proclaiming it to your children. Since you yourself, most honest brethren, are from among her sons, then pass on this teaching to your children. Do not stop, faithful and Orthodox, speaking about this and the like, using the Divine Scriptures to affirm yourself and those listening to you, teaching, showing the way, instructing through the catechumen. Continue to preserve this holy faith of the universal Church, as the holy and only Virgin of God received it from the holy apostles of the Lord. And so you must instruct each of the catechumens who are about to begin holy baptism. But you must not only proclaim faith to your sons about the Lord, but also teach them to speak clearly, as the mother of us and you herself speaks. 119. We believe in one God, the Almighty Father, creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages, that is, from the being of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were created, what is in heaven and what is on earth. For the sake of us people and for the sake of our salvation, who came down from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human; crucified for us under Pontic Pilate, suffered and buried, and rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. And again he will come with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the life-giving Lord, who proceeds from the Father, worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, who spoke through the prophets. Into one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We confess one baptism for the remission of sins. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century. Amen. And those who say: “there was once a time when He did not exist,” and: “before His birth He did not exist,” or: “He came from something that did not exist,” or say that the Son of God came from another hypostasis or being, that He is fluid and changeable—all of these are anathematized by the universal and apostolic Church. This very faith was handed down to us from the holy apostles and was prescribed in the Church by the holy city from all the holy bishops gathered together in it, numbering over three hundred and ten 182. 120. Since in our time certain other heresies arose one after another, that is, from the time of the kings Valentinian and Valens, in the tenth year of their reign and in the sixth year of the reign of Gratian, that is, in the ninetieth year of Diocletian’s reign: therefore you and we, and all the Orthodox bishops, and, in short, the entire holy universal Church, are against those that have arisen heresies, in accordance with the above-stated faith of these holy fathers, we say this, especially to those approaching holy baptism, so that they proclaim and say this: We believe in one God, the Almighty Father, the Creator of everything invisible and visible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, begotten of God the Father, the only begotten, that is, from the being of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father, through whom all things were created, what is in heaven and what is on earth, visible and invisible. For the sake of us people and for the sake of our salvation, He came down and became incarnate, that is, born completely from the Holy Mary Ever-Virgin through the Holy Spirit, who became human, that is, who took on the perfect man, soul and body, and mind, and everything that makes up man, except sin, not from the seed of a man and not in man, but in Himself formed flesh and brought into one holy unity, not as He inspired the prophets, spoke and acted in them, but completely incarnate; for “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14), without experiencing change and without exchanging its Divinity into humanity; uniting into one his holy perfection and Divinity. For there is one Lord Jesus Christ, and not two; the same God, the same Lord, the same king. We believe in the same One who suffered in the flesh and rose again, and ascended into heaven in the same body, gloriously seated at the right hand of the Father; who will come in the same body in glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, who spoke in the Law and preached in the prophets, and who descended on the Jordan, who spoke in the apostles, and who dwells in the saints. We also believe in Him that He is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the perfect Spirit, the Comforter Spirit, uncreated, proceeding from the Father and receiving and believing from the Son. Into one catholic and apostolic Church, and into one baptism of repentance, and into the resurrection of the dead, and into righteous judgment of souls and bodies, and into the Kingdom of Heaven, and into eternal life. And those who say that there was once a time when there was no Son or the Holy Spirit, or that He came from a non-existent, or from another hypostasis or being - they claim that the Son of God or the Holy Spirit is translatable or changeable - all of these are anathematized by the conciliar and apostolic Church, your mother and ours. We also anathematize those who do not profess the resurrection of the dead and all heresies that do not emanate from this right faith. And if you, our blessed ones and children, believe so and fulfill the commandments prescribed by this faith, then we hope that you always pray for us, so that we may have a part and lot in this very faith and in the lot of its commandments. And pray for us, you and everyone who so believes and keeps the commandments of the Lord, in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father with the Holy Spirit forever. Amen. I, beloved brethren, out of my humility and weak powers of reason, was forced to fulfill the above, prompted by your honesty and goodness, although I was not able to exceed my measure, so I needed especially great help. But the Faithful One in heaven knows everything. However, peace to everyone who walks according to this rule of this true and Orthodox faith “even on the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). Greet all the saints in the Lord. The servants of the Lord greet you, especially I, Anatoly, who wrote this book, the so-called “Words of Yakornago.” Diocletian's accession to the throne followed in 285 AD. Therefore, in 374 A.D. כַּר is a Chaldean or Aramaic word meaning “son” (see Dan. 5, 22; 7, 13, etc.), which actually corresponds in Hebrew to בֵּן. But that the Aramaic (or Chaldean) dialect, akin to Hebrew, in those days bore the name Hebrew, for this it is enough to take into account the expressions: “Jewish, Jewish”, used in the New Testament, for example. Acts 21, 40; 22, 2; John 5, 2; 19, 13, Apoc. 9, 11, etc. About Sabellius and his heresy, see the works of St. Epiphany part III, pp. 60–72. Roman Catholics cite this passage as the clearest proof of the teachings of St. Epiphany about the procession of the Holy Spirit and from the Son (Filioque). But in vain. Here we are talking about the unity of the Divine being of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, as is clear from the saying of the Holy Scripture given at the end: “The Spirit is God”_ In the books Against Heresies it is simple: “Ptolemies”, see for example. Works of St. Epiphanius, part I, page 8. See St. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, book. I, ch. 17. There is a minor omission here in the original. Of course, the Antiochian school, which shunned the allegorical interpretation of Holy Scripture and observed only the context of speech of the literal meaning of Scripture. Aquila - Jewish proselyte of the 2nd century. according to R. Chr., translated the Old Testament Bible from Hebrew into Greek for the Jews living in Asia Minor. Actually in Hebrew: יְהוָה קָנָנִי, but long before the time of St. Epiphany a custom came into force between the Palestinian and Babylonian Jews - the sacred and ineffable, in their opinion, name of Jehovah in pronunciation, when reading the Bible, with the name: Adonai (My Lord) Shaddai (Strong), etc. Use of the word: “to nest”, see Sir. 1, 15. In what sense the opinion of the Manichaeans is insane, you can read about this in the books of St. Epiphany against heresies, precisely in the discussion about 46 (66) heresies (Creations, part 3, p. 241 et al.). Almost the same number of chapters or small sections is found in the Four Gospels (precisely 1163) and Blessed. Jerome. It goes without saying that such a division does not correspond to the current chapters or verses. See a similar comparison in the books against heresies, the works of St. Epiphany part IV, p. 251. Compare St. Epiphany against heresies, creative work. Part III, pp. 158–159. The Holy Father does not name the bread itself, in view of the mystery of the Eucharist, which is not understandable to everyone due to its high Christian significance and in his time served as an object of temptation for pagans. The ancients called the country of the Elimais (Elimaida) the area in Susiana, along the Persian Gulf and in the great Media. The ancients called the Great Ocean not just the Atlantic, but also the Eastern, in general, the entire body of water that, according to their concepts, surrounded the land. That is, to the Mediterranean, which surrounds the island of Cyprus, where St. Epiphanius. Therefore, by Geon, St. Epiphanius means the Nile River. That is, from Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. Matfana, in ev. Matt. 1, 15. In his refutation of the heresy of the alogs (works of St. Epiph. Part II, p. 387) and in the essay “On Weights and Measures” St. Epiphanius believes the birth of the Savior to be somewhat different, precisely in the 42nd year of the reign of Augustus. They believe that the person who should be reading here is not 66, but 56 years old. The essay “On Weights and Measures” has 29 days. Actually, only 1 year and 4 months, and not 4 years, which was probably the mistake. Alone reigned for almost 13 years and with his father for 3 years and several months. 6 months. So in the essay “on weights and measures” there are 6 months, not 6 years. 13 years old. So it is in the essay “On Weights and Measures.” In the present case, the succession of kings is largely mixed. In the essay “On Weights and Measures” these continuities are more correctly established. Compare also Panarius of St. Epiphany (works, part III, p. 80 et al.). Gnostics are knowledgeable, and catagnostics are exposed, condemned. The entire section, from this to the 73rd chapter, with some minor changes, is repeated in the books of St. Epiphany against heresies. See his works, part V, pp. 6–27. The explanation of this place in the teaching of St. For epiphany, see the 5th part of his works, pp. 11–12 notes. 3Here we have in mind the error of the Dimirites, which St. Epiphanius refutes in his books against heresies (works, part V, pp. 176, 208 et al.). Compare “Against Heresies”, works of St. Epiphany part V, p. 209 et al. It is obvious that under the hypostasis of St. Epiphanius here does not mean a person, but the natural composition of a person, the constituent parts of his nature. Denunciation of the heresy of the Hierakites by St. For Epiphany, see Part IV of his works, p. 78 et al. See about this especially in Euripides in his drama: Alkista (Alkeste). See Ovid, Metamorph. VI, 404; Virgil, "Georgics", III, 7.; Pindara, Olympus. I, 25 and gave. Il. III. 236–237; Odis. XI, 298–300, etc. Compare Herodotus, VII, 33; IX, 116. 120; Pliny, XVI, 99, etc. Compare Odysse. XI, 593; Virgil, "Georgics", III, 39; Ovid, "Metamorph". IV, 459, etc. Compare Creations of St. Epiphany part IV, p. 79. 86. Πὶπτω – πτῶμα; cado - cadaver. Compare similar in the third part of the works of St. Epiphany, page 218. St. Epiphanius has in mind the opinion of the Origenists, a refutation of which see in the third part of the works of St. father, pp. 73–222. Here St. Epiphanius figuratively expresses the idea that at the last judgment the very resurrected body that a person had during life will be judged, and not any other. See above ch. 87. Words: “don’t let it boil”_ It is remarkable that the Jewish Targumists also interpret the quoted words of Deut. 33:6 about the second death in the next century. Ares or Mars - God of War. Aphrodite or Venus is the goddess of love and sensual pleasures. Cronus or Saturn, according to Greek mythology, devoured his own children. See Hesiod's Theogony, art. 459–460. Cybele or Rhea is the goddess of productivity. Name of Rhea (Ῥ έα) of St. Epiphanius obviously derives from ῥ έω – flow. Hence this explanation of it. Diagoras, nicknamed “the godless” (ἂ θεος), lived in the 5th century BC. Chr. and belonged to the philosophical school of atomists. He was an ardent opponent of popular religion and cruelly ridiculed it. For this, the Athenians persecuted him and burned his writings. Diagoras saved his very life only by fleeing his fatherland. See Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, I, 1, 2, 23; III, 37, etc. Iliad II, 204. Translation by Gnedich. See Apollodorus of Athens. Library II, 2, 1. Io was identified with Isis only because both of them were depicted with cow horns. Aeschylus, Prometheus, art. 362 and gave. Tire is a Phoenician city; and according to Greek mythology, Io (aka Isis) was taken away from Phenicia and after that found refuge in Egypt. See Herodotus, Histories, book. I, ch. 1–4. Compare bliss Augustine, On the City of God, book. XVIII, ch. 5; especially Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks, ch. IV § 48; also Strom. book I, ch. 21 § 106 etc. Compare. also Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris, etc. See Hesiod's Theogony, art. 137–138 and 168–182. In Greek mythology. This is actually conveyed not about Zeus, but about Hermes (see Lucian, Conversations between the Gods, XXII, 2). Ovid. Transformations, book. IV. Ovid. Her. 17, 55; Horat. a. p. 147; Sat. 2, 1, 26. Il. XX, 231 et al.; V, 266; Horat. Od. 4, 4, 1 and gave. Ovid. Metam. X, 155, etc. Pindara, Ol. 1, 44, etc. Ovid, Metamorphosis, II, 850 et al. Here is a play on words in Greek: tragedian - τραγ ῳ δὸς and goat - τράγος, from which comes τραγ ῳ δὸς. Tritonia is a swamp or shallow lake in Libya. But according to the prevailing myth, Athena is the daughter of Zeus, who emerged from his head as the goddess of wisdom. See the hymn to Athena in the writings of Homer. Just as Artemis and Ephesus were, according to Greek mythology, also the daughter of Zeus, but only especially revered in Ephesus, and Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele; but since Semele was, according to mythology, the daughter of Cadmus, king of Thebes, the cult of Dionysus was especially widespread in Thebes and Boeotia. The priests of Cybele or Rhea were called Coryvantes. This indicates the sacraments (mysteries), in which Dionysus played an important role. The Titans are the descendants of Uranus, and the Curetes had partly the same meaning as the Coryvantes. The legend about this tearing of Dionysus was preserved mainly among the Orphics. See Pausanias on this in his description of Greece, VIII, 9, 7. At the burial site of Canova and his wife, even a city arose with his name, which now does not exist. See Strabo "Geography" XVII, 800 and gave. The main meaning of the name Jesus from Hebrew (יְהוֹשׁוּעַ or abbreviated יֵשׁוּעַ) is “Savior”; and then - “Helper”, the culprit of well-being, etc. That is, actually from Bethany. The daughters of Sarah, not in a narrow sense, but in a more general sense: women descended from her or in her likeness. Sarah had no daughters. Since the calculation of time here is not entirely accurate, we must assume that this is the place of creation of St. father is damaged. From the promise to Abraham about the birth of Isaac to the birth of Joseph, only about 175 years passed. In the book. Genesis 15, 13, to which St. refers. Epiphanius, not 430, but only 400 years are indicated. At St. Epiphany, obviously, shows the number of years indicated by St. Ap. Paul in Gal. 3, 17. But the whole essence of the matter is how to understand the Apostle’s expression: “promise” (to Abraham), from which, according to his teaching, 430 years elapsed until the legislation of Sinai. Since in Art. 16 The apostle speaks of many promises: “The words of vows were made to Abraham.” In fact, he was only 87 years old at the time. St. Epiphanius, instead of the name of Amram, the father of Moses, uses: Abraham. Here the mistake of the copyists of the manuscripts of St. is clearly visible. Epiphany: instead of 565 (Greek: φξε᾿) should read: 165 (ρξε᾿). This calculation again disagrees with either the biblical calculation of time or the indications of St. Ap. Paul, who calculates 430 years up to the time of the Sinai legislation, which was in the third month after the Israelites left Egypt (Ex. 19:1), nor with his own preceding and subsequent indications of events and years. Already from this it is clear how fragile the foundation was on which the above-mentioned calculation of the time of St. was based. Epiphany. Elymaea, inhabitants of Susiana, on the Persian Gulf. Residents of northern Macedonia. Lazy are a people in Colchis, in the Caucasus. Residents of a country north of Persia. The habitat of this people is unknown. It is believed that he lived near India. This name for the Arabian tribe is not found among ancient geographers. Does this not characterize the direction of religious beliefs of a part of the Arabian tribe? Compare about the heresy of Kayan tvor. St. Epiph. Part II, p. 83 et al. Residents of one of the Persian provinces. See Strub. Geogr. XV. Numidian people on the borders of Mauritania. Strab. Geogr. XVII, 829 et al. Inhabitants of the area between Media, Parthia and the Caspian Sea. Residents of the western shore of the Arabian Gulf in Ethiopia. The inhabitants of the northern part of the Caucasus had the same name. Strab. XI, 506; XVI, 774 et al. etc. Residents of the Persian region on the Indian Sea. Compare Strab. XV, 720 and gave. Inhabitants of Kelesyria, the plain between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. Residents of one of the regions of Assyria. Strab. XI, 503, etc. Residents of Happy Arabia. Living next door to the Persians. Inhabitants of Paphlagonia, in Asia Minor. Residents of the eastern shore of the Black Sea, in the Caucasus. The same as the Midianites, the people of the Arabian tribe. Comagenes or Commagenes, inhabitants of a part of Syria, on the borders of Cappadocia. Residents of an area in Asia Minor, near ancient Troy. Strab. XIII, 592. 596, etc. Elamasines, Kedrusii and Elamites - inhabitants of different parts of Asia Minor closer to the Mediterranean Sea. Also in Asia Minor and near the Mediterranean Sea. Coastal inhabitants, mainly living on the coasts of Pontus Euxinus, that is, the Black Sea. Inhabitants of an area in Libya, between Egypt and Cyrene. Strab. XVII, 798 et al. Ptolemy and others Isn't it Jonah, that is, the Ionians? Some of the residents on the coasts of the Black Sea. People in Libya, in Africa. Strab. XIII, 588; XVII, 838, etc. Mossiniki or Mosiniki are a people on the Asian shore of the Black Sea. Inhabitants of Spain. Herod. VII, 165 ff. Strab. III, 156 et al. But there was a people with the same name in Asia (Georgia). Strab. XI, 498. Carians and Phrygians are inhabitants of various parts of Asia Minor. People in Happy Arabia. The name of the inhabitants of the area east of the Arabian Gulf (Herod. III, 19; Strab. XVI, 769) and near Assyria (Strab. II, 131, etc.). Isn't it the same as the Greeks who lived in Memphis, in Egypt, where their very place of residence was called ἑλληνικὸν. Residents of Marmariki - a region adjacent to Egypt and forming part of Cyrene; lay between Alexandria and Pentapolis of Cyrene. Residents of an area in Libya, Africa. Residents of the neighboring area of ​​Sirtita. For both, see the work. St. Epiphany part IV, page 68 approx. 10 and 11 Leptiman. Greater Leptis or Naples, a city in Libya (Strab. 17, 3. 18.); he was also called Λεπτιμάννα (Plin. 5, 4, 4.–17, 19-P. Mela 1, 7). - Sirta. Greater and lesser Sirte (Sidra) are sandy steppes on the shores of the Libyan Sea in northern Africa (Herod. 2, 32. Strab. 2, 5. 20). Magnets or Magnesians, Bithynians, Nomads or Numidians and Lycians - inhabitants of various localities in Asia Minor. A tribe of Thracian origin that lived in Bithynia along the shores of the Black Sea. Apollo Genus. II, 410; Xenoph. Anab. V, 10, 1; Strab. XII, 542 ff. Compare creativity St. Epiphany part IV, page 67 approx. 4 (Mariandin, Μαρειανδύνην. The Mariandins lived in Bithynia. They think that it is more accurate to read here: Μαρεωτικήν, which means the area lying near Lake Mareot in Egypt). Inhabitants of the area in Asia Minor between Cilicia and Lydia. Residents of one of the localities in Asia Minor (in Taurus, in Palestine). Maurusians or Mauritanians, in Africa. Mauritania included Fetz and Morocco and most of Algeria. People who lived in the Libyan steppe, west of Cyrene. Maziki or Mazii were a people who lived in Mauritania. Inhabitants of the above-mentioned Marmarika. The people who lived in Libya under the Nile. Theocr. VII, 114; Strab. XVII, 1. Inhabitants of Axomites or Auxomites, about which see the work. St. Epiphany part IV, page 68 approx. 16. The present island of Malta on the Mediterranean Sea (Strab. VI, 377, etc.). However, one of the islands of the Adriatic Sea also bore the same name. The northernmost of the islands of the Ionian Sea. Isn’t it Sardon, an island in the Tyrrhenian Sea, present-day Sardinia? One of the Sporadic islands of the archipelago. One of the Sporadic islands. All these are islands, scattered here and there throughout the Mediterranean Sea with its parts bearing the name of individual seas, for the most part, however, closer to the Greek regions of Europe and Asia Minor. Aren't they Georgians, that is, today's Georgians? A tribe that lived in great Armenia. They lived in Scythia, along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Iliad III, 189; Herod. IV, 110, etc. Or the Orsins, who lived in Little Armenia. And the Galatians, and the Cappadocians, and the Paphlagonians are inhabitants of the northwestern part of the Asia Minor coast. Residents of the Black Sea coast, who lived in the vicinity of the Khalivs and Mossiniki. For the Mariandines, Khalivs and Mossinics, see above in the notes. Residents of Colchis by the Black Sea, near the banks of the Phazos River, in the Caucasus. A Scythian tribe that lived in Asian Sarmatia and the Caucasus. The Sarmatians were European, living near the Don, and Asian, about whom compare. previous note. Living along the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov. A Scythian tribe that lived on what is now the Crimean (Tauride) Peninsula. In Europe they lived north of Macedonia to the Black Sea, and in Asia Minor - in Bithynia. Vasterns or Vastarns lived on the banks of the Danube. They lived in what is now Bosnia and Hungary. According to other publications, the Unnas, that is, the Huns, are a nomadic tribe that has now disappeared, but at one time brought fear to all of Europe. Residents of southern Italy, in Apulia. Perhaps the Opiki, like the Calabrians, Latins and Tyrrhenians, lived in Italy and specifically in Campania. The Gauls, Celts, Livistins or Ligistines and Aquitans lived in the regions now occupied by France. The Celtivirs (Iberian Celts), Carpetani, Vacaei and Spaniards lived in what is now Spain. They lived in what is now Portugal. Apart from Britain, occupied by the British, all the other islands are scattered in different places in the Mediterranean Sea. Regarding the nations from the descendants of Japheth and the countries they occupied, compare. in the IV part of the works of St. Epiphany, page 69. There is probably an omission here: Nahshon gave birth to Salmon, and it was not Aminadab who gave birth to the latter. Compare creative work for this entire chapter. St. Epiph.ch. IV, pp. 69–70. See books against heresies, works of St. Epiphany part IV, p. 107 et al. Compare above, ch. 26. Of course, the confession of faith drawn up at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople. You might be interested in: