Front Matter

The Well-Anchored One

Ancoratus

Epiphanius

APPIAN WAY PRESS

THE WELL-ANCHORED ONE ANCORATUS

Copyright 2025 by Rick Brannan. Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

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Published by Appian Way Press

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About This Translation

This translation was created on 2025-01-03 using the model gpt-4o-mini from OpenAI. To ensure the translation is communicating the same meaning as the original, a sentence-level semantic similarity check was performed between the source text and translation using bowphs/SPhilBerta, available from HuggingFace. In addition to the sentence-level semantic similarity check, the text-to-translation length ratio was evaluated for each verse to locate and review possible hallucination.

Disclaimer

Please note, as indicated above, that this translation is a machine-generated translation. There are several older works, like Epiphanius's Ancoratus, that are either not available in English or only available in old and difficult to read translations. This translation is an attempt to provide a readable and fairly literal modern English translation of the source text. The process that created this translation has done its best to mitigate hallucinations, but there may still be translation issues.

About the Source

Translated from: Epiphanius, (Ancoratus und Panarion). J. C. Hinrichs:Leipzig, 1915.

The source edition of Ancoratus was retrieved from the Github repository First1KGreek.

For more information: First1KGreek. The Greek edition this translation uses as its source text is available as well.

Introduction

This great and divine father of ours, Epiphanius, came from Eleutheropolis in Palestine, where he also became the father of monks. He first withdrew to Egypt for his training and stayed there until he returned at the age of twenty. After that, he came back to the area of Eleutheropolis and built a monastery there. The saying is called "anchored" because it guides the mind that searches for life and salvation like an anchor. This is due to the comprehensive nature of its structure concerning many aspects of faith. I indeed speak of the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the perfection of Christ's bodily presence, the resurrection of the dead, eternal life, and the judgment of both body and soul, as well as issues regarding idols and heresies among Jews and others. It also includes the names of the eighty heresies and clarifies other matters found in the holy scriptures. It was written for those in the region of the Swedes in Pamphylia, who requested it through letters from those in charge of this discourse. These things were accomplished in the year ninety, during the reign of Valentinian and Valens, in the tenth and sixth years.

Introduction, Section 1

Argument:  A letter was written from Pamphylia, from the city of Suessron, by the elders around Tarshis, Matidian, and others to Epiphanius, the bishop of the city of Constantia in Cyprus. They were asking about the faith concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as well as other aspects of the same faith.

To the Lord, the honored bishop Epiphanius, Matidian, Tarshis, Neon, and Numerian, elders of the Catholic Church in the Swedes, greetings in the Lord God.

In many ways, the enemy of humans, the devil, is used to troubling and planting his own seeds against those who are simpler and have not yet been perfected and established in the faith of the Holy Trinity. However, the foundation has been laid according to what is written, bearing the same seal; for the Lord knows those who are his.

² Those who are all too eager, the heretics, blaspheme against Jesus in a different way, showing disrespect toward God. They elevate their own "language" against the Holy Spirit, speaking injustice on high.

³ But still, even though many have been moved, we have stood firm in a healthy faith by the grace of the Lord, not at all swayed from the true and holy teaching. Many who seemed to be deceived have been restored by the grace of the Lord, through the letters of the worthy and blessed bishop Athanasius and your most God-fearing co-worker Proclianus.

⁴ Since some remnants of the bad teaching still remain with certain people, it is necessary for you, the experienced farmers, to either plant these into a good olive tree or cut them off completely. For this reason, writing to your piety, we urge you to make your devotion worthy by sending letters to our church and explaining the true and healthy faith in a broader way. This will help even the simpler ones and those still wavering about the faith to be strengthened through your holy letters, and it will put the enemy of the church, the devil, to shame through your holy prayers. We wish you strength for many years, and we pray that you are remembered in our prayers to God.

Introduction, Section 2

Argument:  A letter was written by Palladius, who lived in the same city of Suessron, and sent to the same Epiphanius, bishop of Kallantia on the island of Cyprus, who also asked about the same matters.

To my lord of my soul, the God-honored bishop Epiphanius, Palladius, who lives in Suessron, sends greetings in the Lord God.

Those who sail across the vast and open sea, until a calm wind guides their ship, pay little attention to the nearby shores of the lakes, believing they can complete their journey without any help.

² But when a strong wind blows against them, raising storms high from all sides and crashing over the ship, they then long for the calm harbor and look everywhere at the nearby land. Unable to find a place to anchor, they may end up on a nearby island, trying in every way to secure their safety. Even when they get close and seek shelter under the protection of the high cliffs, they can hardly escape from the troubles that surround them.

³ And we ourselves, O lord, holding on to the saving word of God, are eager to free ourselves from the worldly storm and wish to bring our ship into the unshakable harbor of Christ. Since we have learned that some are seeking empty and foolish things, claiming that this should not be honored alongside the divinity and lordship, but should instead be seen in the form of a servant and apostle, and even more so, they hold lesser and humbler views about him.

⁴ For this reason, just like in a stormy and difficult sea, we have been unable to find anyone among us who can calm our troubles and share with us the true faith. We have turned to your piety and have rightly let go of this cry: "Master, save us."

⁵ Therefore, we ask for your sincere and true faith, which has been praised by a good reputation and is witnessed by trustworthy witnesses. Grant us, since we are appointed by the Savior, to accept our plea without complaint and to wish to explain the faith of the Holy Trinity through broader and clearer writings, and to send these to us. This way, we may be strengthened in this and achieve what we strive for, while those who are already well established in it may rejoice, and those who are faltering may be healed, if possible, so that "God may be glorified in all."

Book 0

Argument:  A letter written to Pamphylia to those concerning the elder Matidius, Tarantinus, Neon, Numidian Suedrus, and Palladius, discussing the faith of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as well as other aspects of the faith, including the resurrection of the dead and the incarnation of Christ. This was written in the twenty-ninth year of Diocletian in the month of July, regarding topics they requested in their own letters, as mentioned in those letters.

To my lords and most honored brothers and fellow elders, Matidius, Tarsinus, Numidian, and all the others with you, as well as our beloved children, Palladius and Sevirian, who have sought the good zeal and the blessed life of true Orthodox faith and perfect humility. You fulfill what the Savior said: "If you want to be perfect, sell your possessions and give to the poor," and "they sold their possessions and laid them at the feet of the apostles." May whatever is essential and strong among us be added to your own souls. Epiphanius, the least of the bishops, and the brothers with me, greet you in the Lord God.

Chapter 1

I would indeed bless myself, most beloved, since we are not worthy to live the virtuous life of the saints and those who are devoted to God. However, we are deemed worthy to be encouraged by them to awaken our minds and to share what is useful.

² For the humble spirit within us always strives to endure quietly and not to go beyond what is necessary. This is in line with what the apostle said: "So that I do not exceed the measure of the rule which God has given us." Now, we are compelled to reach this understanding.

³ From everywhere, the votes have come together, so to speak, from the zeal that God has placed within you and from others who share the same beliefs. I am referring to those who seek orthodoxy, among whom is Hypatius, our child, who has come to me from the land of Egypt for this reason. They have prepared to cast off all laziness and hesitation, no longer delaying or writing to you about matters of faith in a different way. You and our brothers are seeking what concerns our salvation from the divine and holy scriptures, which provide the firm foundation of faith about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I speak of the resurrection of the dead, the bodily presence of the Only-Begotten, and the holy covenant, both old and new, along with all the other simple teachings of perfect salvation.

⁴ I have taken this proposal of requests, which comes not only from those around Kōnōpas the fellow elder and his followers but also from you, dear children of great honor. Our Hypatius has come to me from Egypt for this reason. Seeing many like-minded votes together, I was struck by this and thought it right to write this letter to you without delay. It is not only out of willingness but also because of your great zeal and that of those with you that I felt compelled to respond to your desire by writing this letter.

Chapter 2

I am greatly amazed, marveling at the arrangement of our Lord and God, who was pleased to give his holy spirit to all who seek him in truth because of the greatness of his goodness. I did not disregard your letters or those of your companions, most beloved, but I felt the movement of God's grace in you, which has begun.

² For truly, those who hold the truth about the Son of God and the holy spirit, and know how to speak in harmony and agreement, say to the most blessed Apostle Peter, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." They will certainly be blessed by the Lord himself, just as that holy one was blessed when he heard, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah," which means son of Jonah; for his father was called Jonah, and "bar" is translated from Hebrew as "son."

³ For this is the life that the only-begotten Son of God made known to his disciples, saying, "So that they may have life in themselves." And this is the life he referred to: "So that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."

⁴ So when he said, "the only true God," he led us to monotheism, no longer "enslaved under the elements of the world." We are no longer polytheistic, where people's thoughts are scattered towards such fornication, but instead focused on the unity of the only true God. For scripture says, "The first fornication is the thought of idols."

⁵ And he says, "And Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Who is Jesus Christ but God? If Christ is God, as John, the only-begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, says about him, "He has made him known." Therefore, the Father is one God and the only true God, and the only-begotten God is also God.

⁶ So he is not a stranger to God and to the unity. But since he is the Son from the Father, he is the only true God. He is not like the false gods that some of the Greeks thought were gods, but who are not gods at all. Only the only true God exists, since the only-begotten is alone from the only one, along with the holy spirit. For there is a Trinity in unity, and one God: the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit.

Chapter 3

3. The word drives away those who are not worthy of the holy spirit. For no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," unless they are speaking in the holy spirit.

² For the name "Jesus" is what the Jews say, but they do not see him as Lord. The Arians also mention the name and call him a god, but they say he is created and not true, because they do not share in the holy spirit.

³ For if someone does not receive the holy spirit, they do not truly say that Jesus is Lord, that he is God, that he is the Son of God, and that he is the eternal King.

⁴ Let those who hold a wrong opinion learn that the only-begotten Son of God does not testify about himself.

⁵ For he said in the gospel, "If I testify about myself, my testimony is nothing; there is another who testifies about me."

⁶ And who is the other but the one who called from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"? And the same one who said, "If I testify about myself, my testimony is nothing," also says, "Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true." The works that the Father gave me also testify about me. And again, Moses wrote about me, "Moses testifies about me."

⁷ The first part, "If I testify about myself, my testimony is nothing," is said because many people praise themselves and testify about themselves. This is meant to stop the boasting of those who brag and those who promote themselves.

⁸ But when he says, "Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true," he shows that his testimony does not come from a human, but that God is the one who speaks the truth. Therefore, the Father is the true God, the Son is the true God, and the Holy Spirit is the true Spirit, being the "Spirit of God" and the Spirit of truth, counted as a Trinity in one name.

⁹ For the Son himself says about the Father, "So that they may know you, the only true God." A trustworthy witness about the Son is the one who leaned on his chest, calling him the only Son. He did not add "true God" to the only Son, but it is written about the Father that he is the true God, and about the Son, that he is the only God. Again, about the Father, it is said, "He is light," and about the Son, "He was the true light."

Chapter 4

And look at the accuracy of the scriptures for me. For the Father is light, and it is not said that the light about the Father is true light; but concerning the Son, it is said that he is the true light, and no one dares to say anything different.

² For who, having gone mad or rather gathering madness for himself, would dare to think that he could hold a suspicion of blasphemy, not finding the true light clearly stated and saying about the Father that he is not the true light?

³ For if the one born from him is the true light, then the Father of the Son is certainly the true light, and he who has given birth to him is the true light, without beginning and without time.

⁴ And just as it is not daring to say about the Father that he is not the true light, even if the true light is not clearly stated, we know this from our own pious thinking. Even if it is not written that there is the true light, we do not doubt, so that we do not perish. In the same way, it is written about the Son that he is God, and even if the term "true God" is not clearly stated, we are piling up madness for ourselves if we dare to blaspheme and do not say that the Son is the true God, even if the wording is not clearly present.

⁵ For it is enough to hold the one true bond of the Trinity and to understand the Son as the true God from the Father, and the Spirit as the true Spirit. This is done while considering each of the names of those who are equal in truth: to the Father, the true God; to the Son, God.

⁶ Again, the true light belongs to the Son, and the light belongs to the Father. By joining the two glories about divinity, we say about the Father, "the true God," and about the Son, "the true light." We also say about the Father, "the light," and about the Son, "God." From the light and God, we recognize one divinity, and from the true God and the true light, we recognize one unity of power.

Chapter 5

Likewise, about the Holy Spirit, it says, "if the Spirit of truth comes," and also about itself, "I am the truth." And about the Father, it says, "the Spirit of my Father speaks in you," and about the Spirit, "my Spirit is among you."

² But the Spirit clearly works with the Son, sending him into the wilderness "to be tempted by the devil." The Lord himself says, "the Spirit of the Lord has anointed me."

³ But the Holy Spirit speaks through the prophets, saying, "Thus says the Lord Almighty," and "the one who speaks in the prophets is the Lord." He strengthens and creates the Spirit, making a sound that people can hear, and sending the Spirit to bring about the work of the rains from God.

⁴ And about creations, he says, "He strengthens with a sound and creates the Spirit." For these are created things. "But announcing Christ to people," he is no longer creating or strengthening, but "announcing him to people."

⁵ The one truly born from the uncreated, the uncreated one, the unchanging, the unalterable, the one who always exists from the one who always exists, the one who is always present through Moses; "the one who is," for he says, "has sent me," says Moses, and John says, "the one who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known."

⁶ The Father is the one who is, the Son is the one who is, the "one who is with the one who is," born from him, not a mixture with the Father, not beginning to exist, but always the true Son with the Father, the Father always having given birth to the Son.

⁷ For there was never a time when the Father was not a Father, nor was there ever a time when the Son did not exist with the only Father. For if there was a time when the Father was not, then the Son would also be the Son of another Father before he became the Father of the only Son.

⁸ And those who think they are being truly pious to the Father are actually being impious. For in God, there is no time, no moment, no tiny part of time, no instant of an hour, and no pause of thought that can happen, but only as far as one can rise.

⁹ When your mind understands the Son and believes in him, it also thinks of the Father at the same time. For the name is important. When you call him Son, by saying Son, you are also thinking of the Father; for the Father is understood through the Son, and when you call the Father, you are also referring to the Son; for the Father is always called the Son's Father.

Chapter 6

So when can you dare to say that the Father was not the Father, so that you might also dare to say that the Son does not exist? If you do not think the Father is worthy of the divine nature, which exists in unity and does not need anything added, neither glory nor progress, learn not to blaspheme, O you who fight against the faith. Instead, turn away from your own doubts and always believe in the Father, who is truly eternal and has generated the Son.

² The one who truly exists, alongside the one who truly exists, the Father.

³ But he is begotten; for the Son always exists with the Father, not as a mixture, not as a partner, but as a true Son born from the Father, a natural Son, not an adopted one. He is a Son who shares the same essence as the Father, not merely sharing existence, but truly of the same essence. This means he was not born outside of the Father, as some ironically claim, wanting him to be a Son but not in truth.

⁴ The bond of faith tells us to speak of the same essence. For if you say the same essence, you have weakened the power of Sabellius; because where there is the same essence, it clearly indicates one substance.

⁵ But it also means that the Father is a distinct person, the Son is a distinct person, and the Holy Spirit is a distinct person.

⁶ But when someone speaks of the same essence, it does not mean something different from the same divinity. Instead, it means that the Son is God from God and the Holy Spirit is God, sharing the same divinity, not three gods.

⁷ For even if we say that the Son and the Father are God, we do not say there are two gods; for there is one God for us, as the blessed Moses says, "The Lord your God, the Lord is one."

⁸ We do not call the Father God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God, and say they are gods; for there is no polytheism in God. Through the three names, the one divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is shown.

⁹ And there are not two sons; for the Son is the only-begotten. The Holy Spirit is the holy spirit, the spirit of God, always being with the Father and the Son, not separate from God, but coming from God, proceeding from the Father and receiving from the Son.

¹⁰ But the Son is the only-begotten, incomprehensible, and the Spirit is also incomprehensible, coming from God, not separate from the Father and the Son. There is no mixing of the Father and the Son, but there is always a Trinity of the same essence. There is not a different essence apart from the divinity, nor a different divinity apart from the essence, but the same divinity, and the Son and the Holy Spirit come from the same divinity.

Chapter 7

And the Holy Spirit is the spirit, and the Son is the Son. The Spirit comes from the Father and receives from the Son, "searching the depths of God," announcing the things of the Son in the world, and making holy the saints through the Trinity. The third in name, since the Trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For it says, "Go therefore and baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," which is a seal of grace, a bond of the Trinity, not separate from the number, not different in name, not foreign to the gift, but one God, one faith, one Lord, one gift, one church, and one baptism.

² For the Trinity is always a Trinity and never takes on anything extra, counted as: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

³ The Trinity is not a mixture, nor is there anything different within itself from its own unique oneness. In essence, the Father is perfect, the Son is perfect, and the Holy Spirit is perfect: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

⁴ But the Spirit is given with gifts. For there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of services, but the same Lord. And there are different kinds of workings, but the same God who works everything in everyone.

⁵ Let us not fall away from what is set before us, and let us not stray from the truth. We do not speak for God, but we think with respect, so that we do not perish. We speak not as if we fully understand, for we speak as humans about what we have received.

⁶ For the honor given to God is limitless and far beyond our understanding. The Trinity does not take on any glory, nor does it lose its own identity.

⁷ For nothing in the Trinity is created or made. The Father begets the Son. There was never a time when the Son did not exist. The Father was never called Father at any point in time; He has always been Father, and the Son has always been Son. The Son is not a partner, but a Son who is begotten in a way that cannot be fully described and named in a way that cannot be completely understood. He is always with the Father and never stops being.

⁸ The Father is unbegotten, uncreated, and incomprehensible. The Son is begotten, but also uncreated and incomprehensible. The Holy Spirit is eternal, not begotten, not created, not a partner, not a brother of the Father, and not a descendant. Rather, He is from the same essence as the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit. For God is Spirit.

Chapter 8

Each of the names is unique, having no second. For the Father is Father and has no opposite, nor is He joined with another Father, so that there are not two gods.

² And the Son is only-begotten, true God from true God, not having the name of another Father nor being a stranger to the Father, but being the Son of the Father. He is only-begotten so that the Son may be unique, and God from God, so that the Father and the Son are called one God. And the Holy Spirit is only-begotten, not...

³ not having the name of a Son, nor the name of a Father, but being called Holy Spirit, not a stranger to the Father.

⁴ For the only-begotten himself says, "the Spirit of the Father" and "the one coming from the Father," and "he will take from what is mine," so that he is not thought to be a stranger to the Father or the Son, but of the same essence and the same divinity, a divine Spirit, "the Spirit of truth," "the Spirit of God," the Comforter Spirit, uniquely called, not having an opposite, not being equal to any other spirit, not called by the name of Son or named by the name of Father, so that the unique names do not exist as similar names.

⁵ But God is in the Father, God is in the Son, God is in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, and God.

⁶ For the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of the Son are not in some kind of combination, like the soul and body in us, but are in the middle of the Father and the Son, coming from both the Father and the Son, a third by name.

⁷ For he says, "Go and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." But if the Father baptizes in his own name, in the name of God, and the perfect seal is placed in us in the name of God, and if Christ baptizes in his own name, in the name of God, and the perfect seal is placed in us in the name of God, who would dare to fight against his own soul, claiming that the Spirit is separate from divinity?

⁸ For if we are sealed in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, it is one seal of the Trinity; thus, there is one power of divinity in the Trinity. But if the one is God and the others are created and not God, how can the two be joined into one by the seal of perfection? Therefore, we are sealed in a royal name, knowing that the one belongs to the Father, while the others are not royal but are still elements and creations. The name of the Father alone could not save, so he took the other two elements to himself, according to the view of those who blaspheme, so that his divinity might take on other powers and be able to save the one sealed by him and grant redemption through the forgiveness of sins to the person created by him.

Chapter 9

9. O the foolishness of such nonsense, O the blasphemy of such things! Where has another new form of disbelief entered life, or rather, I would say, bad faith? For bad faith is worse than disbelief. Disbelief can be corrected by accepting faith, but bad faith is uncorrectable and hard to save, unless perhaps the anointing comes down from above.

² Therefore, the blessed Peter says to those around Ananias, "Why has Satan tempted you to lie to the Holy Spirit?" And he adds, "I did not lie to people, but to God."

³ Therefore, the Spirit is God, coming from the Father and the Son, to whom those who have taken from the offering have lied. Paul also supports this by saying, "You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you." Therefore, the Spirit is God, as I have said before.

⁴ Therefore, the holy people will also be called the temple of God, those who have the Holy One of God dwelling within them, as the greatest of the apostles testifies—he who was honored to be blessed by the Lord because the Father revealed this to him.

⁵ Therefore, the Father reveals the true Son to him and is blessed, and he himself also reveals his Holy Spirit.

⁶ It was necessary for the first of the apostles, the solid rock, on which the church of God is built, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. The gates of Hades are the heresies and the leaders of heresies. For in every way, faith was strengthened in him when he received the keys of heaven, when he bound on earth and it was bound in heaven.

⁸ For in this, all the details of faith that are sought can be found.

⁹ This is the one who denied three times and cursed three times before the rooster crowed. He insisted on the greatness of his love for his master, saying, "Even if all deny you, I will not deny you," as far as what he said. This is the one who wept at the sound.

¹⁰ Of the rooster, so that he may truly confess the conception of the Son of God, not just seeming but real, so that he may call him a true man while weeping at his being handed over by the Pharisees. This one, after leaving, went to Galilee to fish.

¹¹ The companion of the one reclining on the chest, who was learning from the Son and receiving the power of knowledge from him, was revealing it, while the other was being helped by the Father.

¹² The foundation of the security of faith, who was in the boat on the Sea of Tiberias, was warming himself again after being called. The disciple whom Jesus loved, at the word the Savior said, "Children, do you have any food?" replied, "Cast it on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When this happened, Peter, amazed, heard John say, "It is the Lord." He is a man in the flesh, born of Mary, truly, not just seeming, but God.

¹³ Being one who came from the heavenly Father, this one heard the same voice saying, "Peter, feed my sheep." He was trusted with the flock, leading well in the power of his own master. He confessed about the flesh, truly proclaiming what is from the Father about the Son. He signaled the spirit and his worth in divinity, passing on the fellowship to Paul and Barnabas along with James and John, so that "by three witnesses every word may be established."

Chapter 10

For nothing can exist without two or three witnesses. Faith was established through a riddle and the law, knowing only the Father, unless they receive the power of the Son. Through the witnesses of the Father and the Son, they can be strengthened, and by the third witness, they can receive the Holy Spirit and be filled.

² Clearly, the voices of the Cherubim and Seraphim are crying out the third, "Holy, holy, holy."

³ For glorification is not completed in heaven by two voices, nor do they call out a fourth from the same holy and invisible spiritual beings. They do not give a fourth voice, nor just one alone, but three distinct voices: "Holy, holy, holy."

⁴ And they do not say, "Holy, holy." Let them not declare the singular with many names. They emphasize the number three, but they give holiness three times, and they speak the word in a unified and singular way, so that they do not suggest polytheism.

⁵ For there is one God, the Father in the Son, the Son in the Father, with the Holy Spirit. And for this reason, "Holy resting among the holy." The Father is the true being, the Son is the true being, and the Holy Spirit is the true being; three beings, one divinity, one essence, one glorification: one God.

⁶ You named the Son, and you included the Trinity in your mind. You have the Holy Spirit, and you have made worthy the power of the Father and the Son of God. You have glorified the Father, pointed out the Son, and acknowledged the Holy Spirit.

⁷ But not by mixing; for the Father is Father, the Son is Son, and the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit. However, the Trinity is not separated from unity and identity. The Father is honored as he is Father, the Son is honored as he is Son, and the Holy Spirit is honored as he is true Spirit and Spirit of God. Thus, the only-begotten, who honors the Father, honors the Son; for in saying the Father, you also mean the Son, and you honor the Son. And "he who honors the Son honors the Father"; for in naming the Son, you honor the Father, without diminishing Christ in relation to the Father.

Chapter 11

For if among us humans such a mindset is absent, and we do not wish to dishonor the sons or make them less than the honor of their fathers (for dishonor to the sons reflects dishonor to the fathers), how much more would God the Father not want his Son to be diminished?

² Therefore, anyone who truly sees the Son of the Father as lacking in the Father's glory dishonors him instead of honoring him, being led astray by ignorance.

³ As the Son reveals the Father by saying, "No one knows the Father except the Son, and no one knows the Son except the Father," so I dare to say, no one knows the Spirit except the Father and the Son, from whom it comes and from whom it is received.

⁴ How can those who are more driven by madness dare to say that the Spirit is foreign to God, and not truly understand the genuine voice of the trustworthy and holy Apostle Paul? Peter, the greatest of the apostles, gave him the key to the kingdom, and he heard from heaven, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"

⁵ Of the one who was deemed worthy to hear "unutterable words, which are not lawful for a man to speak," and who said, "No one knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that dwells in him," he wishes to use this example to express the things above. This way, the example of man does not represent God, but rather reveals a part of the things above.

⁶ For all creation, made up of angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim, along with the heavenly army, of heaven and earth, of things above and below, of lights and stars, of dry and wet things, and of all things in heaven and on earth, cannot be shown or compared to their own master.

⁷ For by grace, God made man, saying, "He created man in his own image." Every person has this image as a gift.

⁸ No one can be compared to their own master. The invisible and the visible, the immortal and the mortal, the source of all wisdom, and everything complete in itself are different from man, who, having a gift, is lacking in the most perfect things, unless God chooses to grant the fullness of the gift according to the worth of those who receive it.

Chapter 12

However, the same holy apostle, as an example, says, "No one knows the things of a person except the spirit of the person that lives in him; in the same way, no one has known the things of God."

² And he did not say, "except the spirit of God that lives in him," but "the spirit of God" only, so that no one would think of the divine as something mixed or combined.

³ "Except," he says, "the spirit of God"; for the spirit of God searches everything, even the depths of God.

⁴ Therefore, the spirit of God that searches the depths of God is not foreign. For if the divine scripture warns us, saying, "Think about what has been commanded to you, and you do not need to seek the hidden things," and "Do not seek what is higher than you, and do not examine what is deeper than you," should we say about this spirit that it searches the depths of God even more, and not foolishly?

⁵ For where does it search the depths of God? For what reason? Speak, you who are foolish: as if it were being overly curious? As if it were an outsider? As if it did not desire its own? May it never be.

⁶ But when the saints are deemed worthy to have the holy spirit dwell in them, and when the holy spirit comes upon the saints, they are given the ability to search the depths of God. They glorify deeply, as David also confesses from the depths: "For I have cried out to you, Lord," and they do so without hesitation, and not in a small or cheap way, unlike those of the Arian heresy and all others from outside.

⁷ The law was given through Moses, and the heresies that arose after him, before the coming of Christ in the flesh, number eleven. After the incarnation, there are another sixty. In addition to those before the law and all these, there are five, along with four other Greek heresies, making a total of nine before the law. Altogether, including their own origins, the total number is eighty-eight.

⁸ There are five main sources: Barbarism, Scythianism, Hellenism, Judaism, and Samaritanism. From these, there are four heresies that come from Hellenism: those of the Pythagoreans, the Platonists, the Stoics, and the Epicureans.

⁹ From the law, before the coming of Christ in the flesh, there are eleven heresies: seven from the Jews: the Scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Ossaeans, the Nasarenes, the Baptists, and the Herodians; and four from the Samaritans: the Gorothenians, the Sebuans, the Essenes, and the Dosithians. Together, these make eleven that arise from the law, coming from both Jews and Samaritans.

Chapter 13

All the heresies that began before the coming of Christ in the flesh, from Adam until then, number twenty. After the incarnation of Christ, up until the reign of Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, all the heresies that falsely claimed the name of Christ for themselves are counted as follows:

² Menandrians, Menandrians, Saturnilians, Basilidians, Nicolaitans, Gnostics, who are also called Military and Phibionites; some are called Secundians, others Socratites, and others Zacchaeans. Some are called Doddians and Borborites, and there are also Carpocratians and Kerynthians, who are also known as Merinthians, Nasarenes, Valentinians, Valentinians, and Secundians, to whom Epiphanes and Isidore are connected. Ptolemaeans, Marcions, Colarbasians, Heracleans, Ophites, Caianites, Sethians, Archontics, Kerdonians, Marcionites, Lucianites, Apelleians, Severians, Tatianites, and Encratites among the Phrygians, who are also Montanists and Tascodrugites, Pepuzian, and also Priscillianists and Quinitillians, to whom are connected the Artotyrites and the Tesseradecimans, who celebrate Passover on one day of the year. Alogians, who do not accept the Gospel and the Revelation of John, Alogians, Samphaians, who are also Helkesaians, Theodotians, Melchizedekians, Bardesians, Noetians, Pure ones, who are also Navatans, and also Monticians, as they are called in Rome, Angelic, Apostolic, and also Apostates, Stablisians, Origenists, who are also shameless makers, Origenists of Adamantius, of Paul of Samosata, L J Anichaians, who are also Aquanians, Hieracites, Melitians, who are in schism in Egypt, Arians, who are also Arianomaniacs, the schism of Audian, but not a heresy, Photinians, Marcellians, Emianites, Spirit-fighters, who blaspheme the Holy Spirit of God, Adrians, Aetians, who are also Anomians, to whom Eunomius is connected, rather the lawless one, Dimorites, who do not confess the full incarnation of Christ, and also Apollinarians, and those who say that the Holy Mary was joined to Joseph after the Savior was born, whom we call Antidikomarianites, and those who offer a cake in her name, who are called Colliridians, Messalians, to whom are connected Martyrians from the Greeks, Euphemists, and Satanists.

Chapter 14

And I have simply gathered and counted the names of so many heresies to bring them to a number and to explain their unlawful actions, as well as the two schisms.

² I speak of the Melitians mentioned earlier in Egypt, who, because of a certain failure during the persecution, accepted some of our people into their own ranks after they repented, which caused a division among themselves.

³ Yet, while they are in heresy, I also mention the Audian sect in Mesopotamia, who have their own division but do not hold to the faith. They only argue privately about what fits their own beliefs, not for the sake of faith, but separating themselves for other reasons. They pretend to be righteous by refusing to share with bishops and elders who possess gold and silver, and by celebrating Passover at the same time the Jews do. They divide themselves for these reasons and distance themselves from the unity of the orthodox church.

⁴ For those who did not receive the Holy Spirit did not learn the depths of God and became trapped in these heresies and in the divisions of the schisms under the guise of arguments. They abandoned the truth and wandered down many paths, thinking differently at different times and in various ways.

⁵ The same holy apostle explains to us why he said this: "But we have received the Spirit of God, so that we may know the gifts given to us by God. What we speak is not in words of human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Therefore, the Spirit of God is not separate from God. For if it were separate from God, how could it search the depths of God?"

⁶ But what will you say to me, O foolish one, who fights against yourself, so that I do not mention the Holy Spirit of God? For why, O foolish one, do you fight against the invincible? Why do you argue with the unarguable? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. You are stumbling yourself, not the Word; you are trapping yourself, not the Spirit; you are separating yourself from the grace of God, and neither the Son from the Father nor the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.

Chapter 15

You certainly speak with great boldness. I have already heard some proud people changing the truth of God and our Savior into blasphemies, saying, "It searches the depths of God, but does not understand," because they do not connect the word to the statement. They only repeat what the apostle said: "It searches the depths of God." And the word "understand" is not included.

² Oh, what great foolishness is needed, O godless one, to say "It searches" and then also say "It understands"? For according to your ignorance, the matter would seem incomplete without adding this word.

³ But now you have no excuse. For everywhere, scripture brings together the truth for the most reverent person. It is written about the Almighty God: "God tests the hearts and examines the innermost parts." If he tests the hearts, does he not know what he is testing?

⁴ Or is everything about knowledge determined by testing? "And examining the innermost parts," again, the word "understands" is not included. So, if "understands" is not part of the statement, will I bring death upon myself by confusing the statement "does not understand" according to your reasoning, O foolish one?

⁵ So, it is also said about the Holy Spirit that it searches, and there was no need to say that it also understands. For this statement shows that in the Holy Spirit is the knowledge of God and the depths of God. And even if it does not say "understands," grasp the same idea and do not destroy your own soul.

⁶ For just as it is not bold to say about the Father that he searches and does not understand—since he created man together with the Son and the Holy Spirit; for the Trinity is always a Trinity and never adds anything new—so it should be understood about the Holy Spirit as well.

⁷ For when it says, "Let us make man" (for in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth), it means the voice of the Father calling for creation. And when it says, "Let us make," I would not only refer to the Son, but also to the Holy Spirit.

⁸ For it says, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the spirit of his mouth all their power." Therefore, the Word creates together with the Father, and the Holy Spirit also creates together.

⁹ The Almighty God who made man does not know the things of man, searching the treasures of the heart; but the Word reveals much of God's knowledge by saying this, so that no one among us who sins thinks that anything is hidden from God. For he knows man and the things of man.

Chapter 16

Therefore, the Father searches the treasures of the heart and knows, while the Spirit searches the depths of God and knows. For he reveals the mysteries of God to the saints and teaches them deeply to glorify God, showing them his incomprehensibility.

² Therefore, the Spirit is not separate from God. For he did not say that angels search the depths of God, nor archangels. "No one knows the day or the hour," says the Son of God, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, except for the Father.

³ But the foolish, those who are not filled with the Holy Spirit, think that there is nothing in the Father that is not also in the divinity of the Son. "For just as the Father has life in himself, so the Son has life in himself," and "everything that belongs to my Father is mine," says the same holy Word of God.

⁴ What belongs to the Father is also what belongs to the Son. The life of the Father is the same as the life of the Son; the light of the Father is clearly also the light of the Son; the immortal nature of the Father is likewise the immortal nature of the Son; the incomprehensible nature of the Father is the same as the incomprehensible nature of the Son.

⁵ All that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son. Therefore, if what belongs to the Father is his, then knowledge that exists in the Father also exists in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.

⁶ But if someone thinks that the Son does not know the day, let the ignorant person learn and not blaspheme. For I offer him knowledge, and he will come to understand. Tell me, dear friend — for I call you dear; I do not hate anyone except the devil, the works of the devil, and wickedness. But for you, I pray that you come into the truth of God and do not lose yourself in blasphemy against God.

⁷ For the words of the holy God are deep, and knowledge is given through the Holy Spirit by means of gifts. "To one person is given a word of wisdom, to another a word of teaching," and so on. The same Spirit divides the gifts as it wishes, so that it may show you the authority of the Holy Spirit.

⁸ For when the same Spirit gives the gifts as it wishes, then call upon the Father so that he may reveal the Son to you. And call upon the Son so that he may reveal the Father to you. And again, call upon the Spirit so that he may give you the Son and reveal the Holy Spirit to you, and may allow you to have him within you. The Holy Spirit given to you will reveal all the knowledge of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so that you may learn that in the Son there is no ignorance at all, nor in the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 17

For if even angels lack the greater power and knowledge, may it never be that the Son of God and his Holy Spirit lack anything. The Son, the Holy Word who came from the Father to us, speaks in a spiritual way. But earthly people are judged because they do not understand the wisdom of the Son, but instead focus on the word of wisdom. I ask you, and tell me:

² Who is greater, the Father or that day about which he speaks? You would not dare to say that the Father is not greater. If the Father is greater than the day, the hour, and all things that come from him, and no one knows him except the Son, then what is greater: knowing the Father or knowing that day? It is clear that knowing the Father is greater. How, then, does the one who knows the greater lack anything in comparison to the lesser?

³ If he knows the Father, then he certainly knows the day as well, and there is nothing that the Son lacks in understanding.

⁴ But you will say that the Father, being greater than all, has knowledge, while the Son does not, just as he himself says, "My Father is greater than me." However, the Son says this to honor the Father as he should, being honored more by the Father. For truly, the genuine Son honors his own Father to show his true nature.

⁵ How do you think he is greater? By size, or weight, or time, or season, or worth, or divinity, or immortality, or eternity? Do not think this way. For nothing in divinity is unequal to the Son, but just as the Father is the Father and the Son is genuine, he honors his own Father.

⁶ For neither does the Father surpass the Son by size, so that the Father would be greater than the Son, nor does he fall behind in time, so that the Father would become older than the Son. Nor is the Father placed above by height, for he contains all things and is contained by nothing, so that the Son would be thought to be beyond him. For he sat at the right hand of the Father and did not say that he entered into the Father, to put an end to the blasphemy of Arius.

Chapter 18

Therefore, do not seek what should not be sought, but honor the Son so that you may honor the Father. And when you hear about God, no one is good except the one who is God. Do not dare to say that the Son is not good just because you honor the Father too much.

² For he does not deny that he is good when he calls the Father good, but he shows that he is greater by not wanting honor from people. Instead, he honors himself so that, from the goodness of the Father, the knowledge of the goodness of the Son of God may be understood, since he was born from a good Father, who is God.

³ For there is much boldness in those who dare to speak such things about the Son, even if they say, "One is good, who is God."

⁴ For look, in many places, the divine scripture teaches us, calling a poor and wise child good. It says, "Samuel was good with God and people," and "Saul, the son of Kish, was good, from the tribe of Benjamin, taller than all Israel by a head." It also says, "It is good to go to the house of drinking," and "Open, Lord, your good treasure in heaven." Furthermore, "A good word is better than a house," and "The living dog is better than the dead lion." It adds, "Two are better than one," and "The last words are better than the beginning." Finally, it says, "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children," speaking about fish and bread.

⁵ How then do you dare to think about denying the Son his own goodness, and not because of an excess of honor?

⁶ Does he carry the goodness of the Father? For I saw someone saying to him, "Good teacher," speaking with his mouth but not with his heart. He wanted to correct him because he was not convinced by his words; instead, he was revealing his heart. As he says in another place, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?" Here, he wanted to correct him as well. He called him a good teacher but did not stay true to his own faith in believing in him.

Chapter 19

Therefore, the holy Word, the living and true one, the heavenly king, the genuine Son, who is always with the Father and has come forth, the "radiance of glory, the exact representation of his being," the true image of the Father, the one who sits with the Creator, "of whose kingdom there will be no end," "the judge of the living and the dead,"

² the wisdom that comes from wisdom, the source that comes from the source, "for he says, 'They have forsaken the fountain of living water and dug for themselves broken cisterns,'" the river that is ever-flowing, the one "who brings joy to the movements of the city of God," the one who has come forth from the source, from which, as it were,

³ "Rivers will flow from his belly," the scepter of David, the root of Jesse, the flower that comes from it, the lion, the king from the tribe of Judah,

⁴ the rational sheep, the living stone, the "angel of the great counsel," the man who is truly made and God who truly exists, not changing his nature, not altering his divinity, the one born in the flesh, the Word made flesh.

⁵ the Word made flesh, the one who stands between the made and the flesh. The "Word" did not say "the made," but after taking, the Word clearly places "flesh," and after "flesh," he says "became," so that what became from Mary may be tested, so that the Word, having come down from above from the Father, may be understood. — this holy living Word, who is God with the Father,

⁶ the angel of the great counsel, the one announcing the plans of the Father, "the Father of the coming age." He himself said, "No one knows the day and the hour, not even the angels in heaven," for they do not know that the Son speaks in a way that is understood only by the Father.

⁷ if then the Son knows the Father, and the Father is greater than both the day and the hour, and no one doubts this, how can the one who knows the greater not know the lesser? for no one knows the Father except the Son, and no one knows the Son except the Father. just as the Father is great because he knows the Son, so the Son is great because he knows the Father.

⁸ if he knows the Father, who is greater, how does he not know the lesser, which is the day and the hour? search the scriptures and learn about the power of the Holy Spirit. the Spirit itself, which knows the Father and the Son, will reveal to you the knowledge of the Word, the Son of God, so that you do not get led astray from the truth and lose your own soul.

Chapter 20

for there are two kinds of knowledge in the divine scripture: two understandings, one through action and one through knowledge. to present similar things through examples, so that you may smooth out your wandering mind and those who think this way through many insights,

² learn what the scripture says about Adam: "they were naked in the garden and felt no shame."

³ but they were not blind; for they could see. if they had not seen, how could they tell that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye? and the woman took some of the fruit, ate it, and gave it to her husband who was with her.

⁴ therefore, they were not blind, but their eyes were opened. being naked, they felt no shame as they looked, and being naked, they knew themselves. they understood in a way of knowledge, not through actions.

⁵ after being driven out of the garden and after a long time, it says, "adam knew eve, his wife." how can this be?

⁶ and yet they saw each other while being naked, and they knew themselves through sight; but not through action. the scripture says that knowing each other was connected.

⁷ he knows how to call knowledge and understanding. for it says again, "jacob knew leah, his wife, and she conceived and bore a son." at first, he knew her; he had been tending laban's sheep for seven years at dawn. and he knew her through sight and understanding.

⁸ and also through action. again, it says in another place, "david knew his wife," and "david grew old." he was not warmed, so they said to the king, "let a beautiful virgin be sought." abishag the shunammite was found. it says, "she was brought to the king and slept with him and took care of him; but david did not know her," the one who was with him, the one who was joined and close to him.

⁹ so what kind of knowledge is he talking about? is it the one by sight or the one by action? and "the lord knew those who are his"; therefore, does he not ignore those who are not? and "depart from me, you workers of lawlessness; for I never knew you." is there really ignorance in the son of god?

¹⁰ and "I knew you from all the nations." does he then ignore the other nations? may it never be. but the divine scripture understands, one kind of knowledge by sight and another by action.

Chapter 21

21. since the only-begotten of the father fulfills the will, he has already shown that all things are complete. for the father knows the hour and the day; he knows it both by understanding and by action. he knows everything, and when the father speaks of the son, he has given all judgment to the son. and not judging because he has given it to the son, he himself judges; for god is not separate from judging those who are judged, and in not judging, the father has already made a judgment.

² but the son knows when he will come; for he himself brings the day, sets its limits, and completes it. he says, "the day comes like a thief in the night," and he adds, "you do not know in the night, so that the day may catch you in darkness."

³ if the servants of Christ are children of the day, does the son who brings the day not know? will the day catch him, or does he not rather bring the day? who, thinking about these things, would not blaspheme, considering what is not fitting regarding the father and the son?

⁴ the father knows the day and the hour in two ways: by understanding and by action. for he knows when he will come and has already decided to judge the one who is, based on his actions.

⁵ but the son of God knows when he will come and brings it, and he does not ignore it. however, he has not yet acted according to knowledge, meaning he has not yet known through his actions. for the ungodly are still being ungodly, the unbelievers are still being unbelieving, the wicked are blaspheming, the devil is at work, sins are happening, injustice is strong, and judgment is patient, until he comes, knows it through his actions, carries out vengeance, and saves those who truly hope in him, but not those who blaspheme his divinity or that of the father and the holy spirit.

Chapter 22

22. from the holy angels, such worth is given in two ways. they are honored because they have received this from the father, the son, and the holy spirit; however, this is left to them, for they do not know the appointed times when things happen. the father set the times by his own authority. if the father is in the son and the son is in the father, then authority is not given from the son who is in the father.

² but it is given by the angels; for the angels, archangels, and powers are created, but the father is uncreated, the son is uncreated, and the spirit of God is uncreated.

³ therefore, the angels do not know either by knowledge or by action the day and the hour. they do not know when the father, the son, and the holy spirit wish to bring about that day, and they do not understand the actions involved; for they have not yet been commanded to go out and gather the judgment of the weeds and tie them together to be burned in unquenchable fire.

⁴ therefore, they have not yet acted nor do they know, but the father knows and has acted; the son knows, but has not yet acted. in other words, "if the father alone does not act, neither do the angels nor the son."

⁵ let us understand the power of scripture, so that the letter does not become death for us. "for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life." let us embrace the spirit, so that we may benefit from the letter. for the letter does not kill; life is found in the letter. but it kills those who approach the letter without understanding and who do not have the enlightening spirit that opens the letter and reveals what is within it.

⁶ therefore, this holy father gave his only-begotten son, truly born from him, and his holy spirit to his holy church in one understanding of unity, in one bond of perfection, so that we may receive the seal in the name of the perfect father and god, in the name of the perfect son and god, and in the name of the holy and perfect spirit.

⁷ how the holy trinity is counted, a trinity in one name. for it is not said one and two, nor one and ones, but one in the trinity and a trinity in one, uniquely and simply one god: father in the son, son in the father, and the holy spirit.

Chapter 23

call to me witnesses of the truth, call to me the children saved from the furnace of Babylon, those who were deemed worthy to be thrown into the fire but were not consumed, so that new works may not be imagined against them. they were in the fire and yet were not consumed because of their true faith, with god teaching us through them what are the created things and what are the uncreated, what are the things that are made and what are the things that do not come into being, what are the things that always exist and what are the things that come from them and have come into being.

² these children who were saved wanted to give thanks to the god who rescued them. they hoped in him from the beginning and did not waver; they did not bow their necks to an image or to the threats of the king and tyranny.

³ and when they wanted to offer something to god, they searched the depths with the holy spirit in their hearts. being holy, they thought about heaven and everything in it, about the earth and all that is beneath it, and about all things that are not worthy to be offered to god. for they did not have the ability to offer anything greater than themselves to god.

⁴ and according to their worth and power, they wanted only to praise god with hymns. for this is what is written: "offer a sacrifice of praise" and "a sacrifice of praise will honor me." already changing the old covenant into a new one, guided by the holy spirit, they said they had no need for sacrifices of animals or burnt offerings. they said, "there is no place for harvest, nor for sacrifice, nor for an altar," since all things are included.

⁵ wanting to offer such praise and setting aside their own smallness, they are humble. for everyone who exalts themselves will be humbled, but the one who humbles themselves will be exalted. with the gift of their salvation, they receive this gift of humility and wish to offer praise to god without losing heart.

⁶ and having tested themselves, they are worthy to join with creation in the unspeakable praise of god. they begin to speak, including all of creation in their praise.

Chapter 24

and separating the creations from the creator and the created from the one who made them, they say, "bless all the works of the Lord." they said everything and left nothing out.

² but so that the painful spirit can define perfect knowledge to understand what is divine and what is made by God, let us not mix the eternal with what comes from nothing. so that we do not lose our understanding, everything has been gathered in number.

³ for the Holy Spirit revealed to them so that they might be worthy to be with the angels, having become like angels. They understood the things in heaven, the things on earth, and the things under the earth, and they no longer did not know.

⁴ and they say, the same holy ones, as they said before: "bless all the works of the Lord," and they begin to count and divide which works were made, which were being done, and which were completed.

⁵ and they count the heaven, the earth, the waters above the heaven, and the angels (for the angels are created), thrones and powers (for these are created), the sun and the moon (for they are made), clouds and snow, winds, lightning, thunder, the earth, the sea, springs, abysses, rivers, all humanity, mountains, birds of heaven, animals and creatures, the souls of the holy ones, spirits of the righteous, Ananias, Azariah, Mishael, priests and servants of God.

⁶ for all these things are made and created, having come from God through the Word and the holy Spirit; "for by the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of his mouth their power."

⁷ but see, dear brother, how everything was counted by the holy Spirit, and the Son was not counted among the creations, nor was the Spirit, but they recognized that the same divinity exists in the Trinity and that the same Trinity exists in one divinity. They understood the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father together with the holy Spirit, one holiness, one worship, one divinity, one glory.

Chapter 25

but indeed, the devil dares to stir up among people the boldness of disbelief, to falsely accuse the holy children and say: "They did not know to say the name of the holy Spirit; for they were Jews and did not even know the Son, being Jews."

² immediately, the words prove the disbelief of the wicked. For it says that the face of the fourth one is like the face of the Son of God. Behold, the name of the Son of God; therefore, there is no ignorance about this. And before the time of the furnace, Daniel was filled with the holy Spirit and said, "I am pure from this blood." Then they returned to the judgment seat, and he judged the elders, being moved by the holy Spirit.

³ therefore, they knew the Son and they knew the Father and the holy Spirit, and it was not out of ignorance that they did not say the names, but for the sake of safety. "Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord," and they did not say, "the Son of God bless the Lord," nor did they bless the holy Spirit, but "Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord."

⁴ and let no one who is looking for excuses say, "the cherubim or seraphim did not say these things." therefore, these are also not works of God. for the divine word anticipated and secured everything for those who were inventing their own plans, knowing the trouble that would come to them and their children.

⁵ for the holy children repeated the hymn three times, presenting created things as a hymn to God. first, they said, "Blessed are you, Lord, God of our fathers, and your name is praised and glorified forever." then they said, "Blessed are you who sit upon the cherubim," and again, "Blessed are you who sit upon the throne of glory of your kingdom," and "Blessed are you who see the abyss, sitting upon the cherubim."

⁶ so that when you say "the throne," you may understand the seraphim and cherubim. and from the names of the cherubim, the abyss, the holy throne, and all the other names, you may realize that they are counted among the other works. for having called all these into a hymn, they immediately proclaim, "Bless all the works of the Lord, the Lord," so that Gabriel and Michael may bless the Father, the Son, and the holy Spirit.

Chapter 26

but the solemn angels in heaven sing the victory hymn, together with the seraphim and cherubim, praising the Trinity in harmony and in one voice, saying, "Holy, holy, holy." they create three voices, yet speak in unity and not with many names.

² for they do not say "holy" a fourth time, so that they do not add to the name of the Trinity. they do not say "holy" twice, so that the glory of perfection may not be lacking. instead, they say it three times, to honor the Father, the Son, and the holy Spirit with the same respect.

³ and they do not say "holy" and "half-holy," but rather they say "holy" with one voice and in one word, honoring the Trinity together in unity and unity within the Trinity.

⁴ for the only-begotten Son of God came to us to share this knowledge; the holy Spirit revealed this understanding to us. The Father disclosed this perfection to us. In truth, the Word, having become flesh, gave us this life. The holy Spirit built this foundation for us.

⁵ for if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, there is no other foundation. No one can lay another foundation than the one that has been laid, which is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We are his building, and we are his field, built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, so that our building may be strong in truth and our foundation always exists and never had a beginning.

⁶ but "knowledge is not for everyone," according to the apostolic word, but for those who are made worthy by the holy Spirit to know the mysteries of the truth.

⁷ for he himself, who revealed himself, his Father, and the holy Spirit, rebuked some of those in ignorance, saying, "you do not know the scriptures nor their power." And again, in another place, "let anyone who has ears to hear, listen." He also said to the Samaritan woman, "if you knew who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him." And again, "you do not know what spirit you belong to."

⁸ therefore, knowledge is not for everyone; for each person has different gifts from God. The holy word says, "to whom much is given, more will be required." Some receive a little, some receive nothing at all, and others receive more.

Chapter 27

27. And that these things are true can be found in what is said in the holy scriptures. For in the divine scripture, which speaks spiritually about many things, especially concerning our life, I mention the knowledge of the Lord. The deeper and richer words that secure our soul have become a stumbling block for those who have not understood the knowledge of God.

² As the prophet Hosea says, "Who is wise and understands these things?" and "To whom is the word of knowledge given, so that he may know them?" The ways of the Lord are straight, but the wicked will stumble in them.

³ For the ways are straight, but the wicked stumble in the ways of the Lord, which are a stumbling block for those people. Indeed, those who trip over the stone of the stumbling block do so carelessly; for they have stumbled over the stone and have been offended.

⁴ For the Jews, seeing the only begotten Son of God come in the flesh and performing miracles, and not being worthy of the knowledge of the heavenly, said, "Who is this man who speaks blasphemies?" And at another time, "If this man were from God, he would not break the Sabbath." Therefore, they did not recognize his divinity, but thought of him as just an ordinary man.

⁵ But they, even though they knew God, did not understand his perfect glory. Hearing the deep things said about him and concerning the salvation that was accomplished for us in the flesh, they were misled about his divinity; for their minds were confused.

⁶ Just as the Jews were led astray by being too eager in their listening, so they too were confused by what they heard. For those Jews saw the things that were said by the prophets, but they were troubled because they did not recognize the fulfillment in the coming of Christ in the flesh.

⁷ And these people, again, hearing the things that were said about his plan and thinking about them with love, become troubled and move toward their own destruction instead of building us up. They say, "I am going to my God and your God, and my Father and your Father." You see that he is also one of the created beings, yet they dare to say blasphemous things.

Chapter 28

28. You see then that the plan of his coming in the flesh misleads them. They take from what exists and ask about times or seasons; for his ways, he says, "from the days of eternity." Let us now look at what came before this. The Father says, "Let us make man in our image and according to our likeness," and he did not say, "I will make man in my image."

² Let the one who has a hardened heart be rebuked according to what is written, "But their hearts were hardened." And learn that the Son is always with the Father. The phrase "Let us make" is not significant for just one, but for the Father speaking to the Son.

³ Let the one who says the Son is unlike the Father be rebuked. For in saying that he was made in our image, he did not separate the likeness of the Son from the Father, nor did he divide anything of the unity between the Father and the Son. He did not say, "in my image" or "in your image," but he showed that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit share one essence and divinity. For he says, "in our image and according to our likeness," which shows that the divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one, while man was made in the image of that one divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

⁴ Let you also be rebuked, O Arius, and listen to the Father saying to the Son, "Let us make," calling the Son a co-creator. For I have often heard some say that the Son made nothing, but "through him all things were made." If all things were made through him, then he also made them, as is clearly shown.

⁵ For the chief architect, the Word, is the creator of all, and the Father works through him. Let them listen clearly to him saying, "My Father is working until now, and I am working." Here, he calls the Father his co-creator when he says this.

⁶ But again, let not your mind deceive you, and do not approach the Son as a servant, but as a true master. For if he were a servant and not a true master, how could he take the form of a servant while he existed in the form of God? And how could he give himself if he did not have the perfect nature? Therefore, approach the Son as the perfect God and as the true Son from the Father.

Chapter 29

29. And do not say this with bad intentions: the Father said to the Son, "Let us make," but the Son did not say to the Father, "Let us make." The Son does not say, "I am working and my Father is working," but he puts the Father first, both in what he says and in his work.

² For you speak foolishly and want to think of many beginnings in the divine. But there is one beginning, and that one divinity is the same. Nowhere does the Son say, "my God." I am not denying the honor of the Son toward the Father, but I am explaining how the nature of divinity is connected.

³ And again it says, "Adam heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the evening." Nowhere does the Son say, "my God" or "your God," but here he speaks of God as self-existent.

⁴ And again, God spoke to Noah, and nowhere does such a phrase appear.

⁵ And God appeared to Abraham while he was sitting by the oak of Mamre. Suddenly, three men came, and he ran to meet them. He bowed down to the ground and said, "If I have found favor in your sight," to show one as God, while the other two who were with him were angels.

⁶ For this reason, he says, "The Lord said to Abraham." And the one who spoke to him asked, "Shall I hide anything from my servant Abraham?" He then said, "The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah has become great against me," and so on. And nowhere in these times does it say "my God" or "your God."

⁷ And the two men entered Sodom, while the one who had gone up stayed above Abraham for the destruction. About the one who had gone up, the scripture says, "And the Lord rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord." And there was no need in the wording to say "my God" and "your God."

⁸ And Moses says in the song, "And all the angels of God should worship him." But if he says "angels of the storm" and "fire from the Lord," and does not just say "angels," he shows that the Father and the Son have one kingdom, with the angels not divided into ranks, but being of God and worshiping the Son and God; for one angel does not worship another angel. And nowhere here does it say "my God" and "your God."

Chapter 30

David says, "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.'" He calls him "Lord"; for the arrangement of the flesh was not yet, and for this reason it was necessary to say "my God" and "your God."

² "Behold, the virgin will conceive in her womb and bear a son, and you will call his name Emmanuel, which means 'God with us.'" And there was not yet a need to say "my God" and "your God."

³ "And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, you are not the least among the thousands of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler for me in Israel, and his origins are from ancient times, from days of old." According to other copies, "And you, Bethlehem, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel." And you see that there was not yet a need to say "my God" and "your God."

⁴ When the prophecy of Jeremiah and Isaiah was being fulfilled, that the Word would be born from a virgin and take on flesh, just as Jeremiah says, "And he is a man. And who will know him?" Then, taking part of the flesh and being born without the seed of a man from the God-bearer Mary, he formed the same holy flesh as was said, "born of a woman," and taking part of our nature, he says "my God."

⁵ Because of his eternal nature, he calls him "my Father," and for the sake of his disciples, he calls him "your Father." But because of the nature of those disciples, he refers to the eternal Father as "your God."

⁶ The Father is God of the disciples, but he is the Father of the Lord by nature, and he is the Father of the disciples by grace. The Father is God of the Son because of the flesh, but he is the Father because of the eternal and incomprehensible nature of his birth and true sonship. He is truly the Father, having begotten him outside of time and without beginning according to his divinity.

⁷ He needed to say "God" because he made a plan for us, being always with the Father, the Word begotten without beginning. But in the flesh, he was born from Mary at the end of days, born according to the flesh from Mary, the same holy virgin, through the Holy Spirit.

Chapter 31

Let them understand the depths of God's work and not turn grace into ungratefulness, thinking of the glory of God's nature, which is beyond understanding and incomprehensible, in relation to our salvation.

² But, they say, it is written about God, "He will not hunger or thirst, nor is there any finding of his understanding." But about the Son, it says that he hungered in the desert during the temptation. And our God says, "He will not tire," but the Lord Jesus grew tired on the journey; and "He who watches over Israel will not slumber," yet it says that the Lord slept.

³ O foolish thoughts of those who think such things! For the holy Word did not only take on our burdens by coming for us, but he also became flesh through touch and was found as a man. He was gathered by the scribes and said, "I gave my back to the scourges, and I did not turn my face away from shame and spitting."

⁴ But it also says, "He wept," as it is found in the Gospel according to Luke in the uncorrected copies. The holy Irenaeus has used this as a testimony in his work against heresies, saying that those who think Christ only appeared did not include this saying, fearing and not understanding his purpose and the strongest point.

⁵ And being in agony, he sweated, and his sweat became like drops of blood, and an angel appeared to strengthen him.

⁶ Not only this, but also as a man he asks, "Where have you laid Lazarus?" and "Who touched me, since I felt power go out from me?" and "Whom do you seek?" He also asks the disciples as a man, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" and "How many loaves do you have with you?"

⁷ He said, and being tired from the journey, he sat by the well in Samaria. Meanwhile, the child grew and became strong in spirit, and "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature." But before the child knew to call for father or mother, he would receive power from Damascus and the spoils of Samaria.

⁸ Being wisdom and teaching people knowledge, he opened the ears of man, gave speech to the sons of men, and made a clear language for the mute. He endured all these things for us, so that he would keep safe the entire plan of the incarnation arranged for us and not lose the essence of the truth.

Chapter 32

But so that we do not leave the mysteries, which we have gathered from the divine writings that oppose the truth, misunderstood by them, I will explain the meaning of the power within them. For this reason, it is expressed in a way that reflects human feelings.

² And again, we will say, having already spoken many things about "my God and your God," that the one who understands should know that it is rightly said based on what follows.

³ For he is a man, and who will know him? In the same way, the divine writing reveals both the visible and the invisible. Through the visible, it is rightly said "my God," and through the invisible, it is said "my," without any contradiction or change to the word.

⁴ For how could he be known if he was a man? And if he was not a man, how could he be called a man?

⁵ Indeed, everyone who is born from humans is known by other humans: from those who gave birth, from relatives, from close ones, from neighbors, from companions, or from fellow citizens.

⁶ And it is impossible for this to be fulfilled in a mere man; it is fulfilled in the divine Word and Son of God. When it is said, "he is a man," how will he be truly known? That he is God; because he shares in humanity and is God, who is unknown to humans because of the incomprehensible.

⁷ But a man was truly born from Mary without the seed of a man; and the virgin, as it is said, was proclaimed by the prophet for what was to come: "she will conceive in her womb and bear a son."

⁸ If then the virgin, the way of conception is not from men, because before this time it was said to Ahaz, "ask for yourself a sign, whether deep or high." But he, being humble, said, "I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord my God," refusing to ask for a sign.

⁹ But immediately, because he did not ask for a sign, God, who gives great gifts to people, grants two gifts: from above, he will send the Word according to his own will, and from below, he will take on flesh by his own good pleasure, joining it with the Word.

¹⁰ For later, they will call his name Emmanuel." And he did not say, "I will call," but "they will call." For God, who was once unknown to them, was revealed to people. But he does not take the name for himself; he did not say, "I will call his name Emmanuel," but "they will call."

Chapter 33

But the phrase "born of a woman," as was clearly stated above, is meant to show that in what is born of a woman, the Word, who is eternal, may be clearly revealed to all. And if the saying "he will not thirst" refers to the Word of God, then about the body, it is said that he became hungry and thirsty; this was necessary for us.

² For how could the economy, being truly real, be found if it did not have the necessary connection to becoming human? In this, it has shown us the answers to all the questions of the heretics.

³ For he immediately addressed the doubts of the Manichaeans; by saying that he eats and drinks true flesh, he makes this clear. He also resolved the beliefs of the Lucianists and the arguments of Arius.

⁴ For Lucian and all the Lucianists deny that the Son of God has taken a soul; they claim he has only taken on flesh, so they can wrongly connect human suffering to the divine Word, including thirst, hunger, desire, weeping, sorrow, disturbance, and everything else that happens in his bodily presence. It would be foolish to think of these things as part of the divinity of the Son of God.

⁵ But they say that flesh by itself neither eats nor drinks nor suffers nor does anything else. I also agree that on its own, it does not have these qualities.

⁶ The Word came and embraced the whole human experience, taking on both flesh and soul, along with everything that is part of being human. Hunger and desire are aspects of both the soul and the flesh, as well as thirst, sorrow, and other feelings.

⁷ He weeps to show the mistake of the Manichaeans, who believe that the body is not real but just an illusion. He also thirsts to demonstrate that he has not only flesh but also a soul. His divinity does not experience thirst, but he thirsts in the flesh and grows weary from the journey because of the needs of both the flesh and the soul.

Chapter 34

Let the divine scriptures, both old and new, convince them that the Word came with both a body and a soul. For David speaks about him, and Peter joins in with David: "You will not allow my soul to go to Hades, nor will you let your holy one see decay." This helps us understand the unity of the Lord's human nature and gain clear knowledge about it. It shows that the soul, united with divinity, was present during the three days to prove the holiness of the flesh, and that the divinity, along with the soul, completed the mystery without being held back in Hades.

² There is also another testimony that says, "He is free among the dead." The word "free" means that Hades does not have power over him, but he willingly went down to Hades with his soul. Peter says that it was not possible for him to be held by it, meaning by Hades.

³ The Savior himself says, "I have the power to lay down my soul and to take it up again." He also says, "I am the good shepherd, who lays down his soul for the sheep." He adds, "My soul is troubled," and "What shall I say? As I speak in doubt, what shall I say?" Father, save me from this hour.

⁴ But for this reason, I came to this hour, to show that his divinity willingly came to this moment. The word "troubled" is used so that the truth of his bodily presence is not hidden.

⁵ For the bodily presence was not like that; it was more like a great king facing a weaker enemy. He knew that if the enemy saw him coming with great power and strength, the enemy would retreat and flee, destroying many of his weaker subjects. For this reason, the king would use his own wisdom to create excuses and turn his back, pretending to run away, until the enemy gained courage and attacked, thinking the king was cowardly and weak. But the king, suddenly turning with his own power, would seize the entire weaker force in front of him. In the same way, our Lord was not afraid of death.

⁶ Before he came to suffer, he indicated along the way that the Son of Man was about to be betrayed, crucified, and rise on the third day. When Peter said, "Have mercy on you, Lord; this will never happen to you," he rebuked him, saying, "Get behind me, Satan," because you do not think about the things of God, but about the things of men.

⁷ So, the one who said these things and came for this reason, how could he later pray to pass the cup, so that he would not drink it? The one who spoke about death before dying, even if he did not want to be seen as a liar, could not pray to pass the cup.

⁸ But he challenges the opponent through such a figure, so that when that one takes hold, the Savior, fearing death, brings death upon himself for the salvation of those who are dying through the plan.

⁹ But even if you hear that the Lord has died, understand the depth of death that has been fulfilled. For the greatest of the apostles, Peter, explains the situation about his death, saying that he was killed in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. His divinity, having taken on suffering in the flesh, is without suffering, was without suffering, and remained without suffering, not changing from his lack of suffering nor being altered in his eternity.

Chapter 35

Again, if the empty-minded say, "You cannot convince us from such words that Christ has a soul," know that we have found above in the divine scriptures. As Isaiah says from the presence of God the Father about the only-begotten, "This is my beloved Son. In whom I am well pleased; my soul loves him."

² What should we think about the Father? Does he have a soul within himself, or does he have a soul? Who among the foolish will understand this about the Father? So what do they say? It is clearer to express this idea in a more figurative way.

³ If they say that it is better to speak more figuratively about the Father, then it is also necessary to take the same approach with the Son. For even if he says, "My soul is troubled, and I have the power to give it and take it back," they claim he did not have a soul, but that it was said in a more figurative way.

⁴ Their reasoning seems to suggest something, while the truth remains firm based on many proofs. Each understanding comes from the nature of the thing. It is not daring to speak about the Father, because he did not take on flesh. However, since the followers of Lucian, that is, the Arians, acknowledge the flesh, there is no doubt about it.

⁵ But he says, "The Word became flesh," and he did not say, "The Word became flesh and soul." In response to their ignorant argument, I also say that "God made man from the dust of the ground," and from that he made everything. From "The Word became flesh," everything is included.

⁶ For according to the same reasoning, we respond to them as they say: "God made man," and he did not say, "He made him a liver, a lung, a heart, veins, nerves, or any other parts of the body." From this, we understand that man is whole, because the writing does not go into detail about the makeup of the entire living being. Not at all. Just as everything is included from one nature, it is clear that the Savior took the soul from the flesh.

Chapter 36

If then he took both soul and body, as has been shown, then the divinity was not lessened from the essence of the Father, even though he experienced passions, so that he could thirst, grow weary, hunger, and whatever else is necessary for a human.

² And that "he will not grow weary and there is no finding of his understanding," but the Savior is found to be weary, does not mean that the Word came down from the essence of the Father. For he did not grow weary from above, but in the flesh. He shows the flesh to be weary, so that it does not seem imagined, but is truly so.

³ And all the other things that have such power, like yawning and sleeping, are clearly human, as well as what can be felt by touch. For he took these things, and a man was found. For we have found, he says, the Messiah, whom Moses wrote about.

⁴ But those who found him through the incomprehensible nature, that is, the one in the flesh. For since he was not found in the incomprehensible, he was seized by the scribes. They gave his back to be whipped, and he did not turn his face away from spitting. He wept, and all the other things sung about him.

⁵ But who could whip, strike, or spit on the divine Word in heaven, such an unfathomable and incomprehensible being? If the impassible divine Word has suffered these things, then the suffering is bodily, separate from his impassibility, but not entirely separate because it was pleasing.

⁶ And yet, even though he does not suffer, the suffering is counted as his own. Just as a stain on a garment does not touch the body of the wearer, but the stain is considered to belong to the wearer, so God has suffered in the flesh, while his divinity does not suffer at all. The suffering of the flesh, carried by the divinity, is counted as belonging to the divinity, so that through the divinity our salvation may come.

Chapter 37

I remember the saying from the Gospel according to Luke, and I do not want to leave it unexplained. It is written that "being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood."

² And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, strengthening him. But the deeper meanings of the words, as we often say, and the necessary things, are turned into evil instead of good by those who do not understand their power; for nothing is more important than this.

³ For when it says, "he became in agony," it shows that the Lord was a true man. To demonstrate that he was a true man and that the agony did not come from his divinity, it says, "he sweated, and his sweat became like great drops of blood." The nature is physical and not spiritual.

⁴ And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, not because the greater angel needed the strength of the angel to whom every knee in heaven, on earth, and under the earth bends, being always the Word of God and always with the Father and born from him. But this happened to fulfill what is sung in the great song of Moses in the wilderness, where it says, "All the sons of God will worship him, and let the angels of God strengthen him."

⁵ The phrase "let the angels of God strengthen him" does not mean that they were giving him strength. Rather, since the glory was strong in these matters to glorify God, immediately angels and spiritual beings cried out, saying, "Yours is the power, Yours is the might, Yours is the strength." In this, it shows both worshiping and strengthening, which means giving him the unique power of strength, just as the angel appeared before the disciples, worshiping their Lord.

⁶ Being aware of the greatness of his loving plan for humanity, and marveling at the incredible gentleness that was in him, which defeated the devil, crushed the heart of death, triumphed over the rulers and authorities, and shattered sin.

⁷ Because of the greatness of the wonders in the praise, the angel said while worshiping, "Yours is the strength, Lord; for you have power over death, over Hades, and over the devil, to crush its heart and to cast it out from humanity."

Chapter 38

If he says again, "Where have you laid Lazarus?"—speaking in a human way about the bleeding woman—"Who touched me?"—or "What are you seeking?"—or "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"—or "The child grew and became strong"—or "He advanced in age and wisdom"—or "Before the child could know to call father or mother"—do you not see from this very situation the greatness of the knowledge, that these stories come from flesh and humanity?

² For all that is written in the old covenant, coming from the presence of God the Father, is meant to persuade people who are holding onto ignorance, even though it is not unknown to God. The Word has come and fulfilled these things so that he may complete what my Father has been working on until now, and I am working." "Where have you laid Lazarus?"

³ He asked near the place, but before arriving there, having heard nothing from anyone, he said to his disciples, "Lazarus, our friend, has fallen asleep." So then, knowing that Lazarus had died after such a long journey, how could he be present at the place and not know?

⁴ Therefore, he wanted to show that he was doing all these things, since no one fully believed in him yet, so that he could demonstrate his great kindness and compassion toward us.

⁵ For they should not have said, "He has been dead for four days; he already smells," nor should they have left and shown this. Instead, they should have said everything, "If you want, he will live." Therefore, he also wept over the hard-heartedness of people. Knowing this, he asked, but he was testing them and showing his kindness.

⁶ And he says, "Who touched me?" Not because he did not know who touched him, but so that he would not claim the miracle happened because of himself. Instead, he wanted her, after hearing, to come forward and share the blessing that had come to her and to confess that she had heard, "Your faith has saved you," so that he could encourage others to believe and be healed.

⁷ And he says, "Who do they say the Son of Man is?" Just like in the old story, he asks, "Adam, where are you?" He knew where he was. That is why he later rebukes him, saying, "You have come out from the tree."

⁸ And to Cain, he asks, "Where is Abel, your brother?" He asks not because he does not know. For he says, "Cursed are you on the earth, which has refused to receive your brother's blood from your hand. Behold, his blood cries out to me." The one who says that the blood cries out is not unaware; he asks to give Cain a chance for repentance. That is why he asks.

Chapter 39

They turn back to the argument of ignorance and say that these voices are from his son in the old story. But their reasoning is immediately challenged. For the one who said to Moses, "What is that in your hand?" was saying, "I am the one who is."

² And the Lord says to the Sadducees about the resurrection, explaining that the dead are raised. God said, "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." Therefore, he is the God of the living and not of the dead.

³ And again, there are many things to show that it is written in the old covenant from the perspective of the Father. But it is also written many times from the perspective of the Son, and again from the perspective of the Holy Spirit.

⁴ And he said to Abraham, "Where is Sarah, your wife?" This was said by the one who came down from above with the two angels, the Son of God. For if he did not know where she was, he would not have asked, "Sarah?"

⁵ Then Sarah laughed to herself, wanting to show her seriousness as a sign for those who wish to be truly pious. When they receive guests, they serve them from their own efforts, but because of their seriousness, they do not reveal their faces to the men.

⁶ For that blessed one completely revealed herself, and having adorned herself in front of the angels, she was not seen, showing a sign of seriousness for the generations that would come after. Also, to show who was present, the one who was sent called out the name of the woman at the right moment, because neither her name was forgotten nor the form or thoughts of a person.

⁷ "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" he asks. He explains who the Son of Man is so that they do not think he is asking about the invisible one. They say he is Elijah, or Jeremiah, or John. "But what do you say I am?" he asks. "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," he replies, and immediately he is blessed.

⁸ For he was not asking out of ignorance, but wanting to show that the teaching which proclaims the Son as the true God to the church comes from the Father, so that Peter could speak what he had been taught by the Father.

Chapter 40

And do not be surprised if he says, "Through me they come to the Father," and you think he is changing the essence of the Father. For he teaches again, "No one comes to me unless the Father draws him." Just as the Father sends to the Son, and the Son brings to the Father, to show that they share the same divine nature.

² But he was growing "in wisdom," if wisdom comes from God, and he does not lack wisdom. But since he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, the fullness was not diminished; rather, it shows that he was sent from heaven into humanity, that is, into the workshop of Mary.

³ "For the anointing oil has been emptied upon you," he says; he did not say "poured out," but "emptied from heaven to earth," so that it might come to Mary. And from Mary, becoming flesh, he is called, born in Bethlehem, moving from Bethlehem to Nazareth, from Nazareth to Capernaum, from Capernaum to Jerusalem and the sea, as he walks on the waters, and to the regions of Tyre and Nain, and to Judea and Jericho, and to Bethphage and Bethany, to Jerusalem, to the temple, to the Mount of Olives, and Gethsemane, to the house of Caiaphas, to the praetorium, and to Herod, to the place of Golgotha, to the tomb, and even to Hades, to the earth after the resurrection, and to the heavens.

⁴ For the anointing oil has been emptied from angel to angel; all the vessels are filled with fragrance, and the presence of Christ has made the whole earth holy from heaven, for those who receive him in truth.

⁵ The mountain that is, as in Daniel, a great mountain, "a stone cut without hands," hinting at one not born of a man, the greater being found small again. And the stone, once more lifting up its size, becomes a great mountain, and this mountain is not in one place, but fills the whole inhabited world.

⁶ This wisdom, becoming a man, extends his power to the world to fill the inhabited world with grace, "was advancing in age and wisdom."

⁷ Since wisdom belongs to the Father and is 'teaching people' to speak, having shaped the tongue for humans and 'planted the ear' for those who hear, how could he not know to call a father or a mother? 'He will take power from Damascus and the spoils of Samaria,' and what comes next?

⁸ But since he was born from the womb and spoke right away, if he were to show himself and spoke clearly like a newborn, people would think he was an illusion and not real. Rather, it is more likely that his physical birth is just an appearance. For this reason, he remains in his early years for a little while, so that he does not hide the truth of his existence.

Chapter 41

"On the other hand, they are caught up in empty assumptions, twisting the divine words and thinking the opposite. They ask, 'How then is it written: "Let all the house of Israel know for certain that this Jesus, whom you crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ"?'"

² And I am greatly amazed at how those who follow do not understand the power expressed in these words. For to say, 'Receive the high priest, who is faithful to the one who made him,' is not about his divinity.

³ For God has come, and the divine writings make everything clear to us. There is nothing in them that is twisted or confusing; everything is straightforward for those who understand and right for those who seek knowledge.

⁴ For he says, 'Receive one and not silver.' If someone does not receive instruction from God, which is the faith of truth, everything will be crooked and twisted for him. But for those who understand correctly and seek knowledge, everything will be straight and clear.

⁵ But to correct them, the apostle says: 'For every high priest taken from among people is appointed for people in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices…'

⁶ For this reason, the only-begotten one, since he came to be a high priest for people, took on our flesh so that he, who became one of us, might offer to his own Father God, calling the disciples 'brothers.' So where is this becoming fulfilled? Not from elsewhere, but in relation to the high priest. 'Receive,' for he says, 'the high priest who is faithful to the one who made him.'

⁷ Now to use a clearer example: someone might ask a king about his own son and boldly say to him, "Who is this?" Hearing a just answer from the father, "He is my son," he might ask again, "Is he your son by nature?" And if the king says yes, the questioner would ask again, "Then what did you make him?" He would certainly say, "I made him a king." So did he deny his worth by saying he is of the earth?

⁸ If he says the second, does he erase the first? Absolutely not. In the same way, God the Father generated the Son without a beginning, and in the flesh, he has fulfilled what he made him: a high priest.

Chapter 42

But they say, "It is written: 'The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works.'" At first, the vain-glorious do not know the name of the book. For the book is called the Proverbs of Solomon. However, not everything that is said in proverbs is the same as the power of the word.

² Look, for our Lord Jesus Christ spoke in parables, and we see that the parables do not support our argument in the same way.

³ For he says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed." And if we want to think about it in our own way, it is clear that the kingdom of heaven is a place of great openness.

⁴ If we must talk about a place, then in that kingdom there is God the King and Father, the Word of God, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit, along with angels and archangels, spiritual armies, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the righteous. So where can so many be contained in a mustard seed? The meaning of this saying is expressed in a riddle. Therefore, what is said in proverbs is not the same.

⁵ But also, if a woman has ten drachmas and loses one, she lights a lamp and searches for it until she finds it. And if a net is thrown into the sea, or if seed is sown in the ground. All these things are spoken in riddles, but they do not have the same meaning.

⁶ And we do not really know if the wise man Solomon spoke this saying about the Son of God. For there is wisdom, and there is wisdom.

⁷ Therefore, the apostle knows how to say, "The world did not know God through the wisdom of God," and "God made the wisdom of the world foolish." And again he says, "Not with worldly wisdom, but with the power of God." Solomon speaks of wisdom, saying, "I delighted in her beauty and took her as my bride." Job also speaks of wisdom and asks, "But where can wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding?" The wisdom of the poor is despised, and "the Son of wisdom is the corrector." Wisdom comes from the Father, the only-begotten.

Chapter 43

What then shall we say? If wisdom is the Father, and the Son did not come from Him according to their understanding, being both the Word and God and being wisdom, then the Father is left without wisdom within Himself.

² How then is it that "to God alone, the wise and unseen," all these things are incomprehensible and infinite to humans? God gave wisdom to Solomon and filled Bezalel with wisdom, and "wise people hide their shame."

³ And there is much to say about wisdom. That wisdom of the Father is unique, having no other equal.

⁴ However, if there was a word sung about it, I neither create nor dismiss it, but I allow God to know; I see that the comparisons being made are forced. "For he says, 'He established the beginning of his ways for his works; before the age, he founded me; before all the mountains, he gave birth to me.'"

⁵ How then is what is born established? And how is what is created brought into being? For if it is created, it is not truly born.

⁶ For we do not create what we give birth to, and we do not give birth to what we create. We are created beings, and what is born from us is created. But in God, who is uncreated, the offspring is not created.

⁷ For if he has given birth, he has not created. But if after creating he has given birth again, how can what was first established be born later?

⁸ If what is said is about him, then it is fulfilled in the bodily economy. For this reason, he first speaks of what is closer and later explains what is older.

⁹ For wanting to bring humans closer, he begins with the flesh. The beginning of the ways of righteousness in the gospel is that the Word became flesh in Mary, and a soul is established in that same flesh, so that he may show the higher things later.

¹⁰ We say that he came down from the bosom of the ancestors from the heavens to the earth, since he later completed the whole economy for us. Therefore, the Word is not created, and the divine writing has not given us anything crooked at all.

Chapter 44

But both by nature and according to the interpreters, the wording is not given this way. For Aquila says, "the Lord has acquired me," since in Hebrew it says, "Adonai Kanani," which is interpreted as we have mentioned. And we also, following tradition, say about those who are born, "he has acquired children."

² But he did not seal the power of the interpretation in this way. For "Adonai Kanani" can also be interpreted as "the Lord has acquired me." For this reason, Peter clearly proclaims, saying, "this Jesus, whom you crucified." He did not say the divine Word from above, but this Jesus, the flesh that was united with the Word from above in the womb of Mary. This one is called the Lord's man because he came from Mary.

³ For in this, the one being acquired is fulfilled, as Peter says, "being killed in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit," and again, "Christ suffering in the flesh for us," and once more, "from whom Christ according to the flesh," as Paul says.

⁴ And the Savior himself said in the Gospel, "Now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from the Father," to show the suffering from humanity and also that he is the true Son of the Father from above.

⁵ And Paul, the holy apostle, agrees with this saying: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ," who did not consider being equal to God something to hold on to, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.

⁶ You see how he was declared a man, but not just any man. As a mediator between God and men, since he mediates for both, he is God by nature, truly born from the Father, and he is a true man, naturally born from Mary without the seed of a man. Thus, he is the mediator between God and men, being God and having become a man, not changing his nature, but mediating for both sides.

Chapter 45

But again, the ignorant say: "You see that he did not consider being equal to God something to hold on to." And those who are jealous do not understand the calling. For he did not say: "He did not want to become equal to God by taking it," but "he did not consider being equal to God something to hold on to," meaning that being God by nature is what he is.

² For if he were not God, how could he take the form of a servant? He showed the greatness of this by pointing out that, even though he was equal to God, he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, not to make the free become slaves, but so that in the form he took, he could free obedient servants.

³ As the Jews also testify, he was not ashamed to call himself equal to God, nor did he hesitate. Instead, he boldly showed this by saying, "If I do not say, I will be a liar to you." And for this reason, they say to him, "We are not trying to kill you for a good work, but because you, being a man, make yourself equal to God."

⁴ But they say, "We must acknowledge his figurative language." The scripture has said many figurative things about him, and we should not deny the things said about him in a riddle. He is called a door, a stone, a pillar, a cloud, a lion, a sheep, a lamp, a light, the sun, an angel, a worm, a rock, the cornerstone, the way, a bull, a calf, and other similar things.

⁵ Clearly, we do not deny the things that are said about him in a riddle. We know the reason these things are written: the way, because through him we walk toward the kingdom, to him and the Father; the door, because through him we enter; the pillar, because he is the foundation of our faith; the rock, because he is unmovable; the stone, because he is firmly established; the sun of righteousness, because he shines light on our darkened minds.

Chapter 46

Then they say that if it is written about him that he is a creation, we must also acknowledge the creation. Look, I have also explained some of the meanings of his figures that have been fulfilled for us.

² They might ask us, when speaking of him as a creation, what use does that serve? The door is rightly called figuratively, so that it may be our entrance and benefit. And the way, so that by walking through him we do not go astray; a creation...

³ What happens to us? What benefits us? Yes, says the empty-minded one who argues; for if you do not see him as a creation, you place suffering on the Father. For everyone who gives birth is surrounded by suffering; either they are restricted, or they are expanded, or they are complicated, or they overflow, or they grow, or something like that happens.

⁴ Oh, woe to such a wicked and untrue thought! Who would think such things about God? What kind of suspicion would dare to do so? Clearly, no one, not even the demons, would think such a thing.

⁵ And if someone agrees with the Father, they truly believe that the Son has been born. For the divine is not defined by size, nor is it a body that is pregnant, so that it can endure what has been said before.

⁶ For God is spirit, and spirit does not have substance, nor does it have division, nor does it decrease, nor does it spread out, or anything like that. Therefore, since the Father is spirit, He has spiritually, timelessly, incomprehensibly, and without beginning generated the Son, the divine Word.

Chapter 47

To convince those who think this way, let us not speak in the same manner, but let us turn their poor arguments away from similar things. The creation is infinitely and countless times in need of the same Master.

² And many people, lacking fire in the desert, fill a glass vessel with water and bring wood that burns easily, made from flax or from hemp. They stand facing the sun, which shines down on the wet wood, and immediately the fire from the sun is taken and ignites the wood. Is the sun cut off because of sharing its essence? Has it withdrawn? Has it decreased? No, they say.

³ If a creation does not decrease, how much more does the infinite, incomprehensible, and pure God, who generates from Himself the Spirit, the divine Word, which is unfathomable, incomprehensible, and immortal, generate in immortality? Not through suffering, not through division, not through lack, but the perfect generates the perfect in perfection.

⁴ And the nature of fire lights many lamps from one, and the first source does not decrease. Again, the same essence can come from many parts, like lamps or torches.

⁵ But may it not be so with the divine; for the Word did not return and blend with the Father, but the Father is Father, the Son is Son, and the Holy Spirit is holy Spirit.

Chapter 48

For it is foolish what the Manichaeans say, that in the mind of Manes the souls, having come from the pillar of light, are one body and, when released from their bodies, are again formed into one essence, as if they come together into one pillar according to their own creation.

² But the gospel did not show it this way; rather, he broke five loaves and fed five thousand, and he did not leave their leftovers. Instead, he said, "Gather up and leave nothing of the pieces." And they gathered twelve baskets.

³ And they gathered the pieces together into the baskets, but the pieces were not made into a collection of loaves as they originally were. They gathered the multitude, but into many pieces; however, he showed them in one gathering of baskets.

⁴ And we did not interpret this according to our own theory, nor the previously mentioned example of the sun. For we do not say that the loaves are souls, nor the pieces—may it not be so!—nor do we compare God to the sun that was made by him, nor the only-begotten light sent into the world by the sun.

⁵ But just as generated souls do not come together into one mixture—may it not be so!—but into the unique ones of God that are written, since there are many unique ones by the Father; they do not become a single mass, but each one is counted individually.

⁶ Nor do we attach any passion to God when we say that he has generated his only-begotten Son, as they wickedly blaspheme. For every father who generates does so with passion, and we should not say either creation or offspring according to their words, so that we do not present God as suffering or feeling pain. Where then do we find the Son, or why does he have the name of Son?

⁷ But these are the thoughts of humans, driven by earthly feelings. For it is not right to think of our human passions in relation to God, clearly because God says, "Not as your thoughts, my thought," and again, "Not as a human, so also God."

Chapter 49

Therefore, let them stop their blasphemy and learn from the Father who says, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Again, as he speaks of future things, "For you are my beloved Son, whom I have chosen"; and then in the songs, "Chosen from myriads." Where then does this choice come from? Let them say.

² For the foolish think that when it is said, "I have chosen," he is called Son by grace and not by nature. Let them show who is like him, so that after testing all, he may choose that one.

³ For if he is the only-begotten Son, there is no one equal to him or comparable, being like the Son among the sons of God. For these he knows by grace, but no one can be equal to him because he is the Son by nature.

⁴ It is clear where he was chosen and what the choice was: many myriads were on the earth, but only Mary found grace, and in her he chose the holy flesh.

⁵ For this reason, he said, "I have chosen," as David also says, speaking on behalf of the apostles who believed in the Lord and joyfully showing his grace to the nations: "He has subjected peoples to us and nations under our feet; he has chosen for us the inheritance, the beauty of Jacob, which he loved," meaning the purity of his beauty.

⁶ His beauty is the flesh chosen from Mary through the Holy Spirit. The Father revealed what happened in the plan of the flesh to John the Baptist from above. For the Father was pleased with the presence of the incarnate Christ, but the divinity is infinitely beyond nature.

Chapter 50

The apostle says of him, "the beloved Son," "who rescued us," he says, "from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of his love."

² And those who babble here, not understanding the words, say that the Son is a result of the growth of God's love. The ignorant do not recognize the contrast in the message; for in another place, the apostle says, "God loved us in Christ."

³ Truly, the beloved Son is the only-begotten, since the Father is love, the Son is love, because love comes from love. Therefore, the Son is love for us and for himself, because in him God loved us and gave his only-begotten Son for us. So he does not grow tired in his work, nor does he suffer in bringing forth.

⁴ And let them not pile up blasphemies for themselves in vain. For if the Son is created, he is not to be worshiped according to their words. It is foolish to worship a creature and to ignore the first commandment that says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one."

⁵ Therefore, the Holy Word is not created, because he is to be worshiped. The disciples worshiped him, and the angels in heaven worship him; for it says, "And let all the angels of God worship him," and "I will worship you, Lord, my strength."

⁶ But there is one thing that is clear, brief, and without contradiction, which no one can oppose. If those who hate the Son of God have evidence to show, where did the Father say that he created a Son for me in the old and new covenants, or where did the Son say that the Father created me? There are four Gospels, totaling one thousand six hundred sixty-two chapters, and from the beginning to the end, the Son spoke, and the Father spoke to him, and nowhere did he say, "My Father created me," nor did the Father say, "I created a Son for me" or "I created my Son."

Chapter 51

But the lover of strife and ambition says, "What then do you say about the body? Clearly, it is taken from Mary." And what does Mary say? Is she uncreated or created? We say she is created, having been born from a man and a woman. So what do you say about what comes from Mary? Do you worship the Savior in the body or not? How then can I not worship? If I do not worship, I have no life. Behold, then, you worship a creature, the body. There is much madness in those who say such things.

² For a king dressed in purple is worshiped by all. Does the purple robe receive worship, or does the king? It is clear that the king does. The robe he wears is also honored along with him. But when the king takes it off and puts it away, the purple robe is no longer worshiped.

³ A king often sits in a temple on his own throne, and those who worship bow to the king in his temple and at his throne. But when the king stands up, no one worships the temple or the throne. No one who wants to worship the king in his temple says to him, "Come out of your temple so that I may worship you."

⁴ So, no one would say to the only-begotten, "Leave the body so that I may worship you," but instead, they worship the only-begotten together with the body, the uncreated one, who came into the holy temple.

⁵ And no one says to the king, "Get up from your throne so that I may worship you without the throne," but instead, they worship the king together with the throne. Indeed, Christ is worshiped along with the body that was buried and raised.

Chapter 52

But they say, "What do you say then? Did the father will to generate the son or not?" Since you say there was always the Word and no time before the Word. Yet, even among the Arians, some deceive by saying the son of God was generated without time, but they do not want to say he is eternal. Instead, they say there was a time when he was not; they think that "once" means there was no time.

² When the word is examined, you can refute the ignorant. For "once" is a term that signifies time. By saying it does not mean time, they fall into absurdity in their own thinking. They use irony in their words while being fiercely against the son of God in their beliefs, completely misrepresenting the divinity of the father. So, did he will to generate the son or not?

³ If we say he did not will, we are forcing the divine. And if we say he did will, we are saying that the will existed before the Word. Even if it were just a tiny moment, like a blink of an eye or a very short time, that short time is still significant before the Word, and we contradict their argument again. If we say that he did not will to generate, then the divine is compelled by nature and not by the freedom of will.

⁴ There is nothing in these things that relates to God, as you suppose, O empty-minded one. For these things do not exist with God. He did not generate by willing or by not willing, but by the fullness of nature. The divine nature surpasses will and is not bound by time or compelled by necessity.

⁵ For in us, nothing is ready, since we do not first think things through and then do what we do. If we have not thought things through, there is nothing that has not yet been done by us. But with God, everything is perfect and complete, and everything is fulfilled in him. He did not generate the uniquely existing Word, which is holy and divine, by willing or not willing, but in his extraordinary and incomprehensible nature.

Chapter 53

A great wonder comes to me, O sons of faith and the church, how the envious ones have twisted the truths into allegories and mistakenly take what is said in a figurative way as the real meaning. For being generated, which is natural for him, they do not speak of it as in any of the created things. And being made, which is foreign to his divinity, if it has ever been said in a different way, they call that true, while they hide the real truth.

² For when it is said, "I saw the Lord of hosts" by Isaiah, and "the Lord appeared to Moses," and "the Lord appeared to Abraham," and "Daniel saw a vision of the Ancient of Days," and similar accounts, and "the Lord appeared to Ezekiel and said, 'I saw the form of God,'" they claim these are not true, denying the words of the prophets.

³ Indeed, from the saying in the Gospel, where the Savior teaches that no one has ever seen God. They say: if the only-begotten said that no one has seen, but the prophets claim they have seen, then either the only-begotten or the prophets must be lying.

⁴ According to the words of those who say such things and the Manichaeans, the messages in the prophets will be false. But if the prophets do not lie and speak the truth, based on the saying of the Savior that "I am present among those who speak through the prophets," then the matter is clear and requires allegory.

⁵ Indeed, this often happens: we see the sea from a certain spot on a mountain or plain, and we speak the truth when we say we see it. Even if someone claims they have not seen it, they are not lying, but speaking the truth. For they do not know where the depth is, where the length is, they do not know the size, and they do not know the volume.

⁶ From a certain viewpoint, we see the sky, but we do not know how far it goes. If someone says, "I have seen it," they have seen it; and if another says, "I have not seen it," they have not seen it. For we truly see as we are positioned. But we do not know what it is like in its entirety.

⁷ So too the prophets, as if through a narrow passage of their own body, were deemed worthy to see and...

⁸ They saw, but not as it truly is in the infinite vision. And so, the divine writings are filled, speaking together with one another, both about the prophets saying they have seen (for they truly have seen) and about the Savior saying that no one has ever seen God. They did not see what it is like. But he himself saw the nature invisibly, and he gave those who are unable to see the gift of power to understand the nature of the vision.

Chapter 54

But do not say again that the playwrights speak: the prophets did not see with their eyes, but with their minds, understanding only a little. This is why Isaiah rightly says, "Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips, and I have seen the Lord of hosts." He did not say, "I saw with my mind," but "with my eyes." Therefore, they saw and did not see, but only as they were able. In truth, they saw, but they did not see as it truly is in the infinite nature of the incomprehensible.

² So too, many people interpret paradise allegorically, just as the divine Origen wanted to emphasize imagination more than truth in life. And he says, "There is no paradise on earth."

³ Indeed, from the saying of the holy apostle mentioned, "I know a man fourteen years ago, whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know; God knows, who was caught up to the third heaven." But do not misunderstand and say that the third heaven refers to a third part of the air; for when he said "to the heaven," he is not speaking about a third measure, but about three numbers.

⁴ And he says, "I know such a man who was caught up into paradise and heard words that it is not permitted for a man to speak."

⁵ Glory to the Almighty God, who makes everything clear and detailed, so that the true ones are not misled. For he did not link heaven and paradise in one short phrase, but he says, "I know a man who was caught up to the third heaven," and again, "caught up into paradise." The use of the article with another person is distinguishing and indicates a different place.

⁶ Just like if someone has a mountain and a plain, and the plain surrounds the mountain, if he wanted to go to the other side of the mountain while staying in the same plain, he could do that. When he wants to travel through the plain to the place where he wishes to go beyond the mountain, he can do that. But if he wants to first go up into the mountain and then come back from the mountain to the place in the plain that is beyond the mountain, he can do that too.

⁷ So understand this as it is said by the apostle: first he went up to heaven, and then he came down into paradise, as it is written, "my brother went down into his garden." And the Savior says, "Today you will be with me in paradise."

Chapter 55

But if paradise does not exist on earth and what is written in Genesis is not true, but is an allegory, then nothing in the following discussion is true, and everything is being interpreted allegorically.

² "In the beginning," he says, "God made the heaven and the earth." These are not allegorical, but visible. He says, "the firmament, and the sea, and plants, and trees, and grass, and living creatures, fish, and birds," all the things that are seen have truly come to be. He made man truly.

³ Therefore, he placed the one he had made in paradise, having created man in his own image, in the image of God.

⁴ Do not be curious about the gifts of God that have been given to humans by grace. For we do not deny that all people are made in the image of God.

⁵ We do not question how we are made in the image. For we do not understand the body as being in the image, nor the soul, nor the mind, nor virtue. There are many things that stop me from saying this.

⁶ But we do not say that the body is not made in the image, nor the soul. For it is faithful to agree with scripture, and it is unfaithful to deny grace. Therefore, in humans, there is the image; only God knows how it exists.

⁷ For if you say that man was made in the image and believe that the body is that image, but God is invisible, incomprehensible, and beyond understanding, how can something visible and understandable, which can be touched, be an image of the invisible and incomprehensible?

⁸ And if you say that the body is not made in the image, it says, "He took dust from the ground and formed man." It calls the earthly part man, and it also calls the spiritual part man; for it says, "He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul."

⁹ We understand that both the soul and the body are created. How is it created? For it says, "He breathed into him." We do not say that the soul is a part of God or something separate from the breath. But how this is understood in detail, only God knows.

Chapter 56

But we believe simply and without deceit in God, who is true in all things. And if you say that the soul is what is made in the image, the apostle says, "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit."

² If the soul has parts, but God is without parts, how can the soul be made in the image? For the soul does not know the future, but God knows everything. We see what is in front of us, while being unaware of what is behind us. And if you say that the soul does not exist, it is clear that the soul is what makes a human, and both soul and body together are what make a person.

³ But if you say that the mind is what is made in the image, the scripture says, "I see another law waging war in my members and taking me captive in my mind to the law of sin that is in my members." How then can someone who is taken captive be made in the image? For I sing with my mind; I sing with my spirit.

⁴ And if you say that virtue is what is made in the image, I will ask you: tell me about Adam. What virtue did he have before he was created? For he was not there at the beginning, but from the beginning he was made in the image. And if you say that virtue does not exist, you are not speaking correctly. For what else should be made in the image but virtue? Before virtue, man was made in the image. Adam had not yet lived in virtue; he was clearly not even created.

⁵ And if you say that baptism is what is made in the image, then those who have not received baptism were not just in the image? For the example began with Moses and the sea, grace was revealed through John, and in Christ the gift was fulfilled.

Chapter 57

Therefore, all have the image, but not according to nature. For people do not have the image in equality with God. God is incomprehensible and beyond understanding, being spirit and the spirit above all spirits, and light above all lights.

² What he gave does not take away from the person; for the true image is given to the person with grace. And it can be understood from similar things.

³ For we see that the Savior took into his hands, as it is written in the Gospel, when he was reclining at the meal. He took these things, gave thanks, and said, "This is my body." Then he gave it to his disciples and said, "This is my body."

⁴ And we see that it is neither equal nor similar, neither to the bodily image nor to the invisible divinity nor to the characteristics of the body. For one is round and without sensation.

⁵ Regarding the power, he wished, by grace, to say, "This is my body," and no one doubts his words. For the one who does not believe that he is true in what he said falls away from grace and salvation.

⁶ But when we hear, we also believe; we believe that it is his. And we know our Lord to be all-sensing, all-perceptive, all-God, all-moving, all-acting, all-light, all-Word, incomprehensible, but this has been given to us by grace.

Chapter 58

This Adam was placed in paradise and ate from the tree. And paradise, it says, "in Eden toward the east." A river was rising from Eden, and it did not say "was going down," so that we do not think that Eden is in heaven. For if it were in heaven, it would have said "is coming down" from above. But it also says, "a river flows out of Eden," and it did not say "is coming down."

² This river is divided into four heads. One is named Phison, and we see Phison over our snakes. Phison is the Ganges, called so by the Indians and Ethiopians, but the Greeks call it the Indian river. For it surrounds all of Eulaia, both the small Ethiopia and the large one, and it flows through the regions of Eulaia. It passes through the large Ethiopia and flows south, sinking within Gadara into the great Ocean.

³ The second river is Geon. We see this river as clear and not symbolic, for it flows down through Ethiopia and passes through the small Ethiopia, reaching Anubis, the Blemmyeans, and the Axomites. It flows into the regions of Thebes and Egypt and falls into this sea. If anyone doubts, let them listen to Jeremiah, who says, "Why do you and the land of Egypt drink the muddy water of Geon?"

⁴ The third river is Tigris, which flows opposite the Assyrians. It cuts through the regions of the East and sinks underground, then rises again from Armenia between the Carduchians and Armenians. It flows once more and cuts through the land of the Assyrians.

⁵ But the fourth river is Euphrates, which also flows in the same way, sinking underground from Armenia and then flowing into Persia. Therefore, if there is no visible paradise, there is no spring; if there is no spring, there is no river; if there is no river, there are not four heads; if there is no Phison, there is no Geon, and there is no Tigris; if there is no Tigris, there is no Euphrates.

⁷ If there is no Euphrates, there is no fig tree, there are no leaves, there is no Adam, there is no eating, and there is no Eve. If there is no Eve, she did not eat from the tree; if she did not eat from the tree, there is no Adam.

⁸ If there is no Adam, there are no people, and the truth becomes just a myth, with everything being an allegory. Therefore, there is Adam; we are all from him, being his descendants, and we see him through the many in the lineage.

Chapter 59

For Adam begets Seth according to his likeness and according to his image. This is to ensure that no one thinks the formed one and the others born are different, as the scripture says, "according to his likeness and according to his image." Seth then begets Enosh, Enosh begets Kenan, Kenan begets Mahalalel, Mahalalel begets Jared, Jared begets Enoch, Enoch begets Methuselah, Methuselah begets Lamech, and Lamech begets Noah. Then a flood came, not as an allegory but as truth, and every soul was destroyed, but "eight souls" of people remained.

² If you hear "souls" in the city, do not think that they are beings without bodies. For from one kind, the whole person is called. The scripture says, "Jacob went down to Egypt with seventy-five souls," not that the souls were following without bodies, but with bodies; thus, the whole person is referred to. And "we were in the ship as eighty souls," says Luke, who wrote the Acts of the Apostles.

³ The custom is to call the servants bodies. The master is said to have a hundred bodies, but they also have souls. Since the authority of humans rules over bodies but not over souls, the servants are rightly called bodies along with souls, to show how the bodies are used.

⁴ Noah went out of the ark and had Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Shem had Arphaxad, Arphaxad had Cainan, Cainan had Salah, Salah had Eber, Eber had Peleg, Peleg had Reu, Reu had Serug, Serug had Nahor, Nahor had Terah, Terah had Abram, Abram had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob, Jacob had Judah, Judah had Perez, Perez had Hezron, Hezron had Ram, Ram had Amminadab, Amminadab had Nahshon, Nahshon had Salmon, Salmon had Boaz by Ruth, Boaz had Obed, Obed had Jesse, Jesse had David the king, David had Solomon by Uriah's wife, Solomon had Rehoboam, Rehoboam had Abijah, Abijah had Asa, Asa had Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat had Joram, Joram had Uzziah, Uzziah had Joash, Joash had Amaziah, Amaziah had Uzziah, who was called Azariah, Uzziah had Jotham, Jotham had Ahaz, Ahaz had Hezekiah, Hezekiah had Manasseh, Manasseh had Amos, Amos had Josiah, Josiah had Jeconiah, Jeconiah again had Shealtiel, Shealtiel had Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel had Abiud, Abiud had Eliakim, Eliakim had Azor, Azor had Zadok, Zadok had Achim, Achim had Elihud, Elihud had Eleazar, Eleazar had Matthan, Matthan had Jacob, and Jacob had Joseph.

Chapter 60

Joseph, being old and a widower after marrying his first wife and having children with her, had four sons: Jacob, the brother of the lord, called so because he was raised with him, Simon, Judah, and Joseph, along with two daughters: Anna and Salome.

² This Joseph, being old and a widower, was chosen by lot from the clans to take the holy virgin Mary. The lots were cast for widowers and unmarried men from each tribe to marry the virgins from the temple, since the firstborn children, both male and female, were dedicated in the temple. From her, according to the flesh, our lord Jesus Christ was born through the Holy Spirit, not from the seed of a man nor through bodily union.

³ Therefore, the lord is born from the tribe of Judah, from the lineage of David and Abraham according to the flesh, being God, in the forty-second year of the kingdom.

⁴ Augustus ruled for fifty-six years and six months. After him, his son Tiberius took over the throne for twenty-two years. After Tiberius, Gaius ruled for three years, six months, and twenty-two days. After Gaius, Claudius ruled for thirteen years. After Claudius, Nero ruled for fourteen years. After Nero, Vespasian ruled for ten years. After Vespasian, his son Titus ruled for two years. After Titus, his brother Domitian ruled for fifteen years and five months. After Domitian, Nerva ruled for one year and four months. After Nerva, Trajan ruled for nineteen years. After Trajan, Hadrian ruled for twenty-one years. After Hadrian, Antoninus the Pious ruled for twenty-two years. After Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, also known as Verus, ruled for nineteen years. Commodus ruled for twelve years. Pertinax ruled for two months. Septimius Severus ruled for eighteen years. After Severus, his son Antoninus ruled for seven years. Macrinus ruled for one year. Another Antoninus ruled for two years. Alexander, not the Macedonian, ruled for thirteen years. Maximinus ruled for three years. Gordian ruled for seven years. Philip ruled for five years. Decius ruled for two years. Gallus and Volusian ruled for one year. Claudius ruled for two years. Aurelian ruled for five years. Tacitus ruled for six months. Probus ruled for eight years. The rulers around Carus, Carinus, and Numerian ruled for two years. Diocletian ruled for twenty years.

⁵ After Diocletian, Maximian, Licinius, Constantius, Constantine, Constans, Constantius, Julian, Jovian, Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian ruled until this year after the death of Diocletian, which is the thirtieth year. This year is the ninetieth of Diocletian, Valentinian, and Valens, and the tenth year of Gratian, during the consulship of Gratian Augustus, the third, and Equitius, the most distinguished, in the second indiction.

Chapter 61

Therefore, we all come from the previously mentioned Adam in succession, and neither the order was lost nor are the things done by God interpreted allegorically.

² Therefore, there is Adam, the leaves of the fig tree, the fig tree itself, and the wood of the tree of knowledge, which is both good and evil. There is also the tree of life in the middle of paradise, the serpent, disobedience, obedience, rivers, Eve, and the creation.

³ For all things are possible for God. He can change the perishable into the imperishable and make the things on earth remain pure.

⁴ And let no one be surprised, for this one came and showed himself by taking on perishable flesh, being clothed in divinity, and proving the imperishable. "For who will accuse God?"

⁵ But let us consider another perspective. He says that he cast them out of paradise and placed the Cherubim and the flaming sword to guard the entrance to the tree of life. After leaving, those around Adam settled across from paradise. Let no one be misled by empty myths.

⁶ "For God can raise up children from the stones," and God can also change the perishable into the imperishable. He can create a rest of paradise on earth whenever he wishes.

⁷ For the earth does not belong to another god, and the heavens do not belong to another either. Everything belongs to the same one, and as he wishes, he grants immortality to each one.

⁸ For we know that Adam's body was made from the earth, just like our bodies. We have hope for eternal life and an imperishable inheritance. The body of the Savior came from Mary and is spiritually united with the Word in the immortality of heaven.

⁹ We have gathered all these things and present them here, wanting to leave nothing out of what has been written. Instead, we aim for simplicity, so that the faithful may be found with God, in whom he truly wrote and gave us the path of truth for our salvation. It is fitting for him alone to know the incomprehensible.

Chapter 62

But this Origen again introduced a mythical theory, saying that God allowed people to use their imaginations when interpreting allegorically. He claimed that the divine scripture said God made leather garments for those around Adam, but that there were no leather garments for Adam himself.

² But he says that the leather garment represents the flesh of the body or the body itself. He explains that after the disobedience and after eating from the tree, the souls were clothed with these bodies, meaning this flesh. And it is simple to say all this.

³ For Origen pretends to be wise and says, "Is God a tanner, so that after tanning hides, he could make garments for Adam and Eve? Such a thing is much more beastly."

⁴ What would be easier for God: to make heaven and earth from nothing or to make leather garments? For when he wanted to do wonderful things, he did not hesitate to change lifeless things into living ones.

⁵ Moses' rod, which was dry and made of wood, turned into a living serpent that chased Moses, causing him to flee. This showed that it was not an illusion, but a real event. How is it that for forty years the people's clothes did not wear out, their hair did not grow long, and their sandals did not get old?

⁶ Let the foolish ones who follow Origen's misguided ideas speak to me about this: when the Savior rose from the dead and left the burial cloths in the tomb, as it is written, did he appear naked to the disciples? Did he rise from the dead with both body and soul?

⁷ When he showed his bones and flesh to those around Thomas, including his hands and side, it was clear that he was not naked. So, who wove the clothes for him after the resurrection?

⁸ But you might say to me, "They were spiritual garments, made by his own will." And if he could make such garments for himself, could he not also make those leather tunics for those around Adam by his own will? Indeed.

⁹ The allegory of Origen falls apart. For if flesh was created for Adam after the wood was eaten, then where did God take the side from before he had eaten it? When he was awakened from his trance, he said, "Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh."

Chapter 63

From now on, let no one give us trouble. "For this is how the holy church of God has believed from ancient times; Origen will not stand before us on the day of judgment."

² I am amazed at how some truly tolerate the one who has blasphemed his own Lord. Let such people read Origen's writings about the beginnings, and let those who think they are sons of the universal church learn. They should not dare to separate from the divinity of the Father.

³ How did Origen not find it worthy to say even that the Son sees the Father? Instead, he says, "The Son cannot see the Father, and the Holy Spirit cannot see the Son," and again, "The angels cannot see the Holy Spirit, and humans cannot see the angels."

⁴ And he imagined himself to be greater than those he deceived, but not greater than the wise and faithful person who believes in the truth and in the...

⁵ In spiritual teaching. Therefore, stop now, Origen, and you who are the students of Origen, for the apostles and the prophets are speaking differently from you and your teacher.

⁶ Let the Gnostics stop, as they are known for their ways, and let the Valentinians, Manichaeans, and Marcionites, who are all completely misled, stop as well. Let the Arians, Anomoeans, Sabellians, and Spirit-fighters, who foolishly stray from the truth, also stop.

⁷ For all divine scripture is true. But it is necessary to understand how to believe in God and in his words, and to know the gifts given by God, both those already given and those yet to come. We must also understand the promise of the resurrection of the dead in its fullness. For every sect lies, as they do not receive the Holy Spirit according to the tradition of the fathers in the holy universal church of God.

Chapter 64

And about all these things, we will speak again according to our weakness. But, having been made worthy by God of the holy universal church, the very few and humble will present the foundation of this church as best as we can, for those who wish to take care of their own lives.

² It has been enough to speak sufficiently about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But to clarify more for the joy, care, and understanding of the believers, we should strive to gather the testimonies of divine scripture into a broad feast of joy for those who meet the faithful. We should not hesitate to show that our hope in God is safe and certain, for nothing has changed in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The holy Trinity is equal and of the same essence.

³ We do not create our teaching from other sources or from our own thoughts, but from our own life, which means from the prophets and from the presence of our Savior and his love for humanity.

⁴ For life came, and the light revealed itself to us again, finding us lost. We were filled with pride and blasphemies, resembling idols, denying spirits, and soaked in all kinds of evil actions.

⁵ So, when these things were present to me, I did what I did not want to do, but I was pushed to do what I hated, serving sin in this way. The holy Father sent his holy Son, and in his mercy, he saved me and rescued me from all my corruptions.

Chapter 65

For the grace of our Lord and Savior has appeared, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires, so that we can live wisely, righteously, and with devotion in this present age. We wait for the blessed hope and the coming of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to free us from all wrongdoing and to purify for himself a special people who are eager to do good works.

² He took away from us the record of our sins, which was against us, and nailed it to the cross, disarming the rulers and authorities. He made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him. He broke down the gates and crushed the iron bars, showing the light again. He reached out his hand, making a way and revealing the heavens, declaring that we are worthy to dwell in paradise once more.

³ Therefore, he dwelled in us and gave us the right of the law through the Spirit, so that we may know him and understand that the matters of life have a beginning and an end. The law of righteousness has become for us the law of faith, the law of the Spirit, freeing us from the law of the flesh and sin.

⁴ Therefore, I agree with the law of God according to the inner person. The inner person is Christ in us, if he truly lives in us.

⁵ For he himself, dying, became the way of life for us, so that the living no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for us. Remembering the promise made by God many generations ago, as David said, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them.

⁶ For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile all things to himself, making peace through the blood of the cross.

⁷ Therefore, he came for the purpose of managing the fullness of time, as was promised to Abraham and the other holy ones, to gather all things in him, both the things in the heavens and the things on the earth.

⁸ But there was division and hostility in God's patience. He reconciled in the body of his flesh, making the two one, for our peace came. He broke down the dividing wall of hostility, removing in his flesh the law of commandments and its regulations, so that he might create in himself one new person from the two, making the nations one body and sharing in the inheritance. He called out, saying, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

⁹ Therefore, in him who was weak because of the flesh, a savior was sent to me in the likeness of sinful flesh, fulfilling such a plan, so that he might redeem me from slavery, from corruption, and from death. Righteousness, holiness, and redemption came to me.

¹⁰ Righteousness freed me from sin through his faith. Holiness set me free through water and spirit by his word. Redemption came by his blood, the price of a true lamb given for me, a sacrifice for the cleansing of the world and for the reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth. This is a mystery hidden for ages and generations, fulfilled in the appointed times.

¹¹ He will transform our humble body to be like his glorious body, according to the working of his power that allows him to bring everything under his control, because in him all the fullness of God dwells in bodily form.

Chapter 66

The vessel of wisdom and God, Christ, mediates and reconciles everything to God in him, not counting sins, fulfilling hidden mysteries by faith in his covenant promised by the law and the prophets. He is proclaimed as the Son of God and called the Son of David; for he is both God and man, the mediator between God and people, the true house of God, a holy priesthood, and the giver of the Holy Spirit who regenerates and renews everything for God. For the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory of the only Son from the Father.

² The rain, joining with trees and plants, forms a body and produces each fruit according to its kind. In the olive tree, it becomes rich oil, drawing out what is essential; in the vine, it becomes sweet wine; in the fig tree, it becomes sweet figs; and in each of the seeds, it grows according to its own nature.

³ In this way, I believe the Word of God became flesh in Mary and was found as a man in the seed of Abraham, according to the promise. "For we have found the Messiah, whom Moses wrote about." As Moses said, "Let my words fall like rain," and David said, "Let it fall like rain on the grass and like drops falling on the tender plants."

⁴ The earth, receiving the rain, grows the fruit of hope for farmers, eagerly producing according to the command of the master. By receiving from him, it shows greater care in its growth.

⁵ So also, the virgin Mary asked, "How will I know this?" when it was said to her, "The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the one born from you will be holy and will be called the Son of the Most High."

⁶ Christ speaks through the angel, and the master takes on the form of a servant. Mary receives the Word within her, just as the earth receives rain. The Word of God reveals himself as a holy fruit, taking on human nature.

⁷ This one came from her, receiving like the earth receives rain, the fruit of true hope, holy in expectation. As Elizabeth said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb," which he received from humanity, being without suffering while being the Word.

⁸ This is the living bread that came down from heaven and gives life. This is the fruit of the true olive tree, the oil of anointing and of unity, which Moses prefigured. This is the true vine, which the Father alone tends, producing for us a cluster of joy.

⁹ This is the living water; whoever drinks it will never thirst again. It will become in them a spring of water leading to eternal life. From this, the young farmers shared it with the world, but the old farmers dried up and withered away because of their unbelief.

¹⁰ His blood sanctifies the nations, and his own spirit raises the chosen ones to heaven. "Those who are led by his spirit are alive to God; but those who are not are still considered dead, called either soulish or fleshly."

¹¹ Therefore, we must reject the works of the flesh, which are strongholds of sin, and put to death the parts of ourselves that lead to death through his grace. We are commanded to receive the holy spirit, which we did not have, to bring life to me, who was once dead; without receiving it, I will die.

¹² For without his spirit, everyone is dead. "If, then, his spirit is in us, he who raised him from the dead will give life to our mortal bodies through his spirit that lives in us." But I believe that both Christ and his spirit dwell in a righteous person.

Chapter 67

If Christ is believed to be God from God, and the spirit comes from Christ or from both, as Christ says, "He who proceeds from the Father" and "He will take from what is mine," then Christ is from the holy spirit. "For that which is in her," he says, "is from the spirit," the voice of the angel. I understand the mystery that frees me through faith, which I grasp only by hearing, with love for the one who has come to me.

² For God knows himself, Christ proclaims himself, and the holy spirit reveals himself to the saints. In the holy scriptures, the Trinity is announced to us and is accepted without argument and without conflict.

³ From hearing. And from this faith comes the salvation of grace, "for righteousness is by faith apart from works of the law." For it is written that the spirit of Christ is given to those who are being saved through hearing.

⁴ But faith is the way of the preachers. It is shown through their voices, as I believe I am being taught from the scriptures: three holy, three united, three existing, three coexisting, three living, three shaped, three active, three working together, three subsisting, three existing together with one another. This holy Trinity is called one, having one agreement, one divinity of the same essence, of the same divinity, of the same substance, similar to similar, equal in grace, working from the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit.

⁵ But how they are to teach is left to them. For no one knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father, and whoever the Son chooses to reveal him. He reveals himself through the holy spirit.

⁶ Therefore, these three beings, whether from him, by him, or toward him, are each understood in a worthy way as they reveal themselves: light, fire, spirit, and in other similar visions, just as a worthy servant serves.

⁷ So, God, who in the beginning said, "Let there be light," and there was light, is the one who has enlightened us to see the true light that gives life to every person coming into the world. Send forth your light and your truth (as David says). He is the Lord who said, "In the last days I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions." This shows us three persons of the holy service from the existing essence of the Trinity.

Chapter 68

I say then that Christ became a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, to fulfill the promises. The holy spirit also serves alongside him. For we have received from the divine scriptures that Christ is sent from the Father, and the holy spirit is sent. Christ speaks in the holy ones; the holy spirit speaks. Christ heals; the holy spirit heals. Christ sanctifies; the holy spirit sanctifies. Christ baptizes in his name; the holy spirit baptizes.

² Thus say the scriptures: "You will send forth your spirit, and you will renew the face of the earth." It is like saying, "You will send forth your word, and they will be made."

³ While they were serving the Lord and fasting, it says, "the holy spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'" It is like saying, "The Lord said, 'Go into the city, and there it will be told to you what you must do.'"

⁴ Therefore, they were sent out by the holy spirit and went down to Seleucia. As Christ might say, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves."

⁵ For it seemed good to the holy spirit to lay no other burden on you except what is necessary. As if to say, "I say, not I, but the Lord, that a woman should not be separated from her husband."

⁶ They passed through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, being prevented by the holy spirit from speaking the word in Asia. When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the spirit did not allow them. As Christ might say, "As you go, baptize all nations," "Do not carry a bag, a staff, or sandals."

⁷ "They said to Paul through the spirit not to go up to Jerusalem." Or Agabus says, "This is what the holy spirit says: the man whose belt this is." Just as Paul said, "If you seek proof of Christ speaking in me?" Or do you remember the words of the Lord, that he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive"?

⁸ And now look, I am going by the spirit," as Paul might say, "a prisoner of Jesus Christ."

⁹ But the spirit testifies to me in every city, saying, "The Lord testifies to my soul that I am not lying."

¹⁰ In power according to the spirit of holiness," just as to say, "Holy is the one resting among the holy ones."

¹¹ And the circumcision of the heart in the spirit," just as to say, "And you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of sins, in the circumcision of Christ.

¹² If indeed the spirit of God dwells in you," just as to say, "As you received Christ, walk in him," and "The spirit of the Lord spoke in me, and his word was in my mouth."

¹³ And having the firstfruits of the spirit," just as to say, "Christ is the firstfruits."

¹⁴ But the spirit itself intercedes for us," just as to say, "who is at the right hand of God and also intercedes for us."

¹⁵ That the offering of the saints may be acceptable, made holy by the holy spirit," just as to say, "but the Lord will sanctify you so that you may be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ."

¹⁶ But to us God has revealed through his spirit," just as to say, "when he was pleased, he who set me apart from my mother's womb by his grace to reveal his son in me."

¹⁷ But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from God," just as to say, "test yourselves to see if Christ is in you."

¹⁸ You are the temple of God, and the spirit of God dwells in you," just as to say, "I will live among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."

Chapter 69

But he also speaks of justification and grace from both: "being justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God," just as to say, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

² No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except in the Holy Spirit. And no one can have the Holy Spirit except from the Lord. "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit; there are different kinds of service, but the same Lord; and there are different kinds of working, but the same God who works all of them in everyone." And "from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit."

³ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Just as to say, "Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?"

⁴ And the Spirit clearly says, just as to say, "These things says the Lord Almighty."

⁵ And my Spirit has stood in the midst of you. If anyone opens to me, I and the Father will come in and make a home with him.

⁶ But Isaiah also said about him, "The Spirit of God," and Christ said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me." And Jesus from Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit, was sent by the Lord and his Spirit.

⁷ And the voice of the Seraphim was clear, crying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts."

⁸ If you hear that "he was raised up at the right hand of God, receiving the promise of the Spirit from the Father," or that "the Spirit drives him into the wilderness," or that "he said, do not worry about what you will say, for the Spirit of my Father speaks in you," or if "I cast out demons by the Spirit of God," or "whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven," and so on, or "Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit," and so on, or "the child grew and became strong in spirit," or "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan," or "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit," or "what is born of the Spirit is spirit," which is like saying "what happened in him was life," or "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, the Spirit of truth," or "why has Satan filled your heart, Ananias, to lie to the Holy Spirit?" And after this, I did not lie to men, but to God. Therefore, God from God, and God is the Holy Spirit, whom those who have taken the honor of the place have sought. Or "he was revealed in the flesh, justified in the Spirit" — I have nothing greater to say than this.

⁹ But the Son is God: "from whom," he says, "Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God." Believe, he says, "in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." And "he spoke," he says, "to them the word of the Lord," "and bringing them into the house, he set a table for them and rejoiced with all his household, believing in God." Or that "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Or "that they may adorn the teaching of our Savior God." For the grace of God and our Savior has appeared to all people, teaching us. Or "waiting for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ."

¹⁰ But the same is the ministry of the Spirit and of the Word: "Take heed," he says, "to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God." It is like saying, "I give thanks to the one who strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry."

Chapter 70

Therefore, as it has been shown, the Son and the Holy Spirit work together with the Father: "For by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their host." And the Holy Spirit is to be worshiped: "For those who worship must worship God in spirit and truth."

² But if these things work together, creation does not act on creation, nor does divinity become created, nor is God known in measure or in space. For he is beyond description, uncontainable, and incomprehensible, holding all of God's creations.

³ Nor is creation to be worshiped: "For they worshiped the creation instead of the Creator." For how is it not foolish to think of creation as God and to reject the first commandment that says, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one"? "You shall have no other gods before me."

⁴ In the holy scriptures, different names are given for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: for the Father, he is called Almighty Father, Father of all, and Father of Christ; for the Son, he is called the Word, Christ, and true Light; and for the Holy Spirit, he is called the Comforter, Spirit of truth, Spirit of God, and Spirit of Christ.

⁵ Furthermore, God is understood as the Father, Light, but as a brilliant light, power, wisdom, and life. If God the Father is Light, then the Son is Light from Light, and this is "the light that dwells in the inaccessible."

⁶ Power is God as a whole, and for this reason, the Son is called "Lord of hosts." Wisdom is God as a whole, so the Son is wisdom from wisdom, in which all the treasures of wisdom are hidden. Life is God as a whole, so the Son is life from life; "for I am the truth and the life."

⁷ But the Holy Spirit comes from both, spirit from spirit. For God is spirit; the divine nature is the giver of gifts, the truest enlightening comforter of the Father's plans, and is angelic.

⁸ For just as the Son is "the great counselor," so also is the Holy Spirit. But we have received, as it says, the spirit of understanding, so that we may see the gifts given to us by God, which we also speak, not in words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit of God, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.

Chapter 71

But someone might say: do we not say there are two sons, and how can he be the only-begotten? Indeed, you are right. Who are you to argue against God? For the Son is called the one from him, and the Holy Spirit comes from both. This is understood by the saints only through faith as the light-giving light that is in harmony with the Father, who is called "light." Listen with faith, as this one does.

² Because the Father is the true Father of the Son, who is the complete light, and the Son is the true Son of the Father, who is light, this is not just a name like created things. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, the third light from the Father and the Son.

³ But all other things, whether by position or by name, are not like these in action, power, light, or thought. Just as someone might say, "I have begotten and raised sons," or as someone might say, "I said, you are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High," or as someone might say, "the one who has given birth is like dew," or as someone might say, "from whom all families in heaven and on earth come," or as someone might say, "I am the one who strengthens thunder and creates spirit."

⁴ For the true Father is not like other fathers or patriarchs, who begin to be a father or stop being a father over time. If he begins to be a father, then the Son would have been the child of another father before he became the Father of the only-begotten. In the case of earthly fathers, children are seen as the offspring of their fathers, and it is possible to find a true Father of origins that goes on forever.

⁵ Nor is the true Son like other children in position, as if he is new to being a Son. For if he is new to being a Son, there would have been a time when the Father was not the Father of the only-begotten.

⁶ Nor is the Spirit of truth created or made like other spirits, nor is he called "the angel of the great council" like other angels.

⁷ For some have a beginning and an end, while others have an unimaginable beginning and power. Some create all things for endless ages, working together with the Father, while others are created by these, as they choose. Some serve these, while others are served by all created things. Some allow the creations, while others receive their existence from them. Some are judged according to their worth, while others receive a just judgment.

⁸ And some exist in time, while others exist outside of time. Some give light to all things, while others are illuminated by them. Some call infants to a certain way, while others are called by the perfect. Some grant grace to all, while others receive gifts. To sum it all up, one praises holiness in the highest heavens and in other visible places, while others provide worthy gifts to those who are deserving.

Chapter 72

Scripture says that there are many spirits: "He who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire" and "Let all the spirits praise the Lord."

² A gift is given to the worthy for "discerning spirits." Some are heavenly, "rejoicing in the truth," while others are earthly, suited for deception and error. Some are under the earth, children of the abyss and darkness; for the Gospel says that he urged them not to send them away to go into the abyss. Likewise, he commanded the spirits and drove out spirits with a word and "did not allow them to speak."

³ It is called the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. It is also known as the spirit of the world (for "we have not received the spirit of the world," it says) and the spirit of man: "For who knows the things of a man except the spirit of man?" And "the spirit goes out and does not return." "For the spirit has passed through him and will not be." And "you will take away their spirit and they will cease to exist," along with the spirit of prophets.

⁴ The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. And "behold, a lying spirit stood before the Lord and said to him, 'In what will you deceive Ahab?' And he answered, 'I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets.'"

⁵ It is called the spirit of compunction, the spirit of fear, and the spirit of Python; the spirit of fornication and the spirit of storm; the spirit of many voices and the spirit of weakness; the unclean spirit and the deaf spirit; the mute spirit and the spirit of the hard-hearted, which is called Legion, along with the spiritual beings of wickedness.

⁶ There are countless sayings about spirits from wise people. But just as many sons, whether by birth or by calling, are not true because they have both a beginning and an end in a sinful way, many spirits also come by birth or by calling, even if they are sinful. However, the holy spirit alone is called the spirit of the Father and the Son, the spirit of truth, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of Christ, and the spirit of grace.

⁷ For each person, the good is given in different ways: to one, the spirit of wisdom; to another, the spirit of knowledge; to another, the spirit of strength; to another, the spirit of healing; to another, the spirit of prophecy; to another, the spirit of discernment; to another, the spirit of languages; and to another, the spirit of interpretation. And the other gifts, as it says, "but the same spirit gives to each as it wishes."

⁸ "That your good spirit will guide me, God," says David, or "the spirit blows where it wishes," showing us the presence of the holy spirit through these things. "And you hear its voice, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes." And "unless you are born of water and spirit," just as Paul said, "for in Christ Jesus, I have given birth to you."

⁹ About this, the Lord says, "When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you, the spirit of truth, who comes from the Father, he will testify about me." And "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." When he comes, the spirit of truth will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own, but whatever he hears he will speak and will tell you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

Chapter 73

If, therefore, he comes from the Father and from me, as the Lord says, he will take in the same way, "No one knows the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father." Thus, I dare to say that the spirit does not know unless it is from the Son, from whom it receives, and from the Father, from whom it comes, nor does the Son know the Father.

² If it is not the holy spirit, who truly glorifies and teaches all things, who testifies about the Son, who comes from the Father and from the Son, then it is the only guide of truth, the interpreter of holy laws, the teacher of spiritual law, the instructor of prophets, the teacher of apostles, the light of the gospel, the chooser of holy truths, the true light from true light.

³ Son by nature, true Son, genuine Son, alone from the alone. With him also is the spirit, not a son but called spirit.

⁴ This God, glorified in the church, is the Father always, the Son always, and the holy spirit always. He is high above the high and spiritual, having glory in which he has descended to the created things and their makers, measuring and containing all things simply and completely.

⁵ Divinity is declared as one, especially in Moses. It is strongly preached as two in the prophets, and revealed as three in the gospels. This understanding fits more with the times and generations for the righteous, leading to knowledge and faith. Knowledge of it brings immortality, and through this faith, one receives adoption.

⁶ But first, it expresses the rights of the flesh, awakening the outer part of the temple in Moses. Second, it explains the rights of the soul, as it sanctifies in the other prophecies. Third, it speaks of the rights of the spirit, arranging the mercy seat and the holy things of the saints in the gospels for its own dwelling—a holy tent, a holy temple.

⁷ The righteous one is only truly righteous when he is with these. In him dwells one infinite divinity, one incorruptible divinity, one incomprehensible, unexplainable, invisible divinity. This divinity knows itself alone and reveals itself to whomever it wishes. It awakens witnesses for itself, calling, foreordaining, and glorifying. It lifts up from Hades, sanctifies, and unites again to its own glory and faith.

These three are heavenly, earthly, and under the earth: spirit, soul, flesh; faith, hope, love; past, present, future; age of ages, ages of ages, sabbaths of sabbaths; circumcision of the flesh, circumcision of the heart—the circumcision of Christ in the putting off of the body of sins. Overall, it purifies itself.

⁸ All things, both invisible and visible, thrones, dominions, authorities, and powers; in all, there is the same holy voice, calling out from glory to glory, "Holy, holy, holy." The Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father, glorifying together with the Holy One, to whom belongs the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. And the one who believes this will say, "Let it be, let it be."

Chapter 74

Regarding the Trinity and the consubstantiality of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we, weak and ordinary people, do not rely on the opinions of men. Instead, we present ourselves with the testimonies of divine writings, gathering evidence for those who wish to find faith and a response against the ill-minded and vain-glorious. For there is great power in faith through the Holy Spirit.

² In all divine writings, it is proclaimed in different ways. Since the assurance of our salvation is the safe and certain hope regarding the incarnation and bodily presence of our Savior, as well as the resurrection of the dead and our renewal, we add a little to this effort. We aim to find a more precise understanding from the same divine writings, gathering and adding to the word.

³ For as we have already been taught in the previously written texts, our Lord himself said in his gospel to his disciples, "Go therefore and baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the commandments that I have given you." The Holy Word, who is the true being and comes from the Father, has existed for ages upon ages, beyond time and seasons.

⁴ For there was neither time nor age before the Son. If there had been time before the Son, then time would be greater than the Son. How could it be true that "through him all things were made, and without him nothing was made that has been made"? If anything was made through him, it was made, while he himself is uncreated and always exists. The Father has always been, and his Holy Spirit has always been.

⁵ For if there had been time before the Son, then we would need to look for another through whom both the time before the Son and countless others would turn into a fantasy hidden in human thoughts. This would lead our reasoning either into the corruption of ideas or away from self-control.

⁶ Therefore, there was no time before the Son, since the Son was not made through time. Instead, through the Son, times and all other things were created. There was never a time when the Son was not, nor was there ever a time when the Spirit was not.

Chapter 75

Some people, thinking they are reading correctly but not understanding, try to separate the meaning when they say, "All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made." By doing this, they ignore the clear statement and develop a suspicion of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. They misunderstand the text, and from this mistake in understanding, they fall into blasphemy.

² The reading is this: "All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that has been made." This means that if anything has come into being, it was made through him.

³ Therefore, the Father has always existed, the Son has always existed, and the Spirit breathes from the Father and the Son. Neither the Son nor the Spirit is created. All things that are created and come into being with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were made by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit through the always-existing Word and the always-existing Spirit.

⁴ Through him, therefore, the Word, all created things came into being: the king of heaven, the Word with substance, our savior and benefactor.

⁵ For he, the savior, came down from the heavens of heavens. He made our salvation possible in the virgin's womb. He was born from Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He took on flesh, the Word made flesh, who did not change his nature but took on humanity along with his divinity. Being perfect from the Father, he fulfilled the complete plan and came into the world for us and for our sake, taking on human flesh and soul.

⁶ Being perfect from the Father, he truly became human among us, not just appearing to be so, but genuinely forming a perfect man for himself from Mary, the Mother of God, through the Holy Spirit.

⁷ He did not dwell in a man, as was usual for the prophets to speak and act with power. Instead, the Word himself became flesh, without changing his being as God or turning his divinity into humanity. With the fullness of his own divinity and the unique essence of the Word of God, he embraced what it means to be human.

⁸ But he took on a perfect man, having all that is in a human and truly being human. This is the one he came to take, the only-begotten, so that in this perfect man, God might fully accomplish everything for salvation, leaving nothing out of humanity. This way, nothing left out would become a part of the devil's food.

Chapter 76

And if some say that he only took on flesh and not a soul, twisting the truth and turning the scripture into myths, let them understand from the saying, "but we have the mind of Christ," that those who say this have the same mind and did not reject it. If they have their own mind along with the mind of Christ, both minds will grow better, with Christ's mind joining together with theirs to understand rightly.

² Let them also understand about Christ that, being God and having the mind within himself, he had the mind of a human along with the flesh and took on a soul.

³ Therefore, he was not led by a human, but he became the creator, corrector, and improver of the mind. Just as he took on flesh without being overcome by it, he also took on the mind without being defeated by it.

⁴ On the contrary, such people fall into even greater opposition. For the divine writings clearly proclaim from above and below that the difficult things are not against the mind, but against the flesh.

⁵ For the works of the flesh are, as he says, sexual immorality, adultery, and debauchery, along with things like these. Those who live according to the flesh cannot please God. And "the flesh desires against the spirit." He says with the mind that "I sing with the spirit, but I also sing with the mind." And that "my mind is either unfruitful or fruitful." For God placed the mind, which scripture often calls the heart, as the leader and driver of the whole body, distinguishing between good and bad, and testing what arises within us. "For the mind distinguishes words, but the throat tastes food." The mind is discerning in a person, but it does not yet approve unless it allows itself to change.

Chapter 77

What then did some people think they would gain by excluding this from the incarnation of the Lord? How did they benefit life by turning it into more chaos? Or how did this harm us or help us, so that they might assist Christ? Or was it just so they could do this great thing for his sake and claim that he did not have a mind?

² "For the Galatians are foolish," and "the Cretans are always liars," and "Ephraim is a dove without sense." But our Lord, having become human, took on all aspects of life completely. Rather, he himself became the creator of his own body, taking the soul for himself or placing it within.

³ But some, wanting to make the presence of Christ in the flesh incomplete and his arrangement imperfect, I do not understand what they are thinking when they wrongly say that Christ did not take on a mind.

⁴ But they do not seem to understand the mind. These people think of the mind as a substance and dare to say that it is naturally what is usually called spirit in a human. As the apostle says, "so that your whole spirit, soul, and body may be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

⁵ They are mistaken. For if the spirit is the mind and the mind is the spirit, as they think, then the soul is a different substance apart from both the mind and the spirit. There are no longer two substances in a human coming together as one, nor is the soul the only substance while the body is another. Instead, we have found four: one substance for the mind, another for the soul, another for the spirit, and another for the body.

⁶ And if we investigate further, we will find even more. A person has many names, such as 'inner person' and 'outer person,' and all these are mentioned in a meaningful way by scripture, helping us to understand better so that we leave nothing out of salvation and that no excuse arises for us to stray from what is set before us. For these things exist in a human; it is not necessary to meddle too much.

⁷ However, according to their reasoning, if the mind is the spirit and the spirit is the mind, then what does it mean when someone says, "I speak with the spirit, I sing and think"? For this shows that the spirit is not the mind, nor is the mind the spirit.

Chapter 78

Then again, "the soul that sins will die" is not said to exist apart from the body. For it is said, "there were seventy souls," and not all souls were without bodies, but bodies with souls. Furthermore, it is common to refer to a person by one name, since he is the master of eighty bodies. Not all are without souls.

² The Word, therefore, becoming flesh was not separate from the soul, just as it was not separate from all reality. When he says "a soul without a body," it does not mean that when we say "being without a soul," we think of something that truly exists.

³ Why, then, did those who wanted to speak think that the mind was misled? How did this help the church? How did it not disturb it even more? And how can the one who thinks such things not harm our salvation?

⁴ For we cannot think of the mind as being anything else, nor can we say that it has a separate existence. Instead, we can say that the composite, the rational, and the thinking part exists in each of the beings that are not misled, just as the eyes exist in the body; in this way, the mind exists in the soul. Again, we do not say this in a contentious way, but simply as a matter of human understanding.

⁵ What, then, is a human? Soul, body, mind, and perhaps something else. So why did the lord come to save? A complete human, in every way. Therefore, he has taken everything within him completely.

⁶ From where did these things come to be fulfilled in him, which relate to a human—mind, body, soul, and all of humanity—without sin, and which were both prophesied and accounted for?

⁷ Clearly, the divine word is given to us, saying, "Behold, my beloved servant, whom I have chosen; in him my soul is pleased. I will put my spirit upon him," and the following things. Therefore, if understanding is directed toward divinity, does divinity lack understanding? May it not be; for this is fulfilled in the lordly human. But if it is fulfilled in the lordly human, how can understanding exist in humanity without a mind present? This is impossible.

⁸ For if understanding is completely directed toward Christ, and Christ is the Word from above, who became flesh from Mary and took on humanity, living among us according to what is written, then without a doubt he accepted the divine plan with the mind, since understanding is part of it.

⁹ For this reason, the gospel says about him, "He grew in wisdom and in stature." Divinity does not experience age, nor is it lacking in wisdom. The wisdom that is truly wisdom grew in wisdom through the humanity of the Savior, which did not exist apart from the mind, since otherwise it could not have been. And he grew in age as the child was nurtured, which is true.

Chapter 79

If this sin is understood as coming from having a mind, then even more so, if we say that he took on flesh, outside of which sin does not occur, for "the works of the flesh are evident." Indeed, we acknowledge that even in the flesh he sinned, having taken on the flesh. For the apostle says, "I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh."

² But who would dare to say that the Savior, having taken on flesh, was joined to the flesh and did not accomplish the things of the flesh, while also fulfilling the purpose of the whole vessel of his own nature, which is good, and yet was truly human in flesh, but did not sin in any way?

³ For the Word of God, having come down from the Father, chose to become flesh and guided the vessel. If he wanted, he could have kept it free from any worthless actions of the flesh; but if he wanted, he allowed it. He allowed it for the good and necessary bodily needs that go along with his divinity.

⁴ For he did not have a mind in the same way we do, just as he truly experienced the whole of being human. His mind did not reach out to irrational desires, nor did it act or think like ours in the flesh. But as God, truly becoming flesh from the Virgin Mary, he acted with body, soul, and mind, fully present in the human race, being the Word of God, who is truly God, coming from the Father.

⁵ But let no one misuse this saying, as if it were about "understanding my cry." For it has been said inappropriately through prayer, and it is clear that the reference is to the example of his fleshly presence. And the phrase "and he grew in age" is true.

Chapter 80

But what do such people think we are saying if we say that Christ became a perfect man from Mary or that he had a mind? Should we not assume that he fell into sin? May it never be. "For he did not commit sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth."

² For if he inspired his power in the saints, and those in whom he inspired it bear witness that they were holy and just, living blamelessly in their days, how much more so the Word himself, in whom it pleased all the fullness of deity to dwell bodily. And even if he took true flesh from Mary the ever-virgin, along with a true human soul and mind, and if there is anything else in a human, he himself, having all these within himself, held them together as God, without being divided by evil, not being broken by the wicked one, not being caught up in pleasure, and not falling into the sin of Adam?

³ And for this reason, the apostle says, "born of a woman, born under the law," and again, "found in appearance as a man." The phrases "found in appearance as a man" and "born under the law" together signify perfection and impassibility. From being born comes the idea of being perfect, and from being under the law comes the idea of not seeming imperfect. From the appearance of the form comes certainty, and from "as a man" comes the idea of being without sin.

⁴ Therefore, let no one be deceived by empty myths. For if he was truly born from the Father above and also from Mary, then he is true both above and below. If he is incomplete below, he is also incomplete above. But if he is perfect above, then he is perfect below. He did not dwell in another perfect being; instead, he completed everything within himself.

⁵ And he rose from the dead, no longer separated in the tomb into body, divinity, and soul among the dead. He no longer fell under touch or was held back. Instead, he entered through closed doors and was touched by Thomas, so that he would not be seen as a fantasy, but as the truth.

⁶ The one who was believed by Thomas, after the prophecy was fulfilled, "I sought God with my hands, and I was not deceived," is the same God and the same man who did not create confusion, but united the two into one.

⁷ Not separating into non-existence, but joining an earthly body with divinity into one power, he brought them together into one divinity: one Lord, one Christ, not two Christs or two Gods.

⁸ In him is a spiritual body, in him is an incomprehensible divinity, the suffering that is not corruptible, the impassible that is incorruptible; the whole is incorruption. God, the Lord, sits at the right hand of the Father, not leaving behind the flesh, but uniting it into one whole divinity, sitting at the right hand of the Father.

Chapter 81

This one, then, the only-begotten, the perfect, the uncreated, the unchanging, the unalterable, the incomprehensible, the invisible, who became human and rose spiritually, "no longer dying," no longer poor, "becoming poor for us while being rich," he who is the whole spirit, uniting the earthly and the divine, is Lord, one King Christ, the Son of God. He sits in heaven at the right hand of the Father, "above all rule and authority, power, and every name that is named," as it says in the Gospel, "go therefore and baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

² But this also means that the Son is not mixed with the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit mixed with the Father and the Son. Instead, he has shown the true Father and himself to be the true, distinct Word, and his Holy Spirit to be a distinct spirit and "the spirit of truth," uncreated, unchanging, and unalterable; not...

³ so that someone, coming deceitfully to the faith and hiding at his feet while scheming against the truth, "for God tests the hearts and minds."

⁴ And the heretic says: "Clearly, I believe that the Father is Father, the Son is Son, and the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit, and I confess three distinct persons in one essence. I do not say a different essence from the divinity, nor a different divinity from the essence. Instead, because of this careful way of speaking, we call it one essence, so that we do not say another kind of divinity of the Trinity."

⁵ For such a person, as I mentioned, secretly and deceitfully says: "I believe that the Father is Father, the Son is Son, and the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit." However, he has a hidden idea, as if he is comparing the divine to us, thinking to himself that just as I have a body, soul, and human spirit, so too the divinity is the same.

⁶ The Father is like the shape, the Son is like the soul in a person, and the Spirit is like the breath that flows through a person.

⁷ For some are deceitful and think of divinity in this way. But we have not learned this; look, the Father in heaven testifies with a voice, look, the Son in the Jordan, look, the Spirit is coming down in the form of a dove. But it was taking shape on its own, being a distinct reality, not different from that of the Father and the Son, but of the same essence, a reality from the same essence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

⁸ And again, look, the Father sits in heaven. But do not think of 'sits' in a human way; instead, understand it as beyond description and incomprehensible. And it does not say, 'the Son went up to the Father,' but 'he sat at the right hand of the Father.'

⁹ And again, speaking about the Holy Spirit, the only-begotten taught, "I am going away, and he will come, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. If I do not go away, he does not come." But if the Spirit were mixed with the Son, he would not have said, "I am going and he is coming," but rather to show a distinct reality and essence. And there is one divinity, one God, one truth.

Chapter 82

And so, I have written for those who seek the path of our life and a firm confession, which comes from the law, the prophets, the gospels, and the apostles, and from the time of the apostles until our own time, kept pure in the universal church.

² Due to the envy of disorder, the one true faith has been attacked from time to time through heresies, causing our faith, hope, and salvation to be chased away. But they have remained in the same truth, while the heresies, at each moment, have been staining themselves and separating from the church.

³ As we have recently heard again from some who claim to be in the first place, they are being led astray by certain ascetics in Egypt, Thebaid, and other places. These individuals think and say similar things to the Hieracites. They speak of a resurrection of our flesh, but not of this one; instead, they refer to another, twisting the truth of God and our firm hope into myths. Therefore, we feel compelled to address this again.

Chapter 83

For the unbelievers deny the entire concept of the resurrection, while those with ill intentions have foolishly turned away from the true hope by thinking this way about it.

² The Greeks who completely deny the resurrection do so because of the many wrongdoings among them. They hate the resurrection because they will face shame in it, having ignored God and his commandments. However, they will still rise, even if they do not wish to.

³ For creation itself clearly shows them the truth, revealing the form of resurrection each day. The day sets, and we hint at the way of the dead, just as the night hints at sleep. The day rises, waking us and showing the sign of resurrection.

⁴ The fruits are harvested, and the state of being is cut off, as our release from here is marked by our face. The seed is sown and grows because the buried will rise after being cut. The grain ends, having buried the seed that was cast away in the ground, and after a time, the earth gives back what was buried. The seeds of the plants are sown, and first they die, then they bear fruit.

⁵ "For unless it dies, it cannot be made alive." God has placed seals in us through the ten fingers of resurrection, testifying to our hope. But also, like a crown on the head, through the hair, he proclaimed our resurrection. For what seems to us to be a dead body—namely, hair and nails—is cut each day and cut again, yet they grow back, showing the hope of resurrection.

Chapter 84

And it is amazing to talk about the proof of the unbelievers from examples. But neither the falcon nor the mouse has convinced them. For such a creature dies after six months, and the falcon after forty days, yet after their time, they come back to life.

² But the beetles, ready to die, hide themselves in a ball of dung, burying it in the ground and covering it up. And so, from their own moisture, they are found again, coming back to life from those remains.

³ About the Arabian phoenix, it is especially worth mentioning. For it has already reached the ears of many, both believers and unbelievers. The story about it seems to go like this: after five hundred years, when it knows the time of its own death, it prepares. It works with a nest of fragrances and comes to the city of the Egyptians called Heliopolis, which is translated from the Egyptian language and Hebrew. And with its own claws, it has masticated many things.

⁴ Fire, coming from its body, burns the material underneath in the place, and so it completely consumes itself. All of its body is turned to ashes along with its bones.

⁵ From the plan of God, a cloud is sent down, and it rains, putting out the flame that had burned the body of the bird, while the bird is already dead and completely roasted.

⁶ When the flame is put out, some remnants of its flesh still remain raw, and after one day, it gives birth to a worm. The worm becomes a young bird with feathers, and on the third day, it grows strong. Once it is strong, it shows itself to those in the area, then returns to its own homeland and rests.

Chapter 85

Marvel at how the beliefs of the unbelieving Greeks and other foreigners are misled in every way. In their myths, they are not ashamed to mention a resurrection everywhere and often talk about it.

² As their myths tell, Alcestis died for her husband Admetus, and after three days, she was raised by Heracles and brought back from the underworld. Pelops, the son of Tantalus, was served to the falsely named gods by his own father.

³ Amphiaraus, son of Oicles, was brought back to life by Asclepius. Glaucus, son of Minos, was revived by Polyidus with a certain herb. Castor, through his brother Pollux, willingly chose to change his life for a day. Protesilaus was also brought back to life through Laodamia.

⁴ But also Sisyphus, Tantalus, and the daughters of Caucasus, whom the Furies have called, along with Tiresias, are punished in Tartarus. One is punished by rocks, another by a wheel, and others are punished in different ways. They still exist in punishment, not having gone into non-existence, but remaining in their bodies.

⁵ For if they did not have bodies, how could they be punished by rocks and a wheel? There is much to say about these things to support the faith within us, but it also challenges those who oppose it.

Chapter 86

But those who come from heresies sing the same things as these in the underworld and share in the song of disbelief. They say that some heretics, like the Manichaeans, claim there will be a resurrection of the soul, not of the body. Similarly, they believe that the previously mentioned Greeks think the same way, as if their argument is more foolish than based on understanding.

² For if the heresies say there will be a resurrection and generally mean resurrection, but define it only in terms of souls, this is foolish. How can a soul rise that has not fallen? We do not bury souls in graves, but bodies.

³ For souls do not fall, but bodies do; as is customary to call dead bodies 'falls.' Therefore, if they agree on resurrection, it is clear to everyone that...

⁴ Not the soul, but the body that has fallen. The Greeks, on the other hand, are criticized for denying the resurrection. For when they carry away the graves on public days called 'feast days,' they burn the food offerings and pour out the wine, helping neither the dead nor benefiting themselves.

⁵ However, they are forced by custom to admit the resurrection of the dead. For where the bodies of the deceased are laid to rest, they come and speak to the buried dead by name.

⁶ "Rise," they say, "so-and-so, eat and drink and be happy." And if they believe that the souls remain there, where the remains of the deceased are buried, there is some good hope about the resurrection. For they are waiting for the coming day and the resurrection of new life, until they receive back their bodies, even if the children of the Greeks look down on the flesh as worthless and quickly perishing, having no hope of revival.

⁷ But if they do not do this in this way, what reason do they have for honoring the better souls of the bodies with graves, instead of surrounding them with the belief that they should serve the remains of the deceased? Or what hope do they have when they come? Let them explain.

⁸ But they do not believe that the souls are in graves; instead, they think that each soul is assigned to certain places by God, based on the worth of what they did and how they lived. Each person places the bodies with their own hands in the tombs, meaning the bones. It would be foolish for everyone to share the same belief about these things, as has been agreed upon from many sources, while the unbelievers deny the truth and do not hold on to the hopes that are possible with God.

Chapter 87

But I think it is enough to have said what needs to be said about these things, having provided a few examples from many.

² But regarding those who claim to be Christians, Origen and those who are convinced by him agree on the resurrection of the dead, affirming both our own flesh and the body of that holy Lord taken from Mary. However, they say that this flesh will not rise, but that another will be given instead by God. How can we not say that their belief is more impious and foolish than that of the Greeks and other sects?

³ First, if another body rises instead of this one, according to their own story, then God's judgment is not just according to their myth. Judging another flesh instead of the one that sinned, or bringing another body into the glory of the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom instead of the body that has grown weary from fasting, sleeplessness, and persecutions for the name of God, seems unfair.

⁴ How will the soul be judged alone according to the teachings of the sects, without the body that sinned being present? For such a belief goes against God's judgment, claiming that the sins of the body come from the body itself.

⁵ For there is also evidence based on the argument of those who dispute, rather than on the truth. One could say, "I did not sin, but the body did." Since I have left the body, I have neither committed fornication nor adultery, I did not steal, I did not kill, I did not worship idols, nor did I do any of the evil and shameful things.

⁶ And her defense will be found reasonable. But what will we say when she defends herself? Is God's judgment slow? Is it unjust for God to bring anger against humans? May it never be.

Chapter 88

We know that "all things are possible for God," and He can even make a body exist without a soul. He can also bring back to life bodies that have vanished and set them in motion by themselves if He wishes, just as He has already done through the most holy Ezekiel, creating such a situation.

² For he said to the holy prophet, "Say, son of man, let bone come together with bone and harmony with harmony." It was amazing to see God's power, that not even one of the souls had been put in. Even though the bones were dry, they not only had the power to move at God's command, but the bones were also filled with understanding and knowledge, not of what happened by chance.

³ For the bones did not move near the parts of the head by chance, nor did the vertebrae of the neck wander around looking for the harmony of the ankles. Instead, each bone moved and walked with understanding, joining itself to its own harmony.

⁴ If indeed God wants, He can raise a body without a soul. In this, He showed His power by first commanding what was hopeless among humans to come back to life through what was ordered to Ezekiel.

⁵ And he did not say, "Say, son of man, let the spirit come first," but after making the difficult possible through faith, he said that the bodies should be gathered together. Then he commanded the souls to enter those bodies; "and it is said that a great crowd arose."

⁶ Therefore, I said that God can make a body come back to life without a soul, as has been shown, but the body cannot be judged on its own. For it has a just defense before God's judgment.

⁷ For it says itself, "The sin came from the soul; I was not the cause." For when I was set free and that one departed from me, did I not commit adultery, did I not engage in prostitution, did I not steal, did I not practice idolatry, or do anything like those wrongs? And according to the argument of the quarrelsome, God's judgment will be powerless.

⁸ For this reason, since the body and the soul are a united person created by God, the just judge raises the body and gives its soul back to it. And so, God's judgment will be just, involving both, either the punishment for sin or the reward for virtue and piety that will be given to the saints.

Chapter 89

These things, we believe, are enough to show the truth of our hope, as we present a few examples instead of many. And because of those who say that another body will rise instead of the one that falls, we again add to the effort to help those who want to understand and not lose their own lives without trying.

² For it would be a shame for us, the least and the smallest, to be led away and not to deny the resurrection of our flesh, in which lies all the treasure and foundation of every wise thought and all hope for good deeds, as it is said, "having this treasure in clay jars" and so on.

³ For we, the weak, practice self-control, and we, the humble, live in purity. We, the powerless, long to perform acts of charity for the sake of those who are waiting for the resurrection of the dead.

⁴ And so, the rule is established for faith and hope in the love of God and for witnessing in the name of God during persecutions, tortures, and other human punishments for those who do not deny the resurrection of our flesh, but believe that what is sown in the ground...

⁵ It will be raised from the ground. The divine scriptures have given us two clear and true witnesses, through which we can understand the hope of our resurrection and not be misled by the empty tales of vain people who have been deceived and have written falsehoods in their lives. Therefore, I will not need many witnesses, for there are many in both the new and the old about our hope and resurrection; I will say this briefly:

Chapter 90

That if what is being raised were different, as some say, the apostle would not have confidently declared, "For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality."

² Since it is necessary to also speak about the saints, who will be bright and changed after the resurrection, as it says, "They will be raised in glory," let us be strengthened in hope. The holy scripture says, "Fool, what you sow is not brought to life unless it dies; and you do not sow the body that will be, but a grain of wheat or some other seed, and God gives it a body as he wishes." This was said for the glory of those who will be raised in brightness.

³ To show that the grain receives glory, he said in the gospel, and also "speaking through Paul" about the resurrection: "Unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies," he says, "it remains alone."

⁴ "But if it dies, it brings forth many grains." Therefore, the apostle spoke of a grain, and the Savior showed the same grain of the body for himself. So what shall we say? Is not the grain sown its own body? Or was it different after it rose from the tomb on the third day?

⁵ As the angels say, "He has risen, he is not here," and as he says to Mary, "Do not touch me; for I have not yet ascended to my Father." And as he shows his hands and side to Thomas, saying, "Do not be unbelieving, but believe."

⁶ For it is the unbelievers who say that he did not rise at all, or it is the wicked believers who say that he did not rise himself, the same one who was buried. But it is the faithful who say that the same body rose, and from that same body he raised our hope of truth.

Chapter 91

For he also allowed the marks of the nails to remain, not removing them with the mark of the spear, even though he entered through closed doors. His fleshly body rose as a spiritual body, but it was not different from what it was; it was the same being, united with divinity and adorned with the subtlety of spirit.

² For if there were not the subtlety of spirit, how could a thick body pass through a hole? But to show that this perishable body is clothed in imperishability in truth, even if it is mortal, it is dressed in immortality. He entered through closed doors to demonstrate the thick and the thin, the mortal and the immortal, and the perishable and the imperishable.

³ To convince all the unbelievers about our resurrection, he who transformed the body into subtlety and blended the flesh with spirit did not remove the marks of the nails or the mark of the spear after the resurrection.

⁴ But he showed that what suffered on the cross was not different from what rose again, nor was it another being that came from it. The very one who suffered, now free from suffering, is the same as the seed that fell and rose again, and having risen, it is imperishable.

⁵ And so that we do not think that part of it rose from it, it did not see corruption at all, for it says, "You will not let your holy one see corruption." But the whole thing rose, for it says, "He rose; it is not here."

⁶ If he rose and is not here, then he truly rose; and the scriptures do not fail, for they are our life. To make sure that those who are deceived do not find an excuse, he showed bones and flesh to Thomas and his disciples, saying to them, "It is me. For a spirit does not have bones and flesh as you see I have."

Chapter 92

If someone, thinking they are wise, says, "But the body of our Savior was special because it was taken only from Mary and without the seed of a man," then is the body of Adam different from ours, since it was taken only from the earth without the seed of a man? But no one can say or prove this.

² If someone, thinking they are wise again, says, "Only the whole body of Christ rose, but ours does not rise the same way; instead, another rises," then how can it be said that Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep? The body itself is the firstfruits of those who rise. But how is Christ the firstfruits of the dead? Let them understand this and not fall into another mistake, thinking that the other scriptures are false.

⁴ For before this, he raised Lazarus and the son of the widow from Nain. Elijah raised a dead man, and Elisha raised two dead people—one while still alive and one who was buried.

⁵ But those who rose again died once more, and they are waiting for the one and universal resurrection. But Christ is "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep," because after rising, "he no longer dies; death no longer has power over him," as it is written.

⁶ For he died once, having endured suffering for us because of our sins. He tasted death once, "the death on the cross," willingly coming to death for us, so that he might destroy death through death.

⁷ The Word became flesh, not suffering in his divinity, but sharing in the suffering of humanity. Although he remained without suffering, death was considered for him.

⁸ He is immortal, and even more, he is completely immortal. For he himself said, "I am the life." Our hope is not in the flesh. "Cursed," he says, "is the one who hopes in man." And he will be like the wild myrrh.

Chapter 93

What shall we say? Is Christ not a man? From everything that has been said before, it is clear that we truly confess the Lord God, the Word, who became a man, not just appearing to be one.

² But he did not come as a man to grow in divinity. For our hope of salvation is not in a throne. No one among all the people from Adam could achieve salvation, but the Word of God became a man so that our hope would not be in man, but in the living and true God who became a man.

³ "Every priest is taken from among men and is appointed for men," as it is written. Therefore, the Lord took on our flesh, becoming a man like us, the Word of God, so that in his divinity he might grant us salvation and in his humanity he might suffer for us humans, overcoming suffering through suffering and death through his own death.

⁴ The suffering was considered in relation to the divinity, even though the divine nature is without suffering. It was thought that the holy, impassible Word of God willingly came in this way.

⁵ The example is something like this: if someone is wearing a garment and blood is sprinkled on it, the person's body is not affected, but the stain from the blood is seen as being on the garment. In the same way...

⁶ Christ suffered in the flesh, in him, the Lord made human, whom he formed for himself when he came down from the heavens, the holy Word. As Saint Peter says, "He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit." Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, you should have the same understanding.

⁷ Just as the blood is seen as being on the garment of the one wearing it, the suffering of the flesh was considered to be divine for him, with nothing suffering in it, so that the world does not place its hope in a human, but in the Lord made human.

⁸ Since the divine nature accepts the suffering as part of itself, the salvation from the divine, which does not suffer, may come for the world. This way, the suffering that happened in the flesh can be seen as divine, even though nothing of it suffered. This fulfills the scripture that says, "For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory," and what follows.

Chapter 94

Therefore, the Lord was crucified, and we worship the one who was crucified, the one who was buried, rose on the third day, and ascended into heaven. "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God," as it is written.

² "For we know in part and we prophesy in part," as if drawing a drop from the sea of the knowledge of God and understanding a pattern of such a plan. This is the grace of our hope by the will of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, of the same divine plan.

³ All the scriptures scattered the message of the resurrection, but the complete truth was preserved by the presence of the one who is the Word made flesh.

⁴ "For Christ is the fulfillment of the law," as it is written. Where does the divine scripture not speak about the resurrection? First, the blood of Abel proclaims it; for after he died, "he still speaks," as the scripture says. "Enoch was taken up and was not found, and he did not see death; for he pleased God." Noah built the ark by God's command, working for a new life for his family.

⁵ Abraham, old in age, receives a child "from a body that was already dead," and God has granted hope from the dead, especially "from the womb of Sarah," which was lifeless. And the "worn out and near to being destroyed," the dried-up source of a woman who usually gives birth, again receives strength for the conception of a child, and the old woman becomes as if she is young again.

⁶ And Isaac was given to his father as if from the dead; for God, giving the living child to his father, proclaimed the hope of resurrection.

⁷ Jacob shows the truth, not putting the hope of the bones in second place; for he cared for such things not as if they were lost, but as if they were about to live again. And he commanded that they be carried back from the land of Egypt, and he had good reason for this.

⁸ And Joseph made this known, saying, "You will carry my bones with you," for the Lord will surely visit you. If there were no hope of resurrection, why would the righteous be commanded to care for the decaying bones?

⁹ The first voice to Moses is the testimony of God: "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," of those who are asleep in the world but alive to me. One spirit speaks the same in the law and in the gospel, teaching. For this is what the Savior pointed out to the Sadducees when he spoke in the prophets.

Chapter 95

The rod of Aaron will show that it was dry for many years and left in the tent from evening until dawn. For living trees, after much effort, bear fruit in the twelfth month of the yearly cycle, with the sun warming them and the rains watering them, bringing forth dew both night and day.

² In one night, God made what was difficult easy. The dry rod blossomed, putting forth leaves and ripe fruits. God showed a similar sign of the resurrection that will happen through him in the future.

³ When children are conceived during the holy marriage that the Lord showed, first the seed of the following is planted, as the Lord indicated, in the reproductive wombs. After some time has passed, what was planted develops in the womb over a period of nine months. I say that after nine months, the number is completed, and the child is born.

⁴ But in the resurrection, it is not so; for the work is under touch. The trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible. As the Lord showed in the tent of testimony, the nuts on the living trees, after being in the dry wood for twelve months, are formed and become shoots in one night.

⁵ But only under the touch of one hour, what is formed over twelve months is completed, as has been said. Similarly, the fetus that has developed in the womb over nine months, which has gathered for a long time, is completed. But in the resurrection, what is filled under touch rises up.

Chapter 96

Let the power of the Lord persuade the unbelievers, against which no one stands in opposition to the will. Let Moses listen and show. "What is in your hand?" says the Lord. And he said, "A staff." This staff is made of wood and is completely dry. And he says, "Throw it on the ground." And he threw the dry staff.

² And God made the dry thing wet, and not only wet, but also alive, changing its nature and forming it differently in essence.

³ The work was not a fantasy; it truly happens by the command of God and not by imagination. For in all things, it corrected our understanding through Moses to show the truth.

⁴ For the prophet knew that what was happening was not just an appearance, but was true in the act of fleeing. If he had known it was only an illusion, he would not have run away from the serpent.

⁵ But let this not become a stumbling block for those who like to argue, and let them say, "It was a different rod," for "God gave it a different body, as he wished." First of all, let them understand that he did not animate one instead of another.

⁶ But he animated that very dry rod; for what was given to the rod was a body that could move, and God did not call a different kind or form to judgment instead of the rod, but wanted to judge the serpent.

⁷ But he demonstrated his power by raising the rod, and God showed what was possible so that no one would disbelieve in the powerful one in all things. He did this with complete safety; for he did not raise just part of the rod, but changed the whole rod as he wished.

Chapter 97

And that these things are true, the dead have hope of eternal life, and "if they rise in remembrance," let the trustworthy Moses be my witness again. For when Reuben sinned, his father, the holy Jacob, the patriarch, raised him up and said, "Reuben, my firstborn and the beginning of my children, you have acted foolishly like water; do not excel. For you went up to your father's bed and revealed it," he says, in Hebrew, "do not rise up or add to or again exceed," and in simple words, "do not excel." The interpreters have explained it this way. If you want to learn that these things are true, and death was set for this one who sinned, Moses will make it clear to you. For he himself blessed the twelve tribes, coming to Reuben, and knowing that the holy priest Levi was released in the hand of the priesthood and bound the sins, he says, "Long live Reuben and may he not die." But how could he live, having been buried for one hundred twenty-six years? Since he knew that the resurrection would happen in all things, he understood a second death, the one through condemnation on the day of judgment. Wanting to lighten him from the coming punishment, he says, "Long live" in the resurrection, meaning he knew that all would be jealous, "and may he not die," that is, may he not be covered by the second death through condemnation and eternal torment. For if he cared only about the loss of his life, it would have been enough to say simply, "Long live Reuben." But since he meant something about the future, he says, "Long live Reuben and may he not die."

Chapter 98

And where will he be able to gather so many testimonies about our hope and expectation of the resurrection, which is true and not just an illusion?

² Let the vain and quarrelsome people argue in vain about whether part of the bodies rises and whether all of them rise in part, or if some rise as a whole while others rise only in part. What kind of favoritism is this? Is there really "favoritism with God?" May it never be.

³ Let us search for where or when the saints raised a dead person from part of the body and not the whole body. The son of the widow in Zarephath rose up completely, and no part was left behind. The son of the Shunammite also rose up completely, and none of his body was allowed to remain unrisen.

⁴ And the lord raised Lazarus and did not leave any remains in the tomb. Instead, he came out with the wrappings and the other clothes, and not all of the garments were needed on the day of judgment.

⁵ He raised the son of the widow in Nain completely, as well as the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue and the daughter of the centurion. Oh, how foolish is the thought of those who reason this way, believing that he raises part and leaves part behind.

⁶ Let us look at these examples and the hopes that have already been fulfilled for us. Enoch was taken up completely and did not see death until now, and Elijah was taken up completely in body and did not see death until now. This shows us the complete resurrection in two bodies.

⁷ And to make sure no one doubts, there are two examples of the firstborns of our resurrection: Enoch was uncircumcised, and this did not stop the resurrection or the acceptance of the body during his life. Elijah was circumcised, so that the resurrection would not be seen as applying to some and not to others, but rather as completely universal.

⁸ Elijah lived in virginity, so that the choice of virginity could proclaim immortality to the world and the incorruption of the body after death. To ensure that the resurrection would not be seen as applying only to virginity because of its greatness, Enoch was not a virgin, but was self-controlled and had children. Both of these men are alive, remaining in body and soul because of our hope.

Chapter 99

And to make sure no one doubts again, others were brought down to Hades with their bodies. For the earth opened its mouth and swallowed Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Korah and Aunan, and they went down to Hades alive, with both body and soul. From that moment on, they were handed over for judgment, neither having their bodies released nor their remains given up, but rather all of them together with body and soul.

² They were handed over for punishment. Job says, "Until I am again," and "You will raise this body that suffers these things," and "You will renew me," and again, "Your youth will be renewed like that of an eagle." And Isaiah says, "The dead will rise, and those in the tombs will be raised." For with me, "He who frees the bound with courage, just like those who are bitter, those who dwell in the graves."

³ Job says, "But a man who has died will not rise again, nor will he know his place." And indeed, the resurrection does not happen every day; it is set for one specific day. By showing that he knew the time he was waiting for, he immediately answered the question, "Until the heavens are no longer stitched together."

⁴ As long as the heavens and the earth exist, the bodies still remain on the earth. But when the one who rolls up the heavens like a scroll comes and shakes the earth, then "those on the earth will rise from the dust."

⁵ For this reason, he says to Ezekiel, "Son of man, say that bone should come together with bone and harmony with harmony." And it happened like this: "Let there be sinews and veins, flesh and skin, and nails upon them." And again, "Say, son of man, come, spirit, from the four corners of the earth," meaning from the places where the souls are kept.

⁶ And why does the Lord not speak himself, but instead commands the man to speak? Because what the Lord says, he also does, and it cannot be undone. He ordered the man to speak so that after the rising, our hope of salvation might be recognized, while the word of man might be undone, but not the word of the Lord. For those bones were going to die again. But if the Lord says, "Rise," they rise and do not die, because the word of God cannot be undone.

Chapter 100

For this reason, the Lord also came in the flesh and raised the dead, so that through the flesh they might sleep again, until the flesh itself rises and no longer dies or is silent. This is said only to one: "Come out," until he comes and no longer says to just one, "Rise," but instead says to all, "You all rise," bringing about the universal resurrection; for he himself is the resurrection of the dead.

² For after the rising from the dead, he did not raise any of those who had just died. Instead, many bodies of the holy ones who had fallen asleep rose with him and appeared to many, as it is written in the Gospel.

³ And he did not say, "A part of the bodies of the holy ones rose," but "the bodies of the holy ones." And "they appeared to many," not being different from those who had died, but being recognized by their own, since they had not died long ago.

⁴ And wanting to show the miracle to others, our Lord made the difficult things easy to understand. When he came to the girl who had just died, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, he allowed her to hear him say, "Get up, girl." By saying "Get up," he strengthened what was already lifeless, since she was still in the state of death.

⁵ She was on a bed. But the son of the widow from Nain, since he was already being carried out in the coffin, was raised more easily. "For he touched the coffin" and did not say anything to the boy. But he only touched the coffin, and he got up.

⁶ But even more profoundly and beyond the hope of many people, when he came to Lazarus, who had been dead for four days, he did not say, "Get up," nor did he touch the tomb, but he called him in this way.

⁷ With his own authority, he said, "Lazarus, come out." It is much easier and quicker to say "come out" than to touch, and touching is much easier than saying, "Girl, get up." In this way, the holy Word of God does everything to show us the hope of the resurrection.

Chapter 101

If I wanted to choose a few testimonies from all the writings, our minds are small and simple. Yet, because of the many, I am afraid to stretch the message too wide. But coming together, I will say that our salvation is brief, and in all things, it is the one hope of the resurrection that has been proclaimed to us.

² But those who do not believe are unbelievers, those who twist the truth are misguided, and those who are quarrelsome do not accept it, while the vain push it away. But may God grant mercy to all and shine light on their darkened thoughts.

³ For the Greeks, if they do not receive the Holy Spirit, they will be judged by the truth and by all the testimonies that have been given, especially by you, the children of the holy church of God and the Orthodox faith.

⁴ For you teach, having received the Holy Spirit and being made worthy of fitting words when you open your mouth. First, you are made worthy to be disciples of Christ, the "chief shepherd" and protector of our souls. As you gather food for the flock of Christ, caring for both yourselves and the things of God, I say that everyone who wishes to be helped should be nourished from the holy land that was hinted at to Moses.

⁵ Who among those who think well of you, the respectful and faithful ones, looking at you, O Orthodox and children of the church, could doubt about these things? For some say that all who speak the truth do so according to what is written.

⁶ For you are wise and the bravest sons of a woman, of whom Solomon spoke, "Who will find a brave woman?" since she is rare, indeed one of a kind. Choose what is better and love what is useful.

⁷ By a brave woman, think of the church of God, your mother, which is unmatched in bravery, rising up against every persecution for the name of her own husband.

Chapter 102

This gentle one asks her bridegroom in the book of songs, "Where do you shepherd? Where do you look at noon?" Christ shepherds in the holy land that was mentioned, and not only does he shepherd, but he also commands to loosen the sandals from the feet of the shepherds, just as he first said to Moses.

² Since you have received the tradition, you also guide those who are brought into the holy knowledge safely. First, make sure to loosen each person's sandals. The sandals of each of us are different.

³ For each person has bound themselves by their own actions. And now, among you, the disciples and good shepherds, each one who has bound themselves to idolatry has loosened it through your teaching. One has loosened adultery, another fornication, another theft, and another greed.

⁴ Not only that, but also turning away from hateful and shameful words, each one gives themselves to the blessed hopes "under the strong hand" of the good shepherd through you, the good disciples. For each one will surely be freed from their wandering.

⁵ And you set the truth before your eyes, declaring that the idols are false and openly proclaiming the deception about them. For you do not think of these as dead, since they never lived. Instead, you teach that they are empty, vain, and non-existent, always and everywhere.

⁶ For they never existed, so they could not be anything. They are indeed evil spirits, a creation of human thought, serving as a source for pleasures. And from this, each person has dared to turn their own passion into an object of worship.

⁷ First, when this was newly created through the evil deeds of demons, this "first" "fornication" was declared, and the idols were formed through shadows. Then, each person used their own craft, through which they gained wealth, to pass down to their children as objects of worship. Through their own material creations, they made gods: the potter from clay, the carpenter from wood, the goldsmith from gold, and the silversmith in the same way.

Chapter 103

Moreover, each person shaped their own passion into forms that matched their own vision. One man, a bloodthirsty warrior, claimed to be Ares; another, an adulterer or an adulteress, claimed to be the well-known Aphrodite; and a tyrant lifted up Nike.

² For he depicted the form of Cronus as dry and burdened by the cares of life, while he represented Cybele and Rhea as female figures, I think, because of their fluid nature from the many mixtures of bodies.

³ Another person depicted Artemis the huntress and the drunken Dionysus, along with the hardworking Heracles. Someone also portrayed the many-formed Zeus and Apollo.

⁴ And what should I say about the countless sufferings that exist among humans? Most of all, the Egyptians, having been led astray, not only honored their own sufferings but also birds and four-legged animals, both land and water creatures, and some wild beasts, as well as those given to them as slaves by the holy god, in the manner of "they were changed."

⁵ And since they are in their minds like beasts, they greatly over-honor them. They make gods of the animals around them and are not ashamed: the howling dog, the cat that eats reptiles, the unruly goat, the bleating sheep, the many-formed and most fearsome crocodile, the ibex that brings disease, the kite, and the most servile raven, as well as the crooked snake, which is the most unpleasant.

⁶ And simply put, because of the great shame of those who do not see their own disgrace, they neither perceive it with their senses nor understand it with their minds, while the things around them happen in vain.

⁷ They are indeed struck by a bad fate, neither enlightened by their own philosophers nor becoming witnesses to those who are connected to the truth.

⁸ They do not listen to Diagoras, who, when his own Heracles was made of wood, jokingly said to him, "Come now, Heracles, as you finish the thirteenth labor, cook us the meat." Taking it and cutting it up, he laughed at his own god as if he did not exist, making fun of the fine meal placed before him.

Chapter 104

Another, Heraclitus, says to the Egyptians: "If they are gods, why do you mourn for them? For you mourn for Typhon and Osiris and other underworld beings as if they were dead." He indeed says, "If they are gods, why do you mourn for them? But if they are dead, you mourn for them in vain."

² Another, the comic poet named Eudaimon, says, "If they are gods, I cannot say anything about them or show what they are like. For there are many things that hold me back." And Homer also says, "It is not good to have many rulers."

³ But Philemon, another comic poet, says, "Those who honor one god have good hopes for salvation."

⁴ For immediately, the straw-eating calf is struck in the thigh by the sword of Cambyses, the king of the Assyrians, so that if blood flows, it may be shown that he is not a god.

⁵ The Chaldeans do not deny that their own god is bound in iron chains, believing this to be true. And if someone is in chains, it is not just because they are under a greater power, but also because that person is a criminal while in chains.

⁶ But if there will also be a discussion about Isis, who is already known as both Athenian and Io, the daughter of Apis from Cappadocia, who is also called Inachus, I might feel ashamed to reveal their actions.

⁷ But I will not be ashamed to say what they themselves are not ashamed to worship. Let those who worship her be ashamed, as well as those who encourage their own daughters, wives, and sisters to imitate the actions of the gods.

⁸ And I will immediately speak of Osiris, their own brother, and Typhon, the brother of Osiris, who fight against each other. There is great shame for the goddess, who feels no modesty for her own brother, is not satisfied with men from outside, and even goes so far as to seek her own brother.

⁹ Not only that, but she also reveals a desire for brotherly murder because of her own insatiable longing for those she loves most.

¹⁰ And Hora, wanting to have a child, who could not be there, wonders who is truly the real father. If she names Typhon, she hesitates, fearing he is not the father; but if she names Osiris, who would be able to prove this for sure?

¹¹ But this kind of mother taught that he should become a good god, after taking him and engaging in prostitution in Tyre for ten days.

¹² But the children of Sinope, calling Serapis the king Apis, served him more like a tyrant than as a true god.

Chapter 105

These are the gods honored by the Egyptians, and talking about them in detail would take a long time. But the Greeks, who believe they are something special, only philosophize with words and cleverness of speech, rather than through actions, have gone far off course.

² They say that Cronus came down from the sky, claiming he was born from the sky and that he took parts of his own father, which is a wicked act and a shameful suggestion. If he had not been cut, many sons of Cronus would have existed. But he, the noble one, has hidden from his father.

³ He was not satisfied with the first act of wickedness. While still young, he wronged his father, and when he grew old, he did the same to his own children.

⁴ He swallowed Poseidon and Pluto while searching for Zeus and being mocked by Rhea. Instead of the baby, he swallowed a large stone wrapped up like a child.

⁵ As if he were a god, he soon became the child of noble parents—his name was Zeus. He was in danger of becoming a man among all the women, and his son was Hermes. According to the laws, he became a kind of trickster, always avoiding being a thief and a bad worker.

⁶ For he destroys Penelope, becoming a goat. I think he became a goat because of the strength of the twist in his beard.

⁷ To Danaë, Zeus first became gold so that he could corrupt the chaste maiden living in her chamber. But that gold could never be born, so as a trickster, he deceived the maiden by bribing her with golden gifts.

⁸ And with Leda, he again becomes a swan, signaling the awakening of the fire of his own desire.

⁹ And as an eagle, he once spread his wings and sat as a teacher of those who corrupt boys; but he never truly became an eagle. Instead, he was in a ship, called an eagle because of its speed, and after sailing past Troy, he seized Ganymede, leading to his downfall.

¹⁰ And with Pasiphaë, he became a bull, just like he did with Europa.

Chapter 106

And what should I say about the many corruptions of this noble teacher of corrupt girls? It is clear that there are quite a few. For on the island of Crete, at the mountain called Lasius, he is still pointed out to this day.

² But there are not just one or two Zens; there are also three and four in total. One of them is Cronus, the one mentioned before, who cast his own father into Tartarus on the Caucasus mountain. The other is called Latarius, from whom the single combatants have come, and another is the tragic one, who also burned his own hand.

³ Perhaps the god forgot that fire burns and did not foresee what the satyr said to the tragic one, who found the fire first and approached to kiss it, saying, "Do not touch, tragic one; for if you touch me, you will burn your beard."

⁴ There are not just one, but many Atheneas. One is wandering around the lake of Triton, another is associated with Ocean, and another is linked to Cronus, along with many others.

⁵ There are many Artemis. One is from Ephesus, another is associated with Zeus, and there are many others like them. And there are many Dionysuses: one is the Theban, another is the one of Semele, one is among the Corybants, and another is the one torn apart by the Titans and the Curetes, who is the lord of the mysteries.

⁶ Hercules, whom they call the protector, is someone about whom I will remain silent regarding many of his deeds. However, I will mention one that is quickly praised by them. This will be enough to show the effort he put in, for this one act brought salvation to life. For if he had not destroyed fifty maidens in one night, how would the world have been saved? Rather, it would have been lost.

⁷ And I simply agree with you that it would be very wrong to list their evil deeds one by one.

⁸ Moreover, kings and cruel tyrants, having taken some desirable people and buried them, since they had nothing more to give, have handed down to their own subjects a poor excuse to worship them as gods, like Antinous, who was buried in Antinous.

⁹ He was buried in a ship in the sea by Hadrian. Timogenes in Asia, Canobus, the helmsman of Menelaus, and his wife Enmenuthis are honored in Alexandria, buried near the shore of the sea, separated by twelve landmarks. Marnas, the slave of Asterius from Crete, is among the Gazans, and Basios, the ship captain, is among the people of Ilium.

Chapter 107

Therefore, whenever all these things are discussed in the middle of the assembly, remove the bad example of a deadly path for those who have been led this way. Help others move from adultery to self-control, and do not only free them from stealing a spouse, but also teach them to value their own marriage with moderation, as "the time is still short," as the holy apostle says. Instruct the fornicators so that they do not face punishment for their unlawful actions before God and people.

² And when you have shared all these things through your words and actions, persuade them to accept everything from you. First, by doing everything yourselves and impressing it upon yourselves, make your words trustworthy through your actions, which you have learned first, so that you can also teach others.

³ For you hold on and, like the sun, teach everyone everywhere by being quiet. Just as the sun rises and stays silent, it teaches all its skills to everyone.

⁴ And when you have shared the benefits of all these things with your own children or your most faithful brothers, help them to walk on the earth while having their citizenship "in heaven," and inspire most of them with the zeal of monks.

⁵ Through your strong and sincere faith, reject the heretics, silencing the Manichaeans, Marcionites, and others like them. Drive them away from the truth of God by breaking down all their excuses and stopping their mouths.

⁶ For how boldly they speak against God and his holy prophets, being empty and lacking the holy spirit! They blaspheme the creator of all things and hate all the good things that God has given to everyone through his holy prophets, as foretold. They are like earthly and physical beings, deeply misunderstanding the law and the prophets, and they do not understand in a spiritual way. They blaspheme for no reason.

⁷ Do not hesitate to shake off their deception from those who hear by proving them wrong with true evidence. For such foolish words are carried away like dry leaves in the current of a mighty river.

Chapter 108

Say that the God of the law is good, who, not knowing where Adam was, asked, "Adam, where are you?" And to Cain, he said, "Where is Abel, your brother?" And to Abraham, he asked, "Where is Sarah, your wife?" And many other things like these.

² But those who say such things believe in the Savior God with their mouths and not in truth, even though God knows everything and has foreknowledge. They ask the same questions as before: "Where have you laid Lazarus?" and "Who touched me?" and "What do you have to eat with you?" and "Whom do you want?" or "What are you seeking?"

³ The rebuke to them is easy and straightforward. Just as the Son asks, having foreknowledge, so does the Father himself ask in the law, being the same always and never changing.

⁴ For if he says, "Where have you laid Lazarus?" he neither ignores the Gospel nor the old covenant. He asks, "Where have you laid him?" wanting to rebuke those who have no faith equal to that of the Shunammite woman, even though she had faith in a man, namely Elisha the holy prophet, while those around Martha have faith in God.

⁵ And if he says, "Who touched me?" he does not say this out of ignorance, but to encourage the woman to confess for herself, so that the Son of God is not the one testifying about himself, but instead is praised by others.

⁶ And when he says, "Do you have any bread with you?" he does this so that everyone can notice the small amount of bread and admire the greatness of his miracle, since such a large crowd was fed with so little. And when he says, "Whom are you seeking?"

⁷ He shows that those who are seeking are deceived, and they are "seeking Jesus," the healer who is understood as savior. When they kill him, they will lose their chance for salvation.

Chapter 109

Just as we have explained the matters concerning the Lord's plan in a way that is easy to understand, they are not without foresight. No one who thinks clearly would say they do not know where they have placed Lazarus, since he is close by. Even if they ask as if he is far away in Galilee, they have shown that Lazarus is right here. In the same way, we clearly explain these things about the old covenant.

² When God says, "Adam, where are you?" he is not unaware; rather, he is showing from a high place how far Adam has fallen into shame.

³ And "Where is Abel, your brother?" You were meant to always carry him in your arms and be with him, but now he lies dead on the ground, far from you.

⁴ For he shows through his question that he is not asking out of ignorance, but is making a point by saying, "Cursed is the ground because of your actions, and cursed are you from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand."

⁵ "Look," he says, "the voice of her cries out to me." And "What about Sarah, your wife?" He did not ask out of ignorance. How could he not know she was laughing inside the house? So he did not ask out of ignorance, but to teach her daughters, who are "promised to be godly," how to learn her way of life when they try to serve the holy ones through their own efforts.

⁶ For she, while serving in such a way, worked on the unleavened bread and the hidden things. She prepared this service with her own servants, not seeing the faces of those being served, leaving a model of moderation for our generations. And these things will be enough to stand against the arguments of the vain.

Chapter 110

If they say that God is good, who taught his own people to take advantage of the Egyptians and to plunder them as they were leaving the land of Egypt, the foolish do not understand that nothing is lost to God and that there is justice, and God is not mocked.

² For what did the Egyptians think? Did they believe that the Jews were working for nothing and not for what was due? They worked for two hundred fifteen years, plus the fifteen years under the overseers of Joseph.

³ For four hundred thirty years of sojourning were appointed to Abraham and his descendants, as it says, "Your descendants will be sojourners in a foreign land." Then, the appointed time was fulfilled.

⁴ Therefore, with his great compassion, God divided the years of their sojourning. Right away, while they were still in the same place for fifteen years, he also divided the other fifteen years for those going to Egypt.

⁵ The number of these years is calculated like this: it was then the seventy-fifth year of Abraham. Therefore, from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham until the birth of Isaac, there are years. Isaac gives birth to Jacob in the sixtieth year, and there are years. Jacob, when he was seventy years old, gives birth to Levi, and there are thirty-three years. Levi, when he was thirty-four years old, gives birth to Kohath. In the eighty-third year and seventh year, Levi goes down with Jacob into Egypt, and there are two hundred eleven years. After their entrance into Egypt, there are four more years, making a total of two hundred fifteen years.

⁶ From here, the remaining two hundred fifteen years of the Israelites' sojourning are counted. After the descent into Egypt, Kohath, in his fifty-fifth year, gives birth to the father of Moses, Abraham. Therefore, from the first Abraham, in his seventy-fifth year, until the birth of the last Abraham, there are years; and from the descent into Egypt, there are years.

⁷ Abraham, when he was seventy years old, gives birth to Moses. From the first Abraham, there are years; and from the descent into Egypt, there are years.

⁸ Moses, in his fortieth year, crosses the Red Sea with the Israelites as they leave Egypt. From the great Abraham, there are years; and from the descent into Egypt, there are years.

⁹ The remaining fifty years were spent after crossing the Red Sea until they arrived in Palestine. This was not due to the length of the journey, but because they had to fight and were held back by the nations they encountered along the way.

¹⁰ So, from the seventy-fifth year of the great Abraham, when this prophecy was given to him by God, until Moses and the arrival of the sons of Israel in Palestine, there are 480 years. From the descent into Egypt until their arrival in Palestine, there are 430 years.

Chapter 111

So, after so many years of work without pay, was it not right for both God and people to give them their wages even at the end? Therefore, God is not unjust for casting out their own people from there like dogs.

² But if someone doubts that the years are counted this way, let them listen to Moses saying, "The dwelling of the sons of Israel in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt was 430 years."

³ So, with the most just wages of the Lord being taken care of, what useless argument is left for those who want to blame the holy God? No one would ever accuse the true God, but those who accuse are only blaming themselves.

⁴ Another useless argument is raised against them that is similar to the first. It claims that the good God of the law took advantage of the Canaanites to give the Israelites their land: "houses which they did not build, and olive groves, and fig trees, and vineyards which they did not plant."

⁵ I will say this: O foolish ones, if God were like a man, he would overlook the things said or done today and would have nothing in mind. But since God "is God and not a man," he does not forget the things brought against him through many generations. If they are unaware of this, let them learn.

Chapter 112

Everyone knows the just Noah, the remnant of the world after the flood. As he was saved along with his three sons, being just himself and trying to make his sons respectful so that they would not fall into the same evils as those during the flood, he not only taught them respect through words but also required each of them to promise loyalty to their brother with an oath.

² As a steward of the world appointed by God, he divided the whole world among his three sons, distributing it by lots and giving each portion according to what was drawn for each one.

³ To Ham, the firstborn, fell the lot from Persia and Bactria to India, with its length and width extending from the land of Rhinocolura. This Rhinocolura is located between Egypt and Palestine, across from the Red Sea.

⁴ To Ham, the second, the southern region extended from the same Rhinocolura to Gadara. To Japheth, the third, the northern region stretched from Media to Gadara and Rhinocolura.

Chapter 113

So to Shem, children were born, and the children of those children, until the languages were divided. They are scattered among different languages, tribes, and kingdoms.

² Their names are as follows: Elamites, Paeonians, Lazones, Cossaeans, Gasphenes, Palestinians, Indians, Syrians, Arabs, and also Tai, Arians, Medes, Hyrcanians, Magusaeans, Assyrians, Germans, Lydians, Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Coeleans, Bactrians, Adiabenians, Camilians, Saracens, Scythians, Chiones, Gymnosophists, Chaldeans, Parthians, Etesians, Cordylinians, Massagetae, Phoenicians, Madians, Commageneans, Dardanians, Cedrocians, Armenians, Cilicians, Egyptians, Cappadocians, Bionians, Carians, Chalybes, Psylli, Lazes, and Mossynoeci, Iberians, and Phrygians.

³ Ham, the second, has children and grandchildren, thirty-two in total, until the same division of the languages. The names are: Ethiopians, Troglodytes, Angaians, Taenians, Sabines, Ichthyophagians, Hellenes, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Marmaridae, Carians, Psylli, Mossynoeci, Phrygians, Macrones, Syrtites, Leptimagnites, Bithynians, Nomads, Lycians, Mariandynians, Pamphylians, Moschidians, Pisidians, Augalaians, Cilicians, Maurusians, Cretans, Magardians, Numidians, Africans, Bizakenians, Phasgenians, Mazices, Garamantes, Getulians, Blemmyes, and Axomites. They occupy the land from Egypt to the Ocean.

⁴ And the islands are as follows: Kursula, Lopadusa, Gaulos, Rhida, Melite, Corcyra, Mena, Sardinia, Gortyna, Crete, Glaucus, Rhida, Thera, Carianthos, Astypalaea, Chios, Lesbos, Tenedos, Imbros, Iasos, Samos, Cos, Knidos, Nisyros, Megiste, and Cyprus.

⁵ Japheth, the third, has children and grandchildren, fifteen in total, until the same division of the languages. The names are: Medes, Albanians, Gargarians, Armenians, Arraians, Amazons, Coli, Corzinians, Veneginians, Cappadocians, Galatians, Paphlagonians, Mariandynians, Tibarenians, Chalybes, Mossynoeci, Colchians, Melancheni, Sauromatians, Germans, Maesians, Scythians, Taurians, Thracians, Bastarnians, Illyrians, Macedonians, Hellenes, Libyans, Phrygians, Pannonians, Istri, Veneti, Daunians, Japygans, Calabrians, Hippici, Latins, Romans, Tyrrhenians, Gauls, Celts, Ligystinians, Celtiberians, Iberians, Aquitanians, Illyrians, Basantes, Cannians, Cartanians, Lusitanians, Vaccaeans, British, Scots, and Spaniards.

⁶ And the islands for them are as follows: Brittany, Sicily, Euboea, Rhodes, Chios, Lesbos, Cythera, Zakynthos, Cephalonia, Ithaca, Corcyra, and Cyprus.

⁷ If the name of a nation or island appears in two different ways in the lot of another nation or city, whether according to common borders or based on the colonies that were established over time, or according to the acceptance of Ham, who took advantage and received parts of Shem, let no one be surprised or doubt.

Chapter 114

Therefore, these nations came from the three sons of Noah, and the world was divided into three parts among them, as I mentioned earlier. Their father made them take an oath that no one would interfere with the lot of his brother.

² But they said that anyone who breaks the command of the oath should be destroyed along with all his offspring.

³ Since Palestine fell under the lot of Shem, along with all the nearby lands, the son of Ham, Canaan, being greedy, later came to the land of the Palestinians, which is to say, Judah, and seized it.

⁴ God gave them time to repent, so that those from Ham might change their ways and return the land to the descendants of Shem. But they did not repent; instead, they wanted to complete their wrongdoing.

⁵ Then God, being just after many generations, punished the breaking of the oath; for it was necessary to fulfill the measure of the Amorites.

⁶ Shem fathered Arphaxad, and Ham fathered Canaan. Canaan then fathered the Amorite, the Girgashite, the Hivite, the Arkite, the Aradian, and the Sidonian, all after his greed.

⁷ Therefore, the generations are counted up to the punishment of Shem. Shem, who was favored, fathered Arphaxad, as we mentioned. Arphaxad fathered Shelah, Shelah fathered Eber, and the building of the tower began. Eber fathered Peleg, and then the division of the earth and languages happened. Peleg fathered Reu, Reu fathered Serug, Serug fathered Nahor, Nahor fathered Terah, and Terah fathered Abraham. Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, who was named Israel, from whom the Israelites come. Jacob fathered Judah, Judah fathered Perez, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon. This is the generation of those born from Shem.

⁸ Therefore, God punishes those who were wronged by the sons of Ham and took away their own land, destroying the people of Canaan according to their oath, while the descendants of Shem receive their own territory. So God did not act unjustly, giving each their fair share; "for God is not mocked," as was said before.

Chapter 115

In the exodus, God tells Moses, "Remove your sandals from your feet." For everyone who is about to come near with pure baths must first take off their sandals.

² Since a long time has passed and everyone has "wandered in their own way," and this gathering has remained in its own troubles, God has not yet revealed "the bath" of "regeneration." Instead, it was postponed for many years. Later, He revealed the holy bath to the holy church; in Moses...

³ Removing their sandals, the prophets took off their outer garments, leaving only a belt for Jeremiah. John, on the other hand, changed all his worldly clothes for those made of camel's hair. The Savior Himself and His disciples stripped away the appearance of the world, and after their cleansing, He clothed them with "the clothing of fire and spirit" from above.

⁴ But the Israelites, seeing His grace, did not recognize that He is God. Therefore, the prophet lamented over them because of the dishonor they would bring upon the Savior. He said to the Lord, "Is this a foolish and stubborn people?"

⁵ For they did not recognize that this was the one who was in the beginning, with whom the Father consulted, saying, "Let us make man in our image and according to our likeness."

⁶ For "Let us make" is not in the singular; rather, the Father consulted with the Son and the Holy Spirit. "For by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host."

⁷ They did not even understand what was clearly stated in the same book, that "the Lord rained down fire and brimstone from the Lord upon Sodom and Gomorrah from heaven." For the Lord, who had come to Abraham, rained down fire from the Lord in heaven, who had sent Him.

⁸ They did not recognize Him who was driving them out of Egypt, nor did they understand the prophet who said, "And you, Bethlehem, are not the least." For how can a city that has room for heaven and cannot be contained be called the least? And that "from you will come a leader for me." If He comes from Bethlehem and is a man, then how is He called God?

Chapter 116

It troubles them that He is both God and man. For in the same way, "His goings out are from the beginning, from the creation of the world." But this is no longer something that belongs to a man, but to God.

² They do not remember that "behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel." And what they will call Him shows the way of the holy and faithful, the sons of the church.

³ For they are examining the cry of the Jews who killed the Lord about the Savior, wondering how they believe in the one who was crucified. They hear the joy of the same faithful ones that He was crucified among you, but with us, He is God.

⁴ But they did not hear David and did not understand his words, which he spoke while seeing in the holy spirit, trembling at the future plan of the Lord. He said, "The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right," and the things that follow.

⁵ The ancient Sabbaths have passed, but the true Sabbath is being preached among us. The first circumcision has delayed, cutting off only a tiny part, but the heavenly circumcision works very well, cutting off the whole body.

⁶ For the waters and the holy invocation do not take place in just one part of a person, but they seal the whole body, purifying and circumcising it, freeing it from all evils. Indeed, the holy church has received these mysteries.

⁷ But fierce enemies rose up against her, called "household" enemies, who did not come from the true faith of the apostles of the Lord. For if they had been from them, they would have remained with them.

⁸ But being illegitimate and mixed, they desire the evil craving for the food of the Egyptians, like fish and cucumbers, wanting it again. They blaspheme both above and below the Son of God, the Ariomaniacs, whom we have already criticized in the previous words, as well as others, the Sabellians.

⁹ And the Sabellians completely deny the existence of the Son and the Holy Spirit, saying that the Son is the Father and the Father is the Son, and that the Holy Spirit is the Father. They claim that there is no Son and no Holy Spirit, acting like second Jews and murderers of the Lord, who are being refuted.

¹⁰ But the Ariomaniacs, who are the most impious of all, dare to divide and separate the Son from the Father's essence. They do not believe that the Son is of the same substance as the Father or that he was born from the essence of the Father.

¹¹ Others, the offspring of these, who were mentioned earlier with the others, counted themselves among the Jews—those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit. They are like second Sadducees and Samaritans, known as the dead and the unbelievers.

Chapter 117

But to avoid making the testimonies against these too lengthy "through ink and paper," and not to discourage those who read, the testimony of the Jordan, along with the other testimonies, will be enough for the Sabellians, as I have already mentioned.

² For the Son truly appears in the Jordan, having become both God and man. He did not change but took on flesh, not from the seed of a man, but received a body from the holy virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He is a perfect body, that is, a perfect man in both soul and body.

³ Therefore, God and man has come to John in the Jordan, being the same Son, Christ, and Lord. The Father from above cries out, testifying to the Son who has come in the Jordan, "This is my beloved Son."

⁴ And the Holy Spirit was coming down upon him in the form of a dove as he was coming up from the waters. This was to show that they should be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

⁵ For the Arians, it will be enough to say about the Son, "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me." Here, equality between the Son and the Father is shown, along with true sonship.

⁶ But the descendants of the Arians who blaspheme the Holy Spirit will find it enough to have two testimonies that have already been presented along with the other testimonies. One comes from Daniel and goes like this: "In the furnace of fire, Shadrach…"

⁷ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, while praising God, include all of God's creation with themselves and say, "Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord." They counted the heavens, the angels, the moon, the sun, and the powers, as well as the earth and the sea and everything in them, but they did not include the Son and the Holy Spirit among the creations. The Seraphim, however, perhaps sanctify the Trinity, not once, not twice, not four times, but three times, saying, "Holy."

Chapter 118

But let Peter rebuke them again, warning those around Ananias and saying, "You have tempted the Holy Spirit."

² And he says, "You have not lied to man, but to God." (The apostle knew, as we have often said, that the Spirit is not different from God, saying, "He searches even the depths of God.") But what does not come from the essence of God cannot search the depths of God.

³ But we know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, a Trinity in unity. For there is one unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: one essence, one lordship, one will, one church, one baptism, and one faith.

⁴ And let those who are against the holy virgin of Christ and the pure bride stop, meaning those who are against our mother, the holy church.

⁵ For the children of this church received from the holy fathers, meaning from the holy apostles, the instruction to keep the faith and also to pass it on and share it with their own children.

⁶ From whom you are also sons, most honored brothers, and to your own children, share this teaching.

⁷ While saying these things and similar ones from the divine scriptures to strengthen yourselves and those who hear you, do not stop, you faithful and orthodox, from teaching, guiding, and sharing this holy faith of the universal church, as the holy and only virgin of God received it from the holy apostles of the Lord, to keep it.

⁸ And so, each of those being instructed who will come to the holy baptism, you must not only tell your own children to believe in the Lord, but also teach clearly that the same mother is both yours and ours, saying:

⁹ We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and of all things seen and unseen.

¹⁰ And we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, born of the Father before all ages, that is, from the essence of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, through whom all things were made, both in heaven and on earth. He came down for us humans and for our salvation, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became human. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried. On the third day, he rose again according to the scriptures, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

¹¹ And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who is worshiped and glorified together with the Father and the Son, and who spoke through the prophets. We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.

¹² We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

¹³ But those who say that there was a time when he was not, and that before he was born he did not exist, or that he came into being from nothing, or from another substance or essence, or that the Son of God is changeable, these are condemned by the catholic and apostolic church.

¹⁴ And this faith was handed down from the holy apostles and in the holy church of the city by all the holy bishops together at that time, who numbered more than three hundred.

Chapter 119

But since in our generation some other heresies have repeatedly arisen, that is, during the time of the emperors Valentinian and Valens in the tenth year of their reign, and again in the sixth year of Gratian, which is the ninetieth year of the tyrant Diocletian,

² For this reason, you, we, and all the orthodox bishops, along with the whole holy catholic church, in response to the heresies that have arisen, follow the faith established by those holy fathers, saying this, especially to those who come to holy baptism, so that they may proclaim and say:

³ We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, creator of all things, both invisible and visible.

⁴ and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father, the only-begotten, meaning from the essence of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things were made, both in heaven and on earth.

⁵ both visible and invisible, who for us humans and for our salvation came down and became flesh, that is, fully born from the holy Mary, the ever-virgin, by the Holy Spirit, becoming human, meaning taking on a complete human being, with a soul, body, mind, and everything that makes a person, without sin.

⁶ not from the seed of a man nor made in a human way, but taking on flesh for himself, forming it into one holy unity; not as in the prophets, where he inspired, spoke, and acted, but fully becoming human.

⁷ for the Word became flesh, not taking on a different form or changing his own divinity into humanity, but uniting them into one holy completeness and divinity; for he is the Lord Jesus Christ and is not two, but the same God, the same Lord, the same King.

⁸ and having suffered in the flesh, and having risen and ascended into heaven in that same body, gloriously seated at the right hand of the Father, coming in that same body in glory to judge the living and the dead; his kingdom will have no end.

⁹ and in the holy Spirit, who spoke in the law and proclaimed through the prophets, coming down to the Jordan, speaking through the apostles, and living among the saints.

¹⁰ thus we believe in him that there is a holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the perfect Spirit, the Comforter, uncreated, proceeding from the Father and receiving from the Son, and in whom we believe.

¹¹ we believe in one holy and apostolic church, in one baptism of repentance, in the resurrection of the dead, in a just judgment of souls and bodies, in the kingdom of heaven, and in eternal life.

¹² but those who say that there was a time when the Son was not, or that the holy Spirit was not, or that he came into being from nothing or from another substance or essence, or that the Son of God is changeable, or that the holy Spirit is changeable, these are condemned by the holy and apostolic church, the mother of you and us. and again we condemn those who do not confess the resurrection of the dead and all the heresies that do not come from this true faith.

¹³ to you and your children, most blessed ones, who believe in this way and follow the commands of this faith, we hope to always have a share and inheritance with you in the same.

¹⁴ by faith and in the inheritance of the same commands. and you, and all who believe in this way and keep the Lord's commands in Christ Jesus our Lord, pray for us. through him and with him, may there be glory to the Father, with the holy Spirit, forever and ever. amen.

¹⁵ up to this point, dear brothers, our limited and weak understanding has been compelled to reach this point, encouraged by your goodness to present ourselves, even though we are unable to go beyond our own measure, so that we may ask for help as we extend ourselves. but everything is known to the faithful one in heaven.

¹⁶ but peace be with all who follow this rule of the true and orthodox faith and with the Israel of God. greet all the saints in the Lord. the servants of the Lord send their greetings to you, especially I, Anatolius, who wrote this book called the Anchorite. I pray that you may be strong in the Lord.