Moralia in Job 919

84. Those are refuted who teach that Christ is a mere man, like to the other saints. — What do we take Ethiopia to be, if not the present world? which by the blackness of its color designates a sinful people, by the foulness of its deserts. But sometimes by the name of Ethiopia the heathen world is wont to be specially designated, before black with the sins of unbelief. Which, when the Lord came, the prophet Habakkuk saw stricken with fear, and said: 「The tents of Ethiopia were affrighted, the tents of the land of Midian」 (Hab. iii, 7). David too the prophet, seeing that the Lord would come to redeem Judea, but that the heathen would first believe, and afterward Judea would follow, as it is written: 「Until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved」 (Rom. xi, 25);

says: 「Ethiopia shall prevent his hands unto God」 (Ps. lvii, 32); that is, before Judea believes, the heathen world black with sins offers itself to be saved by the omnipotent God. But the topaz is a precious stone; and because in the Greek tongue it is called 「all」, for the reason that it shines with every color, it is called topaz as it were 「topantium」. And when the heathen world, converted unto God, believed, out of it many were so enriched by the gift of his Spirit that, as with many colors, so with many virtues they shine. But lest anyone be exalted by the virtues received, it is now said by the holy man: 「The topaz of Ethiopia shall not be made equal to it.」 As if he plainly said:

No one of the saints, however full of any virtues, yet gathered out of this blackness of the world, can be made equal to him of whom it is written: 「That which shall be born of thee, holy, shall be called the Son of God」 (Luke i, 35). For we, even if we are made holy, are yet not born holy, because we are bound by the very condition of our corruptible nature, so that we may say with the Prophet: 「Behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me」 (Ps. l, 7). But he alone was born truly holy, who, that he might overcome the very condition of corruptible nature, was not conceived by the mingling of carnal union. 85. The madness of Nestorius against Christ. Who taught that Christ, though a mere man, attained by his merits to be made God.

He is refuted. The mode of the Incarnation of the Word. Christ is one thing from the Father, another from the mother, but not another person. — To this Wisdom a certain heresiarch wished, as it were a topaz of Ethiopia, to be made equal, when he said: 「I do not envy Christ made God, since if I will, I too can be made so.」 He supposed Jesus Christ our Lord to be God not through the mystery of his conception, but through the advance of grace, contriving by a perverse allegation that he was born a mere man, but, that he might be God, had advanced by merit; and on this account esteeming that both he himself and any others could be made equal to him, who become sons of God by grace—not understanding, not heeding, that 「the topaz of Ethiopia shall not be made equal to it.」

For it is one thing for men who are born to receive the grace of adoption, and another for the One singularly, through the power of the Godhead, to have come forth as God from the very conception. Nor can that received by grace be made equal to the glory of the Only-begotten possessed by nature; for the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. ii, 5), is not, as that heretic dotes, one person in humanity, another in Deity.

He was not conceived and brought forth a mere man, and afterward through merit received to be God; but, the angel announcing and the Spirit coming upon her, at once the Word was in the womb, at once within the womb the Word was flesh; and, the unchangeable Essence which is co-eternal to him with the Father and the Holy Spirit abiding, he assumed within the virginal womb that whereby he who was impassible could suffer, he who was immortal could die, and he who was eternal before the ages could be temporal at the end of the ages; so that by an ineffable sacrament, by a holy conception and an inviolable birth, according to the truth of both natures, the same Virgin might be both the handmaid of the Lord and his mother. For so is it said to her by Elizabeth: 「Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?」 (Luke i, 43).

And the Virgin herself conceiving said: 「Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word」 (Ibid., i, 38). And although he himself is one thing from the Father, another from the Virgin, yet he is not one person from the Father, another from the Virgin; but the same is eternal from the Father, the same temporal from the mother; the same who made, the same who was made; the same beautiful in form above the sons of men through the Deity, and the same of whom it is said: 「We saw him, and there was no beauty, and there is no comeliness in him nor grace」 (Isa. liii, 2), through the humanity. The same before the ages from the Father without a mother, the same at the end of the ages from a mother without a father. The same the temple, the same the builder of the temple; the same the author of the work, the same the work of the author;

abiding one out of both and in both natures, neither confounded by the coupling of natures, nor doubled by the distinction of natures. But because we have not undertaken to treat these things, let us return to the order of exposition. 86. A recapitulation of the things said above. — It is to be noted by us that the holy man, in order to show that the angels are far distant from this Wisdom, says: 「Pure gold shall not be given for it.」 And that he might show even the ancient Fathers, the expounders of the sacred eloquence, to be inferior, he added: 「Nor shall silver be weighed in exchange for it.」 That he might show that the wisdom of the philosophers also lies far beneath it, he brought in: 「It shall not be compared with the dyed colors of India.」 And he subjoined: 「Nor with the sardonyx, a most precious stone, or the sapphire.」

That he might show that in that heavenly city also none attains to equality with the Only-begotten, he added: 「Gold or glass shall not be made equal to it.」 That he might show the prophets too to be beneath it, he subjoined: 「Nor shall lofty and eminent vessels of gold be exchanged for it, neither shall they be remembered in comparison of it.」 For Wisdom is drawn from hidden things. And at the last, that he might rebuke even those heretics within the Church who, coming from the error of heathenism, rend by pride the faith which they receive, he added: 「The topaz of Ethiopia shall not be made equal to it.」 As if he openly intimated, saying:

These who come to conversion out of the blackness of sin cannot be made equal to the God-man, although they seem to shine with many virtues of colors. And that their pride may be beaten back, it is fitly subjoined: