On the Nativity 1

By the power of our Lord Jesus Christ we begin to write the volume of disputations, authored by Mar Thomas of Edessa, master of the religion of God, and Mar Kaiura his fellow in the labor. The first disputation, by Mar Thomas: On the fleshly Nativity of our Lord Christ. Chapter one: To him who asked that he commit that disputation to writing. The second: What are the chief points of its causes. The third: An investigation concerning the cause for which we celebrate this feast. The fourth: What are the goods that have been given to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. The fifth: For what cause these very goods were not revealed until now. The sixth: There was need of the mediation of someone through whom we might receive these goods from God.

The seventh: For what reasons God at this time took nothing else for His revelation save a man from among us. The eighth: That our Lord Christ was not a mere man (psilos anthropos). The ninth: For what reason the manhood of our Lord was not taken from the earth, but from a virgin without the union of a man. The tenth: For what cause God ordained that the manhood of our Lord should be conceived in the springtime. The eleventh: An exhortation to an honorable life. CHAPTER ONE. To him who asked that he commit it to writing.

The useful counsel which you, together with the illustrious brothers of our monastery, gave me, and your welcome charge, O chosen one of God, Mar Moses the Lector, stirred up diverse thoughts in me and cast me into various considerations. For you charged me that I should also commit to writing that very cause of the glorious Nativity of our Lord and Savior Christ, which I spoke after our holy Master, Mar Aba the Interpreter; which indeed I tremble to do, lest…; …I be easily reckoned by those who love to find fault with cause and without cause; likewise, I fear to not obey the charge, lest I be held a violator of the precept and a transgressor of the counsel by men who say nothing except with a view to the religion of the living God.

But while I lingered in these and the like thoughts, I judged it fitting for me to satisfy your will, leaving others indeed to speak as they please, lest, while I fear the envious words which do no injury before God, I should give to you—who are pleasing to Christ through good will and a perfect life—occasion for murmuring against me, in that I had not obeyed your charge. Therefore, asking the help of your prayers acceptable to Christ, behold, I apply myself to fulfilling your will.

This above all I ask of you, and of those who in whatever way shall come upon these writings: that you in no way form a false opinion of me, as though I had set out to say or write hoping that I, weak as I am, could in this treatise so deliver all the things that are our Master's just as he himself said them. Rather, this alone is the confidence I have in my discourses—and this proceeds from an inmost conviction—that all my words stand in such relation to the sayings of our Master that one is led from these to those as from an image to its prototype, and as from a shadow to the body by which it is cast.

Moreover, just as in the place where the rays of the sun extend, a small lamp is not fit to give light, so also these words of mine shall perish when those of our Master make manifest the splendors of their thoughts. I shall therefore make a division into chapters, by which the whole disputation is arranged for greater usefulness; and then I shall begin to say those things which the order of the several matters requires in the disputation itself. For your wisdom and understanding know that those who are about to walk along a road of however many miles which they do not well know, are greatly helped by receiving the signs and marks that are along the way, and after this they will begin to walk;

so it happens to them, if they keep an attentive mind, that they easily walk from sign to sign and from mark to mark all the way to the end of the road without error. And if this is so, it is manifest that it is much more necessary for those who wish to commit to memory a discourse of however many sentences, that they should first learn what are the several chapters of the treatise itself. And if this be done, when they are compelled to deliver the discourse, although the written text is not at hand from which to recall the whole discourse to memory, nevertheless, because they have previously learned the number and title of all the chapters, they will be able easily to deliver the discourse, even if they omit some little part of those things which are in the midst of the chapters. CHAPTER TWO. What are the chapters of this disputation.

Although it is plain to everyone that the feast which we celebrate today is the Nativity of Christ, yet the mind is not content merely to learn this, that it is the feast of the Nativity of our Lord, but it more often takes up this question also: why do we celebrate it? When we have investigated and found that it is on account of the great goods which have been given to us through our Lord Christ, who was born today for all creatures, so that, by honoring their memory and fulfilling the will of their giver, the goods which we have may be made firm, we are asked to say what these goods are. Then, after we have narrated them and made them manifest, it is asked of us:

why were goods that are thus useful to all neither known nor revealed until now? Again, after we have given an excuse concerning these matters also—that they were not revealed—it is asked that we establish yet another thing: namely, that without the mediation of someone it was impossible for these very goods to come to us from God. When thereafter we have shown that there was altogether need of someone through whom we might be brought to the receiving of them, it is asked: why was the revelation made through none other than a man? And when we have shown the many things that required the taking of a man from among us, another question arises: if for these reasons a man was necessarily needed, could he then by himself alone redeem us?

Thus we teach that the economy necessarily requires that God also be in that man, so that it may be known that a mere man could not redeem us, nor could we, without the mediation of someone, receive from God the goods which had been prepared for us.

But after it has been shown by our demonstration that we today celebrate the feast of His Nativity by reason of the good things which have been given to us through our Lord Christ, and after it has been made clear what those good things are, and once the excuse has been admitted explaining why they were not revealed before, and after it has appeared that for their revelation there was need of the mediation of someone who was nothing other than a man — yet not a mere man, but such a one in whom dwelt God, mighty unto all those things which He accomplished for our redemption in His dispensation — when all these things have been demonstrated, then the question is asked: for what reason did God not take this man from the earth, as He did the first man?

Or if it was necessary that He should be born of a woman, why was He born of a virgin without the seed of a man? After the cause of this has been shown, there remains this to be demonstrated: why did God ordain that He should be conceived in the springtime? And what do we understand from the fact that He was born in this season? And so, after these things, we shall make an end of the whole discussion by adding a brief exhortation suited to the confirmation and amendment of the hearers. CHAPTER THREE. An inquiry into the cause for which we celebrate this feast of the holy Nativity. It is evident that this feast which we celebrate today, and which the holy Church everywhere celebrates with great joy, is the feast of the Nativity of Christ, our Lord.

For behold, this is proclaimed alike from the mouth of all rational beings, that is, of men and women, and from children even to the aged. But the question is asked: do we then assemble today and celebrate this feast on account of the novelty of the manner of His birth, which was without intercourse, marvelling at the power which was able to form Him from the Virgin Mary without the seed of a man? It is known that it is a great and excellent thing that a virgin should give birth apart from a man's embrace. Yet however great a pre-eminence of power this may display, this alone was not sufficient — without the other things presently to be mentioned — to become the cause of this feast in every region. For we behold other excellent things that were wrought among men at the time of their birth;

and because no others followed after the manner of their formation, we rightly do not celebrate the feast of their nativity, as for example of Adam, and of Eve, and of Isaac, and of others of this kind. And indeed each of these is more worthy of wonder than the next, and proclaims the divine power more greatly. First let us consider the nativity of Isaac, how great it was: namely, that a son was born of a barren and aged woman. Either of these by itself would have been enough to hinder nature from giving fruit; how much more when both were present together, old age and barrenness! Yet here it was indeed from seed; but what does seed avail amid barrenness and old age?

For just as it is a great miracle if someone sows some kind of seed upon a rock, or casts it into a furnace of fire, or suspends it in water or in air, and from any one of these finds fruit; likewise even if someone in old age and barrenness should pour out seed ten thousand times, it is a great miracle if a son is born where only one of these conditions is present, much less in the present case: for both were found in Sarah. In blessed Mary one thing was lacking to the order of nature, namely the reception of seed; but in Sarah, as I have said, there was a twofold impediment, old age and barrenness.

It is more credible that an unsown earth should bring forth, than that grains of wheat which fall into a furnace of fire should give fruit — even though things difficult and things easy are alike possible with God. We indeed, because we possess a limited power, do not deal equally with kinds of clay and of bronze; but to God nothing is harder than another, since He is not limited in power, and His mere nod suffices for all things. And if the nativity of Isaac is wonderful, yet the nativity of Eve is more wonderful.

For there was neither womb, nor matrix, nor seed, but a rib from the side — and that moreover the side of a male — from which a woman was made, not growing moderately and gradually with the continual succession of time, but suddenly rising up in the twinkling of an eye and exhibiting a perfect stature. But still more wonderful is the thing, namely the generation of Adam: for Eve was living from a living thing and sensitive from a sensitive thing; but Adam, living and rational and sensitive, was made from earth, which partakes of none of these. If, then, these things are astounding, and one more wonderful than another — and yet they are not celebrated with a feast — does the Church everywhere celebrate a feast such as today's merely because of the novelty of the matter?

But it is evident that we do not celebrate this feast looking to these external things. For the Magi themselves, when by divine grace stirred up in whatever manner they went up to adore Him, did not offer Him gifts which signified this novelty of the matter, but gold, and myrrh, and frankincense. Frankincense: to make manifest that He who was born is a temple of God, in which it was to come to pass that the Divinity should be incorporeally adored by all rational beings, as in an indissoluble temple. Gold: to show that it now befits men to receive His counsels and precepts, and to obey Him with all their strength. Myrrh: to signify that by His own death He should conquer death, and acquire a kingdom in no way to be shaken.

It is evident that by divine revelation they offered these things which they offered to Him. Likewise the Angel, when he was revealed to the shepherds and announced to them, did not preach to them that our Lord was born of a virgin. For what did he say to them? 'I announce to you indeed great joy which shall be to all the world.' And why does he say: 'For today is born to you a Saviour, who is the Lord Christ, in the city of David'? He makes mention of the city of David, to show that in Him who is born today the promises of God to the fathers are fulfilled; and that in Him all peoples shall be blessed, according to the promises to Abraham: 'In thy seed shall all peoples be blessed'; and to show also that upon Him rests and finds its outcome that promise to David:

'Of the fruit of thy womb I will set upon thy throne'; and, 'Of His kingdom there shall be no end'; and, 'The Lord God shall give Him the throne of David His father, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.' And He named Him Lord, because He is the Lord of all creatures by reason of His conjunction with God the Word. 'God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.' He is Christ: because He was set apart and chosen for this work. He Himself is the true Christ: for whereas all princes were anointed with the legal oil, He was anointed by the Holy Spirit. 'Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.' He is Saviour:

because through Him we are now to be redeemed from sin, and from death, and from corruption, and from the servitude of Satan; which therefore is joy to all the world of the nations, who are made worthy of kinship with the Divine; and to the people of Israel, because the promises to their fathers are fulfilled; because all alike are set free from all the afflictions of this world. It is evident that the angels too share with us in joy, in that they also greatly rejoice in our change to virtue.

Nor does the holy Church make commemoration of John the Baptist each year because he was born of old age and barrenness, but on account of the works that were wrought through him, and on account of his perfect and sublime life, and his death which was for the worship of God; so that, while we recall all these things of his to mind, we may be diligent to imitate them as far as is possible, that we may become worthy to attain with him to the delight of heavenly good things. And this we do by celebrating the memory of all the holy fathers and of those who were martyrs for Christ, each in his own order.

We therefore, for this very same reason which I stated beforehand, while we celebrate this glorious and venerable feast of the Nativity of Christ our Lord, do not attend merely to this new manner of His generation outwardly, which was without intercourse — the cause of which we shall indeed state later — but we celebrate it on account of these ineffable good things which have been given to all creatures through Christ, our hope; so that, by cherishing their memory, and by receiving the teaching which concerns them, we may conform our life to the will of their Giver, that we may become worthy to ascend to the heavens, and to become partakers of the good things which are reserved for those who rightly believe and lead their life according to the pattern of their faith. CHAPTER FOUR.

What are the good things that have been given to us through our Lord Christ. It is needful to state what these good things are which have been decreed by God to be given to us through our Lord Christ, and for the establishing of which we assemble today, celebrating this feast. These indeed we learn from the holy angels, who at the time of the Nativity of our Redeemer, crying out with great joy, said thus: 'Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace; and hope to men.' In these three sentences are indicated in summary all the good things that have been given to us through our Lord Christ.

The holy angels, since in respect of creation they are our fellows, when they had seen us fallen from the health of the worship of God, and taken captive by the disease of idol-worship, and utterly wasted away in the service of demons, and sick in the foulness of our works, were grieved and angered; and yet they did not set themselves to do even one of those things that are necessary and useful for our healing; but on the contrary they would have demanded our excision, as of putrid members, and our dismissal from communion with them, had not the Lord of all, the good God, on account of the hope of our amendment and of our conversion to Himself, subjected them to Himself, as it is written:

'The creature indeed was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected it in hope.' They reckoned their labour on our behalf vain and useless so long as we were not in the worship of God our Creator and Benefactor; yet on account of the hope of things to come they persevered in whatever manner in their ministry on our behalf, since God had confirmed in them the hope of our change to virtue, by the cry of the blood of Abel, and by the translation of Enoch, and by the ascension of Elijah, and by the fact that God at no time, nor through generations of generations, ceased to dispense those things which should bring help to our redemption and to our return to the truth.

Rightly, therefore, to them as to sound members of the creation, persevering in the health of love toward their Lord, indignant against sinners, and awaiting the hope of better things, were revealed by God the good things which were decreed to be given to the whole creation through Christ our Lord. And so with great joy they cried out, saying: 'Glory to God in the highest; and peace upon earth; and hope to men.' Unjustly indeed was the praise due to God from men oppressed until now. Mute idols were adored; Satan was worshipped; evil spirits rejoiced; demons were glad; men were shameless and deceivers; in their inclination to base things, at the impulse of the devil they easily perpetrated all evils.

But now, through Him who according to the divine promises was born of the seed of David, the praise due to God from all is restored to Him; He is acknowledged as essentially the most high and supreme of all, the Maker of all and the Benefactor; men are gathered from the dispersion of idol-worship and with one accord turn back from the service of evil spirits; the demons are confounded; the devil falls; men arise; they please their Creator through the knowledge of the truth and through an honest life, and lay aside all their former base things. On account of all these things, there is peace upon the earth, namely because men turn back from the adoration of the work of their own hands, and supremely adore God, the Maker of us and of themselves, conducting themselves according to His will;

and tranquillity and peace and reconciliation reign on earth. For the Creator had been angered against His creatures, and was threatening all men with punishments according to the measure of their misdeeds; but now, through Him who is born, He has toward them a fitting reconciliation. We also, the angels, had been angered against them, as zealous servants of our Lord, and as ministers and attendants of our Benefactor; but now, just as they strive the more to please the Maker of all the world, so we kindle our love toward them, and increase our care for them, and even amplify our solicitude for their benefit, and hold them as sound members, and love them as our dear fellows.

But also all the peoples who had been divided against one another — this one adored the sun, and this one the moon, and another the stars, and another something else, while their enmity against one another was various according to the diverse kinds of those things which were called gods by them — now all possess concord and the love of the worship of God; and together with the people of Israel, who had all even been rejected by Him (God) from participation with all His holy and blessed ones, they are gathered through love and concord, as scattered members into one body of the worship of God, all former discord being dissipated. And man himself has toward himself infinite peace.

For because his body is mortal, and his soul immortal, as much as mortal things are contrary to immortal things, so much is the operation of the body opposed to the soul; but the soul itself, because it is elevated and discerning and immortal, and receives the knowledge of God and the teaching of His precepts, inclines to the work of virtue. The body, however, because it is not rational nor discerning, but is mortal, is drawn to visible things and held by love of them. And so man had within himself an unceasing struggle, which our Lord Christ has resolved, making the body immortal, and rooting out from it every attraction to transient things; and at the same time He bestows firmness upon it and upon the soul;

so that without distress he may be able to do the will of God, and to please Him without hindrance. Now all these riches of peace reign, in that men turn back to their Creator, and glorify and exalt Him alone as the cause of all good things, anxiously taking care to please Him through an honest life: there is the peace of the Creator with His creatures, and of us, the angels, with men, and of all peoples with one another and with the people of Israel, and of man himself with himself. After all these things nothing else is to be expected save the hope of heavenly good things — a hope indeed good for men.

A firm confidence therefore, and a great good hope, of the extirpation of sin, and of deliverance from demons and from the devil, and of release from the law of death, and of the abrogation of the decree of corruptibility, and of resurrection from the dead, and of the gift of immortality, and of participation in incorruptibility, and of the grace of the adoption of sons, and of ascension to the heavens, and of communion with all the saints of God, has been given to us; which things indeed are among those heavenly good things that pass not away nor fail unto eternity.

The good things, therefore, which have been given to us through our Lord Christ, O our venerable brother, for the establishing of which we celebrate this feast today, are these, according to the interpretation of those words which were spoken by them (the angels). For what was better and more excellent for all peoples than to know God their Creator and the cause of all their good things? Nothing of the kind is known to be given. For all the good things of this world, even if found joined together, where the worship of God is not, are nevertheless all alike useless;

but where the worship of God is present, which is shown in the confession of faith and in works, although in some way affliction may be found for a short time, yet all joyful and pleasing things will come together, especially after our departure from this world. For just as when someone wishes to go to the royal court, and when he begins to walk he strays from the way so that he goes out into an uninhabited desert, or even though he carry provisions, however much, these will nevertheless fail and be consumed, and thereupon it will be left to him to die, since he has not reached the place to which he had promised to go:

such is he who strays from the right way and from the worship of the true God, and even all the provision of his life, however much it be at hand for him, will perish, and he will not attain the kingdom of God, but will be punished with unceasing punishment by God. Even if it should happen that he has works which seem good, he is nevertheless like one digging a well in the earth, who yet, however deep he digs, finds no vein of water. For idols have no power to do good to their worshippers. But — someone will say — he does these fair works of his in the name of a god! Certainly, we reply; yet it is plain that no one is a god merely because he calls himself a god. And what gain comes from this? None is known to be given. For if someone is burdened with a debt which he owes to the kingdom by any work whatever;

and while he proceeds to pay it of his own accord, he should see idle men who are wont in certain places to set up one of themselves in the dignity of a king, that they may play before him; and being deceived, should go on and cast before them the money owed to the kingdom: will he not afterwards, at the command of the true king, be seized and bound, since whatever he gave to him who was king in name only, and not in reality, will not be reckoned to his account?

In like manner also he who, bringing his adorations and all things that are owed to the true God, casts them before those who are not gods, but were called by a name not properly theirs at the persuasion of demons — none of these things will be reckoned to his account when he enters into the judgement of God the Maker of all, who alone is God, to whom alone adoration is owed by all creatures. Whosoever therefore does not possess divine knowledge will lose all his joyful things, even though for a time they be found with him; and in this way all his labour will be without profit; and his works which were esteemed fair will be found by him without recompense; and so he will fall into the eternal punishment which awaited all the nations before the coming of Christ.

And it is evident that, although the people of Israel enjoyed kinship with God, to them also there came a great good in the coming of Christ our Lord. For they were raised up from a childish governance; they too were deemed worthy of the perfect knowledge of the Holy Trinity, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are acknowledged in unity. For they did not differ from him who calls the soul and the sun the same thing, being ignorant that, just as the latter has heat and brightness, so the former has mind and reason. If it is great joy to us when we wean an infant and bring him to perfect (solid) food, how much more worthy of exultation is it that the Israelites together with all the nations have attained to the perfect knowledge of the Holy Trinity?

Moreover in shameless morals and in the possession of earthly things they all were so engaged that they did not indeed know God, nor expect good things from Him; just as an infant is drawn to the breast at the time of weaning, so they craved earthly things. But our Lord in His Gospel implanted the expectation of things to come; then indeed they despised and held in contempt the things of this age — which is the greatest good, when it accompanies the worship of God. For a rational man who is seized with love of these perishable riches is like the tongue and the eye on which some amulet were hung for their adornment;

which, since it was no adornment to them, moreover hinders the proper useful operation of each (of the eye and the tongue) and of the whole operation of the body. He is also like a boy to whom a fig, of little use to him, is more pleasant than gems, because he does not know their preciousness. To men, therefore, nothing is so good and useful as this: that they should know God with perfect knowledge, that they should be solicitous only for His precepts, and that they should overcome the attraction to visible things. For thus it will come to pass for them that God too will delight in them, and that the angels will be solicitous for them; they will possess love toward one another, and will become worthy of the felicity that does not pass away, which shall be in the new and indestructible world.

But if there are men who until now have not believed in Christ, or who have believed and do not keep His precepts, this does not happen on His (Christ's) part; for on His part the light of His knowledge has been diffused to all men, and for all the banquet of His good things is prepared. Those, therefore, who do not believe, or who believe and do not act, He accuses in the same manner as one who stands beneath the sun and shuts his eyes so as not to see, and one who, invited to a banquet, hinders his own feet from walking. CHAPTER FIVE. For what reason these very good things were not revealed until now. But now let us go on to treat that question;

for what cause has the coming of Christ — which has been seen to have been so useful to all rational beings — not occurred until now? Was it then because God did not until now know of this (coming)? Or, if He had knowledge of it, was it because He did not have the power to accomplish it? Or if He had both, namely knowledge and power, did He, as one malicious, begrudge us the good things, and therefore put it off until now? For it is either through ignorance, or through impotence, or through malice, that one is hindered from doing good, when he himself is the cause of the delay.

But that God knew from the beginning that He would raise up our Lord Christ is evident from this: that concerning His coming, and concerning the good things which have been given to us through Him, He prophesied beforehand in His promises to the fathers, and through the prophets among the people of Israel. For just as we cannot suppose that God now is ignorant that He will raise us from the dead, from the fact that He has not yet made us rise again; likewise neither can we suppose that He was ignorant that He would manifest our Lord Christ, from the fact that from the beginning He did not in fact do this. But even though He did not in fact accomplish it, He nevertheless foretold concerning it, and types of it were represented among the ancients.

But let us ascend, if it please you, to the beginning of creation, and consider that if, not looking to the future, He had brought it (creation) into existence, He would not have created two heavens to govern the two worlds that were needful. But that He is not powerful — how is it possible to be conceived? For that we should be renewed after we have existed is not so difficult as to bring us into existence when we did not exist at all, since there was not anything from which He should both fashion us and give us subsistence. That He is good is known. For if He had been evil from of old, He would never have turned Himself to goodness, because God possesses all that is His own in immutability.

Is it not indeed that ineffable good, that when we could not of our own accord come into existence, He not only gave us existence, like stones and pieces of wood, but also raised us above the mute animals, and made us discerning and rational, and abundantly gave us power over all visible things? If, then, from the beginning He was good and knowing and powerful, nothing else indeed hindered Him from bringing to effect all our good things, save our own weakness, which could not receive all these things together without prior instruction; and when divine wisdom had seen this, His ineffable goodness governed us by that method which was useful to us.

For if any one of us has a son or a disciple whom he wishes to teach any art that he himself is skilled in, does he not lead him from small things to greater? If he wishes, for example, to instruct him for the clerical office, he first teaches him Aleph, Beth (that is, the separate letters), then a, b, c, d (that is, the letters joined together); then he sets before him words, that he may learn to pronounce syllable by syllable; and after these, the psalms, that he may learn to read by means of them as well; and when he has accomplished this, he teaches him to write a copy (of Holy Scripture), until he learns the text of the sacred Bible. And so after all these things, he hands over to him the volumes of interpretation to be read, that he may attain the sense of the divine books.

If he were to compel the disciple to expound the sense of sentences before he had learned to read, it is evident that, since the disciple would receive no profit, the teacher would seem to be out of his mind; because, when he has not laid the foundation, he strives to set on the roof.

If, then, we mortal and infirm men know how to administer our affairs in such orderly fashion, dealing with our sons and disciples not according to the force of our knowledge, but moderating our teaching among them so that they may be able to receive it, how much more did it befit the Lord of all, most wise and most good, in His administration to temper all things to our benefit and according to our strength, not acting according to His foreknowledge nor according to His power, but according to our own infirmity? And so let us contemplate that ineffable wisdom, how from the beginning it gradually advanced our nature to perfect knowledge, like a merciful father and teacher who descends to the understanding of his disciple.

And so those first generations which were from Adam until Noah, grace constituted in the first grade of the dispensation, after the manner of the first class of children, for whom is written Aleph, Beth, administering all those things which were apt to terrify them and at the same time to exhort them to withdraw from evils and to approach to the doing of good things. Just as we sometimes greatly trouble those children, that through all these things we may educate them to what is fitting, when from them we take occasion to deal with them now in this way, now in another:

So too God, our Creator, who has always shown forth His fatherly mercy toward our race in His boundless kindness, at times inflicted punishment upon sinners — as from the beginning upon Adam and Eve, and upon Cain who slew his own brother — so that, when the report of these things was handed down to later generations, they themselves might be terrified and held back from carrying out their crimes. This indeed we learn from Lamech, who, when he had killed a man unintentionally, was seized with great fear, weeping over himself; and with his wives standing by he lamented, inasmuch as he was about to receive from God that sevenfold punishment of Cain, because he had killed after he had come to know by how evil a judgment the slayer Cain had been delivered up.

At times also God, after the death of the just Abel, made his blood cry out from the earth, in order to show how great a care He has for those who fear Him — since, even after their death, He hears their voice and exacts vengeance upon their oppressors — so that by this He might stir up every man to strive to love and keep His commandments; as we see Enoch did, who was so justified that he was even made worthy to depart from men and to dwell among the living unto this very day. Again, when corruption had little by little advanced in nature before Him, God brought the waters of the flood upon the men of old because of their lewdness and wickedness and their evil deeds.

But He preserved Noah and those who were with him, and gave them laws which those who had lived before them had not been taught: namely, that they should eat whatever was living, as well as herbs, after they had poured out its blood, which in dumb animals holds the place of the soul; just as we too, after a child has learned Aleph, Beth, write joined letters and words, that he may learn to pronounce syllable by syllable. Again, after no small space of time, He chose Abraham the patriarch, and gave him the law of circumcision, and clear promises concerning his posterity — something indeed more excellent than what He had given to the sons of Noah.

After his descendants had endured many evils in the land of Egypt, He led them out from there through various wondrous deeds and gave them various written laws; just as we too, when our sons and disciples have already learned to pronounce syllable by syllable, write out psalms so that they may also learn to read them, and then hand them the codex itself to copy. And after our nature had thus arrived at full stature, so to speak, and had completed its training in those first lessons, then He brought forth the coming of Christ, who would teach the perfection of knowledge and give the hope and expectation of the good things to come;

just as someone, after those lessons which we have set forth, hands to his son the books of interpretation, that he may read and understand the meaning and signification of that which he had previously learned to pronounce and to write. But He did not cease to do toward all generations the very things He had done toward the ancients, inflicting punishment upon the wicked and sinners, and making His own people renowned and noble, and exercising upright governance, for that reason which we have stated before. As, for example, if someone has ten disciples set in the first grade of instruction, namely Aleph, Beth; and one of them leaves off from study and goes out to play in the dunghills;

and another begins to eat and drink, with no concern for his lesson; another reclines and falls asleep; while others fall to chatting in the idle talk of empty jests, caring nothing for what they are commanded to learn; but the rest learn as is fitting, holding nothing more important than to apply themselves to their instruction according to the will of their master — when the former are asked to recite, they will be punished, not because they have not learned to read and to understand the sense of the books, but because they have not recited Aleph, Beth, so to speak, as their more diligent fellow-pupils did.

So too God, the Lord of all, when He shall come to judge and to scrutinize the deeds of men, will not require of the sons of Adam why they were not circumcised, nor of the sons of Noah why they did not keep the Sabbath; but, to speak briefly, He will examine each generation in relation to what was proper to it, repaying every man according to his works, according to the time in which he existed, and according to the laws that were given by God in his days. And just as it is established that God will not require of the ancients the things that belong to those of later times, because in those days they were not present; so also it is established that it did not befit nature to remain in the first grade of the dispensation without progression;

just as it is of no help to a child to study only Aleph, Beth up to old age. To those ancients, then, it did no harm that the coming of Christ was not earlier, since the manner of life which Christ established will not be required of them. But it greatly helped us, because He turned us from error to God, and perfected us in complete knowledge, and sent before us the good things to come, as I have already said above. It appears that this coming took place very wisely at this time, because, if Christ had been manifested beforehand, the ancients could not have received Him; just as also one who has only now begun in the discipline of pronouncing syllables does not have knowledge sufficient to understand the sense of the books of interpretation.

But if anyone should say that God could have implanted all those branches of knowledge in us from the very beginning, without gradual training, he errs; because, while he wishes to free himself from labor, he casts himself down into the order of the irrational creatures, to which all that they possess belongs naturally, without exercise — as honey-making belongs to bees, and chastity to turtledoves. We say, indeed, that none of these kinds is worthy either of praise or of reproach, of good reward or of punishment. And this would likewise have come to pass with us, if without exercise we had received, already from our very creation, that life which lacks nothing; wherefore it was needful that we should first be inclined; it was necessary that he who learns by exercising should be led from small things to greater.

But behold, someone will say: He created us inclined to evil, and for this cause we sinned; why then does He judge us as sinners? Who is judged for being inclinable? By no means, not anyone at all! For inclinability and sin are not the same thing. We call it inclinability when someone chooses to do the one thing, while he can be inclined equally toward two;

but we reckon it as sin when someone — though he judges in his own understanding, or learns from the commandments of God, or even when he is able to judge and to know that something ought not to be done — nevertheless neglects and tramples upon his own understanding, and despises the divine commandments, and, for the sake of his temporary gain, or because of his evil will toward his neighbor, or for any other cause whatever, does that which he himself indeed understood, or could have understood, ought not to be done, and which to do is forbidden by the divine command.

God will judge no one because he is inclined toward what is unlawful, but because, when he could have restrained himself from doing what ought not to be done, he nevertheless committed it, and did not do, for whatever cause, what ought to have been done. But if anyone should say: had He not created us inclinable, we should not indeed have sinned! — we answer: but neither should we have been justified. For just as, if He had created you such that you could not please God, there would be no sin for you; in like manner, if He had so framed you that you could not sin, there would be no righteousness for you. But now, because you can look equally toward either as often as you wish, there is for you both sin and righteousness. Sin:

because, although you could have pleased God, as also the other men who throughout each generation pleased Him and did His will, you followed your own lusts, while what is just was no concern to you. Likewise righteousness: because, although you could have gained good things, you esteemed fairness and the worship of God above all things. Therefore for the former you will be reproached and will receive punishment; but for the latter you will be praised and held worthy of the enjoyment of good things. But if we call dumb animals, or creatures not endowed with senses, 'inclinable,' we so name them metaphorically, instead of saying that they are of a changeable nature. Of rational beings, however, inclinability is predicated in the manner I have spoken of above.

If then someone should say that God could have wrought both things in us — namely, to make us from the very beginning not inclinable, and to implant in us the knowledge of discerning all that is permitted, without experience in other things — this man assuredly does not know what he is saying, nor does he understand what he is demanding. For whatever we can imagine as existing, we find existing in one of these modes, and outside these modes nothing exists otherwise, nor can it exist. There exists God, the Maker of us all; there exist rational beings, who are all divided into two orders, of the visible and of the invisible; there exist all the dumb animals; and there exist creatures that are not living and not endowed with senses. But to God nothing like is given, nor will be given.

For how can a created being be like the Creator? — since it could not even give existence to itself; and how can a created being be without beginning? — since, behold, it came into existence at some time, and before it existed it did not exist. Or how is the nature of that thing not limited, whose time of existence is limited? For it behooves us to be unable to imagine any time, or any other extension whatsoever, before the existence of Him whose nature is constrained by nothing. But these things all belong to God alone: that He made all creatures exist when they did not exist, while He Himself exists essentially and from eternity, before all ages and times that can come into mind, and that His nature is uncircumscribed and infinite.

Likewise, as can be concluded from all these things, it is impossible to conceive that a created being should know anything unless it has received it from another or learned it by experience, and that it should be just as it is at all times and at every moment that can come into mind, without undergoing any change in any manner whatever. For these too are properties of God which no creature can attain. For where one of these is found, that very coherence necessarily requires that all of them be found. Therefore it is great audacity, and pertains to the shamelessness of Satan, when someone says: 'It would be fine if we were not inclinable and changeable, and possessed all branches of knowledge distinctly from the beginning.' This man knows that he is seeking to rise to the rank of God;

and this deserves as great a punishment as one can name; and, to speak briefly, he who speaks thus deserves to be returned to nothing. If, then, it was impossible for us to be established in such a rank, should we therefore demand to become like stones and wood, and the four elements and the like, which are not inclined to sin? But if you ask this of any rational being whatsoever, you will find that he and all others alike refuse it; no one wishes to become even like the sun, which does not know itself, though it shine well. For from the fact that, if we will, we may in many ways kindle fire from it, it is plain that fire belongs to the sun's nature; it is plain also that fire comes forth from stones;

but it is manifest that whatever is hidden in the midst of stones is not living nor endowed with senses, nor does any rational being desire to be such. And if not this, do we then ask to become like dumb animals, to which neither sin is imputed nor righteousness, whatever their manners may be? For we do not reproach the cock, however much he treads the hens; nor do we praise the turtledove because it mates only with one; nor do we say that the she-ass deserves punishment because she so often conceives offspring; nor do we call the mule blessed, which neither couples nor conceives at all. Thus neither do we say that the other species of dumb animals have sin or righteousness in their works. But we find that all rational beings refuse this latter state just as they refused the former.

And all these things were created for this reason: both that they might furnish us with knowledge and many uses, and also that through them we might learn of what blessedness the Creator of all has made us worthy, who did not create us like one of them; and that we might give thanks for His fatherly love toward our race. What follows from this? If it is impossible for us to become like God, and if we do not choose for ourselves to become like the kinds of beasts or like one of the creatures not endowed with senses, what remains for us, except to give thanks to God in word and in deeds, as far as we are able, because He thus honored and exalted us above all visible things, and also brought us up and made us partakers of His own as far as was fitting? But if anyone should say:

why did He not create us in the likeness of the angels? Behold, they too are inclinable, just as we are; for all the demons, and the devil, are indeed from those orders — and yet they sinned. But it was profitable for our instruction that we men should be composed out of the whole creation, of things visible and invisible; so that we might learn through our very selves, and the angels likewise through us, that there is one God, the Maker of all creatures visible and invisible. For unless it had been so done, it would seem to us that there are as many makers as there are species of natures.

But now, since the wise Maker has gathered together all the various species of creation in one living being, man the rational, it is plainly known that, although the natures be various and the creatures manifold, yet their maker is one — He who gathered them all together and bound them up in one man, who is composed of all these. But behold, someone will say, since we are inclinable, many sin; and for this cause they will be delivered into Gehenna for unceasing punishment. What profit is it that they were rational and endowed with understanding, since they are unworthy of the heavenly good things?

He who speaks thus ought to consider this, that those who sinned could have not sinned, after the manner of those others who pleased God, since they are of the same nature as they. Therefore, because they willingly held the divine commandments in contempt and despised them, they are justly deprived of heavenly happiness. Nevertheless it is far higher and more excellent to be someone in Gehenna than not to be a rational and discerning being. If my word is not believed, let us see from the facts, and let us question the blind man, who neither sees nor delights in the splendid light of the perceptible sun. Let us see what he would choose for himself: to remain as he is, or to become an ass that has large eyes and sees excellently.

But, you will say, he is blind, and his defect is not so very evil. Be it so; yet who in this world is more abased than the leper? Even so, if you question him, you will find him asking to remain in his pains, rather than to be transformed into a camel, for example, or into anything else of the kind. In like manner those who go into Gehenna and fall into diverse punishments because of their hateful deeds, give thanks unceasingly to the kindness of their benefactor, that He did not turn them into nothing, as they deserved, nor make them after the manner of dumb animals, nor after the manner of creatures not endowed with senses.

As for the fact that they are deprived of ascending to heaven and being numbered with the just, this they impute to their own works, conscious that they have no excuse; so that for this they unceasingly praise the divine justice. But with regard to what I said above — namely, that where there is knowledge of every thing without any experience, and stability in the same without any change in any way whatever, all these things must necessarily belong to God — someone perhaps will think this to be false, on the very ground that we believe all rational beings will receive perfect knowledge after the resurrection from the dead, and will remain forever unchangeable. How greatly this differs from that is plain to those who hear with understanding.

For I said that knowledge of every thing without any experience, and stability in the same at whatever time can come into mind, is never found among us; but, behold, long since in this world we have had experience in many things, and have been changed by changes not at all small. In this, therefore, we are not like God. O our venerable brother, however insufficient one may call this treatise, yet if he consider it diligently, he will be able to know that I have said, however briefly, all the things that pertain to this chapter. CHAPTER SIX. It was needful to take some mediator through whom we might receive from God those great good things. Let us therefore show that it was impossible to receive those good things and to possess them without someone's mediation.

For just as, if they had been revealed from the beginning, we should have gained none of them, since we could not have known them because of our childhood and these causes which we have mentioned; in like manner, if at this time God, the Lord of all, had not in His wisdom made use of someone's mediation, the possession of them would not have come to us. For if God had been visible, it would have sufficed for our instruction to have seen Him. But now, because He is not visible, it is impossible for us to learn about Him without someone's mediation. Although it is said by the prophets that they saw the Lord, yet it is plain that they did not see His nature. For 'grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,' says John. Why did he say 'grace and truth'?

Because 'no one has ever seen God.' He who dwells in resplendent light, 'whom no one of men has seen, nor can see.' By these words holy Paul teaches us that the ancients never saw God, nor do those of the last days see Him — neither men, that is, nor the invisible powers. Everything that is visible is seen either in part or in whole. The earth we have seen in part, and the heaven and the sea; and although we have seen only a part of each, because our vision is not sufficient to comprehend the four regions, we say, 'we see heaven and earth and sea.' But in whole we see all small things, as, for example, stones and trees and the like, because of their smallness.

And yet it is impossible for us to see God in part, after the manner of earth and heaven, because He is not composite, and is not constituted of parts. Nor again does He fall under vision after the manner of small things; because He is infinite and at the same time uncircumscribed. And if we should ask to see Him as He is, we should only be desiring our own destruction. For who is there that drops a little wax into a furnace of fire and will find it again? Or who is there that casts a handful of dust into the great sea, and will be able to know what has become of it?

And if among these things, although they are all created, there are some that devour and destroy one another if they come near, or if the one falls into the other, much more should we be consumed — and indeed more quickly than wax melts in fire or a handful of dust vanishes in many waters — if our vision should even fall upon God, the Maker of all, who is infinite in His Deity and unspeakable in His glory. For just as, by reason of its breadth and extent, the abyss of the great sea is unexplorable, and no one can cross over it without the help of a ship or a small boat — so neither can any man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . without the help of someone through whom he may be directed to the knowledge of the Invisible.

For if, although the soul is created and limited, yet because we do not see it we cannot know its will, nor indeed its very existence, so long as it does not work through some one of the members of the body — how much less could we receive teaching, or learn the will, of Him who is the Maker of all and incomprehensible, without His revelation made through one of His creatures. Rightly therefore did God, who wills our good according to the abounding riches of His grace, not make His revelation to us without someone's mediation, but took from us a perfect man for His revelation to us, and taught us through him perfect knowledge of His nature and of His will, and promised us heavenly good things that do not pass away.

CHAPTER SEVEN. For what causes our Lord God took nothing else for His revelation at this time except a man from among us. Let us therefore state these causes for which at this time a man from among us was needful for the divine revelation. For the question is asked: why did God make His revelation to us through a perfect man taken from our own race, and not, as to the ancient fathers, through fire, or through a cloud, or through some one of the parts of creation? We say, then: God did not make His revelation to us at this time through any of these parts, for this very cause, that He had already been revealed through them to our fathers. For just as from the beginning God founded the whole creation part by part;

and then at last, when nothing was lacking, gathered it into one man, after whom He created nothing new: in like manner also now, after He had been made known part by part to our fathers in the first generations, He gathered, in these last times, all the parts of all His revelations into this man whom He took from among us; after whom He will be revealed in no other, inasmuch as in Him all former things were consummated; and He Himself will remain forever, indissolubly. For when He willed to make a partial redemption, and sought to teach a doctrine suited to children, and willed to relieve a temporary need, He duly completed His revelation to the beginners through some part of creation.

But now, because He willed to bring forth a perfect redemption that would profit the whole creation, and it pleased Him to teach a wholly perfect doctrine, He rightly took, as the bond of the whole creation, a man perfect in body and soul, and in whom all creatures visible and invisible are contained. Again, because Adam the first man, the father of all men, from the beginning of his formation hearkened to the devil and transgressed the divine command, and was condemned by God to the judgment of death — which, as a kind of debt, extended itself and was transmitted to all his posterity;

and because these men more strongly confirmed upon themselves the judgment of death, through their diverse inventions of idolatries and of manifold sins, by despising love toward their neighbors, and holding in contempt the honor due to parents, and even neglecting the observances of the law of Moses — for all these things it was needful that there should arise a man partaking of the same nature, their brother, of the lineage of Adam the first man; who, being altogether just and without spot in all his manners, might take away from us the judgment of death, and loose and abolish sin, and rescue us from the servitude of Satan and of the demons, and free us from the curse of the law of Moses, and promise us immortal life in the resurrection from the dead.