Οὗτος γὰρ ὁ νῦν σοι καταφρονούμενος, ἦν ὅτε καὶ ὑπὲρ σὲ ἦν· ὁ νῦν ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἀσύνθετος ἦν. ὃ μὲν ἦν, διέμεινεν· ὃ δὲ οὐκ ἦν, προσέλαβεν. ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ἀναιτίως· τίς γὰρ αἰτία θεοῦ; ἀλλὰ καὶ ὕστερον γέγονε δι’ αἰτίαν ἡ δὲ ἦν τὸ σὲ σωθῆναι τὸν ὑβριστήν, ὃς διὰ τοῦτο περιφρονεῖς θεότητα, ὅτι τὴν σὴν παχύτητα κατεδέξατο) διὰ 2 χαμαιπετὲς] χαμερπὲς bef || 4 εναπομενης c 3. συνανιέναι θ.] ’to move upwards — or perh. to grow up — with ’ The words do not necessarily imply that θεότης ἄνεισι, and there is no ref. to the Ascension. 4. ἐναπομένοις] Ἐναπομένειν is ‘to remain on, to remain to the end, in.’ 5. φύσεως λόγος] ’what is the law of His (true, Divine) Nature.’ 6. οἰκονομίας] of accommodation to our circumstances. The word is very freq. used by the fathers in ref. to the Incarnation: see Suicer s.υ., and Sophocles' Lexicon. 19. He was not always, what He became for our sakes; and He ever retained the nature which was originally His. The words which indicate His self-emptying are always balanced by others which indicate His divine glory. 7. καὶ ὑπὲρ σε] ‘even abpve you.’ 8. ὃ μὲν ἢν, διέμεινεν] Cp. Zeno Ver. Serm. ii de Nat. saluo quod erat, meditatur esse quod non erat. St Austin plays upon the same formula in many of his Christmas sermons. See also Leo Serm. xxi de Nat. Dei § 2. 9. ἀναιτίως] It appears like a contradiction of what Gr. has said in ξξ 3. 15. But the sentences which follow shew that Gr. is thinking here of αἰτία in the sense of a final cause. 10. γέγονε] as in the N.T. = ἐγένετο. 12. διὰ μέ σου νοός] Cp. Or. ii 23 θεὸς σαρκὶ διὰ μέσης ψυχῆς ἀνεκράθη, καὶ συνεδέθη τὰ διεστῶτα τῆ πρὸς ἄμφω τοῦ μεσιτεύοντος οἰκειότητι. In Or. xxxviii, after shewing in § 10 how creatures endowed with mind have an affinity with God which other creatm-es have not, Gr. says in § 13 that the Eternal Word was incarnate διὰ μέσης ψυχῆς νοερᾶς μεσιτευούσης θεότητι καὶ σαρκὸς παχύτητι. We cannot imagine an ’incarnation ’ of the Word in an irrational thing. μέσου νοὸς ὁμιλήσας σαρκί, καὶ γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος, ὁ κάτω θεός· ἐπειδὴ συνανεκράθη θεῷ, καὶ γέγονεν εἷς, τοῦ κρείττονος ἐκνικήσαντος, ἵνα γένωμαι τοσοῦτον θεός, ὅσον ἐκεῖνος ἄνθρωπος. ἐγεννήθη μέν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐγεγέννητο· ἐκ γυναικὸς μέν, ἀλλὰ καὶ παρθένου. τοῦτο ἀνθρώπινον, ἐκεῖνο θεῖον. ἀπάτωρ ἐντεῦθεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀμήτωρ ἐκεῖθεν. ὅλον τοῦτο θεότητος. ἐκυοφορήθη μέν, ἀλλ’ ἐγνώσθη προφήτῃ καὶ αὐτῷ κυοφορουμένῳ, καὶ προσκιρτῶντι τοῦ λόγου, ὃν ἐγένετο. ἐγένετο. ἐσπαργανώθη μέν, ἀλλ’ ἀποσπαρ- γανοῦται τὰ τῆς ταφῆς ἀνιστάμενος. ἐν φάτνῃ μὲν ἀνεκλίθη, ἀλλ’ ὑπ’ ἀγγέλων ἐδοξάσθη, καὶ ὑπ’ ἀστέρος ἐμηνύθη, καὶ ὑπὸ μάγων προσεκυνήθη. πῶς σὺ προσπταίεις τῷ βλεπομένῳ, μὴ σκοπῶν τὸ νοούμενον; ἐφυγαδεύθη μὲν εἰς 19. 2 συνανεκράθη] συνεκράθη b || 4 γεγέννητο c || 9 ἐγίνετο e || 10 ανεκλιθη] ἀνεκλήθη a: ἐτέθη b 1. γενόμενος Ἴ’., ὁ κάτω θεός] ‘was made man, the earthly God.’ Gr. is fond of dwelling upon the intrinsic divinity of man. Cp. Or. xxxviii 7 ἵνα...ὡς οἰκείοις ἤδη προσομιλῇ . . . θεὸς ἑνούμενός τε καὶ γνωριζόμενος. Here, the description of man as ὁ κάτω θεός is prepared for by the words διὰ μέσου νοός. 2. συνανεκράθη θεῶ Cp. iv 2 ἐχρίσθη θεότητι; iv 3 θεῷ πλακῆναι καἰ γεμέσθαι θεὸν ἐκ τῆς μίξεως. The language, if pressed, would imply that Christ was a human person, taken into union with a divine one. This would, of course, be erroneous, and Gr. 's own words immediately before shew that he perfectly understood the Person of our Lord to be divine first, and then by condescension human. Prob. the nom. to συνανεκράθη is strictly supplied from ἄνθρωπος, ὁ κ. θεός, not from ὁ νῦν σοι καταφρονούμενος. The humanity of Christ undoubtedly συνανεκρ. θεῷ. Put the humanity of Christ, impersonal except by virtue of His assumption of it, is not exactly described by the term ἄνθρωπος. The rise of Nestorianism, which was after Gr.'s time, would have suggesed more careful phraseology; and it may be added that a fear of the still later Eutychianism might have made Gr. modify the words συνανεκράθη and τοῦ κρείττονος ἐκνικησαντος. 3. ἵνα γένωμαι] It is perh. somewhat νεανικόν to speak of our becoming Gods ‘to the same extent’ as Christ is man; but doubtless Gr. would explain that he spoke of men in proportion to heir capacity; or perh., in view of what follows, τοσοῦτον means ’as truly.’ He uses the same phrase in Or. xl 45. 4. ἐγεψννητο] ‘He had been begotten before,’ i.e. eternally. 7. ὅλον τοῦτο] both the ἀπάτωρ ἐντ’. and the ἀμήτωρ ἐκ. ib. ἐγνώσθη προφ.] Luke i 41. 9. ἀποσπαργανοῦται τὰ τῆς τ.] Luke xxiv 12, John xx 6 f. 11. ὐπ’ ἀγγ. ἐδοξάσθη] Luke ii 9 f. Αἴγυπτον, ἀλλὰ φυγαδεύει τὰ Αἰγυπτίων. οὐκ εἶχεν εἶδος οὐδὲ κάλλος παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις, ἁλλὰ τῷ Δαβὶδ ὡραῖος ἦν κάλλει παρὰ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἀλλ’ ἐπὶ τοῦ ὄρους ἀστράπτει, καὶ ἡλίου φωτοειδέστερος γίνεται, τὸ μέλλον μυσταγωγῶν.