Thus, Telemachus, being alone with his father, is called the beloved.

30) Some of the followers of Samosata, separating the Word from the Son, say that the Son is Christ, and the other is the Word, and as a pretext for this they take a passage from the Acts, and what Peter said beautifully, they understand badly. Here is this passage: The Word of the ambassador to the son of Israel, preaching the gospel of peace to Jesus Christ. This is the Lord of all (10:36). For they say: "The Word spoke through Christ, as it is said of the prophets: This is what the Lord says; but there was one prophet, and another was the Lord." To this we can object with a similar passage in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "Those who wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also establish you even to the end who are innocent in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1:7). As it is not another Christ who establishes the day of another Christ, but Himself in His day that confirms those who wait, so the Father sent the Word, made flesh, so that the man who came into being might preach by Himself. That is why the Apostle adds immediately after this: "This is the Lord of all." And the Lord of all is the Word.

(31) And Moses said to Aaron, "Come to the altar, and do your sin for your sake, and your burnt offering, and pray for yourself and for your house: and make the gifts of men, and pray for them, as the Lord commanded Moses" (Lev. 9:7). Thus, if Blessed Peter speaks of the Word of God sent to the children of Israel by Jesus Christ, then it is necessary to understand not another under the name of the Word, but another under the name of Christ, but one and the same because of unity in His Divine and humane condescension and incarnation. But if it is understood in two ways, then without the separation of the Word, as the divine John also said: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us." For this reason, what Blessed Peter said well and correctly, misunderstanding and misunderstanding, the followers of Samosata do not stand in the truth. In the Divine Scriptures, the name "Christ" refers to both together, for example, when it is said: "Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24). Therefore, if Peter says that the Word was sent to the children of Israel by Jesus Christ, then let this be understood in the sense that the incarnate Word appeared to the children of Israel, so that it would be in accordance with what was said: and the Word was made flesh. If, however, they understand differently and, confessing the Word of God as He is, the man He has taken upon Himself, with whom we believe He has been united, separate Him from Him, saying that He was sent by Jesus Christ, then they do not understand that they contradict themselves. For here they understand the Word of God separately from the Divine Incarnation, and therefore they belittle it, hearing that the Word was flesh, and they reason in a pagan way, because they really assume that the Divine Incarnation is a change of the Word. 489

(32) But there is no change. Let it not be so! Just as John preaches here an ineffable unity after the dead have been devoured by life, and by life from the end, as the Lord said to Martha: "I am life" (John 11:25), so Blessed Peter, when he says that the Word was sent by Jesus Christ, thereby signifies Divine unity. Just as he who hears that the Word was made flesh will not think that the Word is no longer there (which, according to what has been said before, is absurd), so he who hears that the Word was united with the flesh, let him understand the one simple Divine mystery. But the unity of God, the Word, and man, will be shown more clearly and indubitable than any reasoning, as the Archangel said to the Mother of God Herself; For He says, The Holy Spirit shall come upon Thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow Thee: to the same shall he that be born holy shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). Therefore the followers of Samosata unwisely separate the Word when it is clearly proved that He was united to man from Mary. He was not sent by the Word, but the Word that dwells in Him sent, saying, "Go and teach all nations" (Matthew 28:19).

(33) And often in Scripture speech is expressed in a loose and simple way. Thus, one will find it in the book of Numbers; it is said, Moses spake unto Raguel the Midianite, the father-in-law of Moses, Num. 10:29. It is not one Moses who says this, but another to whom Raguel was a father-in-law, but Moses is one and the same. If in this way the Word of God calls Himself Wisdom, power, right hand, arm, and other such names, and if, through love for mankind, He enters into unity with us, putting on our firstfruits and merging with it, then it follows that one and the same Word has justly taken upon Himself other names. John's saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and He was to God, and is God Himself, and 490 all things are nothing without Him," clearly shows that man is also a creature of the Word of God. Therefore, if, taking upon Himself this incarnate one, He renews him with firm renewal for endless abide, and for this reason unites with him, raising him to the Divine lot, then can it be said that the Word was sent by man from Mary, and the Lord of the Apostles can be numbered among the other Apostles, that is, among the prophets sent by Him? How can an ordinary person be called Christ? But, being united with the Word, He is justly called Christ and the Son of God, just as the prophet of old clearly proclaimed in Him the Father's hypostasis and said of Him: "I will send My Son Christ." And on the Jordan it was declared: This is My beloved Son. For, having fulfilled the promise, the Father, not without reason, indicated that He was the One whom He had promised to send.

(34) Wherefore by the name of Christ we understand both together, that is, the Word of God, united in Mary to Him who is of Mary; for in Her womb the Word made Himself a house, as in the beginning from the land of Adam, or rather, more divine than this. Of this also Solomon, knowing clearly that the Word is also called Wisdom, says: "Wisdom shall make unto Thee a house" (Proverbs 9:1); and the Apostle, explaining this, says: "Of His house we are" (Hebrews 3:6); and in another place he calls the same house a temple, because it is fitting for God to dwell in the temple, the image of which he commanded the Old Testament to create through Solomon from stones: why did the image cease with the manifestation of the truth? For when the ungrateful set out to assert that the image is truth itself, and to destroy the true temple, which we firmly believe is the union of the Godhead and humanity, then he did not threaten them, but, knowing that they were daring to rise up against themselves, he said, "Destroy this church, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:10). And by this our Saviour clearly showed that everything that people plan soon comes to ruin. For if the Lord does not build a house, and preserve the city, those who build it labor in vain, and watch over it (Psalm 126:1). Therefore, the Jewish collapsed, because there was a shadow; but the Church was established, because it was founded on rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18). It was the custom of the Jews to say, "How can thou, O man, make unto thyself God" (John 10:33)? And Samosatsky is their student. Because (and naturally) he teaches to his own people, which he himself has learned. But we do not have such information about Christ, if we have listened to Him Himself and learned from Him, putting aside the old man, which decays in the lusts of the delightful, and having put on the new, created according to God in righteousness and the likeness of truth (Ephesians 4:22-24). Therefore, piously imagine that Christ is both together.

35) If the Scriptures in many places call the body of Christ Christ, for example, when Blessed Peter says to Cornelius: "Jesus, who is of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 10:38), and also to the Jews: "Jesus of Nazareth, the man of God known in you" (2:22); and also Blessed Paul to the Athenians: "O Man, Whom thou hast ordained, giving faith to all, having raised Him from the dead" (17:31); we find that the message and the epistle in many places mean one and the same thing with the anointing; wherefore it may be understood from this that there is no disagreement in the words of the saints, but that they call the union of God the Word with man from Mary in different ways, namely, sometimes by anointing, sometimes by the 492 epistle, and sometimes by the announcement — then what Blessed Peter said has the right meaning and preaches the true Divinity of the Only-begotten, without separating the hypostasis of God the Word from man from Mary. Let it not be so! For how would he begin to separate who has heard many times: I and the Father are one, and He who has seen Me in the form of the Father? For this reason, even after the Resurrection, the same body, with the door shut, enters into the general assembly of the apostles, and what seemed incredible in this, he resolves, saying: "Touch me, and see: for the spirit hath not flesh and bone, as ye see me possessing" (Luke 24:39). He did not say, "Touch this body or the person whom I have received," but, "Me." Why can no excuse be found by the Samosatsky, who denies the unity of God the Word in the testimony of so many, and of God the Word Himself, Who addresses His gospel to all, certifying it by eating food and allowing Him to be touched, which of course was done, because when He gave or served Him food, they undoubtedly touched the hands. It is said, "And they gave Him a portion of the fish baked and of the honeycomb bees, and having eaten before them, and having taken the rest, He gave it to them" (vv. 42-43). And so, if not as Thomas touched Him, then in another tangible way, He confirmed them. But if you want to see the sores, then learn from Thomas; for it was said to him, "Bring thy hand, and put it into my side, and bring thy finger, and see my hands" (John 20:27). By naming His ribs and hands, God the Word shows Himself as a whole, both man and God; for the Word, as can be understood, now makes Himself felt holy through the body, when He enters through the closed door, suddenly appearing with the body and allowing them to be ascertained. Let it be said as sufficient 493 for the strengthening of the faithful and for the correction of the unbelievers.

36) Let Paul of Samosata also be enlightened, heeding the Divine voice that says: "My body, and there is no other Christ besides Me the Word; He is with Me, and I with Him; for the anointing is I the Word, and that which I have anointed is man. Therefore without Me he would not be called Christ; but He is called, because He is with Me, and I am in Him." Therefore the message of the Word referred to signifies His union with Jesus, who was born of Mary; Jesus, as this name is interpreted, is the Savior not in any other way, but in union with God the Word. This saying means the same as the words: "The Father who sent me" (John 8:18), and "I did not come for myself, but the Father sent me" (42). The union with man, in which it was possible to give people knowledge of the invisible nature by means of the visible nature, he called the epistle. God, when He shows His existence in the flesh under the image of our smallness, does not change His place, like we who hide in some place. For how can He who fills heaven and earth change place? But because of His appearance in the flesh, the saints called it an epistle, and then God the Word Himself called it. Thus, from Mary the God-Man is Christ, not another Christ, but one and the same. He is from the Father before the ages, and He is from the Virgin before the ages, formerly invisible to the holy heavenly powers, and now visible by reason of union with visible man, and visible, I mean, not by the invisible Godhead, but by the action of the Godhead, by means of the human body and the whole man, whom He renewed by appropriation to Himself. To Him be honored and worshipped, before and now, and always, and forever and ever! Amen.