To the Monks of Constantinople, Against the Charge of Two Sons

There is nothing new or surprising in this: the men who have made their tongues weapons against our God and Savior also aim the arrows of their lies at his servants who think rightly. Servants who grieve bitterly at the outrage done to their Master are bound to share in it. Their Lord himself warned them that it would be so, when he comforted his holy disciples with the words, “If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you too,” and, “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!” Then he cheered them by showing that slander is easily found out, for he went on, “There is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be known.” I have often seen the truth of this divine prediction, but I see it with special clearness now. The authors of the slander against me, who paid large sums of money to buy my ruin, have plainly been shown to be caught up in the unsound teaching of Valentinus and Bardesanes. They had hoped to hide their own wickedness, if only they could sharpen their tongues on the whetstone of falsehood and wound me. For ever since I saw that this heresy, put out long ago, had been revived by these men, I have never stopped crying aloud and bearing my witness, in private and in public, in social gatherings as well as in the temples of God, striving to refute their conspiracy against the faith. So they have poured their insults on my head, and they claim that I preach two sons. But they ought to have proved their charge to my face, not slandered me behind my back. They have done just the opposite. They tied me hand and foot at Cyrrhus by the imperial decree; they made those most righteous judges condemn me without a trial; and they passed their most fair-minded sentence on a man some seven hundred miles away. No criminal charged with sorcery or with robbing the dead, no murderer and no adulterer, was ever treated like this. But for now I will leave the judges alone, for the Lord is at hand, “who judges the world with righteousness and the people with his truth,” and who calls to account not only words and deeds but even evil thoughts. Still, I think it right to refute the false charge that has been made. What proof do they have that I assert two sons? If I had been one of the silent kind, there might have been some ground for the suspicion. But my task has been to contend for the decrees of the apostles and to bring the pasture of instruction to the Lord’s flocks. To that end I have written thirty-five books, interpreting the divine Scripture and exposing the falsehood of the heresies. So the lies these men have made up are easy to refute. Tens upon tens of thousands of hearers bear witness that I have taught the true doctrines of the Gospel, and my writings lie open to the world for anyone who cares to test them. It is not for a pair of sons but for the only Son of God that I have never stopped struggling: against the pagans, against the Jews, against those who have caught the plague of Arius and Eunomius, against the supporters of the madness of Apollinarius, against the victims of the corruption of Marcion. I try to convince the pagans that the eternal Son of the ever-living God is himself the Creator of the universe; the Jews, that it was about him that the prophets spoke their predictions; the Arians and Eunomians, that he is of one substance, of one dignity and of equal power with the Father; and Marcion’s mad followers, that he is not only good but just, and the Savior, not of another’s works, as they fable, but of his own. In a word, in fighting each heresy I urge people to fall down and worship the one Son. [a]

And what need is there of many words, when falsehood can be refuted in a few? We see to it that those who come forward for holy baptism each year carefully learn the faith set out at Nicaea by the holy and blessed Fathers. Then, initiating them as we have been commanded, we baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, pronouncing each name separately. Further, when we perform divine service in the churches, at the beginning and at the close of the day, and when we divide the day itself into three parts, we glorify the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If, as our slanderers claim, we preach two sons, which one do we glorify, and which do we leave without worship? It would be the wildest folly to believe that there are two sons and to give the doxology to one alone. And who is so out of his mind that, hearing the words of the divine Paul, “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” and again, “there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things,” he would lay down a law at odds with the teaching of the Spirit and cut the one in two? But I am chattering needlessly, for these men, raised on falsehood as they are, do not even dare to claim that they have ever heard me say anything of the kind. They say that I preach two sons because I confess the two natures of our Master Christ. They refuse to see that every human being has both an immortal soul and a mortal body; yet no one has ever been found to call Paul two Pauls because he has both soul and body, any more than to call Peter two Peters, or Abraham or Adam two. Everyone recognizes that the natures are distinct, and no one calls one man two Pauls. In exactly the same way, when we call our Lord Jesus Christ the only Son of God, God the Word made flesh, both Son of God and Son of Man, as the divine Scripture has taught us, we do not assert two sons; but we do confess what properly belongs to the Godhead and what properly belongs to the humanity. Those, however, who deny the nature he took from us human beings cannot hear these arguments without irritation. [i]

It is only right that I should show the sources from which they have drawn this impiety. Simon, Menander, Cerdo and Marcion deny the incarnation outright, and call the birth from a virgin a fable. Valentinus, Basilides, Bardesanes, Harmonius and their followers accept the Virgin’s conception and the birth; but they deny that God the Word took anything from the Virgin. They say he passed through her, as it were, as through a pipe, and appeared to mankind in appearance only, seeming to be a man, just as he was seen by Abraham and by certain others of the ancients. Arius and Eunomius, on the other hand, held that he took a body, but that the Godhead played the part of the soul, so that they could attribute to the Godhead whatever was lowly in his words and deeds. Apollinarius did indeed say that he took a soul along with the body; not the reasoning soul, however, but the soul that is called animal or vegetable. The Apollinarians contend that the Godhead took the place of the mind. He learned the distinction between soul and mind from the philosophers outside the church, while divine Scripture says that man consists of soul and body. For we read, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” And the Lord in the holy Gospels said to his apostles, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul.” [l]

So great is the difference between these doctrines. These men have now done their best to outdo Apollinarius, Arius and Eunomius in impiety, and have set out to plant afresh the heresy sown long ago by Valentinus and Bardesanes and afterward rooted up by the finest of farmers. Like Valentinus and Bardesanes, they have denied that our Lord’s body was taken from our nature. But the church, following in the footsteps of the apostles, sees in the Lord Christ both perfect Godhead and perfect humanity. For just as he took a body, not because he needed a body, but so that through it he might give immortality to all bodies, so too he took a soul, the guide of the body, so that through it every soul might share his unchangeableness. For even if souls are immortal, they are still not unchangeable. They undergo many and frequent changes, as they take pleasure now in one thing and now in another; and so it happens that we go wrong when we are changed and lean toward what is worse. But after the resurrection our bodies enjoy immortality and incorruption, and our souls enjoy freedom from suffering and from change. For this reason the only Son of God took both a body and a soul, kept them free from all blame, and offered the sacrifice for our race. That is why he is called our high priest; and he is named high priest not as God but as man. As man he makes the offering, and as God he receives the sacrifice together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. If Adam’s body alone had sinned, it alone should have received the cure. But the soul not only shared in the sin; it was first in the sin, for the thought first forms a picture of the sin and then carries it out by means of the body. So it was only just, I think, that the soul should be healed too. But perhaps it is unnecessary to prove these points by reasoning, when the divine Scripture proclaims them plainly. This doctrine is clearly taught by holy David and by the most divine Peter, the one foretelling it ages before, and the other interpreting his prediction. The words of the first of the apostles are: “Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, David, seeing this beforehand, spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, nor did his flesh see corruption.” [o]

In these few words he has given us much teaching on the same point. First, he states that the nature that was taken is descended from the loins of David. Second, that he took not a body only but also an immortal soul. Third, that he gave both body and soul up to death, and after taking them again raised them up as he willed. His own words are, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” But we have learned that the divine nature is immortal. What suffered was what is able to suffer, and what is unable to suffer remained unable to suffer. For God the Word became man not to make the nature that cannot suffer able to suffer, but, by means of the Passion, to bestow on the nature that can suffer the gift of being beyond suffering. And the Lord himself in the holy Gospels says at one time, “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself,” “that I may take it again.” And again, “This is why my Father loves me, because I lay down my life for the sheep.” And again, “Now my soul is troubled,” and, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.” And of his body he says, “The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” And when he gave the divine mysteries, and broke the symbol and distributed it, he added, “This is my body, which is being broken for you for the remission of sins,” and again, “This is my blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” And again, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you,” and, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,” “in himself,” he adds. Countless passages of the same kind could be quoted from both the Old Testament and the New, showing that he took both a body and a soul, and that they are descended from Abraham and David. Joseph of Arimathea came to Pilate and begged for the body of Jesus, and the fourfold authority of the holy Gospels tells us how he received the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth and laid it in the tomb. I do indeed grieve and lament that the attacks of error force me to bring against men supposed to be of one and the same faith with me the arguments I have already used against the victims of the plague of Marcion, of whom, by God’s grace, I have converted more than ten thousand and brought to holy baptism. What child of the church ever had any doubt on these points? Who has not cited this teaching of the holy Fathers? The works of the great Basil are full of it, as are those of his fellow soldiers Gregory and Amphilochius, and of those who have been illustrious teachers of grace in the West: Damasus, bishop of great Rome, Ambrose of Milan, and Cyprian of Carthage, who won the martyr’s crown for the sake of these doctrines. Five times the famous Athanasius was driven from his flock and forced to live in exile, and his master Alexander too fought for these doctrines. So did Eustathius, Meletius and Flavian, lights of the East; and Ephraim, the harp of the Spirit, who daily waters the people of Syria with the streams of grace; and John and Atticus, loud heralds of the truth; and men of an earlier age than these, Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin and Hippolytus, most of whom not only shine at the head of the company of bishops but also adorn the band of martyrs. [q]

He too who now governs great Rome, and from the West sends out the rays of right teaching in every direction, the most holy Leo, has set out this distinguishing mark of the faith to me in his own letters. All these men have plainly taught that the only Son of God, God everlasting, begotten of the Father in a way beyond all telling, is one Son; and that after the incarnation he was called both Son of Man and man, not because he was changed into humanity, for his nature is unchangeable, but because he took what was ours. They teach too that as God he was beyond suffering and immortal, and as man mortal and able to suffer; but that after the resurrection he received freedom from suffering and immortality even in his humanity. For though the body remained a body, it is beyond suffering and immortal, truly a divine body, glorified with divine glory. The blessed Paul tells us this plainly in the words, “For our way of life is in heaven, from which we also look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body so that it may be shaped like the body of his glory.” He does not say “like his glory,” but “like the body of his glory.” And the Lord himself, after saying to his apostles, “There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Father’s glory,” took them six days later up a very high mountain and was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became bright as the light. By this he showed what his second coming would be like. He taught that the nature he took is not without bounds, for that belongs to the Godhead alone, but that it will send out flashes of the divine glory and shed rays of light beyond the powers of sight. With this glory he was taken up; with this glory, the angels said, he would come. For their words were, “He who was taken from you into heaven will come in the same way as you have seen him go into heaven.” Again, when the divine apostles saw him after the resurrection, he showed them both his hands and his feet; and to Thomas he showed his side as well, and the wounds of the nails and of the spear. For he kept the prints of the nails and of the spear unaltered on account of those who flatly deny that he took flesh, and also of those others who claim that after the resurrection the nature of the body was changed into the nature of the Godhead. And while he raises all other bodies free of every defect, in his own body he left the marks of his sufferings. He did this so that those who deny that he took a body might be convicted of their error by his sufferings, and those who hold that his body was changed into another nature might learn from the print of the nails that it keeps its own proper qualities. Suppose someone imagines he has proof that the Lord’s body did not remain a body after the resurrection, because he came in to the disciples when the doors were shut. Let him remember how he walked on the sea while his body was still mortal, how he was born and kept the seals of virginity unbroken, and how, when surrounded by those who were plotting against him, he often escaped from their hands. But why speak of the Lord, who was not only man but God before the ages, and for whom it was easy to do whatever he willed? Let them explain how Habakkuk was carried from Judea to Babylon in a moment of time, passed through the covering of the den, brought the food to Daniel, and went back again without breaking the seals of the den. It is sheer foolishness to inquire into how the Lord’s miracles were done. But besides what has been said, it should also be known that after the resurrection our own bodies too will be incorruptible and immortal, and, set free from what is earthly, will become light and ethereal. The divine Paul teaches us this plainly in the words, “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”; and in another place, “We will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” If, then, the bodies of the saints become light and ethereal and travel easily through the air, we cannot wonder that the Lord’s body, united to the Godhead of the only Son, entered when the doors were shut, once it had become immortal after the resurrection. [v]

Countless other proofs could easily be quoted from apostles and prophets, but what has been said already is enough to show the drift of my teaching. I believe in one Father, one Son and one Holy Spirit; and I confess one Godhead, one lordship, one substance and three hypostases. For the incarnation of the only Son did not add to the number of the Trinity and make the Trinity a Quaternity; even after the incarnation the Trinity was still a Trinity. And while I confess that the only Son of God became man, I do not deny the nature that he took; as I have said, I confess both the nature that took and the nature that was taken. The union did not confuse the properties of the natures. Air, when it receives light through all its parts, does not stop being air, nor does it destroy the nature of the light: with our eyes we see the light, and by our sense of touch we recognize the air as it meets us, cold or hot, moist or dry. So it would be sheer folly to call the union of the Godhead and the humanity a confusion. Created natures, whose existence is both dependent and bounded by time, still remain unimpaired when they are united and in some sense mingled; and when the light withdraws, the nature of the air is left on its own. Much more fitting is it, I take it, to acknowledge that the nature which fashioned all things, when joined and united to the nature it took from us, continues in its own purity, and in the same way keeps unimpaired what it has taken. Gold too, when brought into the fire, takes on both the color and the power of fire, yet it does not lose its own nature; it remains gold and at the same time has the active qualities of fire. In the same way the Lord’s body is a body, but beyond suffering, incorruptible, immortal, the Lord’s own, divine, and glorified with the divine glory. It is not separated from the Godhead, nor does it belong to anyone else but the only Son of God himself. For it does not show us another person, but the only Son himself, clothed in our nature. [aa]

This is the doctrine I am continually preaching. Yet those who deny the incarnation wrought for our sake have called me a heretic. In this they act something like unchaste women, who sell their own charms and then assail honest women with the insults of their own trade, applying the language of their own wantonness to women who loathe such wantonness. This is how Egypt has acted. She has fallen willingly into the slavery of base desire and has lavished her servile flattery on a man of chaste character. Then, failing to entice him with her wiles or to trap him in the snares of her lustful passion, she describes a man faithful to purity as an adulterer. [ab]

But these men will be called to account by God, both for their schemes against the faith and for the snares they have laid against me. I only urge those who have been swayed by the false accusations made against me to keep one ear for the accused, and not to give both to the accusers. In this way they will fulfill the divine law that lays down, “You shall not raise a false report,” and, “Judge righteously between every man and his brother.” In these words the divine law commands us not to believe the slanders spoken against the absent, but to judge the accused face to face. [ac]