To Adelphius (complete)

Having read what was written by your piety, we truly welcomed your piety toward Christ, and first of all glorified God, who has given you such grace that you both have a right mind and, as far as possible, are not ignorant of the wiles of the devil; but we wondered at the perversity of the heretics, seeing how they have fallen into so deep a pit of impiety that they no longer keep even their senses, but have their mind corrupted on every side. This attempt is a suggestion of the devil and an imitation of the lawless Jews. For as those, hard pressed on every side, devised pretexts against themselves, so as to deny the Lord and bring upon themselves what had been prophesied, in the same way these too, seeing themselves branded on every side, and seeing their heresy become abominable to all, become inventors of evils, so that, persisting in their battles against the truth, they may remain truly fighters against Christ. For from where did this evil too spring up for them? How have they dared at all to utter this new blasphemy against the Savior? But, as it seems, the impious man is a wicked thing, and truly reprobate concerning the faith. For formerly, while denying the Godhead of the only-begotten Son of God, they pretended at least to acknowledge his coming in the flesh; but now, sinking down little by little, they have fallen even from this notion of theirs, and have become godless in every respect, so as neither to acknowledge him as God nor to believe that he became man. For if they believed, they would not utter such things as your piety has written against them.

You, then, beloved and truly most longed-for, have acted in a way fitting the tradition of the Church and piety toward the Lord, by refuting, exhorting and rebuking such men. But since, provoked by their father the devil, they have not known nor understood, as it is written, but walk on in darkness, let them learn from your reverence that this perversity of theirs is that of Valentinus and Marcion and Manichaeus; of whom some brought in seeming instead of truth, and others, dividing what is indivisible, denied the saying, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Why then, holding their views, do they not also become heirs of their names? For it is reasonable that men should also bear the names of those whose heterodoxy they hold, so that henceforth they be called Valentinians and Marcionites and Manichees. Perhaps even so, ashamed of the foul smell of the names, they may be able to perceive into what a depth of impiety they have fallen. And it would be right not to answer them any longer, according to the apostolic exhortation, “A heretical man after one and a second admonition reject, knowing that such a one is perverted and sins, being self-condemned”; especially since the prophet too says of such men, “The fool will speak foolish things, and his heart will think vain things.” But since, like their leader, they too go about like lions, seeking which of the simple they may devour, for this reason it has become necessary for us to write back to your reverence, so that …

We do not worship a creature; God forbid! For such an error belongs to the heathen and the Arians; but we worship the Lord of creation become flesh, the Word of God. For even if the flesh in itself is a part of the creatures, yet it has become God's body. And we neither worship such a body by itself, dividing it from the Word, nor, wishing to worship the Word, do we set him far from the flesh; but knowing, as we said before, the saying, “The Word became flesh,” we acknowledge him as God even when he has come to be in flesh. Who then is so foolish as to say to the Lord, “Leave the body, so that I may worship you”? Or who is so impious as to say to him, with the foolish Jews, because of the body, “Why do you, being a man, make yourself God?” But the leper was not such a man; for he worshiped God, who was in a body, and knew that he was God, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And neither did he think the Word of God a creature because of the flesh, nor, because the Word is the creator of all creation, did he despise the flesh which he had put on; but he worshiped the creator of the universe as in a created temple, and was cleansed. So too the woman with the flow of blood, believing and merely touching the fringe, was healed; and the sea, foaming with its waves, heard the incarnate Word and ceased from its storm; and the man blind from birth was healed by the Word through the spittle of the flesh. And, what is greater and more marvelous (for perhaps this is what has offended even the most impious), even when the Lord hung on the cross itself (for it was his body, and the Word was in it), the sun was darkened, the earth trembled, the rocks were split, the veil of the temple was torn, and many bodies of those who had fallen asleep arose.

These things happened, and no one, as the Arians now dare, reasoned whether one must obey the Word become flesh; but even seeing him a man, they recognized him as their creator; and hearing a human voice, they did not say, because of the human, that the Word is a creature; but rather they trembled, and recognized nothing less than that he was speaking from a holy temple. How then do the impious not fear that, as they did not see fit to have God in knowledge, they may be given up to a reprobate mind, to do what is not fitting? For creation does not worship a creature; nor again did it refuse to worship its Lord because of the flesh, but it saw its own creator in a body; and in the name of Jesus Christ every knee bowed, and shall bow, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess, even if the Arians do not like it, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. For the flesh did not bring dishonor on the Word, God forbid! but rather it was itself glorified by him. Nor, because the Son who was in the form of God took the form of a servant, was he diminished in Godhead; but rather he became the liberator of all flesh and of all creation. And if God sent his Son born of a woman, the fact brings us no shame, but rather glory and great grace. For he became man, so that he might deify us in himself; and he came of a woman and was born of a virgin, so that he might transfer to himself our generation that had gone astray, and that we might henceforth become a holy race and partakers of the divine nature, as blessed Peter wrote. And “what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”

As for the flesh assumed by the Word in order to set all men free, raise all from the dead, and ransom them from sin, how do those who despise it, or who on its account accuse the Son of God of being a thing made or a creature, not appear ungrateful and deserving of all hatred? For they all but cry out to God, saying, “Do not send your only-begotten Son in the flesh; do not make him take flesh from a virgin, lest he ransom us from death and sin. We do not want him to come in a body, lest he take on himself death for us; we do not wish the Word to become flesh, lest in it he become our mediator for access to you, and we dwell in the mansions in heaven. Let the gates of heaven be shut, lest through the veil of his flesh your Word consecrate for us the way into heaven.” These are their utterances, brought out with devilish daring through the perversity they have devised for themselves. For those who will not worship the Word become flesh are ungrateful for his becoming man; and those who divide the Word from the flesh do not think that one redemption from sin has come about, nor the destruction of death. And where at all will the impious find by itself the flesh which the Savior took, that they should even dare to say, “We do not worship the Lord with the flesh, but we divide off the body and serve him alone”? Blessed Stephen saw the Lord in heaven standing at the right hand; and the angels said to the disciples, “He will come in the same way as you saw him going into heaven”; and the Lord himself said, addressing the Father, “I will that where I am, they too may always be with me.” And in short, if the flesh is inseparable from the Word, how is it not necessary for these men to lay aside their error and henceforth worship the Father in … no longer Christians, but … with the Jews …

Such, then, as we said before, is their madness and audacity; but our faith is right, setting out from the apostolic teaching and the tradition of the Fathers, and confirmed from both the New and the Old Testament: the prophets saying, “Send out your Word and your truth,” and, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,” which being interpreted is, God with us. And what is this but God having come in the flesh? And the apostolic tradition teaches it, blessed Peter saying, “Christ then having suffered for us in the flesh,” and Paul writing, “Awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own, zealous for good works.” How then did he give himself for us, if he had not worn flesh? For by offering it he gave himself for us, so that, taking death upon himself in it, he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, the devil. That is why we always give thanks in the name of Jesus Christ, and we do not set aside the grace that came to us through him. For the coming of the Savior in the flesh has become the ransom from death and the salvation of all creation. So, beloved and most longed-for, let those who love the Lord be reminded by these things; and let those who have imitated the manner of Judas and forsaken the Lord to be with Caiaphas be taught better by these things, if perhaps they are willing, if perhaps they are ashamed. And let them know that, the Lord …

We should like your reverence to ask them this: when Israel was commanded to go up to Jerusalem to worship in the temple of the Lord, where the ark was, and above it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, did they do well or the opposite? If they acted badly, how were those who neglected this law liable to punishment? For it is written, “Whoever despises it and does not go up shall be destroyed from among the people.” But if they acted well, and in this became well-pleasing to God, how are the abominable Arians, the most shameful of every heresy, not worthy to perish many times over, because, while approving the ancient people for their honor toward the temple, they will not worship the Lord in the flesh as in a temple? Yet the old temple was built of stones and gold, as a shadow; and when the truth came, the type thereafter ceased, and, according to the Lord's word, there did not remain in it one stone upon another that was not thrown down. And neither, seeing the temple of stones, did they think the Lord who spoke in the temple to be a creature, nor, despising the temple, did they go far away to worship; but coming to it they served according to the law the God who gave oracles from the temple. Since this was so, how is the body of the Lord, truly all-holy and all-venerable, announced by the archangel Gabriel, formed by the Holy Spirit, and become the garment of the Word, not to be worshiped? Indeed, stretching out a bodily hand, the Word raised the woman sick with fever; and uttering a human voice, he raised Lazarus from the dead; and again, stretching out his hands on the cross, he cast down the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience, and made the way into heaven clear for us.

So he who dishonors the temple dishonors the Lord in the temple; and he who divides the Word from the body sets at nought the grace given us in him. And let the most impious Ariomaniacs not think, because the body is created, that the Word too is a creature, nor, because the Word is not a creature, disparage his body. For their perversity is to be wondered at, in that they confuse and mix everything up, and invent pretexts only so as to number the creator with the creatures. But let them hear: if the Word were a creature, he would not have taken the created body in order to make it alive. For what help will there be for creatures from a creature, which itself needs salvation? But since the Word, being creator, himself became the maker of the creatures, for this reason at the consummation of the ages he himself put on the created thing, so that he, as creator, might renew it again and be able to raise it up. A creature would never be saved by a creature, just as creatures were not created by a creature, unless the Word were creator. So let them not lie against the divine Scriptures, nor offend the simple among the brothers; but, if they wish, let them too change their minds, and no longer serve the creature rather than God who created all things; but if they choose to remain in their impieties, let them alone have their fill of them, and let them gnash their teeth like their father the devil, because the faith of the catholic Church knows the Word of God as creator and maker of all things. And we know that “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God”; and when he also became man for our salvation, we worship him, not as having come to be in the body as an equal in an equal, but as a Master who took the form of a servant, and as maker and creator come to be in a creature, so that, having set all things free in himself, he might bring the world to the Father, and make peace for all things, those in heaven and those on earth. For so we both acknowledge his Godhead from the Father and worship his coming in the flesh, even if the Ariomaniacs burst themselves. Greet all who love our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for your health and that you remember us in the Lord, beloved and truly most longed-for. If there is need, let this be read to Hierax the presbyter.