# Further fragments of the disputation with Malchion - Author: [Paul of Samosata](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/paul-of-samosata/) - Latin title: *Fragmenta Pauli Samosateni* - Date: ca. 264-268 (approximate) - Source: J.-B. Pitra, ed., Analecta sacra spicilegio Solesmensi parata, vol. 3 (Paris, 1883), pp. 600-601; J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Latina 65 (Paris, 1847), cols. 444-445 - Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator - Editions and translations: Friedrich Loofs, Paulus von Samosata, TU 44.5 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1924); Henri de Riedmatten, Les Actes du procès de Paul de Samosate (Fribourg: Éditions St-Paul, 1952); Gustave Bardy, Paul de Samosate, 2nd ed. (Louvain: Spicilegium sacrum Lovaniense, 1929) - Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/paul-of-samosata-fragmenta/ - Passages: 2 ## Fragment of the disputation with Malchion (Greek, Pitra) - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/paul-of-samosata-fragmenta/1/#p-1 - Source: Pitra, Analecta sacra 3:600–601 - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-11-12 Summary: In a fragment of the debate at Antioch, Malchion presses Paul of Samosata to say whether the Word was united with Christ's body as soul with body, by substance, or present only by participation, as in other men. ### Greek text Ὑφεστηκὼς δὴ οὗτος ὁ λόγος, αὐτός τε γέγονεν τῷ σώματι ἐκείνῳ, ὡς καὶ ἔδωκας, τῷ ἐκ Μαρίας ὅρῳ, διότι αἱ γραφαὶ φασὶν αὐτὸν κεκοινωνηκέναι ἐπὶ τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ φύσει, ὡς ἡμεῖς μετέχομεν, καὶ ἐπειδὴ τὰ παιδία, φησί, κεκοινωνηκέναι αἵματος καὶ σαρκός, διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ· πυνθάνομαι οὖν εἰ ὥσπερ ἡμεῖς τοῦτο τὸ σύνθετον ζῷον οἱ ἄνθρωποι σύνοδον ἔχομεν ἐκ τε σαρκὸς καὶ τινὸς ὄντος ἐν τῇ σαρκί, οὕτως αὐτὸς ὁ Λόγος· αὕτη ἡ σοφία ἦν ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ σώματι, ὡς τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν ἐνταῦθα ζωῆς· καθάπερ ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ἐπιτελεῖται ἐκ τῆς συνθέσεως, οὕτω καὶ ἐπʼ ἐκείνου ἐκ τοῦ συνδεδραμηκέναι ἐν ταὐτῷ τὸν Θεὸν λόγον, καὶ τὸ ἐκ τῆς Παρθένου. Παῦλος. Ὑπεκρίνω, οἶμαι, καὶ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, ὡς ἐδόκεις. Μαλχίων. Ἠρώτησα· ἐπειδὴ λέγεις σοφίαν καὶ λόγον, λόγον δὲ σοφίας μετεσχηκέναι καὶ ὁ δεῖνα ἄνθρωπος, καὶ ὁ δεῖνα δεῖται, πότερον κατὰ μετουσίαν τούτων λέγεις; ἢ τοῦ λόγου αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς σοφίας εἰς αὐτὸν κατελθούσης; οὐ γὰρ ὅμοιον οὐσία τε καὶ μετοχή· τὸ μὲν γὰρ οὐσιῶδες ὡς μέρος τοῦ ὅλου, κατὰ συμπλοκὴν Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπου γενομένου Κυρίου ἡμῶν· τὸ δὲ κατὰ μετοχὴν, ὡς μὴ μέρος ἐν ᾧ ἦν. Παῦλος. Ἐμοῦ διαλεγομένου, πάντες οὗτοι ταῦτα λέγουσι. Μαλχίων. Καὶ σύ μοι εἰπέ· ἐρωτῶ δὲ πρῶτον· ἀνόμοιον πρᾶγμα παρεικάσαι ἐπειράθη σοι ὁ λόγος ὡς προκείμενον; ἡ γὰρ διάθεσις ἡ κατὰ ἀνθρώπους ἑτέραν ἔχει τὴν κατασκευήν· περὶ λόγου δὲ καὶ σοφίας διελέγχθημεν· καὶ πάντα… ### English translation (Claude) This Word, then, being subsistent, himself became one with that body, as you too granted, with the boundary [taken] from Mary; because the Scriptures say that he shared in our nature as we partake of it, and since “the children,” it says, “share in blood and flesh, therefore the Son of God also …” I ask, then, whether, just as we human beings, this composite living being, have a union of flesh and of something that is in the flesh, so too the Word himself, this Wisdom, was in that body, as [the principle] of our life here is in us; so that, just as in our case it is brought about from the composition, so also in his case it is from God the Word and what is from the Virgin having come together into the same. Paul. You were answering, I think, on our behalf too, as you supposed. Malchion. I asked: since you speak of Wisdom and Word, and say that this man and that man have shared in the Word of Wisdom, and that so-and-so … , do you speak of these by participation? Or of the Word himself and the Wisdom having come down into him? For substance and participation are not alike. The substantial is as a part of the whole, by the joining of God and man that took place in our Lord; but what is by participation is not as a part in that in which it was. Paul. When I am speaking, all these say these things. Malchion. And you tell me (but I ask first): did your argument try to compare something unlike, as if it were the matter before us? For the condition among human beings has a different constitution; but we were discussing the Word and Wisdom; and all … ### Scripture references - Heb 2:14: quotation, high confidence ### Translation notes - From the record of the debate between Paul and the presbyter Malchion at the Council of Antioch (268), printed by Pitra, Analecta Sacra 3:600–601. The first paragraph has no speaker’s name in the text; its argument is Malchion’s. Paul was condemned by that council; the exchange is translated as printed, without comment on the positions. “With the boundary taken from Mary” keeps the printed ὅρῳ (“boundary”), whose sense here is uncertain. The question “I asked” reads Ἠρώτησα where the scan has Ἐξρώτησα. In Malchion’s second speech a clause (καὶ ὁ δεῖνα δεῖται) is unclear and is marked “…”; the fragment breaks off at the end. Quotation: Heb 2:14. ### Citation (SBL) Frag. 1 (Pitra, Analecta sacra 3:600–601; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paul-of-samosata-fragmenta/1). ## Malchion's reply to Paul, quoted by Peter the Deacon (Latin) - URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/paul-of-samosata-fragmenta/1/#p-2 - Source: PL 65:444d–445a - Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-11-12 Summary: Malchion replies to Paul that Christ is one composite of God the Word and a human body, and rejects Paul's view that Wisdom dwelt in him only by participation, as a man in a house. ### Latin text Ex simplicibus fit certe compositum, sicut in Christo Jesu, qui ex Deo Verbo et humano corpore, quod est ex semine David, unus factus est, nequaquam ulterius divisione aliqua, sed unitate subsistens. Tu vero, videris mihi secundum hoc nolle compositionem fateri, ut non substantia sit in eo Filius Dei, sed sapientia secundum participationem. Hoc enim dixisti, quia sapientia dispendium patiatur, et ideo composita esse non possit, nec cogitas quod divina sapientia sicut antequam se exinanisset, indiminuta permansit; ita et in hac exinanitione quam gessit misericorditer, indiminuta atque indemutabilis exstitit. Et hoc etiam dicis, quod sapientia habitaret in eo sicut habitamus et nos in domibus, ut alter in altero, sed neque pars domus nos sumus, nec nostri pars domus est. ### English translation (Claude) A composite is certainly made from simple things, as in Christ Jesus, who was made one from God the Word and a human body, which is of the seed of David, subsisting no longer in any division, but in unity. But you seem to me, on this account, unwilling to confess the composition, so that the Son of God is in him not by substance but as Wisdom by participation. For you said this: that Wisdom would suffer loss, and therefore could not be compounded; and you do not consider that the divine Wisdom, just as before it emptied itself it remained undiminished, so also in this emptying, which it undertook in mercy, it remained undiminished and unchangeable. And you say this too, that Wisdom dwelt in him as we also dwell in houses, as one in another; but neither are we part of the house, nor is the house part of us. ### Scripture references - Rom 1:3: allusion, high confidence - Phil 2:7: allusion, high confidence ### Translation notes - Malchion’s reply to Paul of Samosata, preserved in a Latin version quoted by Peter the Deacon (PL 65:444D–445A). The reading “subsisting” (subsistens) restores a damaged word in the scan. Paul’s views are reported here by his opponent; the passage is translated as written. Allusions: Rom 1:3; Phil 2:7. ### Citation (SBL) Frag. 2 (PL 65:444d–445a; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/paul-of-samosata-fragmenta/2).