Further fragments of the disputation with Malchion
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Chapter 1
1Pitra, Analecta sacra 3:600–601
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…
Hyphestēkōs dē houtos ho logos, autos te gegonen tǭ sōmati ekeinǭ, hōs kai edōkas, tǭ ek Marias horǭ, dioti hai graphai phasin auton kekoinōnēkenai epi tę̄ hēmeterą physei, hōs hēmeis metechomen, kai epeidē ta paidia, phēsi, kekoinōnēkenai haimatos kai sarkos, dia touto kai ho Huios tou Theou; pynthanomai oun ei hōsper hēmeis touto to syntheton zǭon hoi anthrōpoi synodon echomen ek te sarkos kai tinos ontos en tę̄ sarki, houtōs autos ho Logos; hautē hē sophia ēn en ekeinǭ tǭ sōmati, hōs tēs en hēmin entautha zōēs; kathaper ephʼ hēmōn epiteleitai ek tēs syntheseōs, houtō kai epʼ ekeinou ek tou syndedramēkenai en tautǭ ton Theon logon, kai to ek tēs Parthenou.
Paulos. Hypekrinō, oimai, kai hyper hēmōn, hōs edokeis.
Malchiōn. Ērōtēsa; epeidē legeis sophian kai logon, logon de sophias meteschēkenai kai ho deina anthrōpos, kai ho deina deitai, poteron kata metousian toutōn legeis? ē tou logou autou kai tēs sophias eis auton katelthousēs? ou gar homoion ousia te kai metochē; to men gar ousiōdes hōs meros tou holou, kata symplokēn Theou kai anthrōpou genomenou Kyriou hēmōn; to de kata metochēn, hōs mē meros en hǭ ēn.
Paulos. Emou dialegomenou, pantes houtoi tauta legousi.
Malchiōn. Kai sy moi eipe; erōtō de prōton; anomoion pragma pareikasai epeirathē soi ho logos hōs prokeimenon? hē gar diathesis hē kata anthrōpous heteran echei tēn kataskeuēn; peri logou de kai sophias dielenchthēmen; kai panta…
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 …
Chapter 2
2PL 65:444d–445a
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.
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.