Eran.— We have learned this from the divine Scripture. The divine John exclaims “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” and the divine Paul, “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life.”
Orth.— Of course all this is true, for these are divine oracles, but remember what we have often confessed.
Eran.— What?
Orth.— We have confessed that God the Word the Son of God did not appear without a body, but assumed perfect human nature.
Eran.— Yes; this we have confessed.
Orth.— And He was called Son of Man because He took a body and human soul.
Eran.— True.
Orth.— Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is verily our God; for of these two natures the one was His from everlasting and the other He assumed.
Eran.— Indubitably.
Orth.— While, then, as man He underwent the passion, as God He remained incapable of suffering.
Eran.— How then does the divine Scripture say that the Son of God suffered?
Orth.— Because the body which suffered was His body. But let us look at the matter thus; when we hear the divine Scripture saying “And it came to pass when Isaac was old his eyes were dim so that he could not see,” whither is our mind carried and on what does it rest, on Isaac's soul or on his body?
Eran.— Of course on his body.
Orth.— Do we then conjecture that his soul also shared in the affection of blindness?
Eran.— Certainly not.
Orth.— We assert that only his body was deprived of the sense of sight?
Eran.— Yes.
Orth.— And again when we hear Amaziah saying to the prophet Amos, “Oh thou seer go flee away into the land of Judah,” and Saul enquiring: “Tell me I pray you where the seer's house is,” we understand nothing bodily.
Eran.— Certainly not.
Orth.— And yet the words used are significant of the health of the organ of sight.
Eran.— True.
Orth.— Yet we know that the power of the Spirit when given to purer souls inspires prophetic grace and causes them to see even hidden things, and, in consequence of their thus seeing, they are called seers and beholders.
Eran.— What you say is true.
Orth.— And let us consider this too.
Eran.— What?
Orth.— When we hear the story of the divine evangelists narrating how they brought to God a man sick of the palsy, laid upon a bed, do we say that this was paralysis of the parts of the soul or of the body?
Eran.— Plainly of the body.
Orth.— And when while reading the Epistle to the Hebrews we light upon the passage where the Apostle says “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed,” do we say that the divine Apostle said these things about the parts of the body?
Eran.— No.
Orth.— Shall we say that he was for removing the feebleness and infirmity of the soul and stimulating the disciples to manliness?
Eran.— Obviously.
Orth.— But we do not find these things distinguished in the divine Scripture, for in describing the blindness of Isaac he made no reference to the body, but spoke of Isaac as absolutely blind, nor in describing the prophets as seers and beholders did he say that their souls saw and beheld what was hidden, but mentioned the persons themselves.
Eran.— Yes; this is so.
Orth.— And he did not point out that the body of the paralytic was palsied, but called the man a paralytic.
Eran.— True.
Orth.— And even the divine Apostle made no special mention of the souls, though it was these that he purposed to strengthen and to rouse.
Eran.— No; he did not.
Orth.— But when we examine the meaning of the words, we understand which belongs to the soul and which to the body.
Eran.— And very naturally; for God made us reasonable beings.
Orth.— Then let us make use of this reasoning faculty in the case of our Maker and Saviour, and let us recognise what belongs to His Godhead and what to His manhood.
Eran.— But by doing this we shall destroy the supreme union.
Orth.— In the case of Isaac, of the prophets, of the man sick of the palsy, and of the rest, we did so without destroying the natural union of the soul and of the body; we did not even separate the souls from their proper bodies, but by reason alone distinguished what belonged to the soul and what to the body. Is it not then monstrous that while we take this course in the case of souls and bodies, we should refuse to do so in the case of our Saviour, and confound natures which differ not in the same proportion as soul from body, but in as vast a degree as the temporal from the eternal and the Creator from the created?
Eran.— The divine Scripture says that the Son of God underwent the passion.
Orth.— We deny that it was suffered by any other, but none the less, taught by the divine Scripture, we know that the nature of the Godhead is impassible. We are told of impassibility and of passion, of manhood and of Godhead, and we therefore attribute the passion to the passible body, and confess that no passion was undergone by the nature that was impassible.
Eran.— Then a body won our salvation for us.
Orth.— Yes; but not a mere man's body, but that of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. If you regard this body as insignificant and of small account, how can you hold its type to be an object of worship and a means of salvation? And how can the archetype be contemptible and insignificant of that of which the type is adorable and honourable?
Eran.— I do not look on the body as of small account, but I object to dividing it from the Godhead.
Orth.— We, my good sir, do not divide the union but we regard the peculiar properties of the natures, and I am sure that in a moment you will take the same view.
Eran.— You talk like a prophet.
Orth.— No; not like a prophet, but as knowing the power of truth. But now answer me this. When you hear the Lord saying “I and my Father are one,” and “He that has seen me has seen the Father,” do you say that this refers to the flesh or to the Godhead?
Eran.— How can the flesh and the Father possibly be of one substance?
Orth.— Then these passages indicate the Godhead?
Eran.— True.
Orth.— And so with the text, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God,” and the like.
Eran.— Agreed.
Orth.— Again when the divine Scripture says, “Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey sat thus on the well,” of what is the weariness to be understood, of the Godhead or of the body?
Eran.— I cannot bear to divide what is united.
Orth.— Then it seems you attribute the weariness to the divine nature?
Eran.— I think so.
Orth.— But then you directly contradict the exclamation of the prophet “He faints not neither is weary; there is no searching of His understanding. He gives power to the faint and to them that have no might he increases strength.” And a little further on “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint.” Now how can He who bestows upon others the boon of freedom from weariness and want, possibly be himself subject to hunger and thirst?
Eran.— I have said over and over again that God is impassible, and free from all want, but after the incarnation He became capable of suffering.
Orth.— But did He do this by admitting the sufferings in His Godhead, or by permitting the passible nature to undergo its natural sufferings and by suffering proclaim that what was seen was no unreality, but was really assumed of human nature? But now let us look at the matter thus: we say that the divine nature was uncircumscribed.
Eran.— Aye.
Orth.— And uncircumscribed nature is circumscribed by none.
Eran.— Of course not.
Source: Dialogues ("Eranistes" or "Polymorphus") (New Advent)