Orth.— If then together with the body He assumed the soul, and we grant that the soul shared in suffering with the body, then the soul, not the Godhead, shared the passion with the body; it shared the passion, receiving pangs by means of the body. But possibly somebody might agree to the soul sharing suffering with the body, but might deny its sharing death, because of its having an immortal nature. On this account the Lord said “Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul.” If then we deny that the soul of the Saviour shared death with the body, how could any one accept the blasphemy you and your friends presumptuously promulgate when you dare to say that the divine nature participated in death? This is the more inexcusable when the Lord points out at one time that the body was being offered, at another that the soul was being troubled.
Eran.— And where does the Lord show that the body was being offered? Or are you going to bring me once more that well worn passage “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up”? Or with your conceited self-sufficiency are you going to quote me the words of the Evangelist? “But He spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore He was risen from the dead His disciples remembered that He had said this unto them and they believed the Scripture and the words which He had said.”
Orth.— If you have such a detestation of the divine words which preach the mystery of the incarnation, why, like Marcion and Valentinus and Manes, do you not destroy texts of this kind? For this is what they have done. But if this seems to you rash and impious, do not turn the Lord's words into ridicule, but rather follow the Apostles in their belief after the resurrection that the Godhead raised again the temple which the Jews had destroyed.
Eran.— If you have any good evidence to adduce, give over gibing and fulfil your promise.
Orth.— Remember specially those words of the gospels in which the Lord made a comparison between manna and the true bread.
Eran.— I remember.
Orth.— In that passage after speaking at some length about the bread of life, he added, “The bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.” In these words may be understood alike the bounty of the Godhead and the boon of the flesh.
Eran.— One quotation is not enough to settle the question.
Orth.— The Ethiopian eunuch had not read much of the Bible, but when he had found one witness from the prophets he was guided by it to salvation. But not all Apostles and prophets and all the preachers of the truth who have lived since then are enough to convince you. Nevertheless I will bring you some further testimony about the Lord's body. You cannot but know that passage in the Gospel history where, after eating the passover with His disciples, our Lord pointed to the death of the typical lamb and taught what body corresponded with that shadow.
Eran.— Yes I know it.
Orth.— Remember then what it was which our Lord took and broke, and what He called it when He had taken it.
Eran.— I will answer in mystic language for the sake of the uninitiated. After taking and breaking it and giving it to His disciples He said, “This is my body which was given for you” or according to the apostle “broken” and again, “This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many.”
Orth.— Then when exhibiting the type of the passion He did not mention the Godhead?
Eran.— No.
Orth.— But He did mention the body and blood.
Eran.— Yes.
Orth.— And the body was nailed to the Cross?
Eran.— Even so.
Orth.— Come, then; look at this. When after the resurrection the doors were shut and the Lord came to the holy disciples and beheld them affrighted, what means did He use to destroy their fear and instead of fear to infuse faith?
Eran.— He said to them “Behold my hands and my feet that it is I myself; handle me and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have.”
Orth.— So when they disbelieved He showed them the body?
Eran.— He did.
Orth.— Therefore the body rose?
Eran.— Clearly.
Orth.— And I suppose what rose was what had died?
Eran.— Even so.
Orth.— And what had died was what was nailed to the cross?
Eran.— Of necessity.
Orth.— Then according to your own argument the body suffered?
Eran.— Your series of arguments forces us to this conclusion.
Orth.— Consider this too. Now I will be questioner, and do you answer as becomes a lover of the truth.
Eran.— I will answer.
Orth.— When the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles, and that wonderful sight and sound collected thousands to the house, what did the chief of the apostles in the speech he then made say concerning the Lord's resurrection?
Eran.— He quoted the divine David, and said that he had received promises from God that the Lord Christ should be born of the fruit of his loins and that in trust in these promises he prophetically foresaw His resurrection, and plainly said that His soul was not left in Hades and that His flesh did not see corruption.
Orth.— His resurrection therefore is of these.
Eran.— How can any one in his senses say that there is a resurrection of the soul which never died?
Orth.— How comes it that you who attribute the passion, the death and the resurrection to the immutable and uncircumscribed Godhead have suddenly appeared before us in your right mind and now object to connecting the word resurrection with the soul?
Eran.— Because the word resurrection is applicable to what has fallen.
Orth.— But the body does not obtain resurrection apart from a soul, but being renewed by the divine will, and conjoined with its yokefellow, it receives life. Was it not thus that the Lord raised Lazarus?
Eran.— It is plain that not the body alone rises.
Orth.— This is more distinctly taught by the divine Ezekiel, for he points out how the Lord commanded the bones to come together, and how all of them were duly fitted together, and how He made sinews and veins and arteries grow with all the flesh pertaining to them and the skin that clothes them all, and then ordered the souls to come back to their own bodies.
Eran.— This is true.
Orth.— But the Lord's body did not undergo this corruption, but remained unimpaired, and on the third day recovered its own soul.
Eran.— Agreed.
Orth.— Then the death was of what had suffered?
Eran.— Without question.
Orth.— And when the great Peter mentioned the resurrection, and the divine David too, they said that His soul was not left in Hell, but that His body did not undergo corruption?
Eran.— They did.
Orth.— Then it was not the Godhead which underwent death, but the body by severance from the soul?
Eran.— I cannot brook these absurdities.
Orth.— But you are fighting against your own arguments; it is your own words which you are calling absurd.
Eran.— You slander me; not one of these words is mine.
Orth.— Suppose any one to ask what is the animal which is at once reasonable and mortal, and suppose some one else to answer— man; which of the two would you call interpreter of the saying? The questioner or the answerer?
Eran.— The answerer.
Orth.— Then I was quite right in calling the arguments yours? For you, I ween, in your answers, by rejecting some points and accepting others, confirmed them.
Eran.— Then I will not answer any longer; do you answer.
Orth.— I will answer.
Eran.— What do you say to those words of the Apostle “Had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”? in this passage he mentions neither body nor soul.
Orth.— Therefore you must not put the words “in the flesh” in it—for this is your ingenious invention for decrying the Godhead of the Word— but must attribute the passion to the bare Godhead of the Word.
Eran.— No; no. He suffered in the flesh, but His incorporeal nature was not capable of suffering by itself.
Orth.— Ah! But nothing must be added to the Apostle's words.
Source: Dialogues ("Eranistes" or "Polymorphus") (New Advent)