§42. His union with the body is based upon His relation to Creation as a whole. He used a human body, since to man it was that He wished to reveal Himself.

For just as, while the whole body is quickened and illumined by man, supposing one said it were absurd that man’s power should also be in the toe, he would be thought foolish; because, while granting that he pervades and works in the whole, he demurs to his being in the part also; thus he who grants and believes that the Word of God is in the whole Universe, and that the whole is illumined and moved by Him, should not think it absurd that a single human body also should receive movement and light from Him. 2. But if it is because the human race is a thing created and has been made out of nothing, that they regard that manifestation of the Saviour in man, which we speak of, as not seemly, it is high time for them to eject Him from creation also; for it too has been brought into existence by the Word out of nothing. 3. But if, even though creation be a thing made, it is not absurd that the Word should be in it, then neither is it absurd that He should be in man. For whatever idea they form of the whole, they must necessarily apply the like idea to the part. For man also, as I said before, is a part of the whole. 4. Thus it is not at all unseemly that the Word should be in man, while all things are deriving from Him their light and movement and light, as also their authors say, “In122    See Acts xvii. 28. him we live and move and have our being.” 5. So, then, what is there to scoff at in what we say, if the Word has used that, wherein He is, as an instrument to manifest Himself? For were He not in it, neither could He have used it; but if we have previously allowed that He is in the whole and in its parts, what is there incredible in His manifesting Himself in that wherein He is? 6. For by His own power He is united123    ἐπιβαίνων, see supra, note 3. wholly with each and all, and orders all things without stint, so that no one could have called it out of place for Him to speak, and make known Himself and His Father, by means of sun, if He so willed, or moon, or heaven, or earth, or waters, or fire124    The superfluous πεποιηκέναι is ignored, being untranslateable as the text stands. For a less simple conjecture, see the Bened. note.; inasmuch as He holds in one all things at once, and is in fact not only in all but also in the part in question, and there invisibly manifests Himself. In like manner it cannot be absurd if, ordering as He does the whole, and giving life to all things, and having willed to make Himself known through men, He has used as His instrument a human body to manifest the truth and knowledge of the Father. For humanity, too, is an actual part of the whole. 7. And as Mind, pervading man all through, is interpreted by a part of the body, I mean the tongue, without any one saying, I suppose, that the essence of the mind is on that account lowered, so if the Word, pervading all things, has used a human instrument, this cannot appear unseemly. For, as I have said previously, if it be unseemly to have used a body as an instrument, it is unseemly also for Him to be in the Whole.

Ὥσπερ γὰρ ὅλου τοῦ σώματος ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐνεργουμένου καὶ φωτιζομένου, εἴ τις λέγοι ἄτοπον εἶναι καὶ ἐν τῷ δακτύλῳ τοῦ ποδὸς τὴν δύναμιν εἶναι τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ἀνόητος ἂν νομισθείη, ὅτι διδοὺς ἐν τῷ ὅλῳ αὐτὸν διϊκνεῖσθαι καὶ ἐνεργεῖν, κωλύει καὶ ἐν τῷ μέρει αὐτὸν εἶναι· οὕτως ὁ διδοὺς καὶ πιστεύων τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ Θεὸν Λόγον ἐν τῷ παντὶ εἶναι, καὶ τὸ πᾶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ φωτίζεσθαι καὶ κινεῖσθαι, οὐκ ἄτοπον ἂν ἡγήσηται καὶ σῶμα ἓν ἀνθρώπινον ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κινεῖσθαι καὶ φωτίζεσθαι. Εἰ δὲ ὅτι γενητόν ἐστι, καὶ ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων γέγονε τὸ ἀνθρώπινον γένος, διὰ τοῦτο οὐκ εὐπρεπῆ νομί ζουσιν ἡμᾶς λέγειν τὴν ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἐπιφάνειαν, ὥρα καὶ τῆς κτίσεως αὐτοὺς αὐτὸν ἐκβάλλειν· καὶ γὰρ καὶ αὕτη ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι διὰ τοῦ Λόγου γέγονεν. Εἰ δὲ καὶ γενητῆς οὔσης τῆς κτίσεως, οὐκ ἄτοπον ἐν αὐτῇ τὸν Λόγον εἶναι, οὐκ ἄρα οὐδὲ ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ αὐτὸν εἶναι ἄτοπον. Ὁποῖα γὰρ ἂν περὶ τοῦ ὅλου νοήσειαν, τοιαῦτα ἀνάγκη καὶ περὶ τοῦ μέρους αὐτοὺς ἐνθυμεῖσθαι. Μέρος γάρ, ὡς προεῖπον, τοῦ ὅλου καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν. Οὐκοῦν ὅλως οὐκ ἀπρεπὲς τὸ ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ εἶναι τὸν Λόγον, καὶ πάντα ὑπ' αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ φωτίζεσθαι καὶ κινεῖσθαι καὶ ζῆν, καθὼς καὶ οἱ παρ' αὐτοῖς συγγραφεῖς φασιν, ὅτι “ἐν αὐτῷ ζῶμεν, καὶ κινούμεθα, καὶ ἐσμέν”. Τί λοιπὸν χλεύης ἄξιον λέγομεν, εἰ ἐν ᾧ ἔστιν ὁ Λόγος, τούτῳ πρὸς φανέρωσιν ὡς ὀργάνῳ κέχρηται ὁ Λόγος; Εἰ μὲν γὰρ οὐκ ἦν ἐν αὐτῷ, οὐδὲ χρήσασθαι ἂν ἠδυνήθη τούτῳ. Εἰ δὲ προαποδεδώκαμεν ἐν τῷ παντὶ καὶ ἐν τοῖς κατὰ μέρος εἶναι τοῦτον, τί ἄπιστον εἰ ἐν οἷς ἐστίν, ἐν τούτοις ἑαυτὸν καὶ ἐπιφαίνει; Ὥσπερ γὰρ ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ δυνάμεσιν ὅλος ἐν ἑκάστῳ καὶ πᾶσιν ἐπιβαίνων, καὶ πάντα διακοσμῶν ἀφθόνως, εἰ ἤθελε, διὰ ἡλίου ἢ σελήνης ἢ οὐρανοῦ ἢ γῆς ἢ ὑδάτων ἢ πυρὸς οὐκ ἄν τις ἀτόπως αὐτὸν, φωνῇ χρήσασθαι καὶ γνωρίσαι ἑαυτὸν καὶ τὸν αὐτοῦ Πατέρα, ἔφησε πεποιηκέναι· ἅπαξ πάντα αὐτοῦ συνέχοντος καὶ μετὰ πάντων καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ μέρει τυγχάνοντος καὶ ἀοράτως ἑαυτὸν δεικνύντος· οὕτως οὐκ ἄτοπον ἂν εἴη διακοσμοῦντα αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα καὶ τὰ ὅλα ζωοποιοῦντα, καὶ θελήσαντα δι' ἀνθρώπων γνωρίσαι, εἰ ὀργάνῳ κέχρηται ἀνθρώπου σώματι πρὸς φανέρωσιν ἀληθείας καὶ γνῶσιν τοῦ Πατρός. Μέρος γὰρ τοῦ ὅλου καὶ ἡ ἀνθρωπότης τυγχάνει. Καὶ ὥσπερ ὁ νοῦς, δι' ὅλου τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ὤν, ἀπὸ μέρους τοῦ σώματος, τῆς γλώττης λέγω, σημαίνεται, καὶ οὐ δήπου τις ἐλαττοῦσθαι τὴν οὐσίαν τοῦ νοῦ διὰ τοῦτο λέγει· οὕτως ὁ Λόγος, διὰ πάντων ὤν, εἰ ἀνθρωπίνῳ κέχρηται ὀργάνῳ, οὐκ ἀπρεπὲς ἂν φαίνοιτο τοῦτο. Εἰ γάρ, ὡς προεῖπον, ἀπρεπὲς ὀργάνῳ χρήσασθαι σώματι, ἀπρεπὲς καὶ ἐν τῷ ὅλῳ αὐτὸν εἶναι.