Fragment V.

For lately a certain person, Beron, along with some others, forsook the delusion of Valentinus, only to involve themselves in deeper error, affirming that the flesh assumed to Himself by the Word became capable of working like works with the deity35    γενέσθαι ταυτουργὸν τῇ θεότητι. by virtue of its assumption, and that the deity became susceptible of suffering in the same way with the flesh36    ταυτοπαθῆ τῇ σαρκί. by virtue of the exinanition;37    κένωσιν. and thus they assert the doctrine that there was at the same time a conversion and a mixing and a fusing38    σύγχυσιν. of the two aspects one with the other. For if the flesh that was assumed became capable of working like works with the deity, it is evident that it also became God in essence in all wherein God is essentially known. And if the deity by the exinanition became susceptible of the same sufferings with the flesh, it is evident that it also became in essence flesh in all wherein flesh essentially can be known. For objects that act in like manner,39    ὁμοεργῆ. and work like works, and are altogether of like kind, and are susceptible of like suffering with each other, admit of no difference of nature; and if the natures are fused together,40    συγκεχυμένων.  [Vol. iii. p. 623]. Christ will be a duality;41    δυάς. and if the persons42    προσώπων. are separated, there will be a quaternity,43    τετράς, i.e., instead of Trinity [the Τριὰς].—a thing which is altogether to be avoided. And how will they conceive of the one and the same Christ, who is at once God and man by nature? And what manner of existence will He have according to them, if He has become man by a conversion of the deity, and if he has become God by a change of the flesh? For the mutation44    μετάπτωσις.  [Compare the Athanasian Confession]. of these, the one into the other, is a complete subversion of both. Let the discussion, then, be considered by us again in a different way.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου. εʹ. Βήρων γάρ τις ἔναγχος μεθ' ἑτέρων τινῶν τὴν Βαλεντίνου φαντασίαν ἀφέντες χείρονι κακῷ κατεπάρησαν, λέγοντες τὴν μὲν προσληφθεῖσαν τῷ λόγῳ σάρκα γενέσθαι ταυτουργὸν τῇ θεότητι διὰ τὴν πρόσληψιν, τὴν θεότητα δὲ γενέσθαι ταυτοπαθῆ [τῇ σαρκὶ] διὰ [τὴν] κένωσιν, τροπὴν ὁμοῦ καὶ φύρσιν καὶ σύγχυσιν καὶ τὴν εἰς ἀλλήλας ἀμφοτέρων μεταβολὴν δογματίζοντες. εἰ γὰρ προσληφθεῖσα ἡ σὰρξ γέγονε ταυτουργὸς τῇ θεότητι, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ φύσει θεὸς μεθ' ὅσων φυσικῶς νοεῖται θεός: καὶ εἰ γέγονε κενωθεῖσα τῇ σαρκὶ ταυτοπαθὴς ἡ θεότης, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ φύσει σὰρξ μεθ' ὅσων φυσικῶς γνωρίζεσθαι πέφυκε σάρξ. τὰ γὰρ ἀλλήλοις ὁμοεργῆ καὶ ταυτουργὰ καὶ ὁμόφυλα πάντως καὶ ταυτοπαθῆ διαφορὰν οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται φύσεως, καὶ φύσεων αὐτοῖς συγκεχυμένων ἔσται δυὰς ὁ Χριστός, καὶ προσώπων μεμερισμένων τετράς, τὸ φευκτότατον. καὶ πῶς αὐτοῖς εἷς καὶ ὁ αὐτός, θεὸς ὁμοῦ φύσει καὶ ἄνθρωπος, ὁ Χριστός; ποίαν δὲ κατ' αὐτοὺς ἕξει τὴν ὕπαρξιν, μεταβολῇ θεότητος γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος καὶ σαρκὸς μεταποιήσει θεός; ἡ γὰρ εἰς ἀλλήλας τούτων μετάπτωσις παντελής ἐστιν ἀμφοτέρων ἀναίρεσις. σκοπείσθω δὴ πάλιν ἡμῖν ἑτέρως ὁ λόγος.