2.3.
CHRISTOLOGICAL PROFESSION OF FAITH
I
believe also concerning this, most holy One, that God the Word, the only-begotten
Son of the Father, the one who before all ages and times was begotten
impassibly from the same God and Father, having compassion and benevolent pity
for our human fall, with free will and by the intent of the Father who begat
him and with the joint and divine consent of the Spirit, although not separated
from the bosom of the one who begat him, descended to us wretched ones. Indeed,
just as he is of the same intent as the Father and the spirit, so too is he of
infinite essence. Admitting in no way of a circumscribed nature or, as we do,
of a change of place, knowing how to effect divine activity in accordance with
his nature, he enters a womb innocent of marriage, radiant with the purity of
virginity, that is, Mary, holy and bright and of godly mind and free of every
taint, whether in body or soul or thought (της αγιας και φαιδρας και θεοφρονος
και παντος ελευθερας μολυσματος τουτε κατα σωμα και ψυχην και διανοιαν). . . .
In these things he is and is recognized as a human being, and he became in
truth a human being from the very point of his conception in the all-holy
Virgin (και ανθρωπος κατα αληθειαν γεγονεν εξ αυτης ακρας της εν παρθενω τη
παναγια συλληψεως). He wished to be reckoned as a human being, so that he might
cleanse like with like and rescue kin by kin, and illuminate the cognate by
cognate. This is why the holy Virgin was taken and sanctified in both body and
soul, and thus assisted in the incarnation of the Creator because she was pure
and undefiled and without taint (δια τουτο παρθενος αγια λαμβανεται και σωμα
και ψυχην αγιαζεται και ουτως υπουργει τη σαρκωσει του κτισαντος ως καθαρα και
αγην και αμολυντος). (Sophronius, Synodical Letters, 2.3.1, in Sophronius of
Jerusalem and Seventh-Century Heresy: The Synodical Letters and Other Documents
[trans. Pauline Allen; Oxford Early Christian Texts; Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2009], 85, 87, 89)
3.
And so from the undefiled and virgin blood of the all holy and undefiled Virgin
Mary the Word of God became truly flesh and truly a human being carried in the
virginal womb ('Εκ των ουν αχραντων και παρθενικων αιματων της παναγιας και
αχραντου παρθενου Μαριας ο λογος σαρκωθεις κατα αληθειαν γεγονε και κατα
αληθειαν ανθρωπος καν τη παρθενικη γαστρι κυοφορουμενος) . . . And he preserved
his other as a virgin and showed that she was properly and in truth Theotokos (και
παρθενον τηρςι την γεννησασαν και θεοτοκον αυτην κυριως και αληθως αναδεικνυσαι),
even if the frenzied Nestorius is shattered [by this] and his army which fights
God is in tears, and laments and mourns and is torn to pieces again with him.
4.
I say this because it was God who was born of a virgin, the holy Theotokos Mary
(Θεος γαρ ην ο εκ παρθενου της αγιας θεοτοκου Μαριας τικτομενος), and accepted
on our account a second birth in time after his first eternal birth . . . (Sophronius, Synodical Letters, 2.3.3-4, in Sophronius
of Jerusalem and Seventh-Century Heresy: The Synodical Letters and Other
Documents [trans. Pauline Allen; Oxford Early Christian Texts; Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2009], 91)
