Letter 141

To Cornelius the Presbyter. What is the meaning of what the Apostle says: "Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer"? [2 Corinthians 5:16] Since for the sake of our salvation the Master became man and lived among men, so that he might demonstrate his own incarnation to be true, he was not only suckled, being an infant in respect to what was seen, but, having also grown up, he both ate and drank, both grew weary and slept, was both scourged and crucified, and the rest. But after his resurrection from the dead, he no longer falls subject to the weaknesses of the body and to its necessary needs. For this reason the Apostle says that we no longer know Christ as subject to suffering, and weak, and dying. For the power of his divinity has overcome all that is human. For even though he exists also now, and unto the ages, in the holy body that was formerly crucified under Pilate, and buried, and raised from the dead, nevertheless he will no longer suffer human things, and he possesses the body unaging, unharmed, and undefiled unto the ages.

Τί ἐστιν, ὅπερ φησὶν ὁ Ἀπόστολος· «Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐγνώκαμεν κατὰ σάρκα Χριστόν, ἀλλὰ νῦν οὐκέτι γινώσκομεν;» Ἐπειδὴ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν ὁ Δεσπότης ἄνθρωπος γενόμενος, καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συναναστρεφόμενος, ἵνα δείξῃ ἀληθινὴν τὴν οἰκείαν σάρκωσιν, οὐ μόνον ἐγαλουχήθη βρέφος τυγχάνων κατὰ τὸ βλεπόμενον, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐξηθεὶς βέβρωκέ τε καὶ πέπωκεν, ἐκοπίασέ τε καὶ ὕπνωσεν, ἐμαστίγθη τε καὶ ἐσταυρώθη, καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. Μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἀνάστασιν αὐτοῦ τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν, οὐκέτι ὑποπίπτει ταῖς τοῦ σώματος ἀσθενείαις, καὶ χρείαις ἀναγκαίαις· διὰ τοῦτό φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, ὅτι Οὐκέτι γινώσκομεν τὸν Χριστὸν παθητόν, καὶ ἀσθενῆ, καὶ θνήσκοντα. Ἐξενίκησε γὰρ ἡ δύναμις τῆς θεότητος αὐτοῦ πάντα τὰ ἀνθρώπινα. Κἂν γὰρ ὑπάρχει καὶ νῦν, καὶ εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ σώματι τῷ πρώην ἐπὶ τοῦ Πιλάτου σταυρωθέντι, καὶ ταφέντι, καὶ ἀναστάντι ἐκ νεκρῶν, ἀλλ’ ὅμως οὐκέτι πείσεται ἀνθρώπινα, καὶ τὸ σῶμα ἔχει ἀγήρατον, ἀπήμαντόν τε καὶ ἄχραντον εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας.