Letter 495

To Martinianus the Presbyter. The Law commanded the Israelites who were about to eat the lamb [the Passover lamb of Exodus 12] to eat the head together with the feet, so that we, through the figure, might learn the truth of the Master's dispensation [the incarnation]: the head being understood as the divinity, and the feet shining forth as the humanity. For the Evangelist who said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" [John 1:1], went on to add, saying, "And the Word became flesh" [John 1:14]. Let us therefore worship Him as God, and let us believe that He became man. For Christ was twofold: God in what is invisible, and man in what is seen. So then it is neither right [literally, neither "in good head," a play on the "head" of the lamb] to speak of a man apart from the divinity, nor is it salvific not to confess the humanity together with the divinity. These few words are in reply to what was written to me by you.

Τοῖς μέλλουσι τὸ πρόβατον ἐσθίειν Ἰσραηλίταις κεφαλὴν σὺν τοῖς ποσὶν ἐσθίειν ὁ νόμος ἐκέλευεν, ἵνα ἡμεῖς διὰ τοῦ τύπου μάθωμεν τὴν ἀλήθειαν τῆς τοῦ Δεσπότου οἰκονομίας, κεφαλῆς μὲν τῆς θεότητος νοουμένης· ποδῶν δὲ τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος ἐκλαμπομένης. Ὁ γὰρ εἰπὼν εὐαγγελιστὴς· «Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος, καὶ ὁ Λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν, καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος,» ἐπήγαγε λέγων· «Καὶ ὁ Λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο.» Προσκυνήσωμεν οὖν ὡς Θεῷ, πιστεύσωμεν δὲ, ὅτι ἠνθρώπησε. Διπλοῦς γὰρ ἦν ὁ Χριστὸς, Θεὸς μὲν τὰ ἀόρατον, ἄνθρωπος δὲ τὰ τὰ βλεπόμενον. Οὔτε οὖν τὸ λέγειν ἄνθρωπον ἄνευ τῆς θεότητος ἐπικεφαλὲς, οὔτε τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα μὴ συνομολογεῖν τῇ θεότητι σωτήριον. Ταῦτα πρὸς τὰ γραφέντα μοι παρὰ σοῦ δι’ ὀλίγων.