Letter to Adelphius

1We read what your piety wrote, and we truly welcomed your reverence for Christ. Above all we glorified God, who gave you such grace that you both hold sound understanding and are not ignorant, as far as possible, of the devil's schemes. But we marveled at the heretics' malice, seeing how far they have fallen into the pit of impiety, so that they no longer even keep their senses but have their minds corrupted on every side. This attempt of theirs is a prompting of the devil and an imitation of the lawless Jews. For just as those men, refuted on every side, kept inventing pretexts against themselves, only so that they might deny the Lord and bring upon themselves what had been prophesied against them, in the same way these men, seeing themselves publicly denounced on every side and seeing their heresy become abominable to all, become inventors of evils, so that they may not stop fighting against the truth but may truly remain fighters against Christ. For where did this evil of theirs spring from? How have they dared at all to utter this new blasphemy against the Savior? But, as it seems, the impious man is wicked and truly worthless in matters of faith. For earlier, while denying the divinity of the only-begotten Son of God, they pretended at least to acknowledge his incarnate presence. But now, descending little by little, they have fallen away even from this opinion of theirs and have become godless on every side, so that they neither acknowledge him as God nor believe that he became a human being. For if they believed, they would not have uttered the sorts of things your piety wrote against them. You then, beloved and truly longed-for one, have done what befits the Church's tradition and reverence for the Lord, by refuting, admonishing, and rebuking such men. But since, provoked by their father the devil, they did not know or understand, as it is written, but walk in darkness, let them learn from your reverence that this malice of theirs belongs to Valentinus, Marcion, and Mani. Of these, some introduced mere appearance in place of truth, while others, dividing the things that cannot be divided, denied that "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). Why then, since they think the thoughts of those men, do they not also inherit their names? For it is reasonable that those who hold their evil doctrine should also bear their names, so that from now on they may be called Valentinians, Marcionites, and Manichaeans. Perhaps then, ashamed by the stench of the names, they may be able to understand into what depth of impiety they have fallen. It would have been right to answer them no longer, according to the apostolic counsel: "Reject a divisive person after a first and second warning, knowing that such a person is twisted and sins, being self-condemned" (Titus 3:10-11); especially since the prophet also says about such people: "The fool will speak folly, and his heart will devise vain things" (Isaiah 32:6). But since, like their leader, they too go around like lions seeking someone to devour among the innocent, for this reason it has become necessary for us to write back to your reverence, so that the brothers, learning again through your admonition, may condemn their empty talk even more.

2We do not worship a creature. Never! That is the error of pagans and Arians. We worship the Lord of creation, the Word of God, who became flesh. For even if the flesh in itself is part of created things, it has become God's body. And we do not worship such a body by dividing it from the Word and taking it on its own, nor, when we want to worship the Word, do we push him far away from the flesh. Rather, knowing, as we said before, that "the Word became flesh" (John 1:14), we recognize him as God even when he has come in the flesh. Who, then, is so foolish as to say to the Lord, "Leave your body so that I may worship you"? Or who is so impious as to say to him, along with the foolish Jews, because of the body, "Why do you, being a man, make yourself God?" (John 10:33; cf. John 8:40). But the leper was not like that. He worshiped God who was present in a body, and he knew that he was God, saying, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean" (Matthew 8:2). He did not think the Word of God was a creature because of the flesh, nor did he despise the flesh the Word had put on because the Word is the maker of every creature. Rather, as in a created temple he worshiped the Creator of all, and he was made clean. So too the woman with the flow of blood believed, and merely touching the fringe of his garment, she was healed. The sea, foaming with waves, heard the Word who had become flesh, and the storm ceased. The man blind from birth was healed by the Word through the spittle of the flesh. And what is greater and more astonishing—for perhaps this is what scandalized even the most impious—while the Lord himself hung on the cross (for the body was his, and the Word was in it), the sun was darkened, the earth shook, the rocks were split, the curtain of the temple was torn, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised (Matthew 27:51-52). These things happened, and no one reasoned, as the Arians now dare to do, about whether one should obey the Word who had become flesh. Even seeing a man, they recognized him as their maker. Even hearing a human voice, they did not say, because of his humanity, that the Word is a creature. Rather, they trembled all the more, and they knew no less that he was speaking from a holy temple. How then are the impious not afraid that, just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, they may be handed over to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done (Romans 1:28)? For creation does not worship a creature, nor again did it refuse to worship its Lord because of the flesh. It saw its own maker in a body, and at the name of Jesus Christ every knee bent, and will bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess, even if the Arians do not think so, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10-11). For the flesh did not bring dishonor to the Word. Never! Rather, it has been glorified by him. Nor, because the Son who was in the form of God took the form of a servant, was he diminished in his divinity (Philippians 2:6-7). Rather, he himself became the liberator of all flesh and of all creation.

3And if God sent his Son born of a woman, the matter brings us no shame, but rather glory and great grace. For he became human so that he might make us divine in himself; and he was born of a woman and begotten of a Virgin, so that he might transfer our wayward birth to himself, and that we might from then on become a holy race and sharers of the divine nature, as the blessed Peter wrote (2 Peter 1:4). And what the law could not do, weakened as it was through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3).

The flesh, then, was taken up by the Word for the purpose of freeing all human beings, raising all from the dead, and redeeming them from sin. How, then, do those who despise this flesh, or who because of this flesh accuse the Son of God as a thing made or a creature, not show themselves ungrateful and worthy of every hatred? For they are all but shouting to God and saying: Do not send your only-begotten Son in flesh; do not make him take flesh from a Virgin, lest he redeem us from death and sin. We do not want him to become in a body, lest he take upon himself death for us. We do not want the Word to become flesh, lest in it he become our mediator of access to you and we dwell in the heavenly rooms. Let the gates of heaven be shut, lest through the curtain of his flesh your Word inaugurate for us the way into heaven.

These are the voices they utter with devilish boldness, through which they have devised evil thoughts for themselves. For those who do not want to worship the Word become flesh are ungrateful for his incarnation; and those who divide the Word from the flesh believe that no redemption from sin has taken place, nor any destruction of death.

Where will the impious find the flesh by itself, which the Savior took, so that they dare to say: We do not worship the Lord with the flesh; rather, we divide the body and serve him alone? The blessed Stephen saw the Lord in heaven standing at God's right hand; and the angels said to the disciples: He will come in the same way you saw him going into heaven. And the Lord himself said, addressing the Father: I desire that where I am, they also may always be with me. And in short, if the flesh is inseparable from the Word, must they not necessarily put away their error and from then on worship the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? Or, if they do not worship or serve the Word who came in flesh, must they not be cast out from every side and no longer be counted as Christians, but as pagans or numbered with the Jews?

Such, then, as we said before, is their madness and boldness. But our faith is right, and it springs from apostolic teaching and the tradition of the Fathers, and is confirmed by both the New and the Old Testament. The prophets say: Send out your Word and your truth (Psalm 42:3 LXX); and: Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated, God with us (Isaiah 7:14).

4And what is this but that God has come to be in flesh? The apostolic tradition teaches it: the blessed Peter says, “Since Christ suffered for us in the flesh” (1 Peter 3:18); and Paul writes, “Awaiting the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all sin and purify for himself a people of his own possession, eager for good works” (Titus 2:13-14). How then did he give himself for us, unless he was wearing flesh? For by offering this flesh, he gave himself for us, so that, having taken up death in it, he might abolish the devil, the one having the power of death. Therefore we always give thanks in the name of Jesus Christ, and we do not reject the grace that has come to us through him. For the incarnate presence of the Savior has become the ransom from death and the salvation of all creation.

So then, beloved and most longed-for, let those who love the Lord be reminded by these things. But those who have imitated the manner of Judas and abandoned the Lord, so that they might be with Caiaphas, let them be corrected by these things, if perhaps they are willing, if perhaps they are ashamed. And let them know that when we worship the Lord in the flesh, we do not worship a creature, but the Creator who put on the created body, as we said before.

I would like your reverence to ask them this: when Israel was commanded to go up to Jerusalem to worship in the temple of the Lord, where the ark was and above it the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, did they do well or the opposite? If they acted wrongly, why were those who neglected this law placed under punishment? For it is written: “Whoever despises it and does not go up shall be cut off from the people.” But if they acted rightly and in this were pleasing to God, how are the defiled and most shameful of all heresies, the Arians, not often worthy of destruction, because they accepted the ancient people for their honor toward the temple, yet refuse to worship the Lord in the flesh, as being in a temple?

And yet the ancient temple was built of stones and gold, as a shadow. But when the truth came, the type ceased and did not remain, according to the Lord’s voice: not one stone was left upon another in it that was not thrown down (Matthew 24:2). And neither, when they saw the temple made of stones, did they think that the Lord speaking in that temple was a creature; nor did they, despising the temple, depart far off and worship. But coming to it lawfully, they served the God who gave oracles from the temple.

Since this was so, how is the body of the Lord—the all-holy and truly all-revered body, announced by the archangel Gabriel, formed by the Holy Spirit, and made the garment of the Word—not to be worshiped? For the Word stretched out a bodily hand and raised the fevered woman; and with a human voice he raised Lazarus from the dead; and again, stretching out his hands on the cross, he cast down the ruler of the power of the air, the one now at work in the sons of disobedience, and made for us a clear road into the heavens.

5Therefore the one who dishonors the temple dishonors the Lord who is in the temple; and the one who divides the Word from the body rejects the grace given to us in him. And let the most impious Ariomaniacs not suppose, because the body is created, that the Word is also a creature; nor, because the Word is not a creature, let them slander his body. For their malice is to be marveled at, because they stir up and confuse everything, and they invent pretexts only so that they may number the Creator among the creatures. But let them hear: If the Word were a creature, he would not have taken to himself the created body in order to make it alive. For what help will there be for creatures from a creature, when it itself also needs salvation? But since the Word, being Creator, himself became the maker of creatures, for this reason also at the consummation of the ages he himself put on the created body, so that again he himself, as Creator, might renew it and be able to win it back. A creature could never be saved by a creature, just as creatures were not created by a creature, unless the Word were Creator. Therefore let them not speak falsely against the divine Scriptures, nor scandalize the innocent among the brothers; but if they are willing, let them also repent, and no longer worship the creature alongside the God who created all things. But if they wish to remain in their impieties, let them alone be filled with them, and let them gnash their teeth according to their father the devil, because the faith of the catholic Church knows the Word of God as Creator and maker of all things, and we know that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God (John 1:1); and when he became also man for our salvation, we worship him, not as an equal thing becoming equal to the body, but as Lord taking the form of the servant (Philippians 2:7), and as maker and Creator becoming in a creature, so that, having freed all things in him, he might bring the world to the Father and make peace for all things, whether in heaven or on earth (Colossians 1:20). For thus we also recognize his paternal divinity, and we worship his incarnate presence, even if the Ariomaniacs burst themselves apart. Greet all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you fare well and remember us to the Lord, beloved and truly most longed for, if there is need for these things to be read to Hieracas the presbyter.