Twelve Chapters on the Faith · §12 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Christ came truly in the flesh, not in appearance only

Gregory condemns the view that Christ appeared only in seeming, retells the true events of his life in the flesh, and closes the work with praise of the Trinity and a warning against quarrels over words.

If anyone says that Christ appeared to the world only in seeming and pretense, and does not confess that he came in the flesh (1 John 4:2), let him be anathema.

How can anyone say that Christ appeared to the world in seeming and pretense? I mean Christ, born in Bethlehem; brought to be circumcised in the flesh (Luke 2:21); carried by Simeon (Luke 2:28); brought up by his parents until his twelfth year and obedient to them (Luke 2:42; Luke 2:51); baptized in the Jordan, nailed to the cross, and raised from the dead? Therefore, when it is said, “He was troubled in spirit” (John 13:21), “He was grieved in soul” (Matthew 26:38), “He was wounded in body,” he claims the names of these sufferings in keeping with the make-up of our nature, to show that he was born a man in the world and lived among men in our likeness, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

For he was born in Bethlehem according to the flesh, as befitted God, while the heavenly angels recognized their Lord and praised God wrapped in swaddling cloths in the manger (Luke 2:7), saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will” (Luke 2:14). He was brought up in Nazareth. Sitting in the midst of the teachers, he showed himself to be God and moved them to wonder at his wisdom, which went beyond the age of his body, as the Gospel account relates (Luke 2:46–47). He was baptized in the Jordan (Matthew 3:13–16), not to receive sanctification, but to bestow on others a share in sanctification. He was tempted in the desert (Matthew 4:1), not as one subject to temptation, but setting our temptations against the challenge of the tempter, to show the tempter to be futile.

That is why he says, “Take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He did not put forward a divine struggle, but showed his own flesh victorious over suffering, death and corruption, so that through the very flesh by which sin entered into the world, and through sin death reigned in all men (Romans 5:12–14), through that same flesh, in its likeness, sin might be condemned in the flesh (Romans 8:3); the ruler of sin, the tempter, might be overcome; death might be undone, so that it would not reign; corruption might vanish in the burial of the body; the first fruits of the resurrection might be shown; the beginning of righteousness might be set to work in the world through faith; the kingdom of heaven might be proclaimed to men; and communion between God and men might be entered into.

For this grace let us glorify the Father, who gave his only-begotten Son (John 3:16) for the life of the world (John 6:51). Let us glorify the Holy Spirit, who works in us and gives us life, and grants the gifts of grace for entering into communion with God. And let us not pry with curiosity and dry words into the teaching of the Gospel, bandying about endless questions (1 Timothy 1:4) and battles of words (1 Timothy 6:4), and making rough the plain, easy and straight word about the faith. Rather, let us do the work of faith, love peace, put concord first, keep unity and fellowship, and cultivate love, by which God is appeased.

It is not for us to know the times or seasons which the Father has set in his own authority (Acts 1:7); but we must believe that there will be an end of this present time, and the manifestation of the age to come, the revelation of the judgment, the coming of the Son of God, the repayment of works, and the possession of the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven. In the same way, it is not for us to know how the Son of God became man. For this mystery is great, as it is written: “Who will declare his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth” (Isaiah 53:8).

But we must believe that the Son of God became man according to the Scriptures; that he was seen on earth and lived among men (Baruch 3:38), as the Scriptures teach, in our likeness, without sin; that he died for us and rose from the dead, as it is written (1 Corinthians 15:3–4); and that he was taken up into the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19), from where he will come to judge the living and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1), as Scripture teaches. Otherwise, while we contend with one another in words, some may blaspheme the teaching of the faith, and what was said may come to pass: “Because of you my name is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles” (Isaiah 52:5).

Latin

Si quis dixerit, Christum sola opinione atque fictitie apparuisse mundo; et non confessus fuerit ipsum in carne venisse; anathema sit. Quomodo potest quispiam dicere, Christum putatitie ac ficte apparuisse mundo; Christum dico, in Bethleem natum, ad circumcisionem carnis adductum, a Symeone gestatum; usque ad duodecimum annum a parentibus educatum, iisque morigerum; in Iordane baptizatum, in cruce confixum, et a mortuis suscitatum? Quamobrem dum dicitur: Turbatus est spiritu, tristatus est anima, vulneratus est corpore; appellationes passionum secundum naturae nostrae constitutionem asserit, ut ostendat se hominem in mundo esse natum, et cum hominibus conversatum ad similitudinem nostram, sine tamen peccato. Natus est enim in Bethleem secundum carnem, ut Deum decebat, Angelis caelestibus Dominum suum agnoscentibus, et Deum in praesepio pannis involutum collaudantibus, atque dicentibus: Gloria in altissimis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis. In Nazaret enutritus est. In medio Doctorum sedens, Deum se ostendit, et admirationem eis movit super sapientia praeter tempus aetatis, secundum corpus, sicut Evangelicus sermo enarrat. In Iordane baptizatus est, non ut sanctificationem assumeret, sed ut sanctificationis participationem aliis elargiretur. In deserto tentatus est, non subiectus tentationi: sed nostras tentationes provocationi tentatoris obiiciens; ut vanum esse tentantem demonstraret. Propterea ait: Confidite, ego vici mundum. Non divinam luctationem opponens; sed propriam carnem victricem passionis, et mortis, atque corruptionis ostendens: ut per quam carnem, peccatum intravit in mundum, et per peccatum mors in omnibus hominibus regnavit; per eandem carnem secundum similitudinem, damnaretur peccatum in carne; et vinceretur peccati praeses qui tentat; et mors dissolveretur, ne regnaret; et corruptio in corporis sepultura evanesceret; primitiaeque resurrectionis ostenderentur, et principium iustitiae in mundo per fidem exerceretur; regnumque caelorum hominibus adnunciaretur, et Dei cum hominibus communio iniretur. Pro hac gratia glorificemus patrem, qui dedit filium suum unigenitum pro mundi vita: glorificemus spiritum sanctum, qui operatur in nobis et vivificat nos, et charismata ad communionem cum Deo ineundam tribuit: et ne doctrinam Evangelicam curiose verbis aridis perscrutemur, interminatas quaestiones et pugnas verborum circunferentes; et planum ac facilem, rectumque de fide sermonem, asperum reddentes: sed potius operemur opus fidei, pacem amemus, concordiam praeferamus, unitatem atque coniunctionem servemus, charitatem excolamus, per quam placatur Deus. Quemadmodum autem nostrum non est, scire tempora aut momenta quae pater posuit in sua potestate; credere autem oportet, finem fore huius temporis, et futuram venturi saeculi manifestationem, ac iudicii revelationem, et filii Dei adventum, operumque retributionem, ac hereditatis regni caelorum possessionem: sic non est nostrum scire, quomodo filius Dei factus sit homo. Mysterium enim hoc magnum est, sicut scriptum est, Generationem eius quis enarrabit? quia tollitur de terra vita eius. Sed credere oportet, quod filius Dei factus sit homo secundum Scripturas; et quod in terra visus sit, et cum hominibus conversatus, ut scripturae docent, ad similitudinem nostram, absque peccato; quodque pro nobis mortuus sit, et resurrexit ex mortuis, sicut scriptum est; et quod in caelos assumptus sit, sedetque in dextera patris, unde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos, sicut Scriptura docet: ne forte dum verbis inter nos contendimus, blasphement quidam doctrinam fidei; eveniatque quod dictum est: Propter vos semper blasphematur nomen meum in gentibus.

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About this text

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Twelve Chapters on the Faith, in a fresh English translation: twelve brief condemnations of false teaching about Christ, each with a short explanation, ending with praise of the Father and the Holy Spirit and a warning against quarrels over words.

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270) wrote this treatise to defend the orthodox understanding of Christ against positions that either deny the createdness of Christ's body or confuse his flesh with his divinity. The work is organized as a series of chapters, each of which anathematizes a specific error and briefly argues against it.

The first two chapters set out two claims. First, Christ's body is created, not uncreated, because what is uncreated cannot suffer, be wounded, or be touched, yet the risen Christ showed the nails and the wound made by the lance, and his body able to be touched, to the disciples, entering through closed doors. Second, Christ's flesh is not consubstantial with the divinity, since consubstantiality means identity of nature and eternal existence, whereas the flesh exists in time. In both cases Gregory affirms that Christ is truly God and truly man: when he was otherwise God, he was recognized as man; and when he was truly man, God was nevertheless demonstrated from his own works. The other ten chapters condemn, in turn, the views that Christ was a man taken up like one of the prophets, that he was conceived from a man's seed, that the Son before the ages and the Son of the last times are two, that the one who suffered was someone other than the Word, that Christ was saved rather than the Savior, that he is divided into a perfect man and God the Word, that he is changeable, that he took only part of a man, that his body lacked soul or mind, and that he came only in appearance. The work closes with praise of the Trinity and a warning against quarrels over words.

A reader will meet Christ as the central figure, presented as true God and true man, whose body is created and whose divinity is eternal. Gregory cites Philippians 2:6-7 on Christ emptying himself and taking the form of a servant, and he alludes to resurrection appearances involving the nails, the lance wound, a body able to be touched, and entering through closed doors.

English translated from the Latin column of the Opera omnia print (Paris, 1622) for all twelve chapters; Chapters III-XII were read from the page images (printed pp. 3-8, PDF pp. 27-32). Vossius's scholia are left out; marginal variants are noted, not adopted. In Chapter IX the print reads 'corruptible in flesh' where its margin gives 'incorruptible'; the printed reading is translated. ANF 6 was consulted only as a sense check for Chapters I-II.

Printed text used

Translated from Opera omnia, Greek and Latin (Paris: Sonnius, Morel and Cramoisy, 1622), page images (Latin column (Greek damaged) · Capita I-XII (Chapters III-XII read from the page images, printed pp. 3-8))
Also checked Archive DjVu machine-read text (Latin/Greek mixed machine-read text)
Translated from Latin Capita I-II (Latin)

Where the prints differ

Cap. I interpretatio — machine-read text of clavorum / lancea / palpandum / clausis ianuis restored from the facing column and the John 20 scene; not invented doctrine.

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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