Section CC

For as Methodius, bishop of Tyre¹, bears witness—ἀνὴρ λόγιος καὶ σφόδρα περὶ τῆς ἀληθείας ἀγωνισάμενος, a learned man who contended vehemently for the truth², indeed also³ a most eloquent martyr, who became illustrious as the third century was ending—God denied no one the opportunity and faculty by which he could both repudiate the cause of death and advance from the miserable servitude of the conquered to the liberty and glory of the victor—

“For to this end⁴ the Word, sent into the world, first assumed our form infected by many stains of sins, ἵνα δὴ τὴν θείαν ἡμεῖς, δι᾽ οὓς αὐτὸς ἐφόρεσε, πάλιν χωρῆσαι δυνηθῶμεν, that we, for whose sake he wore it, might be able to receive the divine form again. For to be accurately fashioned according to the likeness of God is precisely this: by imitation to transfer his characters and lineaments into the course of human life, by the same art by which skilled painters reproduce to the life upon prepared tablets the lines and colors of the exemplar set before their eyes. We shall attain this when we learn thoroughly and follow the way and discipline shown by him. For with this purpose he, although God, was pleased to put on human flesh: that, beholding as though upon a tablet the proposed divine exemplar of life, we too might be able to imitate its author.”

Concerning this counsel of merciful kindness and the power granted by which all may express the divine likeness in themselves, Methodius again speaks in such a manner that nothing more fitting could seem capable of being sought. For he writes⁵ that man was created most like the angels and exempt from corruption, “that he too might praise and celebrate the King and Creator of all, like a second choir responding to the cries of the angels from heaven.” Then he continues⁶:

But because it had happened that, after violating the command of God, he fell by a grave and deadly fall, being dissolved into death, for this reason the Lord says⁷ that, leaving the angelic orders and cohorts, he came from heaven into the world. For the mountains must be understood to designate the heavens; but by the ninety-nine sheep, the Virtues and Principalities and Powers whom he left, when the Emperor and Shepherd himself descended to seek the sheep which had perished—

—Ταύτῃ γὰρ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἀνείληφεν ὁ Λόγος, ὅπως δὴ δι᾽ αὐτοῦ καταλύσῃ τὴν ἐπ᾽ ὀλέθρῳ γεγονυῖαν καταδίκην, ἡττήσας τὸν ὄφιν· ἥρμοζε γὰρ μὴ δι᾽ ἑτέρου νικηθῆναι τὸν πονηρόν, ἀλλὰ δι᾽ ἐκείνου, ὃν δὴ καὶ ἐκόμπαζεν ἀπατήσας αὐτὸν τετυραννηκέναι· ὅτι μὴ ἄλλως τὴν ἁμαρτίαν λυθῆναι καὶ τὴν κατάκρισιν δυνατὸν ἦν, εἰ μὴ πάλιν ὁ αὐτὸς ἐκεῖνος ἄνθρωπος, δι᾽ ὃν εἴρητο τό, γῆ εἶ, καὶ εἰς γῆν ἀπελεύσῃ, ἀναπλασθεὶς ἀνέλυσε τὴν ἀπόφασιν τὴν δι᾽ αὐτὸν εἰς πάντας ἐξενηνεγμένην· ὅπως καθὼς ἐν τῷ Ἀδὰμ πρότερον πάντες ἀποθνῄσκουσιν, οὕτω δὴ πάλιν καὶ ἐν τῷ ἀνειληφότι Χριστῷ τὸν Ἀδάμ, πάντες ζωοποιηθῶσι. For with this purpose the Word assumed man: that, after conquering the serpent, by his own office and operation he might annul the condemnation passed for man’s destruction. For it was fitting that the devil should be conquered by no other than that very man whom he boasted, after seducing him, that he had subjected to his own tyranny. For neither could sin be loosed nor damnation abolished in any other manner unless that same man, on account of whom it was said⁸, “Earth you are, and unto earth you shall return,” being formed anew, annulled the sentence which through his guilt had passed upon all; so that, just as⁹ formerly in Adam all died, so again in Christ, who had assumed Adam, all might be vivified.

And the human race was indeed formed anew and augmented with the power of attaining immortality. For, as Aeneas of Gaza teaches splendidly¹⁰ in the dialogue which he entitled Theophrastus, concerning the immortality of souls and the resurrection of bodies: “God, remaining that very thing which he is, διὰ φιλανθρωπίαν ἄνθρωπος γενόμενος, τὴν τοῦ λόγου σοφίαν, καὶ τοῦ ἔργου τὴν δύναμιν τοῖς ἐπιτηδείοις ἐνέπνευσε, having been made man out of love for our race, inspired the wisdom of the word and the power of the work into those who are fit to receive them. And he himself first, as one who is God, raised his own body to immortal life—

—κοινὴν τὴν δωρεὰν ἅπασιν ἐπαγγέλλεται, and thereafter promises this gift as common to all.”