Caput 10
The Mystery of the Incarnation
A seeker questions the Judge regarding the paradoxes of the Incarnation and the earthly life of Christ.
Then the religious man who had appeared earlier in his own rank spoke: "O Judge, I ask you: since you are most powerful, most beautiful, and most virtuous, why have you clothed your divinity—which is incomparably brighter than the sun—in such sackcloth, namely, your humanity?" How is it that your divinity includes all things within itself, yet is included by nothing; and how does it contain all things, yet is contained by nothing? Also, why did you choose to stay for so long in the Virgin's womb, and why didn't you come forth immediately once you were conceived? Also, since you can do all things and are present everywhere, why didn't you appear immediately in the stature you had when you reached your thirtieth year? Also, since you weren't born of Abraham's seed through a human father, why did you choose to be circumcised? Also, since you were conceived and born without sin, why did you choose to be baptized?
The Wine of Divine Love
The Judge uses the metaphor of wine and vessels to explain the necessity and beauty of the Incarnation.
The judge replied, "Friends, I'll answer you with an example." There is a certain kind of grape whose wine is so strong that it flows from the grapes without any human touch. The owner, watching for the time of ripeness, places a vessel underneath. The wine doesn't wait for the vessel; the vessel waits for the wine. If, however, several vessels are placed underneath, the wine pours itself into the one closest to it. This, then, is my one Godhead, which is so full of the wine of divine love that all the choirs of angels are filled from it, and all things that exist share in it.1 But through disobedience, man made himself unworthy of it. When my Father God wanted to show His love at the time foreseen from eternity, He sent His wine—that is, me, His Son—into a vessel that was placed nearest and waiting for the wine's arrival: the womb of the Virgin, who held a more fervent love for me than any other creature. This virgin loved and longed for me so much that there wasn't an hour when she wasn't seeking me, yearning to become my servant. That is why she obtained the choice wine, and this wine indeed possessed three qualities: first, strength, because I came forth without the touch of man; second, a most beautiful color, because I descended from the highest heaven in the splendor of my form to do battle; third, an excellent sweetness that intoxicates with the highest blessing. This wine, which I myself am, therefore entered the virgin's womb so that I, the invisible God, might become visible, and that lost humanity might be set free. I could certainly have taken on another form, but it wouldn't have been justice in God unless form were given for form, nature for nature, and the method of satisfaction matched the method of the sin. What wise person could have believed or imagined that I, the almighty God, would be willing to humble myself so much as to take on the sackcloth of humanity, were it not for that unfathomable love of mine by which I chose to live visibly among mankind? And because I saw the Virgin burning with such fervent love, my divine severity was overcome, and love was shown, so that humanity might be reconciled with me.
The Incomprehensible God
The Judge addresses the nature of his divinity, affirming his presence in all things while remaining beyond comprehension.
Why are you amazed? I am God, who am Love itself, and who hate nothing of what I have made; I haven't just planned to give humanity the best gifts, but also to give myself as both the price and the prize, so that all the proud and the devils might be confounded.2 As for how my divinity contains all things within itself, I answer: I am God, who is spirit; I speak, and it is done; I command, and all things obey me. I am truly the One who gives being and life to all things. Before I made the heavens, the mountains, and the earth, I existed in Myself. I am the One who is above all things and outside all things; I am the One who is within all things, in whom all things exist, and without whom there is nothing.✦✦ Because my Spirit breathes where it wills and when it wills, it can do all things, knows all things, and is swifter and more agile than all spirits. It possesses all power and looks upon all things—present, past, and future—and therefore my Spirit, which is my Godhead, is deservedly incomprehensible, even while it comprehends all things.
Fulfilling the Natural Order
The Judge explains why he submitted to the natural processes of gestation and growth during his earthly life.
As for why I stayed in a virgin's womb for so long, I answer: I am the Creator of all nature, and I have established the proper measure, time, and order of birth for every nature. If I, the Creator, had emerged from the womb immediately after I was conceived, I would have acted against the natural order, and my assumption of humanity would have been a mere illusion, not a reality.3 That is why I chose to stay in the womb for the same amount of time as other children, so I could fulfill in my own self the natural order I had established so well. As for why I wasn't as large when I was born as I was in my thirtieth year, I answer: If I had done that, everyone would have been amazed and afraid, following me more out of fear and because of the miracles they saw than out of love. And how then would the words of the prophets have been fulfilled—those who predicted that I, as a child, would be placed among animals in a manger, adored by kings, offered in the temple, and persecuted by enemies? I grew in body over the passage of time to show that my humanity was real and that the words of the prophets were fulfilled in me, even though in the fullness of wisdom I was as great at the beginning of my birth as I was at the end.
The Law and the New Way
The Judge clarifies the transition from the law of circumcision to the grace of baptism.
As for your question about why I was circumcised, I answer: although I wasn't of Abraham's lineage through a human father, I was through my mother, even though I was without sin. And so, because I established the law in my divinity, I also chose to endure the law in my humanity, so that my enemies wouldn't slander me by saying that I commanded things I was unwilling to fulfill myself. As for why I chose to be baptized, I answer: anyone who wants to establish or initiate a new way must, as its founder and initiator, go before others along that same path. And so, a certain carnal way was given to the people of old—namely, circumcision—as a sign of obedience and of a future cleansing; and in those who were faithful and kept the law, before the promised Truth came (that is, I, the Son of God), it worked a certain effect of future grace and promise. But when the Truth arrived—because the law was nothing more than a shadow—it was ordained in eternity that the old way, lacking its former effect, should pass away. Therefore, so that the truth might appear, the shadow might recede, and a clearer path to heaven might be shown, I—both God and man, born without sin—chose to be baptized for the sake of humility, as an example to others, and so that I might open heaven to those who believe. As a sign of this, when I was baptized, the heavens opened, the Father's voice was heard, the Holy Spirit appeared as a dove, and I, the Son of God, was revealed in true human form, so that all the faithful might know and believe that the Father opens heaven to the faithful who are baptized. The Holy Spirit is with the one baptizing, as is the power of my humanity within the element, even though the operation and the will of the Father, of me, and of the Holy Spirit are one. So when the truth arrived—that is, when I, who am the truth, came into the world—the shadow immediately vanished, the shell of the law was broken, and the kernel appeared. Circumcision gave way, and baptism was confirmed in me, by which heaven is opened to the young and the old, and children of wrath become children of grace and of eternal life.
Read the original Latin
Item apparuit religiosus qui supra in gradu suo dicens: "O iudex, quero a te: Cum tu sis potentissimus pulcherrimusque et virtuosissimus, cur in deitatem tuam incomparabiliter sole clariorem superinduisti talem saccum, scilicet humanitatem tuam?"
"Item quomodo deitas tua omnia includit in se et a nullo includitur continetque omnia et a nullo continetur?"
"Item cur tanto tempore iacere voluisti in vtero virginis et non statim processisti, quando conceptus eras?"
"Item, cum omnia possis et vbique es presens, cur non statim in tali statura apparuisti, sicut cum ad annum tricesimum peruenisti?"
"Item, cum de semine Abrahe non es natus secundum patrem, cur circumcidi voluisti?"
"Item, cum sine peccato conceptus et natus es, cur baptizari voluisti?"
Cui iudex respondit: "Amici, respondeo tibi per exemplum. Est quoddam genus vuarum, cuius vinum tam forte est, quod absque contactu hominis exit de vuis.
Cuius tempus maturitatis attendens possessor supponit vas. Nec vinum expectat vas sed vas vinum.
Si vero plura vasa supponuntur, vinum in vas, quod sibi vicinius est, se infundit.
Hec igitur vua deitas mea est, que vino diuine caritatis sic plena est, quod omnes chori angelorum replentur ex ea et omnia, quecumque sunt, participantur. Sed homo per inobedienciam se ea fecit indignum.
Cum igitur Deus Pater meus tempore ab eterno preuiso ostendere vellet caritatem suam, misit vinum suum, idest me filium suum, in vas, quod vicinius positum expectabat aduentum vini, scilicet in vterum virginis, que pre omni creatura feruenciorem ad me habuit caritatem.
Hec igitur virgo tantum diligebat et desiderabat me, quod non erat hora, qua non querebat me, affectans fieri ancilla mea.
Ideo optinuit ipsa vinum electum, quod quidem vinum habuit tria: primo fortitudinem, quia absque contactu hominis exiui; secundo pulcherrimum colorem, quia speciosus forma descendi a summo celo pugnaturus; tercio suauitatem optimam inebriantem summa benediccione.
Hoc igitur vinum, quod sum ego ipse, ideo ingrediebatur viscera virginea, vt ego Deus inuisibilis fierem visibilis, vt homo perditus liberaretur.
Ego quippe bene potuissem aliam formam assumpsisse, sed non fuisset iusticia in Deo, nisi vt forma daretur pro forma, natura pro natura, modus satisfaccionis secundum modum culpe.
Quis autem sapientum credere vel extimare potuisset, quod ego Deus omnipotens tantum me humiliare vellem, vt sumerem saccum humanitatis, nisi illa inexcogitabilis caritas mea fuisset, qua visibiliter volui conuersari cum homine?
Et quia vidi virginem tam feruenti caritate ardere, ideo victa est mea diuina seueritas et ostensa caritas, vt mecum homo reconciliaretur.
Quid miraris? Ego Deus, qui sum ipsa caritas et qui nichil odio eorum, que feci, non solum disposui dare homini dona optima sed et me ipsum in precium et premium, vt omnes superbi et dyaboli confundantur."
"Item, quomodo deitas mea omnia concludit in se, respondeo: Ego Deus spiritus sum, qui dico, et factum est, qui precipio, et omnia obediunt michi.
Ego vere sum, qui do omnibus esse et viuere, qui, antequam facerem celum et montes et terram, in me ipso sum, qui supra omnia et extra omnia sum, qui intra omnia sum et in me sunt omnia et sine me est nichil.
Et quia spiritus meus, vbi vult, spirat et, cum vult, omnia potest et omnia scit omnibusque spiritibus velocior et agilior est, omnem habens virtutem omniaque presencia, preterita et futura prospiciens, ideo spiritus meus, idest deitas mea, merito incomprehensibilis est omnia comprehendens."
"Item, cur tanto tempore iacui in ventre virgineo, respondeo: Ego sum omnis nature conditor et vnicuique nature disposui debitum modum et tempus et ordinem nascendi.
Si igitur ego conditor, statim vt conceptus fui, processissem ex vtero, fecissem contra naturalem disposicionem et tunc humanitatis mee assumpcio fantastica fuisset et non vera.
Ideo ergo ego volui esse tanto tempore in vtero sicut alii pueri, vt ea, que bene feceram, naturalem disposicionem ordinando, eciam in me ipso adimplerem."
"Item, cur non tante magnitudinis fui statim tempore natiuitatis mee sicut in anno tricesimo, respondeo:
Si hoc fecissem, omnes admirati fuissent et timuissent, me sequentes plus ex timore et propter visa miracula quam ex caritate.
Et quomodo tunc impleta fuissent dicta prophetarum, qui predixerunt me puerum ponendum inter animalia in presepio, adorandum a regibus et offerendum in templo, persequendum ab inimicis?
Ideo ad ostendendum humanitatem meam esse veram et dicta prophetarum in me completa crescebam membris per interualla temporum, qui plenitudine sapiencie tantus eram in principio natiuitatis sicut in fine."
"Item ad illud, quod petis, quare circumcisus sum, respondeo: Ego, quamuis non eram ex origine Abrahe secundum patrem, eram tamen secundum matrem, licet sine peccato.
Itaque, quia legem in deitate constitui, eciam in humanitate legem sufferre volui, ne inimici calumpniarent me dicentes me precepisse, que nolui adimplere."
"Item, cur baptizari volui, respondeo: Omnis, qui viam nouam condere vel inchoare voluerit, necesse est, vt ipse conditor et inchoator eiusdem vie alios precedat.
Itaque antiquo populo data erat quedam via carnalis, scilicet circumcisio, in signum obediencie et purgacionis future, que in personis fidelibus et legem seruantibus, antequam veniret veritas promissa, scilicet ego Dei filius, operabatur effectum quendam future gracie et promissionis.
Veniente vero veritate, quia lex non erat nisi quasi vmbra, diffinitum est in eternitate, vt antiqua via retrocederet, carens effectu suo.
Ergo, vt veritas appareret et vmbra retrocederet viaque facilior ad celum ostenderetur, ideo ego Deus et homo sine peccato natus baptizari volui propter humilitatem et aliorum exemplum et vt celum credentibus aperirem.
Et in huius signum, cum ego ipse baptizatus essem, tunc apertum fuit celum, vox Patris audita est, Spiritus Sanctus apparuit in columbe specie et ego Dei filius ostensus sum in homine vero, vt omnes fideles sciant et credant, quod Pater fidelibus baptizatis aperit celum.
Spiritus Sanctus est cum baptizante, virtus mee humanitatis in elemento, quamuis Patris et mea et Spiritus Sancti vna sit operacio et vna voluntas.
Sic igitur veniente veritate, idest quando veni in mundo ego, qui veritas sum, tunc statim disparuit vmbra, confracta est testa legis et apparuit nucleus, cessit circumcisio et confirmatus est in me ipso baptismus, quo paruulis et senibus aperitur celum et filii ire fiunt filii gracie et vite eterne."
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'vua' is likely a scribal error for 'una' (one). I have translated it as 'one' to maintain the theological sense of the unity of the Godhead.
- 2 ↩The Latin 'precium et premium' is a rhetorical pairing (price and prize/reward) emphasizing the totality of the gift of Christ.
- 3 ↩The term 'fantastica' here refers to the Docetic heresy, which claimed Christ's human body was only an appearance or phantom.
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