‘word,’ and the “Word” as knowledge; and they render life as “Spirit.”

He adds: They do not mean by “the Word” ordinary speech, for speech, in their system, belongs to the attributes of action. Nor do they call knowledge, before it has donned the person of the Messiah and united with him, a “Son”; rather, in their view, the Messiah together with what he has assumed is the Son.

They say: Part of their creed is that the Word united with the Messiah and clothed itself in human nature. They then disagreed over the reality of that union: some explained it as mixture and fusion, and this is the stance of certain groups among the Jacobites, Nestorians, and Melkites. They maintain that the Word mingled with the body of the Messiah and blended with it just as wine mixes with water or milk. This, they claim, is likewise the doctrine of the Byzantines, most of whom are Melkites. Thus, they assert, the Word blended with the Messiah’s body until the two became a single entity and multiplicity was reduced to oneness.

A faction of the Jacobites went further, declaring that the Word itself was transformed into flesh and blood. A small splinter from every party held that what is meant by “union” is simply the manifestation of the divinity upon the humanity, like an image appearing in a mirror or an imprint in a signet-ring. Others said that this manifestation of the divinity upon the humanity is comparable to God’s enthronement above the Throne according to the Muslims. Many among these sects concluded that the intended meaning of union is indwelling (hulul).

They also differ, they say, about the Essence and the hypostases.