food and drink; burning to ashes every devil or jinn that came near him—just as Elijah consumed with fire the soldiers of King Ahab who approached him; keeping ordinary mortals from getting hold of him; and never permitting them, as you claim, to do to his body what they did—so that people would know that he is their Creator, or at least the very sanctuary of the Creator.

He said: We have also found you saying that the Son is called the Son of God and His Word because He was begotten of the Father and proceeded from Him. Yet we have not grasped what that means, for your creed likewise states that the Spirit proceeds from the Father. If what you say is true, then the Spirit, too, must be a son, since it proceeds from God Most High. If not, what distinguishes one from the other?

He said: Nor have we understood your statement that the Son became incarnate through the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Why would the Son need the Spirit—who, according to you, is His equal—to govern him and move him from one state to another? Do you not realize that the one who precedes and directs is the agent, while the one directed and preceded is acted upon