Which of the prophets ever called any of the Lord’s attributes His child or His son, or ever stated that God had begotten one of His own attributes? Your assertion, therefore, that His primeval, timeless attribute was born twice—once in an eternal, primordial birth and again in a temporal birth from Mary’s womb—is a blatant falsehood you attribute to the prophets.

Not a single one of them said that God begot, or that any of His attributes was begotten by Him—whether by a spiritual birth or a bodily birth. Although this statement already invalidates the creed of the Melkites, it nullifies the creed of the Jacobites even more forcefully, and it also refutes that of the Nestorians. For the three groups alike profess the “Creed” in which they declare him to be an eternal, timeless offspring; and the three sects are agreed upon that creed which they themselves devised in the days of Constantine, more than 300 years after Christ.

Fifth line of argument: You claim that He sent down His creative Word, so the creative Word of God—by which everything came into existence—descended; it is not created but begotten from Him, and God, you say, has never been without His Word or His Spirit.

Which prophet ever said that He was never without His Spirit, or that His Spirit is an eternal attribute of His, or that it is His very life? All prophetic speech testifies that “the Spirit of God,” “the Holy Spirit,” and the like refer to what He sends to the prophets—revelation, support, or the angels. The Spirit of God, then, is not an attribute subsisting in Him or anything of the sort; it is a reality separate from Him.

Sixth line of argument: If, as you claim, He sent down His creative Word and it descended and took flesh from Mary, then the Lord of all worlds Himself would have descended and taken flesh from Mary—or