nor yet pure fire, nor a mere heap of unalloyed iron and unalloyed fire; rather, it is a third essence that has arisen from the transformation of iron and fire, just as every substance produced through union and intermixture is transmuted into a new, third reality.

Accordingly, once two things have fused and blended into a single entity, it makes no difference whether both were dense, or one dense and the other subtle. In every case each constituent must undergo the degree of change and transformation required for union, and the united, blended composite must become a third thing—neither one of the two alone, nor simply the sum of the two in their original states.

Their assertion, then—

“He is, after the union, perfect man and perfect God”

—is an irrational claim whose falsehood is self-evident. Whenever they advance an analogy in its defence, that very analogy turns into evidence against them; for under such a union He would be neither perfect man nor perfect God, but a third entity compounded of a humanity that has been altered and transmuted and a divinity that has likewise been altered and transmuted.

And since both of these notions are false—in reality, the Messiah’s humanity remains intact and complete, exactly as it always was, without transformation or alteration; and the Lord of the worlds remains, with His attributes of perfection, unchanged, never acquiring any characteristic of created beings and never departing from what He was before—their claim stands manifestly invalid.