This, then, is sheer contradiction and confusion: you make him the Son who is the Word, while he is nothing but the hypostasis of the Word alone; yet you say, “He took flesh from the Holy Spirit,” and you do not say, “He took flesh from the Word.” You say, “He is the Word of God and His Spirit,” although Word and Spirit are two hypostases, yet you refuse to say that he is two hypostases and insist that he is a single hypostasis. You say, “He is the Creator of the universe,” even though, according to you, the Creator is the Father—yet you also say, “He is not the Father.” You say, “True God from true God,” and you say, “One God, equal to the Father in essence,” and you say, “Nothing resembles Him.” None of this language appears in the speech of any prophet, so how can you liken yourselves to those who followed the prophetic texts without corrupting them?

The most you can cite is what is found in the Gospel of Matthew—alone among the Gospels—that the Messiah, peace be upon him, said: “Baptize the people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Yet you know from the words of the Messiah and the other prophets that by “the Son” they intend an attribute of God, not His speech, nor His knowledge, nor His wisdom; nor do they mean by “the Son” a “true God from true God,” or an eternal, uncreated offspring,