—holy, apostolic, catholic—and in the resurrection of our bodies and in the everlasting life unto endless ages.

They thus stated explicitly that the Messiah is Lord, that he is the Son of God, His first-born with no other son beside him; that he is “not made,” meaning not a created servant but rather Lord and Creator; that he is true God, begotten and born of true God; that he is (1) equal to His Father in essence; and that by his hand the worlds were perfected. Yet the very hand by which, in their view, the worlds were fashioned is the hand that tasted the heat of the nails—as they themselves affirm in their books.

Their own words are these: they say, “Our exemplar has said: The hand that the Jews fastened to the wood is the hand that kneaded (2) Adam’s clay and fashioned him, the hand that measured out the heavens, and the hand that wrote the Torah for Moses!”

They continue—describing what the Jews did to him—and their wording is: “They slapped (3) the deity (4) and struck him on the head.”

They also say, in the prophets’ annunciations about him, that a virgin woman will conceive God, give birth to him, he will be seized, crucified, and killed!

And they say that the “Synodos of the Nations” (5)—at which seven hundred of the Fathers, the leading authorities, convened (6)—declared: “Mary conceived God, gave birth to him, nursed him, gave him drink, and fed him.”