“Mary conceived God, (and gave birth to God) (1), and God died. Some of us, however, refrain from this phrasing because its wording is repellent; instead they convey its sense and its reality, saying: ‘Mary truly conceived the Messiah, truly gave birth to the Messiah; she is (2) in truth the mother of the Messiah, and the Messiah is in truth God, in truth Lord, in truth the Son of God, in truth the Word of God—there is in truth no son of God other than him, nor has the Messiah in reality any father but Him.’

They say: These people (3) therefore agree in meaning with those who declare, ‘She conceived God, gave birth to God, God was killed, was crucified, died, and was buried,’ even though they reject the wording and the phraseology.

They say: We have repudiated only this wording (4) that our brothers employ so freely, lest anyone imagine, when we say, ‘She conceived God, gave birth to God, God suffered pain, (and God died) (5),’ that all of this befell God the Father. Rather, we maintain that all of it befell and descended upon the Messiah; and the Messiah, according to us and our various denominations, is a perfect God from a perfect God, of the same essence (6) as His Father. Thus we and our brothers are, in reality, one and the same; our only difference lies in expression alone.

They say: This, then, is the very substance of our religion and our faith, and the Fathers and exemplars have