one Creator, one Provider. Mary conceived him and gave birth to him; he was seized, crucified, suffered, died, and was buried. After three days he rose and ascended to heaven, where he sat at the right hand of his Father.

They say: The very child whom Mary bore, whom people beheld and lived among, is God—He is the Son of God and the Word of God. Thus the eternal, pre-existent Creator of the heavens and the earth is the one whom Mary conceived, who remained in her womb for nine months, who was born, suckled, weaned, ate, drank, defecated, was arrested, crucified, bound with ropes, and had his hands nailed to the cross.

Yet they disagreed among themselves. The Jacobites—followers of Jacob al-Baradaʿī, so nicknamed because his clothing was patched together from the saddle-blanket scraps of pack animals—said: The Messiah consists of a single nature made up of two natures: one human and the other divine. These two natures combined, becoming one human being, one substance, and one person. (This single nature and single person) (1) is the Messiah, wholly God and wholly man—one person and one nature originating from two.

They further claim that Mary gave birth to God, and that God—exalted be He—was seized, crucified, nailed, died, was buried, and afterward came back to life.

The Melkites (2)—the Byzantines, so called after the religion of the king (malik), not after any particular individual—