Chapter 2 (5)
8 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
Chapter 2 (5) 1. ON THE UNION OF WORD AND FLESH THROUGH THE SOUL. And so the Son of God took on flesh and soul, but the flesh through the soul— JOHN
OF DAMASCUS: "The Word of God was united to the flesh by means of the intellect."' For the divine essence is of such great fineness and simplicity that it would not have been suitable for it to become united to a body formed from the mud of the earth, other than by means of the rational essence.
2. And that union was so inexplicable that even John [the Baptist], who had been sanctified from the womb,' confessed that he was not worthy to untie the strap of Jesus' shoe,' because he was not sufficient to investigate and explain to others the manner of that union.
3. AUGUSTINE, ON THE CHRISTIAN COMBAT: "And so do not listen to those who say that the Son of God did not take on true humanity, nor was born of a woman, but that he showed false flesh and a fake image of a body to on-lookers."" They fall into this error because they fear what cannot happen, namely that the truth and substance of God be polluted by human flesh. "And yet they preach that our visible sun spreads its rays over all manner of offal, but keeps them clean and pure. Therefore, if pure things which are visible can be touched by visible things which are unclean and not share their pollution, how much more did the unchangeable and invisible Truth, receiving a soul through the spirit and a body through the soul, take on the whole man without contamination to itself and free him from all infirmities?"°—See, he says here that God's wisdom took on a soul through the spirit and a body through the soul. For the spirit, namely the higher part of the soul,° is closer to God by a greater likeness than the soul, namely the same thing in its lower part, and the soul is closer than the body; and so, not unsuitably, the soul is said to be taken on through the spirit, and the body through the soul.
Chapter 3 (6)
1. THAT THE WORD TOOK ON FLESH AND SOUL AT THE SAME TIME, NOR
WAS THE FLESH CONCEIVED BEFORE IT WAS TAKEN ON. But if it is asked whether the Word took on flesh and soul at the same time, or the soul before the flesh, or the flesh before the soul, and whether that flesh was
'John of Damascus, De fide orthodoxa, bk 3 c3.
2ChiLk aS:
°C MAI, 17.
"Augustine, De agone christiano, c18 n20.
"Ibid.
°See above, Bk 2 dist. 24 cc4-5.