Chapter 31 — The error of Apollinaris concerning Christ’s body

More absurd still was the error of Apollinaris concerning the mystery of the Incarnation. He agreed with the above-mentioned errors in that he asserted that Christ’s body was not taken from the Virgin, but his impiety went so far as to contend that Christ’s flesh was formed from some part of the Word. He was led into this error by the text: The Word was made flesh (John 1:14), which he understood to mean that the Word was transformed into flesh, just as the text: When the steward of the feast had tasted the water made wine (John 2:9) indicates that the water was transformed into wine.

It is easy to see how impossible this is, if we take note of what was proved above. (Bk. 1, cc. 13, 15.) For we proved that God is utterly unchangeable. Now it is evident that whatsoever is transformed is changed. Since, then, the Word of God is true God, as we have proved, (Ch. 3.) it was impossible for the Word of God to be transformed into man.

Again. Since the Word of God is God, he is simple, for it was proved (Bk. 1, ch. 28.) that there is no composition in God. Accordingly, if some part of the Word was changed into flesh, it follows that the whole Word was changed. Now that which is changed into something else ceases to be what it was before. Thus water, changed into wine, is no longer water, but wine. Therefore, according to this view, after the Incarnation the Word of God would utterly cease to be. But this is impossible, both because the Word of God is eternal: In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1); and because, even after the Incarnation, Christ is called the Word: He is clad in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God (Rev 19:13).

Further. Things that do not have common matter and genus cannot be changed one into the other. A line cannot become whiteness, because they differ generically, and a body fashioned from the elements cannot be changed into a heavenly body, or into an incorporeal substance, or vice versa, since they are not of the same matter. Now, since the Word of God is God, he agrees neither in genus nor in matter with anything else: for God is not in a genus, and is void of matter. Therefore, it was impossible for the Word of God to be changed into flesh or into anything else.

Again. Flesh, bones, and blood and the parts thereof are essentially composed of some determinate matter. Hence, if according to the above view the Word of God was changed into flesh, it would follow that in Christ there was no real flesh or anything else of the kind; thus he would not be a real, but only an imaginary man. Other equally absurd consequences would follow, all of which we have exposed when refuting Valentine. (Ch. 30.)

Accordingly it is evident that the text of John: The Word was made flesh (John 1:14), does not mean that the Word was transformed into flesh, but that he took flesh in order to live among men and appear to them visibly. Hence the text continues: And dwelt among us . . . and we have beheld his glory. Baruch also says of God that he appeared upon earth and lived among men (Bar 3:38).