PREFACE.

...the soul and body are united in the person of man. In this respect, therefore, the holy Fathers rightly produced an example from the union of soul and body to explain the mystery of the incarnation. The Jacobites have not sufficiently understood this method of acting, seeking an argument from that union of soul and body by which they might posit one composite nature in Christ.

The Jacobite tenets of Bar Hebraeus.

The Jacobite patriarchs teach the same thing as Philoxenus in the synodical epistles which they sent again and again to the patriarchs of the Copts. He is followed by Bar Hebraeus, whom one might call Catholic when he writes about the incarnation, were it not that he immediately adds other purely heretical things. For thus he speaks in his Profession of Faithoriginal Syriac text follows: "We believe, however, that one of the persons of the Holy Trinity descended from heaven, while not departing from the bosom of the Father, and dwelt in the womb of the Virgin, and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and from the Virgin Mary, and became man, while remaining God. He was united to a flesh consubstantial with us, and endowed with a living and rational soul. He did not first assume a temple and then the Word dwelt in it. Whence it is not believed that a man became God, but that God became man; nor is he a man who is wise, who was justified by his own works; nor did he bring a body for himself from heaven, nor was he seen in the world in appearance or fantastically; but one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, while being God in his nature, descended from the high heavens and became man by his grace and was born from the Virgin..." [in which he states]:

"We believe, however, that one of the persons of the Holy Trinity descended from heaven, while not departing from the bosom of the Father, and dwelt in the womb of the Virgin, and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and from the Virgin Mary, and became man, while remaining God: he was united to a flesh consubstantial with us, and endowed with a living and rational soul. And he did not first take a temple and then the Word dwelt in it; whence it is not believed that a man became God, but that God became man; nor is he that wise man who was justified by his works; nor did he bring a body for himself from heaven; nor was he seen in the world in appearance or fantastically; but one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, while being God in his nature, descended from the high heavens, and became man by his grace, and was born from the Virgin, and was completed just as he willed, and the kingdom that is changed is perfected; just as they are the true ones and the lives that are written in the Gospel. And you have seen that for the flesh, they are not as those who said: 'The Word of life that came to us from heaven, that is undefiled, that came from heaven.' But we have produced distinctions that were given from it, while they are true, and a living soul, and God. One birth. One hypostasis subsistence/person. One will. One power. One kingdom, just as from the Father to the Holy Trinity, all together."