Letter 120

To the same person. You say that Moses declared in Deuteronomy, "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me." He said a prophet, not a God. How then do you say that Jesus is God? It is to you as to an infant, O Jew, that the all-wise Moses lisps, not yet able to show you most plainly the divinity of Christ. When therefore you receive him as a prophet after the manner of Moses, and as king, and as a gentle shepherd, and as one without possessions, then this same greatest and approved prophet will reveal to you that he is true God, incorporeal, and begotten timelessly, before all the ages, from true God. And you have as witnesses to the divinity of Christ and to the economy [oikonomia: God's saving plan, here the Incarnation] all the renowned prophets, who are the expounders of the Law.

Λέγεις τὸν Μωσέα εἰρηκέναι ἐν Δευτερονομίῳ, ὅτι «Προφήτην ὑμῖν ἀναστήσει Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ὑμῶν ἐκ τῶν ἀδελφῶν ὑμῶν ὡς ἐμέ.» Προφήτην εἶπεν, οὐχὶ Θεόν. Πῶς οὖν Θεὸν εἶναι τὸν Ἰησοῦν λέγετε; Ὦ νηπίῳ σοι, ὦ Ἰουδαῖε, συψελλίζει ὁ πάνσοφος Μωσῆς, οὕπω τρανότατα σοι δεῖξαι τοῦ Χριστοῦ τὴν θεότητα. Ὅταν τοίνυν δέξῃ αὐτὸν ὡς προφήτην κατὰ τὸν Μωσέα, καὶ βασιλέα, καὶ ποιμένα πραΰν, καὶ ἀκτήμονα, τότε αὐτὸς ὁ μέγιστος προφήτης καὶ ἔγκριτος ἀποκαλύψει σοι αὐτὸν Θεὸν ὑπάρχειν ἀληθινόν, ἀσώματον, καὶ ἀχρόνως, πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων γεννηθέντα ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ. Ἔχεις δὲ μαρτυροῦντας τῇ θεότητι τοῦ Χριστοῦ, καὶ τῇ οἰκονομίᾳ, πάντας τοὺς ἀοιδίμους προφήτας, οἵτινες ἐξηγηταὶ τοῦ νόμου τυγχάνουσιν.