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Fragment number Vinzent 106
Klostermann 117
Retb. 104
Ancient source used Eusebius, Against Marcellus 2.3-4
Modern edition M. Vinzent, Markell von Ankyra: Die Fragmente (Leiden, 1997).

For the Word did not take on our flesh to profit himself, but so that the flesh might obtain immortality through fellowship with the Word. This is clear from the very assertion of the Savior. For concerning the flesh which he had while he was associating with the disciples, he says, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man return to where he was before? The spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing” (Jn 6:61-63). So if he confesses that the flesh is of no profit to him, how is it possible that that which is from the earth and profits nothing will be with the Word in the ages to come as if it were something beneficial to him?
For it seems to me that the Almighty God, the Lord, says to him, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” (Ps 110:1) for this reason. Seeming to distinguish him because of his human flesh only with respect to power, and, as has been said, determining a certain amount of time for his throne at his right hand, he said to him, “until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” And the holy apostle interprets this prophecy of David more clearly for us and says, “For it is necessary for him to reign until he has made his enemies a footstool for his feet” (1 Cor 15:25).
Therefore, both his human dispensation and his reign seem to have some limit. He the Apostle means nothing other than this when he said, “until he has made his enemies a footstool for his feet.” So when he possesses his enemies as a footstool for his feet, he will no longer need this partial kingdom because he will be a king ruling all things completely. For he reigns “with God the Father” (1 Cor 15.24), whose Word he both was and is. The Word did not begin his reign by himself. Rather, the man who was deceived by the devil became a king through the power of the Word so that, having become a king, he might defeat the devil who once deceived him.
For this reason the Acts of the Apostles teaches about this man which the Word of God assumed and that after assuming he was seated at the right hand of the Father, when it says, “Heaven must receive him until the times of restoration” (3:21). This is what it says, as if defining a certain interval and time limit within which it was fitting for the human dispensation to be united to the Word. For what else does he mean when he says, “until the times of restoration,” other than that he cares to indicate to us the time when all things must obtain complete restoration?
Now if Paul said that in the time of restoration of all things even creation itself will be transformed from bondage into freedom, for he says, “Even creation itself will be set free from the bondage of decay for the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). How would it be possible for the servant’s form which the Word assumed, since it is “the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7), to still be together with the Word? Therefore the divinely inspired Paul has clearly and explicitly said that that the Word’s dispensation according to the flesh took place for our sake for a short space of time including both past and future ages, and that just as it had a beginning, so also it will have an end, by saying, “Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father” (1 Cor 15:24).

Translated by Daniel Noonan under the supervision of Prof. Glen L. Thompson, revised AMJ

Last updated: 8-29-2012

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