[From chap. 2:] He took to Himself a body, a human body even as our own. Nor did He will merely to become embodied or merely to appear; had that been so, He could have revealed His divine majesty in some other and better way. No, He took our body, and not only so, but He took it directly from a spotless, stainless virgin, without the agency of human father—a pure body, untainted by intercourse with man. He, the Mighty One, the Artificer of all, Himself prepared this body in the virgin as a temple for Himself, and took it for His very own, as the instrument through which He was known and in which He dwelt. Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death instead of all, and offered it to the Father. (emphasis added)
This could probably fairly be taken either way, but the highlighted words struck me as distinguishing between the real thing, OR a facsimile of the real thing. I think that if Jesus was the "real thing", He would have to have real human DNA inside Him.
[From chap. 3:] (14) You know what happens when a portrait that has been painted on a panel becomes obliterated through external stains. The artist does not throw away the panel, but the subject of the portrait has to come and sit for it again, and then the likeness is re-drawn on the same material. Even so was it with the All-holy Son of God. He, the Image of the Father, came and dwelt in our midst, in order that He might renew mankind made after Himself, and seek out His lost sheep ...
It's the same material. I fully agree, it's not fake material, it's the real thing.
[Id.:] (16) When, then, the minds of men had fallen finally to the level of sensible things, the Word submitted to appear in a body, in order that He, as Man, might center their senses on Himself, and convince them through His human acts that He Himself is not man only but also God, the Word and Wisdom of the true God.(emphasis added)
Now we're in business! :) If I am following all of this, this is the same way I meant it, although of course I didn't say it as well as +Athanasius.
[Id.:] (17) ... As with the whole, so also is it with the part. Existing in a human body, to which He Himself gives life, He is still Source of life to all the universe, present in every part of it, yet outside the whole; and He is revealed both through the works of His body and through His activity in the world.
I am definitely starting to warm up to this guy. :)
[Id.:] ... as Man He was living a human life, and as Word He was sustaining the life of the universe, and as Son He was in constant union with the Father. Not even His birth from a virgin, therefore, changed Him in any way, nor was He defiled by being in the body.
Yes, yes, yes. :)
[Id:] (18) You must understand, therefore, that when writers on this sacred theme speak of Him as eating and drinking and being born, they mean that the body, as a body, was born and sustained with the food proper to its nature; while God the Word, Who was united with it, was at the same time ordering the universe and revealing Himself through His bodily acts as not man only but God. Those acts are rightly said to be His acts, because the body which did them did indeed belong to Him and none other; moreover, it was right that they should be thus attributed to Him as Man, in order to show that His body was a real one and not merely an appearance. (emphasis added)
We are most absolutely on a roll. :)
[Id.:] From such ordinary acts as being born and taking food, He was recognized as being actually present in the body; but by the extraordinary acts which He did through the body He proved Himself to be the Son of God.(emphasis added)
Anything from the peanut gallery on this one? :)
[Id.:] To speak authoritatively to evil spirits, for instance, and to drive them out, is not human but divine; and who could see-Him curing all the diseases to which mankind is prone, and still deem Him mere man and not also God? (emphasis added)
I'm going to wind up posting this whole book to illustrate my agreement with what he is saying. :) From what I can tell after reading it all, clearly the money chapter for this conversation is chapter 3. [There are others on point such as chap. 7, (48-49)]. Of course, I would respectfully disagree with the normal stuff you would expect me to disagree with, such as in chapter 4 [24], when he says that God did not arrange the manner of the death of Christ, etc. However, I was very pleased at how few these honest disagreements occurred. :) Overall, this is a terrific read. Thank you so much for recommending it to me (twice). LOL!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
"From what I can tell after reading it all, clearly the money chapter for this conversation is chapter 3. [There are others on point such as chap. 7, (48-49)]."
For this discussion, yes, I suppose they are, but for the entire piece, really for our salvation, its this at Chap. 8, 54:
"As, then, he who desires to see God Who by nature is invisible and not to be beheld, may yet perceive and know Him through His works, so too let him who does not see Christ with his understanding at least consider Him in His bodily works and test whether they be of man or God. If they be of man, then let him scoff; but if they be of God, let him not mock at things which are no fit subject for scorn, but rather let him recognize the fact and marvel that things divine have been revealed to us by such humble means, that through death deathlessness has been made known to us, and through the Incarnation of the Word the Mind whence all things proceed has been declared, and its Agent and Ordainer, the Word of God Himself. He, indeed, assumed humanity that we might become God. He manifested Himself by means of a body in order that we might perceive the Mind of the unseen Father. He endured shame from men that we might inherit immortality. He Himself was unhurt by this, for He is impassable and incorruptible; but by His own impassability He kept and healed the suffering men on whose account He thus endured."