Letter 185

To the Same Person. You wish to learn how the Master is without mother, and without father, and without genealogy. He is without mother in that which is above us; without father in that which is according to us; and without genealogy in that which is on high. For the prophet says: "But who shall declare his generation?" [Isaiah 53:8]. For Matthew traced the genealogy of his birth according to the flesh; but how, before the ages, the Father begot the Son, no one at all, neither of men nor of angels, has been able to declare or to know.

Πῶς ὁ Δεσπότης ἀμήτωρ, καὶ ἀπάτωρ, καὶ ἀγενεαλόγητος, μαθεῖν βούλει. Ἀμήτωρ μὲν τὸ ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς· ἀπάτωρ δὲ τὸ καθ’ ἡμᾶς, ἀγενεαλόγητος δὲ τὸ ἄνω· φησὶ γὰρ ὁ προφήτης· Τὴν δὲ γενεὰν αὐτοῦ τίς διηγήσεται ; Τὴν μὲν γὰρ κατὰ σάρκα γένεσιν αὐτοῦ ὁ Ματθαῖος ἐγενεαλόγησε· πῶς δὲ πρὸ τῶν αἰώνων ὁ Πατὴρ τὸν Υἱὸν ἐγέννησεν, οὐδεὶς παντελῶς οὔτε ἀνθρώπων, οὔτε ἀγγέλων ἐξειπεῖν, ἢ γνῶναι δεδύνηται.