Primary source · Koine Greek
On the Incarnation of the Word (De Incarnatione)
Athanasius of Alexandria · c. AD 318–328
What this text is
The young Athanasius’ classic account of why God became man — that the Word took a body to restore the divine image in humanity and to conquer death from within it. Its refrain became the motto of Greek soteriology.
Profile of Athanasius of Alexandria →
Interlinear passages
Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.
Chapter 54.3 — The great exchange
ΑὐτὸςHeγὰρforἐνηνθρώπησεν,became manἵναthatἡμεῖςweθεοποιηθῶμεν·might be made divine
Public-domain translations
Archibald Robertson (NPNF, 1892)
For He was made man that we might be made God; and He manifested Himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality.
Traditional rendering
He became what we are, that He might make us what He is.
Manuscript witnesses
Athanasian corpus manuscripts (short & long recensions)
10th c. onwardDe Incarnatione in two ancient text-forms, with a Syriac version attesting the shorter.
Patrologia Graeca, vol. 25 (Migne)
1857Standard pre-critical text of the corpus.
Provenance
Alexandria, c. AD 328–335 (with De Gentibus, a two-part apology)
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Athanasius: Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione (OECT)Robert W. Thomson, 1971Critical text with facing translation.
- On the Incarnation (Popular Patristics 44)John Behr, 2011Faithful modern translation with introduction.