(103) For it is said in the chapter Amram : “The angels say to blessed Mary: O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you above all women.” ^[2] And afterwards the angels said: “O Mary, God gives you the gospel or announces to you of his word and his name is Christ Jesus, the son of Mary.” ^[3] And in the chapter Elnesa it is said: “Say nothing but the truth about God, for Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, is the messenger of God and the word of God, which he himself placed in her through the Holy Spirit.” ^[4] Therefore he asserts absolutely that Christ is the Word of God.

(111) Therefore, the question arises as to whether this is the word of God: is the word of God accidental or rather personal and real? ^[5]

(112) If he says that it is the only vocal and accidental Word of God, this cannot be said; for the Koran and also the Gospel speak of it singularly as of one Word only. But the vocal and accidental Word of God which is from God is no longer one but many; for all good and holy and true words can be called the words of God. And furthermore, it would not be an excellent commendation of Jesus Christ, whom the Koran intends to commend singularly, for him to be called the Word of God because he spoke the words of God. For not only Christ, but also other prophets spoke the words of God, and yet none of them is called the Word of God. For it is only of Christ that both the Gospel and the Koran say that he is the Word of God.

(121) But if the word is taken substantially, properly, and personally, then the Word of God is eternal and true God. For just as the word that comes from the mouth of corruptible man must necessarily be corruptible, so the word that comes from the eternal mouth of God, by which "he created heaven and earth and all that is in between" - to use the word of the Koran ^[6] - must necessarily be incorruptible and eternal.

(128) But whatever proceeds from God is essentially God, and in this way the Word of God is God ^[7] . Hence since the Word differs in some way from the one who speaks and conceives the Word, and in the essence of God there can be no division or distinction, it is necessary that there be a personal difference there, and that the Word be distinguished from the One who speaks by their own and only relations ^[8] , as also has been said of the Holy Spirit . This is the Word by which God says all things that are made: “Let it be, and it is made,” as is also said in the Koran. And in this the Koran agrees with the Gospel of John, which says: “All things were made by him.” Therefore, because the Word is conceived and intellectually generated by the One who speaks, and that which is generated by another in likeness of species and nature is called a son, hence it is that we call the Word of God the Son of God. Just as if the sun were to generate from itself such splendor that it were the sun, we would call that sun and splendor the Son of the sun.

(140) In this, however, there is a difference, because in creatures in which being and essence differ ^[9] , supposita cannot be multiplied without multiplication of nature; hence man generates another man. But God, in whom being and essence are the same, when He generates the Word from Himself, does not generate another God, because the divine essence is neither divisible nor multiplicable in any way because of its supreme simplicity and perfection.

(146) Therefore, when Mohammed heard that the Christians said that God had a son, he did not know how to think that a son could be born except from a woman , and therefore he did not adduce any other argument than that God could not have a son because he has no wife . ^[10] And he did not remember that David, whom Mohammed so highly commends, said that God had many adopted sons besides his natural son, saying: “I said: You are gods, and sons of the Most High, all of you” [ Ps . 81:6], and not from a woman. Otherwise, however, so that it may be permissible to be foolish with him, Mohammed, who said that the Virgin Mary could have a son without a man, ^[11] could well have thought that God could have a son without a woman.

(155) Therefore Mohammed spoke the truth when he said that Christ Jesus is the son of Mary and that he was the word of God, but he did not understand. For if he had understood he would have said: From whom is the son of Mary is true man, and from whom is the word of God is true God ^[12] . For God is not composed or imperfect as man ^[13] , whose word and conception of mind and art and operation is not man, rather whatever is of God is God. Hence the word of God is God, the understanding of God is God, the operation of God is God.

(162) But the Koran did not accept Christ Jesus as anything but a man. And therefore, after saying that he was the Word of God, he added that "Jesus is with God, as Adam whom he created from clay, and said to him: Be". And how does this agree with the preceding? For when he says that God poured his word and spirit into Mary and from this Christ was, and he later thinks that he himself was like Adam whom he created from clay, how does it agree that it is said that the Word of God and his spirit were clay? And since clay is not from clay, shall we put the nature of the deity in clay?

(170) Far be it. For God and his word and his spirit would be like a statue that neither perceives nor breathes. But now our God, "who is blessed for ever," sees and hears all things, and has the Word made flesh of the most holy Virgin, and has the spirit that overshadowed the Virgin and filled the humanity of the Word. But if they have thought that the Word of God was in Adam in the same way, and his spirit in the same way, in this there is manifest falsehood, | 213r | because if the Word of God had been united to his flesh or slime and the spirit of God had filled Adam, Satan would never have deceived him or cast him down. Yet God said to Adam by his word, "Be," by this same word by which he made all things, which was with God from eternity ^[14] .

(179) Therefore Christ is true God because He is the Word of God, for the Word of God is no less than the whole God. He is also true man because He was born of the Virgin Mary, and insofar as He is both the messenger of God and the prophet of God and the servant of God. And in this regard, the Koran says well in the chapter Elnesa that Christ will not deny nor the faithful angels that He is not the servant of God, namely insofar as He is man. However, it is not found in the whole Gospel that He Himself called Himself the servant of God, so as not to introduce error, nor did He say expressly "I am God", nor did He say "I am man"; but by true and manifest works He showed that He was true God and true man, and therefore He said: "If you do not want to believe me, believe the works". And this is a more effective proof than if He had spoken words alone.

(190) It has been said above ^[15] why he did not say this expressly before the Passion. But the Apostles and Evangelists, both before and after, spoke words so clearly and showed miracles that the whole world was convinced to believe this. But Mohammed, after he had rightly said that Christ is the Word of God, did not stand in the truth but contradicted himself, and said that Christ himself was not God: both because he says that he excused himself before God, which is clear above in the ninth chapter to be clearly false; and because he says that Christ himself said: "Worship my God and your God, my Lord and your Lord."

(198) And this is not contrary . For insofar as he was a true man, he was a true servant of God, as was clear before . It therefore happens to Muhammad that he himself wrote about others in the chapter on Jonah, saying that some “reprobate what they do not understand and cannot explain.” So he also rejected the mystery of the incarnation because he did not understand, nor could he explain what was said about Christ in the gospel. And for the same reason he did not accept the mystery of the Trinity because he could not understand the distinction of persons | 213v | without a division of essence. But what wonder if a most carnal man does not perceive the most excellent things of God?

(207) And this is enough about the third question.