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Fragment number Vinzent 5
Klostermann 48
Rettb. 42
Ancient source used Eusebius, Against Marcellus 2.2
Modern edition M. Vinzent, Markell von Ankyra: Die Fragmente (Leiden, 1997).
Notes In this short fragment, Marcellus claims that only the Logos (i.e., Christ’s divine nature) existed before the creation of the world.

Therefore before he came down and was born of the virgin, he was only the Word. For before he assumed human flesh what else was there which, as he himself wrote, “came down ‘in the last days’ (Heb 1:2) and was born of the virgin”? Nothing existed other than the Word.

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

Last updated: 8-29-2012

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