Title. Tomus that briefly demonstrates the opposition of John the Grammarian and his followers to the Divine Books and the Holy Fathers [Edition and study of the sources: Bishara Ebeid]

Introduction. However, in order not to fall into many words, since neither the ink nor time allows us, we will speak later on little things among the many blasphemies we are irritated by, and we will quote a few testimonies of the Holy Fathers to whom we are adherent, so that when these are compared to each other, their opposition [i.e. that of John and his followers] will be recognized even by those who are very simple [intellectually].

1. For while the Holy Fathers teach that one substance, [one] Divinity and [one] God is in three hypostases, that is, persons and properties, which is the foundation and the fulfilment of all Christians, and again they [the Fathers] call this same one substance of the hypostases principal (primary) substance, these [the adversaries] in the audacity of their heart go against the Holy Spirit and, in their impudence, call the substance, which the Holy Fathers name principal, non-principal. Not only this, but they also define that this substance and God and Divinity [i.e. the non-principal] is either only in mere thought or nothing, giving up hope of the Holy Spirit, who speaks through the Holy Fathers and inheres in Aristotle.

2. About the [fact] that while the Holy Fathers say that the one substance and the [one] worshipped Divinity is neither divisible nor countable in the three Holy hypostases, that is, persons and properties, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, these [the adversaries] contend oppositely and confess that the one substance and the [one] worshipped Divinity is divisible and countable, even in the same substance and Divinity, so that, of necessity, they are constrained not to unify the Holy and consubstantial Trinity through anything.

3. Again about the fact that, while the Holy Fathers fought many struggles and [shed much] sweat to teach that the substance and the Divinity of the Holy Trinity is one and the same, [and] that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are consubstantial, these [the adversaries] - contending with much impiety against the Holy Spirit, who spoke through the Holy Fathers - do not confess one principal Divinity, but gods and divinities, and walking into error, they arrived at the absurdity of all this, to confess that God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are different according to species (ἑτεροειδεῖς) and different according to substance (ἑτεροούσιοι).

4. Again, while the Holy Fathers, enlightened by the Holy Spirit who spoke through them, put forward the word of consubstantiality to mean, through it, one substance and three hypostases of the Holy Trinity in order to cancel and abolish the polytheism of Arius and the atheism of Sabellius, these [the adversaries], with the arrogance of their great impiety, do not follow in the footsteps of the Holy Fathers, but they say that the consubstantiality indicates the substances, and in consequence of this, they introduce gods and divinities to the con-divinity.

5. About the [fact] that while usually the divine Scriptures and the Holy Fathers split the concepts, which some persons misuse to establish their wicked thought, even if some of the ancient [Fathers] used them, and even if among those who have split them, there are some who have said them, these [the adversaries] in their audacity have despised the divine and medical economy. And after the excommunication of the pious patriarch Theodosius of Alexandria, whom they also say they accept, he who, following the Holy Fathers in all instructions, and by the action of the Holy Spirit, prohibited the application of both defined and indefinite number of substances or natures concerning the Holy and consubstantial Trinity, these [the adversaries], however, oppose, as always, the Holy Spirit, and after the excommunication of the pious [Theodosius], they [still] confess and teach substances and natures concerning the Holy Trinity. Thus, because of this they introduce consubstantial gods and divinities into the doctrine of Christians, as was clearly seen in the third chapter put down above.

Conclusion. (Of saint Severus). Since, however, all heretics have the habit of hiding their evil thinking in order to deceive the listeners and make them believe that they want the truth, resembling in this the Evil who is the source of all wickedness, and many times they make wrong use of the Divine Scriptures and the doctors of the Mysteries, to hide their impiety, and they make fraudulent apologies in order to escape what they are reproached for, like the Jews, who verbally demonstrate that they accept the Law and the Prophets, but in fact they deny them, and similarly the Ammonites who in words confess the true Son of God the Father, but in reality deny him, and Paul of Samosata and Nestorius and their followers, who being careful to mislead, they, in words, do not confess two Sons and two Christs, but one, but in reality, they are reproached for teaching two Sons and two Christs, then the Julianists, who in words confess that Christ suffered, but in reality demonstrate that they [follow] the opposite [doctrine], so also those who dare to utter substances and natures concerning the Holy and consubstantial Trinity, in order to deceive those who listen [to them] and to escape from an evident confutation, they say just in words one God and one Divinity and one substance, that is, nature, which they prove to confess to be nothing but a mere word in mere thought. [And] while they are blotting out to confess principally one God and one Divinity, one substance, that is, nature in three Holy hypostases of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as the Divine Scriptures and the Holy Fathers teach, they are evidently caught boldly confessing gods, divinities, substances and natures concerning the Holy and consubstantial Trinity, as was shown through the blasphemies put down [above]. No one should believe them, because in the Scripture[s] those who confess substances, natures, gods and divinities concerning the Holy and consubstantial Trinity are anathematized, although they say [that] these [gods] are consubstantial, as also the Holy Theodosius refused, who [now] is among the saints. No one must believe heretics, because, as with lambskin, they cover and conceal their wickedness through beautiful words [taken] from the Holy Scriptures, and they do not think what they [really] say and do not say what they [really] think, so that no one gets bored by them, they, in fact had learned this from the Evil, their father.