The Word's tabernacle and the body's willing death
Eustathius is arguing against the Arians that Christ had a real human body, and here he contrasts the tabernacle of the Word with the body's willing surrender to death.
For the tabernacle of the Word and God is not the same thing as the Word himself, and it was through this tabernacle that the blessed Stephen beheld the divine glory. Before the passion, Christ repeatedly foretold his bodily death, saying that he would be handed over to those around the high priests, and proclaiming the trophy of the cross. After the passion, having risen on the third day from the dead, when his disciples doubted that he had been raised, he appeared to them in that very body, acknowledged that he had all his flesh together with his bones, and placing before their eyes his wounded sides, showed them the prints of the nails. But their impious slander can be refuted in just a few words. First of all, if he had not willingly handed over his own body to the slaughter of death for the salvation of human beings, they would be attributing great weakness to him, because he was not able to hold back the assault of his enemies.
Greek
12 Οὐ γὰρ ταὐτόν ἐστιν ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ Λόγου καὶ Θεοῦ, δι' ἧς τὴν θείαν ἐθεώρει
δόξαν ὁ μακάριος Στέφανος. 13 Πρὸ μὲν τοῦ πάθους ἑκάστοτε τὸν σωματικὸν αὑτοῦ προὔλεγε θάνατον, τοῖς ἀμφὶ τοὺς ἀρχιερέας ἐκδοθήσεσθαι φάσκων, καὶ τὸ τοῦ σταυροῦ τρόπαιον ἀπαγγέλλων. Μετὰ δὲ τὸ πάθος, τριταῖος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν ἀναστὰς, ἐνδοιαζόντων αὐτὸν ἐγηγέρθαι τῶν μαθητῶν, ἐπιφανεὶς αὐτοῖς αὐτῷ σώματι, σάρκα μὲν ἅπασαν σὺν ὀστέοις ἔχειν ὁμολογεῖ, ταῖς δὲ ὄψεσι τούτων τὰς τετρωμένας ὑποβάλλων πλευρὰς, καὶ τοὺς τύπους αὐτοῦ ὑποδεικνύει τῶν ἥλων. 14 ∆ι' ὀλίγων δὲ ἔστιν ἐλέγξαι τὴν ἀσεβῆ συκοφαντίαν αὐτῶν· μάλιστα μὲν γὰρ εἰ μὴ τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἕνεκεν σωτηρίας εἰς τὴν τοῦ θανάτου σφαγὴν τὸ ἴδιον ἑκουσίως ἐξεδίδου σῶμα. Πρῶτον μὲν πολλὴν αὐτῷ περιάπτουσιν ἀδυναμίαν, ὅτι μὴ οἷός τ' ἐγένετο τὴν τῶν πολεμίων ὁρμὴν ἐπισχεῖν.