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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadChurch Fathers: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 09: 29.02.09 Orthodox Faith Bk III Pt 1
TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 09 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 29.02.09 Orthodox Faith Bk III Pt 1
Other Subjects in this Topic:
Concerning the Divine Oeconomy and God’s care over us, and concerning our salvation.
Man, then, was thus snared by the assault of the arch-fiend, and broke his Creator’s command, and was stripped of grace and put off his confidence with God, and covered himself with the asperities of a toilsome life (for this is the meaning of the fig-leaves1 ); and was clothed about with death, that is, mortality and the grossness of flesh (for this is what the garment of skins signifies); and was banished from Paradise by God’s just judgment, and condemned to death, and made subject to corruption. Yet, notwithstanding all this, in His pity, God, Who gave him his being, and Who in His graciousness bestowed on him a life of happiness, did not disregard man2 . But He first trained him in many ways and called him back, by groans and trembling, by the deluge of water, and the utter destruction of almost the whole race3 , by confusion and diversity of tongues4 , by the rule5 of angels6 , by the burning of cities7 , by figurative manifestations of God, by wars and victories and defeats, by signs and wonders, by manifold faculties, by the law and the prophets: for by all these means God earnestly strove to emancipate man from the wide-spread and enslaving bonds of sin, which had made life such a mass of iniquity, and to effect man’s return to a life of happiness. For it was sin that brought death like a wild and savage beast into the world8 to the ruin of the human life. But it behoved the Redeemer to be without sin, and not made liable through sin to death, and further, that His nature should be strengthened and renewed, and trained by labour and taught the way of virtue which leads away from corruption to the life eternal and, in the end, is revealed the mighty ocean of love to man that is about Him9 . For the very Creator and Lord Himself undertakes a struggle10 in behalf of the work of His own hands, and learns by toil to become Master. And since the enemy snares man by the hope of Godhead, he himself is snared in turn by the screen of flesh, and so are shown at once the goodness and wisdom, the justice and might of God. God’s goodness is revealed in that He did not disregard11 the frailty of His own handiwork, but was moved with compassion for him in his fall, and stretched forth His hand to him: and His justice in that when man was overcome He did not make another victorious over the tyrant, nor did He snatch man by might from death, but in His goodness and justice He made him, who had become through his sins the slave of death, himself once more conqueror and rescued like by like, most difficult though it seemed: and His wisdom is seen in His devising the most fitting solution of the difficulty12 . For by the good pleasure of our God and Father, the Only-begotten Son and Word of God and God, Who is in the bosom of the God and Father13 , of like essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Who was before the ages, Who is without beginning and was in the beginning, Who is in the presence of the God and Father, and is God and made in the form of God14 , bent the heavens and descended to earth: that is to say, He humbled without humiliation His lofty station which yet could not be humbled, and condescends to His servants15 , with a condescension ineffable and incomprehensible: (for that is what the descent signifies). And God being perfect becomes perfect man, and brings to perfection the newest of all new things16 , the only new thing under the Sun, through which the boundless might of God is manifested. For what greater thing is there, than that God should become Man? And the Word became flesh without being changed, of the Holy Spirit, and Mary the holy and ever-virgin one, the mother of God. And He acts as mediator between God and man, He theonly lover of man conceived in the Virgin’s chaste womb without will17 or desire, or any connection with man or pleasurable generation, but through the Holy Spirit and the first offspring of Adam. And He becomes obedient to the Father Who is like unto us, and finds a remedy for our disobedience in what He had assumed from us, and became a pattern of obedience to us without which it is not possible to obtain salvation18 .
Chapter II.
Concerning the manner in which the Word19 was conceived, and concerning His divine incarnation.
The angel of the Lord was sent to the holy Virgin, who was descended from David’s line20 . For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe no one turned his attention to the altar21 , as the divine apostle said: but about this we will speak more accurately later. And bearing glad tidings to her, he said, Hail thou highly favoured one, the Lord is with thee22 . And she was troubled at his word, and the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God, and shalt bring forth a Son and shalt call His name Jesus23 ; for He shall save His people from their sins24 . Hence it comes that Jesus has the interpretation Saviour. And when she asked in her perplexity, How can this be, seeing I know not a man25 ? the angel again answered her, The Holy Spirit shall came upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee26 shall be called the Son of God27 . And she said to him, Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to Thy word28 .
So then, after the assent of the holy Virgin, the Holy Spirit descended on her, according to the word of the Lord which the angel spoke, purifying her29 , and granting her power to receive the divinity of the Word, and likewise power to bring forth30 . And then was she overshadowed31 by the enhypostatic Wisdom and Power of the most high God, the Son of God Who is of like essence with the Father as of Divine seed, and from her holy and most pure blood He formed flesh animated with the spirit of reason and thought, the first-fruits of our compound nature32 : not by procreation but by creation through the Holy Spirit: not developing the fashion of the body by gradual additions but perfecting it at once, He Himself, the very Word of God, standing to the flesh in the relation of subsistence. For the divine Word was not made one with flesh that had an independent pre-existence33 , but taking up His abode in the womb of the holy Virgin, He unreservedly in His own subsistence took upon Himself through the pure blood of the eternal Virgin a body of flesh animated with the spirit of reason and thought, thus assuming to Himself the first-fruits of man’s compound nature, Himself, the Word, having become a subsistence in the flesh. So that34 He is at once flesh, and at the same time flesh of God the Word, and likewise flesh animated, possessing both reason and thought35 . Wherefore we speak not of man as having become God, but of God as having become Man36 . For being by nature perfect God, He naturally became likewise perfect Man: and did not change His nature nor make the dispensation37 an empty show, but became, without confusion or change or division, one in subsistence with the flesh, which was conceived of the holy Virgin, and animated with reason and thought, and had found existence in Him, while He did not change the nature of His divinity into the essence of flesh, nor the essence of flesh into the nature of His divinity, and did not make one compound nature out of His divine nature and the human nature He had assumed38 .
Chapter III.
Concerning Christ’s two natures, in apposition to those who hold that He has only one39 .
For the two natures were united with each other without change or alteration, neither the divine nature departing from its native simplicity, nor yet the human being either changed into the nature of God or reduced to non-existence, nor one compound nature being produced out of the two. For the compound nature40 cannot be of the same essence as either of the natures out of which it is compounded, as made one thing out of others: for example, the body is composed of the four elements, but is not of the same essence as fire or air, or water or earth, nor does it keep these names. If, therefore, after the union, Christ’s nature was, as the heretics hold, a compound unity, He had changed from a simple into a compound nature41 , and is not of the same essence as the Father Whose nature is simple, nor as the mother, who is not a compound of divinity and humanity. Nor will He then be in divinity and humanity: nor will He be called either God or Man, but simply Christ: and the word Christ will be the name not of the subsistence, but of what in their view is the one nature.
We, however, do not give it as our view that Christ’s nature is compound, nor yet that He is one thing made of other things and differing from them as man is made of sold and body, or as the body is made of the four elements, but hold42 that, though He is constituted of these different parts He is yet the same43 . For we confess that He alike in His divinity and in His humanity both is and is said to be perfect God, the same Being, and that He consists of two natures, and exists in two natures44 . Further, by the word “Christ” we understand the name of the subsistence, not in the sense of one kind, but as signifying the existence of two natures. For in His own person He anointed Himself; as God anointing His body with His own divinity, and as Man being anointed. For He is Himself both God and Man. And the anointing is the divinity of His humanity. For if Christ, being of one compound nature, is of like essence to the Father, then the Father also must be compound and of like essence with the flesh, which is absurd and extremely blasphemous45 .
How, indeed, could one and the same nature come to embrace opposing and essential differences? For how is it possible that the same nature should be at once created and uncreated, mortal and immortal, circumscribed and uncircumscribed?
But if those who declare that Christ has only one nature should say also that that nature is a simple one, they must admit either that He is God pure and simple, and thus reduce the incarnation to a mere pretence, or that He is only man, according to Nestorius. And how then about His being “perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity”? And when can Christ be said to be of two natures, if they hold that He is of one composite nature after the union? For it is surely clear to every one that before the union Christ’s nature was one.
But this is what leads the heretics46 astray, viz., that they look upon nature and subsistence as the same thing47 . For when we speak of the nature of men as one48 , observe that in saying this we are not looking to the question of soul and body. For when we compare together the soul and the body it cannot be said that they are of one nature. But since there are very many subsistences of men, and yet all have the same kind of nature49 : for all are composed of soul and body, and all have part in the nature of the soul, and possess the essence of the body, and the common form: we speak of the one nature of these very many and different subsistences; while each subsistence, to wit, has two natures, and fulfils itself in two natures, namely, soul and body.
But50 a common form cannot be admitted in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ. For neither was there ever, nor is there, nor will there ever be another Christ constituted of deity and humanity, and existing in deity and humanity at once perfect God and perfect man. And thus in the case of our Lord Jesus Christ we cannot speak of one nature made up of divinity and humanity, as we do in the case of the individual made up of soul and body51 . For in the latter case we have to do with an individual, but Christ is not an individual. For there is no predicable form of Christlihood, so to speak, that He possesses. And therefore we hold that there has been a union of two perfect natures, one divine and one human; not with disorder or confusion, or intermixture52 , or commingling, as is said by the God-accursed Dioscorus and by Eutyches53 and Severus, and all that impious company: and not in a personal or relative manner, or as a matter of dignity or agreement in will, or equality in honour, or identity in name, or good pleasure, as Nestorius, hated of God, said, and Diodorus and Theodorus of Mopsuestia, and their diabolical tribe: but by synthesis; that is, in subsistence, without change or confusion or alteration or difference or separation, and we confess that in two perfect natures there is but one subsistence of the Son of God incarnate54 ; holding that there is one and the same subsistence belong ing to His divinity and His humanity, and granting that the two natures are preserved in Him after the union, but we do not hold that each is separate and by itself, but that they are united to each other in one compound subsistence. For we look upon the union as essential, that is, as true and not imaginary. We say that it is essential55 , moreover, not in the sense of two natures resulting in one compound nature, but in the sense of a true union of them in one compound subsistence of the Son of God, and we hold that their essential difference is preserved. For the created remaineth created, and the uncreated, uncreated: the mortal remaineth mortal; the immortal, immortal: the circumscribed, circumscribed: the uncircumscribed, uncircumscribed: the visible, visible: the invisible, invisible. “The one part is all glorious with wonders: while the other is the victim of insults56 .”
Moreover, the Word appropriates to Himself the attributes of humanity: for all that pertains to His holy flesh is His: and He imparts to the flesh His own attributes by way of communication57 in virtue of the interpenetration of the parts58 one with another, and the oneness according to subsistence, and inasmuch as He Who lived and acted both as God and as man, taking to Himself either form and holding intercourse with the other form, was one and the same59 . Hence it is that the Lord of Glory is said to have been crucified60 , although His divine nature never endured the Cross, and that the Son of Man is allowed to have been in heaven before the Passion, as the Lord Himself said61 . For the Lord of Glory is one and the same with Him Who is in nature and in truth the Son of Man, that is, Who became man, and both His wonders and His sufferings are known to us, although His wonders were worked in His divine capacity, and His sufferings endured as man. For we know that, just as is His one subsistence, so is the essential difference of the nature preserved. For how could difference be preserved if the very things that differ from one another are not preserved? For difference is the difference between things that differ. In so far as Christ’s natures differ from one another, that is, in the matter of essence, we hold that Christ unites in Himself two extremes: in respect of His divinity He is connected with the Father and the Spirit, while in respect of His humanity He is connected with His mother and all mankind. And in so far as His natures are united, we hold that He differs from the Father and the Spirit on the one hand, and from the mother and the rest of mankind on the other. For the natures are united in His subsistence, having one compound subsistence, in which He differs from the Father and the Spirit, and also from the mother and us.
Footnotes
1 Gen. iii. 7; cf. Greg. Naz., Orat. 38 and 42; Greg. Nyss., Orat. Catech. c. 8.
2 Text, parei=den. Variant, periei=den.
3 Gen. vi. 13.
4 Ibid. xi. 7.
5 e0pistasi/a, care, or dominion.
6 Gen. xviii. I seqq.
7 Ibid xix. I seqq.
8 Wisd. ii. 24.
9 Greg. Naz., Orat. 12 and 38.
10 Text, pa/lhn. Variant, pla/sin, cf. "plasmationem" (Faber).
11 Text, parei/de. Variant, periei=den.
12 Greg. Nyss., Orat. Cathec., ch. 20 et seqq.
13 St. John i. 18.
14 Phil. ii. 6.
15 "Condescends to His servants" is absent in some mss..
16 Eccles. i. 10.
17 Greg. Nyss., Cat. ch 16.
18 Athan., De salut. adv. Christi.
19 Text, tou= Lo/lou. Variant, tou= Qeou= Lo/lou: so Dei Verbi (Faber).
20 St. Luke i. 27.
21 Hebr. vii. 14.
22 St. Luke i. 28.
23 Ibid. 30, 31.
24 St. Matt. i. 21.
25 St. Luke i. 34
26 "Of thee" is wanting in some mss.
27 St. Luke i. 35.
28 Ibid. 38.
29 Ibid. 27, 28
30 Greg. Naz., Orat. 38 and 42.
31 Cf. Athan., Ep. ad Serap., De Spiritu Sancto; Greg. Nyss., Contr. Apoll. 6, 25; Rufinus, Exp. Symb.; Tertullian, De Carne Christi and Contr. Prax.; Hilary, De Trin. II. 26.
32 Basil, Christi Nativ.
33 Cyril, Apolog. 5 and 8 anathem.
34 Cf. Greg. Naz., I Ep. ad Cledon; Cyril, I Ep. ad Nestor.; Theodor., ep. ad Joan. Antioch., &c.
35 Cyril., Epist. ad Monach.
36 Procl., Epist. 2 ad Arm.
37 rhn oi0konomi/an, the oeconomy, the Incarnation.
38 Cod. R. 2428 adds here some statements taken from the Dissertation against the Nestorians.
39 kata\ Monofusitw=n: these words are absent in mss.
40 Cf. Eulogius and also Polemon in the Collect. Contr. Severianos.
41 Max. Epist. ad Joan. cubic. p. 279.
42 Ibid. p. 286.
43 e0c e0te/rwn ta\ au0ta/.
44 Cf. Niceph. Call., Hist. xviii. 46.
45 Eulog. apud Max., t. ii. p. 145.
46 Cf. Sever., Ep. 2 ad Joannem.
47 Anast. Siniata, in 9Odhgw=, ch. 9; Leontius, contr. Nest. et Entych.
48 Greg. Naz., Ep. ad Cled., I.
49 to\n au0to\n e0pide/xontai lo\gon th=j fu/sewj; perhaps-all admit the same account of the nature,-all can be dealt with in the same way in respect of nature.
50 Leontius, Contr. Sev. et Eutych. Max. loc. cit., p. 277.
51 Reading w!sper e0pi\ a0to/mou, &c. These words are omitted in Cod. S. Hil. Reg. 10, Colb. 3, and N.
52 h! su/gkrasin, h@ a0na/krasin. The mss. omit the latter.
53 The word Eu0ruxh/j. however, is omitted by the best copies.
54 Procl., Epist. 2 ad Arm.
55 Greg. Naz., Hom. 5. See also John's Dialect., 65.
56 Leo papa, Epist. 10, ch. 4.
57 kata\ to\n a0ntido/sewj tro/pon, in the way of a communication of properties.
58 dia= th=n ei0j a!llhla tw=n merw=h perixw/rhsin. See Leont., De Sect., 7, Contr. Nest. et Eutych., I.
59 Leo papa, epist. 10, ch. 4.
60 1 Cor. ii. 8.
61 St. John iii. 13.
62 Cf. Athan., De Salut. adv. Christi; Greg. Naz., Orat. 38; Greg. Nyss., Contr. Apoll.; Leont., Contr. Nestor. et Eutych., bk. I; Thomas Aquinas, III., quaest. 16, art. 4, 5.