John of Damascus, On the Nature of What Is Composed

«For there are two natures, God and man, just as there are also soul and body, but not two sons.» 8 Again. How will one and the same nature have contrary essential differences? For if the essence is indivisible and not at the same time receptive of non-essential differences, how can it be of essential ones? For it is clear that it is impossible for contrary essential differences to be found in the same essence; for the same essence will not be rational and irrational, or created and uncreated. Again. The constitutive differences of essences constitute the essences; for which reason they are called both essential and constitutive and they subsist in the essences. If therefore you confess in Christ the constitutive differences of the essences, it is necessary also to confess the essences—for of what will they be?—, and if they do not constitute essences they will be superfluous. Again. You who say there is one nature of the divinity and the humanity of Christ, tell us, in what nature did Christ suffer? Clearly in the composite one, you will say. For by saying one, by necessity you will attach the suffering to it, and according to you both the divinity and the humanity of Christ will be passible. Again. If the nature of Christ is one and composite, it will be either only passible or only impassible or passible-impassible and at the same time passible and impassible, or mutable, and at one time passible, at another time impassible, or part of it passible and part of it impassible. Whichever therefore of these impieties you wish, choose. For if it is only passible, Christ is not God. But if it is only impassible, Christ is not man. But if it is at one time passible, at another time impassible, it will not be passible by nature nor impassible by nature, but accidentally; for that which is by nature does not change. And if part of it is passible and part of it impassible, and each is so by nature, this is precisely the point, the parts will not be of the same nature, and thus Christ will be of two natures, He who is not a nature, but a hypostasis. For it is impossible for the same nature to be at once passible and impassible; for the one and the same essence is not able to be receptive of contrary essential differences at the same time. 9 Furthermore, tell us this: Does Christ have a divine nature? Yes, you will certainly say. And does He have a human one? This too you will concede, unless you should wish to be impious with a bare head. Therefore, are the divine nature and the human nature one nature or two? But if you say one, the Father will be consubstantial with us. But if two and not one, why not, having cast away pride far away along with its begetter, I mean the devil, confess with us one Christ, one Son, one Lord, one hypostasis from two natures and two natures and in two natures after the union? For if you never confess Christ to be of two natures, why in vain do you say He is of one nature after the union? But if, while asserting He is of two natures before the union, you confess one after the union, you openly fight against the truth. For before the union, that is, the divine incarnation, being one subsisting hypostasis of one simple nature, that is, the divine, He was not even Christ nor was He so named, except that the future was proclaimed by prophetic word. Either therefore you will completely abolish the two natures in Christ, or you will say Christ was of two natures before the incarnation from the virgin, not enduring to grant Him His two natures which are properly His after the union. But we do not think thus, nor is this the portion of Jacob, but standing within the bounds of piety we say one composite hypostasis from divinity and humanity; for this pre-eternal hypostasis of God the Word, having tabernacled in the womb of the holy ever-virgin, gave subsistence in itself to an ensouled, rational flesh, itself becoming the hypostasis for the ensouled and rational flesh, and there came to be from perfect divinity and perfect humanity one Christ, one Son, the same of God and of man, one Lord, the same, perfect God and perfect man, wholly God and wholly man, the natures having been united to each other unconfusedly and unchangeably and indivisibly. Unconfusedly, on the one hand; for each nature preserves its own difference, the divinity its uncreatedness, the createdness

«Φύσεις μὲν γὰρ δύο, θεὸς καὶ ἄνθρωπος, ἐπεὶ καὶ ψυχὴ καὶ σῶμα, υἱοὶ δὲ οὐ δύο.» 8 Ἔτι· Πῶς μία καὶ ἡ αὐτὴ φύσις τὰς ἐναντίας ἕξει οὐσιώδεις διαφοράς; Εἰ γὰρ τῶν ἐπουσιωδῶν διαφορῶν ἡ οὐσία ἀναμέρος καὶ οὐ κατὰ ταὐτόν ἐστι δεκτική, πῶς τῶν οὐσιωδῶν; ∆ῆλον γάρ, ὡς ἀδύνατον ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ οὐσίᾳ τὰς ἐναντίας οὐσιώδεις εὑρεθῆναι διαφοράς· οὐ γὰρ ἡ αὐτὴ οὐσία λογικὴ ἔσται καὶ ἄλογος ἢ κτιστὴ καὶ ἄκτιστος. Ἔτι· Τὰς οὐσίας αἱ συστατικαὶ τῶν οὐσιῶν διαφοραὶ συνιστῶσι· διὸ καὶ οὐσιώδεις καὶ συστατικαὶ λέγονται καὶ ἐν ταῖς οὐσίαις ὑφίστανται. Εἰ οὖν τὰς συστατικὰς τῶν οὐσιῶν διαφορὰς ἐπὶ Χριστοῦ ὁμολογεῖτε, ἀνάγκη καὶ τὰς οὐσίας ὁμολογεῖν-τίνων γὰρ ἔσονται; -, καὶ μὴ συνιστῶσαι οὐσίας περιττῶς ἔσονται. Ἔτι· Οἱ μίαν φύσιν τῆς θεότητος καὶ τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος τοῦ Χριστοῦ λέγοντες εἴπατε ἡμῖν, ποίᾳ φύσει ὁ Χριστὸς πέπονθεν; Τῇ συνθέτῳ δῆλον, ἐρεῖτε. Μίαν γὰρ λέγοντες ἐξ ἀνάγκης αὐτῇ καὶ τὸ πάθος προσάψετε, καὶ ἔσται καθ' ὑμᾶς καὶ ἡ θεότης καὶ ἡ ἀνθρωπότης τοῦ Χριστοῦ παθητή. Ἔτι· Εἰ μία φύσις σύνθετός ἐστι τοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἢ παθητὴ ἔσται μόνον ἢ ἀπαθὴς μόνον ἢ παθητοαπαθὴς καὶ κατὰ ταὐτὸν παθητὴ καὶ ἀπαθὴς ἢ τρεπτή, καὶ ποτὲ μὲν παθητή, ποτὲ δὲ ἀπαθής, ἢ μέρος αὐτῆς παθητὸν καὶ μέρος αὐτῆς ἀπαθές. Οἵαν οὖν βούλεσθε τῶν ἀσεβειῶν, ἕλεσθε. Εἰ γὰρ παθητὴ μόνον, οὐ θεὸς ὁ Χριστός. Εἰ δὲ ἀπαθὴς μόνον, οὐκ ἄνθρωπος ὁ Χριστός. Εἰ δὲ ποτὲ μὲν παθητή, ποτὲ δὲ ἀπαθής, οὐ φύσει ἔσται παθητὴ οὐδὲ φύσει ἀπαθής, ἀλλὰ κατὰ συμβεβηκός· τὸ γὰρ φύσει πεφυκὸς οὐ μεθίσταται. Εἰ δὲ καὶ μέρος αὐτῆς παθητὸν καὶ μέρος αὐτῆς ἀπαθές, φύσει δὲ ἑκάτερόν ἐστιν, τοῦθ' ὅπερ ἐστίν, οὐ τῆς αὐτῆς ἔσται τὰ μέρη φύσεως, καὶ οὕτω δύο φύσεων ἔσται ὁ Χριστός, ὃς οὐ φύσις ἐστίν, ἀλλ' ὑπόστασις. Τὴν γὰρ αὐτὴν φύσιν παθητὴν ἅμα καὶ ἀπαθῆ εἶναι ἀμήχανον· ἅμα γὰρ τῶν ἐναντίων οὐσιωδῶν διαφορῶν δεκτικὴ εἶναι ἡ μία καὶ αὐτὴ οὐσία οὐ δύναται. 9 Ἔτι τοῦτο εἴπατε ἡμῖν· Ἔχει θείαν φύσιν ὁ Χριστός; Ναί, ἐρεῖτε πάντως. Ἔχει δὲ καὶ ἀνθρωπίνην; Καὶ τοῦτο συνομολογήσετε, εἴ γε μὴ γυμνῇ τῇ κεφαλῇ ἀσεβεῖν βουληθείητε. Φύσις οὖν θεία καὶ φύσις ἀνθρωπίνη μία φύσις ἢ δύο; Ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν μίαν εἴπητε, ἔσται ὁ πατὴρ ἡμῖν ὁμοούσιος. Εἰ δὲ δύο καὶ οὐ μία, τί μὴ τὸν τῦφον σὺν τῷ τούτου γεννήτορι, τῷ διαβόλῳ φημί, μακρὰν ἀπορρίψαντες μεθ' ἡμῶν ἕνα Χριστόν, ἕνα υἱόν, ἕνα κύριον, μίαν ὑπόστασιν ἐκ δύο φύσεων καὶ δύο φύσεις καὶ ἐν δυσὶ φύσεσι μετὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν ὁμολογήσετε; Εἰ μὲν γὰρ οὐδέποτε δύο φύσεων τὸν Χριστὸν ὁμολογεῖτε, τί μάτην μιᾶς αὐτὸν φύσεως μετὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν λέγετε; Εἰ δὲ πρὸ τῆς ἑνώσεως δύο φύσεων αὐτὸν φάσκοντες μιᾶς ὁμολογεῖτε μετὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν, ἄντικρυς ἀπομάχεσθε τῇ ἀληθείᾳ. Πρὸ γὰρ τῆς ἑνώσεως ἤτοι τῆς θείας σαρκώσεως μιᾶς φύσεως ἁπλῆς ἤτοι τῆς θείας μία τελῶν ὑπόστασις οὐδὲ Χριστὸς ἦν οὐδ' ὠνομάζετο, εἰ μὴ προφητικῷ λόγῳ τὸ μέλλον προεκηρύττετο. Ἢ τοίνυν παντελῶς τὰς δύο φύσεις ἐπὶ Χριστοῦ ἀναιρήσετε ἢ διφυᾶ πρὸ τῆς ἐκ παρθένου λέξετε τὸν Χριστὸν σαρκώσεως, μὴ διδόναι αὐτῷ τὰς κυρίως οὔσας αὐτοῦ δύο φύσεις μετὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν ἀνεχόμενοι. Ἡμεῖς δὲ οὐχ οὕτως φρονοῦμεν οὐδ' αὕτη μερὶς τοῦ Ἰακώβ, ἀλλ' ἐν τοῖς ὅροις τῆς εὐσεβείας ἱστάμενοί φαμεν ἐκ θεότητός τε καὶ ἀνθρωπότητος μίαν ὑπόστασιν σύνθετον· αὕτη γὰρ ἡ προαιώνιος τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου ὑπόστασις σκηνώσασα ἐν τῇ γαστρὶ τῆς ἁγίας ἀειπαρθένου ἐν ἑαυτῇ ὑπεστήσατο σάρκα ἔμψυχον λογικήν, αὐτὴ χρηματίσασα τῇ ἐμψύχῳ καὶ λογικῇ σαρκὶ ὑπόστασις, καὶ γέγονεν ἐκ τελείας θεότητος καὶ τελείας ἀνθρωπότητος εἷς Χριστός, εἷς υἱὸς ὁ αὐτὸς θεοῦ τε καὶ ἀνθρώπου, εἷς κύριος ὁ αὐτός, θεὸς τέλειος καὶ ἄνθρωπος τέλειος, ὅλος θεὸς καὶ ὅλος ἄνθρωπος, ἀσυγχύτως ἑνωθεισῶν τῶν φύσεων ἀλλήλαις καὶ ἀτρέπτως καὶ ἀδιαιρέτως. Ἀσυγχύτως μέν· φυλάττει γὰρ ἑκάστη φύσις τὴν ἑαυτῆς διαφοράν, τὸ ἄκτιστον ἡ θεότης, τὸ κτιστὸν