He slept, He conversed, just as we do, but was in every way without sin. This is beyond us. For who among us could be found entirely blameless in things natural and beyond reproach? He suffered for us, He felt pain in the nailing and stretching on the cross; finally, He died, but for Him the passion, and the pain, and the dying were voluntary. The flesh suffered, the soul naturally felt pain because of the connection (for from it the flesh has sensation); yet the divinity in both was undivided
CHAPTER 17.
The Lord, having suffered and died and been buried, shook off corruption and the things of corruption; and having prepared His own body for incorruption, and having taken up His own soul by His authority as God, He rose on the third day. For I lay down my soul, He says, that I may take it again. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. But if the Lord also ate after the resurrection, He did this according to a dispensation, showing His own disciples that it was He who had risen, the one who was formerly with them. But when I say according to a dispensation, I reject the idea of a phantasm. For He truly ate; but He dealt with the food in a new way, as He Himself knows. For this reason He also showed the marks of the wounds; making present things that had happened but no longer existed, He who is able to do all things. Since, indeed, that body, having become superior to all need, to all resistance, accepted neither food nor touch. Therefore we say that the Lord is not now according to the flesh, as having put off the things of the flesh: desire for food, sleep, weariness, and such things; in addition to these, also resistance. For His body, through the stripping off of corruption, was rendered without need, and impassible, and intangible, and immortal; but not, however, uncreated, nor again uncircumscribed. For these things belong to the Godhead alone; and, to speak concisely, inasmuch as the humanity of Christ was capable of divine glories, it partook of them from the Logos Himself because of the union, through which it is also venerable and worshipful. But inasmuch as it was not capable, it did not partake, so that from this we might know both the difference of the natures of Christ, and the uniqueness of the person.
CHAPTER 18.
We therefore hold, concerning Christ, one composite hypostasis, composed of two natures; that is, of divinity and humanity united to each other in the very hypostasis of the Logos. For this reason we also call such a union hypostatic; because one hypostasis of the three hypostases of the Godhead, which is that of the Son, has united the two natures to each other without confusion in and of itself. For the humanity of Christ did not subsist by itself, even for a moment, so that it might be called a hypostasis (for it was not necessary. For what would have been the gain for us, for one hypostasis to be deified?), but God the Logos assumed in Himself the entire nature of humanity, that He might deify all of us. Whence we proclaim Christ as of one hypostasis, from two natures united to each other without confusion in a perfect union, remaining undivided both from each other and from the hypostasis in which they are united; and the natures possessing their unconfused state, and their inherent properties unconfused, I mean the wills and the energies. The divine will therefore remains divine; and the human will, again, human, yet deified through the union. This is also known in the energies. Two therefore 15
ἐκάθευδε, διελέγετο, καθάπερ ἡμεῖς, ἀλλὰ πάντη ἀναμαρτήτως. Τοῦτο ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς. Τίνι γὰρ ἂν ἡμῶν ἐν τοῖς φυσικοῖς ἀδιαβλήτοις εὑρεθείη διόλου τὸ ἄμεμπτον; Ἔπασχεν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, ἤλγει τῇ ἐν σταυρῷ προσηλώσει καὶ διατάσει· τέλος, ἀπέθανεν, ἀλλ' ἐθελούσιον ἦν αὐτῷ καὶ τὸ πάθος, καὶ τὸ ἄλγος, καὶ τὸ θανεῖν. Ἔπασχεν ἡ σὰρξ, ἤλγει φυσικῶς ἡ ψυχὴ διὰ τὴν συνάφειαν (ἐξ αὐτῆς γὰρ ἡ αἴσθησις τῇ σαρκί)· πλὴν ἡ θεότης ἡ ἐν ἀμφοῖν ἀδιαίρετος ἦν
ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΙΖʹ
Παθὼν ὁ Κύριος καὶ θάνων καὶ ταφεὶς ἀπετινάξατο τὴν φθορὰν καὶ τὰ τῆς φθορᾶς· καὶ κατασκευάσας αὑτοῦ τὸ σῶμα πρὸς ἀφθαρσίαν, καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν ψυχὴν κατ' ἐξουσίαν ὡς Θεὸς προσλαβόμενος, ἀνέστη τριήμερος. Ἐγὼ γὰρ τίθημι τὴν ψυχήν μου, φησὶν, ἵνα πάλιν λάβω αὐτήν. Ἐξουσίαν ἔχω θεῖναι αὐτὴν, καὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔχω πάλιν λαβεῖν αὐτήν. Εἰ δὲ καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν ὁ Κύριος ἔφαγεν, ἀλλὰ κατ' οἰκονομίαν τοῦτο πεποίηκε, τοῖς ἰδίοις παριστῶν μαθηταῖς ὡς αὐτὸς ἦν ἀναστὰς, ὁ πρότερον ὢν μετ' αὐτῶν. Ὅτε δὲ λέγω κατ' οἰκονομίαν, τὴν φαντασίαν ἐκκρούομαι. Καὶ γὰρ ἔφαγεν ἀληθῶς· τὴν τροφὴν δὲ καινοπρεπῶς, ὡς οἶδεν αὐτὸς, διῳκήσατο. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ τύπους ἐδείκνυ πληγῶν· τὰ γενόμενα μὲν, μὴ ὄντα δὲ, παρόντα ποιῶν ὁ πάντα δυνάμενος. Ἐπεί τοί γε τὸ σῶμα ἐκεῖνο, πάσης ἐνδείας, πάσης ἀντιτυπείας ὑπέρτερον γεγονὸς, οὔτε τροφὰς, οὔτε ψηλαφήσεις προσίετο. ∆ιὸ καὶ μὴ κατὰ σάρκα νῦν εἶναι τὸν Κύριον λέγομεν, ὡς τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς ἀποθέμενον· τροφῆς ἔφεσιν ὕπνον, κόπον, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα· πρὸς τούτοις, καὶ τὸ ἀντίτυπον. Τὸ σῶμα γὰρ αὐτοῦ διὰ τῆς ἀπεκδύσεως τῆς φθορᾶς, ἀνενδεὲς ἀπετελέσθη, καὶ ἀπαθὲς, καὶ ἀναφὲς, καὶ ἀθάνατον· οὐ μὴν καὶ ἄκτιστον, οὔτ' αὖ ἀπερίγραπτον. Ταῦτα γὰρ μόνης Θεότητος· καὶ ἵν' εἴπω συνελὼν, ὅσον μὲν ἦν δεκτικὸν θείων αὐχημάτων τὸ ἀνθρώπινον τοῦ Χριστοῦ, μετέσχεν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ Λόγου διὰ τὴν ἔνωσιν, δι' ἢν καὶ σεπτόν ἐστι καὶ προσκυνητόν. Ὅσον δ' οὐκ ἦν δεκτικὸν, οὐ μετέσχεν, ἵνα κἀντεῦθεν τό τε διάφορον τῶν φύσεων τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τό τε μοναδικὸν τοῦ προσώπου γινώσκωμεν.
ΚΕΦΑΛ. ΙΗʹ.
Πρεσβεύομεν τοίνυν ἐπὶ Χριστοῦ μίαν ὑπόστασιν σύνθετον, ἐκ δύο συντεθειμένην φύσεων· θεότητος δηλονότι καὶ ἀνθρωπότητος ἀλλήλαις ἡνωμένων κατ' αὐτὴν τὴν τοῦ Λόγου ὑπόστασιν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο γὰρ καὶ τὴν τοιαύτην ἔνωσιν, καθ' ὑπόστασιν λέγομεν· ὅτι μία ὑπόστασις ἐκ τῶν τριῶν τῆς Θεότητος ὑποστάσεων, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ Υἱοῦ, τὰς δύο φύσεις ἀλλήλαις ἥνωσεν ἀσυγχύτως ἐν ἑαυτῇ τε καὶ καθ' αὑτήν. Οὐ γὰρ ὑπέστη καθ' αὑτὸ κἂν ἀκαριαίως τὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἀνθρώπινον, ὡς ἂν ὑπόστασις τοῦτο λέγοιτο (καὶ γὰρ οὐκ ἐχρῆν. Τί γὰρ ἦν τὸ κέρδος ἡμῖν, τὸ θεωρηθῆναι μίαν ὑπόστασιν), ἀλλὰ τὴν φύσιν ὁ Θεὸς Λόγος ἐν ἑαυτῷ προσελάβετο πᾶσαν τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος, ἵνα θεωρήσῃ πάντας ἡμᾶς. Ὅθεν μιᾶς ὑποστάσεως κηρύττομεν τὸν Χριστὸν, ἐκ δύο φύσεων ἡνωμένων ἀλλήλαις ἀσυγχύτως ἔνωσιν ἄκραν, ἀδιαιρέτων μενουσῶν ἔκ τε ἀλλήλων καὶ τῆς ὑποστάσεως καθ' ἣν ἥνωνται· τῶν δὲ φύσεων ἐχουσῶν τὸ ἀσύγχυτον, καὶ τὰ προσόντα ταύταις ἀσύγχυτα τὰς θελήσεις καὶ τὰς ἐνεργείας φημί. Μένει οὖν ἡ θεϊκὴ θέλησις, θεϊκή· καὶ ἡ ἀνθρωπικὴ πάλιν, ἀνθρωπικὴ, πλὴν τεθεωμένη διὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν. Τοῦτο κἀν ταῖς ἐνεργείαις γινώσκεται. ∆ύο τοίνυν 15