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45

just as not of soul and body, as is clear to all. Therefore, the word of truth has never defined Christ to be one in nature, nor one simple or composite nature. For the name Christ is not indicative of a substance or nature as of a species, predicated of many individuals differing in their hypostases, as the blessed Cyril says in his scholia, " That the name Christ has neither the force of a definition, nor does it signify anyone's substance; but it signifies the hypostasis of the Word understood, evidently, in the assumption of flesh having a rational soul." But neither is man one nature of soul and body; as if the body were of the same substance 15Β_196 as the soul; but it is one as in a species; which is divided into other species according to the constitutive difference; and is predicated equally of the individuals under it as a species and contained by it. And for this reason, he did not forbid that the soul and the body are two according to the essential principle, as soul and body; and a different substance according to the principle of being; the things from which, and in which, and which man is.

THAT IT IS IMPIOUS TO SAY CHRIST IS ONE COMPOSITE NATURE...

That it is impious to say Christ is one composite nature, and contrary to the truth.

For every composite nature, both to itself and to each other according to its very coming into being

having its own parts co-temporal, and brought forth from non-being into being, and for the completion of the ordering of the universe, by the power that constituted the universe and holds it in being, reasonably and by necessity has its own parts contained by each other; as is the case with man, and with all other things that have been allotted a composite nature. The soul involuntarily holding the body, and being held by it, and providing life to it without choice, simply by being in it, and naturally partaking of passion and pain through the capacity for receiving these inherent in it; even if 0489 some, having erred from the true doctrines of the Church concerning the soul, monstrously assert that the soul pre-exists its own body in the Greek manner, or transmigrates in the Jewish manner, and supposing a beginning of the visible creation that is not good nor God-pleasing to have preceded it, are adversely disposed toward such an argument; judging it not to be of the present time or argument to refute their unsound and incongruous problems concerning this, I will return to the subject at hand.

15Β_198 Thus then, as has been set forth, since every nature is composite, none of those who have determined to think piously about divine things would ever dare to say that Christ is one composite nature, lest, having chosen to say such things, he by necessity, by a certain natural connection and consequence, [say He is] wholly created and from non-being, circumscribed and passible, and not consubstantial with the Father; and supposing either that the flesh is co-eternal with the Word, or that the Word is co-temporal with the flesh; for such is the principle of every composite nature; he will make himself liable to fearful accusations. For that which is of a composite nature is evidently also composite by nature. But that which is composite by nature could never be of the same nature and consubstantial with that which is simple by nature. Therefore, it is not right for the pious to say that Christ is one composite nature, not only on account of the absurdity resulting from such a phrase; but also because none of the divinely-judged Fathers has ever been shown to have said this; but rather to confess one composite hypostasis of Christ, and two natures, so that He may be known as both consubstantial and of the same nature with the Father according to the divinity, and consubstantial and of the same nature with us according to

45

ὥσπερ οὐδέ ψυχῆς καί σώματος, ὡς πᾶσιν εὔδηλον. ∆ιό οὐχ ἕν τῇ φύσει, οὐδέ μίαν ἁπλῶς ἤ σύνθετον φύσιν τόν Χριστόν εἶναι, πώποτε ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας ὡρίσατο λόγος. Οὔτε γάρ οὐσίας ἤτοι φύσεως δηλωτικόν ὡς εἴδους τό Χριστός ὄνομα ὑπάρχει, τῶν κατά πολλῶν καί διαφερόντων ταῖς ὑποστάσεσι κατηγορουμένων ἀτόμων, καθώς φησιν ἐν τοῖς σχολίοις ὁ μακάριος Κύριλλος, " Ὅτι τό Χριστός ὄνομα, οὔτε ὅρου δύναμιν ἔχει, οὔτε μήν τήν τινος οὐσίαν δηλοῖ· ὑποστάσεως δέ τῆς τοῦ Λόγου ἐν προσλήμματι δηλονότι σαρκός νοεράν ἐχούσης ψυχήν νοουμένης." Ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ τόν ἄνθρωπον μίαν φύσιν τήν ἐκ ψυχῆς καί σώματος· ὡς τῆς αὐτῆς τῇ ψυχῇ οὐσίας 15Β_196 ὄντος τοῦ σώματος· ἀλλά τήν ὡς ἐν εἴδει· πρός μέν τά ἄλλά κατά τήν συστατικήν διαφοράν τεμνομένην εἴδη· κατά δέ τῶν ὑπ᾿ αὐτήν ὡς εἴδος καί ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς περιεχομένων ἀτόμων ἴσως κατηγορουμένην. Καί οὐ διά τοῦτο τό εἶναι δύο κατά τόν οὐσιώδη λόγον τήν ψυχήν καί τό σῶμα ὡς ψυχήν καί σῶμα· καί ἄλλην καί ἄλλην οὐσίαν κατά τόν τοῦ εἶναι λόγον· τά ἐξ ὧν, καί ἐν οἷς, καί ἅ ὑπάρχει ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἀπηγόρευσεν.

ΟΤΙ ΑΣΕΒΕΣ ΕΣΤΙ ΤΟ ΛΕΓΕΙΝ ΜΙΑΝ ΣΥΝΘΕΤΟΝ ΦΥΣΙΝ ΤΟΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΝ...

Ὅτι ἀσεβές ἐστί τό λέγειν μίαν σύνθετον φύσιν τόν Χριστόν, καί τῇ ἀληθείᾳ μαχόμενον.

Πᾶσα γάρ σύνθετος φύσις, ἑαυτῇ τε καί ἀλλήλοις κατ᾿ αὐτήν τήν εἰς τό εἶναι

γένεσιν ἔχουσα τά ἴδια μέρη ὁμόχρονα, καί ἐκ τοῦ μή ὄντος εἰς τό εἶναι, καί εἰς συμπλήρωσιν τῆς τοῦ παντός διακοσμήσεως, παρά τῆς τό πᾶν συστησαμένης, καί εἰς τό εἶναι συνεχούσης δυνάμεως παρηγμένα, ἀλλήλοις εἰκότως ἐξ ἀνάγκης τά ἴδια μέρη περιεχόμενα κέκτηται· ὡς ἐπί τε τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἔχει, καί τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα συνθέτου εἶναι ἔλαχον φύσεως. Τῆς ψυχῆς ἀκουσίως τε κρατούσης τό σῶμα, καί ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ κρατουμένης, καί ζωήν ἀπροαιρέτως αὐτῷ, κατ᾿ αὐτό μόνον τό ἐν αὐτῷ εἶναι παρεχούσης, καί πάθους καί ἄλγους φυσικῶς μεταλαμβανούσης διά τήν ἐγκειμένην αὐτῇ τούτων δεκτικήν δύναμιν· κἄν εἰ τά 0489 μάλιστά τινες τῶν κατά τήν Ἐκκλησίαν ἀληθῶν περί ψυχῆς δογμάτων ἀποσφαλέντες, προϋπάρχειν Ἑλληνικῶς, ἤ μεθυπάρχειν ἰουδαϊκῶς τοῦ ἰδίου σώματος τήν ψυχήν τερατευόμενοι, καί ἀρχήν οὐ καλήν οὐδέ θεοφιλῆ τῆς τῶν ὁρατῶν δημιουργίας προκαθηγεῖσθαι ὑποτιθέμενοι, ἀντιπαθῶς πρός τόν τοιοῦτον διάκεινται λόγον· ὧν διελέγξαι τά περί τούτου σαθρά, καί ἀπαγῆ προβλήματα, οὐ τοῦ παρόντος εἶναι καιροῦ τε καί λόγου κρίνας, ἐπί τό προκείμενον ἐπανελεύσομαι.

15Β_198 Οὕτω τοίνυν, καθά πρόκειται, πάσης συνθέτου ἐχούσης φύσεως,οὐκ ἄν τις τολμήσαιέ ποτε τῶν εὐσεβως περί τῶν θείων φρονεῖν ἐγνωκότων, μίαν εἶναι σύνθετον φύσιν εἰπεῖν τόν Χριστόν, ἵνα μή ἐξ ἀνάγκης εἱρμῷ τινι φυσικῷ καί ἀκολουθίᾳ τά τοιαῦτα λέγειν ἐξελόμενος, κτιστόν ὅλον καί ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων, περιγραπτόν τε καί παθητόν, καί τῷ Πατρί οὐχ ὁμοούσιον· καί ἤ συναΐδιον τῷ Λόγῳ τήν σάρκα, ἤ ὁμόχρονον τῇ σαρκί τόν Λόγον ὄντα ὑποτιθέμενος· τοιοῦτος γάρ ὁ πάσης συνθέτου φύσεως λόγος· φοβερῶν ἑαυτόν καταστήσει ἐγκλημάτων ὑπεύθυνον. Τό γάρ συνθέτου φύσεως ὑπάρχον, καί σύνθετον κατά φύσιν δηλονότι ἐστί. Τό δέ κατά φύσιν σύνθετον, τῷ κατά φύσιν ἁπλῷ οὐκ ἄν εἴη ποτέ ὁμοφυές καί ὁμοούσιον. Οὐ θέμις οὖν μίαν τόν Χριστόν λέγειν σύνθετον φύσιν τούς εὐσεβεῖς, οὐ μόνον διά τήν συναγομένην ἐκ τῆς τοιαύτης φωνῆς ἀτοπίαν· ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι καί μηδείς τῶν θεοκρίτων Πατέρων τοῦτο πώποτε εἰρηκώς ἀναπέφανται· ὑπόστασιν δέ μᾶλλον Χριστοῦ σύνθετον μίαν ὁμολογεῖν, καί δύο φύσεις, ἵνα καί τῷ Πατρί ὁμοούσιος κάι ὁμοφυής κατά τήν θεότητα γινώσκηται, καί ἡμῖν ὁμοούσιος καί ὁμοφυής κατά