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49

substance, in virtue of which the hypostasis is, is said to have suffered in one of its hypostases. However, it is not necessary for all the hypostases of the same kind to suffer with the suffering hypostasis. So, therefore, we confess that the whole nature of the Godhead is perfectly in each of its hypostases, all in the Father, all in the Son, all in the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Father is perfect God, the Son is perfect God, the Holy Spirit is perfect God. So also in the incarnation of the one of the Holy Trinity, God the Word, we say that the whole and perfect nature of the Godhead was united in one of its hypostases to the whole of human nature, and not part to part. For the divine apostle says, that “in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” that is, in his flesh, and his disciple, the God-bearer and great in divine things, Dionysius, “that he wholly shared with us in one of his own hypostases.” However, we shall not be compelled to say that all the hypostases of the holy Godhead, that is, the three, have been united hypostatically to all the hypostases of humanity; for in no respect have the Father and the Holy Spirit shared in the incarnation of God the Word, except by good pleasure and will. But we say that the whole substance of the Godhead was united to the whole human nature. For He omitted nothing of what God the Word implanted in our nature when he formed us in the beginning, but he assumed all things, body, an intelligent and rational soul, and their properties (for a living being lacking one of these is not a man); for he who is whole assumed me who am whole, and he who is whole was united to the whole, so that he might bestow salvation on the whole; “for what is not assumed is not healed.” The Word of God, therefore, was united to the flesh through the medium of the mind, which mediates between the purity of God and the coarseness of the flesh. For the mind is the ruling part of both soul and flesh, the purest part of the soul, but God is also of the mind; and when it is permitted by the superior, the mind displays its own rule. But it is overcome and follows the superior, and performs those things which the divine will wishes. The mind has become the place of the Godhead hypostatically united to it, just as, of course, the flesh has also, not a co-dweller, as the impious opinion of the heretics errs; saying, “for a medimnus would not contain a double medimnus.” judging incorporeal things corporeally. How then shall Christ be called perfect God and perfect man, and consubstantial with both the Father and us, if a part of the divine nature is united in him to a part of the human nature? We say that our nature has been raised from the dead and has ascended and has sat down at the right hand of the Father, not in that all the hypostases of men rose and sat down at the right hand of the Father, but the whole nature in the hypostasis of Christ. For the divine apostle says: “He raised us up together and made us sit together in Christ.” And we also say this, that the union came from common substances; for every substance is common to all the hypostases contained under it, and it is not possible to find a partial and particular nature or substance, since it would be necessary to call the same hypostases both consubstantial and of a different substance, and to call the Holy Trinity both consubstantial and of a different substance in respect to the Godhead. The same nature, therefore, is contemplated in each of the hypostases. And when we say that the nature of the Word was incarnate, according to the blessed Athanasius and Cyril, we mean that the Godhead was united to the flesh. Therefore we cannot say: The nature of the Word suffered (for the Godhead in him did not suffer), but we say that the human nature suffered in Christ, not however signifying all the hypostases of men, and we confess that Christ suffered in his human nature. So that when we speak of the nature of the Word, we mean the Word himself. And the Word possesses both the community of the substance and the particularity of the hypostasis. 51 Concerning the one composite hypostasis of God the Word We say, then, that the divine hypostasis of God the Word pre-existed timelessly and eternally, simple and uncompounded, uncreated, bodiless, invisible, intangible, uncircumscribed, having all that the Father has, as being consubstantial with Him, in the...

49

οὐσία, καθ' ἣν ἡ ὑπόστασις, πεπονθέναι λέγεται ἐν μιᾷ τῶν αὐτῆς ὑποστάσεων. Οὐ μέντοιγε ἀνάγκη καὶ πάσας τὰς ὁμοειδεῖς ὑποστάσεις συμπάσχειν τῇ πασχούσῃ ὑποστάσει. Οὕτω τοίνυν ὁμολογοῦμεν τὴν τῆς θεότητος φύσιν πᾶσαν τελείως εἶναι ἐν ἑκάστῃ τῶν αὐτῆς ὑποστάσεων, πᾶσαν ἐν πατρί, πᾶσαν ἐν υἱῷ, πᾶσαν ἐν ἁγίῳ πνεύματι. ∆ιὸ καὶ τέλειος θεὸς ὁ πατήρ, τέλειος θεὸς ὁ υἱός, τέλειος θεὸς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον. Οὕτω καὶ ἐν τῇ ἐνανθρωπήσει τοῦ ἑνὸς τῆς ἁγίας τριάδος θεοῦ λόγου φαμὲν πᾶσαν καὶ τελείαν τὴν φύσιν τῆς θεότητος ἐν μιᾷ τῶν αὐτῆς ὑποστάσεων ἑνωθῆναι τῇ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσει πάσῃ καὶ οὐ μέρος μέρει. Φησὶ γοῦν ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος, ὅτι «ἐν αὐτῷ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς», τουτέστιν ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ὁ τούτου φοιτητὴς ὁ θεοφόρος καὶ τὰ θεῖα πολὺς ∆ιονύσιος, «ὅτι ὁλικῶς ἡμῖν ἐν μιᾷ τῶν ἑαυτῆς ἐκοινώνησεν ὑποστάσεων». Οὐ μὴν λέγειν ἀναγκασθησόμεθα, πάσας τὰς ὑποστάσεις τῆς ἁγίας θεότητος ἤτοι τὰς τρεῖς πάσαις ταῖς τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος ὑποστάσεσι καθ' ὑπόστασιν ἡνῶσθαι· κατ' οὐδένα γὰρ κεκοινώνηκε λόγον ὁ πατὴρ καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον τῇ σαρκώσει τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου εἰ μὴ κατ' εὐδοκίαν καὶ βούλησιν. Πάσῃ δὲ τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει φαμὲν ἑνωθῆναι πᾶσαν τὴν τῆς θεότητος οὐσίαν. Οὐδὲν γάρ, ὧν ἐνεφύτευσε τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ φύσει ὁ θεὸς λόγος ἀρχῆθεν πλάσας ἡμᾶς, ἐνέλιπεν, ἀλλὰ πάντα ἀνέλαβε, σῶμα, ψυχὴν νοερὰν καὶ λογικὴν καὶ τὰ τούτων ἰδιώματα (τὸ γὰρ ἑνὸς τούτων ἀμοιροῦν ζῷον οὐκ ἄνθρωπος)· ὅλον γὰρ ὅλος ἀνέλαβέ με, καὶ ὅλος ὅλῳ ἡνώθη, ἵνα ὅλῳ τὴν σωτηρίαν χαρίσηται· «τὸ γὰρ ἀπρόσληπτον ἀθεράπευτον». Ἥνωται τοίνυν σαρκὶ διὰ μέσου νοῦ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ μεσιτεύοντος θεοῦ καθαρότητι καὶ σαρκὸς παχύτητι. Ἡγεμονικὸν μὲν γὰρ ψυχῆς τε καὶ σαρκὸς νοῦς, τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ καθαρώτατον, ἀλλὰ καὶ νοῦ ὁ θεός· καὶ ὅτε μὲν παραχωρεῖται ὑπὸ τοῦ κρείττονος, τὴν οἰκείαν ὁ νοῦς ἡγεμονίαν ἐνδείκνυται. Ἐκνικᾶται δὲ καὶ ἕπεται τῷ κρείττονι καὶ ταῦτα ἐνεργεῖ, ἃ ἡ θεία βούλεται θέλησις. Χωρίον ὁ νοῦς γέγονε τῆς καθ' ὑπόστασιν αὐτῷ ἡνωμένης θεότητος ὥσπερ δηλαδὴ καὶ ἡ σάρξ, οὐ σύνοικος, ὡς ἡ τῶν αἱρετικῶν ἐναγὴς πλανᾶται οἴησις· «οὐ γὰρ ἂν μεδιμναῖον», λέγουσα, «χωρήσει διμέδιμνον». σωματικῶς τὰ ἄυλα κρίνουσα. Πῶς δὲ θεὸς τέλειος καὶ ἄνθρωπος τέλειος καὶ ὁμοούσιος τῷ τε πατρὶ καὶ ἡμῖν ὁ Χριστὸς λεχθήσεται, εἰ μέρος τῆς θείας φύσεως μέρει τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ἐν αὐτῷ ἥνωται φύσεως; Λέγομεν δὲ τὴν φύσιν ἡμῶν ἐγηγέρθαι ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν καὶ ἀνεληλυθέναι καὶ κεκαθικέναι ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ πατρός, οὐ καθὸ πᾶσαι αἱ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὑποστάσεις ἀνέστησαν καὶ ἐκάθισαν ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ πατρός, ἀλλὰ πᾶσα ἡ φύσις ἐν τῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὑποστάσει. Φησὶ γοῦν ὁ θεῖος ἀπόστολος· «Συνήγειρε καὶ συνεκάθισεν ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ». Καὶ τοῦτο δέ φαμεν, ὅτι ἐκ κοινῶν οὐσιῶν ἡ ἕνωσις γέγονε· πᾶσα γὰρ οὐσία κοινή ἐστι πασῶν τῶν ὑπ' αὐτῆς περιεχομένων ὑποστάσεων, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν εὑρεῖν μερικὴν καὶ ἰδιάζουσαν φύσιν ἤτοι οὐσίαν, ἐπεὶ ἀνάγκη τὰς αὐτὰς ὑποστάσεις καὶ ὁμοουσίους καὶ ἑτεροουσίους λέγειν καὶ τὴν ἁγίαν τριάδα καὶ ὁμοούσιον καὶ ἑτεροούσιον κατὰ τὴν θεότητα λέγειν. Ἡ αὐτὴ τοίνυν φύσις ἐν ἑκάστῃ τῶν ὑποστάσεων θεωρεῖται. Καὶ ὅτε εἴπωμεν τὴν φύσιν τοῦ λόγου σεσαρκῶσθαι κατὰ τοὺς μακαρίους Ἀθανάσιόν τε καὶ Κύριλλον, τὴν θεότητα λέγομεν ἡνῶσθαι σαρκί. ∆ιὸ οὐ δυνάμεθα εἰπεῖν· Ἡ φύσις τοῦ λόγου ἔπαθεν (οὐ γὰρ ἔπαθεν ἡ θεότης ἐν αὐτῷ), λέγομεν δὲ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν πεπονθέναι ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ, οὐ μὴν δὲ πάσας τὰς ὑποστάσεις τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐμφαίνοντες, καὶ τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει πεπονθέναι ὁμολογοῦμεν τὸν Χριστόν. Ὥστε φύσιν τοῦ λόγου λέγοντες αὐτὸν τὸν λόγον σημαίνομεν. Ὁ δὲ λόγος καὶ τὸ κοινὸν τῆς οὐσίας κέκτηται καὶ τὸ ἰδιάζον τῆς ὑποστάσεως. 51 Περὶ τῆς μιᾶς τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου συνθέτου ὑποστάσεωσ Προεῖναι μὲν οὖν ἀχρόνως καὶ ἀιδίως φαμὲν τὴν θείαν τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου ὑπόστασιν ἁπλῆν καὶ ἀσύνθετον, ἄκτιστον, ἀσώματον, ἀόρατον, ἀναφῆ, ἀπερίγραπτον, πάντα ἔχουσαν ὅσα ἔχει ὁ πατὴρ ὡς αὐτῷ ὁμοούσιον, τῷ τῆς