Chapter 43

A person is one who by reason of his own operations and properties exhibits to us an appearance which is distinct and set off from those of the same nature as he. When Gabriel, for example, was conversing with the Mother of God, while he was one of the angels, he alone was present there and speaking. Thus he was by his presence and conversation in that place made distinct from the angels of the same substance with him. And when Paul spoke to the people from the stairs, while he was one of the number of men, by his properties and operations he was distinct from the rest of men.

One should know that the holy Fathers used the term hypostasis and person and individual for the same thing, namely, that which by its own subsistence subsists of itself from substance and accidents, is numerically different, and signifies a certain one, as, for example, Peter, and Paul, and this horse. Hypostasis has been so called from its 'subsisting'.

[29] {Περὶ προσώπου.} Πρόσωπόν ἐστιν, ὅπερ διὰ τῶν οἰκείων ἐνεργημάτων τε καὶ ἰδιωμάτων ἀρίδηλον καὶ περιωρισμένην τῶν ὁμοφυῶν αὐτοῦ παρέχεται ἡμῖν τὴν ἐμφάνειαν, οἷον ὁ Γαβριὴλ τῇ ἁγίᾳ θεοτόκῳ διαλεγόμενος, εἷς τῶν ἀγγέλων ὑπάρχων, μόνος ἐκεῖσε παρὼν διελέγετο, κεχωρισμένος τῶν ὁμοουσίων ἀγγέλων διὰ τῆς ἐν τῷ τόπῳ παρουσίας καὶ διαλέξεως, καὶ ὁ Παῦλος ἐπὶ τῶν ἀναβαθμῶν δημηγορῶν, εἷς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὤν, διὰ τῶν ἰδιωμάτων καὶ ἐνεργημάτων αὐτοῦ τῶν λοιπῶν ἀνθρώπων διεστέλλετο. Χρὴ δὲ γινώσκειν, ὡς οἱ ἅγιοι πατέρες ὑπόστασιν καὶ πρόσωπον καὶ ἄτομον τὸ αὐτὸ ἐκάλεσαν, τὸ καθ' ἑαυτὸ ἰδιοσυστάτως ἐξ οὐσίας καὶ συμβεβηκότων ὑφιστάμενον καὶ ἀριθμῷ διαφέρον καὶ τὸν τινὰ δηλοῦν οἷον Πέτρον, Παῦλον, τόνδε τὸν ἵππον. Εἴρηται δὲ ὑπόστασις παρὰ τὸ ὑφεστάναι.