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59

and speaking of two natures 0525 after the union, we believe him to be in divinity and humanity, as a whole in its parts. For the parts of Christ are his divinity and his humanity, from which and in which he subsists. And again, we were taught to believe, speak and proclaim one incarnate nature of God the Word, with flesh, possessing a soul both intelligent and rational, according to Saint Cyril; understanding by the word “incarnate” that the substance of our nature has been introduced. And again, the miracles and the passions of the one and the same Christ, and his two births: the pre-eternal one incorporeally from the Father, and the temporal one corporeally from a Mother and Virgin, born for our sake. For which reason especially and in truth we confess her to be properly the Theotokos, as having given birth in the last times to God the Word, who was begotten of the Father before all ages, and who was enfleshed from her. But we utterly refuse to speak of Christ as one composite nature; not only for the aforementioned reasons, but also because not one of the approved Fathers has yet appeared to have used this expression; and as it is clearly a product of Apollinarius the heretic and his disciples; whose error Severus has accepted, and so fittingly prides himself on these expressions. For Christ is not a natural monad by composition according to Apollinarius and Severus, inasmuch as he preserves the unconfused otherness of the natures from which he is, even after the union. Nor is he a hypostatic dyad according to Nestorius, inasmuch as the things that came together do not subsist by themselves (15B_252> and entirely distinct from each other; and inasmuch as God the Word is one and incarnate even after the incarnation, and took on flesh, animated rationally and intelligently, united to him, which did not pre-exist according to the proper principle of its nature; but one composite hypostasis according to the Fathers, in which the same one is both wholly God, and one of the holy and all-praised Trinity with the humanity on account of the divinity, and wholly man, the same one, and one among men with the divinity on account of the humanity.

A MORE PHYSICAL CONCEPTION CONCERNING COMPOSITE HYPOSTASIS; AND A PRECISE PROOF

THAT NOT ... A more physical conception concerning composite hypostasis; and a precise proof that

those who confess Christ to be one composite hypostasis do not fall into the same absurdities as those who say he is one composite nature.

But if, because every composite hypostasis has parts that are co-temporal with each other,

someone might think that the same absurdity is deduced also for those who say that Christ is one composite hypostasis, such a one, in my opinion, does not reason correctly. For not every composite hypostasis simply has parts that are co-temporal with each other in their generation; but rather one that evidently exists under a composite nature, and has such a form predicated of it; which, having the sum of its properties woven together with what is common and universal to the predicated essence or nature, 0528 is a nature, that is, with its properties. If therefore the nature under which it exists and the predicated form is composite, it is absolutely necessary that it too be composite, and have parts that are co-temporal with each other, on account of its predicated essence, that is, nature, so existing as to be the same in form without its defining characteristics. For just as when defining the (15B_254> hypostasis simply so-called, we say, a hypostasis is a certain substance with its properties, or, a certain substance that contains all the properties of each thing in its own individual; so when defining the hypostasis that is specifically, and not simply, so-called, we say, a composite hypostasis is a certain composite substance with its properties; or a certain composite substance

59

καί ἐν δύο φύσεσι λέγοντες 0525 μετά τήν ἕνωσιν, ἐν θεότητι καί ἀνθρωπότητι ὄντα πιστεύομεν, ὡς ὅλον ἐν μέρεσι. Μέρη δέ Χριστοῦ ἡ θεότης αὐτοῦ καί ἡ ἀνθρωπότης ἐστίν, ἐξ ὧν καί ἐν αἷς ὑφέστηκε. Καί αὖθις μίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου φύσιν σεσαρκωμένην σαρκί, νοεράν τε καί λογικήν ἐχούσῃ ψυχήν πιστεύειν, λέγειν τε καί κηρύττειν ἐδιδάχθημεν, κατά τόν ἅγιον Κύριλλον· διά τοῦ σεσαρκωμένην εἰπεῖν, τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς φύσεως εἰσκεκομισμένην νοοῦντες τήν οὐσίαν. Καί πάλιν τοῦ αὐτοῦ καί ἑνός Χριστοῦ τά τε θαύματα καί τά πάθη, καί τοῦ αὐτοῦ τάς δύο γεννήσεις, τήν τε προαιώνιον ἀσωμάτως ἐκ τοῦ Πατρός, καί τήν χρονικήν ἐκ Μητρός καί Παρθένου σωματικῶς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς γεγενημένην. ∆ιό μάλιστα καί κατά ἀλήθειαν κυρίως Θεοτόκον αὐτήν ὁμολογοῦμεν, ὡς τόν ἐκ Πατρός γεννηθέντα πρό πάντων τῶν αἰώνων Θεόν Λόγον, ἐπ᾿ ἐσχάτων τῶν χρόνων ἐξ αὐτῆς σαρκωθέντα γεννήσασαν. Μίαν δέ φύσιν σύνθετον τόν Χριστόν παντελῶς παραιτούμεθα λέγειν· οὐ μόνον διά τάς εἰρημένας αἰτίας, ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι καί μηδείς καθ᾿ ὅλου τῶν ἐγκρίτων Πατέρων πέφανται μέχρι τῆς δεῦρο ταύτην εἰρηκώς τήν φωνήν· καί ὡς προδήλως Ἀπολιναρίου τοῦ αἱρετικοῦ, καί τῶν αὐτοῦ φοιτητῶν ὑπάρχουσαν γέννημα· ὧν ἀποδεξάμενος Σευήρος τήν πλάνην, εἰκότως καί ταῖς φωναῖς καλλωπίζεται. Οὐ γάρ φυσική μονάς κατά σύνθεσίν ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός κατ᾿ Ἀπολινάριον καί Σευήρον, ἕως σωζομένην διαφυλλάττει τῶν ἐξ ὧν ἐστι φύσεων καί μετά τήν ἕνωσιν ἀσύγχυτον τήν ἑτερότητα. Οὔτε μήν ὑποστατική δυάς κατά Νεστόριον, ἕως μή καθ᾿ ἑαυτά (15Β_252> τά συνελθόντα καί ἀλλήλων διακεκριμένα παντελῶς ὑφεστήκασι· καί ἕως εἷς ἐστιν ὁ σαρκωθείς Θεός Λόγος καί μετά τήν σάρκωσιν, καί μή προϋποστᾶσαν τῷ οἰκείῳ λόγῳ τῆς φύσεως, τήν ἑνωθεῖσαν αὐτῷ λογικῶς τε καί νοερῶς ἐψυχωμένην σάρκα προσέλαβεν· ἀλλ᾿ ὑπόστασις μία σύνθετος κατά τούς Πατέρας, καθ᾿ ἥν ὅλος τε Θεός ἐστιν ὁ αὐτός καί εἷς τῆς ἁγίας καί πανευφήμου Τριάδος μετά τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος διά τήν θεότητα, καί ὅλος ἄνθρωπος ὁ αὐτός, καί εἷς τῶν ἀνθρώπων μετά τῆς θεότητος διά τήν ἀνθρωπότητα.

ΠΕΡΙ ΥΠΟΣΤΑΣΕΩΣ ΣΥΝΘΕΤΟΥ ΦΥΣΙΚΩΤΕΡΑ ∆ΙΑΛΗΨΙΣ· ΚΑΙ ΑΠΟ∆ΕΙΞΙΣ ΑΚΡΙΒΗΣ

ΤΟΥ ΜΗ ... Περί ὑποστάσεως συνθέτου φυσικωτέρα διάληψις· καί ἀπόδειξις ἀκριβής τοῦ

μή τοῖς αὐτοῖς περιπίπτειν ἀτοπήμασι, τούς ὁμολογοῦντας μίαν σύνθετον ὑπόστασιν τόν Χριστόν, τοῖς μίαν αὐτόν λέγουσι σύνθετον φύσιν.

Εἰ δέ ὅτι καί πᾶσα σύνθετος ὑπόστασις ἀλλήλοις ὁμόχρονα κέκτηται τά μέρη,

νομίζοι τις τήν αὐτήν ἀτοπίαν συνάγεσθαι, καί τοῖς λέγουσι μίαν τόν Χριστόν εἶναι σύνθετον ὑπόστασιν, οὐκ ὀρθῶς κατά τόν ἐμόν ὁ τοιοῦτος ὑπολαμβάνειν λόγον. Οὐ γάρ ἁπλῶς πᾶσα σύνθετος ὑπόστασις ἀλλήλοις ὁμόχρονα κατά τήν γένεσιν ἔχει τά μέρη· ἀλλ᾿ ἡ ὑπό φύσιν σύνθετον δηλονότι τελοῦσα, καί εἶδος ἔχουσα τοιοῦτον αὐτῆς κατηγορούμενον· ἥτις τῷ κοινῷ καί καθ᾿ ὅλου τῆς κατηγορουμένης οὐσίας ἤτοι φύσεως, 0528 τό ἄθροισμα τῶν περί αὐτήν ἰδιωμάτων συμπεπλεγμένον ἔχουσα, φύσις ἐστίν, ἤγουν μετά ἰδιωμάτων. Εἰ οὖν σύνθετος ἡ ὑφ᾿ ἥν τελεῖ φύσις ἐστί καί τό κατηγορούμενον εἶδος, καί αὐτήν σύνθετον εἶναι πάντως ἀνάγκη, καί ἀλλήλοις ὁμόχρονα κεκτῆσθαι τά μέρη, διά τήν κατηγορουμένην αὐτῆς οὐσίαν, ἤγουν φύσιν, οὕτως ὑπάρχουσαν, ὡς τήν αὐτήν οὖσαν τῷ εἴδει χωρίς τῶν ἀφοριστικῶν αὐτῆς γνωρισμάτων. Ὥσπερ γάρ τήν ἁπλῶς λεγομένην (15Β_254> ὑπόστασιν ὁρίζοντές φαμεν, Ὑπόστασίς ἐστιν οὐσία τις μετά ἰδιωμάτων, ἤ, οὐσία τις τῶν καθ᾿ ἕκαστα περιληπτική τῶν ἐν τῷ οἰκείῳ ἀτόμῳ πάντων ἰδιωμάτων· οὕτω τήν προσδιωρισμένως, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ἁπλῶς λεγομένην ὁρίζοντες ὑπόστασιν, λέγομεν, Ὑπόστασς σύνθετός ἐστι, οὐσία τις σύνθετος μετά ἰδιωμάτων· ἤ οὐσία τις σύνθετος