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CONCERNING ESSENCE AND NATURE AND HYPOSTASIS

Essence is that which signifies the common and undefined, that is, man.

For he who said this signified the common nature, (15Α_356> not defining by the word a particular man, who is known individually by name.

Nature is that which is contemplated equally in all those who are designated under the same species.

Hypostasis is that which presents and defines the common and undefined in a particular individual, such as so-and-so.

Hypostasis is that which, along with the universal, has something particular. Nature, according to the outsiders, is the principle of motion and rest. Nature is the particular existence of the whole. Nature is so called from having been begotten. First essence is everything subsisting in itself, such as a stone. Second essence

is nutritive, inasmuch as a plant grows and withers. Third essence is animate and sentient, 0268 the living creature, the horse. Fourth essence is animate, sentient, and rational, man. Wherefore he also was made last, as having out of all things an immaterial soul, and the mind an image of God.

THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SPEAK OF ONE WILL IN CHRIST

OF THE BLESSED MAXIMUS. The name Christ is not indicative of a nature, but of a composite hypostasis.

That is, the whole Christ is both Lord and God, and all-powerful, having in Himself also that which for our sake and for our salvation He put on without division and without confusion, (15Α_358> a passible and not all-powerful flesh, created, visible, circumscribed, which is not all-powerful by nature, but in Christ has an all-powerful will. For Christ is not mortal and immortal by hypostasis; nor again is He weak and all-powerful, visible and invisible, created and uncreated; but the one is by nature, the other by hypostasis. And to speak simply, not by opposition of will, but in the particularity of nature. For Christ, as I said before, is one, having both naturally. For "Not as I will, but as you," shows nothing else than that He was truly clothed in flesh, which feared death. For to fear death, and to shrink back and to be in agony, belongs to that [flesh]. Now therefore He leaves it destitute and bare of its own energy, so that by showing its weakness, He might also confirm its nature. But at other times He does not hide it, so that you may learn that He was a mere man. For just as if He had shown human things in all respects, this would have been thought; so also if He had always performed the things of the Godhead, the reason of the economy would have been disbelieved. For this reason He varies and mixes both His words and His deeds, so that He might provide a pretext neither for the disease and madness of Paul of Samosata, nor for that of Marcion and Manichaeus. For this reason He both foretells the future as God, and shrinks back again as man.

You who refuse to speak of or confess two wills in the one and only Christ, this one will which you speak of in him—is it unoriginate and co-unoriginate and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, or entirely divine in quantity, simple and uncompounded, as belonging to the divine essence, or does it seem to you to be something different on account of the incarnation? But tell us what kind you mean, and what is the name of this will. For I can indicate the name before the incarnation, that is, of the divine will. For just as the divine nature, the tri-hypostatic, is unoriginate, uncreated, incomprehensible, simple, and

82

ΠΕΡΙ ΟΥΣΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΦΥΣΕΩΣ ΚΑΙ ΥΠΟΣΤΑΣΕΩΣ

Οὐσία ἐστίν ἡ τό κοινόν τε καί ἀπερίγραπτον σημαίνουσα, ὅ ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος.

Ὁ γάρ τοῦτο εἰπών, τήν κοινήν φύσιν ἐσήμανεν, (15Α_356> οὐ περιγράψας τῇ φωνῇ τόν τινα ἄνθρωπον, τόν ἰδίως ὑπό τοῦ ὀνόματος γνωριζόμενον.

Φύσις ἐστί, τό ἐξ ἴσου πᾶσι τοῖς ὑπό τό αὐτό εἶδος ἀναγορευομένοις ἐνθεωρούμενον.

Ὑπόστασίς ἐστιν, ἡ τό κοινόν τε καί ἀπερίγραπτον ἐν τῷ τινι ἰδίως παριστῶσα καί περιγράφουσα, οἷον ὁ δεῖνα.

Ὑπόστασίς ἐστι, τό μετά τοῦ καθόλου, ἔχον τι καί ἰδικόν. Φύσις ἐστί κατά τούς ἔξω, ἀρχή κινήσεως καί ἡρεμίας. Φύσις ἐστίν, ἡ ποιά τῷ παντί ὕπαρξις. Φύσις λέγεται, παρά τό πεφυκέναι. Πρώτη οὐσία ἐστί, πᾶν τό καθ᾿ ἑαυτό ὑφεστώς, οἷον λίθος. ∆ευτέρα οὐσία

αὐξητική, καθό αὔξει καί φθίνει τό φυτόν. Τρίτη δέ οὐσία ἔμψυχος αἰσθητική, 0268 τό ζῶον, ὁ ἵππος. Τετάρτη δέ οὐσία ἔμψυχος αἰσθητική λογική, ὁ ἄνθρωπος. ∆ιό καί ἔσχατος γέγονεν, ὡς ἐκ πάντων τήν ψυχήν ἄυλον ἔχων, καί τόν νοῦν Θεοῦ εἰκόνα.

ΟΤΙ Α∆ΥΝΑΤΟΝ ΕΝ ΘΕΛΗΜΑ ΛΕΓΕΙΝ ΕΠΙ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ

ΤΟΥ ΜΑΚΑΡΙΟΥ ΜΑΞΙΜΟΥ. Τό Χριστός ὄνομα, οὐ φύσεώς ἐστι δηλωτικόν, ἀλλά συνθέτου ὑποστάσεως.

Τουτέστιν, ὅλος ὁ Χριστός, καί Κύριός ἐστι καί Θεός, καί παντοδύναμος, ἔχων ἐν ἑαυτῷ καί ἥν δι᾿ ἡμᾶς, καί διά τήν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν ἀδιαιρέτως καί ἀσυγχύτως ἐφόρεσε (15Α_358> σάρκα παθητήν καί οὐ παντοδύναμον, κτιστήν, ὀρατήν, περιγραπτήν, τήν μή παντοδύναμον φυσικῶς, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ παντοδύναμον θέλημα ἔχουσαν. Οὐ γάρ ὑποστάσει ἐστί ὁ Χριστός θνητός καί ἀθάνατος· οὐ δ᾿ αὖ πάλιν ἀδύναμος καί παντοδύναμος ὁρατός καί ἀόρατος, κτιστός καί ἄκτιστος· ἀλλά τό μέν φύσει, τό δέ ὑποστάσει. Καί ἁπλῶς εἶπείν, οὐκ ἐναντιότητι γνώμης, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν ἰδιότητι φύσεως. Εἷς γάρ ἐστίν, ὡς προεῖπον, ὁ Χριστός, ἔχων ἑκατέρα φυσικῶς. Τό γάρ, Οὐχ ὡς ἐγώ θέλω, ἀλλ' ὡς σύ, οὐδέν ἕτερον δείκνυσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἤ ὅτι σάρκα ἀληθῶς περιβέβληται, φοβουμένην θάνατον. Τό γάρ φοβεῖσθαι θάνατον, καί ἀναδύεσθαι καί ἀγωνιᾷν, ἐκείνης ἐστί. Νῦν μέν οὖν ἐρήμην αὐτήν ἀφίησι καί γυμνήν τῆς οἰκείας ἐνεργείας, ἵνα αὐτῆς δείξας τήν ἀσθένειαν, πιστώσηται αὐτῆς καί τήν φύσιν. Νῦν δέ αὐτήν οὐκ ἀποκρύπτει, ἵνα μάθης, ὅτι ψιλός ἄνθρωπος ἦν. Ὥσπερ γάρ εἰ διά πάντων τά ἀνθρώπινα ἐπεδείκνυτο, τοῦτο ἄν ἐνομίσθη· οὕτως εἰ διά παντός τά τῆς Θεότητος ἐπετέλει, ἠπιστήθη ἄν ὁ τῆς οἰκονομίας λόγος. ∆ιά τοῦτο ποικίλλει καί ἀναμίγνυσι καί τά ῥήματα καί τά πράγματα, ἵνα μήτε τῇ τοῦ Παύλου τοῦ Σαμοσατέως, μήτε τῇ τοῦ Μαρκίωνος καί Μανιχαίου νόσῳ καί μανίᾳ παράσχῃ ὑπόθεσιν. ∆ια τοῦτο καί προλέγει τό ἐσόμενον ὡς Θεός, καί ἀναδύεται πάλιν ὡς ἄνθρωπος.

Ὁ ἐπί τοῦ ἑνός καί μόνου Χριστοῦ δύο θελήματα εἰπεῖν ἤ ὁμολογεῖν παραιτούμενος, τοῦτο τό ἕν θέλημα, ὅπερ ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῦ λέγεις, ἄναρχον καί συνάναρχον καί συναΐδιον τῷ Πατρί καί τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι, ἤ ποσότητι θεϊκόν ὅλον, ἁπλοῦν τε καί ἀσύνθετον, ὡς τῆς θείας ὑπάρχον οὐσίας, ἤ διά τήν ἐνανθρώπησιν ἀλλοῖόν τί σοι δοκεῖ; ὁποῖον δέ σήμανον , καί τί τούτου τοῦ θελήματος τό ὄνομα, φῆσαι ἡμῖν. Τό γάρ πρό τῆς ἀνανθρωπήσεως, τουτέστι τοῦ θείου θελήματος ὄνομα, ἐγώ σημαίνω. Ὥσπερ γάρ ἡ θεία φύσις ἡ τρισυπόστατος, ἄναρχος, ἄκτιστος, ἀπερινόητος, ἁπλῆ, καί