Chapter V.—In reply to those who ask if Christ’s subsistence is create or uncreate.

The subsistence862    ὑπόστασις, hypostasis. of God the Word before the Incarnation was simple and uncompound, and incorporeal and uncreate: but after it became flesh, it became also the subsistence of the flesh, and became compounded of divinity which it always possessed, and of flesh which it had assumed: and it bears the properties of the two natures, being made known in two natures: so that the one same subsistence is both uncreate in divinity and create in humanity, visible and invisible. For otherwise we are compelled either to divide the one Christ and speak of two subsistences, or to deny the distinction between the natures and thus introduce change and confusion.

Πρὸς τοὺς ἐρωτῶντας, εἰ ἡ ὑπόστασις τοῦ Χριστοῦ κτιστή ἐστιν ἢ ἄκτιστος

Ἡ ὑπόστασις τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου πρὸ τῆς σαρκώσεως ἁπλῆ ἦν καὶ ἀσύνθετος καὶ ἀσώματος καὶ ἄκτιστος, σαρκωθεῖσα δὲ αὕτη γέγονε καὶ τῇ σαρκὶ ὑπόστασις καὶ γέγονε σύνθετος ἐκ θεότητος, ἧς ἀεὶ εἶχε, καὶ ἐξ ἧς προσείληφε σαρκός, καὶ φέρει τῶν δύο φύσεων τὰ ἰδιώματα ἐν δυσὶ γνωριζομένη ταῖς φύσεσιν, ὥστε ἡ αὐτὴ μία ὑπόστασις ἄκτιστός τέ ἐστι τῇ θεότητι καὶ κτιστὴ τῇ ἀνθρωπότητι, ὁρατὴ καὶ ἀόρατος: ἐπεὶ ἀναγκαζόμεθα ἢ διαιρεῖν τὸν ἕνα Χριστὸν δύο τὰς ὑποστάσεις λέγοντες ἢ τὴν τῶν φύσεων ἀρνεῖσθαι διαφορὰν καὶ τροπὴν εἰσάγειν καὶ σύγχυσιν.