he held a lofty rank in the virtue of righteousness, did not ignore His superiority; he confessed the Master, he yielded the winning place to the glory of Christ." For he said clearly: "This is he of whom I said: After me comes a man, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to loose." Although, therefore, many saints have had the Word of God within themselves, it was spoken of no one among them that, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," nor shall we find that the heavenly powers danced for the sake of any of them. For at the birth of whom, tell me, did the multitude of the heavenly host sing hymns of thanksgiving on our behalf? Only of Emmanuel did they say: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men." Therefore, since God had dwelt in many holy men, as I have said, once in the end of ages the Word of God is said to have arrived; once He was made man; and concerning this one the prophet says: "Behold, the virgin shall have in her womb and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel." One He is, and the only one, who redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; one Son did the Father give for us; one Son laid down His own life for us; B one was crucified and rose again, trampling down the power of death. Therefore, we acknowledge the Word of God to be in the flesh in very truth, that is, united to the flesh, and we do not say that Emmanuel is a God-bearing man; but we confess that He who is by nature God, having assumed the form of a servant, has also become the Son of Man, and that He is the same person, both God and man together. C
XXI.
From the Prosphonetic Discourse of St. Cyril to the Alexandrians on the Faith
1. I do not admit the "concretion" [or mixture]; for it is alien to the apostolic faith and the right tradition of God. For concretion brings about the destruction of the natures. But the ineffable union, acknowledged by those who think rightly, preserves both natures unconfused, and constitutes out of both the one visible Christ, being the same God and man; I say not two Christs, but one, united, not concreted. For if the two natures are coagulated into one mixture, since they are diverse substances, neither remains intact, but both, being confused, perish. Nor, however, do they suffer separation or division after they have been joined. D Certainly, the two human substances separated and departed at the time of death; for the soul descended to the underworld with the divinity from the body; the body, separated from the soul, was placed in a new tomb, according to the truthful words of Christ saying: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The temple was therefore destroyed at the time of the three-day burial, by His own will; and He raised it up again, and the divinity was united to him in an ineffable and hidden manner, not being concreted with him,
or emptied of flesh, but preserving within Himself the inconfused property of the differing natures. For the natures were certainly not blended. Then he brings forward the testimony of Saint Athanasius, namely this: “Two differing natures preserved in one Christ, the Son of God, and neither confused, nor perishing, nor divided.” And after other matters: “For He was made like us in all things, apart from sin; the divine nature not being changed, nor concreted with human nature, but united to it not through conversion, nor through blending, nor through mixing, nor through confusion, nor through alteration, nor through transformation, or through destruction, or through being stripped of flesh, but through an ineffable and indescribable union.”
B 2. From the same sermon. Blending indeed effects the destruction of the natures; but the ineffable union, which is confessed by those who think rightly, preserves both natures inconfusedly.
3. From the same sermon. Two natures of differing substance preserved in one Christ, the Son of God, and not confused, nor perishing, nor divided.
4. From the same sermon. For if the two natures had coalesced into one, being of differing substance, neither would have remained intact, but both would have perished because of the confusion.
C 5. From the same sermon. And the temple was dissolved at the time of the three-day burial, by His own will; and then He raised it up again: and He was united to the temple by an arcane and ineffable manner, yet not concreted with it, nor turned into flesh; but He preserved in Himself the inconfused property of the differing substances.
Of Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria, from the sermon on the faith, whose beginning is this proem.
I do not accept a blending. For it is alien to the apostolic faith and the right tradition of God. For blending works the extermination of natures. But the ineffable union, which the wise rightly confess, preserves both natures inconfusedly. — From the same. For if natures are blended into one, through a mixing they are of mutually differing substances. And at the end he says thus: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” And the temple was indeed alone at the time of the three-day burial, by His own will, and He raised it up again, D and was united to it by an ineffable manner after the three days, not blended in it. Nor was He made outside the flesh, but preserving in Himself the inconfused property of the two natures, which are substance differing from one another. For those two natures, that is, the ineffable divine nature and the inconfused human, are not in any way mixed or blended; but they are united in an inexplicable and ineffable manner, which transcends all reason.
Of the same. Did He perhaps cease from His own deity, even if He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant for our sake, losing the form of divinity, so that according to you He might be prepared as a man for deifying? Far be it. But preparing for Himself an animate temple, and made perfect in the womb of the holy Virgin, and clothed in it, and united to it by an ineffable manner, in both those same natures, not blended, He proceeded forth appearing as man, but to be understood as God Jesus Christ.