Creed 11Christology

Begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not created, of one

essence with the Father

Content of this Study1. Incarnation:

a. Theological Definitions related to the Incarnationb. Special views of the Incarnation of Christc. Between the Catholics, Protestants, and the Coptic Orthodox around the Nature of Christ

2. Ecumenical Dialogue regarding the Nature of Christ

3. The Coming of Christ, the Savior Lord

Essence and Nature

They are synonymous when they are used to describe God. If they were used for some other being, the essence is more general than nature, i.e. every essence is a nature, but not every nature is an essence. For essence would contain many species but nature would be localized in one species. For example, animals are an essence, but wild animals is a nature.

Some attributes of Nature– Living (plants) or dead (rocks)– Limited (creatures) or Unlimited (God)– Sacred (bread) or Unsacred (rotten corpses) – Temporal (body) or not Temporal (soul)– Loving (dogs) or Hateful (scorpions)– Wise (angels) or Ignorant (humans) – Strong (lion) or Weak (worm)– Proud (peacock) or Humble (donkey)– Mortal (animal)or Immortal (spirits)– Rational (angels and humans) or Irrational (animals and minerals)– Dynamic (creatures) or Static (God)

Hypostasis1. Philosophy: The substance, essence, or underlying reality. 2. Christianity:

a. Any of the persons of the Trinity. b. The essential person of Jesus in which His

human and divine natures are united.3. Something that has been hypostatized

a. A settling of solid particles in a fluidb. Something that settles to the bottom of a fluid;

sediment.

Hypostasis

• It was used by, for instance, Aristotle and the Neo-Platonists, to speak of the objective reality of a thing, its inner reality (as opposed to outer form or illusion).

• In the Christian Scriptures this seems roughly its meaning at Hebrews 1:3. Allied to this was its use for "basis" or "foundation" and hence also "confidence," e.g., in Hebrews 3:14 and 11:1 and 2 Corinthians 9:4 and 11:17.

Hebrews 1:3 “who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high”

Hebrews 3:14 “For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end”

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

2 Cor 9:4 “lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to mention you!) should be ashamed of this confident boasting.”

2 Cor 11:17 “What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.”

Hypostasis

• Hypostasis is made of 2 words, “hypo” which means “under,” and “stasis” which means “stands.” Then the literal translation would be “the thing that stands under” or “the foundation.” It can be simple, or composite. In the case of the humans, they have one hypostasis composed of body and soul.

Father Tadros Yacoub in his book about nature and hypostasis in the first church

Hypostasis and Incarnation

• A theological term used with reference to the Incarnation to express the revealed truth that in Christ one person from two natures, the Divine and the human. Hypostasis means, literally, that which lies beneath as basis or foundation. Hence it came to be used by the Greek philosophers to denote reality as distinguished from appearances

Nature and Person• An example of the nature and the person who carries it:

“If we fill a cup with water, we call it a cup of water. If we fill it with oil we call it a cup of oil. If a person carries human nature, we call him a human, if he carries the angelic nature we call him an angel, if a person carries the divine nature we call him God. If he owns the human nature he owns its properties, if he owns the divine nature, he owns its properties, and if the same person owns both the divine and human natures (if the 2 natures are united in him) he owns the properties of the 2 natures simultaneously.” Metropolitan Bishoy on the Apollinarian heresy presented and confronted

Hypostasis- A word from Syrian origin, and points to a free-willed

living being, ascribes his actions to himself. Or a personal, spiritual essence of a nature able to be involved and is free to stand alone and not be involved. Or it is the standing of essential nature, by which this nature stand and be on its own

- The hypostasis differentiates persons, like Esau from Jacob. Hypostasis is more general than person, for the Syrians define it by the specific essence or specific nature and this would apply to the Creator and the created together. But a person applies only to the created.

Nature and Hypostasis

• The self, or nature, or essence, in its specific application, is the hypostasis. For that reason, there could be no essence or nature or self without hypostasis, except in our minds.

Why did the Church prefer hypostasis to Proswpon/Persona/Person

• St. Cyril used “nature” as equal to “hypostasis”• Proswpon/Persona:

- the Latin word “persona” or the Greek word “proswpon” do not necessarily mean the English “person.” But it may mean:

a. mask, as it is taken from the Etruscan word “pherusa” related to the worship of the goddess Persephone, where they used masks to worship her in her feast

b. face, as in Gen 17:3, Matt 6:16-17, Acts 16:5, Rev 4:7. When you add “kata” in Greek, it would mean the personal presence, as in Gen 47.

c. person, as it appeared in 2 Sam 17:11 and 2 Cor 1:11 to mean the whole person

d. the front side when it is used with a proposition as in Acts 3:19, Acts 5:4-5, 2 Cor 8:24, Mark 1:2.

• With the apostolic fathers, they used it to mean the following: face, front side, or person

Why did the Church prefer Hypostasis to Proswpon/Persona/Person

• When Sabylious, the heretic, tried to describe the Trinity, he used “proswpon” to mean “mask.” The Trinity is but one hypostasis using 3 masks. For that reason the fathers of the church exchanged “proswpon” with “hypostaseis”

Note: although “hypostasis” was a more suitable word to be used theologically, it is very vague for common people to understand, and that has shared in confusing the concept of the Trinity in the mind of the lay person

Unity (oneness) We can understand unity in 2 ways. The first way regarding

their origin before the union:

A. separated things that come together to make one.

B. things that had never been separated, and withoutthem the existence of the essence cannot be. In this case, the separation can only be made in the mind. This can be said about the essence of God, Who is 3 hypostaseis. The 3 were never separated and then came together. And they are not outside the essence of God,nor is the essence outside them, but their totality make the essence of God, and the essence of God is made of their

totality.

UnionIs the fate of 2 or more, but it has a specific definition

in theology- There are 2 kinds of union: A.Natural union: A meeting without a change in the

nature or the essence. Like the meeting of body and soul, iron and fire, electricity and wire; they don’t change when they meet each other. the one divine nature in 3 hypostaseis, and the union of the soul to the body in one human person

B.Apparent union: like the union of the body, of matter and appearance. Under this union is: 1. the willful union, like the authority of the apostles and their honor, 2. the loving union like the union between a friend and his friend, and the union of man and woman

Union II• Union in its 2 kinds can be divided again into 3

types:A. Tangible matter with each other, like water and wineB. Simple items with each other, like angels and holinessC. Tangible bodies with simple natures, like the union of the body with the soul, the union of the sunray with the atmosphere. In this union, no mixing, no confusion, no alteration happens, which is different than the union of physical bodies where confusion and change of nature happens to both items.

Hypostatic Union

By this we mean the second hypostasis of the Holy Trinity, emptied Himself and came down from heaven and dwelt in the womb of the virgin. He took from her an image of a servant, i.e. perfect humanity like us, apart from sin. In Isaiah the Father calls Him, “My righteous Servant.” So the union is true union resulting in one hypostasis according to St John in his Gospel, “And the Word became flesh.”

Hypostatic and Natural Unions

• Not every natural union means “hypostatic union.” For example, the holy Trinity is one nature but three hypostaseis. Humanity is all one nature, but many hypostaseis. Every hypostatic union would mean union in nature

• Every hypostatic union would need natural union. For example, soul and body in humans, humanity and divinity in Christ, are both united hypostatically and naturally without mixing, without confusion, without change.

Hypostatic Union• The union of divinity with humanity lies under the union of

composite bodies with spiritual natures, like the union of body and the soul. Although there is a great difference between the natures of the body and the soul, they unite natural union without mixing or confusion. And each of them would continue to keep its natural qualities, and they make one hypostasis in a human. The union of humanity and divinity in Christ has the following differences, than the union between the human soul and the human body:A. the divinity is not going to be tied just to the humanity, as the human soul is tied to the body united with it. But the divinity would continue to be transcending time and space. For example, when Christ was born of Mary, Who would be running the world? B. the union of the soul to the body can be broken with death, while the union of the divinity and the humanity cannot be broken by death, meaning the divinity was united to both the body in the tomb and the soul that went to Hades

Hypostatic Union contc. The essence of both the soul and the body are equal,

for both are created and in a state of corruption. And the state of one would affect the other. For example, if the body is sick the soul would feel tiredness and depression. It is not like that in the union in Christ, for the essence of the divinity is the Creator, but the essence of the humanity is created. And also, the state of the humanity does not affect divinity. Christ in His human nature hungered, thirsted and suffered. And these states did not affect the divine nature. This is the highest state of union without confusion, without mixing, and without change.

Hypostatic Union in “emptied” and “took”

• If we look at the 2 words, “emptied” and “took” that comes in St Paul’s saying, “which was in the image of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself taking the image of a servant, being in the likeness of man.” Phil 2:16-17. we notice that the word emptied came first and the word took came second. The emptiness comes first because it is the foundation of this marvelous event. So it gives the union its true meaning for the understanding of the mystery is hidden in the word “emptiness”

Hypostatic Union in “emptied” and “took”

• If it was not for the emptiness, the mystery would have not happened and it would have not been a miracle and salvation would have not been fulfilled and the humans would have not known God’s strength and His characters.

Hypostatic Union in “emptied” and “took”

If God would to take only a human body without emptiness, this would have been a natural thing that happens in certain times, in a continual fashion. God had previously “took” Adam from the earth and He previously “took” a rib from Adam to make Eve, and “took” all Christians to be united with Him in the parable of the vineyard and the branches. In all these steps, He never said, God emptied Himself. We should also point to the wrong opinion which says the Word took body after it was made in the womb of the virgin. So the pure virginal birth does not give the incarnation importance or elevate it to be a mystery or a miracle, for Adam and Eve also came without marriage

Hypostatic Union in “emptied” and “took”

So what is the deep mystery hidden in the moment of emptiness?:A. The emptiness can lead to the word “became flesh” while the lack of emptiness would lead to existence or dwellingB. “Taking” according to those meanings would manifest a willful union, but here it is a hypostatic union

Hypostatic Union in “emptied” and “took”

C. There is not time existing between the emptiness and the taking, as we cannot imagine the descent of the divinity into the womb of the virgin without the existence of the humanity. And as we cannot imagine the existence of the Father without the Son, nor the Son without the Father. This kind of union is like the union of fire and iron, soul and body

Hypostatic Union in “emptied” and “took”

D. as a result of this hypostatic union, we can ascribe human actions to the person of Christ, as eating, drinking, crucifixion, death, side to side to divine actions, as eternity, everlasting, omnipresence. We can say this human is God and this God is human, as we read in the Holy Bible often, ascribe death in killing to the soul because it is united to the body that accepts death and killing, i.e. book of Numbers, “whoever kills a soul unintentionally” Num 35:11-12. “They hurt his feet with shackles, in iron his soul was entered.” Psalm 105:18

One in Essence with the Father

• He is equal with the Father in the one essence, which means He does not share a portion of the essence nor is He equal to the Father in a different essence

• If He is just “equal to the Father” that might mean a different essence, leading to 2 Gods

• If He is just “one with the Father” it might mean that He is not equal and only shares a portion of the Father’s essence