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| In answer to those who enquire whether the holy Mother of God bore two natures, and whether two natures hung upon the Cross. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter
VII.—In answer to those who enquire whether the
holy Mother of God bore two natures, and whether two natures hung upon
the Cross.
ἀγένητον and
γενητόν, written with
one ‘ν’2279
2279 Supr., bk.
i. ch. 9. | and
meaning uncreated and created, refer to nature: but ἀγέννητον and
γεννητόν, that is
to say, unbegotten and begotten, as the double ‘ν’ indicates, refer not to nature but to
subsistence. The divine nature then is ἀγένητος, that is to
say, uncreate, but all things that come after the divine nature are
γένητα, that is,
created. In the divine and uncreated nature, therefore, the
property of being ἀγέννητον or
unbegotten is contemplated in the Father (for He was not begotten),
that of being γέννητον or
begotten in the Son (for He has been eternally begotten of the Father),
and that of procession in the Holy
Spirit. Moreover of each species of living creatures, the first
members were ἀγέννητα but not
ἀγένητα: for they were
brought into being by their Maker, but were not the offspring of
creatures like themselves. For γένεσις is creation,
while γέννησις or
begetting is in the case of God the origin of a co-essential Son
arising from the Father alone, and in the case of bodies, the origin of
a co-essential subsistence arising from the contact of male and
female. And thus we perceive that begetting refers not to nature
but to subsistence2280
2280 Euthym.,
p. 2, tit. 8. | . For if
it did refer to nature, τὸ
γέννητον and
το
ἀγέννητον, i.e.
the properties of being begotten and unbegotten, could not be
contemplated in one and the same nature. Accordingly the holy
Mother of God bore a subsistence revealed in two natures; being
begotten on the one hand, by reason of its divinity, of the Father
timelessly, and, at last, on the other hand, being incarnated of her in
time and born in the flesh.
But if our interrogators should hint that He Who is
begotten of the holy Mother of God is two natures, we reply,
“Yea! He is two natures: for He is in His own person
God and man. And the same is to be said concerning the
crucifixion and resurrection and ascension. For these refer not
to nature but to subsistence. Christ then, since He is in two
natures, suffered and was crucified in the nature that was subject to
passion. For it was in the flesh and not in His divinity that He
hung upon the Cross. Otherwise, let them answer us, when we ask
if two natures died. No, we shall say. And so two natures
were not crucified but Christ was begotten, that is to say, the divine
Word having become man was begotten in the flesh, was crucified in the
flesh, suffered in the flesh, while His divinity continued to be
impassible.” E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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