The Fourth Anathema: The Sayings Not Divided

If anyone divides between two persons or subsistences the expressions contained in the writings of the Gospels and the apostles, or said about Christ by the saints, or by himself, and applies some of them to him as to a man separate from the Word of God, and others to the only Word of God the Father, on the ground that they are fit to be applied to God: let him be anathema. [a]

Nestorius’s fourth counter-anathema: [b] If anyone assigns the expressions of the Gospels and the apostolic letters that refer to the two natures of Christ to only one of those natures, and even ascribes suffering to the divine Word, both in the flesh and in the Godhead: let him be anathema.

Saint Cyril: From his Defense against the Eastern Bishops: [c] For we neither teach a division of the hypostases after the union, nor do we say that the nature of the Godhead needs increase and growth. Rather we hold this: that by an appropriation in keeping with the plan of salvation, he made the properties of the flesh his own, since he had become flesh. [d] From That Christ Is One: For the wise evangelist, presenting the Word as having become flesh, shows him, in keeping with the plan of salvation, submitting himself to his own flesh and going through the laws of his own nature. But it belongs to humanity to increase in stature and in wisdom, and, I might add, in grace, with understanding keeping pace with the growth of the body and differing with age. For it was not impossible for the Word born of the Father to have raised the body united to himself to its full height from the very swaddling clothes. I would also say that in the baby a wonderful wisdom might easily have appeared. But that would have come close to wonder-working, and would have been out of keeping with the laws of the plan of salvation. For the mystery was accomplished quietly. So, in keeping with that plan, he allowed the measures of humanity to have power over him. [e]

Alexander Balmain Bruce: [f] From The Humiliation of Christ, the appendix to the second lecture: The accommodation to the laws of the plan of salvation, according to this passage, consisted in this: in stature, real growth; in wisdom, apparent growth. The wonderful wisdom was there from the first, but it was not allowed to show itself, so as to avoid an appearance of something monstrous.

Saint Cyril: From Against Nestorius: So it would have seemed to everyone an unusual and strange thing if, while still an infant, he had made a display of wisdom worthy of God. But by unfolding it gradually, in proportion to the age of the body, and in this gradual way making it plain to all, he could very fittingly be said to increase in wisdom. From the second address To the Princesses, On the Right Faith, chapter 16: [g] “And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.” And again: “Jesus increased in stature and wisdom, and in favor with God and men.” In declaring our Lord Jesus Christ to be one, and ascribing to him both divine and human properties, we truly affirm that it suited the measures of the self-emptying, on the one hand, that he should receive bodily growth and grow strong, the parts of the body gradually reaching their full development; and, on the other hand, that he should seem to be filled with wisdom, insofar as the showing of the wisdom dwelling within him went forward, as if by additions, in the closest keeping with the stature of the body. And this, as I said, agreed with the plan of salvation in the incarnation, and with the measures of the state of humbling. [h] From his Defense against Theodoret, on the fourth anathema: [i] And if he is one and the same by the true unity of natures, and not one and another, two persons, divided and in parts, then both knowing and seeming not to know will belong to him. So he knows on the divine side, as the Wisdom of the Father. But since he submitted himself to the measure of humanity, in keeping with the plan of salvation he takes this also as his own along with the rest, although, as I said a little earlier, he is ignorant of nothing, but knows all things with the Father.