The Eleventh Anathema: The Life-Giving Flesh

Whoever does not confess that the flesh of the Lord gives life, and that it belongs to the Word of God the Father as his very own, but makes out that it belongs to another person who is united to the Word only in honor, and who has served as a dwelling for the divinity; and does not rather confess, as we say, that this flesh gives life because it is the flesh of the Word, who gives life to all: let him be anathema. [a]

Nestorius’s eleventh counter-anathema: [b] If anyone maintains that the flesh which is united with God the Word is life-giving by the power of its own nature, when the Lord himself says, “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is of no use”: let him be anathema. He adds: “God is spirit.” If, then, anyone maintains that God the Word has become flesh in a fleshly way, in his very being, and persists in this with regard to the Lord Christ, who himself after his resurrection said to his disciples, “Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have”: let him be anathema. [c]