Cyril’s Twelve Anathemas Against Nestorius

Anathema 1. If anyone refuses to confess that Emmanuel is truly God, and that the holy Virgin is therefore the Mother of God, since she gave birth in the flesh to the Word of God made flesh, let him be anathema. [a] Anathema 2. If anyone refuses to confess that the Word of God the Father is united to flesh in hypostasis, and is one Christ with his own flesh, the same one being at once both God and man, let him be anathema. [c] Anathema 3. If anyone, in the case of the one Christ, divides the hypostases after the union, joining them only by a joining according to dignity, independence or prerogative, and not rather by a coming together according to a natural union, let him be anathema. [d]

Anathema 4. Take the sayings in the writings of the evangelists and apostles, whether spoken by the saints of Christ or by him about himself. If anyone divides them between two persons or hypostases, and applies some as though to a man thought of in the proper sense apart from the Word of God, and others, as befitting the divine, to the Word of God the Father alone, let him be anathema. Anathema 5. If anyone dares to maintain that the Christ is a man bearing God, and not rather that he is God in truth, and one Son, and that by nature, in that the Word was made flesh and shared in blood and flesh just as we do, let him be anathema. Anathema 6. If anyone dares to maintain that the Word of God the Father was the God or Lord of the Christ, and does not rather confess that the same one was at once both God and man, the Word having been made flesh according to the Scriptures, let him be anathema. Anathema 7. If anyone says that Jesus, as a man, was moved to act by God the Word, and was clothed with the glory of the only Son as being someone other than he, let him be anathema.

Anathema 8. Suppose anyone dares to maintain that the ascended man ought to be worshiped together with the divine Word, and glorified together with him, and called God together with him, as one alongside another; for the constant addition of the word “with” in these compound words forces that meaning on us. If he says this, and does not rather honor Emmanuel with a single act of worship and praise him in a single doxology, since he is the Word made flesh, let him be anathema. [e] Anathema 9. Suppose anyone says that the one Lord Jesus Christ is glorified by the Spirit, as though he uses the power that works through the Spirit as a power foreign to himself, and receives from the Spirit the ability to act against unclean spirits and to accomplish his miracles among people. If he says this, and does not rather say that the Spirit through whom he worked his miracles is his own, let him be anathema.

Anathema 10. Holy Scripture says that Christ is the High Priest and Apostle of our confession, and that he offered himself for us as a sweet-smelling aroma to God and our Father. Suppose, then, that anyone says that it was not the Word of God himself who became our High Priest and Apostle, when he was made flesh and a man like us, but someone other than he: a man in the proper sense, born of a woman. Or suppose anyone says that he made the offering for himself, and not rather for us alone; for he who knew no sin would have had no need of an offering. Let him be anathema. [f] Anathema 11. Suppose anyone does not confess that the Lord’s flesh is life-giving and is the very own flesh of the Word of God himself, but says that it belongs to someone other than he, united to him in dignity but having only a divine indwelling. If he does not rather confess, as we said, that it is life-giving, because it is the very own flesh of the Word of him who has power to bring all things to life, let him be anathema. [g] Anathema 12. If anyone does not confess that the Word of God suffered in the flesh, was crucified in the flesh, tasted death in the flesh, and became the firstborn from the dead, insofar as he is life and the giver of life, as God, let him be anathema.