Chapter XXVII.—Concerning the fact that the divinity of the Word remained inseparable from the souland the body, even at our Lord’s death, and that His subsistence continued one.

Since our Lord Jesus Christ was without sin (for He committed no sin, He Who took away the sin of the world, nor was there any deceit found in His mouth829    Is. liii. 9; St. John i. 29.) He was not subject to death, since death came into the world through sin830    Rom. v. 12.. He dies, therefore, because He took on Himself death on our behalf, and He makes Himself an offering to the Father for our sakes. For we had sinned against Him, and it was meet that He should receive the ransom for us, and that we should thus be delivered from the condemnation. God forbid that the blood of the Lord should have been offered to the tyrant831    Greg., Orat. 42.. Wherefore death approaches, and swallowing up the body as a bait is transfixed on the hook of divinity, and after tasting of a sinless and life-giving body, perishes, and brings up again all whom of old he swallowed up. For just as darkness disappears on the introduction of light, so is death repulsed before the assault of life, and brings life to all, but death to the destroyer.

Wherefore, although832    Cf. Epiph., Hæres. 69; Greg. Nyss., Contr. Eunom., II. p. 55. He died as man and His Holy Spirit was severed from His immaculate body, yet His divinity remained inseparable from both, I mean, from His soul and His body, and so even thus His one hypostasis was not divided into two hypostases. For body and soul received simultaneously in the beginning their being in the subsistence833    ὑπόστασις, hypostasis. of the Word, and although they were severed from one another by death, yet they continued, each of them, having the one subsistence of the Word. So that the one subsistence of the Word is alike the subsistence of the Word, and of soul and body. For at no time had either soul or body a separate subsistence of their own, different from that of the Word, and the subsistence of the Word is for ever one, and at no time two. So that the subsistence of Christ is always one. For, although the soul was separated from the body topically, yet hypostatically they were united through the Word.

Περὶ τοῦ ἀχώριστον διαμεῖναι τὴν τοῦ λόγου θεότητα τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τοῦ σώματος καὶ ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ τοῦ κυρίου καὶ μίαν διαμεῖναι ὑπόστασιν

Ἀναμάρτητος ὢν ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστός_«ἁμαρτίαν γὰρ οὐκ ἐποίησεν» «ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου» «οὐδὲ εὑρέθη δόλος ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτοῦ»_οὐχ ὑπέκειτο θανάτῳ, εἴπερ διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας εἰς τὸν κόσμον εἰσῆλθεν ὁ θάνατος. Θνῄσκει τοίνυν τὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν θάνατον ἀναδεχόμενος καὶ ἑαυτὸν τῷ πατρὶ προσφέρει θυσίαν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν: αὐτῷ γὰρ πεπλημμελήκαμεν, καὶ αὐτὸν ἔδει τὸ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν λύτρον δέξασθαι καὶ οὕτως ἡμᾶς λυθῆναι τῆς κατακρίσεως: μὴ γὰρ γένοιτο τῷ τυράννῳ τὸ τοῦ δεσπότου προσενεχθῆναι αἷμα. Πρόσεισι τοίνυν ὁ θάνατος καὶ καταπιὼν τὸ τοῦ σώματος δέλεαρ τῷ τῆς θεότητος ἀγκίστρῳ περιπείρεται, καὶ ἀναμαρτήτου καὶ ζωοποιοῦ γευσάμενος σώματος διαφθείρεται καὶ πάντας ἀνάγει, οὓς πάλαι κατέπιεν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ σκότος τῇ τοῦ φωτὸς ἐπεισαγωγῇ ἐξαφανίζεται, οὕτως ἡ φθορὰ τῇ τῆς ζωῆς προσβολῇ ἀπελαύνεται, καὶ γίνεται πᾶσι ζωή, φθορὰ δὲ τῷ φθείροντι.

Εἰ καὶ τέθνηκε τοιγαροῦν ὡς ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἡ ἁγία αὐτοῦ ψυχὴ τοῦ ἀχράντου διῃρέθη σώματος, ἀλλ' ἡ θεότης ἀχώριστος ἀμφοτέρων διέμεινε, τῆς τε ψυχῆς φημι καὶ τοῦ σώματος, καὶ οὐδὲ οὕτως ἡ μία ὑπόστασις εἰς δύο ὑποστάσεις διῃρέθη: τό τε γὰρ σῶμα καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ κατὰ ταὐτὸν ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐν τῇ τοῦ λόγου ὑποστάσει ἔσχον τὴν ὕπαρξιν καὶ ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ ἀλλήλων διαιρεθέντα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν ἔμεινε τὴν μίαν ὑπόστασιν τοῦ λόγου ἔχοντα. Ὥστε ἡ μία τοῦ λόγου ὑπόστασις τοῦ τε λόγου καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τοῦ σώματος ὑπῆρχεν ὑπόστασις: οὐδέποτε γὰρ οὔτε ἡ ψυχή, οὐδὲ τὸ σῶμα ἰδίαν ἔσχον ὑπόστασιν παρὰ τὴν τοῦ λόγου ὑπόστασιν: μία δὲ ἀεὶ ἡ τοῦ λόγου ὑπόστασις καὶ οὐδέποτε δύο. Ὥστε μία ἀεὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἡ ὑπόστασις. Ὥστε, εἰ καὶ τοπικῶς ἡ ψυχὴ τοῦ σώματος κεχώριστο, ἀλλ' ὑποστατικῶς διὰ τοῦ λόγου ἥνωτο.