An Orthodox Christological Examination of Cyril's Letters: Letter 46

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Examination of Letter 46

In the second copy of his response to Succensus, he writes quickly in Par. 6 the following

words, as to make clear what he believes:

"For even if it is stated by us that the only-begotten Son of God is one, incarnate and

made man, he is not mixed together because of this, as it seems to them. The nature of the

Word has not passed over into the nature of the flesh. Neither has the nature of the flesh

passed over into the nature of the Word, but remaining and being considered in the propriety'

according to the nature of each ineffably and inexplicably united, in accordance with the

reasoning just given by us, this has shown forth for us the one nature of the Son; but, as I

said, incarnate."

He makes it clear that the two have not mixed, but have composed and united

into one Physis. When he uses the word “considered” he is making it awfully clear

that both can be made distinct, “by reason and speculation” as he says in another

earlier letter. He wishes to make this clear just 6 Par. later in Par. 12 when he writes

this:

“Again this question is no less in opposition to those who say that there is one

incarnate physis of the Word, and the proposers, desiring to prove that this formula is rather

useless, eagerly strive to prove that two natures always subsisted. But they have ignored the

fact that those things which are usually distinguished not just according to speculation, [En

Theoria] completely and specifically differ from one another in every manner separately into

diversity. Let a man like unto us be an example for us again. For we know that there are

two natures in him, one the nature of the soul and the other the nature of the body. But

when we divide him merely in thought and conceive the difference in subtle speculations or

the presentations of thought to the mind, [En Theoria] we do not posit the natures one apart

from the other, nor indeed do we at all impute virtual existence through division, but we

conceive of them as the natures of one man, so that the two no longer are two, but through

them both the one living being is produced.”

Cyril makes his beliefs clear, that the Two are no longer two, yet they can still

be distinguished through En Theoria, that being a division in the mind alone.