Becker Bible Teacher Resources

The view that the Holy Spirit simultaneously brought into being a human nature and substantially united it to the person of the Son so that the Son actually came to exist as man, with both natures of both God and human combined into one. Cyril of Alexandria (AD 376-444) formulated this description to defend the one nature of Christ. It is this idea that is represented by the Catholic Church as Mary being the "Mother of God" in their belief.

Cyril's opponent in belief was Nestorius, who taught that Christ had two natures. Later on, Eutyches took Cyril's teaching to extremes and not only denied the dual nature of Christ, but argued also that the single nature of Jesus was purely divine. Flavian, patriarch of Constantinople condemned Eutyches, and Leo, bishop of Rome got into the fray with a famous letter known as the Tome. Leo taught that even after the incarnation, Christ retains two natures, but he remains a single person that is identical with the second Person of the Trinity. Thus, Christ had two natures while he remained a single person, a middle way approach that rejected the extremes of both ends.

The Creed of Chalcedon, a supposed elucidation of the Creed of Nicaea, agreed with Cyril that Christ was one person, identical with the pre-existent Son, but it also agreed with Leo that after the incarnation he possessed two distinct natures, one human and one divine.

The Nicene Creed expresses the belief of most Christians today (Hill, 97-99).

Bibliography

Hill, Jonathan. "Early Christianity: A World Religion." Handbook to the History of Christianity. Zondervan, 2006.