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Translated by P. E. Pusey
St Cyril of Alexandria Resources Online and in Print
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44 Pages
Page 9
B. You speak excellently.
A. How do they say that He has been made like also in all things to His brethren, i. e., us? or who at all will He be conceived to be who entered into this likeness, unless He were other by Nature and not in our estate? for that which is made like to any, must full surely be different from them and not like to them but rather of other form, other nature. The Only-Begotten therefore being by Nature unlike us is said to have been made like when MADE as we, i. e. man: and this will take place rightly and solely, in birth in our estate, even though in wondrous wise in Him, for He Who was Incarnate was GOD. Yet let it be acknowledged that the body united to Him has been rationally ensouled: for the Word being God, would not, letting alone that which is superior in us, i. e., the soul, have taken thought for the earthy body only, but in wisdom provided for soul and body alike [9].
B. I agree, for you deem rightly.
A. Hence if the opponents say that the holy Virgin ought to be called in no wise mother of God, but mother of Christ, they blaspheme openly and drive away Christ from being God and Son: for if they believe that He is really God, in that the Only-Begotten has been MADE as we, why do they shudder at calling her mother of God, who bare Him, I mean after the flesh?
B. Yea (they say): for the name Christ because of his having been anointed with the Holy Ghost beseems only him who is of a woman and of the seed of David: the Word out of God will never need so far as belongs to His own Nature such grace, seeing He is holy by Nature. For does not the Name Christ indicate that some anointing took place?
A. You said right, that because of the anointing alone is He called Christ, just as Apostle by reason of Apostolate, and Angel from bearing tidings, (for such kind of names signify certain things, not special persons or known individuals; for the Prophets too have been called christs, as is sung in the psalms, Touch not My christs and deal not wickedly with My prophets; the Prophet Habbacuc too said, Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people, to save Thy christs): yet tell me this, Do not themselves too say that the Only-Begotten Word of God is One Christ and Son, as being Lord Incarnate and made man?
B. Perchance they say so, yet they want the name Christ not to belong to the Word born from out of God the Father, by reason that Ho has not been anointed according to His own Nature as God, but they add this as well: For it is not (they say) one of the names by which we should speak of the Father Himself or of the Holy Ghost.
A. The statement is not yet quite clear; explain it therefore, for you will do well.
B. Listen then: for one can see the appellation of the Son most manifold and diversely brought out by the God-inspired Scriptures, for He has been named God and Lord and Light and Life and besides King and Lord of hosts and Holy and Almighty. But if one pleased to say these things of the Father too or the Holy Ghost, one would not miss what is befitting. For of One Nature, one full surely is the Excellence of the dignities. If therefore Christ is a name truly befitting the Only-Begotten, let it pass (they say) without distinction with the rest both to the Father Himself and the Holy Ghost: but seeing it is utterly unmeet to accommodate it to the Father and the Holy Ghost, neither will it rightly pertain to the Only-Begotten Himself but rather has been apportioned in truth to him of the seed of David in regard to whom anointing by the Spirit may without any blame be conceived and said.
9. [k] "We say therefore that the whole Word which is out of God has been co-united to the whole manhood of ours: for He would not have deemed of no account, that which is best in us, i. e. the soul, bestowing on the flesh alone the Toils of His Coming." de recta fide to the Emperor Theodosius p. 18 d and (as a Dialogue) with slight modifications in the Ad Herm. Book 7, 692 b. Similarly Theodoret in his great letter to the monks of Constantinople, after saying, " the Only-Begotten Son of God taking both body and soul...." adds, "For if the body only of Adam sinned, it would have needed that this alone should reap the cure; but since the soul not only sinned with it but also before it (for thought first limns the sin, then works it through the body), it were right, I suppose, that it too obtain healing" (Ep. 145 p. 1250 init.). See also S. Irenaeus, "Thus the Lord having redeemed us with His own Blood and given His Soul for our souls and His own Flesh for our flesh" (Book v. 1. 1. p. 450 O.T.).
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/cyril-alexandria/christ-one.asp?pg=9
