2562

Late 1246 / early 1247. The confession of the Nestoriani: ‘I, Enstaib / Ensoaib, archbishop of Nasabin (present day Nusaybin in Turkey; ancient Nisibis or Nesbin), say that my faith [is] from the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is perfect God and perfect man, namely one Son of God and man, one person, and He was not first pure man and then united with deity, but no part of His humanity existed except as united with deity; and that the Virgin Mary begot perfect God and perfect man, one Son, who is the Lord Jesus; and this union was not accidental, able to be separated, but permanent and perpetual; and that the properties of the divine and human nature indwell in Christ. But He died according to the united humanity, and the union did not cease in Him, but endured while He was on the cross and in the tomb; and the soul was separated from the body in death; nor was deity [separated from] humanity, but the union of deity to the soul separated from the body endured, and to the body that underwent suffering. There was a beginning of the union, however, wherefore the angel announced to the Blessed Virgin, and she consented to him and believed his words, and said: ‘Be it done to me according to thy word’, and the union was made between ‘Be it done’ and ‘thy word’. And in this that we say, ‘Mary begot Christ’, it is understood that she begot God the Son, one of the three persons, united with one man, concerning which it is said in the Gospels that He is the son of David and the son of Abraham, and is the son of the Virgin Mary, and of God the Father. And in this that we say, ‘Mary begot Christ’, it is understood that she begot God, but on this condition: that He is God the Son, united with humanity. But there are words of understandings, and this word ‘Christ’ signifies perfect God and perfect man, but this word ‘God’ signifies alike the Holy Trinity and stands for the Father and stands for the Son and stands for the Holy Spirit. And when it is said, ‘Mary begot God’, perhaps the foolish will reckon that she begot either the Holy Trinity or the Father or the Holy Spirit, unless it is explained ‘God the Son united’. So since it requires explanation, and God the Son united is Christ Himself, it will be under one word, when we say, ‘Mary begot Christ’; one word briefly encompassing divinity and humanity. There is thus one Christ, one Son, a thing of two natures, of divinity and humanity, one individual, one person.’