The Mia-Physis Formula
“In confessing these things thus and also accepting, in addition to the other things about the orthodox faith taught by Cyril among the saints, his statement, “one incarnate nature of God the Word,” we confess that from the divine nature and the human nature resulted one Christ, not one nature, as certain individuals who take this expression in a wicked sense try to claim. The fact is that whenever this father himself said, “one incarnate nature of the Word,” he used the term “nature” instead of “hypostasis” in that case. And in the passages in which he uses this expression, for the most part he added [another term] in what comes next, sometimes “Son,” sometimes “Word” or “Only-Begotten,” which do not indicate nature but hypostasis or person. So then, when the hypostasis of the Word became incarnate, it did not result in one nature but in one composite Christ, the same one God and human being.” (Emperor Justinian, Edict on the Truth Faith, in Wesche, pg. 169)
Definition of “Nature”
“When they construct their one composite nature, they do not know, as was shown in the teachings of the fathers, and as we ourselves said earlier, that the term ‘nature’ refers to the universal reality; it indicates something indeterminate and is predicated of many hypostases. So, if, as they would have it, the two natures of divinity and humanity have become one composite nature, this means that something universal and indeterminate has been produced. We must ask them: to which universal, or to how many hypostases, would they say this nature refers?” (Emperor Justinian, A Letter to the Monks of Alexandria)
The Three Chapters Controversy
In his Edict on the True Faith (see Wesche, pgs. 185-190), Justinian provides his reasons for condemning the letter of Ibas of Edessa to Maris the Persian. For example, he accuses Ibas of teaching two prosopa in Christ
Justinian condemns the Nestorian writings of Theodoret, but also recognizes his repentance at Chalcedon:
“If anyone defends the writings of Theodoret which he expounded in support of the heretic Nestorius and against the orthodox faith, the first holy synod at Ephesus, and Cyril among the saints and his Twelve Chapters, in which impious writings the same Theodoret says that the union of God the Word with a particular human being was relational, about which he utters the blasphemy that Thomas touched the one who had arisen but worshiped the one who had raised him, and for this reason he calls the teachers of the church impious for confessing the hypostatic union of God the Word with the flesh, and furthermore denies that the holy, glorious, ever-virgin Mary is Theotokos. – Well then, if anyone praises the aforementioned writings of Theodoret, but does not anathematize them, let him be anathema. For it was because of these blasphemies that he was ousted from the episcopacy and afterward at the holy synod at Chalcedon was compelled to do all that was contrary to the aforesaid writings and to confess the orthodox faith.” (Edict on the True Faith)
Condemnation of Nestorianism
“Wherefore, we do not believe that the Divine Logos who performed the miracles is one [hypostasis or prosopon] and the Christ who endured the Passion another, but we confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is one and the same Divine Logos of God who was incarnate and became man, and both the miracles and the Passion are his which he voluntarily bore in the flesh. For a man did not give himself for us, but the Logos himself gave his own body for us so that our faith and hope might not be in a man, but that we might hold our faith in the Divine Logos himself.” (Emperor Justinian, “Edict on the Faith [AD 551]”; as found in On the Person of Christ: The Christology of Emperor Justinian, trans. Kenneth P. Wesche [New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1991], pg. 165)
“If anyone confesses the number of the natures in our one Lord Jesus Christ, that is, the incarnate God the Word, without understanding that the difference between these natures, from which he was compounded, resides in contemplation, so that this difference is not destroyed on account of the union, but uses the number to refer to a division into independent things, let him be anathema.” (Emperor Justinian, Edict on the Truth Faith)
The Body-Soul Analogy
In response to the Monophysites who use the anthropological analogy to prove that there is only one nature in Christ, Justinian says the following:
“Now there are certain individuals who take a different approach in their attempt to establish that there is one nature of Christ’s divinity and humanity by adducing the example of a human being. They say that just as a human being is called one nature even though he is composed from elements that are different in nature (namely, soul and body), so too when it comes to Christ we ought to say that there is one nature, even though we say that he is from two natures (namely, divinity and humanity). In response to them we will say this: even if a human being is composed from different elements (namely, soul and body), he is nonetheless called one nature since this is what is predicated in common of all the hypostases or persons that fall under the same species. For even if it is most certainly true that each hypostasis or person, such as Peter or Paul, is distinguished from one another on account of their unique characteristics, they are nonetheless not distinct in nature since they are both human beings. And again, a human being is neither a soul apart from a body nor a body apart from a soul, but is fashioned from non-being into being from soul and body. And even if every creature has been composed of different elements, it is nonetheless said to have that one nature according to which it was created by God. Not so with Christ. For he does not display one nature or substance that is predicated in common of many hypostases or persons, as a human being does. (For if this were the case, many Christs would be found, of whom would be predicated what is common to the one nature; but it is impious to say this.) But Christ was not created from the beginning out of divinity and humanity in the same manner that a human being is created out of body and soul, such that this is what the nature of Christ is. Instead, the Word, who is God before the ages and of the same nature or substance as the Father and the creator of all things, in the last days hypostatically united human nature to himself and so became a human being without ceasing to be God. Christ is therefore one hypostasis or person and possesses in himself the whole of the divine and uncreated nature and the whole of the human and created nature……Now we say all these things not in ignorance of the fact that some of the holy fathers used the example of a human being for the mystery of Christ. But some of them did this to show that, just as what results from soul and body is one human being and not two human beings, so too Christ, compounded from divinity and humanity, is one and not divided into two Christs or two sons. Others, however, used the example of the human being to introduce one nature or substance of Christ’s divinity and humanity, which we have demonstrated to be foreign to piety.” (Edict on the Truth Faith)
Justinian uses the body-soul analogy differently in his Letter to the Monks of Alexandria than he does here in his Edict (AD 551), see Wesche pgs. 171-72, n. 9
The Two Births of Christ
“If anyone does not confess that God the Word, who was begotten from the Father before the ages and in a non-temporal manner, in the last days came down from the heavens and became incarnate from the holy and glorious Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary and became a human being and was born from her, and for this reason that there are two births of the same God the Word, one before the ages in an incorporeal manner and the other in the last days according to the flesh, let him be anathema.” (Emperor Justinian, Edict on the True Faith)
Explaining Chalcedonian Christology
“By the preposition ‘in’ he [Cyril] teaches us to confess the two natures of divinity and humanity in which Christ is known.” (Emperor Justinian, Letter to the Monks of Alexandria)
