The depth of the mystery: divinity and flesh distinct yet one
Cyril opens his third book against Theodore by urging him to grasp the depth of the mystery of Christ, insisting that divinity and flesh are distinct in their natural properties yet must be confessed as one Son.
Listen, then, to what I also have to say to you. Understand, my friend, the depth of the mystery, and go straight toward the goal of the sacred writings. For divinity and flesh, that is, humanity, are different realities, at least as far as concerns the accounts that apply to the properties present in both. For how, I ask, did he become as we are, when the Word, being God, had remained what he was?
Greek
ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΚΥΡΙΛΛΟΥ Ἐκ τοῦ πρὸς τὰ Θεοδώρου ἐπισκόπου
Μοψουεστίας τρίτου λόγου Οὗ ἡ ἁρχή Φορτικοὶ μὲν γὰρ ἴσως οἱ πρὸς
ἡμῶν εἰσι λόγοι. αʹ.
ΑΚΟΥΕ τοίνυν καὶ πρὸς ἡμῶν Σύνες ἄνθρωπε τοῦ μυστηρίου τὸ βάθος, εὐθὺ
τοῦ σκοποῦ τῶν ἱερῶν ἴθι γραμμάτων. ἕτερον μὲν γάρ τι καὶ ἕτερον θεότης τε καὶ
σὰρξ ἤγουν ἀνθρωπότης, τό γε ἧκον εἰς τοὺς ἐνόντας τοῖς ἀμφοῖν ἰδιώμασι λόγους.
ἐπεὶ πῶς γέγονε καθ' ἡμᾶς, καίτοι μεμηνηκὼς ὅπερ ἦν, Θεὸς ὢν ὁ Λόγος;