Twelve Chapters on the Faith · §11 · Gregory Thaumaturgus

Christ's body was not without soul or mind

Gregory condemns the view that Christ's body had no soul or mind, and shows that his distress, grief and fear belong to a human soul.

If anyone says that the body of Christ is soulless or without mind, and does not confess that he is a perfect man, in all things one and the same, let him be anathema.

How can anyone say that the body of Christ is without soul or mind? For distress, grief and fear belong neither to flesh without a soul, nor to a soul without understanding, nor to the unchangeable divinity. Nor are they the show of an empty appearance, nor the failure of a human weakness that gives way. Rather, the Word was displaying in himself the passions of our nature, taking up the part that was given over to suffering. As it is written, “He himself took up our weaknesses and bore our ailments” (Isaiah 53:4; Matthew 8:17). For distress, grief and fear are ailments of the soul; but weariness, sleep and the wounding of the body are weaknesses of the flesh.

Latin

Si quis dicit corpus Christi esse inanimatum, aut sine mente; et non confitetur ipsum perfectum esse hominem per omnia unum et eundem; anathema esto. Qua ratione potest ullus dicere, corpus Christi esse sine anima, aut mente? Turbatio enim, et dolor, et pavor, neque carnis sunt inanimatae, nec animae non intelligentis; neque divinitatis immutabilis; nec ostensio inanis apparitionis; neque infirmitatis humanae succumbentis defectus: sed passiones naturae nostrae in seipso Verbum ostendebat, suscipiens partem ad patiendum datam. Sicut scriptum est: Quoniam ipse infirmitates nostras assumpsit, et languores nostros ipse tulit. Turbatio enim, et dolor, et pavor, languores animae sunt: defatigatio autem, et somnus, et vulneratio corporis, infirmitates carnis sunt.

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About this text

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Twelve Chapters on the Faith, in a fresh English translation: twelve brief condemnations of false teaching about Christ, each with a short explanation, ending with praise of the Father and the Holy Spirit and a warning against quarrels over words.

Gregory Thaumaturgus (c. 213–c. 270) wrote this treatise to defend the orthodox understanding of Christ against positions that either deny the createdness of Christ's body or confuse his flesh with his divinity. The work is organized as a series of chapters, each of which anathematizes a specific error and briefly argues against it.

The first two chapters set out two claims. First, Christ's body is created, not uncreated, because what is uncreated cannot suffer, be wounded, or be touched, yet the risen Christ showed the nails and the wound made by the lance, and his body able to be touched, to the disciples, entering through closed doors. Second, Christ's flesh is not consubstantial with the divinity, since consubstantiality means identity of nature and eternal existence, whereas the flesh exists in time. In both cases Gregory affirms that Christ is truly God and truly man: when he was otherwise God, he was recognized as man; and when he was truly man, God was nevertheless demonstrated from his own works. The other ten chapters condemn, in turn, the views that Christ was a man taken up like one of the prophets, that he was conceived from a man's seed, that the Son before the ages and the Son of the last times are two, that the one who suffered was someone other than the Word, that Christ was saved rather than the Savior, that he is divided into a perfect man and God the Word, that he is changeable, that he took only part of a man, that his body lacked soul or mind, and that he came only in appearance. The work closes with praise of the Trinity and a warning against quarrels over words.

A reader will meet Christ as the central figure, presented as true God and true man, whose body is created and whose divinity is eternal. Gregory cites Philippians 2:6-7 on Christ emptying himself and taking the form of a servant, and he alludes to resurrection appearances involving the nails, the lance wound, a body able to be touched, and entering through closed doors.

English translated from the Latin column of the Opera omnia print (Paris, 1622) for all twelve chapters; Chapters III-XII were read from the page images (printed pp. 3-8, PDF pp. 27-32). Vossius's scholia are left out; marginal variants are noted, not adopted. In Chapter IX the print reads 'corruptible in flesh' where its margin gives 'incorruptible'; the printed reading is translated. ANF 6 was consulted only as a sense check for Chapters I-II.

Printed text used

Translated from Opera omnia, Greek and Latin (Paris: Sonnius, Morel and Cramoisy, 1622), page images (Latin column (Greek damaged) · Capita I-XII (Chapters III-XII read from the page images, printed pp. 3-8))
Also checked Archive DjVu machine-read text (Latin/Greek mixed machine-read text)
Translated from Latin Capita I-II (Latin)

Where the prints differ

Cap. I interpretatio — machine-read text of clavorum / lancea / palpandum / clausis ianuis restored from the facing column and the John 20 scene; not invented doctrine.

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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