The properties of each nature in Christ

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John of Damascus is explaining what belongs to each of the two natures of Christ, and then how the incarnate Word ascended, sits at the Father's right hand, and will come to judge.

For it is proper to the divinity to raise the dead and to perform divine signs, while it is proper to the humanity to hunger and thirst and grow weary, and to endure sufferings. The Word was united to the flesh without confusion and without division, and with that flesh he was taken up and sat at the right hand of the Father. He will come with glory at the consummation of the ages to judge the living and the dead, God enfleshed.

Greek

Ἴδιον μὲν γὰρ τῆς θεότητος, τὸ νεκροὺς ἀνιστᾷν, καὶ τὰς θεοσημείας ἐπιτελεῖν· ἴδιον δὲ τῆς ἀνθρωπότητος, τὸ πεινῇν καὶ διψῇν καὶ κοπιᾷν, καὶ

τὰ πάθη ὑπομένειν. Ἀσυγχύτως γὰρ ἡνώθη τῇ σαρκὶ καὶ ἀδιαιρέτως, μεθ' ἧς σαρκὸς ἀνελήφθη, καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ Πατρὸς, καὶ ἥξει μετὰ δόξης ἐν τῇ συντελείᾳ τῶν αἰώνων κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκροὺς, Θεὸς σεσαρκωμένος

About this text

John of Damascus sums up the faith in brief: one God in three Persons, each with a distinct property, and two natures in the one Person of Christ.

The work distinguishes the theology of the Trinity from the economy of the Incarnation, likely for instruction or clarification.

The treatise opens with the Trinity. One God is glorified and worshipped in three persons, with one divinity, nature, essence, power, authority, and will. Each person keeps a distinct property: the Father is unbegotten, the Son is begotten, and the Spirit proceeds. The Father is without beginning, the Son is co-beginningless though from the Father, and the Holy Spirit is co-eternal and co-beginningless, proceeding from the Father not by filial generation but by procession.

The second part concerns the incarnate Word. Two natures are confessed in one person, Jesus Christ, God together with man, with two wills and two activities. Each nature keeps its property without division or confusion. The divine nature raises the dead and performs miracles, while the human nature hungers, thirsts, grows weary, and endures sufferings. The Word was united to flesh without confusion or division, ascended with that flesh, sits at the Father's right hand, and will come in glory at the end of the ages to judge the living and the dead as God incarnate.

Printed text used

Translated from PG 94-96; De theologia (Greek)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.