Two Natures in the Economy

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

John of Damascus turns from the Trinity to the economy of the incarnate Word, confessing two natures in one person.

But in the economy of God and the Word of God, who was made flesh by the good pleasure of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, we confess two natures and one person: one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, God together with man, and one person. We confess also two wills and two activities, each nature keeping its property, without division and without confusion.

Greek

Ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς οἰκονομίας τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Λόγου τοῦ Θεοῦ, τοῦ εὐδοκίᾳ τοῦ Πατρὸς, καὶ

συνεργίᾳ τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος σαρκωθέντος, δύο φύσεις ὁμολογοῦμεν, καὶ μίαν

ὑπόστασιν· ἕνα τε Υἱὸν τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, Θεὸν ὁμοῦ καὶ ἄνθρωπον, καὶ

ἓν πρόσωπον· δύο δὲ θελήσεις καὶ δύο ἐνεργείας· ἑκάστην φύσιν μετὰ τῆς ἰδιότητος,

ἀδιαιρέτως καὶ ἀσυγχύτως.

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.