Nestorius. As a king, who takes the clothes of soldierhood and is [so seen], has not become a double king, and as the king exists not apart from him, in that he is in him, and as, further, he is not revered apart from him in whom he is |23 known and whereby men also have known him and have been rescued; so also God used his own prosôpon to condescend in poverty and shame even unto the death on the Cross for our salvation; and by it he was raised up also to honour and glory and adoration. Wherein he was abased, in that also he was glorified. For the sign of salvation and victory is [a sign] of honour and not of abasement. Nor did he receive any addition of the ousia, because the ousias remain without change. For then there is / an addition in the ousia when it accepts another ousia, an equal ousia . But also he received not an addition to the prosôpon, in that he took his own prosôpon and not another, not for distinction but for the union of his own prosôpon and that in which he became incarnate; and also his prosôpon is in him and not in another. For he is clothed in the likeness of a servant, and by it he emptied himself and has clothed it with his prosôpon and has exalted his name above all names. In the prosôpon then of the divinity is he adored and in no other, and in consequence of this the prosôpon is one and the name of the Son [is one].
30. Against those who say not that God was changed into the nature of a man, but that he changed the ousia of man into the ousia of God.
Now for those who predicate the union in a change there follows in any case an addition in ousia as well as in prosôpon. The ousia indeed, which became flesh out of God the Word, was added to the Trinity, and it is evident that this prosôpon is a part detached and that it is conceived in detachment; or it became the nature of the flesh [emanating] from the ousia of God the Word in detachment, an addition took place .... Whence then is the origin of these things and in what are they distinct? Further, we have already said the same thing. |24 / Let us turn then to another sect which has sprung from these and is distinct from them and at the same time is confounded with them . . . .
Sophronius. They confess then that the body of our Lord is of his own flesh and therein they mock both at those who say that the flesh was in fiction and illusion and also at those who say that it was of the ousia of God the Word, saying . . . .
31. What words those use who say that the nature of the body was changed into the ousia of God the Word.
He came not to change his unchangeable ousia and to make it the ousia of the flesh but to raise up our miserable and changeable [ ousia ] to his own unchangeable [ousia] and to make it divine and adorable, not of itself but in the union. And he deems it worthy of the union with his ousia, in order that it may become one ousia and one prosôpon of one ousia ; and the smaller has been mixed with and deemed equal to the great and unchangeable divinity. Even as things which are cast into the fire are made equal to the ousia of the fire and become the nature of the fire which has made them what they have become, so also the divine nature has accepted the human nature and has mingled it in its own nature, and has changed it and made it therefore one without distinction in ousia and in prosôpon; / and neither in nature nor in prosôpon has there truly been an addition to the Trinity; and thus the Incarnation also took place and is conceived.
32. In what they are distinct from the Manichaeans and in what they confess [ the same ] as they.
[ Nestorius ]. These indeed are distinct from the Manichaeans in that they confess truly that the flesh is of our own nature and that it is not the schema of the flesh but the nature of the flesh. But some of the others who are with them [are distinguished] in that they confess that the flesh is true, not belonging to human nature but being divine and of the nature of the divinity. In this they are distinct and they strive |25 with all their might. And those who suppose that they serve the church confess that the flesh is of our own nature and ousia and so its distinction is known to all men. Generally then they dispute with all: with the Manichaeans concerning the [point] that there was an ousia and an ousia in truth; and with the others that it was not of the nature of God but of our fathers; but with the church in that they change the flesh into the ousia of God. Therefore in that they do not allow the flesh to remain in its own ousia, they resemble the Manichaeans by destroying the ousia of the flesh, but diverge from them in that they say that God was altogether in the hylê of the flesh. But in that they immediately change [the flesh] into the ousia of God the Word and are unwilling to / confess that God was with the human body, they agree with the same opinion and feeling when they exclude the ousia of the flesh as if it existed not, insisting either on deifying the ousia of the flesh or, so to say, on making the ousia of God become incarnate in the ousia of the flesh of the divinity.
33. That those who change the nature of man into the divine nature do not say that God became incarnate but that a man was deified.
He then who is not the human ousia of the flesh and is called flesh is so called by homonymy, even as a man of gold or silver or of another ousia of whatsoever material is not man by nature, since he has not the nature of man; and this is not the incarnation of God but the deification of man.
34. Concerning this: that those who change the nature of man into the divine ousia make an addition to the Trinity both in the nature and in the prosôpon.
If therefore the nature of the flesh which has been deified remains in the ousia in which it has been deified, how has the Trinity not accepted an addition in the ousia and in he prosôpon? / For there is nothing of human nature in the Trinity, neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit, |26 but it is alone; and in that which was not with it eternally but which has been [added] to it, it has received an addition. But how could an addition which is [made] to it not be an addition? And this also is another story and a Manichaean fable. But if that which was [added] became not what it was and the nature of men was harmed by the nature of the divinity as by fire, and [if] thereby the Trinity accepted not an addition, no more is this an incarnation, but the extinction of the Incarnation. For anything which results in the extinction of human nature and not in its preservation, is not named an incarnation but [is] as something which exists in relation to that which exists not.
35. Wherein those who change the nature of the body into the ousia of God agree with those who change the ousia of God into the nature of the body.
And herein they agree with those who change the divine ousia into human nature; for that is the same thing, that God becomes the ousia in the nature [of the body] or that he changes the ousia in man into the nature of God.
36. Concerning this: that it is not possible that the nature of God should be changed into bodily frame either by mixture or by change, nor yet that the body should be changed into the ousia of God the Word.
/ He indeed who changes the divine nature into human nature brings about its suppression, and he who changes human nature into the divine nature makes mock of it and makes of it a nature unmade, in declaring a nature [which is] made unmade, which cannot be. For of nothing the maker easily assembles the ousia and makes the ousia which is made by change of that which is made. But it is impossible that [he should make] that which is unmade and that which was not from that which was, as thou sayest; or else surely thou dost deprive it of being ousia. But there are no means whereby the ousia which was should cease to be nor whereby that which was made should become unmade, nor again [are there any means whereby] that which is not should become an eternal |27 nature and be with the eternal; nor again whereby a nature which was not should come into being nor whereby that which is not eternal should become eternal either by a change of nature or by confusion or by mixture; or whereby from the ousia of the eternal [should come into being] that which is not eternally. For either by mixture or by confusion of the two ousias a change of ousia took place [making] for one nature which should result from the mixture of both of them; or one ousia of them was changed into the other. It is not possible that the unmade [should become] made and the eternal temporary and the temporary eternal and that the created [should become] uncreated by nature; that that which is uncreated and which has not come into being and is eternal should thereby become / made and temporary, as if it became part of a nature made and temporary; nor that there should come forth a nature unmade and eternal from a nature made and temporary to become an ousia unmade and eternal; for such things are not possible nor conceivable. For how can anyone conceive that the Maker, seeing that he is in every way other than that which is made, should change into his being the other which has been made? For in that he is the Maker, he is unchangeable; since he works by an unchangeable nature, and when he is not that which he is he works not. In effect either he is what he is by nature, eternally God, and became not another nature while remaining in the ousia of God; or, not being the nature of God, he was made and is not the Maker, which is absurd and impossible.
37. Concerning this: that those also who say that the nature has been changed in part, and not all of it, say [ what is ] impossible.
Although indeed anyone should grant that in part he changed his nature and in part was not changed, he who makes has in every way the lordship over him who is made and over him who is changed; for there is nothing which is more lordly in its [whole] nature than [in] a part of it, but whatever all of it is the same also / is in its part. Even if then we accept absurdities as well-pleasing, a part being mentioned in speaking of a nature simple and indivisible, not |28 even so does one avoid what is absurd and not eternal For wherein does that which is not the ousia come to be in the ousia? For in so far as he is God he is unchangeable, but when he is not God he does nothing. How then is that said which cannot even be conceived: that God is changed into another ousia or again that another ousia is changed into the ousia of God and becomes that which is the Maker, that is, that what was unmade and was not [became] that which was made and came into being? These [statements] are in fact contradictory. How then do the things which have been said appear to thee? Have both parties been sufficiently treated, those who stand by the statements of those men and [those also] who are of ours? Or is there still something lacking which they ought to establish? Thou oughtest to fill it in, as though thou speakest on their behalf.For if anything touching the faith has been omitted in their statements, we shall lend it our aid with all our might, in order that their discomfiture may be exceeding great, since they are supposed by many to be unshaken and unaltered, although they are not.
Sophronius. I suppose then that the statements of both parties have been well handled and there remains nothing for us [to do], and therefore / indeed I rejoice in an hour of silence, and I beseech thee also to desist; for I have no good or useful objection that can be raised against thee, except one word only which people confidently use in regard to what pleases them.
Nestorius. What [is that]? Speak confidently, undaunted, using manfully and adequately every one of their arguments even as they themselves [do]; for no one who is hesitating in his thoughts can strive manfully.
Sophronius. So must it be in regard to the union even as the bread, when it becomes body, is one and the same body and not two. And one also is that which is conceived as the nature of the body, and further it is no more conceived in its former nature but as itself in that which it has become; wherefore it is not that which it appears [to be] but that |29 which it is conceived [to be]. And consequently also the Apostle decreed a fearful punishment against those who supposed the body of our Lord to be common, when he said thus: If he who has violated the law of Moses dies without pity out of the mouth of two or three [ witnesses ] , how much more is he counted worthy of a severe punishment who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has considered common the blood of his testament, whereby he was sanctified, and has scorned the spirit of grace. This he said / against those who regarded the blood and body of God as the blood and body of man, and who erred in supposing that the body and blood whereby we have been sanctified are common; and the spirit of grace they have scorned in confessing not that the Son of God is consubstantial with God and the Father, but that the body of the Son of God is the body of a man, whose body and blood he has raised to his own ousia and has not let them be upbraided and taunted with a human ousia but has [caused them] to be adored in his own ousia.
38. Concerning this: that the Apostle speaks also against those who consider the blood and body of Christ profane and impure, not as though to imply that it has certainly been changed into the nature of God the Word but as though they refuse to call the blood blood and to call the body body and [ because they assert ] that they are not able to save us, as the Manichaeans say.
Nestorius. Is this proof, concerning which thou keepest silence, of small importance in thy opinion? They indeed insist much on it, and thou oughtest not to bring it forward negligently. It had indeed escaped my notice in the manner of those who see the mote but not the beam. [Now that] it has been revealed, let us examine it from all sides, [to see] how it is and how / Divine Scripture wishes us to understand [it], so that we incur not blame just and divine.
39. In how many ways the word which in Greek is called koinon is used.
And first, let us speak of the use of the word called koinon in Greek. Now in meaning it refers to [what is] polluted, |30 and [what is] common and to participation. [It refers to] what is polluted, as he said in the Acts: Never have I eaten that which is impure and polluted ; but to what is common in whatsoever they ----the Apostles---- had belonged to them in common ; but to participation in the cup of thanksgiving which we bless, is it not a participation, in the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? And again: He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one; wherefore he was not ashamed to call them brothers, saying: I shall proclaim thy name to my brothers and in the midst of the assembly I shall glorify thee; and again: I shall put my trust in him; and again: Here am I and the children which God has given me .... Since then the children have participated in the flesh and the blood, he also has participated likewise in the same things? Since therefore this term is employed of a man who is impure and polluted and also of that which is common and further of participation, [did he so use] this expression which covers three uses / and does not distinguish against what opinion the apostle meant it, when he laid it down that for this reason men trample underfoot the Son of God? Which of these three [interpretations] is accurate?