Passibility
may not be affirmed of the divine nature of Christ which is incapable
of any change or limitation within itself. At the same time the
Word may be said to have suffered inasmuch as the suffering affected
the flesh which He assumed. This subject was afterwards,
carefully developed by St. John of Damascus περὶ
ὀρθοδόξου
πίστεως, III. 4. In c.
79, Hilary criticises the Arian statement that the Son “jointly
suffered,” a word which meant that the divine nature of the Son
shared in the sufferings which were endured by His humanity. This
phrase, like the statement of Arius that the Logos was “capable
of change” implied that the Son only possessed a secondary
divinity.