It has been said, then, that the nature of the
Word became flesh, that is, was united to flesh: but that the
nature of the Word suffered in the flesh we have never heard up till
now, though we have been taught that Christ suffered in the
flesh. So that “the nature of the Word” does not mean
“the subsistence.” It remains, therefore, to say that
to become flesh is to be united with the flesh, while the Word having
become flesh means that the very subsistence of the Word became without
change the subsistence of the flesh. It has also been said that
God became man, and man God. For the Word which is God became
without alteration man. But that the Godhead became man, or
became flesh, or put on the nature of man, this we have never
heard. This, indeed, we have learned, that the Godhead was united
to humanity in one of its subsistences, and it has been stated that God
took on a different form or essence ὁ Θεὸς
μορφοῦται,
ἤτοι
οὐσιουται τὸ
ἀλλότριον.
Gregory of Nazianzum in his Carmen used the term
οὐσιοῦσθαι
of the word after the assumption of our nature. See also
Dionys., De div. nom., ch. 2; Ep. ad Carmen, 4;
&c., to wit our
own. For the name God is applicable to each of the subsistences,
but we cannot use the term Godhead in reference to subsistence.
For we are never told that the Godhead is the Father alone, or the Son
alone, or the Holy Spirit alone. For “Godhead”
implies “nature,” while “Father” implies
subsistence, just as “Humanity” implies nature, and
“Peter” subsistence. But “God” indicates
the common element of the nature, and is applicable derivatively to
each of the subsistences, just as “man” is. For He
Who has divine nature is God, and he who has human nature is
man.