Definition of Chalcedon (451 AD)

  Following, then, the holy fathers, we unite in teaching all men to
  confess the one and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  This selfsame
  one is perfect both in deity and in humanness; this selfsame one is
  also actually God and actually man, with a rational soul <meaning
  human soul> and a body.  He is of the same reality as God as far as
  his deity is concerned and of the same reality as we ourselves as
  far as his humanness is concerned; thus like us in all respects, sin
  only excepted.  Before time began he was begotten of the Father, in
  respect of his deity, and now in these "last days," for us and behalf
  of our salvation, this selfsame one was born of Mary the virgin, who
  is God-bearer in respect of his humanness.

  We also teach that we apprehend this one and only Christ-Son, Lord,
  only-begotten -- in two natures; and we do this without confusing
  the two natures, without transmuting one nature into the other,
  without dividing them into two separate categories, without con-
  trasting them according to area or function.  The distinctiveness
  of each nature is not nullified by the union.  Instead, the
  "properties" of each nature are conserved and both natures concur
  in one "person" and in one reality <hypostasis>.  They are not
  divided or cut into two persons, but are together the one and
  only and only-begotten Word <Logos> of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
  Thus have the prophets of old testified; thus the Lord Jesus
  Christ himself taught us; thus the Symbol of Fathers <the Nicene
  Creed> has handed down to us.



----------------
Posted by: Lon Mendelsohn
Source:    CHRISTIA File Archives 
           excerpted from file CREEDS EARLY

(for more info send INDEX CHRISTIA to listserv@asuvm.inre.asu.edu)

jab/15-Mar-94