Program / Course 9: Christology and Pneumatology / Lesson 3.2
What you will learn
- Describe the setting of the Council of Chalcedon and the sources the bishops used.
- Explain the main claims of the Definition in order, in plain words.
- Explain the four negative adverbs and what each excludes.
- State which earlier errors each part of the Definition answers.
The big idea
The Council of Chalcedon met in 451 and issued a Definition of the faith about Christ. It says that Jesus Christ is one and the same Son, perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, truly God and truly man, of one being with the Father and of one being with human beings, like us in all things except sin. He is acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division and without separation, coming together in one person and one hypostasis. The text is built to exclude errors, not to explain the mystery.
Key terms
- Definition (horos)
- The Greek word horos means boundary or limit. A definition of faith marks the boundary within which teaching about Christ is to stay.
- Consubstantial
- The English form of homoousios: of the same being or substance. Applied to Christ it is said in two directions: with the Father in divinity and with human beings in humanity.
- Nature (physis)
- What a thing is. Chalcedon speaks of a divine nature and a human nature in Christ.
- Person (prosopon) and hypostasis
- Who someone is, an individual subject. Chalcedon says the two natures come together in one prosopon and one hypostasis, so Christ is a single subject.
- Without confusion, without change
- The first two negatives. They guard against mixing the natures into something new and against either nature turning into the other.
- Without division, without separation
- The second two negatives. They guard against making Christ two persons or two subjects.
- Ecumenical
- Speaking for the whole church. Chalcedon is counted as the fourth ecumenical council by Catholic, Orthodox and most Protestant churches.
Background
Chalcedon is a town across the water from Constantinople. About five hundred bishops, most from the East, met there in the autumn of 451 at the call of the emperor Marcian. They began by reviewing and overturning the Second Council of Ephesus of 449. They read the Nicene Creed of 325 and 381, the letters of Cyril to Nestorius and to the Orientals, and the Tome of Leo.
Some bishops hoped there would be no new definition, arguing that the earlier creeds were enough. The imperial commissioners and others insisted on a statement that would settle the matter. The Definition was adopted at the fifth session, on 22 October. It is short, and every phrase has a history, so a slow reading repays the effort.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: One and the same Son
The text says the church teaches all to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The phrase one and the same comes up repeatedly. It answers the fear of two sons raised against Nestorius, and it fits Cyril’s concern for a single subject. Everything that follows is said of this one Son.
The text then says he is perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, truly God and truly man, with a rational soul and a body. The words rational soul close the door on Apollinarius, who had made the Word take the place of the human mind. The word truly answers the docetists.
Step 2: Of one being with the Father and with us
The Definition says he is homoousios with the Father as to divinity and homoousios with human beings as to humanity. The same word is used twice, once for each nature. This repeats Nicaea’s word against Arius, and applies it to humanity against Eutyches, who had hesitated to say that Christ’s body was of one substance with ours.
It adds: like us in all things except sin, a phrase from Hebrews 4:15. It says he was begotten of the Father before the ages as to his divinity, and in the last days, for us and for our salvation, born of the virgin Mary, the Theotokos, as to his humanity. The reference to Mary confirms Ephesus.
Step 3: Two natures, four adverbs
The Definition then says that Christ is acknowledged in two natures, “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.” These are four Greek adverbs. The first two (asynchytos, atreptos) deny that the natures were mixed or that either turned into the other, answering Eutyches. The second two (adiairetos, achoristos) deny that Christ is split into two, answering Nestorius.
The text adds that the difference of the natures is in no way removed by the union, but that the property of each nature is kept. Divinity does not become human limitation, and humanity does not become divine. What is human in him is truly human, and what is divine is truly divine.
Step 4: One person and one hypostasis
The natures come together, says the Definition, in one prosopon and one hypostasis. He is not parted or divided into two persons, but is one and the same Son, only-begotten God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. The statement uses the Greek vocabulary the East had developed and avoids the word physis for the union itself.
Here is the positive center. Christ is one subject, and the two natures are what that subject is: God and man. The use of Cyril’s letters and the Tome is visible here: the unity is often credited to Cyril and the distinction of natures to Leo, though neither man would have said he owned only one half.
Step 5: What the Definition does and does not do
It sets limits. It says what must not be said and what must be kept, using words from the creeds and councils. It does not explain how divinity and humanity can unite in one subject. It does not use the phrase hypostatic union, which came into use later, and it does not decide the number of wills, which was taken up in the seventh century.
The council also issued 28 canons. The best known is canon 28, which gave Constantinople second place in honor after Rome. Rome did not accept it at the time, and it remains a point of disagreement between churches. The canons are separate from the Definition.
- What work is done by the repeated phrase one and the same?
- Why does the Definition say homoousios twice?
- Which of the four adverbs answers Nestorius and which answers Eutyches?
- How does the Definition use Scripture, and where does it use non-biblical words?
- What does the Definition leave unsaid about how the natures are united?
- Why might the text be written mostly in negatives?
Examples
Reading the four adverbs
Imagine four fences around a field. Two keep the sheep from mixing with a neighbor’s flock. Two keep the sheep from splitting into separate pens. The field itself is not described. The Definition works in a similar way: it fences the mystery without explaining it. (A constructed illustration.)
The council’s reaction
According to the acts, when the Definition was read the bishops shouted approval and said that this was the faith of the Fathers and of the apostles. Some objections were raised in earlier sessions, and the Egyptian bishops present said they could not act without their archbishop. Historians note both the large consensus and the opposition.
Hebrews in the Definition
The phrase except sin echoes Hebrews 4:15. A student who traces it will find that the council quotes or alludes to Scripture in several places, though it uses philosophical vocabulary for the main claim.
Different perspectives
Catholic
Catholic teaching treats the Definition as a dogmatic statement of the faith. The Catechism repeats its language on the two natures and the one person, and Catholic writers emphasize the use of the Tome.
Orthodox
The Orthodox Church treats the Definition as authoritative and reads it together with Cyril’s letters and the later councils. Orthodox theologians often stress that the Definition guards a mystery and does not explain it.
Oriental Orthodox
These churches do not accept the Definition as stated. They hold that the phrase in two natures after the union risks dividing Christ, and prefer Cyril’s wording. Many now say that the faith intended is the same, as the next lessons describe.
Protestant
Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican and most evangelical churches confess the Definition in their creeds or teaching. Differences remain over how it applies, for example in debates about Christ’s presence in the Lord’s Supper.
Critical and philosophical views
Some scholars and philosophers argue that the Definition’s categories of nature and person are hard to make coherent, or that they reflect Greek metaphysics. Defenders reply that the terms are used flexibly and that the Definition rules out errors without claiming to solve the mystery.
Why it matters
The Definition is the reference point for most Christian teaching about Christ. Even those who dissent from it use its terms. Reading it slowly shows that it is built from decisions about what must be protected: the full divinity, the full humanity and the single person.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Chalcedon invented the doctrine of the two natures.
Correction: The Definition draws on Cyril’s letters, the Tome, and earlier Fathers who spoke of Christ as God and man. Its new element was the shared vocabulary and the official adoption of it.
Misunderstanding: The Definition explains how God became man.
Correction: It does not. It sets boundaries and leaves the explanation open. Many later theologians, East and West, have said so plainly.
Misunderstanding: Chalcedon was accepted by the whole church.
Correction: It was accepted by the Catholic and Orthodox churches and by most Protestants, but not by the Oriental Orthodox churches or the Church of the East. Lesson 3.4 explains.
Knowledge check
Summarize the Definition in your own words.
Christ is one and the same Son, perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, truly God and truly man with a rational soul and body. He is of one being with the Father and with human beings, like us except in sin. He is acknowledged in two natures, without confusion, change, division or separation, in one person.
What do the four adverbs do?
Without confusion and without change deny that the natures mix or turn into each other, which answers Eutyches. Without division and without separation deny that Christ is two persons, which answers Nestorius. Together they mark a path between two errors without explaining how the union works.
Which phrase in the Definition answers Apollinarius, and how?
The phrase a rational soul and a body says that Christ’s humanity includes a human mind. This directly contradicts Apollinarius, who held that the Word took the place of the human mind. It rests on the principle that what is not taken on is not healed.
What did Chalcedon leave for later councils?
It did not discuss whether Christ has one will or two, and it did not fully explain the relation of the natures in suffering. It also left some Alexandrian concerns unsettled, and the later councils of Constantinople took up these matters in the sixth and seventh centuries.
Think it through
- Why might a text that mainly says what not to say still be a positive statement?
- How would you explain the difference between nature and person to someone new?
- What do you make of the fact that a council used non-biblical vocabulary?
- Which part of the Definition would be most difficult to translate into everyday language?
Independent assignment
The Definition in your own words
In your own notebook, write 500 to 700 words. Copy the Definition from the library phrase by phrase, using the left half of the page. In the right half, give a plain-language paraphrase of each phrase and name the error it answers. End with a paragraph on what the text deliberately does not say. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 14) Read the Definition and the notes on the session.
- Leo I (Pope Leo the Great), Letter 28, the Tome of Leo Read it beside the Definition and mark the shared phrases.
- Council of Nicaea (325) and Council of Constantinople (381), The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed The Definition builds on this creed.
- John of Damascus, An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith Read how a later Eastern writer explains the Definition.
- Hebrews 4:15 Like us in all things, yet without sin.
- John 1:14 The Word became flesh.
- Colossians 2:9 The fullness of deity dwells bodily.