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Agenhton and genhton,
written with one 'n' and meaning uncreated and
created, refer to nature: but agennhton and
gennhton, that is to say, unbegotten and
begotten, as the double 'n' indicates, refer
not to nature but to subsistence. The divine nature then is
agenhtos, that is to say, uncreate, but all
things that come after the divine nature are
genhhta, that is, created. In the divine and
uncreated nature, therefore, the property of being
agennhton or unbegotten is contemplated in the
Father (for He was not begotten), that of being
gennhton or begotten in the Son (for He has
been eternally begotten of the Father), and that of procession in the
Holy Spirit. Moreover of each species of living creatures, the
first members were agennhta but not
agenhta: for they were brought into being by
their Maker, but were not the offspring of creatures like themselves.
For genesis is creation, while
gennhsis or begetting is in the case of God the
origin of a co-essential Son arising from the Father alone, and in
the case of bodies, the origin of a co-essential subsistence arising
from the contact of male and female. And thus we perceive that
begetting refers not to nature but to subsistence. For if it did refer
to nature, to agennhton
and to gennhton, i.e.
the properties of being begotten and unbegotten, could not be
contemplated in one and the same nature. Accordingly the holy Mother
of God bore a subsistence revealed in two natures; being begotten on
the one hand, by reason of its divinity, of the Father timelessly,
and, at last, on the other hand, being incarnated of her in time and
born in the flesh.
But if our interrogators should hint that He Who is begotten of the
holy Mother of God is two natures, we reply, "Yea! He is two
natures: for He is in His own person God and man. And the same is
to be said concerning the crucifixion and resurrection and ascension.
For these refer not to nature but to subsistence. Christ then, since
He is in two natures, suffered and was crucified in the nature that
was subject to passion. For it was in the flesh and not in His
divinity that He hung upon the Cross. Otherwise, let them answer
us, when we ask if two natures died. No, we shall say. And so two
natures Were not crucified but Christ was begotten, that is to say,
the divine Word having become man was begotten in the flesh, was
crucified in the flesh, suffered in the flesh, while His divinity
continued to be impossible."
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