A Critical Commentary on the Book "On the Nature of Christ" by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III

[John of the Ladder]

The Unity of nature and the birth of Christ

”Christ is not two Sons, one the Son of God to be adored, and the other a man and not to be worshiped”.1 It is not possible to separate between the two natures. We must make one genuflection to One Christ.2 A father3 said that, ”He was born (weak, and not accurate expression. Imagine how would he understand Ancient Greek, the language of the Fathers of the Church) from the Father before all ages without a mother, and was born from a Virgin in the fullness of time without an earthly father”.4

There was indeed never two Sons. However the Divine Logos was not born, but begotten from before all ages, as our Creed says. Born denotes an event taking place in historical time having a beginning and an end. Begotten is without a beginning and with no end - from all eternity, and outside historical time. About the adoration St. John of Damascus says, ”...according to its own nature His flesh is not adorable...when, however it has been united with God the Word, it is adorable because of Him and in Him”.5 So we adore One Christ, Who in order to fully become one of us, let Himself be born in historical time from a human mother, the Virgin Mary from whom He took flesh. Likewise St. Joseph took care of the Lord Incarnate, when He was a child – just like any real father would do. Christ submitted Himself to earthly parenthood. This is important to emphasize in order to point out just how fully He accepted to become one of us in His human nature, while eternally remaining God the Logos and part of the Holy Trinity.

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1 Shenouda. P. 22.
2 CF. Ibid.
3 Ibid. (No reference)
4 Ibid.
5 Writings p. 336.

>>> To be continued

[John of the Ladder]

The One Nature of the Incarnate Logos

”It is One Nature (one entity) but has all the properties of two natures”1 And there was no separation between the two Natures at Christ’s death. ”On the third day His soul, united with His body which was also united with His Godhead; thus resurrection took place”.2 When Christ left His tomb, and when He walked through closed doors (John. 20:19) was it the divine or the human nature?, or was it Christ the Incarnate Logos?3


There was never any separation of the natures at Christ’s death, and here Pope Shenouda is in full agreement with Chalcedonian Christology. St John of Damascus says, ”...the person of Christ was always one, since, even though the soul was separated from the body in place, it still was hypostatically united to it through the Word”.4 Regarding when Christ walked through the closed doors and appeared in the midst of His disciples - closed doors obviously present no hindrance to Him Who let Himself be born from a Virgin!

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1 Shenouda. P. 26.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid. P. 27.
4 Writings p. 333.

>>> To be continued