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Edited from a variety of translations (mentioned in the preface) by H. R. Percival
THE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS Resources Online and in Print
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69 Pages
Page 28
Hefele.
(Hist. of the Councils. Vol. III., p. 348.)
The present Greek text has ek duo phuseon while the old Latin translation has, in duabus naturis. After what had been repeatedly said in this session on the difference between "in two natures" and "of two natures," and in opposition to the latter formula, there can be no doubt whatever that the old Latin translator had the more accurate text before him, and that it was originally en duo phusesin. This, however, is not mere supposition, but is expressly testified by antiquity: (1) by the famous Abbot Euthymius of Palestine, a contemporary of the Council of Chalcedon, of whose disciples several were present as bishops at our Council (cf. Baron. ad. ann. 451, n. 152 sq.). We still have a judgment of his which he gave respecting the decree of Chalcedon concerning the faith, and in which he repeats the leading doctrine in the words of the Synod itself. At our passage he remarks: en duo phusesi gnorizesthai homologei ton hena Christon k.t.l. The fragment of his writings on the subject is found in the Vita S. Euthymii Abbatis, written by his pupil Cyril in the Analecta Graeca of the monks of St. Maur, t. i., p. 57, printed in Mansi, t. vii., p. 774 sq. (2) The second ancient witness is Severus, from a.d. 513 Monophysite patriarch of Antioch, who represents it as a great reproach and an unpardonable offence in the fathers of Chalcedon that they had declared: en duo phusesin adiairetois gnorizesthai ton Christon (see the Sententiae Severi in Mansi, t. vii., p. 839). (3) Somewhat more than a hundred years after the Council of Chalcedon, Evagrius copied its decree concerning the faith in extenso into his Church History (lib. ii., 4), and, in fact, with the words: en duo phusesin asunchutos k.t.l. (ed. Mog., p. 294). (4) In the conference on religion held between the Severians and the orthodox at Constantinople, a.d. 553, the former reproached the Synod of Chalcedon with having put in duabus naturis, instead of ex duabus naturis, as Cyril and the old fathers had taught (Mansi, t. viii., p. 892; Hardouin, t. ii., p. 1162). (5) Leontius of Byzantium maintains quite distinctly, in the year 610, in his work De Sectis, that the Synod taught hena Christon en duo phutesin asunchutos k.t.l.
It is clear that if any doubt had then existed as to the correct reading, Leontius could not have opposed the Monophysites with such certainty. The passage adduced by him is Actio iv., c. 7., in Galland. Bibliotheca PP., t. xii., p. 633. Gieseler (Kirchengesch. i., S. 465), and after him Hahn (Biblioth. der Symbole, S. 118, note 6), cites incorrectly the fourth instead of the fifth Actio. Perhaps neither of them had consulted the passage itself. (6) No less weight is to be attached to the fact that all the Latin translations, that of Rusticus and those before him, have in duabus naturis; and (7) that the Lateran Synod, a.d. 649, had the same reading in their Acts (Hardouin, t. iii., p. 835). (8) Pope Agatho, also, in his letter to the Emperor Constans II., which was read in the sixth Ecumenical Synod, adduced the creed of Chalcedon with the words in duabus naturis (in the Acts of the sixth Ecumenical Council, Actio iv.; in Mansi, t. xi., p. 256; Hardouin, t. iii., p. 1091). In consequence of this, most scholars of recent times, e.g., Tillemont, Walch (Bibloth. symbol veter., p. 106), Hahn (l. c.), Gieseler (l. c.), Neander (Abthl. ii., 2 of Bd. iv., S. 988), have declared en duo phusesin to be the original and correct reading. Neander adds: "The whole process of the transactions of the Council shows this (that en duo is the correct reading). Evidently the earlier creed, which was more favourable to the Egyptian doctrine, contained the ek duo phuseon and the favour shown to the other party came out chiefly in the change of the ek into en. The expression ek duo phuseon besides, does not fit the place, the verb gnorizomenon points rather to the original en. The en duo phusesin or ek duo phuseon was the turning-point of the whole controversy between Monophysitism and Dyophysitism." Cf., on the other side, Baur, Trinitätslehre, Bd. i., S. 820, and Dorner (Lehre v. der Person Christi, Thl. ii., S. 129), where it is maintained that ek is the correct and original reading, but that it was from the beginning purposely altered by the Westerns into in; moreover, that ek fits better than en with gnorizomenon, and therefore that it had been allowed as a concession to the Monophysites. The meaning, moreover, they say, of ek and en is essentially the same, and the one and the other alike excluded Monophysitism.
Reference address : https://elpenor.org/ecumenical-councils/fourth.asp?pg=28
