On the True Faith, to the Princesses Arcadia and Marina · §79

Image and firstborn from dead; Hebrews heir through flesh

See again: he calls him the image of the invisible God, and clearly affirms that thrones and rulers and lordships were created through him, and says that all things are unto him and hold together in him, and that he is the head of the body’s church and firstborn from the dead. Who then is the image of God, the creator of the wholes, if not the Only-begotten Son of God himself? Who also became firstborn from the dead, as having died in his own flesh and not rather in someone else’s. So there is one Christ and Son, God and human together.

From Hebrews. “In many parts and in many ways God, having spoken of old to the fathers in the prophets, in these last days spoke to us in a Son, whom he placed heir of all, through whom he also made the ages.” The Only-begotten Word is believed to be by nature Lord of the wholes with God and Father, yet he is placed heir because he became flesh. For it was said to him, as one who appeared as a human like us for our sake: “Ask of me, and I will give you nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.” But he says that through this same God who is heir—because of the human—the ages themselves were also made, the matter referring back to the Word’s seniority. So there is one Christ and Son, the same one God and human together.

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About this text

Cyril’s court treatise on right faith for Arcadia and Marina (CPG 5219). One Son, Word made flesh — not two Christs. English from Pusey’s Greek.

English follows Pusey’s 1877 Greek of De recta fide ad Arcadiam et Marinam. OCR of that print was cleaned section by section before Pass A/B. This is a reading translation for study, not a new critical edition.

Witnesses

  • Copy-text Pusey, De recta fide ad reginas (Oxford, 1877) (Greek · CPG 5219 §§1–100)

English is newly prepared for study from the stated edition. It is not a complete critical edition.