After the incarnation, is Christ one nature, or two natures in one person, and how is the union to be stated?
Earliest statement of each found so far: Two natures in one person (Chalcedon), Eustathius of Antioch, c. 337; One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite), Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444.
What the early Church said, in their own words →
- In 1994 the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East said the old divisions over Christ 'were due in large part to misunderstandings', and that both confess 'the same faith in the Son of God'. Agreed statements between the Chalcedonian and Oriental Orthodox churches are not yet checked here.
- Oriental Orthodox placements rest mainly on Coptic and Ethiopian church texts. The Armenian texts checked so far are brief, and Syriac and Indian Orthodox texts are not yet checked.
a passage teaches it a passage rejects it authorship uncertain formally defined
Two natures in one person (Chalcedon)CatholicOrthodoxLutheranReformedAnglicanMethodistBaptistPentecostal3 teach it · 3 reject it
One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite)Oriental Orthodox3 teach it · 3 reject it
Two natures, each with its own qnoma, in one person (Church of the East)Church of the East3 reject it
The positions
Two natures in one person (Chalcedon) CatholicOrthodoxLutheranReformedAnglicanMethodistBaptistPentecostal
What it holds: After the union Christ is one person in two natures, divine and human, each keeping its own properties, without confusion, change, division or separation.
acknowledged in two natures which undergo no confusion, no change, no division, no separationCouncil of Chalcedon, Definition of the Faith (451)
Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanityCatechism of the Catholic Church 467 (quoting Chalcedon)
so that there are two natures, the divine and the human, inseparably enjoined in one PersonAugsburg Confession (1530)
So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion.Westminster Confession of Faith (1646)
so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusionSecond London Baptist Confession (1689), ch. 8
so that two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one Person, never to be dividedThirty-Nine Articles (1571)
so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be dividedArticles of Religion of the Methodist Church (UMC Book of Discipline, para. 104)
The Lord Jesus Christ, as to His divine and eternal nature, is the proper and only Begotten of the Father, but as to His human nature, He is the proper Son of Man.Assemblies of God, Statement of Fundamental Truths
Formally defined: Tome of Leo (449); Council of Chalcedon, Definition of the Faith (451)
Earliest statement: Eustathius of Antioch, c. 337
One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite) Oriental Orthodox
What it holds: God the Word united manhood to himself so that Christ is one incarnate nature of God the Word, Godhead and manhood continuing in him without mixture, confusion or change; 'two natures' is not said after the union.
On this ground the Church of Ethiopia, with the other Oriental Orthodox Churches, affirms that Jesus Christ is not two natures, but one incarnate nature of God the Word.Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, The Faith of the Church (text by V. C. Samuel, 1970)
The Church of Ethiopia, with the other Oriental Orthodox Churches, has refused to accept the Chalcedonian Definition of the Faith with the affirmation that Christ is "made known in two natures."Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, The Faith of the Church (text by V. C. Samuel, 1970)
His Divine nature is one with his human nature yet without mingling, confusion or alteration; a complete Hypostatic Union.CopticChurch.net, Theology (summary of Pope Shenouda III, The Nature of Christ)
In the 5th century the Armenian Church did not accept the Council of Chalcedon in 451. In 506 at the Dvin Council, the Armenian Church formulated an official response to Chalcedon defending its Christology.Armenian Apostolic Church, Pontifical Legation of Western Europe, Faith
Formally defined: Cyril of Alexandria's 'one nature of God the Word incarnate' (letters to Succensus, c. 433); refusal of Chalcedon by the non-Chalcedonian churches after 451; Armenian Council of Dvin (506)
Earliest statement: Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
Two natures, each with its own qnoma, in one person (Church of the East) Church of the East
What it holds: Christ's Godhead and manhood each remain a complete nature with its own qnoma (concrete individual reality), united in the one person (parsopa) of the Son; the Church of the East does not speak of one hypostasis for the union.
The Church is diaphysite, and thus holds two natures in Christ—the Godhead or divine, and the human—which are preserved in their respective 'qnome', or substances. The two natures are united in the one Person of Filiation of the Son of God.Assyrian Church of the East, Diocese of California, FAQ
In him has been preserved the difference of the natures of divinity and humanity, with all their properties, faculties and operations.Common Christological Declaration, Catholic Church and Assyrian Church of the East (1994)
No early passage in the works searched so far states it yet.
Common ground
These are affirmed by more than one position, so a passage saying only this counts for none of them.
- Christ is truly God and truly man (all three positions)
- The union is without confusion or change (all three)
- Christ is one Lord and Son, worshipped with a single worship
- Christ is consubstantial with the Father and with us
- 'Fully God and fully man' without saying 'one nature' or 'two natures'
Every deciding passage, earliest first
Eustathius of Antioch, c. 337
From the interpretation of Psalm 15 by Eustathius of Antioch: “God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4). He did not say “born ones,” but “born”—for the person is singular. I did not say the nature is singular; away with it, may it not be! Nor did I say that flesh and divinity have the same substance. But I said one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist, known in every way in the distinction of natures.
- Teaches: Two natures in one person (Chalcedon)
- Rejects: One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite)
Severianus of Gabala, c. 400
Catena fragment, author uncertain: A catena fragment: the ascription rests on the catena heading and is not secure.
Not a mixture, and the things from them are neither blended nor naturally arranged, nor are they indeed divided into two persons. So also Emmanuel, being one from two natures, is one hypostasis and one nature of the incarnate Word; neither have the things from which the ineffable union has occurred become a continuous whole, nor does he, remaining one, allow the dyad to intrude, from which division comes. For the one strictly could never become two, and if the one were to be transferred into two, it would certainly cease to be one.
- Rejects: Two natures in one person (Chalcedon)
- Teaches: One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite)
- Rejects: Two natures, each with its own qnoma, in one person (Church of the East)
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
Catena fragment, author uncertain: A catena fragment: the ascription rests on the catena heading and is not secure.
The union of natures is not merely a matter of the union of persons, but rather the natures are gathered into one, ineffably and beyond reason, as God himself has known.
- Rejects: Two natures in one person (Chalcedon)
- Teaches: One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite)
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
I have never been convicted of thinking anything contrary to what the truth approves, nor have I ever said that the divine nature of the Word is capable of suffering. And a little later: I know that the nature of God is incapable of suffering, unchangeable, and invariable, even in the nature of humanity, and that there is one Christ in both natures and from both natures.
- Teaches: Two natures in one person (Chalcedon)
- Rejects: One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite)
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
We confess, then, that the only-begotten Son of God is perfect God, consubstantial with the Father in divinity and consubstantial with us in humanity. A union of natures has occurred, and from this we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. If it seems good, let us take as an example the composition by which we ourselves are human. We are composed of soul and body, and we see two natures, one of the body and another of the soul, yet the one human being from both in union does not make us think of two human beings because he is composed from two natures, but one human being. For if we do away wi…
- Teaches: Two natures in one person (Chalcedon)
- Rejects: One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite)
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
So the truly thrice-blessed Athanasius, famous for piety, who was in his time bishop of the church of the Alexandrians, said this about Christ in the treatise on the incarnation: “For we confess,” he says, “that he is Son of God and God according to spirit, son of man according to flesh — not two natures as the one Son, one to be worshiped and one not, but one nature of the God Word enfleshed—
- Rejects: Two natures in one person (Chalcedon)
- Teaches: One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite)
- Rejects: Two natures, each with its own qnoma, in one person (Church of the East)
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
If the hypostasis were not that of the God-Word, the name of lordship would be common to him just as to us, and there would be nothing great in Christ. But if he was fore-announced as truly going to come as Lord—which is also true—and the Only-begotten has come into this world not without flesh, then there is by nature and truly one Lord and Christ and Son.
- Rejects: Two natures, each with its own qnoma, in one person (Church of the East)
Translation in progress
Ammonius of Alexandria, c. 499
Catena fragment, author uncertain: A catena fragment: the ascription rests on the catena heading and is not secure.
He called himself the light, not that the light is in me, lest someone cut the one Christ into a duality of sons; for there is one Christ Son both before flesh and after flesh, and one and only true Son from God and Father, and when he became man human nature is not set in a part; for the body is his own, and to cut Christ after the incarnation into two sons or two natures (for it is the same) is blasphemous.
- Rejects: Two natures in one person (Chalcedon)
- Teaches: One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite)
- Rejects: Two natures, each with its own qnoma, in one person (Church of the East)
Ammonius of Alexandria, c. 499
Catena fragment, author uncertain: A catena fragment: the ascription rests on the catena heading and is not secure.
Here again he calls the bread—that is, the flesh—from heaven, not because it was from heaven, but because it was united to the Word who came down from heaven; and after the union the saints speak without distinction as of one person and one hypostasis, even though they know the difference even after the union of flesh, soul, and Godhead.
- Rejects: Two natures, each with its own qnoma, in one person (Church of the East)
John of Damascus, c. 749
But in the economy of God and the Word of God, who was made flesh by the good pleasure of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, we confess two natures and one person: one Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, God together with man, and one person. We confess also two wills and two activities, each nature keeping its property, without division and without confusion.
- Teaches: Two natures in one person (Chalcedon)
- Rejects: One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite)
John of Damascus, c. 749
Union according to composition is seen in soul and body. Union according to person is spoken of only in the case of the divinity and humanity in Christ. For the two natures had one person, not two, contrary to the nonsense of Nestorius.
- Teaches: Two natures in one person (Chalcedon)
- Rejects: One incarnate nature of God the Word (miaphysite)
How this was made
Every whole work in the library on 21 October 2026 was searched for this question. Works added since then are not searched yet. The short excerpts on the topic pages (many from Tertullian, Justin, Irenaeus and Ignatius) join the search once their English has been checked against the Greek or Latin original: 94% of them (1,814 of 1,925) have passed that check, and the rest are still held out, so an early witness may occasionally be missing from these lanes. Two AI models from different labs judged each passage against all the positions at once, seeing them only as letters, without names or churches. A third model settled disagreements, and Claude reviewers then checked every deciding verdict against the passage and, for the earliest dates, against the Greek or Latin. A writer's silence is never counted.
The evidence is only as deep as the works searched: 1st century: 5 writers, 2nd century: 23 writers, 3rd century: 22 writers, 4th century: 18 writers, 5th century: 11 writers, 6th century: 5 writers, 8th century: 1 writer. The lanes are redrawn when the search is run again.