On the True Faith, to the Empresses Pulcheria and Eudocia · §17

Emptied as man, still exalted; receives as man what he is as God

…we believe that the Word of God came to be in these things in a human way by his own will for us, yet remained in a divine way in the heights of his own superiority. In this way he is also said to be highly exalted by receiving the name above every name, to be worshiped by all, and to be named Lord to the glory of God the Father. For though he exists in the Father’s superiority and in unspeakable heights, when he lowered himself into emptying and is said to have been humbled by taking a slave’s form, he also went up again into his own wealth, having outrun the poverty of the nature united to him — clearly the human. In this way he is said to receive in a human way what always and inalienably exists in him — that is, to be God and Lord of all. And if it is the Father’s glory to have his own Son as Lord of all, how is it not true to say that even when he has taken the slave’s form the freedom and the surpassing dignity of lordship and authority over all are again kept for him?

“Giving thanks to the Father who made us fit for the share of the lot of the saints in light, who rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins; who is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, because in him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and all things hold together in him, and he is the head of the body…

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About this text

Cyril’s court treatise on right faith for Pulcheria and Eudocia (CPG 5220). One Son who suffers in flesh yet remains impassible as God. English from Pusey’s Greek.

English follows Pusey’s 1877 Greek of De recta fide ad Pulcheriam et Eudociam. 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 5220 §§1–48)

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