Hi,
I have a question concerning the Nature of Christ.
We say that Christ was Complete Man, and Complete God.
If we look at the general composition of a man, we have:
* Mind (intellect, psyche, personality, character, charm, emotions etc)
* Soul (?? The spiritual element)
* Spirit (?? Another spiritual element apparently we have)
* Body (Eyes, nose, ears, throat, breathing, walking, speaking human being).
So, The Word of God became man. The Word was with God at the beginning of time, and the Word Was God.
So, this Word had a personality - His own personality when He was born.
So, did Christ have a dual personality? or ONE personality? and if One, how did it work?
So, He had the personality of the Human Being + Joined with the Personality of the Word? Is that Correct??
Can someone kindly explain to me, in terms of Personality, how all this worked.
For example, if the Word of God took flesh, then the Word of God was born all knowing. Therefore, Christ, could He speak when He was a baby, or did He have to learn. If He had to learn speech as a baby and a child, then WHICH part of Him knew language. Which part of Christ was the "I Am".
Thanks a lot.
Comments
Father Peter
The I of Christ is the same I as the Word. Christ is the Word incarnate. It is best to humbly bow before the mystery and not ask how it works. Most adults don't know how a VCR works!
Father Peter
I think I have the right to ask.
This question is so basic. Its not a VCR.
If the Word was God and the Word was with God, and The Word took flesh, it would mean that The Word already knew how to speak when He took flesh.
So, did Christ know how to speak when He was born?
That's all I need to know. Not more , not less.
excellent book to answer all your questions...literally all your questions are answered word for word
~Just Be ME
It was a great book :)
I'm reading it right now.
You know, page 4 states that Christ was born without the original sin. Wouldn't that mean that His Body would not have died?
This is just becoming more and more confusing. Anyway, i'll finish the books and submit my questions later.
Thanks for the link.
ps.
God bless anyone who translates these books, but this is not the original translation. There appears to be a lot of mistakes in this edition.
As St Cyril and St Severus say,
We are not born sinners of sinful parents, but mortal of mortal parents.
Father Peter
i'm confused ....i was i taught that we aare all born of the original sin and baptism removes it...and fills us instead with the Holy Spirit ... or maybe i misunderstood something.. ? ahh.
A sin is an action that is taken. that action is only done through our choice. therefore we cannot inherit a sin, an action. BUT we are stuck with the result of that action.
THe original sin brought the fall of the man to earth and the shutting of the gates of Paradise which brought all men to Hades thereafter.....that is what were stuck with after the sin with of course also the freewill to sin again.....that was so until Christ died on the Cross to grant us salvation and open for us the gates of Paradise once more.
Certified Orthdox, this is a very good question and has caused many debates and schisms in the past. The nature of Christ is definetly a difficult subject to grasp. I suggest reading St. Athanasius "On the Incarnation" written when he was just 15. The Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church uses the word Tewahedo which in Ge'ez, their church language, means being made one with or unified. Christ being God has the mind of God, as well as the Holy Spirit all being coessential and of one essence with the Father. So He did not develop His own personality like you and I would, His physical self obviously had to develop but His Divine self. Hopefully that makes sense.
Listen everyone, I'm going to read the Nature of Christ, I already started - just hadnt had time to finish.
I'm not happy with how things are going in this forum. I'm not happy at all.
First I was happy that I got answer, now it turns out that these answers are questionable.
I'd like to close this thread until i found out the truth, and then I'll post it. I'm just gonna finish reading the Nature of Christ and then I'm gonna ask my local priest.
Can the admins just close it until i speak to my FoC?
The word in the Scriptures which is translated to soul is Ψυχή, also translatable to psyche, the root of psychology. It is what makes you who you are, giving you personality, different from the mind, but basically driving it.
The word translated to spirit is Πνεῦμα, sometimes translatable to wind, having a closer relationship to ἔργον (physical actions) and ἐνέργεια (energy, activity).
Body is Σῶμα, not so much in reference to the flesh carnally, but as in physical presence.
It's just something interesting that I thought would help you understand better.