Letter 151: To the Monks of Euphratensis, Osrhoene, Syria, Phoenicia, and Cilicia,

To the Monks of Euphratensis, Osrhoene, Syria, Phoenicia, and Cilicia, When I contemplate the state of the Church at this present crisis -- the tempest that has struck the holy ship, the furious blasts, the beating waves, the deep darkness of the night, and beyond all this the strife of the sailors, the struggle among the oarsmen, the drunkenness of the pilots, and the reckless action of the wicked -- I think of the laments of Jeremiah and cry with him: "My bowels, my bowels! I am in pain at my very heart!" [Jeremiah 4:19]. To drive away the great cloud of despair with the drops from my eyes, I have recourse to springs of tears. In a storm this wild, the pilots should be awake, battling the tempest and watching out for the ship's safety. The sailors should stop fighting each other and strive to overcome the danger through both prayer and skill. The passengers should keep the peace -- quarreling neither with one another nor with the pilots -- and implore the Lord of the sea to banish the darkness with His rod. No one is willing to do any of this. Just as in a night battle, we cannot tell friend from foe. We leave our enemies alone and waste our weapons on our own side. We wound our comrades thinking they are the enemy, while bystanders laugh at our drunken folly, enjoy our disasters, and are delighted to see us destroying each other. The responsibility for all this lies with those who have sought to corrupt the apostolic faith and dared to add a monstrous doctrine to the teaching of the Gospels -- with those who have accepted the impious Chapters [Cyril's Twelve Anathemas] sent forth with their curses to the imperial city, and have confirmed them with their signatures. These Chapters have sprouted from the bitter root of Apollinaris. They are tainted with Arian and Eunomian error. Examine them carefully, and you will find they are not free of the impiety of Manes and Valentinus either. In his first Chapter, Cyril rejects the saving plan accomplished on our behalf. He teaches that God the Word did not assume human nature but was Himself changed into flesh -- laying down that the incarnation took place not in reality but in mere appearance. This is the outcome of the impiety of Marcion, Manes, and Valentinus. In his second and third Chapters, he teaches a "natural" or "hypostatic" union that confuses the natures, making the Godhead and the manhood one and the same -- which is precisely what Apollinaris taught. If we accept a "natural union," then the natures are fused and Christ is neither truly God nor truly man. In his fourth Chapter, he refuses to allow the biblical and patristic practice of distinguishing the sayings of the Gospel -- assigning some to the divinity and some to the humanity of Christ. But the holy Fathers always made this distinction. When Scripture says "In the beginning was the Word" [John 1:1], it speaks of the divine nature. When it says "The Word became flesh" [John 1:14], it speaks of the incarnation. To forbid this distinction is to confuse the natures. [Theodoret continues through each of the remaining Chapters, arguing that they either deny Christ's true humanity, confuse His two natures into one, or attribute suffering and death to the divine nature itself -- all positions he identifies as revivals of Apollinarianism.] The sum of his argument is this: the Only-begotten Son of God, being eternal God, took on human nature for our salvation. He did not change into a man. He was not diminished. He remained what He was and became what He was not. In Christ we recognize two natures united without confusion in one Person -- the divine nature, which is impassible, and the human nature, which truly suffered. It was the body that was nailed to the cross. It was the body that was buried. It was the body that rose. The Godhead remained what it always was: eternal, unchangeable, beyond suffering. This is what the prophets foretold, the apostles preached, and the Fathers at Nicaea confessed. This is what we defend. Anyone who teaches otherwise -- whether by confusing the natures, by attributing suffering to the Godhead, or by denying Christ's true humanity -- has departed from the apostolic faith. I urge you, my brothers in the monastic life, to hold fast to this teaching. Do not be swayed by the authority of any name, however famous. Test every doctrine against the rule of faith handed down by the apostles. Pray for the peace of the Church, and pray for me, that I may have strength to continue defending the truth.

Letter 151