The confusion of the fathers about who died and suffered, humanity or divinity.. documented by references

 

In the name of God , the Most Gracious

, the Most Merciful. May the peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.

Who died and suffered, the divinity or the humanity?

There is no agreement among Christians on who died on the cross: was it the humanity, the divinity, or the prostrate God according to the one nature and one hypostasis, whether from the earlier or later generations? What is strange is that this difference has extended to the sons of the one church. For example, in the Orthodox Church, we find the head of the church, Pope Shenouda, saying that what died was the human nature or the humanity. Anba Moussa denies this and says that what died was the divinity. Each of them has a valid reason. The death of the humanity will not achieve atonement because it is limited, and the death of the divinity is impossible because it is not capable of death. Whoever says that the incarnation gave it the ability to do so contradicts the book, which decided that the Lord is not capable of having this ability when He said, “I live forever.” Even if we assume, for the sake of argument, that the divinity affected the humanity and gave it infinity, this is impossible because the created event cannot become eternal. This infinity will make it incapable of death. So the issue has no solution. Here are some sayings that clarify the difference. From Christian references:
He Who Died and Suffered in Manhood, Church of the Great Martyr Mar Girgis Spontjes of Alexandria, Family of Saint Didymus the Blind for Ecclesiastical Studies, Series of Writings of the Fathers, The Secret of the Incarnation by Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan : Translated by Raymond Youssef - H, p. 30. [ The Lord Christ rose from the dead according to His humanity, which died and was buried in the grave, but we cannot say that He rose according to His divinity because the divinity did not die originally in order to rise afterwards .] Church of the Martyr Mar Girgis of Alexandria, Family of Saint Didymus the Blind for Ecclesiastical Studies, Series of Writings of the Fathers, The Secret of the Incarnation by Saint Ambrose , Bishop of Milan : Translated by Raymond Youssef - p. 31. [Thus, He died according to our nature and did not die according to the essence of His eternal life; He suffered according to His taking of the body, so that we may believe in the truth of His taking of the body; for Christ did not suffer according to the divinity of the unchanging Word, since it is without pain from the beginning. Finally, this one said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Because He was left according to the flesh, but according to His divinity He cannot be abandoned or forsaken.] The Book of the Inevitability of the Divine Incarnation - The Church of Saints Mark and Pope Peter - Sidi Bishr - Alexandria, 33 - The Body of Christ in the Sayings of the Fathers, Arius attacked the divinity of the Son and said that He was created: [ Saint Athanasius said: “Because they (the heretics) give the body of Christ descriptions such as “uncreated” and “heavenly” and sometimes they say that the body is “of the same essence of divinity”.. But everything they said is nothing but empty sophistry and idle opinions.. From what source did you take the gospel that makes you say that the body is “uncreated”? Doesn’t this make you imagine two things and no third! Either the divinity of the Word was transformed into a body, or you believe that the plan of suffering, death and resurrection is an imagination that did not happen, and both of these imaginations are wrong, because the essence of the Trinity is alone uncreated, eternal, unsuffering and unchanging . As for Christ according to the flesh (Rom. 9:5) He was born from the people who were called “his brothers,” and he was changed by his resurrection, so that after his resurrection he became “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (Col. 1:18).









How then do you call the humanity that changed from death to life “uncreated”? ... When you describe the changed body composed of bones, blood, and a human soul, that is, all the components of our bodies, which became apparent and tangible like our bodies, when you describe all this as “uncreated,” you fall into two terrible errors : First, you assume that the sufferings that He endured were merely imaginary, and this is the blasphemy of the Manichaeans, and that you consider that the divinity has an apparent, tangible nature, although it is an uncreated essence. This last conception places you with those who imagine that God is a being in a physical human form. What is your difference from these, since you have the same belief?] Bishop Isodorus : The Precious Pearl in the History of the Church - Vol. 1, p. 106 . [We believe that Christ the God suffered in the flesh as a man, and He did not suffer as God, and He tasted death in the flesh, and He did not die as God . So if you hear that God suffered for us and that God the Word died for us, understand that we bring the natures to the unity of divinity and humanity, and we call them by this one appropriate name.] The clear proof of the truth of the secrets of the religion of Christ, which are the mystery of the Trinity and the mystery of the divine incarnation - p. 85. [ This, then, who is free from suffering and death, according to his being God, accepted for us the suffering and death itself, according to his being man, that is, he accepted that with his human nature, which is susceptible to death and suffering. This was during the reign of Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, and he did not accept that in imagination, but in truth, in order to pay for sinners a true fulfillment according to the requirements of divine justice . So he died, crucified by the Jews, and death did not overtake him according to his divinity. But He accepted death with our nature that is susceptible to death .] The Appearance of the Life-Giver Christ – St. Anthony’s Foundation, p. 16. [ For He Himself must be acknowledged as suffering and not suffering… He suffered as a human being and remained painless and unchanging as God .] The Incarnation of the Only-Begotten Son – p. 37. [And although it is said about Jesus that He suffered, the sufferings are specific to the dispensation. They are His sufferings, and this is completely true because He suffered in the body that belongs to Him. But as God He does not suffer, i.e. His nature does not accept suffering . ( Quoted by Father Abdel-Masih Basit in his book If Christ is God, How Did He Suffer and Die, Chapter Four .)] The Incarnation of the Only-Begotten Son – p. 13. [ He suffers but does not suffer, i.e. He suffers in the body as a human being but is not susceptible to suffering as God . ( Quoted by Father Abdel-Masih Basit in his book If Christ is God, How Did He Suffer and Die, Chapter Four .)] The Incarnation of the Only-Begotten Son - p. 36. [ Thus we believe that He suffered in His own body because suffering is for humanity while divinity is above suffering . ( Quoted by Father Abdel-Masih Basit in his book If Christ is God, How Did He Suffer and Die, Chapter Four .)] Saint Athanasius the Apostolic , Epistle to Epictecus 6. [










It is strange that the Word himself was both in pain and not in pain. On the one hand, the Word was in pain because his body was in pain, and the Word - since he is by nature - does not accept pain . And the incorporeal Word was present in the suffering body, and the body contained within it the incorporeal Word who was destroying the diseases that had been before in his body.] John of Damascus : The Hundred Articles on the Orthodox Faith, Christian Thought Series Between Yesterday and Today, Publications of the Pauline Library, Lebanon, Article Fifty-One - Page 16. [The influence of the two natures in him by the divinity: - And know that, if we say that the two natures of the Lord influence each other, then we believe that the influence is from the divine nature, because this can pass through everything as it wishes and nothing can penetrate it, and it also grants the body its own glory and remains without emotion, unaffected by the pains of the body. So if the sun - while granting us its own powers - remains without sharing in our being affected, how much more so is the maker and Lord of the sun! ] Misbah al-Aql 25: 2 - 30. [ Christ, in terms of his humanity and humanization, is subject to pain, exposure, influence, and death. As for His eternity and divinity, He is intangible, intangible, painless, and mortal . Like the body with which the universe is united, or like the soul united with the body, or like fire united with wood. For the body is described as death, corruption, transformation, and acceptance of influence, division, separation, and dissolution in places... Likewise, the soul is not described as being killed, dying, hungry, or thirsty, even though it is united with the corrupt, mortal, hungry, and thirsty body. ( Quoted by Father Abdel-Masih Basit in his book If Christ is God, How Did He Suffer and Die, Chapter Four .)] John of Damascus : The Hundred Articles on the Orthodox Faith, Christian Thought Series Between Yesterday and Today, Publications of the Pauline Library, Lebanon - p. 69. [ Therefore, the Word of God Himself endured all the pains in His body, while His divine nature - which suffers - alone remained painless , because the one Christ united (composed) of divinity and humanity, and He is in divinity and humanity, He suffered. And that in which he was subject to suffering - which was naturally subject to suffering - suffered. As for that in which he was not subject to suffering, he did not share in the suffering. For the soul which is subject to suffering, when the body is wounded, even if it is not wounded, it shares in the body’s pains and sufferings. And know that we say that God suffers in the body, and we never say that the divinity suffers in the body .] The Church of Saints Mark and Pope Peter: Questions about the inevitability of the Trinity and Unity and the inevitability of the divine incarnation - p. 275. [And Saint Cyril the Great said in the fourth letter to Nestorius: “It is not that the Word of God (the divinity) suffered in its own nature, or was struck, or stabbed, or received other wounds, because the divine (the divinity) is not subject to suffering, since it is not corporeal. But since his own body that was born suffered these things, it is said that he himself also suffered these things for us, because he who is not susceptible to suffering was in the suffering body . And in the same way we also think of his death.




The Word of God is by nature immortal and incorruptible, being life and the giver of life . But because his own body tasted death for all by the grace of God, as Paul says, he himself is said to have suffered death for us. Thus we confess one Christ and Lord, not that we worship a man with the Word, lest there should appear to be a division by the use of the word “with,” but we worship one and the same Lord

who died and suffered the divinity: The Church of Saints Mark and Pope Peter: Questions on the Inevitability of the Trinity and Monotheism and the Inevitability of the Divine Incarnation - p. 276. [Now we put the question explicitly and clearly: Can we say that God died on the cross ? We leave the answer to Saint Isaac the Syrian to teach us, saying: “I heard people asking: Did God die or did he not die? What ignorance! His death saved creation, and they wondered whether He died or not . Nestorius and Eutyches troubled the ears, for the former denied the divinity of our Lord, saying: “He is purely human,” and the latter responded by denying His humanity, saying: “He did not take a human body.” Therefore, Mary, the Mother of God, from whom He was incarnate, gives woe to Eutyches. And the elements that were disturbed by the Crucified One spit on Nestorius. For if He were not God, how would the sun have been darkened and the rocks split? If He were human, who bore the whips, and in whom were the nails thrust? Indeed, the body alone was not hung on the cross without God, and God did not suffer on Golgotha ​​without the body. The great glory of the Church is that our Lord has both divinity and humanity, and is not in two persons or two natures. He is one perfect Son from the Father and from Mary, perfect in His divinity and perfect in His humanity. The one whom the Father sent is the same one who was born from the womb (of the Virgin Mary), and the one who was born from the womb of Mary is the same one who was hung on Golgotha. The glory of the Church is that God died on the cross. If He wanted to die, He became incarnate and tasted death by His will. Indeed, had death not seen Him incarnate, it would have feared to approach Him. He is deprived who separates divinity from the body . The nature of the Only-Begotten is one, and His hypostasis is also one, composed without change. So do not let your mind doubt when you hear that God has died, for if He had not died, the world would still be dead. He has the death of the cross and the resurrection. When a person dies, it is not said that his body has died, and even though half of him has not tasted death, those who know him say that so-and-so has died. The Jews crucified one incarnate God on Golgotha. Yes, one incarnate God was struck on the head with a reed, and one incarnate God suffered with the creatures . ” Pope Shenouda III : The Nature of Christ , Coptic Orthodox Clerical College, pp. 19, 20. [The Importance of Unity for Atonement and Redemption: Belief in the one nature of the incarnate Word is necessary, essential, and fundamental for redemption. Redemption requires unlimited atonement , sufficient to forgive unlimited sins for all people in all ages. There was no solution except for the incarnation of God the Word to make His divinity unlimited atonement.

If we spoke of two separate natures, and human nature carried out the process of redemption alone, it would not have been possible at all to offer unlimited atonement for the salvation of mankind. Hence the danger of calling for two separate natures, each of which does what pertains to it. In this case, the death of human nature alone is not sufficient for redemption . Therefore, we see Saint Paul the Apostle saying: “ For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory ” (1 Corinthians 2:8), and he did not say they would not have crucified the man Jesus Christ. The expression “Lord of glory” here clearly indicates the unity of nature and its necessity for redemption, atonement, and salvation , because the one who was crucified is the Lord of glory. Of course, he was crucified in the flesh, but the flesh was united with the divinity in one nature , and here is the basic matter necessary for salvation. And Saint Peter the Apostle says to the Jews, “You denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the Prince of Life ” (Acts 3:14-15). Here he indicated that the crucified One was the Prince of Life, and this is a divine expression . He never separated the two natures in the matter of the crucifixion because of the importance of their unity for the work of redemption. Saint Paul the Apostle also says in his letter to the Hebrews, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things , in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Prince of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb 2:10). And here, in the context of His sufferings, He never forgot His divinity, for He is all things for Him, and all things through Him. This is the One about whom He said in another place, “All things were created through Him and for Him” (Col 1:16). And when the Lord Christ Himself appeared to John the Revelator, He said to him: “ I am the First and the Last, and I am alive; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of hell and of death ” (Rev. 1:17-18). So He who was dead is the First and the Last, and in His hand are the keys of hell and of death. Thus, He did not separate His divinity from His humanity here while speaking of His death. So He who died is the Lord of glory, the Prince of life, and the Prince of salvation; He is also the First and the Last. It is a great danger to our salvation to separate the two natures while speaking about the subject of salvation . Perhaps some will say: Who made the separation?! Didn’t the Council of Chalcedon speak of two united natures ?! Yes, he says this, and Thomas Leo also says: “Christ is two, God and man, one dazzles with wonders, and the other is the recipient of insults and pains..!” If this man alone is the recipient of pains, then what salvation have we obtained ?!]
The Church of Saints Mark and Pope Peter: Questions about the inevitability of the Trinity and Monotheism and the inevitability of the divine incarnation - p. 277. [Pope Alexander said in astonishment: “They condemned the Judge, and bound him who looses the bonds of death, and restrained him who rules the world, and fed him who gives life to men with gall, and the Giver of life died, and they buried him who raises the dead. The powers of heaven were astonished at that time, and the angels were astonished, and the elements were terrified, and all creation was astonished, and said: ‘ Behold, the Judge is judged and is silent, and the invisible is seen and is not questioned, and the impassible suffered and did not take revenge, and the immortal died and was patient .’]

Pope Shenouda III : The Nature of Christ , Coptic Orthodox Clerical College - pp. 21, 22. [In the crucifixion of Christ, the Bible presents us with a very beautiful verse in the conversation of Saint Paul the Apostle with the bishops of Ephesus, where he said: “ To feed the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood ” (Acts 20/28). Here, he attributed the blood to God, while God is a spirit, and the blood is the blood of His humanity. However, this expression indicates in a very amazing way the one nature of the incarnate Word, so that what is related to humanity can be attributed at the same time to the divinity, without distinction, since there is no separation between the two natures . The separation of the two natures advocated by Nestorius could not provide a solution to the issue of atonement and redemption. The Church was keen to express the one nature because of the importance of this issue, as well as for the rest of the consequences arising from the unity of nature. In ordinary expressions, we say that someone died, and we do not say that only his body died , if his soul is in the image of God and God has given it the blessing of immortality, and the soul does not die.] History of Christian Thought, Rev. Dr. Hanna Girgis Al-Khudary (4/88, 90), and God in Christianity, Awad Simeon, p. (412), Letters of Saint Cyril to Nestorius and John of Antioch, pp. (12, 16). [ Cyril was one of the most famous advocates of the doctrine of “God’s suffering ,” and he said in the famous anathemas he issued; In the twelfth denial: “ Let everyone be denounced who denies that the Word of God suffered in His body, was crucified in His body, tasted death in His body, and became the firstborn of those who have fallen asleep.” He sees the divinity and humanity sharing in attributes and properties, and emphasizes that “the divinity feels what humanity feels, and shares in its works as does humanity. If humanity suffered, then the divinity also suffered; because of the strong unity between the two essences.” Therefore , Cyril emphasizes the worthiness of the body of Christ for worship: “Christ Jesus, the only Son, who is honored with one prostration with his own body .”] Pope Shenouda III : The Nature of Christ , Coptic Orthodox Clerical College - pp. 21, 22. [One Will and One Action: Does the Lord Christ have two wills and two actions, that is, a divine will and a human will? And two actions, that is, an action by the divinity and an action by the humanity. We who use the expression “one nature” for the incarnate Word , as used by St. Cyril the Great, believe that He has one will and one action. It is natural that since the nature is one, the will is one, and consequently the action is one . What the divinity chooses is undoubtedly the same as what the humanity chooses, because there is absolutely no contradiction between them in will and action.] Pope Shenouda III : The Nature of Christ , Coptic Orthodox Clerical College, p. 19. [ Belief in the one nature of the incarnate Word is necessary, essential and fundamental for redemption. Redemption requires unlimited atonement, sufficient to forgive unlimited sins for all people in all ages . If we spoke of two separate natures.



If human nature alone carried out the act of redemption, it would not have been possible at all to provide unlimited atonement for the salvation of mankind. Hence the danger of calling for two separate natures, each of which carries out its own thing. In this case, the death of human nature alone is not sufficient for redemption .] Pope Shenouda III : The Nature of Christ , Coptic Orthodox Clerical College – p. 19. [ So the one who died is the Lord of glory, the Prince of life, and the Prince of salvation. He is also the first and the last .] Pope Shenouda III : The Nature of Christ , Coptic Orthodox Clerical College – 19, 20. [For if we spoke of two natures and the human nature carried out the process of redemption alone, it would not have been possible at all to provide unlimited atonement for the salvation of mankind. Hence the danger of calling for two separate natures, each of which carries out what is specific to it . So the one who died is the Lord of glory and the Prince of life .] Pope Shenouda III : The Nature of Christ , Coptic Orthodox Clerical College – p. 10, 11. [The Heresy of Nestorius: Nestorius was Patriarch of Constantinople from 428 AD, until the Council of Ephesus excommunicated him. The Holy Ecumenical Council in 431 AD. He refused to call the Holy Virgin Mary the Mother of God (QeotokoV Theotokos), and believed that she gave birth to a human being, and that this human being was inhabited by divinity. Therefore, the Virgin can be called the mother of Jesus . This teaching was spread by his priest Anastasius, and he supported the teaching of that priest and wrote five books against calling the Virgin the Mother of God. He considered that by doing so he denied the divinity of Christ. Even his saying that divinity was inhabited in him was not in the sense of hypostatic union, but rather indwelling in the sense of companionship or indwelling as happens to the saints . That is, Christ became the dwelling place of God, just as he became the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit in his baptism. In this position, he is considered the bearer of God (QeoforoV Theophoros), like the title taken by Saint Ignatius of Antioch. He said that the Virgin cannot give birth to God, for the created cannot give birth to the Creator! What is born from the flesh is nothing but flesh . Thus, he sees that the relationship between the human nature of Christ and the divine nature began after his birth from the Virgin, and was not a union. He said explicitly: “I separate the two natures.” In this situation, Nestorianism is against the doctrine of atonement. Because if Christ did not unite with the divine nature, he could not offer unlimited atonement sufficient to forgive all sins for all people in all ages . When the Church says that the Virgin is the Mother of God, it means that she gave birth to the incarnate Word, not that she was the origin of the divinity, God forbid. For God the Word is the Creator of the Virgin, but in the fullness of time He dwelt in her, and she conceived Him united with the humanity and gave birth to Him. The twelve anathemas of Saint Cyril contain refutations of all the heresies of Nestorius. He anathematized those who said that the two natures were by way of companionship, and those who said that God the Word was working in the man Jesus, or that He was dwelling in him.



. As he distinguished between Christ and the Word of God, and that he was born as a human being only from a woman.] Athanasius the Apostolic : The Incarnation of the Word, Chapter 19, paragraph 3. (Orthodox Center for Patristic Studies, Patristic Texts 128) [Because he made even creation itself break its silence, the amazing thing is that in his death, or rather in his victory over death while he was on the cross, all creation acknowledged that he who appeared and suffered in the flesh was not just a man but the Son of God and the Savior of all, so the sun disappeared, the earth quaked, the mountains were split, and all people were terrified. All these things made it clear that Christ on the cross is God, and that all creation is subject as a servant to Him , and that it witnessed with its terror the presence of its Master, and thus God the Word revealed Himself to mankind through His works.] Father Abdel-Masih Basit, The Secret of the Divine Incarnation – p. 54. [There is no such thing as divinity or humanity alike, because the one God, the one Lord, the one Savior, and the one Christ, Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, is the one who died on the cross, and even if He died as a human being, the Bible attributes what pertains to His humanity to His one person, with His divinity and humanity .] Pope Shenouda III : The Nature of Christ , Coptic Orthodox Clerical College – p. 7. [ This union is permanent, never separates, and never separates. We say about it in the Divine Liturgy that His divinity does not leave His humanity for a single moment or the blink of an eye .] The Church of Saints Mark and Pope Peter: Questions about the Inevitability of the Trinity and Monotheism and the Inevitability of the Divine Incarnation – p. 271. [ As a result of the union, we offer worship and prostration to the one Christ: We reject the Nestorian thought that worships the divinity and is content to offer respect to humanity because it has the honor of accompanying the divinity . And Polydeus, Bishop of Rome in the fourth century , says : “And if the Word became flesh as it is written, then if someone worships the Word, he worships the flesh, and if he worships the flesh , he worships the divinity. So also the apostles, when they worshipped the holy body, they worshipped the Word. And so the angels served the form of the body and knew that it was their Lord and worshipped it. And so when the Virgin Mary gave birth to the body, she gave birth to the Word, and for this reason she is the Mother of God in truth. And when the Jews crucified the body, it was God the Word incarnate who was crucified. And in none of the books did God speak of any separation between the Word and his body, but rather it is one nature and one image and one action. “One, He is all God and He is all man, and He is one act .”] History of Christian Thought, Rev. Dr. Hanna Girgis Al-Khudary, the famous letter of Proclus, Bishop of Constantinople (435 AD) in which he answered the questions of the leaders and bishops of the Church of Armenia (4/89). [ Proclus says : The divinity shared in the weakness of humanity, that is, it suffered and knew in a real, actual way the suffering of the body, sorrow and death. The one who suffered, thirsted and hungered, and in the end died and rose from the dead is Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, that is, the second hypostasis of the divinity .] The scholar Origen, Encyclopedia of Anba Gregory







- Page 189. [ Because of the inseparable union between the Word and the body, everything pertaining to the body is also attributed to the Word, and everything pertaining to the Word is attributed to the body .]
Bishoy Helmy: The Doctrine of Redemption , Al-Nubar Presses - pp. 21-23. [Specifications of the Redeemer: (1) He must be a human being : because the one who sinned against God was a human being. In this regard, Saint Irenaeus (140-202 AD) says: “Truly, the enemy could not have been defeated justly if the one who defeated him had not been a human being born of a woman, because through a woman he ruled over man in the beginning, and just as our race fell into death through a defeated man, so we can also rise again to life through a victorious man. “And just as death gained victory over us through a man, so also through a man we gain victory over death.” (2) He must be unlimited: There had to be an unlimited atonement sufficient to bear and lift the sins of all people in all generations , from Adam to the end of time. That is why sacrifices were not sufficient, because their effectiveness is limited. This is what His Grace Bishop Moussa, Bishop of Youth, confirms when he says: “ The Redeemer must be unlimited, because Adam’s punishment is unlimited and eternal, because his sin is directed toward the unlimited God .” (His Grace Bishop Moussa: The Incarnation is a Divine Visitation, Bishopric of Youth, Cairo, January 2005, p. 16). (3) He must be holy and without sin : because if the Redeemer is a sinner, how can he redeem another? Is it not the blind leading the blind who both fall into a pit? On this matter, St. Augustine (354-430 AD) says: “ After sin had created a great gulf between God and the human race, it was necessary for a mediator who would be the only one of the human race, born, living and dying without sin” (4). He must accept to die of his own free will , and conquer death: this is of course so that he can bear the punishment and die for mankind. And the most important thing is that he not remain in death until the end, otherwise death would have conquered him. Rather, he must be able to rise again so that humanity would rise in him and live again . St. Augustine (354-4300 AD) explains this matter, saying: “There are two things necessary: ​​that he become mortal, and that he not remain mortal.” (5) He must be a Creator : His Grace Bishop Moussa, Bishop of Youth, explains this when he says: “ The Redeemer must be a Creator, who can renew the nature of man once again ” ( His Grace Bishop Moussa , Incarnation: Divine Visitation - p. 16).]

Bishoy Helmy: The Doctrine of Redemption , Al-Nubar Press - pp. 28, 29. [Saint Athanasius the Apostolic (296-373 AD) explains that the Redeemer cannot be anyone other than God Himself , saying: “ No one was able to transform the corruptible into incorruptibility except the Redeemer Himself who created everything from nothing from the beginning . No one else was able to recreate humans to be in the image of God except the One who is the image of the Father . It was not possible for the mortal to be clothed with immortality except our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Life . It was not possible for humans to teach about the Father and judge…” On idolatry“Except the Word, the all-powerful ruler, who is the only true Son of the Father .” And Saint Athanasius the Apostolic (296-3733 AD) also says: “When the image engraved on the wood is stained with dirt from the outside and removed, the owner of the image himself must be present again , in order to help the painter renew the image on the same wooden board, because out of respect for his image, even the wood on which it was painted cannot be thrown away, but the painting is renewed on it. And in this same way the Son of the Father, the all-holy, came to our world, since He is the image of the Father , in order to renew the creation of man who was once created in His image, and to renew him by the forgiveness of sins, as He Himself says in the Gospel: “He came to seek and to save that which was lost.” And for this reason He also said to the Jews: “Unless one is born again” (John 3:3, 5). By this He did not mean, as they thought, birth from a woman, but rather He intended to speak about the rebirth of the soul and the renewal of its creation in the image of God.]
Bishoy Helmy: The Doctrine of Redemption , Al-Nubar Press, pp. 24, 25. [The only and sole solution: Therefore, the only and sole solution is that the Redeemer is God Himself. Yes, He is the only one to whom all the conditions apply: He is the only unlimited one. He is the only one without sin. He is the only creator. But He is not a human, for it is man who sinned. Therefore, the only solution is for God to be incarnate, that is, to take a human body, and in this body accept the sentence of death instead of man. This is what the Son of God, the incarnate Word, was pleased to do in the fullness of time , in order to save man from death. Saint Athanasius clarifies this point, saying: “Since the Word saw that the corruption of humanity could not be nullified in any other way, except by death as a necessary condition, and that it is impossible for the Word to suffer death because He is immortal , and because He is the Son of the Father, He therefore took for Himself a body subject to death, so that when this body is united with the Word who is above all, it becomes able to die on behalf of all, and even remains incorruption because of the Word’s union with it .”] Bishoy Helmy: The Doctrine of Redemption , Al-Nubar Press, p. 78. [How was man redeemed? Answer: First: The Son of God the Word was incarnated in the fullness of time . And in the fullness of time, and after God prepared the minds with prophecies, characters, symbols and sacrifices for the idea of ​​redemption by blood, and for the idea of ​​sacrifices that are slaughtered in place of sinful man, the hypostasis of the Son came and was incarnated by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and she gave birth to Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Word in truth, who was like us in everything except sin alone . Thus the hypostasis of the Son came incarnate in order to complete the redemption and salvation of man. And it was necessary for the incarnation to have a body capable of death , as we have previously explained.] Bishoy Helmy: The Doctrine of Redemption , Al-Nubar Press - p. 29. [His Holiness Pope Shenouda says in this matter: “ It was not possible for any creature to die for man for two reasons: (1) Because every creature is limited



“He cannot offer unlimited atonement to cover the unlimited punishment for unlimited sin. (2) Because the judgment was passed against man , man must die. The only solution was incarnation, for God to come down to our world, born of a woman. As regards His divinity, He is unlimited as God. He can offer unlimited atonement to forgive all the sins of people throughout all generations. As regards His humanity, He can take the place of condemned man in paying the price of sin .” (His Grace Bishop Shenouda ( currently Pope Shenouda III ): Spiritual Lessons from the Nativity and Epiphany , The Theological College of Anba Royes, January 1971)] Bishoy Helmy: The Doctrine of Redemption , Al-Nubar Press - pp. 134, 135. [The Church Fathers emphasize the death of Christ on behalf of all , in many of their writings, such as what was stated in the letter to Diognetus (late second century AD): “ He bore our sins in Himself, and gave His Son as a ransom for us: the holy for the imams, the blameless for the wicked, the righteous for the corrupt, the immortal for the mortal . For what could have covered our sins except His righteousness, and by whom could we, the wicked and the guilty, be justified except by the only Son of God? What a sweet exchange! That the evils of many should disappear in the righteous One, and that many of the guilty should be justified by the righteousness of the One! ” St. Athanasius the Apostolic (296-373 AD) says: “Since all were subject to the penalty of the corruption of death, He gave His body in place of all, and presented it to the Father . He did this also out of compassion for us, firstly, since all were considered to have died in Him , and secondly, in order to restore men again to incorruption, and to revive them from death.” He also says: “He took for Himself a body capable of death, so that by its union with the ‘Word’ who is above all, it would be worthy to die in place of all .” He also says: “Since He is the Word of the Father, and above all, He alone was able by nature to recreate all things, to suffer for all, and to be the representative of all before the Father .”