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Cyril of Alexandria and the union of Christ

Timeline Event · Early fifth century

Cyril's Christological teaching and the 433 Formula of Reunion help frame later conciliar language about the incarnate Word.

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Theodoret quotes Cyril:

Cyril distinguishes the united natures while insisting on one God and Son; Theodoret preserves this passage from Cyril's letter to Nestorius.

The natures which have been brought together in the true unity are distinct, and of both there is one God and Son

— St. Cyril of Alexandria (quoted by Theodoret), Letter to Nestorius, preserved in Theodoret's Dialogue 2 (Theodoret, Dialogue 2, Testimony of Cyril of Alexandria), trans. Blomfield Jackson edition

Passage context and translation

Theodoret quotes Cyril's letter to Nestorius as testimony in his own Dialogue 2. The excerpt is Cyril's wording as preserved there, not an independent work titled Dialogue 2 by Cyril.

After the excerpt

but the difference of the natures has not been removed in consequence of the union.

Blomfield Jackson translation in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Volume 3. The main quotation and context after it are consecutive clauses of the same sentence quoted by Theodoret from Cyril’s letter to Nestorius; no adjacent letter or editorial heading is used as quoted context.

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