Lift up the Son of Man; crucified humanly, lives as God; one Christ
“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am.” (John 8:28) Explaining to us the causes of the Jewish madness they practiced against Christ, the divine John says: “For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.” (John 5:16–18) And he has somewhere brought them in saying impiously: “We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a human, make yourself God.” (John 10:33) So they have made faith in him unacceptable, thinking him a bare human as such, and not knowing that the Word, being God, took hold of Abraham’s seed and shared blood and flesh likewise with us (Hebrews 2:14–16), yet did not depart from being God — for he is unchangeable by nature and forever himself.
“When therefore,” he says, “you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am.” (John 8:28) For he was crucified in a human way, but came back to life in a divine way; and through the resurrection it is believed that he is both God and truly Son of God. And if he is believed by us not as having raised another, but rather as himself raised, then somehow every necessity of the economy requires that the body that suffered death be understood as his own, so that he himself may also be said to rise, though by nature immortal as God. For by announcing the death of one Christ and Son and confessing the resurrection we are justified through faith. So the same one, existing as one and only Christ Jesus, is said to die in a human way according to the flesh, and to have been raised in a divine way as Life.
Greek
«Ὅταν ὑψώσητε τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, τότε γνώσεσθε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι.» τῆς Ἰουδαϊκῆς ἀπονοίας, ἣν ἐπὶ Χριστῷ πεποίηνται, τὰς αἰτίας ἡμῖν ἐξηγούμενος ὁ θεσπέσιος Ἰωάννης· «Διὰ τοῦτο, φησίν, ἐδίωκον οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι τὸν Ἰησοῦν, ὅτι οὐ μόνον ἔλυε τὸ σάββατον, ἀλλὰ καὶ πατέρα ἴδιον ἔλεγε τὸν Θεόν, ἴσον ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν τῷ Θεῷ.» εἰσκεκόμικε δέ που καὶ αὐτοὺς λέγοντας ἀνοσίως· «Περὶ καλοῦ ἔργου οὐ λιθάζομέν σε, ἀλλὰ περὶ βλασφημίας, ὅτι σὺ ἄνθρωπος ὢν ποιεῖς σεαυτὸν Θεόν.» οὐκοῦν ἀπαράδεκτον τὴν ἐπ’ αὐτῷ πεποίηνται πίστιν, ἄνθρωπον μὲν εἶναι νομίζοντες αὐτὸ δὴ τοῦτο ψιλόν, ἠγνοηκότες δὲ ὅτι Θεὸς ὢν ὁ Λόγος ἐπελάβετο σπέρματος Ἀβραὰμ καὶ κεκοινώνηκε μὲν αἵματος καὶ σαρκὸς παραπλησίως ἡμῖν, πλὴν οὐκ ἀπέστη τοῦ εἶναι Θεός· ἄτρεπτος γὰρ κατὰ φύσιν ἐστὶ καὶ διηνεκῶς αὐτός.
«ὅταν οὖν, φησίν, ὑψώσητε τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, τότε γνώσεσθε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι.» ἐσταυρώθη μὲν γὰρ ἀνθρωπίνως, ἀνεβίω δὲ θεϊκῶς· καὶ πεπίστευται διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ὅτι καὶ Θεός ἐστι καὶ Θεοῦ κατὰ ἀλήθειαν υἱός. εἰ δὲ πεπίστευται πρὸς ἡμῶν, οὐχ ἕτερον ἀναστήσας, ἐγηγερμένος δὲ μᾶλλον αὐτός, πᾶσα πως ἀνάγκη διὰ τὴν οἰκονομίαν ἴδιον αὐτοῦ σῶμα νοεῖσθαι τὸ πεπονθὸς τὸν θάνατον, ἵνα καὶ αὐτὸς ἀναστῆναι λέγοιτο, καίτοι τὴν φύσιν ἀθάνατος ὢν ὡς Θεός. ἑνὸς γὰρ Χριστοῦ καὶ Υἱοῦ τὸν θάνατον καταγγέλλοντες καὶ ὁμολογοῦντες τὴν ἀνάστασιν δικαιοῦμεθα διὰ πίστεως. οὐκοῦν ὁ αὐτὸς ὡς εἷς τε καὶ μόνος ὑπάρχων Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς ἀποθανεῖν μὲν ἀνθρωπίνως κατὰ τὴν σάρκα λέγεται, ἐγηγέρθαι δὲ θεϊκῶς ὡς ζωή.
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. 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)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.