Theodore of Mopsuestia's Understanding of Two Hypostaseis and Two Prosōpa Coinciding in One Common Prosōpon

The present article discusses how Theodore of Mopsuestia expresses in his own words the unity of Christ as God and man. Theodore was unable to use the term hypostasis as expressing the unity of Christ's natures because it suggested Apollinaris's novel understanding of the term as connoting the organic unity of the "one incarnate nature of the divine Word." Theodore believed that the best way to express what the New Testament reveals about Christ being God and man is to describe this union as being that of two prosōpa coinciding in "one common prosōpon." We begin first with brief summaries of Theodore's basic principles for determining what is the revealed meaning of a scriptural text and of the general meanings of the terms prosōpon and hypostasis. We will then examine how Theodore understands the term prosōpon and the phrase "one common prosōpon" in three key christological texts. In Phil 2.5-11, Theodore explains in terms of a prosopic union how Christ has descended from heaven and returned there as the morphai of God and man. His commentaries on John 10.30 ("We are one, the Father and I") and on Rom 7.21 where Paul speaks of one "ego" acting in spiritual and bodily ways further enlarge our understanding of Theodore's thought. By likening the union of the soul and its body to that of Christ's divine and human natures, Theodore offers insight into how he sees Christ Jesus' "ego" serving as the ultimate prosopic source of all his unified acts but having to operate with and in his natures as their proximate prosopic causes. The paper concludes with an assessment of Theodore's Christology.