Annotation CCCXXIX

”God, thy God, has anointed thee.” — Hebrews 1:9

Whether in Christ there are two persons.

Chrysostom, [in] the third homily on the epistle to the Hebrews, seems to place two persons in Christ, divine and human — which the theologians judge it unlawful [nefas] both to say and to think. For thus he speaks: “WHAT is [that] which he says, ‘God, thy God’? Here he struck the Jews, and Paul of Samosata, and the Arians, and Marcellus, and Sabellius. In what manner? The Jews indeed, by showing them two persons, God and man.” I suspect this passage in the Greek codices also to be corrupted [depraved]; and, for that which in them is written Θεὸν καὶ ἄνθρωπον [Theòn kaì ánthrōpon], that is, “God and man,” [I suspect] it is to be read Θεὸν καὶ Θεὸν [Theòn kaì Theòn], that is, “God and God.” Occasion of the suspicion is afforded by a twin conjecture. Of these the former is, that Theophylact, reporting these same words of Chrysostom — the mention of “man” being omitted, and the name of God being placed twice — thus writes: “This fights against the Jews, and Sabellius, and Marcellus, as indicating two persons, God and God.” The other conjecture is, that the reduplication of the particle “God” fits most aptly with the proposed sentence of Paul, in which, by the twin name of God, it is said, “God, thy God, has anointed thee” — [namely] for the expression of two persons, the Jews, Sabellius, and Marcellus gainsaying, who acknowledge only one person of the deity. But if anyone urge that the reading of the Greek codices is entire [sound], and that it is to be read, “Two persons, God and man,” we shall not much resist — provided that we understand by “man” to be signified the person of Christ, God and man at once; but by “God,” the person of the Father, or of the Holy Spirit.