Chapter 33 — The errors of Apollinaris who said that Christ had not a rational soul, and of Origen who said that Christ’s soul was created before the world

Convinced by the authority of Scripture, Apollinaris confessed that there was in Christ a sensitive soul, but one without mind or intellect, so that the Word supplied the absence of mind and intellect in that soul. But neither does this suffice to avoid the absurdities mentioned above.

For man takes his human species from his having a human mind and reason. Accordingly, if Christ had no such thing, he was not really a man, nor of the same species as we are, because a soul devoid of reason belongs to a different species from that to which a rational soul belongs. For, according to the Philosopher, (Aristotle, Metaphysics 8.) in definitions and species, the addition or subtraction of an essential difference changes the species, as unity in numbers. Now rational is a specific difference. Therefore, if in Christ the soul was sensitive, but not rational, it was of a different species from ours, which is possessed of reason. Consequently, Christ would not have been of the same species as we are.

Again. There are various species among irrational sensitive souls, as evidenced by irrational animals that differ specifically, each one of which is specified by its own soul. Hence the irrational sensitive soul is a genus containing many species. Now a thing cannot be in a genus without being in one of its species. Consequently, if Christ’s soul belonged to the genus of irrational sensitive souls, it must have belonged to one of the species of that genus, such as the soul of a lion, or horse, or some other beast. This is utterly absurd.

Further. The body stands in relation to the soul as matter to form, and as an instrument to the principal agent. Now matter must be proportionate to the form, and the instrument to the principal agent. Consequently, there must be a diversity of bodies corresponding to the diversity of souls. Our very senses bear witness to the fact that various animals are provided with a variety of members according to the requirements of their respective souls. Hence if Christ had not a soul like ours, his body would not have been provided with the same members as ours.

Moreover. Apollinaris admits that the Word of God is truly God. Therefore, he must also admit that the Word of God cannot be astonished, since we are astonished by those things whose causes we do not know. Now no astonishment could affect a sensitive soul, since it belongs not to a sensitive soul to trouble about knowing the causes of things. Yet Christ was astonished, as can be proved from the Gospels, for it is stated that when Jesus heard the words of the centurion, he marvelled (Matt 8:10). Therefore, in Christ, besides the divinity of the Word and a sensitive soul, there was something else which made it possible for him to marvel: this is a human mind. Hence it is clear from all that has been said that Christ had a real human body and a real human soul.

Accordingly, the text of John: The Word was made flesh (John 1:14), does not mean that the Word was changed into flesh, nor that the Word assumed flesh alone, or a sensitive and not a rational soul. According to the customary manner of Scripture, the part is put for the whole, so that the Word was made flesh is the same as if it said the Word was made man. In the same way ‘soul’ is sometimes used by Scripture to indicate ‘man.’ Thus it is said: All the souls that came out of Jacob’s thigh were seventy (Exod 1:5). Likewise with ‘flesh’: thus it is said: All flesh shall see together that the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isa 40:5). Accordingly, in the text in question, flesh stands for the whole man, and indicates the assumption by the Word of the weakness of human nature.

Now if, as we have shown, Christ had human flesh and a human soul, it is evident that his soul did not exist before the conception of his body. For it has been proved (Bk. 2, ch. 84.) that human souls do not exist before their respective bodies. Consequently, it is clear that the teaching of Origen is false in asserting that in the beginning and before the creation of the material world, Christ’s soul was created at the same time as all other spiritual creatures, and assumed by the Word, and that at length towards the end of time it was clothed with flesh for the salvation of mankind.