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DEFENDING  THE  BRIDE

 

 

 

Is Jesus a Human Being ? 
 


The question is problematic because there is more than one definition for the word “being.”   So, it depends on what is meant.

The Second Person of the Trinity has always been.  Never was there a time when He has not existed.  He is Begotten, not made.  He is, and always will be One Divine Person with a Divine Nature.  At the Incarnation this One Person took on a human nature in addition to His Divine nature and thus He became fully human, and we call Him Jesus.  See side bar.

Going back to the original question, if by “being”  one means a “person” then the answer is most definitely NO.  Jesus is ONE person who is Divine. 

Humanity is part of creation

IF we were to say that Jesus is a Human Being, that is a Human person, we would be saying that His Identity or who He is as a Person was created. That would be wrong. His human nature was created, but not His Person or Being.

The identity of who He is as a person is eternal.

 To claim that He is both a human person and a divine person is to fall into the Nestorian heresy.  See below.

If by “being”  one means  “nature”  then we would say that Jesus has a human being or that He took on a human being at the Incarnation.  Some people chose to define   
“human being”
 
as a person that has a human nature,
so in that sense we would say that Jesus is a human being, that is, One Divine Person who has both a Divine and a human nature.  Since the word 
“being”  has several different definitions I prefer not to use it myself.  The new Creed we say at Mass has replaced the word “being”  with the more precise word  “consubstantial.”   See Side Bar.

 

So, I prefer not to use the problematic terminology of “being.” Rather, I would say it this way.   Jesus is ONE person with two natures, fully divine and fully human.  He is One Divine Being, or Person, who took on a created human nature about nine months before the Christmas event of about two thousand years ago.  He has always had a divine nature.

 

See Quotations from the
Catechism of the Catholic Church

 

466
The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person joined to the divine person of God's Son. ... Christ's humanity has no other subject than the divine person ...

 

467.
... two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis.

 

468.
...
there is but one hypostasis [or person], which is our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Trinity.  Thus everything in Christ's human nature is to be attributed to his divine person as its proper subject ...

 

 

 
Notice how the icon above contains and expresses the correct theological position.  Around Jesus' head we see the expression “I AM  (who Am)”  which is the name God gives to Himself.  In Hebrew it is Yahweh.  Jesus is identifying Himself as God, One Divine Being.  Together with the Father and the Holy Spirit which are also represented above, make up the Godhead,  three Persons in One Divine Nature. 

Jesus says,  “I AM” because He is One Person, One Divine Being.  He does not say “We Are”  because He is not two beings, that is not two persons.  He is not a Divine Being and a Human being.  He is One Divine Person who also took on a human nature in Mary's womb and became truly man.  And so, Mary is the Mother of God, the God-bearer.

 

Rev. Msgr. Anthony A. La Femina's icons are profoundly deep and rich in their theology.  See his Sacrifice-Banquet of the New Covenant which reflects the beauty and the mystery of the Mass.

 

 
 

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The expression that Jesus “became a human nature” seems less common than the expression that He “assumed a human nature.”   See CCC 461, 470, 479, and 503.  It is important to note that the Church has defined that:

“The divine Word was not changed into a human nature”

(Second Council of Constantinople, canon 7.  See CCC 470 note 97 in Companion to CCC)  Jesus has always retained his Divine nature.

 
 

 

 

 

Read the  Bishop's USCCB response to:
Why has  “one in being with the Father”   been changed to  “consubstantial with the Father?”