«One Energeia» in Cyril of Alexandria (Commentary on John 6, 53). Translation from English by hieromonk Theodor (Yulaev)

This article analyzes one expression of St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 378–444). In his Commentary on John 6, 53, the archbishop elucidates the working of the Eucharist by comparing it with the raising of Jairus’s daughter through Christ’s command and the stretching of his hand. In this context St. Cyril calls the life-giving ἐνέργεια one and cognate. In the seventh century, this passage was adduced by the Monoenergists to argue that in Christ there was only one ἐνέργεια. In this article, at first it is studied what meaning was given to the phrase “one and cognate ἐνέργεια” by various Monoenergist protagonists, by Maximus the Confessor (579/80–662), and also by a few modern theologians. After that the author investigates what St. Cyril himself will have had in mind when he wrote this passage. He comes to the conclusion that the one ἐνέργεια is the divine ἐνέργεια, which is at work both through the command and through the touch. It is not a synthesis of the divine and human ἐνέργειαι. The human ἐνέργεια is not mentioned in this context, but from other passages it is made clear that according to St. Cyril, Christ also had a human ἐνέργεια.

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