In Christian theology, the incarnation is the belief that the pre-existent divine person of Jesus Christ, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, who is also the (Koine Greek for 'word'), was "made flesh"McKim, Donald K. 1996. Westminster dictionary of theological terms. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. p. 140. by being conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, who is also known as the (Greek for "God-bearer" or "Mother of God"). The doctrine of the incarnation then entails that Jesus was at the same time both fully God and fully human.
In the incarnation, as traditionally defined by those Churches that adhere to the Council of Chalcedon, the divine nature of the Son was united but not mixed with human nature in one divine person, Jesus, or according to those adhering to the Council of Ephesus, the divine and human natures of Christ are fully united into one composite nature "without mixing, confusion, or separation". This is central to the traditional faith held by most Christians. Alternative views on the subject (see Ebionites and the Gospel of the Hebrews) have been proposed throughout the centuries, but all were rejected by Nicene Christianity.
The incarnation is commemorated and celebrated each year at Christmas, and reference can also be made to the Feast of the Annunciation; "different aspects of the mystery of the incarnation" are celebrated at Christmas and the Annunciation.
Etymology The noun incarnation derives from the ecclesiastical Latin verb incarno, itself derived from the prefix in- and caro, "flesh", meaning "to make into flesh" or, in the passive, "to be made flesh". The verb incarno does not occur in the Latin Bible but the term is drawn from the Gospel of John 1:14 (Vulgate), King James Version: .
Description and development of the traditional doctrine Incarnation refers to the act of a pre-existent divine person, the Son of God, in becoming a human being. While all Christians believed that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, "the divinity of Christ was a theologically charged topic for the Early Church." Debate on this subject occurred during the first four centuries of Christianity, involving Jewish Christians, Gnostics, followers of Arius of Alexandria, and adherents of Pope Alexander of Alexandria, among others.
Ignatius of Antioch taught that "We have also as a Physician the Lord our God, Jesus the Christ, the only-begotten Son and Word, before time began, but who afterwards became also man, of Mary the virgin." Justin Martyr argued that the incarnate Word was prefigured in Old Testament prophecies.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses the Incarnation in paragraphs 461463 and cites several Bible passages to assert its centrality (, , , ).
Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed is a statement of belief originating in two ecumenical councils, the First Council of Nicaea in 325, and the First Council of Constantinople in 381. As such, is it still relevant to most Christian churches today. The Incarnation is always professed, though different Rites use different translations. The Roman Catholic Church's current translation is: "For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary and became man."
Apostles' Creed
The Apostles' Creed includes the article of faith "He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary." According to Pope John Paul II, by his incarnation Jesus is a figure of and has united himself to every human being, including the unborn at the moment of their life at conception.
Ecumenical councils
Eventually, the teachings of Alexander, Athanasius, and the other Nicene Fathers that the Son was consubstantial and coeternal with the Father, were defined as orthodox dogma. All divergent beliefs were defined as heresies. This included Docetism, Arianism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Adoptionism, and Sabellianism.
The most widely accepted definitions of the Incarnation and the nature of Jesus Christ were established by the Council of Nicaea in 325. This council declared that Jesus is both fully God (begotten of the Father, but not created) and fully man, having taken his flesh and human nature from the Virgin Mary. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, these two natures, human and divine, were defined as hypostatically united in the one personhood of Jesus Christ,The Seven Ecumenical Councils, from the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vols. 2–14 (CCEL.org) Contains detailed statements from each of these councils. The First Council of Nicaea, Council of Ephesus and Council of Chalcedon are the "First", "Third" and "Fourth" Ecumenical Councils, respectively. while the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which rejected Chalcedon, affirm that the two natures are fully united into one composite nature that is both fully divine and fully human; in addition, the Church of the East, which rejected Ephesus, defines a prosopic union of the two natures as a mere "connexion" or "conjugation". In all cases, Jesus Christ is fully divine and fully human after the incarnation. According to the Catholic Church, an ecumenical council's declarations are infallible, making the incarnation a dogma in the Catholic Church.
Effect The incarnation implies three facts: (1) The divine person of Jesus Christ; (2) The human nature of Jesus Christ; (3) The hypostatic union of the human with the divine nature in the divine person of Jesus Christ. Without diminishing his divinity, he added to it all that is involved in being human. In Christian belief it is understood that Jesus was at the same time both fully God and fully human, of two natures. The body of Christ was therefore subject to all the bodily weaknesses to which human nature is universally subject; such are hunger (Matthew.4:2), thirst (John 19:28), fatigue (John 4:6), pain, and death. They were the natural results of the human nature he assumed.Drum, Walter. "The Incarnation". The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 20 Octobrt 2016 Approaches such as Nestorianism, Ebonism, Arianism, Appoliniarianism, and Eutychianism have attempted understanding of the two natures of Christ; some of them have been condemned traditionally as heretical. In A Kryptic Model of the Incarnation, Andrew Loke evaluates many of these attempts and suggests a possible Divine Preconscious Model (DPM) that postulates that at the Incarnation, Christ's mind included the divine conscious and the divine preconscious along with a human preconscious.
The incarnation of Jesus is also one of the key factors which, alongside humans made in the image and likeness of God, forms Christian Anthropology. Specifically, incarnation is vital for understanding the concept of Divinisation of the Man, most well and elaborately developed in Orthodox Christianity and most well expressed by Church Fathers, such as St. Athanasius of Alexandria ("Therefore He was not man, and then became God, but He was God, and then became man, and that to deify us"), St Cyril of Alexandria ("For we too are sons and gods by grace, and we have surely been brought to this wonderful and supernatural dignity since we have the Only Begotten Word of God dwelling within us.") and numerous others.
Modern Protestantism The link between the incarnation and the atonement within systematic theology is complex. Within traditional models of the atonement, such as Substitution, Satisfaction or Christus Victor, Christ must be human in order for the sacrifice of the cross to be efficacious, for human sins to be "removed" and/or "conquered". In his work The Trinity and the Kingdom of God,Trinität und Reich Gottes. Zur Gotteslehre 1980 Jürgen Moltmann differentiated between what he called a "fortuitous" and a "necessary" incarnation. The latter gives a soteriological emphasis to the incarnation: the Son of God became a man so that he could save us from our sins. The former, on the other hand, speaks of the incarnation as a fulfilment of the love of God, of his desire to be present and living amidst humanity, to "walk in the garden" with us. Moltmann favours "fortuitous" incarnation primarily because he feels that to speak of an incarnation of "necessity" is to do an injustice to the life of Christ.
Philosopher Richard Swinburne has argued that the resurrection would serve as a confirming super-miracle if God became incarnate in Jesus for the purposes of atonement and revelation to humanity.
Hymns and prayers
Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic The significance of the incarnation has been extensively discussed throughout Christian history, and is the subject of countless hymns and prayers. For instance, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (), as used by Eastern Orthodox Christians and Byzantine Catholics, includes this "Hymn to the Only Begotten Son": O only begotten Son and Word of God, Who, being immortal, Deigned for our salvation To become incarnate Of the holy Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, And became man without change; You were also crucified, O Christ our God, And by death have trampled Death, Being one of the Holy Trinity, Glorified with the Father and the Holy Spirit— Save us!
Additionally, the Divine Liturgy of Saint James includes this chant of "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" in its offertory:
Let all mortal flesh be silent, and stand with fear and trembling, and meditate nothing earthly within itself:— For the King of kings and Lord of lords, Christ our God, comes forward to be sacrificed, and to be given for food to the faithful; and the bands of angels go before Him with every power and dominion, the many-eyed cherubim, and the six-winged seraphim, covering their faces, and crying aloud the hymn, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.Divine Liturgy of St. James. Translated by James Donaldson. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight.
West Syriac Churches The West Syriac Churches – Syriac Orthodox, Malankara Orthodox, Syro-Malankara Catholic, Syriac Catholic and Maronite Catholic – principally celebrating the Holy Qurbono of St. James (c. AD 60) have a similar ma‛neetho,(Syr.): A responsory, originally to a psalm, where each verse of a psalm had a response in poetic form. The text of this ma‛neetho dates back to the 6th century and is attributed in later sources to St. Severus, the Patriarch of Antioch (c. 465–538). The Byzantine Orthodox rite also has a similar hymn called a troparion and is attributed there to Emperor Justinian (c. 483–565) a poetic hymn, traditionally attributed to St. Severus, the Patriarch of Antioch (c. 465–538): I exalt Thee, Lord and King, Only-begotten Son and Word of the heavenly Father, immortal by nature, Thou came down by grace for salvation and life for all human race; was incarnate of the holy glorious, pure Virgin Mary, Mother of God and became man without any change; was crucified for us. O Christ, our God, Who by Thy death trampled and slaughtered our death, Who are One of the Holy Trinity, worshipped and honored with the Father and the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us all.
Alternative views
Michael Servetus During the Reformation, Michael Servetus taught a theology of the incarnation that denied trinitarianism, insisting that classical trinitarians were essentially tritheists who had rejected Biblical monotheism in favor of Greek philosophy. The Son of God, Servetus asserted, is not an eternally existing being, but rather the more abstract Logos (a manifestation of the One True God, not a separate person) incarnate. For this reason, Servetus refused to call Christ the "eternal Son of God" preferring "the Son of the eternal God" instead.'De trinitatis erroribus' , Book 7.