The Definition of Chalcedon
The statement on the person of Christ approved by the Council of Chalcedon in October 451. It confesses one and the same Christ in two natures, divine and human, united in one person, and it became the standard of the Greek and Latin churches.
Read the text at ccel.org ↗Greek, Latin and English text (Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, vol. 2) ↗Extracts from the acts of the council, with the definition and canons (New Advent) ↗
Unlike the councils of 325 and 381, Chalcedon left full minutes, and the definition stands in the record of its fifth session. The text first repeats the creeds of Nicaea and of Constantinople and accepts letters of Cyril of Alexandria and the Tome of Pope Leo as sound expositions of them. It then states that Christ is to be confessed as perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood, “in two natures, unconfusedly, immutably, indivisibly, inseparably”, the properties of each nature being kept and united in one person and subsistence.
The definition is the council’s own text and the best evidence for what it decided. It was not received everywhere. Large parts of the churches of Egypt and Syria, and the churches of Armenia and Ethiopia, rejected the phrase “in two natures” and held to the language of Cyril; they are the churches now called Oriental Orthodox.
Cited in
- May AD 325, firm date
- May AD 381, firm date
- June AD 431, firm date
- October AD 451, firm date
- 1973 to 1994, firm date