Whether This Is True: "Christ As Man Is a Hypostasis or Person"?
Objection 1: It would seem that Christ as Man is a hypostasis or
person. For what belongs to every man belongs to Christ as Man, since
He is like other men according to Phil. 2:7: "Being made in the
likeness of men." But every man is a person. Therefore Christ as Man
is a person.
Obj. 2: Further, Christ as Man is a substance of rational nature. But
He is not a universal substance: therefore He is an individual
substance. Now a person is nothing else than an individual substance
of rational nature; as Boethius says (De Duab. Nat.). Therefore
Christ as Man is a person.
Obj. 3: Further, Christ as Man is a being of human nature, and a
suppositum and a hypostasis of the same nature. But every hypostasis
and suppositum and being of human nature is a person. Therefore
Christ as Man is a person.
_On the contrary,_ Christ as Man is not an eternal person. Therefore
if Christ as Man is a person it would follow that in Christ there are
two persons--one temporal and the other eternal, which is erroneous,
as was said above (Q. 2, A. 6; Q. 4, A. 2).
_I answer that,_ As was said (AA. 10, 11), the term "Man" placed in
the reduplication may refer either to the suppositum or to the
nature. Hence when it is said: "Christ as Man is a person," if it is
taken as referring to the suppositum, it is clear that Christ as Man
is a person, since the suppositum of human nature is nothing else
than the Person of the Son of God. But if it be taken as referring to
the nature, it may be understood in two ways. First, we may so
understand it as if it belonged to human nature to be in a person,
and in this way it is true, for whatever subsists in human nature is
a person. Secondly it may be taken that in Christ a proper
personality, caused by the principles of the human nature, is due to
the human nature; and in this way Christ as Man is not a person,
since the human nature does not exist of itself apart from the Divine
Nature, and yet the notion of person requires this.
Reply Obj. 1: It belongs to every man to be a person, inasmuch as
everything subsisting in human nature is a person. Now this is proper
to the Man Christ that the Person subsisting in His human nature is
not caused by the principles of the human nature, but is eternal.
Hence in one way He is a person, as Man; and in another way He is
not, as stated above.
Reply Obj. 2: The "individual substance," which is included in the
definition of a person, implies a complete substance subsisting of
itself and separate from all else; otherwise, a man's hand might be
called a person, since it is an individual substance; nevertheless,
because it is an individual substance existing in something else, it
cannot be called a person; nor, for the same reason, can the human
nature in Christ, although it may be called something individual and
singular.
Reply Obj. 3: As a person signifies something complete and
self-subsisting in rational nature, so a hypostasis, suppositum, and
being of nature in the genus of substance, signify something that
subsists of itself. Hence, as human nature is not of itself a person
apart from the Person of the Son of God, so likewise it is not of
itself a hypostasis or suppositum or a being of nature. Hence in the
sense in which we deny that "Christ as Man is a person" we must deny
all the other propositions.
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