How can Jesus be both God and a man at the same time?
Everyone on this map who takes a position says Jesus is both God and man. They differ over how to describe the two joined in one person. Sixteen hold the answer the Council of Chalcedon gave in 451, one person in two natures; three earlier writers put it in other terms, and no one here holds that Christ is two persons or has only one nature.
The 3 views side by side
| One person, two complete naturesChalcedonian Christology | God the Word in a human bodyWord-flesh Christology | Both, before the formula existedPre-Chalcedonian |
|---|---|---|
| Who is Jesus? | ||
Fully God and fully man: one person with two complete natures, divine and human. From Council of Chalcedon, Westminster Confession, Second London Baptist Confession, Philip Melanchthon, The Church of Eleven22 Statement of Faith, Martin Luther, George Whitefield, John Calvin | God the Word, who took a body from the Virgin and made it his own, as a temple and an instrument. | Truly God and truly man. Irenaeus insists the Word who was with the Father is the same one born of Mary, who wept, bled and rose. |
| How do God and man fit together in him? | ||
Neither nature is blended into the other, and the two are never split into two people. Each keeps its own properties. From Council of Chalcedon, John Calvin, John Owen, Huldrych Zwingli, Westminster Confession, Second London Baptist Confession, John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul | The Word acts through the body. Athanasius tells apart what Christ does as man and as God, but says little about a human soul. | No formula yet. Chrysostom calls it a union “past understanding,” in which God does not change into flesh. |
| Why it matters to them | ||
He is “the only Mediator between God and man,” and each nature does its part. Whitefield: as God he satisfies, as man he obeys and suffers. From Second London Baptist Confession, Westminster Confession, George Whitefield | God didn’t just dwell in a man, as with a prophet. He “became man, and did not come into man.” | Only a real incarnation could undo what Adam did, Irenaeus argues. So the one who suffered must be the very Word who was with the Father. From Irenaeus of Lyons |
| Where they differ among themselves | ||
Whether the natures really share their properties. Luther says they do, which lets him hold Christ’s body present in the Supper; Zwingli calls it a figure of speech, and Luther called that “a devil’s mask.” | Nothing to compare: Athanasius is the only one here. He died about 80 years before Chalcedon. | In what they argue against. Irenaeus answers teachers who said a divine “Christ” left Jesus before the cross; Chrysostom answers those who denied real flesh and those who thought God turned into it. |
| Key passage | ||
| 1 Timothy 2:5 | Philippians 2:6 | John 1:14 |
| In their own words | ||
“Christ was not only God, but he was God and man in one person.” | “He prepares the body in the Virgin as a temple unto Himself, and makes it His very own as an instrument” | “For that Essence did not change to flesh, (it is impiety to imagine this,) but continuing what it is, It so took upon It the form of a servant... for by an Union and Conjoining God the Word and the Flesh are One, not by any confusion or obliteration of substances, but by a certain union ineffable, and past understanding.” |
| On this map | ||
| 17 figures | 1 figure | 2 figures |
Who holds which view
13 other figures on the map have no entry on this doctrine. That means nobody has assessed them on it — not that they hold no view.
One person, two complete natures
One person in two natures, unconfused and undivided
God the Word in a human body
Word united to flesh, with the human soul underemphasized
Both, before the formula existed
Affirms both deity and humanity before the categories were fixed
Figures who hold no stance here
These are not gaps in the table. Each group below says which kind of blank it is — searched and not found, held open on purpose, never framed in these terms, or deliberately unassigned because no stance fits.
How to read a cell — sourcing tiers, blanks, and why some figures are never quoted
A cell marked quoted carries the figure's own words — 359 of 518of them, about 69%. Where there is no quotation the claim is still sourced, and the tier says how far. 3 figures carry no quotation at all, for reasons that differ: a living author cannot be quoted at length under copyright where Calvin can, and a figure at the standard account tier has simply had no primary-source pass yet. 3 of them state their own reason on their page.
A state label ending in ° was read from the stance, tier and note rather than stated on the map. See themethodology.