The human character of the Logos has for its essential characteristic an origin in time, whereby it is distinguished from His divine character, which possesses eternal entity and excludes origination. The Logos, or Word, was always God with God. The Logos, or Word, became flesh in some definite period of time. Everything that originates in time has a beginning, progress, and an end – in a word, has a history. The flesh of the Logos received its initial structure in the womb of His Mother, was nourished in it for a period of nine months, and was born afterward with the size and needs of a human infant. After being born, He was nourished and grew until the thirtieth year of His manhood, when, having been baptized in the Jordan by John and anointed and perfected by the Holy Spirit that descended upon Him in the form of a dove, and witnessed from above by the voice of His heavenly Father, Jesus entered public life and began to perform the work of His high mission. Therefore, the human character of the Logos, having received in time a beginning, progress, and perfection, has a history and historical knowledge which the anthropology of the Logos yearns to become acquainted with, for the reason that such knowledge is its object. Accordingly, let us first consider the initial structure of the living flesh of the Logos, which originated in the womb of His holy Mother through the formative and creative operation of the Holy Spirit.
Living flesh naturally feels the need of living that is satisfied by analogous food suited to maintain life. The sense of this need inheres in the substance of the living flesh, and is manifested by the natural sensations of hunger and thirst, of pleasure and pain and the like, which function for the maintenance of life. The substance of the Logos, having received living flesh from the living flesh of the holy Virgin, acquired in addition and at the same time the sense of carnal life which He had not at all before His incarnation, and the natural sensations that function for the maintenance of life. Together with this sense, moreover, He received also the natural volition, or desire, to eat and drink, and the consciousness and memory of these natural needs and sensations. Therefore, the substance of the Logos, in addition to acquiring living flesh, acquires initially the whole nature of the human soul, namely, sensation or affection (passion), volition or will, and cognition or rationality, by means of which the soul that lives with the body feels the needs or wants of the body, wishes their satisfaction, cognizes the means of satisfying them, and does its part to satisfy the needs and wants of life it feels. This nature grew upon, or adhered to the substance of the Logos, just as it adheres to our own, being infantile and imperfect in the beginning and subject to the law of nutrition and growth, just like living flesh, together with which it is nourished and grows. But our own substance, being darkness and ignorance, knew neither itself nor the nature that adhered to it; whereas the substance of the Logos, being light that knows itself as well as others, sees and knows exactly the living flesh and the soul which it acquires in addition to and together with it, and all their growth and perfection in time. Thus does the anthropology of the Logos understand and interpret the substantial union of His soul and body, and their nourishment, growth, and perfection in time, which the Holy Bible bears witness to, saying: “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him.” (Luke 2:40). But now let us consider this growth from the time of His birth to its consummation.
The human nature of the Logos from the time of His birth was nourished and grew in soul and body by food analogous to the two constituents of human nature. Accordingly, the nurse who fed His body was His virgin Mother, while the nurse who fed His soul was the Holy Spirit, who nourished and promoted the infantile nature of the soul in proportion to the nourishment and growth of the body. The Logos, on the other hand, in the nourishment and growth of His body and soul kept the passive position that became him, gladly undergoing the lawful and regular operations of His Mother and the Holy Spirit, and performing only the natural operation of the soul and body for the growth and maintenance of both. The Logos sucked like an infant, and was pleased until the natural need of His body had been fulfilled; when, satiety occurring, He would cease to suck. He slept and rose seeking His Mother and food; and manifested all the natural and necessary actions of infancy, but naturally, naively, and gracefully like a God-begotten, noble, and graceful infant. In this manner the nourishment and growth of the human nature of the Logos went on in the course of time in the best possible way, and the Logos preserved the memory and consciousness of this human life distinct from the life of His divine and eternal nature, combining in Himself the time-limited life of the flesh with the blissful and immortal life of God. From the conception to the birth, and from the birth to the age of manhood, the Logos received experience, sensation, and knowledge of the whole historical development of human life; and only in the memory of the Logos does the exact historical knowledge remain ineffaceable of the human nature that began, was nourished, grew, and became perfected in Him in both body and soul in the course of time, and their mutual communication and relation. The science of the Logos, too, cognizing this human nature as distinct from His eternal divine nature, ascribes to it all the things that naturally belong to it, such as knowledge and ignorance, strength and weakness, the passions of joy and sorrow, nourishment and growth, and perfection in time, liability to suffering, mortality, and the like.
In addition, the human nature of the Logos, having been born and nourished in the midst of a community established by God and governed by laws laid down by God, conformed exactly in every way with the laws in effect, beginning with the law of circumcision, and observing and applying to itself both positively and negatively all the law up to the moment of death and burial. Through this legal education and cultivation, the human nature of the Logos became identical and equal with God as respects perfect volition, perfect power, perfect life, and perfect awareness; and became in reality and truth a perfect image and likeness of the perfect God. Nevertheless, though perfected and deified, His human nature did not depart from its natural state of being human nature, having an origin (in time) and not the eternal being of divine nature. His human nature, being naturally poor and wanting, was enriched by His divine nature. But His divine nature assumed none of the attributes or passions of human nature.
Having been baptized in the Jordan about the thirtieth year of His life, anointed with the Holy Spirit, and perfected as respects His human character, the Logos entered public life; and acted as a man and as a God, displaying His two natures and sonships, in token that He had become the Son of man and that He had been the Son of God all the ages ago. But the Jews, being scandalized in that, being a man, He made Himself the equal of God, condemned Him to death, and killed Him by hanging Him upon a piece of wood, in order that the Scriptures of the Prophets and the design of God that remains forever might be fulfilled. The Jews killed the flesh of the Logos, the man who was naturally liable to suffering and mortal; but they killed Him lawlessly and unjustly. God, to do justice, raised Him up again from the dead to life everlasting, and made Him a ruler and king in heaven and upon earth, founding an eternal and universal kingdom for the salvation and bliss of the oppressed human race, of every human being who will listen to the word of God and who wishes to be saved from evils and share everlasting life and bliss. The perfected and deified human character of the Logos became the means of renewing and reforming all men in the image and likeness of God, and the workshop of this reformation has been the Church of Christ, whose function it is to preach the kingdom of God and work for the formation of citizens worthy of such a blessed kingdom. The perfected and deified human character of the Logos became and is the principle and foundation of a new society and political organization, the natural name of which is Christocracy; this name being given on the ground that Christ prevails and rules therein, being the perfect man. When examined from this point of view, the human character of the Logos becomes the object of political science, which yearns to know which is the best political organization, or political state, among men, and which states are wrong and bad, in which men who live according to their laws necessarily become unhappy.
On the other hand, the perfect soul of the Logos, when taken as the object to be known, produces the psychology of the Logos; the rational part of the soul produces the logic, and the moral part produces the ethics of the Logos. These three sciences afford full knowledge of the human character of Christ, and throw light upon all human affairs, particularly upon political science, which regards the best political state to be founded upon the perfect humanity o f Christ. Therefore, the human character of the Logos is more specially to be studied and known by means of the three sciences: psychology, logic, and ethics; and lastly by means of political science, which regards the human character of the Logos as the principle and foundation of the best political state of men.
Apostolos Makrakis 