Meanings
- alternativeAlternative form of anhypostasia.
The doctrine of the person of Christ is argued with greatest fullness, and he [John of Damascus] evinces no little ingenuity and dialectic skill in treating of the personal unity in Christ's twofold nature (which he conceived as enhypostasis, not anhypostasis, of the human nature in the Logos), […]
1872, John M'Clintock [i.e., John McClintock]; James Strong, “John of Damascus”, in Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, volume IV (H, I, J), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, Franklin Square, →OCLC, pages 964–9651 more example
[I]t was in view of a weakening emphasis on Jesus' individuality, on his particular humanity, in part stimulated by the fights against Arianism and Adoptionism, that the notion of Christ's impersonal humanity took hold. Two theological words were used to try to overcome the problem: anhypostasis, which refers to the divinity of Jesus' person, and enhypostasis, which insists that, nevertheless, Jesus was truly a human being. The anhypostasis was meant to protect the view that if the Word had not become flesh, Jesus would not have existed. The person of Jesus, in other words, lay in the Logos.
2015, Andrew Purves, “Christology: The Mystery of Christ—the Homoousion and the Hypostatic Union”, in Exploring Christology & Atonement: Conversations with John McLeod Campbell, H. R. Mackintosh and T. F. Torrance, Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, →ISBN, page 90
Cite this entry
anhypostasis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anhypostasis
“anhypostasis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anhypostasis. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “anhypostasis,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anhypostasis.
Source: anhypostasis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.