HYPOSTASIS

A theological Christian term, for the true knowledge of the meaning of which take this short account. The Greeks took it in the first three centuries for particular substance , and therefore said there were three hypostases , that is, three “Persons,” according to the Latins. Where some of the Eastern people understanding the word hypostases in another sense, would not call the Persons three hypostases . A than as i us showed them in a council held at Alexandria in 362, that they all said the same thing, and that all the difference was, that they gave to the same word two different significations: and thus he reconciled them together. It is evident that the word hypostasis signifies two things: first, an individual particular substance; secondly, a common nature or e ence. Now when the Fathers say there are “three hypostases,” their meaning is to be judged from the time they lived in; if it be one of the three first centuries, they meant all along three distinct agents, of which the Father was supreme. If one of much later date uses the expre ion, he means, most probably, little more than a mode of existence in a common nature.