Theological Term of the Week: Communicatio Idiomatum
Wednesday, January 8, 2020 at 3:30AM 
communicatio idiomatum
“The concept that, in the hypostatic union, wherein Christ took a human nature into personal union, attributes of both natures are predicable of the person of Christ. From this, reference can be made to Christ acting in one nature in terms relating to the other (e.g., ‘they crucified the Lord of glory’).”1 Also called communion of properties or communication of attributes.
- From the Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter 11:
IMPARTATION OF PROPERTIES. We piously and reverently accept and use the impartation of properties which is derived from Scripture and which has been used by all antiquity in explaining and reconciling apparently contradictory passages.
- From the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 8, Section 7:
Christ, in the work of mediation, acts according to both natures, by each nature doing that which is proper to itself; yet, by reason of the unity of the person, that which is proper to one nature is sometimes in Scripture attributed to the person denominated by the other nature.
- From Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology:
A communicatio idiomatum, or communication of properties. This means that the properties of both, the human and the divine natures, are now the properties of the person, and are therefore ascribed to the person. The person can be said to be almighty, omniscient, omnipresent, and so on, but can also be called a man of sorrows, of limited knowledge and power, and subject to human want and miseries. We must be careful not to understand the term to mean that anything peculiar to the divine nature was communicated to the human nature, or vice versa; or that there is an interpenetration of the two natures, as a result of which the divine is humanized, and the human is deified (Rome). The deity cannot share in human weaknesses; neither can man participate in any of the essential perfections of the Godhead.
Learn more:
- Ligonier Ministries: A Communication of Attributes
- Sam Storms: Classical View of the Two Natures of Christ
- Green Baggins: The Communication of Attributes
Related terms:
Filed under Person, Work, and Teaching of Christ
1From Systematic Theology by Robert Letham.
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