anhypostasia
Syllables: an·hy·po·stas·iaUK/ænˌhaɪ.pəˈsteɪ.sɪ.ə/US/ænˌhaɪ.pəˈsteɪ.ʒi.ə/
anhypostasia noun: the quality of Jesus Christ's humanity, such that it has its existence entirely from the hypostatic union, rather than from any independent human personhood (or hypostasis). The concept does not deny Jesus's personhood, but denies that Jesus's humanity has any personhood apart from the one hypostasis in which his humanity and divinity are united.
Noun
anhypostasia (plural not attested)
- The quality of Jesus Christ's humanity, such that it has its existence entirely from the hypostatic union, rather than from any independent human personhood (or hypostasis). The concept does not deny Jesus's personhood, but denies that Jesus's humanity has any personhood apart from the one hypostasis in which his humanity and divinity are united.
- [H]e [Henry Liddon] observes, "The anhypostasia (impersonality) of our Lord's humanity is a result of the hypostatic union: to deny it is to assert that there are two persons in Christ, or else deny that he is more than man. At his Incarnation, the Eternal Word took on him human nature, not a human...Henry Parry Liddon (1867), “Lecture I. The Question before Us.”, in The Divinity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; Eight Lectures Preached before the University of Oxford, in the Year 1866, on...
- 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 &...
Examples of anhypostasia in a sentence
- Anhypostasia and enhypostasia are inseparable.1954 September, T[homas] F[orsyth] Torrance, “The Atonement and the Oneness of the Church”, in Scottish Journal of Theology, volume 7...
- Anhypostasia is the doctrine of the impersonality of Christ's humanity.2013, David R. Law, “The Nature of Kenotic Christology”, in Kierkegaard’s Kenotic Christology, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page...
Forms of anhypostasia
| alternative form | anhypostasis |
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Origin of anhypostasia
Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀνῠποστασία (anŭpostasía), from ἀνῠπόστᾰσῐς (anŭpóstăsĭs, “unsubstantiality”) + -ίᾱ (-íā, suffix forming nouns). ἀνῠπόστᾰσῐς is derived from ἀν- (an-) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *n̥- (“un-”)) + ὑπόστᾰσῐς (hupóstăsĭs, “existence; essence; substance”) (from ῠ̔πο- (hŭpo-, “sub-”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *upo (“below, under”)) + στάσις (stásis, “standing”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *stéh₂tis (“position, standing”))). By surface analysis, an- + hypostasis + -ia.
Words formed from anhypostasia
Questions about anhypostasia
- What does anhypostasia mean?
- Anhypostasia means the quality of Jesus Christ's humanity, such that it has its existence entirely from the hypostatic union, rather than from any independent human personhood (or hypostasis). The concept does not deny Jesus's personhood, but denies that Jesus's humanity has any personhood apart from the one hypostasis in which his humanity and divinity are united.
- How do you use anhypostasia in a sentence?
- Anhypostasia and enhypostasia are inseparable.
- What part of speech is anhypostasia?
- Anhypostasia is a noun.
- How do you pronounce anhypostasia?
- Anhypostasia is pronounced /ænˌhaɪ.pəˈsteɪ.sɪ.ə/ (UK).
Words near anhypostasia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: anhypostasia (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “anhypostasia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/anhypostasia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.