Today I will be going over a question I get asked alot, and that is, what exactly is a Kyana, Qnoma, and a Parsopa, what do these mean, and how do we use these terms when formulating our Theology / Christology to properly understand both the Trinity and the Person of Christ through the Incarnation. Since this is such a meaty topic, I am going to split this up into different posts, each addressing different topics. One will be today, which is a general understanding of these terms and how they are defined according to our theologians and their Christology, such as Mar Babai the Great, and Mar Youkhanan Bar Zo’bi. The other posts will be about how we actually formulate these terms to understand the Trinity and the Incarnation. Therefore I will dedicate a post to each of these concepts to give a proper understanding of what exactly we mean.
The beauty of this particular topic, is that we have all the material and writings given to us in the works of our Saints. All we have to do is read what the Fathers say for themselves. They have laid out all of the information for us and its now just up to us to familiarize ourselves with what it is that makes up the core doctrines of the Church of The East. In fact, much of the controversy of the early Church, particularly the 3rd, 4th, and 5th ecumenical councils (Which we do not accept as being ecumenical or dogmatically binding due to their depart of the orthodox faith) revolves around these formulations specifically in regards to Christology.
How can we translate these terms?
To put it very plainly, these words are very hard to give a direct translation into english for the most part. At the end of the day, these are Syriac terms, and we should more so focus on what exactly they mean rather than what they can be translated into, and nobody else can tell us what these words mean to us, especially if our own Saints have already given you the definitions, and to read into these terms through another Christological lens or tradition is being disingenuous and imposing a presupposition on what we mean when we say this. This is exactly why when dialoguing with other christians regarding Christology, we need to clarify what we mean when we use these terms to be absolutely clear about what is being explained and not that we are using them in the same sense, cause we most likely arent. Nonetheless I will still give what most scholars say, was an overall idea of what these words can mean, but I will later in my other post about Christology, break down the differences between the different traditions and our formulations.
Kyana
Syriac: Kyana (ܟܝܢܐ) the English would be Nature
Greek: Ousia (οὐσία) the English would be Essence/Substance (Sometimes interchangeable with Physis/Nature)
Greek: Physis (φύσις) the English would be Nature
As you can see already it might be getting confusing, as these terms have been used in various ways, and have different meanings which is why it is important to read the Fathers within their context to understand exactly what they mean when using these terms. For now though we are just gonna focus on our own definitions and not the greek as that will be expounded upon later.
Qnoma
Syriac: Qnoma (ܩܢܘܡܐ) the English would be Individual Nature / Concrete Nature or sometimes even in the Greek as Hypostasis
Greek: Hypostasis (ὑπόστασις) the English would be Concrete / Particular instance of a Nature
Parsopa
Syriac: Parsopa (ܦܪܨܘܦܐ) the English would be Person
Greek: Prosopon (πρόσωπον) the English also would be Person
To make it a bit easier to read and get the general idea of these terms I made a table down below to help better categorize these terms in comparison to their Greek, Syriac, and English definitions:
| Concept | Syriac Term | Script | Greek Term | Script | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nature | Kyānā | ܟܝܢܐ | Physis | φύσις | The nature or kind of being (e.g., divine nature, human nature) |
| Individual Nature / Concrete Instance | Qnōmā | ܩܢܘܡܐ | Hypostasis | ὑπόστασις | A concrete instance of a nature |
| Person | Parsōpā | ܦܪܨܘܦܐ | Prosopon | πρόσωπον | The personal identity or outward person |
Distinction between Trinity and Christology
One thing I would like to make very clear about these definitions so far, is that the way they are to be used in regards to Christology, compared to Triadology, will be much more different, which is why I am making 2 separate posts on those topics. The reason being is because, when talking about Christology, you are trying to explain a union where what is Divine, joins that which is Human, compared to the Trinity where we are trying to explain how something that is purely Divine, exists in the manner that it does. The way that we would explain Kyana for the Trinity will not be the same as how we define Kyana in regards to humans, or in the Incarnation of Christ. Its very important not to conflate definitions when doing this because it can result in a view which we do not hold to, and I have seen a lot of people take this sort of approach. That is the goal of this blog post, which is to clarify. This is also why I mentioned reading the Fathers in context of what they are trying to explain because these terms in of themselves can be ambiguous, as Doctrines such as the Incarnation and the Trinity are ultimately mysteries. We have to explain these things only in ways that we can understand them, and make it clear that it is only analogous to philosophical concepts, in which the Syriac tradition does borrow from to explain these things.
Kyana, Qnoma, Parsopa according to Mar Youkhanan Bar Zo’bi
The Church of The East has a very great Saint by the name of Youkhanan Bar Zo’bi who in the late 12th and early 13th Century, wrote treatises in regards to Philosophy and Theology in which he harmonizes both through the lens of the ACOE. His work titled Zqorā mlaḥḥmā (‘Well-woven fabric’) will be used for now to conclude a general explanation of these terms. And in my next posts, I will clarify them in regards to Triadology. I highly recommend anyone who is an ACOE faithful, or trying to learn about our Theology, or both, to read this excerpt that is linked and embedded above.
What is a Kyana and what is a Qnoma for Bar Zo’bi?
“Nature (Kyana) is distinguishable from hypostasis (Qnoma), by its essential qualities. Nature is universal but hypostasis is specific. When nature is divided it constitutes its species and Nature is distinguishable also its hypostasis. But when hypostasis is divided it is meaningless; because if you were to divide hypostasis into parts, it will be destroyed and rendered meaningless, and it will not retain its natural qualities. Nature is simple, but hypostasis is compounded. Hypostasis is visible to the eyes, but nature is visible to the mind. When you speak of nature, the mind encompasses all, but when you speak of hypostasis, the mind embraces only one. This is the difference O, Father, between the nature and the hypostasis.”
What Bar Zo’bi is essentially trying to explain here, is that Kyana, is something that is shared amongst many individuals, hence why he defines it as something being universal. Here we can see him borrowing terms from Aristotelian Philosophy to describe what we mean by these words (again being very careful when explaining this as this would simply be analogous, there is no such thing as a universal or particular relationship in the Trinity). For example: Humanity is a nature and it is something shared amongst all human beings, that is why he says that when we speak of Nature, it is something that the mind encompasses all. In other words it exists conceptually as something common.
He also says that a Qnoma, is something that can be spoken of in the singular, meaning it refers to a specific concrete instance of a Nature. Concrete as in something that we can perceive and not just conceptialize, just as he says, “visible to the eyes”. We would for example be considered our own human qnome, individuals that are a specific instantation of that general human Nature that is shared amongst many individuals. Us as qnome however, are specific and particular, something that is not shared amongst every single other human being but unique to us specifically. What I am as a human qnoma, is something different then that of another person who is also a human qnoma, namely in the characteristics in which we possess, which Mar Babai also says word for word and I will quote later on in his post on Christology. This is why we can conceptually divide a Kyana into many different instances, which in that case we are left with Qnome, meanwhile to divide a Qnoma will be rendered meaningless as then you would have destroyed that Qnoma. A human qnoma can be said to be made up of “parts” as it would be considered a sort of composition between Body and Soul. This however would not apply to the Divine nature and Qnoma of the Godhead as there is no parts or composition in the Divine Essence.
So to put into simpler terms, Kyana or “nature” for Bar Zo’bi when speaking on Christology, is something general, abstract, or “universal”. I am a human being because I am apart of the human nature, along with other humans. Qnoma is what is specific, concrete, or the “particular” of that universal. It is specific because it is what constitutes us individually, I am known by my Qnoma, because what I possess in my Qnoma, is different from that of someone else. We would call these “accidents” or “accidental” properties in Aristotelian definitions. Accidental properties in regards to the human nature, are things that are not essential to be considered human, such as hair color, height or weight, or other physical traits. Since they are contingent on the person, they do not define humanity as a whole or what makes someone human, rather it is apart of the Qnoma. Compare this to Kyana, a nature would bear the qualities of what we would say, are essential properties. So to be a human, or apart of the human nature, everyone must possess emotions, a human mind and will, being mortal, having hunger, etc. If these properties are now to be removed from the characteristics of what it means to be a human, you no longer have a human being, however someone with brown hair vs black hair, will not change that they are still human. So humanity in Aristotelian philosophy would be a mix between having the necessary essential properties of being a human and its accidents that are specific to each individual.
Distinction between Parsopa and Qnoma
“Let us now speak of the difference that exists between person and hypostasis. Person is unlike hypostasis in the qualities which it possesses, namely, such as beautiful, hateful, hideous and black. But in hypostasis there is only one (attribute), for it is one and the same. But in person there are many, because of the many attributes that it possesses. Of qualities I mean, son of so and so, beautiful or ugly. These characteristics appertain to person, that which signifies hypostasis. Hypostasis has been spoken of as a small part of nature. Person has been spoken of as a small part of hypostasis. This is therefore the difference between hypostasis and person.”
Now this leaves us with the question of, what then is a Parsopa compared to Qnoma if we all are individual Qnome? Parsopa in this case, or “Person” is defined as an actual identity, personality, or basically something in which we identify the exact WHAT of the Qnoma. For example, with me, my name is Yosip Pithyou, I am a Subdeacon, and I am 24 years old. These are all characteristics of who I am as a person, in which we can use to say that I am me, and not someone else. In other words, Qnoma CAN be seen as the ontological reality of a thing, and Parsopa is the way we can recognize that Qnoma, or an expression of that reality, but this usage of Parsopa as well can carry different contexts as used in the past by our Fathers.
The Usage of Parsopa
It is important to note about the word Parsopa, that it has been used in a few different ways according to our fathers, namely such as in Mar Theodore of Mopsuestia, and other fathers in different traditions, including ours. There are 2 specific senses in which he uses it, but generally in regards to our usage, we can say that Parsopa, refers to the personal subject, or the “who” that subsists, acts, and is the bearer of the attribution of Kyana and Qnoma, and possesses all that pertains to both. The two ways in which Parsopa can be viewed according to both Bar Zo’bi and Theodore is as follows:
First, in an ontological sense, Parsopa, signifies the individual Qnoma, what each of us is as a center of rationality and the concrete subject who exists and acts. We can in other words say that this would be a center of agency, the exact subject that subsists, because of its Qnoma in which it possesses, and not just a manifestation of identity. Qnoma and Kyana in of itself does not act, which would not alone be considered a center of agency, rather it is the Parsopa which possesses these that does, making it an ontological view that it is something concrete which Bar Zo’bi says says in the following quotes:
“Let us now speak on the difference between face and person. Person is different from face in that it does not possess the concrete image of the mind. Face is impressed (concrete), but person is not concrete.”
“Let us now demonstrate the facts concerning each one of them – nature in the manner of man, hypostasis in the manner of Adam. Of person as beautiful, as of the age of thirty three years. And the face which is concrete impression of this image, is the manifestation of his person.”
The second sense in which Parsopa is typically used, is in a doxological sense, it refers to the one who is appearing in honor, glory, and worship. In this context, Parsopa can also carry the sense of appearance, or the manifestation of the one that is revealed (Theodore uses Acts 2 as an example for this), which is why at times certain fathers speak of a “human person,” like Saint Jerome and Augustine. So for Bar Zo’bi, he as well uses “Face” to signify the Parsopa as it is apart of the Parsopa, in the sense that it is concrete, to signify its ontological perception, and as well uses it in a doxological sense following Theodore, to mean the actual manifestation of what is revealed.
“Face denotes person, but he (person) cannot denote the face. Person denotes hypostasis, but hypostasis does not do the same.”
With that I will conclude this blog post on the understanding of these terms in the ACOE tradition as demonstrated by Bar Zo’bi, until my next posts which I will then be doing an explanation on our use of these terms in regards to Triadology. God bless you all.
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