I wrote yesterday...
April 30 2019
The Orthodox Study Bible, New Testament and Psalms, (1993) Saint Athanasius Orthodox Academy,Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee.
New American Standard Bible
Hebrews 1: 3
3 [a]And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature...
ὑποστάσεως
Hypostasis
'A technical theological term for "person" or something which has an individual existence. The word is used to describe the three Persons of the Godhead: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.' (800).
Hypostasis is also used to describe the one Person of Christ, who is both truly divine and truly human. (800).
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Today, back to the Orthodox Study Bible at the notes from Hebrews 1: 2-3:
Cited
Hypostasis
'The express image of His person.' (513). This is in regard to God the Son's Person as being distinct from God the Father. (513).
The text from its Orthodox tradition opines that 'The Son is the perfect and eternal "icon" of the Father.' (513). This is certainly not Protestant theological language, and not one I would use, staying closer to Reformed theology. I would reason some within Protestantism would protest this metaphor, based on how one theologically views an icon.
But we can agree within the universal Christian Church that even as God the Son is distinct from God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, within the Godhead, within the Trinity, the three are all the same God is essence and nature. There is in ontological (existence) one God. The three distinctions are within one nature and essence; they are not three natures and three essences.
