Hypostasis
The Greek word Christian theology settled on for what English calls a divine “person” — one of the three who are the one God. It is contrasted with ousia, the single nature or essence all three share.
Greek hypostasis, “that which stands under”, from hypo, “under”, and stasis, “standing”.
Fourth-century Greek theology had to distinguish what is one in God from what is three, using words that had until then been near-synonyms. *Ousia* was fixed on the first — the essence, what God is, shared entirely by all three. *Hypostasis* was fixed on the second: the concrete individual existence, the *who*.
The English "person" translates *hypostasis* and carries baggage the Greek does not, which is why the word survives untranslated in careful writing. A hypostasis is not a personality, a mode, or an aspect. It is one of the three who are the one God, and the whole difficulty of the doctrine is holding those two counts together without letting either collapse into the other.
Where this comes up
Sources
- Debby research packet OTC-002