Nestorius himself used the titleTheotokos and did not advocate for its ban. His teachings included cautious usage ofTheotokos ("God-Bearer"), used forMary, mother of Jesus, in order that Christ's human and divine natures not be confused, as he believed Christ was born according to his humanity and not his divinity, which indicated his preference for the concept of theprosopic union of two natures (divine and human) of Christ, over the concept of ahypostatic union. He proposed instead the title ofChristotokos ("Christ-bearer"). This brought him into conflict with Cyril of Alexandria and other prominentdiophysite andmiaphysite churchmen of the time, who accused him of heresy.[3]
If the babe and the Lord of the babe are one and the same person, the suspected phrase "inhabitant of the babe" must be simply intended as a safeguard against identification of the Word with the flesh. So Mary is Theotokos – because the Word was united to the temple ... which is in nature consubstantial with the holy Virgin ... It is in virtue of this union that the holy Virgin is called Theotokos
Nestorius sought to defend himself at theCouncil of Ephesus in 431, but instead found himself formally condemned for heresy by a majority of the bishops and was subsequently removed from hissee. On his own request, he retired to his former monastery, in or near Antioch. In 435,Theodosius II sent him into exile inUpper Egypt, where he lived on until about 451, strenuously defending his views. His last major defender within theRoman Empire,Theodoret of Cyrrhus, finally agreed toanathematize him in 451 during theCouncil of Chalcedon.
From then on, he had no defenders within the empire, but theChurch of the East in thePersian Empire never accepted his condemnation. That led later Western Christians to give the nameNestorian Church to the Church of the East where his teachings were deemed orthodox and in line with its own teachings. Nestorius is revered as among three "Greek Teachers" (in addition toDiodorus of Tarsus andTheodore of Mopsuestia) of the Church of the East. The East SyriacEucharistic Service, which is known to be among the oldest in the world, incorporates prayers attributed to Nestorius himself.
The discovery, translation and publication of hisBazaar of Heracleides at the beginning of the 20th century have led to a reassessment of his theology in Western scholarship. It is now argued by some scholars and clergy that his ideas are compatible with later Chalcedonian theology and/or his condemnation atEphesus was misplaced, but the orthodoxy of his formulation of the doctrine of Christ is still controversial.[5]
Shortly after his arrival inConstantinople, Nestorius became involved in the disputes of two theological factions, which differed in theirChristology. Nestorius tried to find a middle ground between those that emphasized the fact that in Christ, God had been born as a man and insisted on calling the Virgin MaryTheotokos (Greek:Θεοτόκος, "God-bearer") and those that rejected that title because God, as an eternal being, could not have been born. He never divided Christ into two sons (Son of God and Son of Mary), but rather, he refused to attribute to the divine nature the human acts and sufferings of the man Jesus Christ.[9] Nestorius suggested the titleChristotokos (Χριστοτόκος, "Christ-bearer"), but he did not find acceptance on either side.
"Nestorianism" refers to the doctrine that there are two distincthypostases in the Incarnate Christ, the one Divine and the other human. The teaching of all churches that accept theCouncil of Ephesus is that in the Incarnate Christ is a single hypostasis, God and man at once. That doctrine is known as thehypostatic union. Nestorius, on the other hand, affirmed that the two hypostases are not united as a single hypostasis, but that there exists a "connection" (Greek: συναφεία "synapheia") between them, and repeatedly stated that they are united in the one person (Prosopon, “πρόσωπον”) of Christ in aprosopic union. Caution must be taken in understanding the usage of prosopon, as it was used in different contexts to mean eitherperson orproperties. Thus, in the second usage, Nestorius stated that theprosopae (singular Prosopon "πρόσωπον", lit. "face"), and therefore the two hypostases (notpersons), are united in the prosopic union, thought not in a manner of mixture or dissolution.[10]
Nestorius's opponents charged him with detaching Christ's divinity and humanity into two persons existing in one body, thereby denying the reality of theIncarnation. It is not clear whether Nestorius actually taught that, though theChurch of the East, and modern scholars, believe he taught one person.
Eusebius of Dorylaeum, a layman who later became the bishop of the neighbouringDorylaeum, was the first to accuse Nestorius of heresy,[11] but the most forceful opponent of Nestorius was PatriarchCyril of Alexandria. This naturally caused great excitement at Constantinople, especially among the clergy, who were clearly not well disposed to Nestorius, the stranger from Antioch.[11]
Cyril appealed toPope Celestine I ofRome to make a decision, and Celestine delegated to Cyril the job of excommunicating Nestorius if he did not change his teachings within 10 days.[10]
Nestorius had arranged with the emperor in the summer of 430 for the assembling of a council. He now hastened it, and the summons had been issued to patriarchs and metropolitans on 19 November, before the pope's sentence, delivered through Cyril of Alexandria, was served on Nestorius.[11]
Emperor Theodosius II convoked a general church council, atEphesus, itself a special seat for the veneration of Mary, where theTheotokos formula was popular. The Emperor and his wife supported Nestorius, but Pope Celestine I supported Cyril.
Cyril of Alexandria took charge of theCouncil of Ephesus in 431, opening debate before the long-overdue contingent of Eastern bishops fromAntioch arrived. The council deposed Nestorius and declared him aheretic.[10]
In Nestorius' own words:
When the followers ofCyril of Alexandria saw the vehemence of the emperor... they roused up a disturbance and discord among the people with an outcry, as though the emperor were opposed to God; they rose up against the nobles and the chiefs who acquiesced not in what had been done by them and they were running hither and thither. And... they took with them those who had been separated and removed from the monasteries by reason of their lives and their strange manners and had for this reason been expelled, and all who were of heretical sects and were possessed with fanaticism and with hatred against me. And one passion was in them all, Jews and pagans and all the sects, and they were busying themselves that they should accept without examination the things which were done without examination against me; and at the same time all of them, even those that had participated with me at table and in prayer and in thought, were agreed... against me and vowing vows one with another against me... In nothing were they divided.
While the council was in progress,John I of Antioch and the eastern bishops arrived and were furious to hear that Nestorius had already been condemned. They convened their own synod, at whichCyril of Alexandria was deposed. Both sides then appealed to the emperor.
Initially, the imperial government ordered both Nestorius and Cyril of Alexandria to be deposed and exiled. Nestorius was made to return to his monastery at Antioch, andMaximianus of Constantinople was consecrated Archbishop of Constantinople in his place. Cyril was eventually allowed to return after bribing various courtiers.[12]
In the following months, 17bishops who supported Nestorius's doctrine were removed from their sees. Eventually,John I of Antioch was obliged to abandon Nestorius, in March 433. On 3 August 435,Theodosius II issued an imperial edict that exiled Nestorius from the monastery in Antioch in which he had been staying to a monastery in the Great Oasis of Hibis (al-Khargah), inEgypt, securely within the diocese ofCyril of Alexandria. The monastery suffered attacks by desert bandits, and Nestorius was injured in one such raid. Nestorius seems to have survived there until at least 450 (given the evidence ofThe Book of Heraclides).[13] Nestorius died shortly after theCouncil of Chalcedon in 451, inThebaid, Egypt.[citation needed]
Very few of Nestorius' writings survive, many being destroyed by his opponents. There are several letters preserved in the records of the Council of Ephesus and fragments of a few others. About 30 sermons are extant, mostly in fragmentary form. The only complete treatise is the lengthy defence of his theological position,The Bazaar of Heraclides, written in exile at the Oasis, which survives inSyriac translation. It must have been written no earlier than 450, as he knows of the death of the EmperorTheodosius II (29 July 450).[14] There is an English translation of this work,[15] but it was criticised as inaccurate, as well as the older French translation.[16] Further scholarly analyses have shown that several early interpolations have been made in the text, sometime in the second half of the 5th century.[17]
In 1895, a 16th-century book manuscript containing a copy of a text written by Nestorius was discovered by American missionaries in the library of the Nestorian patriarch in the mountains atQudshanis,Hakkari. This book had suffered damage duringMuslim conquests but was substantially intact, and copies were taken secretly. The Syriac translation had the title of theBazaar of Heracleides.[18] The original 16th-century manuscript was destroyed in 1915 during theTurkish and Kurdish genocide of Assyrian Christians. Edition of this work is primarily to be attributed to the German scholar,Friedrich Loofs, ofHalle University.
In theBazaar, written about 450, Nestorius denies the heresy for which he was condemned and instead affirms of Christ "the same one is twofold" — an expression that some consider similar to the formulation of theCouncil of Chalcedon. Nestorius' earlier surviving writings, however, including his letter written in response toCyril of Alexandria's charges against him, contain material that has been interpreted by some to imply that at that time he held that Christ had two persons. Others view this material as merely emphasising the distinction between how the pre-incarnateLogos is the Son of God and how the incarnateEmmanuel, including his physical body, is truly called the Son of God.[15]
Though Nestorius had been condemned by the Imperial church, there was a faction loyal to him and his teachings. Following theNestorian schism, many Nestorian Christians were forced to relocate to the communities within thePersian Empire; thus, the church took on names such as "Nestorian Church" and "Church of Persia".[19]
In modern times, theAssyrian Church of the East, the descendant of the historical Church of the East, reveres Nestorius as asaint, but the modern church does not subscribe to the entirety of the Nestorian doctrine as it has traditionally been understood in the West to mean "two persons", believing that the West misunderstood and misrepresented his theology, and rejects that Nestorius taught any heresy.PatriarchDinkha IV repudiated the exonymNestorian on the occasion of his accession in 1976.[20]
After theCouncil of Ephesus, within theByzantine Empire, the doctrine ofMonophysitism developed in reaction to Nestorianism byEutyches, who asserted that Christ had amonos (sole) nature, the human nature being fully absorbed into the divine, in contrast toMiaphysitism, which affirms amia (one) composite nature from both, fully divine and fully human, "without change, commingling, division, or separation". Despite being condemned at theThird Council of Ephesus by theOriental Orthodox Churches, Monophysitism is sometimes attributed to them, either intentionally or out of ignorance.[21]
"The lynching of Nestorius" by Stephen M. Ulrich, concentrates on the political pressures around the Council of Ephesus and analyzes the rediscoveredBazaar of Nestorius
