Nestorius

Nestorius, Greek Νεστόριος (c. 386-c. 451), fifth-century Syrian Christian leader. He was born in Germanicia, Syria (now Kahramanmaraş in Turkey). He was Patriarch of Constantinople and he was accused of professing the doctrine that bears his name (Nestorianism), consisting of a total separation between the divinity and humanity of Christ. He questioned the denomination of Mother of God (Teotókos) for Mary, who could not be the mother of a God, but of the human nature of Christ. Such a doctrine was declared heretical by the Council of Ephesus, which deposed Nestorius from the patriarchate in 431. He died in the deserts of Libya between 440 and 451.

When the accusation of heresy fell upon him, his works were destroyed. It was a large production, especially sermons, letters and some treatises dedicated to disputed dogmatic issues. His work Bazaar of Heraclides of Damascus is preserved, where he criticizes the position of Cyril of Alexandria and, therefore, the decisions of the Council of Ephesus. The Twelve counter-anathematisms were also attributed to him, which would be a response to Cyril's Anathematisms, but such attribution is spurious.

His followers, the so-called Nestorians, spread his doctrine throughout Asia, eventually creating an important church that spread from India to Siberia. Currently, there are congregations of this church in Iraq (Assyrian Church of the East), Iran, India, China, the United States and other places where communities from the aforementioned countries have migrated.

Controversy over language

During his bishopric, an Antiochene priest in Byzantium began to preach against the title Theotokos (Mother of God). The anonymous priest maintained that calling the Virgin Theotokos was not entirely accurate and gave the impression that the Virgin Mary had given birth to the divinity of Christ. The Marian capital reacted strongly and Nestorio was forced to intervene. The patriarch claimed that it would be more accurate to say that the Blessed Virgin Mary was Cristotokos (The Mother of Christ), since she gave birth to the perfect humanity of Christ. However, the break with Christian tradition was evident and her position was unpopular in Byzantium. In fact, the denomination of Mother of God was applied to the Virgin long before the Christianization of the empire and was accepted by at least the majority of Christians of the time. However, the controversy of calling the Virgin Mother of Christ or Mother of God was more about how Christians could orthodoxly speak of the unity of Christ as true God and true man. Nestorius wanted to avoid saying that Divinity suffered or showed weakness, since he is impassible, while his opponent Saint Cyril of Alexandria held that the Word of God did suffer and die in the flesh, emphasizing the unity of his person..

Theology

Nestorius's beliefs were falsified and exaggerated even during his lifetime. It was alleged that Nestorius was an adoptionist like the doomed Paul of Samosata, and that he hated the title Theotokos (which translates to God-bearer or Mother of God) both being false accusations based on early polemics mainly by the abbot Cassian of Marseilles. The idea that there were two Sons of God, one by nature and one by association, commonly attributed to Nestorius, seemed to him absurd as it did not agree with divine scripture, and he wrote vehemently against the teaching of two Sons. Much of the information about Nestorius survives to this day from hostile sources who misrepresent his doctrines. Nestorius's true views, at least those he held toward the end of his life, were revealed by the discovery of his only remaining work; Heraclides bazaar. Although his letters to Cyril of Alexandria, written before the councils of Ephesus, have also survived.

Nestorius was Bishop of Constantinople and accepted the doctrines of the Councils of Nicea and Constantinople. He believed in the eternity of the Word of God and in his equality with the Father, and he persecuted the followers of Apollinaris and the Arians present in the capital. His works were steeped in quotations from scripture, especially passages from the Gospel according to Saint John, which informed his theology of the Trinity.His zeal to defend orthodoxy against the Arians and Apollinarians led him to write several treatises on Christology.. Nestorius affirmed that Christ had two natures, the divine nature of the Word of God, and a truly human nature, united in the person of the Messiah. It was very important to him to preserve the dignity of the eternal and divine Word, but he also stressed that Christ had all human faculties, including the human soul and mind (unlike the doctrine of Apollinarius). His way of describing the union of the Word with "his temple", the full humanity of Jesus, gave the impression that he spoke of two persons in Christ, which got him into trouble with his fellow Bishops Although the More sophisticated critiques of his doctrine dealt with the logical implications of being able to separate divinity from humanity so strictly and how Christ could be a single person in light of such a division.

Nesotorius was not the first to assign certain actions to the divinity or humanity of the Messiah. Saint Gregory of Nyssa and Saint Hilary of Poitiers taught similar things at times, with the latter saying that death is attributed to man and quickening to God. Nestorius continued this tradition and followed the course of thought and its implications. He taught that the Word of God is the (only) divine Son, who assumed flesh without changing his & # 34;ousia & # 34; (essence) There are several quotations from Nestorius that emphasize his belief in the unity of the person of Christ with his two natures.

I call on Christ: "Perfect God and Perfect Man," not natures that are confused, but united.

The Word of God was not separated from the nature of the Temple.

Our Lord Christ is God and man.

The unity of natures is not divided; it is the ousia of the united natures that is separated.

Nestorius emphasized that the Word of God is immutable and invariable, and therefore denied that the Word suffered or showed weakness. He understood that the Word took the true humanity of Jesus as his temple, clothing himself in it, but remaining distinct. However, he could not bear the idea that the Word could suffer and require sustenance, since He is omnipotent and of the same nature as the Father. This desire to keep the two natures divided and avoid saying that the Word of God suffered would have consequences. As for soteriology. Well, if only human nature suffered and died, then how does the sacrifice of a single human being pay for the sins of the world or defeat death? It was this question, irresolvable, according to the participants in the Council of Ephesus, which turned out to be the Achilles heel of Nestorian theology.

The Antioch School

Nestorius belonged to the Antioch school, an interpretive scheme that focused on the "literal sense" from the bible. The theologians of the school defended the authentic humanity of Jesus Christ against the claims of the Apollinarianists and the true divinity of the Word of God against the Arians. Among them, there was a marked tendency to separate the humanity of Jesus from his divinity, to protect the dignity of the Word of God. Therefore, they affirmed that in the unique person of Christ existed the full humanity of Jesus and the true deity of the Word of God. Thus, they could say that Jesus experienced the needs of a man, as told in the gospels, and, at the same time, preserve the testimonies of the omnipotence of the Word of God, reported in the same sources (John 19:28, Matthew 26:38, Hebrews 1:3, 1 Corinthians 1:24, John 14:6, 21:17, 1:1-5, Titus 2:13, Romans 9:5).

The Church of the East

The theology of Nestorius, and of the entire Antiochian school to which he belonged, survived for a time in the city of Edessa under Bishop Ibas, a great admirer of the Antiocheans. In the middle of the V century, the Church of the East, which had many leaders who were students of Ibas, officially adopted the Diophysitan theology which they profess to this day.