1. Discuss the word "theotokos". The Nestorian controversy was post-Nicene, built on the Arian controversy, and it pertained to the deity and humanity of Christ. These heresies were different than the earlier church heresies because they did not have a clear refutation. The groups with the wrong view were not initially recognized as heretics because they were simply seen as having a different biblical view. Both modalists and subordinationists could find Scripture to support their views. However, we know now that they were not taking into account all Scripture.

By 600AD, one bishop in Rome, Gregory, was over all the other bishops, and the doctrinal controversies had aided him and the other bishops of Rome along the way in their quest for more power and prestige. Note, for example, that Sylvester, bishop of Rome during the Council of Nicaea in 325AD, did not even attend the council but probably profited more than anyone else. He was not involved in the infighting, so he was simply around to jump in on the right side when the whole thing was over. A similar thing happened for Leo I with the Nestorian controversy.

By the 5th century, most of the church agreed with the Athanasius view (of full deity, eternal, and distinct from the Father) over Arius, but the new battle was over the deity and humanity of Jesus. Some people were denying the humanity of Christ, and they were called docetists (docetism - he only seemed to be human). They many times used the word "theotokos" to describe the birth of Jesus, which meant "God bearer", and that word was often attributed by some to Mary. However, others did not like the association of that word with Mary.

2. Discuss the key personalities in the "theotokos" debate and the Nestorian controversy. Apollinarius (born 310AD) lived long before the controversy, but he was the one that started the problem. Materialists saw flesh as evil, so they said that Jesus could not be flesh. In believing this himself, Apollinarius used the term "theotokos" to emphasize his belief of Mary as the God-bearer. Of course, in Greek mythology, since only gods gave birth to gods, his suggestion implied that Mary must have been a god, too. He could not understand two natures in one at the same time. How would they even come together? So, he ended up denying the human side of Jesus, meaning that one could have called him a docetist. To his credit, though, Apollinarius did not have the benefit of scholarly journals, and he had reached his conclusions long before the statements by the Cappadocian Fathers about the hypostatic union.

Theodore (350-428AD) was a bishop, and he became a teacher in the school at Antioch. He taught Nestorius, and together, they were opposed to Apollinarius. Theodore said that Jesus was fully divine and fully human. Nestorius died in 451AD, and this was the year that he was declared a heretic by the Council of Chalcedon. He had been a presbyter at Antioch, and he had not liked Apollinarius or his use of the word "theotokos". Nestorius was intelligent and devout yet not so proud like Arius. He saw many of the pagan corruptions in the church, and he taught that theotokos was a Greek pagan corruption. He said that Mary could not have begotten a god because she was not a god. He, then, said that she could be the mother of the human side of Jesus but that the Holy Spirit would have been responsible for the divine side. While he was correct in those remarks, he went further and denied the hypostatic union by actually saying that the Holy Spirit had indwelled Christ in much the same way that He indwells us. Those statements caused him to deny the conclusions of the Council of Nicaea (325AD) (of full deity, eternal, and distinct from the Father) and to approach denying the deity of Jesus, and that led Cyril (died 444AD) to oppose him. Cyril was in agreement with the Cappadocian Fathers and the hypostatic union.

3. Discuss the development of the "theotokos" debate at the Council of Ephesus. The bishop of Rome, Colestin, was the first to say something about this controversy, and he ruled against Nestorius before the Council of Ephesis in 431AD even met. Then, when the council did meet, they reached their conclusion largely because of Colestin. As a result, Nestorius had to leave Constantinople and be deposed to Egypt. However, the divine and human natures issue still was not totally resolved. After Nestorius was deposed, Eutyches, in favor of Cyril, took the teaching of the hypostatic union to an extreme and became radical. He said that Christ had had one nature after the incarnation because His humanity had been swallowed up by His divinity. He said that Jesus was more divine than human and actually leaned toward docetism. It is equally wrong and heretical for one to lock into either the human nature or the divine nature too much. So, in 448AD, Flavius condemned Eutyches, but Bishop Diospheros favored Eutyches and tried to oppose Flavius at the synod. One should note that Constantinople and Antioch (Nestorius, Theodore, and Flavius) were often in competition with Alexandria (Cyril, Diospheros).

4. Discuss the results of the Nestorian controversy. At the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD, Leo I, the bishop of Rome, did not attend because he wanted to arbitrate the results. He sent a letter, called the Tome, suggesting both natures completely and combined in a hypostatic union. When the council heard those remarks, they responded that Peter had spoken, and this was one more step in the direction of the Papacy. Out of the council came two groups. First, the Monophysites said that Jesus only had one nature, and they were condemned at the second Constantinople Council in 553AD. However, a remnant of this group still exists today in Egypt. Second, the Monothelites, who said that Christ had two natures but only one will, were condemned at the third Constantinople Council in 681AD. In conclusion, Jesus did not have a split personality. He was fully human, fully divine, and hypostatically united.

				Tom of Bethany

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Lesson 18. Doctrinal Controversies (Pelagian and Iconoclastic)

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