Nestorius

• Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, 428-431, represents the extreme of the ‘Antiochian’ type of thought on this question.
• The theologians at Antioch tended to stress the reality of the manhood of Christ, in contrast with the more ‘mystical’ school of Alexandria, whose chief concern was to emphasize his full divinity.
• Nestorius seems to have learnt his doctrine from his master, Theodore of Mopsuestia, who illustrated the union (or conjunction, suna,feia - synapheia) and this word represents more precisely the Nestorian view, and shows its unacceptability) by the union of husband and wife, who become ‘one flesh’ while remaining two separate

Nestorius’ Writings

1. Treatises

• Bazar of Heraclides of Damascus :

• The only treatise extant in its entirety; it was composed in his last years.

• ‘Heraclides of Damascus’ is a pseudonym which the exiled and condemned Nestorius used as the only way of getting his book published.

• In the form of a dialogue with the Egyptian Sophronius, Nestorius gives a defense of his teaching and a history of his life.

• He severely criticizes the decisions of Ephesus and the teaching of St. Cyril of Alexandria, claiming that his own belief was identical with that of Pope Leo I and Patriarch Flavian of Constantinople, so that it would be hard to charge him, on the basis of this treatise, with willful heresy.

• It seems that in this book he tried to exonerate himself, but ended up to the opposite, asserting his commonly known heresy through his conviction that the person of Jesus Christ is not the same person of the Son of God, the Logos; i.e., believing in the external conjoining of two persons, an external union only in image.

• This destructs the whole concept of redemption, as, accordingly, God the Word would not be, Himself, the crucified redeemer and savior of the world.

• This would make meaningless the everlasting words of John the Evangelist “ For God so loved the world, that He

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But, as the all-wise Paul says, the Father “Has never said to any of the angels: You are my Son (Heb 1:5), nor has he said: Sit on my right” (Heb1:13). How, then, can a man born of a woman be in these supreme honors, on the very throne of the Godhead, and “above every Principality, Dominion, Throne, and Authority, and every name that can be named” (Eph 1:21)? Notice how the Lord says: “If David, therefore, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, then how can he be his son?” This persuades all who want to search out the truth to maintain that the Word, even when he came to participate in flesh and blood, has even so remained one Son. He bears witness that he is God from a divine pre-eminence and dominion, and how well he indicates that he has become man by also being called the Son of David .⁸² We had become accursed through Adam’s transgression and had fallen into the trap of death, abandoned by God. Yet all things were made new in Christ (2 Cor 5:17) and our condition was restored to what it was in the beginning. It was entirely necessary that the Second Adam, who is from heaven (1 Cor 15:45) and superior to all sin, that is Christ, the pure and immaculate first-fruits of our race, should free that nature of man from judgment, and once again call down upon it the heavenly graciousness of the Father. He would undo our abandonment by his obedience and complete submission: “For he did no sin” (1 Pet 2:22) but the nature of man was made rich in all blamelessness and innocence in Him, so that it could now cry out with boldness: “My

Nestorians

gave his Only-Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life ” (John 3:16). How then would the words that the Lord said through his prophet Isaiah be fulfilled: “ I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no savior ” (Is. 43:11).

• Texts that were attributed to Nestorius in the book ‘ Bazar of Heraclides’ :

• “ Two are the prosopa , the prosopon of He who has clothed and the prosopon of he who is clothed.”⁷²

• “Therefore the image of God is the perfect expression of God to men. The image of God, understood in this sense, can be thought of as the divine Prosopon. God dwells in Christ and perfectly reveals Himself to men through him. Yet the two prosopa are really one image of God.”⁷³

• “We must not forget that the two natures involve with him two distinct hypostases and two persons (prosopons) united together by simple loan and exchange.”⁷⁴

• The Twelve Counter-Anathemas : Written to answer the Twelve Anathemas of St. Cyril; they are preserved in a Latin translation.

• Tragedy : A work in which Nestorius seems to have given a presentation of his case; it was probably written after the Council of Ephesus and before his exile to Egypt.

• Theopaschites : A refutation of St. Cyril of Alexandria in the form of a dialogue.

2. Sermons There must have been a considerable number of sermons extant before they were committed to flames in 435.

3. Letters

• Of the 15 letters we are aware of, only ten survive.