Christology in the 3rd-5th Councils

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Christology in the 3rd-5th Councils

• By Prof J Macdonald June 2007

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Arius and Julian

• Human attributes as proofs of lack of Divinity.
• For Arius Christs birth, human weakness, and
  death are indications that he is not fully divine
• For Julian, Christs death shows the Logos is not
  Divine. He suggests that Diodore tries to argue
  the two are separate.

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Origen on First Principles

• Origen Alexandria and Caeseria 195-253AD
• Logos assumes the unfallen Christ nous
• His conception offered an answer to Arius and
  Julian, but effectively split Christ into two
  people.

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Diodore Bp. Of Tarsus

• Prominent Priest in Antioch 360s-370s
• Opposed Julian the Apostate
• Supported Pat. Meletius when exiled by
  Constantius and Valens.
• Bp. Of Tarsus 378
• Prominent at Council 381
• Emphasized separation of Christ and Logos
• Conflict with Apollinaris
• Important Biblical Commentator emphasizing
  literal meaning

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Apollinaris Bp. of Laodicea 360-390

• Born in Syrian Laodicea in 315 son of priest and
  grammar teacher from Beirut
• 346 Excommunicated by Arians for supporting
  Athanasius.
• 360 chosen Old Nicean bp. Of Laodicea allied with
  Paulinus of Antioch against Meletius
• Rewrote OT and NT with father in classical style
  when Julian forbids Christians to teach the pagan
  classics.
• Wrote refutation of Porphyry (lost) and response
  to Julian.
• Attacked separation of Christ into two people
  (Logos and XC nous) by making the Logos the soul
  of Christ.
• 362 to synod of Alexandria disagreement with
  Athanasius over Christology
• 363 Profession of faith with unusual Christology
• 374 Teacher of Jerome in Antioch, ally of Basil
• 377 at Rome, 379 Antioch, 381 Constantinople, and
  382 Rome councils condemn Apollianaris doctrine
• Attacked by Gregory of Nyssa 382 and Diodore of
  Tarsus
• Apollinaris and his disciples writings survived
  under names of fathers.
• One incarnate nature introduced under name of
  Athanasius.
• Died 390

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Athanasius and Gregory Nazianzus

• Tomus of Alexandrian council of 362AD tries to
  reconcile those of Apollinarin and Diodoran
  parties by rejecting 2 persons and soulless
  Christ.
• 372AD Athanasius responds to conflict of
  Apollinarin and Diodoran parties in pro-Nicean
  synod in Achaea.
• Letter to Epictetus condemns division of Christ
  into two. The crucified one is God.
• 383AD Gregory condemns both Diodoran and
  Apollinaran postions in letter to Cledonius
• Christ is one thing and another thing, not one
  person and another person, Mary is Mother of
  God.
• What is not assumed is not healed
• Logos exists as a human soul does not assume a
  separate human person.
• These letters become the canonical in future
  controversy, used at Ephesus and Chalcedon.

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Theodore Bp. of Mopsuestia fl.383-428

• Student of Diodore. Teacher of Nestorius
• Chrysostoms fellow student of Libanius and
  monastic.
• Bp. Of Mopsuestia 392-428
• Anti-Eunomian
• Anti-Apollinarian The assumer and the assumed,
  On the Incarnation c. 390
• In catechetical lectures and commentary on John
  he presents a two subject Christology but tries
  to soften Diodoran 2 sons, by arguing for a union
  in one prosopon, so we speak of one Son.
• Logos is not the one who suffers.
• The man Jesus is worshiped due to his close
  association with the Logos.
• Modern controversy over reliability of Greek
  extracts versus Persian Syriac translations.
  However, overall writings support criticisms of
  his two subject Christology.
• Defended Julian of Eclanum against Augustine.

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Theodore of Mopsuestia Texts

• On the Incarnation c. 390AD
• Since (the one who was assumed) had already been
  found worthy of the union, he obtained all that
  could properly be obtained by a man united to the
  Only Begotten and Ruler of the universe, and was
  counted worthy of higher gifts than the rest of
  humanity as the endowment of the union came to be
  his. Fragment 6 Book 7
• When we speak of the nature of God the Word as
  complete and of his person as complete (for there
  is no hypostasis without its person). Moreover,
  the nature of the man is complete, and likewise
  his person. But when we consider the union, then
  we speak of one person. Fragment 7 book 8
• On the Nicene Creed
• he constantly receives adoration from all
  creation because of his close union with God the
  Word. p 54
• Paulis speaking of Christ who is from the Jews
  according to the flesh and that he is naming
  neither the nature of the Godhead of the Only
  Begotten, nor God the Word who was from the
  beginning p. 64
• It was not Divine nature which received death,
  but it is clear that it was that man who was
  assumed as a temple to God the Word p.66
• They rightly ascribed the sentence to judge the
  living and the dead to the prosopon of the man
  who was assumed on our behalf so that they should
  show us the honor that came to the temple of God
  the Word. P. 80
• He will come again through the same man who has
  been assumed , because of the ineffable union
  that that man had with God p. 81
• Apart from God he tasted death for every man as
  translation of Heb 29 p. 86
• The Godhead was separated from the one who was
  suffering in the trial of death, because it was
  impossible for him to taste the trial of deathHe
  Himself was not tried with the trial of death but
  He was near to him. P. 87

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Nestorius Pat. Of Cpol 428-431

• Becomes Patriarch of Cpol in 428
• Suggests Christotokos, condemns Theotokos
  (429) and initiates violence against his critics.
  
• 430 Nestorius has bishop anathematize use of
  Theotokos.
• Cyril writes in defense of Theotokos
• Nestorius deposes his opponents in Constantinople
  as heretics
• Nestorius 2nd Letter to Cyril objects to Divine
  Person Suffering.
• Nestorius asks for a council to try Cyril despite
  John of Antiochs recommendation to compromise.
• August 430 Roman synod condemns Nestorius,
  November Alexandrian Synod condemns Nestorius.
• Cyrils 3rd letter to Nestorius contains 12
  anathemas.
• Cyrils anathemas attacked by Anderew of Samosata
  and Theodoret of Cyrus as Apollinarian, esp. 12.
• 431 Council in Ephesus condemns Nestorius,
  Convocation under John of Antioch condemns Cyril.
• 431 Colloquy after council condemns Nestorius and
  absolves Cyril and John of heresy

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Cyril 2nd Letter to Nestorius 430AD

• Ch.3 We affirm that the Logos united to Himself
  according to hypostasis, flesh ensouled with a
  rational soul and became man, and He was called
  the Son of Man, not by mere favor or goodwill,
  nor as in the assumption of mere appearance
  (prosopon), and that on the one hand the natures
  that came together to form a true unity are
  different, but from them is one Christ and Son,
  not that the differences are taken away through
  the union
• Ch.4 Thus it is said He was born and existed
  before the ages from the Father and was born
  according to the flesh from a woman
• Ch. 5 Thus we say He suffered and resurrected,
  not as if God the Logos suffered blows, piercing
  of nails, or other wounds in His own nature (for
  Divinity is impassible, because it is also
  bodiless) but since what became His own body
  suffered these things, again He is said to suffer
  Himself on our behalf for the impassible one
  suffered in the body
• Ch. 7 This is why the Holy Fathers called the
  Holy Virgin Theotokos, not as if the nature of
  the Logos or His Divinity received the beginning
  of its existence from the Holy Virgin, but
  because of the rationally ensouled holy body
  being born from her to which the Logos was united
  by hypostasis He is said to be born in the flesh.

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Nestorius

• 2nd Letter to Cyril 430AD
• Ch. 6 For the Logos whom you first called
  impassible and not in need of a second birth you
  later introduced as passible and recently born,
  as if the natural properties of God the Logos
  were removed by His conjunction with the Temple
• Ch.7 Christs birth and the sufferings are not
  passed down to us as if they applied to the
  Divinity but to the humanity. Thus the Holy
  Virgin should be called the Christotokos not
  Theotokos Obviously God the Logos was not the
  Son of David
• to attribute to the Divinitythe properties of
  the flesh that is associated with it, birth,
  suffering and death, is either the error of
  paganism or from a spirit sick with the madness
  of Apollinaris and Ariusfor this notion must say
  that the incarnation results in God the Logos
  nursing, growing, fearing the passion, needing
  help from an angel, not to mention circumcision,
  sacrifice, sweating, hunger,all of these things
  if they are attributed to Divinity are merely
  lies
• Quaternion 16 I worship the one who submitted to
  death along with the Deity in so far as is a
  cooperator with the divine majesty.
• For it was not God himself who was fashioned
  within a mothernor God who was buried in a
  tombbut since God was in the one assumed, the
  assumed man was conjoined to the one who assumed
  him, thus he is called God along side of him.
• At Council of Ephesus 431AD Nestorius refused to
  identify the hypostasis of the Son as the subject
  of Christ. Also said It is not possible to call
  the baby Jesus God.

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Cyril of Alexandria-3rd Letter to Nestorius 12
anathemas Nov. 430

• Mary is Theotokos
• Logos hypostatically united with flesh
• Rejects XC as conjunction of hypostases, vs. one
  natural union
• Rejects sayings divided between 2 hypostases and
  2 prosopons
• Rejects God bearing man (later authors prefer
  man-bearing God)
• Rejects Logos is the God and Master of XC
• Rejects Jesus a man activated or glorified by
  Logos
• Rejects man should be worshipped along with Logos
• Rejects XC glorified by HS as a foreign power
• Rejects XC as a different high priest than Logos
• XCs Flesh is of the Logos not of another person
  Logos suffered, died and rose.

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Cyrils Letter to John of Antioch-433AD

• Ch. 5 - We confess our Lord Jesus Christ, the
  Only-begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect
  man of a reasonable soul and body, born before
  the ages according to Divinity and in these last
  days for us and our salvation from the Virgin
  Mary according to his humanity. He is homoousios
  with the Father according to Divinity and
  homoousios with us according to humanity. For
  there was a union of two physes on account of
  which we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord
• We confess that the Holy Virgin is the Theotokos
  because God the Logos became incarnate and was
  made man and from this conception united to
  Himself the temple taken from her.

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Cyril 1st Letter to Succensus - c. 435AD

• Ch.7 Theoretically speaking, only as appears to
  the eyes of the soul, concerning the manner of
  the incarnation of the Only Begotten, we say that
  two physes were united but there is only one
  Christ and Son and Lord, the Logos of God made
  man and incarnate.
• We can take as our example the synthesis which
  makes us men. For we are composed of body and
  soul and we see two natures, one of the body and
  another of the soul, but there is one man from
  the union of both.

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Pope Leos Tome to Flavian 449AD

• Ch.3 Therefore the properties of both natures
  and substances that have come together in one
  person are preserved so that Christ Jesus might
  from one element by capable of dying and from the
  other incapablethe Creator and Lord of
  everything willed to be among mortalsfor without
  defect each nature retains its property
• Ch.4 - The Son of God descending from his seat in
  heaven enters this lower worldbecause he who in
  His own sphere is invisible became visible in
  ours The impassible God did not disdain to be
  passible Man, and the immortal One to be
  subjected to the laws of death
• For each form does the acts which belong to it in
  communion with the other the Word performing
  what belongs to the Word and the flesh carrying
  out what belongs to the flesh one of them shines
  with miracles the other succumbs to injuriesit
  does not belong to the same natureto be
  transfixed with nails, and to open the gates of
  paradise..
• Ch.5 Accordingly on account of this unity of
  Person which is to be understood as existing in
  both the natures, we read the Son of Man came
  down from heaven the Son of God is said to have
  been crucified that the properties of the Divine
  and the human nature might be acknowledged to
  remain in him without causing a division.

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Robber Council -449AD

• 448AD in opposition to Theodoret of Cyrus
  Archimandrite Eutyches denies the survival of the
  human nature after the union.
• Eutyches is condemned by Pat. Flavian of
  Constantinople and appealed to Rome.
• Flavian and Theodoret are condemned and Flavian
  dies of beating at 2nd Council of Ephesus in
  449AD under Dioscurus Pat. of Alexandria who
  suppresses Leos Tome.
• 450AD Emperor Theodosius II dies. A new council
  is called by Emperor Marcian.
• 451AD Council of Chalcedon deposes Dioscorus,
  restores Flavian and Theodoret, accepts Leos
  Tome and constructs a new formula that combines
  Cyrils and Leos terminology.

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Formula of Chalcedon-451AD

• Following the Holy Fathers we teach one and the
  same Son our Lord Jesus Christ,complete in
  humanity and complete in Divinity, truly God and
  truly man, of a reasonable soul and body,
  homoousios with the Father in Divinity and
  homoousios with us in humanity, similar to us in
  everything except sin, born before the ages from
  father in Divinity, but born in these last days
  for us and our salvation from the virgin Mary the
  Theotokos in humanity. One and the same Lord
  Christ, the only begotten son, is known in two
  physes unconfusedly, unchangeably, undividedly,
  inseparably nothing of the distinction of
  natures taken away through the union, but rather
  the property of each physis is preserved and is
  gathered together in one prosopon and one
  hypostasis, not being distinguished or divided
  into two prosopons

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Monophysite Schism

• After Chalcedon many Eastern Cyrillians reject
  Chalcedon as favoring Nestorius doctrines as
  West supports Theodoret and opponents of Cyril.
• 482AD Emperor Zeno endorses Henotikon based on
  theology of Cyril which unites East but is
  rejected by Rome.
• 511AD Emperor Anastasius, as a result of war with
  Persia, gradually abandons Henotikon to demand
  anathema of Chalcedon.
• Severus made Patriarch of Antioch 512AD

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Zenos Henotikon 482AD

• Affirms Ephesus I (omits Ephesus II and
  Chalcedon)
• Condemns Nestorius and Eutyches
• Accepts the 12 anathemas of Cyril
• We confess that the only begotten Son of God,
  himself God, who truly assumed manhoodhomoousios
  with the Father in respect to His Divinity and
  with us in respect to humanity that He descended
  and became incarnate of the Theotokos, is one
  and not two for we affirm both his miracles and
  the sufferingsare those of a single person.

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Severus Pat. Of Antioch 512-518AD Letter Count
Oecumenius

• We do not anathematize those who confess the
  properties of the natures of which the one Christ
  consists, but those who separate the properties,
  and apportion them to each nature apart and He
  is divided by the fact that they speak of two
  natures after the union, with the natures which
  have been cut asunder into a duality and
  separated into a distinct diversity go the
  operations and properties as the words of Leos
  impious letter state in what he said the Word
  doing what belongs to the Word and the body doing
  what belongs to the body.
• Comes to require anathema of Chalcedon for
  communion.

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Restoration of Chalcedon and attempts are reunion.

• Justin becomes Emperor in 518 deposes Severus and
  restores communion with Rome.
• Development of Neo-Chalcedonian Theology
  emphasizing the agreement of Cyril and Chalcedon
  Nephalius, John the Grammarian, John of
  Scythopolis
• Justinian attempts to reunite Monophysites with
  Chalcedon based on Cyril.
• 519AD Scythian monks one of the Holy Trinity
  suffered for us, finally accepted by Pope John
  II in 533AD
• Colloquy in 533 encourages possible reunion
• 536 Condemnation of Anthimus and Severus
  following controversy over Christs ignorance
  leads to their condemnation of Leos doctrine of
  two activities in Christ.
• Justinian condemns three chapters Theodore of
  Mopsuestia and anti Cyril writings of Theodoret
  and Ibas in 544.
• Justinian writes On the Right Faith in 551AD
• Justinian Calls 5th Ecumenical Council in
  Chalcedon 553AD

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Emperor Justinian On the Right Faith - 551AD

• We confess the Divine Logoswho was begotten of
  the Father in a timeless mannerin these last
  days for us and for our salvation came down from
  heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and
  the holy glorious Theotokosand was born of her.
  He is the Lord Jesus Christ, One of the Holy
  Trinity homoousios to God the Father in His
  Divinityand homoousios to us in his humanity.
• The same one in His flesh is passible and in his
  Divinity impassible. For He who took upon Himself
  suffering and death is not someone other than the
  Logos, but the impassible and eternal Logos of
  God Himself submitted to being born in human
  flesh, and He accomplished all things. Wherefore
  we do not believe that the Divine Logos who
  performed is one and the Christ who endured the
  passion another, but we confess that our Lord
  Jesus Christ in one and the same Divine Logos of
  God who was incarnate and became man, and both
  miracles and the Passion are His which he
  voluntarily bore in the flesh.

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Council of Constantinople-553AD

• 2. If anyone shall not confess that the Word of
  God has two nativities, the one from all eternity
  of the Father, without time and without body the
  other in these last days, coming down from heaven
  and being made flesh of the holy and glorious
  Mary, Theotokos and always a virgin, and born of
  her let him be anathema.
• 3. If anyone shall say that the wonder-working
  Word of God is one Person and the Christ that
  suffered another but that he was not one and
  the same our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God,
  incarnate and made man, and that his miracles and
  the sufferings which of his own will he endured
  in the flesh were not of the same Person let
  him be anathema.
• 4. If anyone shall say that the union of the Word
  of God to man was only according to grace or
  energy, or dignity, or equality of honour
  speaking thus clearly of two persons, and only
  designating disingenuously one Person and one
  Christ when the reference is to his honour, or
  his dignity, or his worship if anyone shall not
  acknowledge as the Holy Fathers teach, that the
  union of God the Word is made synthetically and
  hypostatically, and that therefore there is only
  one Person, to wit our Lord Jesus Christ, one of
  the Holy Trinity let him be anathema.

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5th Council on One Person.

• 5. If anyone understands the expression "one only
  Person of our Lord Jesus Christ" in this sense,
  that it is the union of many hypostases, and if
  he attempts thus to introduce into the mystery of
  Christ two hypostases, or two Persons, and, after
  having introduced two persons, speaks of one
  Person only out of dignity, honour or worship, as
  both Theodorus and Nestorius insanely have
  written if anyone shall slander the holy Council
  of Chalcedon, pretending that it made use of this
  expression one hypostasis in this impious
  sense, and if he will not recognize rather that
  the Word of God is united with the flesh
  hypostatically, and that therefore there is but
  one hypostasis or one only Person, and that the
  holy Council of Chalcedon has professed in this
  sense the one Person of our Lord Jesus Christ
  let him be anathema. For since one of the Holy
  Trinity has been made man, that is, God the Word,
  the Holy Trinity has not been increased by the
  addition of another person or hypostasis.

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5th Council on Theotokos

• 6. If anyone shall not truly, but only falsely,
  call the holy, glorious, and ever-virgin Mary,
  the Theotokos, or shall call her so only in a
  relative sense, believing that she bare only a
  simple man and that God the word was not
  incarnate of her, but that the incarnation of God
  the Word resulted only from the fact that he
  united himself to that man who was born of her
  if he shall calumniate the Holy Synod of
  Chalcedon as though it had asserted the Virgin to
  be Theotokos according to the impious sense of
  Theodore or if anyone shall call her
  anthropotokos or Christotokos, as if Christ were
  not God, and shall not confess that she is
  exactly and truly the Theotokos, because that God
  the Word who before all ages was begotten of the
  Father was in these last days made flesh and born
  of her, and if anyone shall not confess that in
  this sense the holy Synod of Chalcedon
  acknowledged her to be the Theotokos let him be
  anathema.

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5th Council in 2 natures and from 2 natures

• 7. If anyone using the expression, "in two
  natures," does not confess that our one Lord
  Jesus Christ has been revealed in the divinity
  and in the humanity but shall take the
  expression so as to divide the elements, or
  does not content himself with taking in a
  theoretical manner the difference of the natures
  which compose Him but shall make use of the
  number two to divide the natures or to make of
  them Persons properly so called let him be
  anathema.
• 8. If anyone uses the expression "of two
  natures," confessing that a union was made of the
  Godhead and of the humanity, or the expression
  "the one nature made flesh of God the Word," and
  shall not so understand those expressions as the
  holy Fathers have taught, that is that of the
  divine and human nature there was made an
  hypostatic union, whereof is one Christ but from
  these expressions shall try to introduce one
  nature or substance made by a mixture of the
  Godhead and manhood of Christ let him be
  anathema.
• Wherefore there is one Christ, both God and man,
  homoousios with the Father as touching his
  Godhead, and homoousios with us as touching his
  manhood. Therefore they are equally condemned and
  anathematized by the Church of God, who divide or
  part the mystery of the divine dispensation of
  Christ, or who introduce confusion into that
  mystery.

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5th Council Theopaschite and Theodore

• 10. If anyone does not confess that our Lord
  Jesus Christ who was crucified in the flesh is
  true God and the Lord of Glory and one of the
  Holy Trinity let him be anathema.
• 12. If anyone defends the impious Theodore of
  Mopsuestia, who has said that the Word of God is
  one person, but that another person is Christ,
  vexed by the sufferings of the soul and the
  desires of the flesh, . And, again, this same
  impious Theodore has also said that the union of
  God the Word with Christ is like to that which,
  according to the doctrine of the Apostle, exists
  between a man and his wife, "They twain shall be
  in one flesh." If, then, anyone shall defend
  this most impious Theodore and his impious
  writings, in which he vomits the blasphemies
  mentioned above, and countless others besides
  let him be anathema.