Quotes:Nestorius

Zirkoff, Boris

Nestorius. Syrian ecclesiastic, patriarch of Constantinople from 428 to 431; he was a native of Germanicia in Syria, though the year of his birth is unknown; he died about 451. Received his education at Antioch; as monk at monastery of Euprepius, and later as presbyter, became famous for his asceticism, orthodoxy and eloquence. When he was consecrated as patriarch, he set to work extirpating various 584 so-called heresies. Having been trained in the tradition of the School of Antioch, he was theologically committed to the concept of the reality of Jesus’ human nature as well as his divine nature. Thus when he became patriarch of Constantinople, he attacked the usage of the title “theotokos” (usually translated “mother of God”) in referring to Mary, the mother of Jesus, asserting that she was the mother of his human nature only. This was part of the tradition of the church in Alexandria, hence Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, counter-attacked. It should be noted that the third canon of the second ecumenical council at Constantinople, 381 a.d., that the “Bishop of Constantinople has the precedence of honour after the Bishop of Rome as it is New Rome,” undoubtedly roused great jealousy amongst the Alexandrians. Alexandria, long the center of learning in the Roman Empire, had traditionally enjoyed precedence in the eastern half of the Empire.

The ensuing controversy ultimately resulted in Nestorius persuading the Emperor Theodosius II to summon a general council. This was done in June, 431 a.d. However, it was extraordinary in that it was convened before the bishops from Antioch and its province arrived. Cyril held the council under his own presidency; Nestorius’ teachings were condemned, and in 436 he was exiled to Upper Egypt. He maintained till his death his orthodoxy.

Whether or not he actually said what is ascribed to him is subject to question. The part played by Cyril’s desire for ascendency and his jealousy of the widening influence of the patriarchate of Constantinople will probably never be known. The fourth ecumenical council held at Chalcedon in 451 made the final statement regarding the person of Jesus, proclaiming that there were two natures in one person —the human and the divine.

Followers of Nestorius exist even today and the Syriac Church is Nestorian in theology. A more unbiased view of the whole Nestorian affair is provided by the collection of Nestoriana published in 1905 by Dr. F. Loofs, and Nestorius’ own evidence and testimony may be found in his work, The Bazaar of Heraclides of Damascus, preserved in a Syriac version by Nestorian settlers in the Euphrates valley. The text of this work has been edited by P. Paul Bedjan (Leipzig, 1910), and selections therefrom may be found in J. F. Bethune-Baker’s work, Nestorius and his Teaching (Cambridge, 1908).

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 11, pp. 583-584