Council of Ephesus

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Council of Ephesus
Pentecost 431 (June 22nd - July 31st)
Accepted by
Convened by Emperor Theodosius II
Bureau
participant 150 bishops
subjects
Documents

The Council of Ephesus (also Council of Ephesus ) was the third general council of the church ( Third Ecumenical Council ). It took place from June 22nd to July 31st, 431 AD in the city ​​of Ephesus in Asia Minor in the local Marienkirche . It was convened by the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II . Around 250 clergy were present .

Council theme 431 AD

The central theme of the council was the dispute between two schools of catechists . The Alexandrian school was based on Plato and interpreted the Bible allegorically, while the Antiochene school appealed to Aristotle and operated a rationalistic Bible exegesis .

Tensions were exacerbated by the rivalries between the Patriarch of Alexandria , Cyril of Alexandria , and that of Constantinople , Nestorius , over primacy in the east, with Nestorius referring to the imperial seat of Constantinople and Cyril to the Bishop of Rome . Nestorius came from the Antiochian school and advocated the thesis that Christ's humanity was only morally connected to his divinity and that it followed that Mary was only the Theotokos of Christ, not theotokos of God .

Course and resolutions

Before the opening, Nestorius was asked three times to appear before the council. Nestorius replied that not all ambassadors, i.a. the Roman legates and John I , the Patriarch of Antioch , had arrived. Nevertheless, Cyril hurried and opened the council. At the first meeting, Nestorius was removed from office and excommunicated. The Roman embassy of Celestine I , who arrived later, participated in the Cyrillic assembly.

The council condemned Nestorius and his followers, but not the Antiochene school as a whole.

After John I of Antioch arrived in Ephesus (probably four days later), he convened a counter-council. At this meeting he excommunicated Cyril and the Bishop of Ephesus. Emperor Theodosius II also canceled the opening decision, and due to the seemingly hopeless dispute, he had Nestorius and Kyrill imprisoned, whereby Kyrill was able to return to Alexandria that same year.

The Council of Ephesus is named as the place of the official anchoring of the cross as a Christian symbol. This sign was preceded by the Christ monogram "XP", which was formed with the two Greek letters Chi and Rho , the capitalized first letters of the Christ title.

Later negotiations at the Council of Ephesus

In 433, after extensive negotiations between representatives of the two theological schools, an agreement was finally reached. The union formula of 433, a mediating creed, describes Christ as "perfect God and perfect man" (same being with the Father and with men), affirms the "union of two natures" and "unmixed union" in Christ. In the context of these Christological statements, the formula of union recognizes Mary as “Theotokos” (Theotokos). Bishop Theodoret of Kyrrhos is likely to be jointly responsible for the development of this dogmatic formulation , even if he did not join the Union for a long time.

The Council of Ephesus led to the secession of the Assyrian Church of the East , which did not recognize the decisions of the council, as Antiochene bishops, who were more supporters of Nestorius, were prevented from participating by armed Monophysite monks. In contrast to the “ robber synod ” of 449, however, the armed men did not influence the assembled council members (besides Monophysites also Dyophysites of the later Chalcedonian direction) themselves.

Conversion of the Persian Church to "Nestorianism"

In 484 the Synod of Persian Christians ( Catholic of Seleukia-Ctesiphon , today Assyrian Church of the East) in Beth-Lapat (confirmed in 498 in Seleukia-Ctesiphon) to accept the 431 damned doctrine of Nestorius as binding for their church. This was inter alia. Probably also due to the fact that the Persian Church wanted to show itself to be loyal to the Persian state, which was often at war with Ostrom. The "Nestorian" Catholic of the East proselytized from Persia and Mesopotamia in the following centuries as far as India and the Chinese Empire .

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