Nestorius, born in Euphratesian Syria 31 old ages after Theodore of Mopsuestia, was destined to hold his name for good linked with the great mepasqana because of his Dyophysite dictums and the acceptance by the modules of Edessa and Nisibis of his and Theodore ‘s polemics and commentaries. Together, Theodore and Nestorius served as the wellheads of the two Mesopotamian schools that carried the streamer of Nestorianism.

Nestorius used his place as bishop of Constantinople ( 428 ) to prophesy against the rubric Theotokos, “ Mother of God, ” that was given to the Virgin Mary. He claimed a more reliable rubric should be the Mother of Christ. This philosophy was challenged by Cyril of Alexandria and, subsequently, Pope Celestine, who anathematized Nestorius and condemned him as a misbeliever at the Council of Ephesus in 431.

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Although much of Nestorius ‘s discourses and instructions were ordered to be burned, the philosophy of Nestorianism survived and served as the footing for Dyophysite instructions in the fifth and 6th centuries, peculiarly at Nisibis, which had inherited the mantle of Syrian scholarship from Edessa. Fragments of Nestorius ‘s letters and discourses have been preserved in the Acts of the Council of Ephesus, commendations in the plant of St. Cyril of Alexandria ( Nestorius ‘s credal antagonist ) , and through the interpolated Syriac text, The Bazaar of Heracleides, an apology, written near the terminal of his life ( c. 436 ) .

The Christological idea of Nestorius is dominated by Cappadocian divinity and is influenced by Stoic doctrine. Although Nestorius ne’er spoke of the human Jesus and the Godhead Jesus as “ two boies, ” he did non see him merely as a adult male. However, differing from Cyril of Alexandria, who posited one exclusive nature ( mia physis ) in Christ, Nestorius defined a nature in the sense of ousia, “ substance, ” and distinguished exactly between the human nature and the godly nature, using in his Christology the differentiation between nature ( ousia ) and individual ( epistasis ) . Nestorius refused to impute to the Godhead nature the human Acts of the Apostless and agonies of Jesus. This last statement underlines the ultimate difference between Nestorius and Cyril. Nestorius distinguished between the Son ( the “ godly nature ” ) and Christ ( the Son, the Lord ) , which he saw as a consequence of the brotherhood of the godly nature and the human nature. After the Council of Ephesus, a strong Nestorian party developed in eastern Syria that found its strength and rational support in the School of Edessa. After the theological peace achieved in the understanding of 433 between Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch, a figure of dissenting bishops affiliated themselves with the Syrian Church of Persia, which officially adopted Nestorianism at the Synod of Seleucia in 486. The Nestorians were expelled from Edessa in 489 by the Emperor Zeno and emigrated to Persia. It was therefore that the Nestorian Church broke off from the religion of the Church of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire.

The Nestorian spirit was formidable. Secured in the Iranian Church, it continued to boom in the 7th century despite persecution from the Sassanids, and after the invasions of the Turks and Mongols. Nowhere is its rational plangency and spirit more evident than in its theological school, Nisibis, the replacement to Edessa. It is here where our narrative leads, and the explication of the environment that produced Paul ‘s Dyophysite text and Junillus ‘s Instituta Regularia Divinae Legis begins.

History of Nestorian

A A The Assyrian Church of the East was established in Edessa in the first century of the Christian epoch. It is from Edessa that the message of the Gospels spread. Edessa was a little land, a buffer province between Roman and Parthean Empires. Mar Mary was sent to Persia by his fellow workers in Edessa. In the 2nd century this church began to be organized. The church in Edessa had four Gospels in Aramaic. The instruction was spread to the Persian Empire. In the 3rd century, the church in the Persian Empire had to take refugees from the Roman Empire where Christians were non welcomed. Streams of refugees turned toward Persia to get away persecution in the Eastern Roman Empire. A great battalion of Christians in all Roman states were put off by assorted penalties, anguish professed to abdicate Christianity.

From approximately 280 A.D. Mar Papa organized this church, therefore Metropolitan place of Seleucia became the central offices. Now the metropolis is in ruins, known as SalmanPark, 30 stat mis from Baghdad.

Mar Aprim the Assyrian, the representative of the Church in the first oecumenic council at Nicea in 325A.D. , played a great function in the literary and spiritual life of all Christians until today. That is the ground he is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church which declared Saint Aprim as the physician of the Universal Church

In the 5th century, the Nestorian contention refering the integrity of the Godhead and human nature in Christ had far making effects. At this clip, the Church of the East was non involved in this contention. It was a theological difference within the Roman Empire.

John Nestorius was non an Assyrian nor did he cognize Syriac linguistic communication. He was a indigen of Antioch and Patriarch of Constantinople from 428 to 431 A.D. His challenger Cyril was Patriarch of Alexandria. Therefore, the members of the Church say that they do non hold anything to make with the Nestorian contention. It was several old ages subsequently and even after the decease of Nestorius in 451 A.D. that the Christians of the Persian Empire heard about the contention. They decreed that the base taken by Nestorius was in understanding with the position ever maintained by the Church of the East.

As a consequence of the persecution of the followings of Nestorius, many Christians had to fly from the now Christian Roman Empire and found safety among the followings of this Church.

The central office of the Church, Selucia-Ctesphon, was at a strategic topographic point on both Bankss of the River Tigris, the centre of travel between Europe and Asia. By the center of the 6th century, the Church had spread into Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Ceylon, China, and Mongolia.

Professor P.Y. Saeki stated that the leaven of Nestorianism has penetrated the whole of Chinese literature. This church had great missionaries. They expanded quickly. Asia was widely covered by the missionaries. They had no fund to back up their mission Stationss financially ; there were no mission boards to direct their activities like Western missionaries of those yearss who followed the colonial Empires. It is clip to hear from our long-forgotten past the thrilling narrative of our missional endeavor during the early centuries of the Christian epoch. These Christians did non hold great stuff agencies nor were they able to prosecute in be aftering great missional schemes, computerized and perfected in universe conferences, to win the universe in our clip. Yet they carried the torch of the Gospel all across the huge Asiatic continent, at the cost of great personal agony and frequently martyrdom, for untold Numberss of laypersons and clergy likewise were led by the Holy Spirit to force the frontiers of the Kingdom of God far and broad.

Wherever they went, it was to prophesy, to learn and bring around. At the terminal of the 11th century, this church was the individual largest Christian denomination at that clip. John Stewart writes: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.nestorian.org/history_of_the_nestorian_churc.html ( accessed 24/4/2010 )

Whole peoples with their swayers had become Christians and it seems certain that there were few topographic points in the whole Asia that were non reached at some clip or other as the result of the fantastic activity of that fantastic church which extended from China to Jerusalem and Cyprus, and in the 11th century is said to hold outnumbered the Greek and Roman churches combined

From the Pacific Ocean in the East to the Mediterranean in the West ; from the Black Sea and Siberia to the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea, Assyrian missions were working. Asia Minor, Cyprus, Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Persia, Afghanistan, India, China, Japan, Mongolia, Manchuria, and Turkistan-all manus missions where the Gospel was taught by avid workers of the Assyrian Church of the East.

The Assyrian Church missionaries included bishops, priests, monastics, deacons. It is said about these men-the couriers of the King of kings-that they were every bit gently as lambs and retiring, but brave and fearless with the Black Marias of king of beastss. They sacrificed life and wellness in the unknown land and did their work among the pagan with religion and trust in God.

They went out from Mesopotamia, the place of birth of Abraham, the male parent of all the trusters.

The missionaries traveled on pes ; they had sandals on their pess, and a staff in their custodies, and carried a basket on their dorsums, and in the basket were the Holy Writ and the Cross.

They took the route over deep rivers and high mountains, 1000s of stat mis. On their manner they met many pagan states and preached to them gospel of Christ. The pagan who worshipped graven images were told about the Savior, who would take their wickednesss upon himself and salvage them. They sowed the good seed in the field, worked zealously and won many psyches among the pagan states.

The work of the mission became a approval to the states, and the missionaries influenced greatly those among whom they worked ; they brought many from wickedness and idol worship to God ; they went to the castles of the male monarchs and to the bungalows of the hapless. Kings and princes heard the words about the love of Christ, and they believed ; the topics followed their princes, and with their ain custodies they destroyed the temples of their graven images ; those that they heretofore had worshipped and hoped to acquire aid and comfort from. Great gifts were given to the missionaries, but they distributed everything given them in the best manner to function the spreading of the words of Christ, and many psyches were won.

Around the 14th century, this missional endeavor started to worsen. There was persecution, misrepresentation, extinction by Mongols. The leftover which escaped the persecution of Tamerlane eventually found safety in the mountains of Kurdistan. The split caused by Sulaqa who took safety with the Roman Catholic Church, persecuted by the Kurds and Turks, and during the First World War farther weakened this church.

The Iranian Church and Nestoriansiam

( pg 46-47, East of the Euphrates ) There two opposing schools of divinity in this contention were those of Alexandria and Antioch. Alaxandrian wanted to safeguard the godly nature of Christ, Te Antiocheans wanted to emphasize the human nature of Christ. To the Antiocheans, the instruction of Alexandrians seemed to weaken the humanity of Christ and failed to separate the two natures decently in one individual. Their bodied Jesus seemed to hold merely one nature, viz. , the godly nature. They were known as Monophysites. To the Alexandrians, the Antiocheans seeme to hold minimized the deity of Christ and to hold distinguished to two natures in such a manner that Christ seemed to be two individuals. In the bodied Christ two natures are non decently united to organize one individual. They were called Diophysites.

Page 47 – Nestorius excommunicated. Emperor Theodosius destruct all his authorship.

Though the influence of Nestorius ended in Antioch which once supported him, his influence did non decease out in the East. Edessa became a Centre of Nestorianism. Many of the instructors in the theological school at Eddeswa were still attached to the instructions of Theodore of Mopsuestia. The attitude of the Schoo ; at Eddesa was of import because it was at that place that most of the clergy of the Iranian church were trained. Here the pupils were given a good apprehension of Nestorian positions and when they returned to Persian, the became strong supports of Nestorianism. Thus the contention divided the Syrian church in two cantonments. While the West Syrian Christians populating under Byzantine regulation made peace with Alexandria and tended to accept Monophysitism, the East Syrians under Iranian regulation became Nestorians.

Page 48, Nestorianism was dominance in Persia. Nestorianism had hence been long in grounds in Persia. But there was besides a political factor in the spread of Nestoriansim. The Iranian authorities had opposed Christianity because it was the faith of their national enemy, the Romans. It would be politically wise to promote Nestorianism among the Iranian Christians so as to estrange them from Christians in the Roman imperium. King Peroz gave up oppressing the church, therefore the attitude of the Iranian authorities and the inflow of Christians from Eddesa helped the rapid spread of Nestoianism in Persia. ( page 49 ) .

The School of Nisibis – The School was non merely a school of religious subject based on the survey of the Bible, its divinity was besides a missional divinity. The roots of this missional divinity arises from Narsai ‘s divinity, the first great instructor in Nisibis. His teology efficaciously combined philosophies of creative activity, redemption and a cosmopolitan mission patterned after two scriptural theoretical accounts, Peter to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles. But the ultimate authorization for mission comes from Jesus himself.

Henana of Adianene, theologically was inclined to the Monophysite side, as the consequence bulk of the pupils and instructors left. The school of Nisibis declined and the school of Seleucia gained prominence. Page 57.

When Christianity spread to Syria and Persia, there is no uncertainty that some of the Arabs besides became Christian. Many Arab leaders came approximately through their rescue from the genitive liquors or the remedy of maladies caused by the liquors. For illustration, a figure of nomad Arabs in the vale of the Euphrates accepted Christianity because they were attracted to the Christian religion by the power which the Christain monastics and anchorites exercised over the evil liquors in the name of Jesus. Page 67-68. Not reference, when and how precisely Christianity came to Peninsular Arabia. It is said that a merchandiser named Hayyan, from Yemen when of the Himyarites land, went to Constantinople. While he stopped at the Arab tributary land of Hirta on the Iranian boundary line E of Euphrates, he was frequented the company of Nestorial Christians and was converted to Christian religion. On his return to Yemen, he proclaimed the Gospel in Yemen every bit good as in the adjacent topographic points.

Christian religion in Central Asia.

The East Syrian church expressed its religion through missional attempts. The being of trade paths linking Syria with China, India and Tibet offered great chances. Marco Polo tells us that in his twenty-four hours the trade path from Baghdad to Peking was lined with Nestorian churches.

By the terminal of the 5th century, Iranian missionaries were doing converts among the Huns and Turks in Central Asia. Page 70

Fom 4th to the 7th century, Merv was an of import missional base from which mission was undertaken to Central Asia. From Merv, the urban Centres of Bulhara and Samarquand in Transoxiana were reached with the Gospel. Many members of this church of the East lived frequently in small town colonies and remains of Nestorian Christians small towns north of Samarquand day of the month from at least every bit early as the 9th century. They were active in trade, instruction, and medical businesss, and drew freely on the scholarship and traditions of the East Syrian Church with which they appear to hold been in regular contact.

There were Nestorian missional activities further to the nor’-east, toward Lake Baikal. During the 10th and 11th centuries, several Tartar folks were wholly or to a great extent Christian, notably the Keraits, Uighurs, Naimans and Merkits.

Keraits were a Turko-Mongolian folk. The Kerait capital, where Marco Polo found a church. The Gospel was taken to those folks by Christian merchandisers. At the beginning of 11th century a male monarch of the Keraits lost his manner while runing in the high mountains, a saint appeared in a vision and told him he will non decease, if you believe in Christ. When he returned home, he remembered his vision. As a consequence, the Keraits and two hundred 1000s of his people accepted Christ and baptism.

It was the Keraits who patronized and helped the growing of Temujin who subsequently became the Chengis Khan ( 1162-1127 ) of the Mongols. The Keraits besides had spiritual influence over the Mongols through royal matrimony.

In the eleventh and 12th centuries the Nestorians missionaries were really active in Cardinal Asia. Page 73.

The Sassanid Persia had opended trade connexions with China in the 5th century and Nestorian merchandisers were legion in the merchandiser category of those times and Iranian Nestorian might hold gone to China for trade.

In AD 635, during the reign of Tai-tsung he welcomed the Christian bishop Alopen and in AD 638 the emperor issued an edict of cosmopolitan acceptance and granted blessing to the extension of Christianity throughout the imperium. Page 79.

Kao-tsung, the boy of T’ai-tsung reign that Christian missionaries began to widen their work from one Centre at Chang’An to other metropoliss.

Page 80, Many refugees including the Iranian Shah, found shelter in China.The spread of Arab imperium across Asia, stimuled the Nestorian mission. Nestorian missionaries accompanied Arab embassies to China, taking advantage of Arab sea and trade paths. The Arab embassies employed Nestorian missionaries as translators and advisors in their traffics with the Chinese authorities. Page 80

Christian religion at the clip of the Mongols

Kublai Khan regulation China from AD 1215-1294. With the rise of Mongol power in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Nestorian church followed by Roman Catholics, began to come to China one time once more. Marco Polo speaks of widespread Nestorian communities scattered across the Chinese imperium. He travels speak of Christians non merely in China but besides in Central Asia and in other parts if Asia. Polo besides reports of Christians and Nestorian churches in at least eleven other Chinese metropoliss. The largest concentration of Christians was in the Northwest along the old Silk Road.

Christian religion in India.

In the first centuries of the Christian epoch, the 3rd path was normally used ( Third path was from India to the Red Sea and from at that place by route to the Nile and to Alexandria ) .

Page 114.

Page 153,

Evidence show that through the attempts of Nestorian merchandisers and missionaries from Persia or India or China or from all the three topographic points, Christianity found its manner into South East and East Asiatic states.

Page 155, In the 6th century in Ceylon, there were merely Iranian Christians who settled at that place and there were no autochthonal Christians.

Early presence of Christians in Tibet is good attested. Towards the terminal of the eight century the Nestorian patriarch Mar Timothy I ( AD 779-823 ) in his missive to the monastics of Mar Maron refering the add-on of the expression Crucifixus es pro nobisaˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦ .

Page 157aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦aˆ¦..

There are several historian claim that Christianity foremost cam to Japan and Korea from China during the T’ang period. Harmonizing to them ( Saeki ) the Nestorians had no little portion in the creative activity of the aureate age of China and through China these same western influences passed on to Japan. “ Whether the Nestorian were hererodox or Orthodox it is certain that their ethical and practical divinity and their medical cognition were the true beginnings of their success in China. ” Nipponese were much influenced by the Nestorians and received Christian idea in Chinese attire during T’ang period. Christanity came to Japan by terminal of 6th or beginning of 7th century.

Nestorian Christianity came to Korea during the Silla and Koryo dynasties.

Page 162,

The grounds for South East and East Asia are really bare and fragmental and osme have drawn questoionble decisions from it. But there are sufficient groundss to demo that Christianity was present in a figure of states in South East and East Asia. There is no uncertainty about Christian presence in Ceylon, Burma, Tibet, Indonesia and Korea before the reaching of the western missionaries. In the thirteenth century, there are 25 Nestorian metropolitan states with an norm of eight to ten Episcopal sees for each state, therefore wholly about 200 to 250 dioceses.

The happenstance of the gap of trade paths into farther Asia with the dominance of the Nestorian church offered a ready mercantile establishment for missional attempt. The Nestorians, who were strongly influenced by missional motive seized this chance. In Marco Polo ‘s twenty-four hours, the trade paths from Baghdad to Peking were lined with Nestorian churches ; The missionaries was carried by Persian, Indian and Chinese missionaries and bargainers.

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