Ecumenical council III
The Council of Ephesus
The council that confessed the Virgin Mary as Theotokos and condemned Nestorius. Its procedure was contested at the time, and its consequences included the first lasting division in the Church.
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- Date
- 431
- Location
- Ephesus in Asia Minor
- Convoked by
- The Emperor Theodosius II
- Attendance
- Traditionally the 200 Fathers
Overview
The question at Ephesus was how to speak of the union of God and man in Christ. Its focus became a title: may the Virgin Mary be called theotokos, God-bearer? Nestorius, archbishop of Constantinople, thought the title dangerous and preferred Christotokos, Christ-bearer. Cyril of Alexandria held that refusing Theotokos amounted to denying that the one born of Mary is the eternal Son of God.
The title is a Christological claim before it is a Marian one. To say Theotokos is to say that the child born in Bethlehem is one person, the eternal Word, who has taken human nature — not a man in whom God came to dwell, and not two subjects side by side.
The council condemned Nestorius and deposed him. It did not issue a creed: it confirmed the Creed already received and forbade the composition of any other.
The controversy
Nestorius came from the Antiochene tradition, which insisted on the full reality of Christ's humanity and was wary of language that seemed to swallow it up in divinity. Cyril came from the Alexandrian tradition, which insisted on the unity of the one Christ and was wary of language that seemed to divide him.
Both concerns are legitimate, and much of the fifth century consists of the Church working out how to hold them together. What made Ephesus so bitter was that each side heard the other's safeguard as the other's error.
The positions in play
- Cyril of Alexandria
- Argued that there is one incarnate subject, the Word, so that what is said of the man may be said of God and the reverse. His twelve anathematisms against Nestorius are archived here.
- Nestorius and the Antiochenes
- Argued that the distinction between the divine and human in Christ must be maintained, and that theotokos risked confusing them. John of Antioch initially defended Nestorius and later reconciled with Cyril.
- Celestine of Rome
- Had already condemned Nestorius at a Roman synod in 430 and sent legates. His letter to the synod is archived in Percival's edition.
What the council issued
The council confirmed the Creed and forbade the framing of any other creed for those coming to the faith. It received Cyril's second letter to Nestorius as expressing the faith, condemned Nestorius, and confessed the Virgin as theotokos.
Two years later, in 433, Cyril and John of Antioch agreed a Formula of Reunion which confessed two natures united in one person and Mary as Theotokos. That agreement matters: it shows that the council's result was not simply the victory of one vocabulary but the beginning of a settlement that Chalcedon would complete.
Cyril's twelve anathematisms against Nestorius
These were read at the council and were the sharpest statement of the Alexandrian case. They were never received as a conciliar definition in their own right, and their language caused difficulty for Antiochene readers; Theodoret wrote against them. Read them as the position of a Father in controversy, not as a creed.
Conciliar text, as printed in the edition cited
The XII. Anathematisms of St. Cyril Against Nestorius.
(Found in St. Cyril’sOpera. Migne, Pat. Græc, Tom. LXXVII., Col. 119; and the Concilia.) I.
If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Θεοτόκος), inasmuch as in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh [as it is written, “The Word was made flesh”] let him be anathema. Notes.
The Anathematisms of the Heretic Nestorius Against Cyril.
(Found best in Migne’s edition of Marius Mercator.)
I.
If anyone says that the Emmanuel is true God, and not rather God with us, that is, that he has united himself to a like nature with ours, which he assumed from the Virgin Mary, and dwelt in it; and if anyone calls Mary the mother of God the Word, and not rather mother of him who is Emmanuel; and if he maintains that God the Word has changed himself into the flesh, which he only assumed in order to make his Godhead visible, and to be found in form as a man, let him be anathema.
Petavius.245
(De Incarnatione, Lib. vj. cap. xvij.)
In this anathematism certain words are found in the Greek copy of Dionysius which are lacking in the ordinary copies, viz. “according as it is written, ‘And the Word was made flesh’;” unless forsooth Dionysius supplied them of his own authority. For in the Lateran Synod in the time of Martin I. this anathematism was quoted without the appended words. This anathematism breaks to pieces the chief strength of the Nestorian impiety. For it sets forth two facts. The one that the Emmanuel, that is he who was born of a woman and dwelt with us, is God: the other, that Mary who bare such an one is Mother of God. That Christ is God is clearly proved from the Nicene Creed, and he shews that the same that was in the beginning the Son of God, afterwards took flesh and was born of Mary, without any change or confusion of natures.
St. Cyril explains that by σαρκικῶς, carnaliter, he meant nothing else than κατα σάρκα, secundum carnem, “according to the flesh.” And it was necessary to use this expression to overthrow the perfidy of Nestorius; so that we may understand that the most holy Virgin was the parent not of a simple and bare man, but of God the Word, not in that he was God, but in that he had taken flesh. For God the Father was the parent of the same Son θεϊκῶς246 (divinely) as his mother was σαρκικῶς (after the flesh). And the word (σαρκικῶς) in no 245 Petavius gives a scholion on every anathematism and a résumé of the Orientals’ objections and of Theodoret’s criticisms, with answers.
246 This is a late form of θείως, but used only in its secondary sense.
The XII. Anathematisms of St. Cyril Against Nestorius.Anathematism I.
Henry R. Percival (ed.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. XIV (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900). Public domain.
The definition against the Messalians
The council also acted against the Messalians, an ascetic movement in Mesopotamia. This is a reminder that Ephesus dealt with more than the Christological question for which it is remembered.
Conciliar text, as printed in the edition cited
The Definition of the Holy and Ecumenical Synod of Ephesus Against the Impious Messalians Who are Also Called Euchetæ and Enthusiasts.
(Found in Latin only. Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. III., col. 809.)
When the most pious and religious bishops, Valerian and Amphilochius had come to us, they proposed that we should consider in common the case of the Messalians, that is the Euchetes or Enthusiasts, who were flourishing in Pamphylia, or by what other name this most contaminating heresy is called. And when we were considering the question, the most pious and religious bishop Valerian, presented to us a synodical schedule which had been drawn up concerning them in the great city of Constantinople, under Sisinnius of blessed memory: What we read therein was approved by all, as well composed and as a due presentation of the case. And it seemed good to us all, and to the most pious bishops Valerian and Amphilochius and to all the most pious bishops of the provinces of Pamphylia and Lycaonia, that all things contained in that Synodical chart should be confirmed and in no way rescinded; also that the action taken at Alexandria might also be made firm, so that all those who throughout the whole province are of the Messalian or Enthusiastic heresy, or suspected of being tainted with that heresy, whether clerics or laymen, may come together; and if they shall anathematize in writing, according to the decrees pronounced in the aforesaid synod [their errors], if they are clergymen they may remain such; and if laymen they may be admitted to communion. But if they refuse to anathematize, if they were presbyters or deacons or in any other ecclesiastical grade, let them be cast out of the clergy and from their grade, and also from communion; if they be lay-men let them be anathematized.
Furthermore those convicted of this heresy are no more to be permitted to have the rule of our monasteries, lest tares be sown and increase. And we give command that the most pious bishops Valerian and Amphilochius, and the rest of the most reverend bishops of the whole province shall pay attention that this decree be carried into effect. In addition to this it seemed good that the filthy book of this heresy, which is called the “Asceticon,” should be anathematized, as composed by heretics, a copy of which the most religious and pious Valerian brought with him. Likewise anything savouring of their impiety which may be found among the people, let it be anathema.
Moreover when they come together, let there be commended by them in writing such things as are useful and necessary for concord, and communion, and arrangement (dispositionem vel dispensationem). But should any question arise in connexion with the present business, and if it should prove to be difficult and ambiguous, what is not approved by the most pious bishops Valerian and Amphilochius, and the other bishops throughout the province, they ought to discuss all things by reference to what is written. And if the most pious bishops of the Lycians or of the Lycaonians shall have been passed over; nevertheless let not a Metropolitan be left out of whatever province he may be. And let these things be The Definition of the Holy and Ecumenical Synod of Ephesus Against the Impious Messalians Who are Also Called Euchetæ and Enthusiasts. inserted in the Acts so that if any have need of them they would find how also to expound these things more diligently to others.
Henry R. Percival (ed.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. XIV (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900). Public domain.
Canons
The council issued 8 canons in this edition. Percival prints eight canons. Most concern the practical consequences of the condemnation — the standing of clergy who sided with Nestorius or with the Pelagians, and the independence of the church of Cyprus. Canon VII, forbidding another creed, has been read far more broadly in later controversy than its immediate context supports.
Who was there
Cyril of Alexandria presided and also acted as prosecutor, which contemporaries noticed. Memnon of Ephesus supported him. Nestorius refused to appear. John of Antioch and the Syrian bishops arrived late and held a rival session; the two gatherings deposed each other, and imperial officials eventually arrested both Cyril and Nestorius before a settlement was reached.
An honest account of Ephesus has to hold two things together: that the council's confession of Christ was received by the Church as the faith, and that the manner in which it was reached was contested at the time and has troubled readers ever since.
Reception
Ephesus is received as the third ecumenical council by the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches and by Rome. Its confession of theotokos has been so thoroughly received that it now shapes Orthodox hymnography at almost every service.
It is not received by the Assyrian Church of the East, which did not participate and which regards the condemnation of Nestorius as unjust. This is the first lasting division in the Church arising from a council, and it is a serious one; describing the Church after 431 as simply undivided is inaccurate.
Reception outside the Eastern Orthodox Church
- Oriental Orthodox churches
- Receive Ephesus and hold Cyril in the highest honour; their difference with the Eastern Orthodox begins at Chalcedon, twenty years later.
- Assyrian Church of the East
- Does not receive Ephesus. It confesses two natures and two hypostases in one prosopon of union, and venerates Nestorius, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Diodore of Tarsus.
- Roman Catholic Church
- Receives Ephesus as the third ecumenical council.
Consequences
The immediate consequence was the Formula of Reunion of 433 and an uneasy peace. The longer consequence was that the Christological question remained open in a way that led to the Second Council of Ephesus in 449, which Leo of Rome called a robbery, and then to Chalcedon in 451.
The Church of the East, largely outside the Roman Empire, went its own way. Its subsequent missionary reach across Persia, Central Asia and into China is one of the least known stories in Christian history.
Liturgical commemoration
The Fathers of the third council are commemorated with the Fathers of the first six councils in July. The title theotokos itself is confessed constantly in Orthodox worship.
Related in this archive
-
Cyril of Alexandria
Archbishop of Alexandria and the decisive figure at Ephesus, whose insistence on the one incarnate subject of Christ became the Church's own; a great theologian whose conduct has been criticised since his own lifetime.
-
The Council of Chalcedon
The council that confessed Christ in two natures, unconfused and undivided, in one person. Its definition is the classic Christological statement of the Church, and its reception divided the Church permanently.
-
Jesus Christ, God and man
One person in two natures: the four councils that worked it out and the four adverbs that guard it.
-
The Theotokos
Why the title given to the Virgin Mary is first of all a statement about her Son.
-
Jesus Christ: incarnation, death and resurrection
One person in two natures, and why four adverbs at Chalcedon still matter.
Your notes
Sources for this page
- Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church The Epistle of Cyril to Nestorius with the XII Anathematisms annotated edition of conciliar texts Archived here in full. Source record (opens in a new tab)
- Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church The Canons of the Two Hundred Holy and Blessed Fathers Who Met at Ephesus, Canons I-VIII annotated edition of conciliar texts Source record (opens in a new tab)
- Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Extracts from the Acts, Sessions I-III annotated edition of conciliar texts Including the letters of Cyril and of Celestine of Rome read at the council. Source record (opens in a new tab)
- Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church The Definition of the Holy and Ecumenical Synod of Ephesus Against the Impious Messalians annotated edition of conciliar texts Source record (opens in a new tab)
Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.