COUNCIL OF EPHESUS: BACKGROUND AND EVENTS by Issac V.Samson

COUNCIL OF EPHESUS: BACKGROUND AND EVENTS

By Issac V. Samson

The Oriental Orthodox Churches are distinguished by their recognition of only the first three ecumenical councils, including: 1) the first council of Nicea in AD 325, 2) the Council of Constantinople in AD 381, and Council of Ephesus in AD 431. Out of these councils, the Council of Ephesus became the foundation of our Christological definition. When we discuss about Council of Ephesus, two episcopal center’s stand out: Alexandria and Constantinople led by Saint Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius. This article is divided into five parts: A) Background, B) Events that led to the Council of Ephesus, C) the position of Nestorius, D) Events during the Council of Ephesus, and E) Observations. Let’s start with the background of Council of Ephesus through various events that happened in Alexandrian and Constantinople Churches just before the Council.

A) BACKGROUND: 1) Church of Alexandria:

- After the first two ecumenical councils, the Alexandrian Church was soon known as a leading force in Theology. Its theological teachings and research were one of the best in the Christian world. From the 1st Century, Alexandrian Christian theologians were the best in the world, including: Clement, Origen and Athanasius. During this time, the centers of Rome and Alexandria were undisputed leaders of the Christian world in all aspects.

- Towards the end of the third century, many pagan temples of Alexandria were converted into Churches by Saint Theophilus (Archbishop of Alexandria). This was a major step in bringing Christianity to the mainstream in Alexandria. It was during this supremacy of the Alexandrian Church that Saint Cyril was born in AD 378. He was the nephew of Saint Theophilus. He was a very keen reader of all the works of great Alexandrian theologians, especially the works of Saint Athanasius. He started the practice of referencing the writings of great theologians in his own work. He was very close to his uncle, Saint Theophilus and this relationship helped him attain more wisdom and knowledge.

- When Saint Theophilus died in AD 412, Saint Cyril became the frontrunner to succeed him as the Bishop of Alexandria. However, in this situation, Saint Cyril had to face the first test of his ministerial and administrative career. The Byzantine administration tried to block Saint Cyril and supported Archdeacon Timothy. However, with the support of the local people, Saint Cyril succeeded Saint Theophilus as the Bishop of Alexandria.

- In the early years of his administration, Saint Cyril would be characterized as reformer. He tried to take the people of Alexandria away from pagan influence. However, he had to face a lot of trials in his initial years as a Bishop. There were growing tensions between Christians and Jews in Alexandria. Jews began to destroy churches intentionally. After these incidents, Saint Cyril led a delegation to the Jewish authorities to demand peace and justice in the Alexandrian society.
The relationship of Saint Cyril with “Orestes”(the Byzantine Governor) started to decline significantly. This was mainly due to the growing popularity of Saint Cyril, which in turn made Orestes dislike him. A Christian mob attacked Jewish synagogues and killed a Pagan woman by dragging her to a church and stoning her to death. This was one of those acts which Saint Cyril vocally opposed. It brought shame to the entire Christian Community of Alexandria. The Byzantine administration directed the blame of this entire event towards Saint Cyril. After this event and the court verdict, it was announced that St. Cyril would be held accountable for the actions of the mob and that his own number of Episcopal bodyguards were to be reduced. However, this court decision was later reversed by the same court, including all the penalties against this saint.

- This represents the remarkable ability of Saint Cyril to bounce back from political adversities. The period from 412 to 418 AD was problematic for Saint Cyril. However, the next few years were peaceful and it helped him stabilize the administration and provide good leadership over the monasteries of Alexandria, making him more popular in Alexandrian Church. During this time, he also wrote many theological books but those works are overshadowed by his later works.

2) Church of Constantinople:

A new Archbishop “Nestorius” was appointed in the Church of Constantinople after the death of Archbishop Sisinnius.  He was a Syrian Monk recommended by the newly appointed Archbishop John of the Antiochian Church. Similar to Saint Cyril, Nestorius tried to be a “Reformer” in his early period as an Archbishop.

- Nestorius persuaded the Emperor of Constantinople to restrict the races in Circus and the number of dancing girls performing there. At that time, this was a passion for the people of Constantinople and restricting it earned a lot of criticism and hate towards Nestorius.

- Many monks of the Constantinople Church lived in cities and were imperial officers at that time. This system was not considered as good by Nestorius. He made it clear that monastic community had to vocally oppose this system in their own local churches as a matter of church leadership and civic responsibility. Thus, he earned the criticism of many monks across the Constantinople Church. He forcefully closed the last Arian chapel of Constantinople. This also led to many protests against him. This was the background of Constantinople church before the Council of Ephesus.

 B) Events that led to Council of Ephesus:

- Soon after Nestorius became archbishop, after all his administrative reforms, he started to teach a different theology that was not existing at that point of time.  He was supported by a group of Syrian theologians who were spreading the teachings of “Diodore” to the Monks of Constantinople.

- Nestorius started to teach that Saint Mary is not the mother of God. Nestorius believed that St. Mary gave birth to a mere human and that Divinity descended and filled this human later on; Thus the Virgin Mary would be called the "Mother of Jesus Christ" (Christotokos), and not the "Mother of God" (Theotokos).In doing so, Nestorius is considered to have denied the Divinity of Christ. His theory that Divinity descended and filled Our Lord meant that there was no Hypostatic union". This type of teachings were rejected by the monks of the Constantinople Church. People considered this as an assault to the image of Saint Mary. In AD 429, signs and placards appeared in the city stating that Nestorius was “heretic”.

- In order to regain support from the people, Nestorius later took a U-turn in his teaching and preached that “Saint Mary can be called Mother of God”. However, after sometime he once again tried hard to spread his original Christotokos-based teachings on Saint Mary.

- This news reached Saint Cyril of Alexandria and he was quick to write a letter to `Nestorius urging him to correct his Theology. Nestorius replied to that letter by threatening him that he will be summoned at the Church of Constantinople. Nestorius expressed that the “United Nature” theology of Saint Cyril, was the worst theology. A series of letters were exchanged between Saint Cyril and Nestorius which would ultimately serve as evidence at Council of Ephesus.

- Nestorius was concerned that Saint Cyril was trying to destroy the peace of the Constantinople Church and the use of theology was just a means to this end. However, Saint Cyril was only concerned about truth in theology.

- After all these events, Nestorius knew that these issues could only be resolved through an Ecumenical Council, where he thought he would gather the support he needed and continue to spread his own teachings.  Nestorius made this suggestion to the Emperor to assemble an Ecumenical Council.

C) Position of Nestorius:

- Nestorius was confident that he would get sufficient support for his own theological teachings at the Council, and therefore wanted to conduct this council as soon as possible. However, almost all the odds were stacked against him.

- In his own Church, most of the monks were against Nestorius due to his policy against them being monks and imperial officers at the same time (as mentioned earlier). Secondly, the people of Constantinople were against him due to his vocal restrictions in Circus. Thus, he literally had no support in his own Church.

- One of the most significant mistakes of Nestorius would be in alienating “Augusta Pulcheria”, the sister of Emperor. Due to his teaching, he faced a lot of criticism from the public. His arrogant letters to Saint Cyril also worked against him. He had no support from his own people, his own monks, and even his fellow bishops. What made matters worse would be the response from the Church of Rome.

- The biggest mistake of Nestorius was in welcoming a group of Bishops, who were previously excommunicated by the Church of Rome. He tried to settle their issues with Rome – A step which was not liked by Church of Rome. Pope Celestine received letters related to the teaching of Nestorius. After a detailed analysis, Pope Celestine got negative reviews about these teachings. A synod was called in Rome which found Nestorius guilty of Heresy. All of these events transpired before the Council of Ephesus. Now, the official stand of the Alexandrian and the Roman churches (Two of most powerful churches of that time) were against Nestorius.

- The only support that Nestorius had was from Church of Antioch as he had good relationship with Archbishop John of Antioch. Soon the decision to convey a Council at Ephesus was taken by Emperor Theodosius II of Constantinople.

D) Events during Council of Ephesus:

- Saint Cyril reached Ephesus in advance and was welcomed by Bishop Memnon. The Roman representatives and the delegation led by Archbishop John of Antioch (a group that supported Nestorius) were delayed by a lot of days. After waiting for few days, Saint Cyril decided that he cannot wait anymore. Saint Cyril began to suspect that Archbishop John of Antioch was deliberately delaying his arrive to avoid the trial of his friend Nestorius. The opponents of Saint Cyril, however, thought that St. Cyril was trying to sway the Council and complete the trial by Council before the arrival of Archbishop John of Antioch.

- On Sunday June 21,431 AD, Saint Cyril with the support of over 200 bishops, decided to start the Council of Ephesus. Saint Cyril presided over the council with the letter from the Pope of Rome and with the support of Senior Bishops. When the proceedings started, Nestorius refused to answer any questions directed at him. All the letters between Saint Cyril and Nestorius were read out loud. The letters of Nestorius were condemned and letters of Saint Cyril were accepted as the true Orthodox Doctrine.  At the conclusion of this day and the council meeting, a huge crowd gathered around church of Saint Mary with torches lit with the onset of night, to hear the outcome of synod. When it was declared that Nestorius was excommunicated, it was popularly interpreted as victory for the mother of God. There was no greater joy in the city than this verdict by the Council. 

- After a few days, the Syrian delegation from Antioch arrived at Ephesus and were furious to know that synod was already held without their attendance. A counter-synod was presided by Archbishop John of Antioch, which deposed Saint Cyril and suspended him until he returns to face a combined synod. Both parties appealed to the Emperor and he ordered that no Bishops were to leave Ephesus until the issue was resolved. The Emperor send out a delegation to investigate the matter. After the investigation, the Emperor made a strange decision of deposing Nestorius, Saint Cyril and Memnon. Archbishop John of Antioch accepted this decision but the two hundred bishops supporting Saint Cyril would not abandon St Cyril.

- Public protests were held against the deposition of Saint Cyril. There was a major riot where the cathedral was occupied by protesters. Saint Cyril was also supported by monastic bishops. Emperor Theodosius was surprised to see the support for Saint Cyril and asked both parties to debate in front of him. After hearing both the parties for weeks, he decided to depose Nestorius and condemned him for heresy. He agreed to the majority decision of the Council and agreed the theological doctrine of Saint Cyril.

- Saint Cyril would return to Alexandria victorious and having been instrumental in resolving the biggest crisis of the Christian world at that time.

E) Observations:

- As mentioned in the background (Part A), there were a lot of similarities between these two church fathers Saint Cyril and Bishop Nestorius. Both Saint Cyril and Nestorius were “Reformers” during their initial years as Archbishop in their respective centers. However, Nestorius lost the plot when he started to spread his teaching which claimed that Saint Mary is not the mother of God. This resulted in a huge uproar from the Public.

- When we study the letters exchanged between Saint Cyril and Nestorius, we can see that Saint Cyril was always calm. He had the grace of Holy Spirit with him. On the other hand, Nestorius was harsh and arrogant with his replies to other clergy and church fathers. Bishop Nestorius was trying to force his teaching onto everyone. I personally believe that Nestorius lost the Council of Ephesus well before it actually began.

- We have to applaud the methodical plan of Saint Cyril, which was inspired by God. When the news of this Nestorian heresy reached him, he was calm. He wrote to the Pope of Rome and gathered his support. He studied the issues and continuously prayed. He wrote letters to Nestorius and destroyed the heretical teachings one by one. He reached the Council of Ephesus in advance. He had resounding support from his own church and his maturity could be seen in his letters.

- Saint Cyril had the remarkable ability to bounce back from political diversities. God always protected him and this was seen in his entire life. The way he handled the issues with Byzantine Governor and then with Emperor Theodosius highlights his ability to bounce back from issues.

The Council of Ephesus is one of the most important ecumenical councils of Christian History. This Article is a humble effort to show the background of the council along with events of the Council of Ephesus.

Reference:

1)       1-65 page of “On the Unity of Chirst” written by Saint Cyril of Alexandria.

2)       Letters of Saint Cyril of Alexandria.