christology

[Paul Younan]

Shlama Akhi Kyrillos,

Regarding Nestorius:
1.- I was under the impresion he was either a jew or a native of Mesopotamia who got educated after his convertion in the tradition of the school of Antioch. And after the second ecumenical( ekumene means the roman world) council, it came to be that the Patriarch of New Rome had to be from the antiochian tradition, consacrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria and used to be (?) selected by the emperor or sometimes Old Rome. This is the political background I see Nestorius in. Tight,hu?

Nestorius was a Greek man born in Germanica, an ancient village in Anatolia (what is now "Turkey"). He was a Pontic Greek. He spoke and wrote in Greek. He was not a Semite.

2.- Theodore of Mopsuestia said: One person, two natures, one will, one action, acording to documents I got. Basically the same as the maronites.

That is a formula similiar to the one used by the Church of the East.

On the other hand, Nestorius said: One person of union, two persons, two natures, two wills, two actions. And his person of union seems to me what we call in mexican law : moral person,for example, you and I make a partnership to publish books, that partnership would be the moral person, but you are you and not me or the moral person.

I've read everything I can about Nestorius, including his own words and I've never seen anything refer to two "persons." What is your reference?

One more coment on the One Nature:
1.- Monophisis would mean that we worship and belive in only a god, or only a man. This is no christian at all.
2.- We worship the GODMAN, not mixed or separated.

We worship the subject of the Incarnation, Emmanuel, "God with Us", which is God and Man in two seperate natures united together in one Person.

What are your relations to:
1.- Chalzedonian orthodox.
2.- Catholics.

The Church of the East is not in communion with any other Church at this time. It is independent.

H.H. Mar Dinka IV and H.H. John Paul II signed a comon statement of belife inwhich they mention(parafrase!):

"We catholics call Mary Theotokos, or Mother of God, since Jesus is the God-man(one person two natures). and the Church of the East calls her the Mother of Christ our God."

What is your opinion since the catholics have been signing this kind of statements with everyone, saying that we have the same faith.

I personally think it vastly oversimplifies the issues involved - but I'm glad that dialogue in brotherly fashion is happening instead of exchanges of anathemas!

My name, Kyrillos, is a derivative of Kyrios( Lord). So if lord is Mor( west syriac?) or Mar( east syriac?) and Maran is our Lord, what woul be my name in syriac?

Your name in Aramaic would be "Marutha."

How would you say th prayer:" Our Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner." in syriac? And what is it`s hirtory in the COE?

In Aramaic you would say "Maran, ith-rakhem alee, khataya."

In one of your forums, you mentioned that there are two traditions regarding the origin of the Peshitta O.T., one Hyram of Lebanon asking for a translation, the other the translation coming fron Babylon with the Ezra crew. Which one do you agree with, and does the Church of the East aprove a particular one?

The origin of the Peshitta OT is a big mystery. By the time the Church of the East adopted it from former Jews who founded the church in Babylon, it's history was obscure. We're not sure who made it, but it contains many Hebraicisms so probably Mesopotamian Jews and Israelites made it before Christianity arrived in the region. The Church then adopted it as it's own (like the history of the LXX, except we don't know who made the Peshitta OT or when it was made.)

If Peter founded the Church at Antioch, did he start a comunity as well in Seleucida-Ctesiphon, or how does it conect with the antiochean throne of Peter?

The Church of the East, because it was in a different empire from Roman or Byzantine churches, did not share any history with them at all. We have no connection whatsoever to the See at Antioch, Alexandria or Rome.

Mar Shimon Keepa ("Peter") was a busy man who went to every place where the Jews were to preach to them since he was the Apostle to the "circumcised." The largest population of Jews outside of Palestine during that time was in Babylon. There was a HUGE population there from the captivity - even until recently (1948), there was a large population of Jews in Mesopotamia who had been there since the days of the captivity.

Mar Shimon Keepa founded the apostolic see at Babylon (or, as it was known in Sassanid Persian times as "Seleucia-Ctesiphon", but the Jews and other Semites continued to call it "Babylon.") Keepa 5:13

Take care Akhi.