Theodore of Mopsuestia and Those Heretics

Theodore is was the Bishop of Mopsuestia in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, a town in the vicinity of Antioch. He was a fellow student of the much more famous Chrysostom. He is a good representative of the interpretive method that Antioch is known for, more historical/grammatical/literal and less allegorical like their Alexandrian counterparts. He is (in)famous for his association with Nestorianism. Nestorianism&#8217s namesake, Nestorius, was his pupil and became Archbishop of Constantinople in the year Theodore died. It was after Theodore&#8217s death that Nestorius was condemned and Theodore with him.

Yesterday I ended my break from teaching at church and began a series on the Gospel of John. Much of my reading includes modern commentaries but I&#8217m also using IVP&#8217s Ancient Christian Commenary on Scripture, as well as Theodore of Mopsuestia&#8217s full commentary on this gospel, also published by IVP. Unfortunately for this one, I can&#8217t (yet) have the fun of translating it myself. Except for fragments, the original (Greek) is lost and the text only survives in a Syriac translation. In the meantime however, this handy translation exists. It is a bit pricey but I guess you have to expect that from a book that won&#8217t have much popular appeal. So far I&#8217ve enjoyed reading it.

I wanted to read Theodore&#8217s commentary in particular because my reading of Nestorius&#8217 Bazaar and some other modern historical works led me to wonder if their condemnation was uncalled for (of course this thought is not new to me). The so-called &#8220Nestorian&#8221 church, or as some of them would prefer, the Church of the East, or the Assyrian Church of the East et al. (not to be confused with the Eastern Orthodox) are apparently at the moment seeking reconciliation with the west. Since many Christian groups (including the broader group I generally find myself attached to) shamefully seem to be more interested in finding enemies than friends, this whole line of study appeals to me.

If you are interested in doing some of this reading yourself, I can recommend the following books:

1. A History of Christianity in Asia: Beginnings to 1500 by Samuel Hugh Moffett. Definitely the book to start with.
2. The Church of the East: Apostolic & Orthodox by Mar Bawai Soro.

I was thinking that I had recommended these before but I can’t seem to find the post. Anyway, here they are again if I have :)

You might recall that I was planning on talking about Theophilus of Antioch. This is still the case. I am actually preparing a copy of his apology and will start chatting about him as well when that is done. On the one hand, I don&#8217t expect that to take long but I’m about to start a few weeks of serious overtime at work, so I’m not sure I&#8217ll be able to get much done at all. We&#8217ll see.

In the meantime, pick up some good books and get some reading done.