Everything about Theotokos totally explained
Theotokos (translit.
Theotókos) is a title of
Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the
Eastern Orthodox,
Oriental Orthodox, and
Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include
God-bearer and
the one who gives birth to God; less literal translations include
Mother of God. The
Council of Ephesus decreed in
431, that Mary is Theotokos because her son Jesus is one person who is both God and man, divine and human.
Etymology and translation
Theotokos is a compound of two Greek words, Θεός
God and τόκος
parturition, childbirth. Literally, this translates as
God-bearer or
the one who gives birth to God. However, since many
English-speaking Orthodox find this literal translation awkward, in
liturgical use
Theotokos is often left untranslated, or paraphrased as
Mother of God. However, the latter title is also the literal translation of a separate title in Greek, Μήτηρ Θεού (translit.
Mētēr Theou).
Mother of God also accurately translates the Greek words Θεομήτωρ (translit.
Theomētor; also spelled Θεομήτηρ, translit.
Theomētēr) and Μητρόθεος (translit.
Mētrotheos) which are found in patristic and liturgical texts.
In many traditions,
Theotokos was translated from the Greek into the local liturgical language. The most prominent of these are
Latin (
Deipara or
Dei genetrix),
Church Slavonic (Богородица translit.
Bogoroditsa),
Coptic ( translit.
Ti.Theotokós),
Arabic (والدة الله translit.
Wālidat Allah),
Georgian (ღვთისმშობელი translit.
Ghvtismshobeli),
Armenian: (Աստվածամայր translit.
Astvatzamayr or Աստվածածին translit.
Astvadzatzin), and
Romanian (
Născătoare de Dumnezeu or
Maica Domnului).
Mother of God
Mother of God has been, and still is, as an imprecise translation of
Theotokos that frequently requires explanation. The other principal use of
Mother of God has been as the precise and literal translation of Μήτηρ Θεού, a Greek term which has an established usage of its own in traditional Christian theological writing, hymnography, and iconography. In an abbreviated form ΜΡ ΘΥ it often is found on Orthodox
icons (see illustration above), where it's used to identify Mary.
A hymn normally sung as part of the Greek
Divine Liturgy includes both titles in close proximity, in both cases referring to Mary, showing that the titles are not synonymous: "It is truly fitting to call you blessed, the
Theotokos, ever-blessed and wholly pure and the
Mother of our God (Ἄξιόν ἐστιν ὡς ἀληθῶς μακαρίζειν σὲ τὴν
Θεοτόκον, τὴν ἀειμακάριστον καὶ παναμώμητον καὶ
μητέρα του Θεοῦ ἡμῶν...", emphasis added.) The difference between the two terms is that the former,
Theotokos explicitly refers to physical childbearing, while the latter,
Mother of God, describes a family relationship but not necessarily physical childbearing. Within the Christian tradition,
Mother of God hasn't been understood, or intended to be understood, as referring to Mary as Mother of God
from eternity, that is, as Mother of God the Father, but only with reference to the birth of
Jesus, that is, the
Incarnation; but this limitation in the meaning of
Mother of God must be understood by the person employing the term. By contrast,
Theotokos makes it explicit, thus excluding any misunderstanding of Mary's divine maternity.
However, those reading or hearing the English phrase
Mother of God as a translation of a Greek text can't — unless they know the Greek text in question, or obtain additional information — know whether the phrase is a literal translation of Μήτηρ Θεού or an imprecise rendering of Θεοτόκος or one its Latin equivalents or equivalents in other languages.
The term Mother of God is justified by Catholic and Orthodox Christians by in which Elizabeth greets the Virgin Mary as the "mother of my Lord."
Theology
Theotokos specifically excludes the understanding of Mary as Mother of God in the eternal sense. Christians believe that God is the cause of all, with neither origin nor source, and is therefore "without a
mother." This stands in contrast to classical
Greco-Roman religion in particular, where a number of
divine female figures appear as "mothers" of other divinities,
demi-gods, or heroes. For example,
Juno was revered as the mother of
Vulcan;
Aphrodite, as the mother of
Aeneas.
On the other hand, Christians believe
God the Son is begotten of
God the Father "from all
eternity" (see
Trinity and
Nicene Creed), but is born "in time" of Mary.
Theotokos thus refers to the
Incarnation, when the Second Person of the Holy Trinity took on human nature in addition to his pre-existing divine nature, this being made possible through the cooperation of Mary.
Since mainstream Christians understand Jesus Christ as both fully God and fully human, they call Mary
Theotokos to affirm the fullness of God's incarnation. The
Council of Ephesus decreed, in opposition to those who denied Mary the title
Theotokos ("the one who gives birth to God") but called her
Christotokos ("the one who gives birth to Christ"), that Mary
is Theotokos because her son Jesus is one person who is both God and man, divine and human. As
Cyril of Alexandria wrote, "I am amazed that there are some who are entirely in doubt as to whether the holy Virgin should be called
Theotokos or not. For if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how is the holy Virgin who gave [Him] birth, not [
Theotokos]?" (Epistle 1, to the monks of Egypt;
PG 77:13B). Thus the significance of
Theotokos lies more in what it says about Jesus than any declaration about Mary.
Within the Orthodox doctrinal teaching on the
economy of salvation, Mary's identity, role, and status as
Theotokos is acknowledged to be indispensable, and it's for that reason formally defined as official dogma. (The only other
Mariological teaching so defined is that of her
perpetual virginity). Apart from within Roman Catholicism, other
Marian beliefs (for example, her sinlessness, the circumstances surrounding her
conception and
birth, her
Presentation in the Temple, and her
death) are expressed in the Church's liturgy but are not formally defined, and belief in them isn't a condition for baptism. The Roman Catholic Church has formally defined as dogma two Marian teachings: her sinlessness (the
Immaculate Conception) by
Pope Pius IX in
1854, and her bodily
Assumption into
Heaven after her
death by
Pope Pius XII in 1950.
Use of Theotokos in the early Christian Church
Many
Fathers of the early Christian Church used the title
Theotokos for Mary since at least the third century AD.
Origen (d. 254) is often cited as the earliest author to use
Theotokos for Mary (Socrates, Ecclesiastical History 7.32 citing Origen's Commentary on Romans)
but the text upon which this assertion is based may not be genuine.
Dionysios of Alexandria used
Theotokos in about 250, in an epistle to
Paul of Samosata.
Athanasius of Alexandria in 330,
Gregory the Theologian in 370,
John Chrysostom in 400, and
Augustine all used
Theotokos.
Theodoret wrote in 436 that calling the Virgin Mary
Theotokos is an
apostolic tradition.
Third Ecumenical Council
The use of
Theotokos was formally affirmed at the
Third Ecumenical Council held at
Ephesus in 431. The competing view, advocated by
Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople, was that Mary should be called
Christotokos, meaning "Birth-giver of Christ," to restrict her role to the mother of Christ's humanity only and not his divine nature.
Nestorius' opponents, led by
Cyril of Alexandria, viewed this as dividing Jesus into two distinct persons, the human who was Son of Mary, and the divine who was not. To them, this was unacceptable since by destroying the perfect union of the divine and human natures in Christ, it sabotaged the fullness of the Incarnation and, by extension, the salvation of humanity. The council accepted Cyril's reasoning, affirmed the title
Theotokos for Mary, and
anathematised Nestorius' view as
heresy. (See
Nestorianism)
In letters to Nestorius which were afterwards included among the council documents, Cyril explained his doctrine. He noted that "the holy fathers... have ventured to call the holy Virgin
[T]heotokos, not as though the nature of the [W]ord or his divinity received the beginning of their existence from the holy Virgin, but because from her was born his holy body, rationally endowed with a soul, with which [body] the [W]ord was united according to the
hypostasis, and is said to have been begotten according to the flesh" (Cyril's second letter to Nestorius).
Explaining his rejection of Nestorius' preferred title for Mary (
Christotokos), Cyril wrote: "Confessing the Word to be united with the flesh according to the hypostasis, we worship one Son and Lord, Jesus Christ. We don't divide him into parts and separate man and God as though they were united with each other [only] through a unity of dignity and authority... nor do we name separately Christ the Word from God, and in similar fashion, separately, another Christ from the woman, but we know only one Christ, the Word from God the Father with his own flesh... But we don't say that the Word from God dwelt as in an ordinary human born of the holy virgin... we understand that, when he became flesh, not in the same way as he's said to dwell among the saints do we distinguish the manner of the indwelling; but he was united by nature and not turned into flesh... There is, then, one Christ and Son and Lord, not with the sort of conjunction that a human being might have with God as in a unity of dignity or authority; for equality of honor doesn't unite natures. For Peter and John were equal to each other in honor, both of them being apostles and holy disciples, but the two were not one. Nor do we understand the manner of conjunction to be one of juxtaposition, for this is insufficient in regard to natural union.... Rather we reject the term 'conjunction' as being inadequate to express the union... [T]he holy virgin gave birth in the flesh to God united with the flesh according to hypostasis, for that reason we call her
Theotokos... If anyone doesn't confess that Emmanuel is, in truth, God, and therefore that the holy virgin is
Theotokos (for she bore in a fleshly manner the Word from God become flesh), let him be
anathema." (Cyril's third letter to Nestorius)
By the end of his life, Nestorius had agreed to the title
Theotokos, stating the apparent communication of the attributes (
idiomata).
Hymns
Mary is very frequently addressed as
Theotokos in the
hymns of the
Eastern Orthodox,
Eastern Catholic and
Oriental Orthodox churches. The most common is
Axion Estin (
It is truly meet), which is used in nearly every service.
Other examples include
Beneath thy compassion dating from the third century, the
Hail Mary in its Eastern form, and
All creation rejoices, which replaces
Axion Estin at the
Divine Liturgy on the Sundays of
Great Lent.
Icons
Image:Vladimirskaya.jpg|Theotokos of Vladimir
Image:Panachranta.jpg|Theotokos Panachranta, illumination from the Gertrude Psalter.
Image:Byzantinischer Mosaizist des 12. Jahrhunderts 002.jpg|Mother of God, mosaic icon, Hagia Sophia
Image:Fedorovskaya.jpg|Theotokos of St. Theodore
Image:Svenskaya.jpg|Theotokos Panachranta from Svensky Monastery, by St. Alypios of Kiev
Image:Gelati Theotokos.jpg| mosaic (ca 1130), Gelati Monastery, Georgia
Image:CopticTheotokos7.jpg|Coptic icon of the Theotokos
Image:vlahernskaya.jpg|Blachernae Icon of the Theotokos
Further Information
Get more info on 'Theotokos'.
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