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The Title Theotokos

copticuser20copticuser20
edited December 1969 in Coptic Orthodox Church
As we are in the Fast of the Virgin, I was thinking. Who was the first person to use the title Theotokos for Saint Mary?

Comments

  • George_Mina_Awad
    Early in the church. Saints Peter (Pope Peter), Alexander, and Athanasius used it to confront Arianism, a heresy which denied Christ's divinity and St. Mary's motherhood to God.
  • ilovesaintmarkilovesaintmark
    I believe in the exact form, and in theological defense, it was St. Cyril the Great (the Pillar of Faith).  Nestorius, the heretic, had called her the Christotokos.
  • peterfarringtonpeterfarrington
    It appears it may have first been used by Origen, but as has been said by George, it was used by St Athanasius against the Arians, and by the other Fathers of that generation.

    Father Peter
  • HezekielHezekiel
    A little more explanation is here: "St Mary in the Orthodox Concept", Fr Tadors Malaty ,Pages 38-39

    "Contrary to the Gnostics and Manichaeans the Arians deny that Jesus, the Son of Mary, is the Uncreated Son of God,
    one with the Father in the divine essence. They deny Christ’s divinity and subsequently St. Mary’s motherhood to God.
    For this reason, the Alexandrian Fathers such as SS.Peter, Alexander and Athanasius gave to St. Mary the title “qeotokoc” (Mother of God), on confronting Arianism.In his encyclical letter to the bishops (c. 319), St.Alexander announces the deposition of Arius and made the first indisputable use of the title Theotokos, as he writes(2) :“After this we know of the resurrection of the dead, the first fruit of which was our Lord Jesus Christ who in very deed,and not in appearance merely carried a body born of Mary,Mother of God (Theotokos)”.The word “Theotokos” flows from his pen so naturally,his use of it is so nonchalant, that it leaves an impression of everyday usage, long established and uncontroverted(1) .St. Athanasius, in his controversy with Arianism, stresses that Christ is born of the Father but took His humanity from “the unploughed earth”(2), ever-virgin(3) and Theotokos(4) .St. Ambrose of Milan, wrote the Christmas hymn which he taught his people to strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ, the true God, and their combat against the Arians:
                       
                        “Come, Redeemer of the nations,
                        show forth the birth of the Virgin.
                        Let all the world marvel, such a birth befitted God!”

    It continues on Page 40

    ''In fact, the controversy which raged between St. Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius was not centred upon the title of St.Mary “Theotokos” in itself, but was based on Christological concepts. The circumstances which led to the intervention of St.Cyril in the Nestorian controversy must be briefly told(2) .

    It was on April 10, A.D. 428, that Nestorius, a priest of Antioch and disciple of Theodore was consecrated Bishop of Constantinople. He used the term Christokos (mother of Christ) for St. Mary, and not Theotokos. The battle lines were clearly drawn when one of his priests “Anastasius”, whom he took with him from Antioch, preached before him in December 428, saying:(3) “Let no one call Mary “Theotokos”, for Mary was but a woman, and it is impossible that God should be born of a woman”.This teaching Nestorius publicly approved, and he
    himself preached a course of sermons in which he drew a plain distinction between the man Jesus, born of Mary, and the Son of God Who dwelt in him. There were two distinct persons in Christ, the Son of Mary and the Son of God, who were united not hypostatically but only morally. Christ should be called not God, but “God-bearer” (Theoporon), in much the same way as the saints can be called, because of the divine grace given to them. Subsequently, Mary was not the mother of God, but the man Jesus in whom the God-head dwelt.Nestorius and his followers criticised the Wisemen for their kneeling to the Child Jesus, and preached that the divinity was separated from the humanity at the moment of Crucifixion. The matter came to St. Cyril, Pope of Alexandria, who took occasion in his annual paschal letter (A.D. 429), without any personal reference to Nestorius, to state the doctrine of the Incarnation in the clearest and simplest terms:- namely that the real, true and perfect manhood in Christ was united to His divinity in one divine Person. Again, four months later, he wrote another letter to the monks on the same subject. These letters coming to the notice of Nestorius stirred him to great wrath, and he engaged one Photius to answer them(1) .St. Cyril sent two letters to Nestorius in which he explains the nature of Christ, as the Incarnate Son of God, one Person..... and declared St. Mary’s right to be called “Theotokos”.
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