May Mary be called Mother of God (Theotokos)?
a passage states it a passage rules it out
Common ground
These are affirmed by more than one position, so a passage saying only this counts for none of them.
- Mary is the mother of Jesus
- Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary
- Mary did not give the Word his divine nature
Mother of God (Theotokos)
Catholic Orthodox Lutheran Anglican ReformedIf anyone does not confess that Emmanuel is God in truth, and therefore that the holy virgin is the mother of GodCouncil of Ephesus, Cyril's First Anathema (431)
What sets it apart: The passage calls Mary Mother of God or God-bearer, or says God was born of her.
Formally defined: Council of Ephesus (431); Council of Chalcedon (451)
Earliest statement: Apollinaris of Laodicea (quoted as Athanasius), c. 363
Every deciding passage, earliest first
Apollinaris of Laodicea (quoted as Athanasius), c. 363
So the one born from the holy virgin is Son of God by nature and true God, not by grace and sharing. Only according to the flesh from Mary is he human; according to the Spirit he himself is Son of God and God.
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Apollinaris of Laodicea (quoted as Athanasius), c. 363
— worshiped, and worshiped with his flesh in one worship. Not two sons: one a true Son of God who is worshiped, and another a human from Mary who is not worshiped, made a son of God by grace as humans are. But the one from God, as I said — one Son of God and God, himself and no other — also born from Mary according to the flesh in the last days, as the angel said to the God-bearer Mary when she asked, “How will this be, since I do not know a man?” — “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy one who is born will be called Son of …
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Amphilochius of Iconium, c. 395
O Mary, O Mary, who has possessed the firstborn Creator of all things! O humanity, who has made the eternal Word of God bodily present and has been honored in this place by the heavenly and noetic powers! For Christ was not worthy to be formed into the likenesses of the archangels, nor even into the unchangeable images of the principalities, powers, and authorities, but into you, who were drawn into a turn and associated with irrational animals. For those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but she who is seized by frequent and such a disease has found a physician such that it is a gr…
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Didymus the Blind, c. 398
Doubtful authorship: Attribution of De Trinitate to Didymus is disputed.
27.17 But Isaiah cries out to Him without comparison as the God the Father: 'From eternity we have not heard, nor have our eyes seen a God besides You' (Isa 64:4). 27.18 For we saw no other God than the one born according to the saving incarnation from the Virgin Mary, nor did we hear [of any] except the one attested by God the Father: 27.19 'This is my beloved Son' (Matt 3:17).
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
John Chrysostom (quoted by Cyril), c. 407
Doubtful authorship: Quoted by Cyril as Chrysostom; the ascription still needs checking.
From John, bishop of Constantinople, on the divine birth. He says of the holy virgin: “Instead of a sun, he says, she contains without limit the sun of righteousness. Nature’s order is overcome; for he willed, he was able, he came down, he saved — all things run together for God. Today the One who is is born, and the One who is becomes what he was not. Being God, he becomes human without leaving off being God. He did not become human by departing from deity, nor become God by climbing up from humanity. Being Word, he became flesh without suffering change; his nature remained unchanged.” (Malac…
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Antiochus of Ptolemais (quoted by Cyril), c. 408
From bishop Antiochus: “For yesterday, in undefiled birth pangs, the life-bearer, the fair-bearer, the great-bearer, the light-bearer, the hope-bearer, the God-bearer, the strange-bearer, the virgin-mother Mary brought us a Savior.” (John 1:14)
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Severian of Gabala (quoted by Cyril), c. 408
From bishop Severianus: “For the Word begotten from above from the Father — beyond speech, beyond telling, beyond grasp, eternally — is himself begotten in time from below from the virgin Mary, so that those first born from below may be born from above from a second birth, that is, from God.” (John 3:3–7)
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Ammonius of Adrianople (quoted by Cyril), c. 431
From Ammonius, bishop of Adrianople: “For he too said somewhere about the Word of God: But if he himself is God by nature, as God’s Only-begotten Son, and in taking the slave’s form was also counted worthy to be called firstborn son of the holy virgin, he gave himself as a ransom for all.” He goes on: “I have already shown the impiety into which the Arians fall when they say the God-bearer Mary needed the sacrifices then offered under the law for women who give birth.”
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Nestorius (as quoted), c. 431
Doubtful authorship: Nestorius' words, quoted in a dialogue whose ascription to Cyril is doubted.
Nestorius says: When the divine Scripture speaks of the birth of Christ from Mary the virgin, it nowhere appears as God, but as Christ or the Lord Jesus, because these three terms are significant of the two natures, now referring to one, now to the other; I mean: When the birth from the Virgin is announced to us of Christ, the Apostle says, 'God sent his Son, born of a woman'; he did not say, 'Sent God the Word'; but he takes the name indicating the two births, namely God and man, because Christ is double; for the Virgin bore a Son of God, as he breathed; but you are gods and sons of the Most …
- Rules out: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- States: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
Catena fragment, author uncertain: A catena fragment: the ascription rests on the catena heading and is not secure.
This statement shows the manifest confession, namely the exaltation, and the phrase 'You are my Son' establishes His eternal nature, while the phrase 'I have today begotten you' reveals His birth according to the flesh, which He willingly underwent through the Holy Virgin, and by which He is also named Theotokos.
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
Catena fragment, author uncertain: A catena fragment: the ascription rests on the catena heading and is not secure.
You see the confession at the very start, that is, the declaration. For the Father has set down the words "You are" in order to show the Son's eternal being. He did not become Son in time; he always was this—that is, Son. Then the Father brought in the words "Today I have begotten you" (Psalm 2:7) in order to show his recent birth according to the flesh, which he willingly underwent through the holy Virgin. This is why she has been named Mother of God. For she gave birth not to a mere human being simply joined to God by a mere external union, but rather to the very Word from God the Father, wh…
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
From Luke. “And it came to pass while they were there that the days were fulfilled for her to give birth, and she bore her son, the firstborn, and wrapped him and laid him in the manger, because there was no place for them in the lodging.” (Luke 2:6–7) The holy virgin has borne one and only son, Emmanuel. How then does it say “her son, the firstborn” (Romans 8:29)? For others have not come to be after him, and she has remained a virgin. So it is marked from the God-breathed scripture: the Only-begotten Word of God has been named firstborn. For he has shared blood and flesh and similarly to us …
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
Catena fragment, author uncertain: A catena fragment: the ascription rests on the catena heading and is not secure.
If the church belongs to God and Christ has presented it to himself, then it is clear that God is the one who has come from the holy and God-bearing Mary.
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
We say that this same Only-begotten Word, begotten beyond speech from the substance of God the Father, maker of the ages, the one through whom and in whom all things are, the true light, the nature that gives life to all — for he has appeared as life from the Father’s life — in the last times of the age, when the Father was pleased to save the race on earth that had fallen under a curse and been brought down by sin into death and decay, took hold of Abraham’s seed, as the Scriptures say, shared blood and flesh — that is, became human — and taking flesh and making it his own, was born in the fl…
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
But the word God-bearer was already customary even with the holy fathers before us, who are admired for right faith, and still with all under heaven, so to speak. I thought I had to declare that as true.
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
But we do say this: look — all the best and wisest fathers of our times also name the holy virgin God-bearer, and they affirm that the Word from God has been united by nature to the flesh, that he came to be in the virgin’s womb, and that he came forth from her according to the flesh.
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
For the Son from God the Father by nature, taking to himself an ensouled and intelligent body, has been begotten according to the flesh through the holy virgin and Theotokos Mary — not turned into flesh (far from it!), but rather taking it on, and not neglecting to be God.
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
— not a mere human begotten from her, but the Word himself enfleshed, with a body from her as his own. That is why he is said to have been begotten in the flesh: he makes the begetting of his own flesh his.
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
Those who senselessly deny that the holy virgin is God-bearer are forced to say there are two sons of God. For if she did not bear in the flesh the enfleshed God, they must admit — willing or not — that she bore only a common human, with nothing more than we have.
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
So if they say that the one born from the holy virgin is true God — that is, the Word from God the Father united by nature to flesh — why do they fear to confess that the holy virgin is God-bearer?
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
In the same breath he sets down two things proper to God, and not fitting for human nature. Of the one born from Mary he said that those saved through him are his own people, and that he himself will also free them from sins. All things belong to God, and to him alone it would befit to be able to free sinners from sins. So the one begotten from the holy virgin is God, whose own people we are; and he has freed us from sins, as one who has authority for that too.
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Translation in progress
Cyril of Alexandria, c. 444
Since he emptied himself by becoming in the likeness of a man, and was found in the form of a man, he receives the common name, that is, Christ and Jesus, or rather, Emmanuel. The name Emmanuel signifies 'God with us.' For it is written, 'Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel' (Isaiah 7:14). For the blessed Gabriel revealed the mystery to the holy and God-bearing virgin, saying, 'Do not fear, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. For he shall save …
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
Translation in progress
Hesychius of Jerusalem, c. 450
However, just as we have heard of the woman's transgressions, we must also learn of her achievements, for the Theotokos introduced virginity to life, carried God in her womb, and gave birth to Him in the flesh, renewing our race.
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only
Hesychius of Jerusalem, c. 450
Therefore, even that which is being born shall be called the holy Son of God. Do you see how immense the dignity of the Mother of God is, being a virgin.
- States: Mother of God (Theotokos)
- Rules out: Mother of Christ only