Theodoret
Eastern Roman Empire | |
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Venerated in | Church of the East
Chaldean Catholic |
Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus (
Biography
According to
The following facts about his life are gleaned mainly from his Epistles and his Religious History (Philotheos historia). He was the child of a prosperous Antiochene couple who had been childless for many years. Encouraged by the fact that his mother had been cured of a serious eye complaint and converted to a sober life by Peter the Galatian, an ascetic living in an unoccupied in the locality,[3] Theodoret's parents sought further help from the local holy men, since she had been childless for twelve years. For years their hopes were fed but not fulfilled. Eventually, Theodoret's birth was promised by a hermit named Macedonius the Barley-Eater on the condition of his dedication to God, whence the name Theodoret ("gift of God").[4]
Theodoret received an extensive religious and secular education. The actual evidence given to us by Theodoret suggests that his education was exclusively religious. He paid weekly visits to Peter the Galatian, was instructed by Macedonius and other ascetics, and at an early age became a
In 423 he left as he had been appointed Bishop of Cyrrhus, over a
His philanthropic and economic interests were extensive and varied: he endeavoured to secure relief for the people oppressed with taxation; he divided his inheritance among the poor; from his episcopal revenues he erected baths, bridges, halls, and aqueducts; he summoned rhetoricians and physicians, and reminded the officials of their duties. To the persecuted Christians of Persian Armenia he sent letters of encouragement, and to the Carthaginian Celestiacus, who had fled the rule of the Vandals, he gave refuge.
The Nestorian controversy
Theodoret stands out prominently in the Christological controversies aroused by Cyril of Alexandria. Theodoret shared in the petition of John I of Antioch to Nestorius to approve of the term theotokos ("mother of God"),[5] and upon the request of John wrote against Cyril's anathemas.
He may have prepared the Antiochian symbol which was to secure the emperor's true understanding of the Nicene Creed, and he was a member and spokesman of the deputation of eight from Antioch called by the emperor to Chalcedon. To the condemnation of Nestorius he could not assent. John, reconciled to Cyril by the emperor's order, sought to bring Theodoret to submission by entrenching upon his eparchy.
Theodoret was determined to preserve the peace of the Church by seeking the adoption of a formula avoiding the unconditional condemnation of Nestorius, and toward the close of 434 strove earnestly for the reconciliation between the Eastern churches. But Cyril refused to compromise and when he opened his attack (437) upon
Theodoret now composed the Eranistes (see below). In vain were his efforts at court at self-justification against the charges of Dioscurus, as well as the countercharge of Domnus against
Theodoret was compelled to leave Cyrrhus and retire to his monastery at Apamea. He made an appeal to Leo the Great, but not until after the death of Theodosius II in 450 was his appeal for a revocation of the judgments against him granted by imperial edict. He was ordered to participate in the Council of Chalcedon, which created violent opposition. He was first to take part only as accuser, yet among the bishops. Then he was constrained (October 26, 451) by the friends of Dioscurus to pronounce the anathema over Nestorius. His conduct shows (though hindered from a statement to that effect) that he performed this with his previous reservation; namely, without application beyond the teaching of two sons in Christ and the denial of the theotokos. Upon this he was declared orthodox and rehabilitated.
The only thing known concerning him following the Council of Chalcedon is the letter of Leo charging him to guard the Chalcedonian victory (PG, lxxxiii. 1319 sqq.). With Diodorus and Theodore he was no less hated by the
The Three-Chapter Controversy led to the condemnation of his writings against Cyril in the Second Council of Constantinople (553).
Works
Exegetical
The most significant works of Theodoret are those of exegesis.
A chronology of the composition of these works can be developed by studying references in the latter works to the earlier works. The commentary on the
Excepting the commentary on Isaiah (fragments preserved in the
His representation of orthodox doctrine consists of a collocation of Scripture passages.
The biblical authors are, for Theodoret, merely the mouthpieces of the Holy Spirit, though they do not lose their individual peculiarities. By the unavoidable imperfection of the translations, he states, the understanding is encumbered. Not familiar with Hebrew, Theodoret uses the Syriac translation, the Greek versions, and the Septuagint.
In principle his exegesis is grammatical-historical; and he criticizes the intrusion of the author's own ideas. His aim is to avoid a one-sidedness of literalness as well as of allegory. Hence he protests against the attributing of The Song of Songs to Solomon and the like as degrading the Holy Spirit. Rather is it to be said that the Scripture speaks often "figuratively" and "in riddles." In the Old Testament everything has typological significance and prophetically it embodies already the Christian doctrine. The divine illumination affords the right understanding after the apostolic suggestion and the New Testament fulfilment. Valuable though not binding is the exegetical tradition of the ecclesiastical teachers. Theodoret likes to choose the best among various interpretations before him, preferably Theodore's, and supplements from his own. He is clear and simple in thought and statement; and his merit is to have rescued the exegetical heritage of the school of Antioch as a whole for the Christian Church.
Dogmatic
Many of Theodoret's dogmatic works have perished; five, however, have survived.
His chief Christological work is the Eranistes etoi polymorphos (Beggar or Multiform, or perhaps The Collector) in three dialogues, describing the
Two works, On the Holy and Life-giving Trinity and On the Incarnation of the Lord, have survived through ascription to his opponent Cyril of Alexandria.[12][14][15]
Another surviving work by Theodoret is his Refutation of the Anathemas, his rejection of the twelve anathemas pronounced on him by Cyril of Alexandria, which has been preserved in Cyril's defence.[16] He detects Apollinarianism in Cyril's teaching, and declines a "contracting into one" of two natures of the only begotten, as much as a separation into two sons (Epist. Cxliii). Instead of a "union according to hypostases," he would accept only one that "manifests the essential properties or modes of the natures." The man united to God was born of Mary; between God the Logos and the form of a servant a distinction must be drawn.
Another surviving work is the Expositio rectae fidei. This was preserved among the writings of Justin Martyr. However, both Lebon (1930) and Sellers (1945) independently recognised it as the work of Theodoret, probably pre-dating the outbreak of the Christological controversies.[17]
Only minor fragments (cf. Epist. 16) of Theodoret's defence of Diodorus and Theodore (438-444) have been preserved.[18]
There are many lost works. Theodoret mentions having written against Arius and Eunomius,[19] probably one work, to which were joined the three treatises against the Macedonians. There were, besides, two works against the Apollinarians, and of the Opus adversus Marcionem nothing has been preserved.
God is immutable also in becoming man, the two natures are separate in Christ, and God the Logos is ever immortal and impassive. Each nature remained "pure" after the union, retaining its properties to the exclusion of all transmutation and intermixture. Of the twenty-seven orations in defence of various propositions, the first six agree in their given content with Theodoret. A few extracts from the five orations on Chrysostom were preserved by Photius (codex 273).
Apologetic, historical
Among apologetic writings was the Ad quaestiones magorum (429-436), now lost, in which Theodoret justified the Old Testament sacrifices as alternatives in opposition to the Egyptian idolatry,[20] and exposed the fables of the Magi who worshipped the elements (Church History v. 38).
De providentia, or Ten Discourses on Providence, consists of apologetic discourses, proving the divine providence from the physical order (chapters i-iv), and from the moral and social order (chapters vi-x). They were most probably delivered to the cultured Greek congregation of Antioch, sometime between 431 and 435. Unlike most sermons, they are reasoned arguments, lectures rather than homilies on scriptural texts.
The Graecarum Affectionum Curatio or Cure of the Greek Maladies, subtitled The Truth of the Gospel proved from Greek Philosophy, arranged in twelve books, was an attempt to prove the truth of Christianity from
The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret, which begins with the rise of Arianism and closes with the death of Theodore in 429 (despite being completed in 449–450) is very different in style from those of
Theodoret's sources are in dispute. According to
The Religious History, also known as
Upon the request of a high official named Sporacius, Theodoret compiled a Compendium of Heretical Accounts (Haereticarum fabularum compendium), including a heresiology (books i-iv) and a "compendium of divine dogmas" (book v), which, apart from Origen's De principiis and the theological work of John of Damascus, is the only systematic representation of the theology of the Greek Fathers.
Letters
Compared to the more than 500 letters known to
An English translation of the surviving letters is part of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (2 ser., iii. 250–348).[23]
Linguistic interest
In several works, Theodoret demonstrated an interest for linguistic issues related to translations of sacred texts and theological works, with emphasis on literary exchange between two languages, Greek and Syriac.
Translations
- Translations of some of Theodoret's writings can be found in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.
- A bilingual edition of the Eranistes was published by Oxford University Press in 1974.
- Theodoret of Cyrus. On Divine Providence, translated and annotated by ISBN 9780809104208
- Theodoret of Cyrus. A Cure for Pagan Maladies, translation and introduction by Thomas P. Halton, 2013 (Ancient Christian Writers, 67) ISBN 9780809106066
- Ettlinger, GH, 2003. Theodoret: Eranistes, FC, Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press.
- Petruccione, John F and RC Hill, 2007. Theodoret of Cyrus. The Questions on the Octateuch, Greek text and English translation, Washington, DC, Catholic University of America Press
- RC Hill has published translations into English of the Commentary on the Psalms (2000, 2001), the Commentary on the Songs of Songs (2001), and the Commentary on the Letters of St Paul (2001)
- István Pásztori-Kupán, Theodoret of Cyrus, (Routledge, 2006), includes full translations of On the Trinity, On the Incarnation, and excerpts from A Cure of Greek Maladies and A Compendium of Heretical Mythification.[31]
- Bilingual editions (Greek text with parallel French translation) of several of the texts mentioned above have been published in recent years in Sources Chrétiennes.
See also
Notes
- ^ The Eastern Orthodox Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky repeatedly refers to him as "Blessed".[1] Hieromonk Seraphim Rose also refers to Theodoret as "Blessed" in his book The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church while explaining the nature of the term "Blessed" in the Russian Orthodox Church, referring to how both Sts. Augustine and Jerome are referred to as "Blessed" too despite being part of the Orthodox Saints Calendar.[2]
References
- ^ Orthodox Dogmatic Theology
- ^ Rose, Seraphim (1983). The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church. Platina, California: Saint Herman of Alaska Brotherhood. p. 33.
- ^ Theodoret, Historia Religiosa, 9
- ^ Theodoret, Historia Religiosa, 13
- ^ a b c Baur, Chrysostom. "Theodoret." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 8 February 2019
- ^ Young & Teal 2004, p. 323.
- ^ This evidence is assumed because, when later deprived of his see, he begs permission to return to this monastery, explaining it is 75 miles from Antioch and 20 miles from his episcopal city. (Ep 119). Young & Teal 2004, p. 324
- ^ Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Young & Teal 2004, p. 324.
- ^ 457 is the traditional date, 466 has held the field for some decades (by E Honigmann (1953)) but 460 is now proposed (by Y Azema(1984).
- ^ Louth 2004, p. 349.
- ^ a b c Louth 2004, p. 350.
- ^ Young & Teal 2004, pp. 333–338.
- ^ In the nineteenth century, A Ehrhard showed that these two works, though ascribed to Cyril, in fact present the doctrinal views of Theodoret; some fragments, quotations cited under Theodoret's name, prove that these are in fact works by Theodoret, not Cyril. Young & Teal 2004, p. 328
- ^ To the same belong chapters xiii-xv, xvii, and brief parts of other chapters of the fragments which Jean Garnier (Auctarium) included under the title, Pentology of Theodoret on the Incarnation as well as three of the five fragments referred by Marius Mercator to the fifth book of some writing of Theodoret. They are polemics against Arianism and Apollinarianism.
- ^ PG, cxxvi. 392 sqq.
- ^ Young & Teal 2004, p. 328.
- ^ Glubokovskij ii. 142
- ^ (Epist. cxiii, cxvi)
- ^ Qquestion [sic?] 1, Lev., PG, lxxx. 297 sqq.
- ^ "Plato And Theodoret Christian Appropriation Platonic Philosophy And Hellenic Intellectual Resistance :: Ancient philosophy :: Cambridge University Press". Cambridge.org. Retrieved 14 October 2013.
- ^ M. Monica Wagner, "A Chapter in Byzantine Epistolography the Letters of Theodoret of Cyrus", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 4 (1948), p. 126
- ^ public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Theodoret". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ Guinot 1993, p. 60-71.
- ^ Lehmann 2008, p. 187-216.
- ^ Millar 2007, p. 105-125.
- ^ Canivet 1957, p. 27.
- ^ Petruccione & Hill 2007b, p. 343.
- ^ Brock 1994, p. 149.
- ^ Taylor 2002, p. 302.
- ^ Pásztori-Kupán 2006.
Sources
- ISBN 9780521587365.
- Canivet, Pierre (1957). Histoire d'une entreprise apologétique au Ve siècle. Paris: Bloud & Gay.
- Canivet, Pierre (1977). Le monachisme syrien selon Théodoret de Cyr. Paris: Beauchesne. ISBN 9782701000763.
- ISBN 9780664223014.
- Guinot, Jean-Noël (1993). "Qui est 'le Syrien' dans les commentaries de Théodoret de Cyr?". Studia Patristica. 25: 60–71. ISBN 9789068315196.
- Lehmann, Henning J. (2008). "What was Theodoret's Mother Tongue? - Is the Question Open or Closed?". Students of the Bible in 4th and 5th Century Syria: Seats of Learning, Sidelights and Syriacisms. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. pp. 187–216. ISBN 9788779343900.
- ISBN 9780521460835.
- ISBN 9780881410563.
- ISBN 9789042919716.
- Pásztori-Kupán, István (2006). Theodoret of Cyrus. London & New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781134391769.
- Petruccione, John F.; Hill, Robert C., eds. (2007a). Theodoret of Cyrus: The Questions on the Octateuch. Vol. 1. Washington: COA Press. ISBN 9780813214993.
- Petruccione, John F.; Hill, Robert C., eds. (2007b). Theodoret of Cyrus: The Questions on the Octateuch. Vol. 2. Washington: COA Press. ISBN 9780813215013.
- Taylor, David G. K. (2002). "Bilingualism and Diglossia in Late Antique Syria and Mesopotamia". Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language Contact and the Written Word. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 298–331. ISBN 9789004264410.
- Young, Frances; Teal, Andrew (2004). From Nicaea to Chalcedon: A Guide to the Literature and its Background (2nd ed.).
External links
- "Theodoret of Cyrus". The Crossroads Initiative.
- Theodoret's works at CCEL
- Greek Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Graeca, with analytical indexes and concordances made on the whole writings
- István Pásztori-Kupán: Theodoret of Cyrus’s Double Treatise On the Trinity and On the Incarnation: The Antiochene Pathway to Chalcedon (PhD thesis)
- Works by Theodoret at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)