Ephesus
About this date: The approximate 50 cue is not a foundation certificate. The council of 431 must not be confused with the contested assembly at Ephesus in 449, whose decisions were overturned at Chalcedon.
Ephesus connects Paul's mission, the pastoral address to the Ephesian elders, and the church addressed in Revelation with a later Christological council. In 431 the council examined the dispute over Nestorius and the unity of Christ, including Cyril's letter explaining why Mary is called Theotokos. The apostolic community and the fifth-century council are separate layers of the city's Christian history.
Historical context
The council's proceedings include competing meetings, delayed arrivals, and a longer process of reconciliation. Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches receive Ephesus as ecumenical; churches in the East Syriac tradition have a different reception history and should not be caricatured as simply teaching two Christs.
Key points
- Acts 19 includes both mission and the economic conflict surrounding the cult of Artemis.
- Acts 20 addresses the Ephesian elders at Miletus, not inside Ephesus.
- Revelation 2:1-7 praises endurance but rebukes loss of first love; apostolic status is not an automatic guarantee of faithfulness.
- Ephesus was an important council city, but was not one of the five sees of the later pentarchy.
Scripture
- Acts 19:1-41 — Read the mission, teaching, and disturbance together to see religious, civic, and economic contexts.
- Acts 20:17-38 — Paul summons Ephesian elders to Miletus and warns about pastoral care and future divisions.
- Revelation 2:1-7 — The risen Christ addresses the Ephesian church, commending endurance and calling for repentance.
- John 1:14 — The Word becoming flesh is central to Cyril's Christological explanation read at the council, not a statement about the city's ecclesiastical rank.
Primary sources
Cyril writes in a passage preserved by Theodoret:
Cyril's own Christological formula supplies a primary voice from the controversy addressed at Ephesus.
The natures which have been brought together in the true unity are distinct, and of both there is one God and Son
Passage context and translation
Theodoret quotes Cyril's letter to Nestorius as testimony in his own Dialogue 2. The excerpt is Cyril's wording as preserved there, not an independent work titled Dialogue 2 by Cyril.
After the excerpt
but the difference of the natures has not been removed in consequence of the union.
Sources and further reading
- Historical source for Ephesus
Read the letter and conciliar response, not only an isolated later summary.