Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon

The Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, also called the Council of Mar Isaac, met in AD 410 in Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanid Empire of Persia. The council extended official recognition to the Empire's Christian community, known as the Church of the East, and established the Bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon as its Catholicos, or leader. It marked a major milestone in the history of the Church of the East and of Christianity in Asia in general.

The council was called by Mar Isaac, bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and who was then declared as the primate of the Sassanid church, confirming him as Catholicos and Archbishop of all the Orient. The decision was substantial, as Christians in the Sassanid Empire up to that point were fairly disorganized and persecuted, and Zoroastrianism was instead the primary religion of the Empire. In 409, permission was formally given by the Zoroastrian King Yazdegerd I to the Christians to even exist;^[1] to worship openly, and to rebuild destroyed churches, though they were not allowed to proselytize.^[2]

Early example of the Filioque

The synod also declared its adherence to the decisions of the First Council of Nicaea and adopted a form of the Nicene Creed.^{[3][lower-alpha 1]} The earliest example of the Filioque clause is contained in the creed of the Church of Persia from this synod.^[5] The creed is found as an East Syriac recension, in Syrian Orthodox sources, and as a West Syriac recension, in Church of the East sources.^[6] While the East Syriac recension contains: "And in the Holy Spirit,"^[7] the West Syriac recension contains: "And we confess the living and Holy Spirit, the living Paraclete, who is from the Father and the Son."^[8][7] The development of a Persian creed is difficult to track since there were several recensions prior to 410.^{[4][lower-alpha 1]}

See also

• Catholicos of The East and Malankara Metropolitan

Notes

1. In the same way that there were multiple versions of the Apostles Creed in the West, there were multiple versions of the Nicene Creed in Persia.^[4]

Citations

1. Renard 2011, p. 57.
2. Wigram 2004, p. 89.
3. Wigram 2004, pp. 97–100; Williams 2013, p. 390.
4. Williams 2013, p. 388.
5. Williams 2013, pp. 388, 390; Price & Gaddis 2005, p. 193.
6. Brock 1985, p. 133; Panicker 2002, p. 58.
7. Brock 1985, p. 133, quoted in Panicker (2002, pp. 58–59)
8. Price & Gaddis 2005, p. 193: "We acknowledge the living and holy Spirit, the living Paraclete, who [is] from the Father and the Son."

References

• Brock, Sebastian (1999) [chapter first published in 1985]. "The Christology of the Church in the East in the synods of the fifth to early seventh centuries: preliminary considerations and materials". In Ferguson, Everett. Doctrinal diversity: varieties of early Christianity. Recent studies in early Christianity 4. New York: Garland. pp. 126, 133 in 1985 original (pp. 282, 289 in 1999 faximile). ISBN 978-0-81533071-4.
• Panicker, Mathunny John (2002). "Synod of Seleucia-Ctesiphon 410". The person of Jesus Christ in the writings of Juhanon Gregorius Abu'l Faraj commonly called Bar Ebraya. Studien zur orientalischen Kirchengeschichte 4. Münster [u.a.]: LIT Verlag. pp. 58–59. ISBN 978-3-82583390-9.
• Price, Richard; Gaddis, Michael, eds. (2005). The acts of the Council of Chalcedon. Translated texts for historians 45. Translated by the editors. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-0-85323039-7.
• Renard, John (2011). Islam and Christianity: theological themes in comparative perspective. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-52025508-1.
• Wigram, William A. (2004) [1910]. An introduction to the history of the Assyrian Church, or, The Church of the Sassanid Persian Empire, 100–640 A.D. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. ISBN 1-59333-103-7. – 1910 first edition on Internet Archive
• Williams, Daniel H. (2013). "The evolution of pro-Nicene theology in the Church of the East". In Tang, Li; Winkler, Dietmar W. From the Oxus River to the Chinese shores: studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia. 3rd International Conference on the Church of the East in China and Central Asia, June 4-9, 2009 in Salzburg, Austria. Orientalia—patristica—oecumenica. Zürich; Berlin: LIT Verlag. pp. 387–395. ISBN 9783643903297.