CHRISTIANSTo what extent did Christians constitute religious communities in Iraq?
What part did the creation of Nestorian and Monophysite identities
have in the development of these communities? And what effect, if
any, did the Islamic conquest have? To the extent that anyone person
was responsible for the doctrinal position of the Eastern church, it
was Theodore of Mopsuestia at Antioch in the early fifth century. The
most important aspect of Theodore's Christology was his belief in the
close, inseparable union of the divine and human natures in one being
or personage (Gk., prosQPon; Syr., parsopa) of Christ.^86 For Theodore
this union was spiritual rather than physical, and for the purposes of
soteriology, he accepted the doctrine of assumptus homo-that God
had assumed a complete human nature, "not only the body but also
the immortal and rational soul. "87 Theodore also opposed the view
that people could not avoid sinning.^88
The Christology.of Theodore was introduced to the Eastern church
by a group of Persian and Aramaean students of Ibas at Edessa who
translated the doctrines of Theodore for themselves and then returned
to the Sasanian empire, where they took positions in the church. Led
by Bar Sawma, they held an un canonical council at Jundishapur in
484 where they deposed the catholicos, approved the marriage of
bishops, honored Theodore, and declared that his doctrines should be
followed. But Bar Sawma was excommunicated by a council held by
the catholicos Acacius (485-96) in 486, which quoted the creed of
the Council of Chalcedon (451) declaring Christ to be perfect God
and perfect man joined in a perfect and indissoluble union, without
mixture or confusion between the two natures. However, in 499 the
catholicos Babai (499-515) held a council that posthumously removed
Bar Sawma's excommunication and approved the marriage of cler-
gymen.^89 The doctrine of Theodore began to spread in the sixth cen-
tury. The catholicos Mar Aba I (540-52) translated the liturgies of
Nestorius and of Theodore into Syriac, and the synod held by him in
544 accepted the Council of Chalcedon by name and the Nicene Creed
86 Mingana, "Commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on the Nicene Creed," in
Woodbrooke Studies (Cambridge, 1932), V, 17,36-37,62-63,89-90,140,141-42,
175,206.
87 Ibid., V, 37, 51, 55-56,141, 142, 165-66.
88 A. Voobus, "Regarding the Theological Anthropology of Theodore of Mopsuestia,"
Church History 33 (1964), 117-19.
89 Assemani, BO, (Rome, 1719), I, 351-54; 11,408; idem, BO, (Rome, 1725), IlI(I),
376-77,380-95; 1II(2), 65-75, 77-81, 87; Chabot, Synodicon, pp. 55, 211, 302, 475;
P. Ortiz de Urbina, Patrologia Syriaca (Rome, 1958), pp. 110-11.