Nestorian
/nɛˈstɔːriən/adjective
Relating to the teaching that Christ's divine and human natures are two distinct persons, or to the Church of the East so labelled.
The Greek roots
Literally: “of Nestorios”
The story of the word
Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, objected in 428 to calling Mary Theotokos, God-bearer, and preferred Christ-bearer; the argument cost him his see at Ephesus in 431. The churches given his name mostly reject it. Their missionaries reached the Chinese capital, and a stone stele set up at Xi'an in 781 records the church there in Chinese and Syriac. Nestor's own name is usually connected with the root of νόστος, homecoming, which also lies under nostalgia.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek personal name → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
In a sentence
Nestorian merchants carried the faith along the Silk Road centuries before any Jesuit reached China.