The
Christology of the
Church of the East (i.e., Nestorian Christianity) may be called "
non-Ephesine" for not accepting the Council of Ephesus, but did finally gather to ratify the Council of Chalcedon at the Synod of Mar
Aba I in 544.[3]
Within the
Patriarchates of
Alexandria and
Antioch, the rejection of the Chalcedonian definition became a cause of schism. While the common people of Egypt and Syria mostly objected to the Council, the Byzantine-Greek minority that formed the ruling class mostly accepted the Council. These two parties vied for possession of the ancient sees of
Alexandria and
Antioch that formed, at the time, the third and fourth most prestigious sees in
Christendom, respectively. Ultimately, neither group absolutely dominated either church. The end result was the existence of two distinct patriarchates of Alexandria and Antioch for almost 1500 years, continuing in the present time. What is now known as the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is the native Egyptian patriarchal faction of Alexandria that reject Chalcedon, whereas the
Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria is composed of those who accept Chalcedon. For Syrians, the
Syriac Orthodox Church forms the patriarchal faction of the native Syrian-Semitic population whereas the
Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch is composed of those who accept Chalcedon.
In India and to a lesser degree in Persia, the schism that occurred was between the Oriental Orthodox and the
Assyrian Church of the East. Even today in
Kerala, there is a continuing presence of both the Assyrian Church of the East and the Syriac Orthodox Church along with an independent Oriental Orthodox Church which is separated from Syriac Orthodox Church called the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church.
Chesnut, Roberta C. (1985). Three Monophysite Christologies: Severus of Antioch, Philoxenus of Mabbug, and Jacob of Sarug.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN978-0198267126.
Lebon, Joseph (1909). Le monophysisme sévérien. Étude historique, littéraire et théologique de la résistance monophysite au concile de Chalcédoine jusqu'à la constitution de l'Église jacobite.
Louvain.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)