Theodore of Mopsuestia

Life

Theodore is believed to have been born around 350 in Antioch in Syria. As a young man he studied under the rhetorician Libanius. Later, together with his friend John Chrysostom, he took up the monastic life and the study of Scripture under the guidance of Diodore (afterward bishop of Tarsus). He was ordained a priest in Antioch in the 380s. Around 392 he became bishop of Mopsuestia, a city in the region of Cilicia in Asia Minor (in present-day southern Turkey), and he held that office until his death in 428.

Ministry and Achievements

• Biblical interpretation: He emphasized the grammatical and historical meaning of the text and was wary of excessive allegorical interpretation (interpretation that seeks a spiritual meaning hidden behind the text). He read Old Testament prophecies first as referring to events in their own historical setting and regarded as prophecies of Christ only a few passages that the New Testament directly quotes. In keeping with this approach, he read the Song of Songs as a love song, and he is known to have questioned the authority of several books, including Job.
• Writings: He is said to have written commentaries on most of the Bible. Most of the Greek originals have been lost, however: his commentary on the Minor Prophets survives in Greek, his commentary on the Gospel of John in Syriac translation, and his commentaries on Paul's shorter epistles in Latin translation. His catechetical homilies for candidates for baptism were discovered in a Syriac manuscript in the twentieth century.
• Christology: Opposing the Apollinarians, who diminished the humanity of Christ, he drew a clear distinction between the divine and human natures in Christ. He favored the expression that the Word of God "dwells" in the man Jesus.
• The Syriac-speaking Church of the East has called him "the Interpreter" and has regarded him as an authority in biblical interpretation.

Influence on the Korean Church

His direct influence on the Korean church has been limited. He is, however, presented in seminary courses on church history and hermeneutics as a representative of the Antiochene school. He is cited as an early precedent for the "historical-grammatical interpretation" widely taught in the Korean church, and he is sometimes compared with John Calvin, whose interpretive method likewise emphasized the literal sense.

Assessment

His Christology was regarded as having influenced the thought of Nestorius. In 553 the Second Council of Constantinople, at the conclusion of the so-called Three Chapters Controversy, condemned both his person and his writings. His critics held that he divided Christ as though into two persons. Some in the West also criticized his understanding of sin as close to Pelagianism. His defenders maintain that he sought to safeguard the full humanity of Christ, and they further argue that some of the passages cited at the time of his condemnation were taken out of context. Since the discovery of the catechetical homilies, modern scholars have continued to pursue studies reassessing him. His contribution as an interpreter who sought to read Scripture historically is fairly widely recognized.