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Theotokos

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Also known as Holy Mother of God, Mother of God

thumb|An icon of the Our Lady of Kazan|Theotokos of Kazan. Theotokos () is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are or (approximately "parent [] of God"). Common English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer" – but these both have different literal equivalents in , and respectively.

~17 min read

Encyclopedic overview

17 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Theology
  • History of use
  • Early Church
  • Third Ecumenical Council
  • Nestorian schism
  • Reformation
  • 20th century
  • Liturgy
  • Iconography
  • Gallery
  • See also
  • Notes
  • References
  • Sources
  • Further reading
  • External links

thumb|An icon of the Our Lady of Kazan|Theotokos of Kazan. Theotokos () is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are or (approximately "parent [] of God"). Common English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer" – but these both have different literal equivalents in , and respectively.

The title has been in use since the 3rd century, and in the 4th-century Liturgy of Saint James (4th century). The Council of Ephesus in AD 431 decreed that Mary is the because her son Jesus is both God and man: one divine person from two natures (divine and human) intimately and hypostatically united.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Theotokos” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (20)