Dusty Phrases

Dusty

May 4

Hi! Welcome to "Dusty Phrases." You will find a phrase below, in one ancient language or another, along with its English translation. You may also find the power to inspire your friends or provoke dread among your enemies.

For other examples, visit HERE:

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Greek:

Θεοτόκος
Theotokos

English:

Mother of God / Bearer of God

As even the unfamiliar might have guessed from the English translation, this is a title for Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Despite its use among Christians, for centuries, today this term is a lot less familiar in the Protestant West than in the Orthodox and/or Catholic East. (from wiki)

Theotokos (Greek: Θεοτόκος) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are Dei Genitrix or Deipara (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer" – but these both have different literal equivalents in Greek, Μήτηρ Θεοῦ and Θεοφόρος ("Who gave birth to one who was God", "Whose child was God", respectively).

The title has been in use since the 3rd century, in the Syriac tradition (as Classical Syriac: ܝܠܕܬ ܐܠܗܐ, romanized: Yāldath Alāhā/Yoldath Aloho) in the Liturgy of Mari and Addai (3rd century) and the Liturgy of St James (4th century). The Council of Ephesus in AD 431 decreed that Mary is the Theotokos because Her Son Jesus is both God and man: one divine person from two natures (divine and human) intimately and hypostatically united.

The title of Mother of God (Greek: Μήτηρ (τοῦ) Θεοῦ) or Mother of Incarnate God; abbreviated ΜΡ ΘΥ (the first and last letter of each word in Greek), is most often used in English, largely due to the lack of a satisfactory equivalent of the Greek τόκος. For the same reason, the title is often left untranslated, as "Theotokos", in Orthodox liturgical usage of other languages.

Theotokos is also used as the term for an Eastern icon, or type of icon, of the Mother with Child (typically called a Madonna in western tradition), as in "the Theotokos of Vladimir" both for the original 12th-century icon and for icons that are copies or imitate its composition.

Etymology

Theotokos is an adjectival compound of two Greek words Θεός "God" and τόκος "childbirth, parturition; offspring". A close paraphrase would be "[she] whose offspring is God" or "[she] who gave birth to one who was God". The usual English translation is simply "Mother of God"; Latin uses Deipara or Dei Genitrix.

The Church Slavonic translation is Bogoroditsa (Russian/Serbian/Bulgarian Богородица). The full title of Mary in Slavic Orthodox tradition is Прест҃а́ѧ влⷣчица на́ша бцⷣа и҆ прⷭ҇нод҃ва мр҃і́а (Russian Пресвятая Владычица наша Богородица и Приснодева Мария), from Greek Ὑπεραγία δέσποινα ἡμῶν Θεοτόκος καὶ ἀειπάρθενος Μαρία "Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary". German has the translation Gottesgebärerin (lit. "bearer of God"). In Arabic, there're two main terms which are widely used at the general level, first one is: "Walidatu-liilahi" (Arabic: وَالِدَةُ ٱلْإِلَـٰهِ, lit. 'Birther of God') and "Ùmmu-'llahi" or "Ùmmu-l'iilahi" (Arabic: أُمُّ ٱللهِ or أُمُّ ٱلْإِلَـٰهِ, lit.'Mother of God').

"Mother of God" is the literal translation of a distinct title in Greek, Μήτηρ τοῦ Θεοῦ (translit. Mētēr tou Theou), a term which has an established usage of its own in traditional Orthodox and Catholic theological writing, hymnography, and iconography. In an abbreviated form, ΜΡ ΘΥ (М҃Р Ѳ҃Ѵ), it often is found on Eastern icons, where it is used to identify Mary. The Russian term is Матерь Божия (also Богома́терь).

Variant forms are the compounds Θεομήτωρ (translit. Theomētōr; also spelled Θεομήτηρ, translit. Theomētēr) and Μητρόθεος (translit. Mētrotheos), which are found in patristic and liturgical texts.

Byzantine mosaic of the enthroned Theotokos, Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, ca. AD 560

The theological dispute over the term concerned the term Θεός "God" vs. Χριστός "Christ", and not τόκος (genitrix, "bearer") vs. μήτηρ (mater, "mother"), and the two terms have been used as synonyms throughout Christian tradition. Both terms are known to have existed alongside one another since the early church, but it has been argued, even in modern times, that the term "Mother of God" is unduly suggestive of Godhead having its origin in Mary, imparting to Mary the role of a Mother Goddess. But this is an exact reiteration of the objection by Nestorius, resolved in the 5th century, to the effect that the term "Mother" expresses exactly the relation of Mary to the incarnate Son ascribed to Mary in Christian theology.

I came across the previously unfamiliar-to-me term recently while reading (HERE) about a 3rd century (~250 AD) papyrus scroll upon which a prayer to Mary is written.

Courtesy of the John Rylands Library

A private copy of a prayer addressed to the Virgin Mary. Written in brown ink. Verso blank. Lines 4-9: "Mother of God (hear) my supplications: suffer us not (to be) in adversity, but deliver us from danger. Thou alone...