New Judas

de Bevan G.A.

The 'New Judas' is a new account of the life of Nestorius (ca. 386 to 451 CE), the Christological controversy that engulfed him, as well as the critical imperial interventions into ecclesiastical politics during the period from the First Council of Ephesus to the Council of Chalcedon. This work endeavours to use both Nestorius' own 'Liber Heraclidis', preserved only in Syriac, as well as the unprecedented abundance of primary documents in Greek and Latin from 'Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum', to answer a question of fundamental historical importance: How could the teaching of Christ's two natures, one so closely identified with Nestorius, deposed in 431, be vindicated in all its essentials at the Council of Chalcedon in twenty years later? The answer requires not only a reconsideration of the role of the supposedly timid emperor Theodosius II, but also a new understanding of the evolving position of Nestorius' chief opponent, Cyril of Alexandria.