Monophysiten.adj.
/məˈnɒfᵻsʌɪt/, U.S. /məˈnɑfəˌsaɪt/ Church History.
A. n.
A person who holds that in the person of Jesus there is either a single divine nature, or one inseparable nature, partly divine, and partly (subordinately) human.The more extreme view of a single divine nature was associated with Eutyches (c375–454), and was condemned by the Council of Chalcedon (451).The term has frequently been used more widely by Christians in the Chalcedonian tradition to characterize members of the Oriental Orthodox Churches (Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, and Syrian), who nevertheless consider its connotations offensive; a more neutral term is Miaphysite (Miaphysite adj. and n.). Cf. orthodox adj. 3.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > sect > Christianity > major early Christian sects > Monophysitism > [noun] > person
Monophysite1659
Miaphysite1995
1659 J. Howell Vocab. x. sig. Ssssss 2v The Monothelites, Jacobites, and Monophysites, spawn'd of the Nestorians and Eutichyans.
1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 272 The Acephali and Monosyphites.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Monophysites, a general Name given to all those Sectaries in the Levant who only own one Nature in Jesus Christ. The Monophysites however, properly so call'd, are the Followers of Severus, and Petrus Fullensis.
1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall IV. xlvii. 591 Under the rod of persecution, the Nestorians and Monophysites degenerated into rebels and fugitives.
1861 J. G. Sheppard Fall of Rome xi. 587 Pernicious heresies, like that of the Monophysites in Egypt.
1875 T. P. Boultbee Introd. Theol. Church Eng. 20 Nor can the human nature be converted into the divine, as the Eutychians and other monophysites taught.
1887 Contemp. Rev. 51 416 Innumerable swarms of excommunicants—Donatists, Arians, Monophysites, Albigenses, Hussites.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 919/2 The emperor was a convinced Monophysite, but his ecclesiastical policy was moderate.
1975 K. Katzner Langs. of World ii. 161 In the 5th century a schism occurred in the Egyptian Christian church, with the branch known as the Monophysites coming to be known as the Coptic Church.
1988 W. Thesiger Life of my Choice (BNC) 37 The Abyssinians, as Monophysites, owed allegiance to the Patriarch of Alexandria; he alone could appoint the Abuna who was head of their Church.
B. adj.
Of or relating to the doctrine of Monophysites, or a Church professing this doctrine.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > sect > Christianity > major early Christian sects > Monophysitism > [adjective]
Monophysite1788
monophysitic1823
Miaphysite1992
1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall IV. xlvii. 563 The monophysite doctrine (one incarnate nature) was rigorously preached in the churches of Egypt and the monasteries of the East.
1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall IV. xlvii. 608 Severus, the Monophysite patriarch of Antioch.
1861 J. G. Sheppard Fall of Rome xi. 608 The Monophysite heretics..were cruelly persecuted by the orthodox Greeks.
1882 Cent. Mag. 23 851 Those old fears about lapsing into the Monophysite heresy.
1905 Expositor Apr. 261 Christianity in its Nestorian or Monophysite form.
1935 H. A. L. Fisher Europe I. xii. 141 The monotheism of Islam was not so far removed from the monophysite forms of Christianity which were popular in Syria and Egypt as to interpose an obstacle in the way of the Arab conquest of those lands.
1972 Presbyterian Herald Jan. 20/2 Also the Coptic and Jacobite Churches hold the monophysite error, denying the true humanity of Christ.
1988 Church Times 18 Mar. 12 The Armenian Church has therefore been reputed to be Monophysite.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1659