Three Ancient Churches Rejected the Council of Chalcedon. They're Still Here.

The Council of Chalcedon split the church in 451. Three ancient churches rejected it and are still here today: the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, and the Armenian Apostolic Church. For fifteen centuries they were called monophysites — heretics who supposedly dissolved Christ's humanity into his divinity. That label is factually wrong. They condemn Eutyches by name, and always have. This video traces what actually happened. Why Dioscorus of Alexandria was deposed for procedural contempt rather than heresy. Why the Greek word physis meant one thing in Constantinople and another in Alexandria, and why mia does not mean monos. What Severus of Antioch actually argued before Justin the First drove him into exile in 518. Why Armenia was absent from the council entirely, bleeding out at Avarayr while the bishops met. And then the ending almost nobody knows: in 1989 and 1990, theologians from both Orthodox families signed joint statements concluding that they had held the same faith about Christ the whole time — and nothing happened. The anathemas were never lifted. Communion was never restored. The schism outlived its own cause. This is why. Sources: Primary sources: Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, sessions on the deposition of Dioscorus and the Definition of Faith Canon 28 of Chalcedon and Leo I's refusal to ratify it, March 453 Cyril of Alexandria, Second Letter to Succensus, on the mia physis formula Zeno's Henotikon, 482 Severus ibn al-Muqaffa, History of the Patriarchs, on the death of Mennas Joint Commission of the Theological Dialogue, First Agreed Statement (Anba Bishoy, 1989) and Second Agreed Statement (Chambésy, 1990) Common Declaration of Paul VI and Shenouda III, 10 May 1973 Memorandum of the Sacred Community of Mount Athos, May 1995 Secondary sources: John Anthony McGuckin on Cyril's use of physis as functionally equivalent to hypostasis Sebastian Brock on the Syriac terms kyānā and qnōmā and the translation problem Britannica and the Gorgias Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Syriac Heritage on Severus of Antioch (c. 465–538) CNEWA and Pro Oriente documentation on Catholic–Oriental Orthodox dialogue Disputed or uncertain claims: The date of Armenia's formal rejection of Chalcedon: Dvin I (506/507) versus Dvin II (554/555). Karekin Sarkissian argues for the earlier date; other scholars for the later. Whether Cyril's physis is genuinely equivalent to hypostasis, or whether the miaphysite reading of him is a later Severan development. The claim that the Copts actively aided the Arab conquest of Egypt. Evidence for coordinated action is thin and contested. Ethiopian Orthodox membership figures, which range from 36 million to 60 million depending on source. Whether the 1989–90 agreed statements resolve the christological question or paper over it. Mount Athos, and the Russian Orthodox Church's decision to table rather than accept, represent the substantive dissent. #ChurchHistory #OrientalOrthodox #Chalcedon