St. Isaac of Syria is Not a Nestorian

St. Isaac of Syria died ca. 700

 

Divine Scripture says many things with a special intent and often uses names figuratively, as for instance: things which pertain to the body are said of the soul, and things pertaining to the soul are said of the body, making no distiction between them. The sagacious, however, understand what they read, that is, the intent of Scripture. Likewise, things pertaining to the Lord’s Divinity (which are not compatible with human nature) are said with respect to His all-holy body; and again, lowly things are said concerning His Divinity which pertain to His humanity. Many, not understanding the intent of the Divine words, have stumbled here with a stumbling from which there is no recovery. (The Ascetical Homilies, Homily Three)

 

St. Isaac affirms the communicatio idiomatum in the above quote.

  

 From Nestorian.org, the communicatio idiomatum is denied:

 

“The West further insisted upon the “communicatio idiomatum,” that is, the  verbal attribution of the Messiah’s human properties to his Godhead (and vice  versa). The Church of the East has always strongly resisted the popular tendency to ascribe suffering, death, or any passability, mutability, etc., to the  Godhead, and out of an intense desire to protect its theological definition of  Godhead (which it shares with the West), it has reacted against the  “communicatio idiomatum.” It chooses, rather, to utilize terms in a more cautious way — “Mother of the Messiah,” for instance, rather than “Mother of  God,” or “the sufferings of the Son of God, which he voluntarily underwent in  his manhood for our salvation,” rather than, “the sufferings of God.” These two  sticking-points — an agreement over the use of the term hypostasis and its  application and implications, and the propriety of the communicatio idiomatum — stood as barriers between the Church of the East and the Greek and Latin  Churches.”

 

http://www.nestorian.org/nestorius_and_the__nestorian_c.html

 

St. Isaac gives sound advice for Orthodox Christians in his next homily: Beware of reading the doctrines of heretics for they, more than anything else, can arm the spirit of blasphemy against you. (The Ascetical Homilies, Homily Four)