Nestorius. 1. [Some] of them in fact say that the Incarnation of our Lord Christ took place in fiction and schema and in order that he might appear unto men and teach and give the grace of the Gospel unto all men. And, as he appeared unto each one of the saints, so in the last times he appeared unto all men.
Well I still don't understand that. If some people were to say that the incarnation of you or I is taking place in fiction and schema ( "shape", "figure", "outward, visible form") then what would that actually mean? What does a fictional body mean? What does a phantasmal body mean to an historical researcher?GakuseiDon wrote: ↑Fri Apr 15, 2022 1:26 pmIf the author had been writing about Jesus in terms of being part of a "fictional story", you might have a point. But, as I pointed out a few times, he was writing about a fictional body and associating it with illusion.
In context we have Nestorius writing in the 5th century about the opinions of people on the incarnation of Jesus Christ who was long dead. Aside from public opinions, these opinions were formed based on a judgement of the contents of the NT story book. A book which had a century earlier become the holy writ, and who's orthodox followers had been written into the law codes of the Graeco-Roman state. Do you expect there to have been controversies over the Jesus figure during the 4th and 5th centuries?
Are the incarnations of any other figures of the ancient world described as "taking place in fiction and schema"? If so who are they and how do we understand their incarnations as compared to the NT Jesus figure?
So we are on the same page with history, fiction and myth in the ancient world, here is a provisional summary that I am using at the moment:
History = an exposition of true things that actually happened
Fiction = an exposition of things that did not happen (falsehoods) but could have
Myth/Fable = an exposition of things that could not have happened - remote from history and fiction - remote not only from the truth but also from the appearance of truth