# Jacobites and Nestorians



## Leslie (Nov 18, 2008)

I've been reading Marco Polo and wonder who the Jacobite and Nestorian Christians were whom he encountered in the environs of Persia, the 12th-14th century. Can anyone give a brief explanation?


----------



## yeutter (Nov 18, 2008)

Samuel Moffett writes about the Nestorians and Jacobites in Volume #1 of his A History of Christianity in Asia. The Jacobites were monophysite heretics. The continue to exist in Iran. The Armenian Apostolic Church represents a continuing presence of this cult. The Nestorians exist in Iraq to this day. They are the Chaldeans or Assyrian Apostolic Church. They are sometimes known as the Church of the East. The Nestorians carried the Gospel to India and China prior to the time of Mongolian invasion of China.


----------



## TimV (Nov 18, 2008)

The Chaldeans (Assyrians) are split right down the middle, with about half orthodox and half Nestorian. They are the same ethnic/lingistic group, and the way you distinguish them is to call the orthodox churches (there are a couple) Chaldeans and the Nestorians you call Assyrians. The former deputy Prime Minister of Iraq is orthodox for example.

As far as the Armenians, in the last couple decades it's been agreed that we don't call them Monophysite anymore, and they're considered properly ecumenical. They never rejected the concept of the dual nature of Christ at the council of Chalcedon, they just objected to the definition, or "symbol" of the council.

I think the term Jacobite (which never refers to Armenians) is mostly reserved for that part of the Syrian church which developed in India.


----------



## TimV (Nov 18, 2008)

I should add that in the days of Polo the Nestorians weren't (for all practical purposes like today) limited to the Assyrian ethnic group, but instead were common in wide areas of the East. I've read that today in China there are groups which trace their ancestry to Nestorians but no longer practice that faith. But if there are any today they are few.

edit: The Hui Chinese are in part descendant from Nestorians. They're Muslim nowadays. I knew I remembered reading that somewhere. It was after the closing ceremonies of the last Olympics when all those girls in ethnic costume did their thing and there was a small history of each group published.

If one studies Nestorianism one can see why they wouldn't have much in the way of theological defenses against Islam. We can make fun of all those old guys contending for issues that seemed minor and even laughable, but they could see the practical implications of Nestorianism and simply wouldn't tolerate it.


----------

