When Nestorius (c.386 – c.451) was made Patriarch of Constantinople in 428, by the Roman emperor Theodosius II, he opposed the leading, Arian, heresy, but then he found himself embroiled in a new theological conflict over the term theotokos. Nestorius was condemned for heresy at the Council of Ephesus in 431.

 

 Nestorius believed that the Virgin Mary gave birth to the human embodiment of Jesus, and as such should be called by a term signifying "person who gives birth to the savior" and not "person who gives birth to a god." The term Nestorius preferred to use for Mary was "christotokos," based on the Greek for 'messiah/annointed one' christos. The prevailing orthodoxy preferred the term "theotokos," based on the Greek for 'god' theos (also seen in "theology").

 

A theotokos could be giving birth to a god who is a savior, but a christotokos is giving birth to a human savior. Thus the theotokos is in a sense more inclusive. The child of a theotokos could be human and divine, where the child of a christotokos would be human.