Ch. Hist. Also 6 -paschit, 7 -passit. [ad. eccl. L. theopaschīta, ad. Gr. θεοπασχίτης, f. θεό-ς god + πάσχ-ειν to suffer: see -ITE1 1 a.] A member of a Monophysite sect of the 6th c., who held that the divine nature of Christ suffered on the Cross.
1585. T. Rogers, 39 Art., ii. § 2 (1625), 11. Most wicked were the opinions of those men which held … that … Christ had a bodie without a soule; as thought … the Theopaschites. Ibid., § 4. 14. That Christ really and indeed, hung not on the crosse: for his passion was in showe onely, said the Cerdonites … and the Manicheans: and another man, saide the Theopaschits,… suffered, and hung on the crosse.
1625. Gill, Sacr. Philos., IV. 32. The errours … of the Theopaschites, who held that the God-head of Christ did suffer, while His body was nayled on the Crosse.
1874–86. J. H. Blunt, Dict. Sects, etc., Theopaschites, a sect of the Monophysites who maintained that Christ having only one Nature, and that the Divine, it was therefore the Divine Nature which suffered … at the Crucifixion.
1882–3. Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., III. 2346. Theopaschites … a by-name applied to such as accepted the formula, that … ‘God had suffered and been crucified.’
Hence Theopaschitally adv., in the manner of, or in accordance with the doctrine of the Theopaschites; Theopaschitic a., of or pertaining to the Theopaschites or their doctrine; Theopaschitism, the doctrine or tenets of the Theopaschites. So Theopaschist, a Theopaschite.
1887. Richter, Levana, ix. 154. Theologians are active *Theopaschists.
1882. Cave & Banks, trans. Dorner’s Chr. Doctr., 209. In this respect it speaks quite *Theopaschitally.
1893. E. K. Mitchell, trans. Harnack’s Hist. Dogma, 299. The carrying out of the *theopaschitic formula.
1882–3. Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., I. 463. A revival of … Patripassianism, or *Theopaschitism.
