Henana of Adiabene (died 610) was a Christian theologian, and headmaster of the School of Nisibis, the main theological center of the Church of the East (571–610). Biography Before he became headmaster, Henana of Adiabene had occupied the chair of biblical exegesis. His teacher was a certain Moses, who was probably an Eastern Orthodox Christian. Many of Henana's ideas were close to Byzantine theology, and his appointment as head of the school might have been in line with a general uneasiness with pro-Antiochene theological discourse, previously set by the Synod of Beth Lapat (484). His predecessor headmaster was Abraham of Beth Rabban, who had worked hard to promote the Antiochene theology of Theodore of Mopsuestia. Henana was a humble man, worked tirelessly, and stood to his convictions. Under his leadership the school initially continued to grow. He wrote extensive commentaries and other works, but only two works and a number of citations have been preserved. A speech for the commencement of the academic year from the time when Henana was director has survived, and in it Henana is described as the equal of Theodore in productivity, and with the authority to choose the best from among all traditions. However, Henana did not reconcile the teaching of Theodore with the other creeds; he tried to replace him. Christological dispute Theodore of Mopsuestia held that union of Christ′s two natures (divine and human) is manifested as a prosopic union. Henana on the other hand favored the concept of a hypostatic union of the two natures, as specified by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Accordingly, he believed in God's suffering on the Cross, impossible without a hypostatic union between the two natures. Those christological controversies were reflected in a debate between pro-Chalcedonian supporters of "one-qnoma" Christology and pro-Antiochene supporters of "two-qnome" Christology (qnoma, a Syriac term, translated as "hypostasis"). The divide between two groups was worsened by interventions on the part of West Syriac miaphysites. Henana's one-qnoma theology was attacked by Babai the Great, whose criticism of Henana's views was generally accepted by the Church of the East, though Henana remained a significant influence in the Church's subsequent tradition of interpretation. Henana accepted the decisions of the Council of Ephesus (431), believing that the term 'mother of God' was appropriate for the Virgin Mary. Theodore of Mopsuestia had taught that man was created mortal. Henana believed that Adam was initially immortal, and