Theotokos (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are Dei Genitrix or Deipara (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer" – but these both have different literal equivalents in Greek, Μήτηρ Θεοῦ and Θεοφόρος ("Who gave birth to one who was God", "Whose child was God", respectively). The title has been in use since the 3rd century, in the Syriac tradition (as ) in the Liturgy of Mari and Addai (3rd century) and the Liturgy of St James (4th century). The Council of Ephesus in AD 431 decreed that Mary is the Theotokos because Her Son Jesus is both God and man: one divine person from two natures (divine and human) intimately and hypostatically united. The title of Mother of God (Greek: ) or Mother of Incarnate God; abbreviated ΜΡ ΘΥ (first and last letter of each word in Greek), is most often used in English, largely due to the lack of a satisfactory equivalent of the Greek τόκος. For the same reason, the title is often left untranslated, as "Theotokos", in Orthodox liturgical usage of other languages. Theotokos is also used as the term for an Eastern icon, or type of icon, of the Mother with Child (typically called a Madonna in western tradition), as in "the Theotokos of Vladimir" both for the original 12th-century icon and for icons that are copies or imitate its composition. Terminology Theotokos is an adjectival compound of two Greek words Θεός "God" and τόκος "childbirth, parturition; offspring". A close paraphrase would be "[she] whose offspring is God" or "[she] who gave birth to one who was God". The usual English translation is simply "Mother of God"; Latin uses Deipara or Dei Genitrix. The Church Slavonic translation is Bogoroditsa (Russian/Serbian/Bulgarian ). The full title of Mary in Slavic Orthodox tradition is (Russian ), from Greek "Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary". German has the translation Gottesgebärerin (lit. "bearer of God"). "Mother of God" is the literal translation of a distinct title in Greek, Μήτηρ τοῦ Θεοῦ (translit. Mētēr tou Theou), a term which has an established usage of its own in traditional Orthodox and Catholic theological writing, hymnography, and iconography. In an abbreviated form, (), it often is found on Eastern icons, where it is used to identify Mary. The Russian term is