The Story Behind the Nicene Creed

This year, Christians around the world are celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, held in 325 A.D. We are celebrating this council for several reasons. It was the first ecumenical council of bishops held by the Church, and it is first not just chronologically, but also for its importance. That’s because the Council of Nicaea gave us the Nicene Creed, the great statement of faith professed by every Christian for the last 1,700 years.

As a Church, we recite the Nicene Creed after the homily at Mass. This Creed, also called the Profession of Faith, is the definitive statement about what we believe as Christians. But have you ever wondered about the story behind the Creed? Why and how was it created? And, what is the meaning behind those unusual words (e.g., “begotten, not made”, “consubstantial”)?

At the beginning of the 4th century, Christianity was a persecuted religion of a minority of the population in the Roman Empire. In the year 313 A.D., Emperor Constantine won his most important battle with, he believed, the help of “the Christian God,” and he published the Edict of Milan making Christianity legal. By 325 A.D., Constantine had united the whole Roman Empire under his leadership and the number of Christians began to rapidly increase.

However, Constantine soon found that the Church was in the midst of an internal conflict, the Arian crisis, which threatened to tear it apart. Trying to avoid conflict within his realm, Constantine called all the bishops of the Church to his resort in Nicaea so that they could come to a resolution. This resolution took the form of the Nicene Creed.

What was the Arian controversy that led to this great statement of belief? Arius, a priest in Alexandria, Egypt, declared that Jesus was not the same as God, since he called himself the Son of God, but was the “first among creatures.” This meant that Jesus was not co-eternal with the Father, but that “there was a time when he was not,” a time before he was created by the Father, when the Son of God did not exist.

At Nicaea, this controversy of how to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son came down to which Greek word to use, either “homoousios,” meaning of the same substance (or essence) as the Father, or “homoiousios,” meaning of similar substance (or essence) as the Father. The Bishop of Alexandria, St. Athanasius, was the champion of the orthodox faith against Arius and rightly convinced the other bishops that the correct word is “homoousios,” which we translated in the previous translation as “one in being with” and now as “consubstantial.”

The bishops then created a statement of faith that defines the true Christian belief about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Nicene Creed boldly and strongly refutes Arius’ contentions with these words about Jesus: “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.” These phrases each mean that Jesus is of the same substance, has the same essence as the Father. The Son has the same “Godness” as the Father because He is begotten of the Father. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself; to make is to create something different from oneself. What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man.

Jesus is, therefore, God, just as is the Father, and so He can show us the Father and bring about our salvation. Only the God-man can save humanity. Because he is God, Christ could offer the Father an infinite satisfaction for the infinite malice of sin. Because he is human, Jesus could offer a man’s satisfaction for sins of humanity.

As well as the Creed, the Council of Nicaea gave the Church precedents that still hold to this day. These precedents include the truth of the ways in which the Holy Spirit guides the Church, the authority of the bishops, and the difference between dogma and discipline.

The Holy Spirit, the Council clearly showed, is not limited to Sacred Scripture in conveying the Truths of the Faith to the Church, but also uses Sacred Tradition and man’s reason, God’s great gift to humanity.

The Council also communicated that bishops are heirs to the Office of the Apostles and speak with special authority. They make distinctions between dogma and doctrine, which are beliefs of the Church as taught by the Apostles, and matters of discipline, which are rules decided upon by the bishops as men, practices that can be changed with the changing of time.

The Council of Nicaea was the first chronologically and also first in importance. It is worth remembering the major contributions to our Faith made at this first great ecumenical council 1,700 years ago.