History of the Council of Nicaea: 1700 Years Ago
Icon from the Mégalo Metéoron Monastery in Greece, representing the First Ecumenical Council of Nikea, 325 AD. Image: Wikipedia
History of the Council of Nicaea: 1700 Years Ago
Seventeen hundred years ago this year, the first ecumenical council of the church met in Nicaea, now known as Iznik in modern Türkiye. It was called the Council of Nicaea – actually, it was the First Council of Nicaea. From it came the Nicene Creed, a pivotal document in the history of Christianity and the most well-known creed in the Christian faith.
Was this the first church council, who called this Council, why at Nicaea, what controversies were discussed there, who came to it, and what was the result of it?
First Church Council?
There had been previous church councils, going back to the original Council of Jerusalem, mentioned in the New Testament in Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 15, when Paul and Barnabas, representing the church in Antioch, came to the “mother” church in Jerusalem around AD 48-50.
The question at that council was regarding those Gentiles who had converted to Christianity through the ministry of Paul and Barnabas. Were they obliged to keep the Mosaic Law, including the kosher diet and male circumcision – essentially becoming Jews in addition to Christians? Short answer: No.
Subsequent councils were held thereafter, but none of them were ecumenical, meaning worldwide (where the world was the Roman Empire). Nicaea was the first of this kind.
Much of what we know about the Council we learn from Eusebius of Caesarea, the “Father of Church History,” who wrote Ecclesiastical History and was present at the Council.
The Calling of the Council to Nicaea
Ancient Nicaea. Image: Wikipedia
Only a year before convening the Council of Nicaea, as discussed in my previous article here, the Roman Emperor Constantine had defeated his rival, the Eastern Emperor Licinius, and became the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Constantine called bishops and church leaders to Nicaea in AD 325.
The city of Nicaea is located near Constantinople, where Constantine relocated his capital from Rome in 324. This way, Constantine himself could attend.
Its ancient name goes back to the time of Alexander the Great. His Macedonian general, Lysimachus, captured the city and named it in honor of his wife Nicaea, who had recently died. By the 4th century, the city was a large and prosperous Roman military and administrative center.
Why Was the Council of Nicaea Called?
There were both practical and theological reasons for convening the Council:
When is Easter?
The practical reason was that Constantine wanted the celebration of Easter to be on the same day throughout the Roman Empire, and it had not been. Some set Easter to coincide with the Jewish Passover, which occurs in the lunar month of Nissan, as it is mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John of the New Testament.
However, there was debate as to how that month was to be calculated. Constantine wanted the Christian Easter celebration to be separated from Jewish tradition and independently calculated. Ultimately, a formula developed in Alexandria, Egypt, was adopted. I talk about the formula in my article on the history of Easter here.
What About Arius?
The theological controversy was much more significant, and that is why we remember the Council of Nicaea: the issue of heresy.
The dispute was between Archbishop Alexander of Alexandria and the presbyter Arius regarding the nature of Christ, his origin, and his relationship to God the Father. What we know of Arius’ teachings comes from Alexander and his successor, Athanasius of Alexandria.
In short, Arius claimed:
“there was a time when Christ was not.”
He asserted that Christ was not eternal; only God the Father was. Furthermore, Arius argued that although Christ was the Son of God, he was eternally subordinate to the Father, who created him, and had a point of origin. This suggested that the Son was metaphysically or morally inferior to the Father and belonged to the created order, questioning his deity.
Alexander and Athanasius contended that this was erroneous: Jesus Christ, as God the Son, was eternally generated (begotten) from the Father and was coequal and coeternal with the Father.
What began as a local squabble soon escalated beyond Egypt, splitting the Eastern church into two parties, with battle lines drawn.
Who Attended the Council?
The number of bishops who attended ranges from 250 to 300, but traditionally, 318 was the number given by Athanasius of Antioch. With travel paid by the treasury of Constantine, lower church officers, including presbyters (elders) and deacons (servant ministers), also attended, resulting in a total attendance of between 1,200 and 1,900 churchmen.
Most were from the eastern part of the Roman Empire, including Egypt, Libya, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor (modern-day Türkiye). The minority, only six or seven, came from the western part, including Rome. It began in May or June of 325, modeled after the Roman Senate style of proceedings.
There is even an exciting, though likely legendary, story that the staunch Trinitarian Nicholas, Bishop of Myra – the original St. Nick of Santa Claus – slapped or punched the heretic Arius; consequently, he was temporarily imprisoned during the Council as a result.
Saint Nicholas of Myra slapping Arius at the Council of Nicaea, Greek icon. Image: Wikipedia
Constantine opened the council on May 20, 325, urging the bishops to achieve unity and peace.
What were the Results of the Council?
In addition to resolving the question of a single ecumenical (Roman world) date of the celebration of Easter, the Council of Nicaea condemned Arius and Arianism. Arius was exiled along with the other two Libyan bishops who had supported him.
The Council of Nicaea set the precedent for what occurred at an ecumenical church council: creeds and canons (church rules or laws) were established to address conflicts about doctrine, distinguishing believers from heretics. From this emerged the Nicene Creed.
The Nicene Creed was a concise and definitive statement of the Christian faith. The word “creed” comes from credo, Latin for “I believe,” as in the first line of the creed in Latin:
Credo in unum Deum…
Constantine hoped, as a result of the Council of Nicaea, to see a single imperially approved version of the faith for the church. Was Arianism eliminated following the Council of Nicaea? No.
Following the Council of Nicaea, several bishops who had condemned Arius and seemingly affirmed the Nicene Creed were readmitted to the church, along with Arius himself. Consequently, within less than fifty years, the imperial capital of Constantinople was solidly Arian. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, who had been the most vocal opponent of Arianism at Nicaea, was ultimately exiled through the illicit machinations of a leading Arian, Eusebius of Nicomedia (not to be confused with Eusebius of Caesarea).
In 381, the First Council of Constantinople was called by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I to resolve the controversy. The outcome of this council, along with several canons, was a condemnation of Arianism and a reassertion of the Nicene Creed of AD 325, along with two supplementary articles: one on the Holy Spirit and one on the church, baptism, and the resurrection of the dead.
The Nicene Creed of AD 381
Icon depicting the Emperor Constantine and the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325) holding the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. Image: Wikipedia
What is commonly called “The Nicene Creed” today is historically known as the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, dating from 381.
This creed is held to by almost all Christian groups, including Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and most historical Protestant denominations. These include, in historical order of formation, Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, Continental Reformed, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists.
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed reads as follows:
I believe in one God the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
And of all things visible and invisible:
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
of one substance with the Father,
by whom all things were made;
who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man,
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried,
and the third day he rose again
according to the scriptures,
and ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father.
And he shall come again with glory
to judge both the quick and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceedeth from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son together
is worshiped and glorified,
who spake by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy catholic [universal] and apostolic Church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.
And I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Nicene Canons
The Council also established approximately twenty new church laws, known as canons or rules of discipline. They ranged from the celebration of Passover, requiring a bishop to be consecrated by at least three other bishops in his province, the validity of baptism officiated by heretics, and what was to be done with lapsed Christians, meaning those who had denied their faith during the great persecutions of Christians during the recent Empire-wide persecution under the emperor Diocletian. These canons throw light on the developing institutional organization and polity of the early church.
What is the Value of the Nicene Creed?
The creed stands as the single most important creed of the early church and one of the earliest and most explicit statements of orthodox Trinitarian Christianity. There are other creeds, including the later Apostles Creed and the Athanasian Creed, but they did not capture the attention of all of the Christian church as did the Nicene Creed.
Furthermore, between the years 325 and 381, the concept of an ecumenical council — a gathering of church leaders to make decisions binding upon the entire church — emerged. This development underscored the close relationship between the question of creeds and the question of ecclesiology, both in terms of theology and history.
Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com
