The council 1,700 years ago used the word ‘consubstantial’ that remains in the creed
By Deacon Bob Hunt
The Catholic Church in Alexandria, Egypt, was abuzz in the year 318. A priest of the diocese named Arius was preaching a doctrine that was attracting a lot of attention and growing in popularity.
Just a few years earlier, the Catholics suffered the Great Persecution under the emperor Diocletian. Beginning in 303, Diocletian’s persecution was empire-wide and targeted clergy especially, but it also destroyed churches, confiscated Catholic holy vessels and texts, and tortured Catholics, demanding they renounce their faith. It was the worst persecution Catholics had faced, and it lasted eight years, finally coming to an end in 311, when Emperor Galerius proclaimed an edict of toleration. In 313, after his victory at the Milvian Bridge made him sole emperor, Constantine I issued the Edict of Milan, which legalized Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.
After the Edict of Milan, the persecutions having ended, well-educated Catholics finally had the luxury to reflect deeply on the teachings of Christ and of the Church. With great enthusiasm, these men introduced new thoughts on the redemptive mission of Christ, how we are to live the Christ-like life, and what is the relationship between the different persons of the Holy Trinity. It was that question, on the relationship of the Persons of the Trinity, that ignited the imaginations of the Alexandrian Christians who had been learning Arius’ doctrine.
Arius was concerned that more pagans were not being drawn to the Catholic faith because they had a difficult time embracing the dogma of the Holy Trinity: three co-equal, co-eternal Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in one divine Being. “If God is three Persons,” the pagans would ask, “why don’t you say you worship three gods?” They also struggled with the incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity in Jesus of Nazareth. The pagans wondered, “How could a god be a man, and then suffer as He did? Why didn’t He just destroy His enemies?” To address these concerns, Arius wrote a book called The Banquet that explained his teaching on the relationship between the Persons of the Holy Trinity.
God the Father, Arius taught, is eternal, immutable God. God the Son is not eternal but is the first creation of the Father. Jesus Christ, then, is the most holy man who ever lived, who attained divinity by virtue of His life, lived in obedience to the Father, but He is still a creation of the Father. Arius wrote, “the Son who is tempted, suffers, dies, however exalted He may be, is not to be equal to the immutable Father.” The bumper-sticker “motto” of the Arians was: “There was a time when He [Christ] was not.” Arius taught that the Holy Spirit was also the Father’s creation.
Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, immediately recognized Arius’ error and condemned his doctrine, instructing him to no longer teach it. But by then, Arius’ teaching had become quite popular, and Arius himself had become famous for his teaching and admired by those who embraced his doctrine. He refused to be silent. Eventually, the controversy became so acute that Constantine I wrote to both Alexander and Arius demanding that they come to some sort of compromise, insisting that such “philosophical” matters were of no interest to the people in the pews.
But no compromise could be found. Arius was too tied to his doctrine, and Alexander would not compromise on orthodox doctrine regarding the identity of Christ and His relationship with the Father. Constantine wanted only unity for his empire, and the controversy was disrupting that unity. So, he called for a council of the bishops of the Church to settle the matter once and for all. Bishops from the Eastern provinces of the empire arrived in great anticipation of how the council would settle the controversy over “Arianism.” A handful of Western bishops also participated, including Hosius of Cordova, a survivor of the persecutions, as were other bishops who gathered, who presided over the Council. Pope Sylvester I did not attend but sent his legates Vitas and Vincent of Capua.
Constantine chose the town of Nicaea on the Anatolian peninsula for the setting for the Council. Nicaea was centrally located in the empire and not far from the emperor’s new capital, Constantinople. The bishops met from May to August 325. According to records by then-Deacon St. Athanasius of Alexandria, 318 bishops attended. Arius was given the opportunity to present his case. He certainly had his supporters, especially Eusebius of Nicomedia (who would later baptize Constantine on his deathbed). Arius also had those who, while not entirely supportive, were sympathetic to his views. These bishops were called semi-Arians and were mostly interested in securing peace and unity among the Council Fathers and in the empire. When push came to shove, however, it was clear that Arius’ teaching was unorthodox and not consistent with the authentic teaching of the Church, given to her by the Apostles.
When the bishops were asked to vote on approving or condemning Arius’ doctrine, 316 of those present voted to condemn Arianism. Now the challenge for the bishops became how to define or describe Jesus Christ’s relationship with the Father. This would be a real challenge, for, though the great majority of the bishops believed that Jesus was the incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity—the Son—they did not know how to speak of that relationship. So, they turned to the Greek language to solve the dilemma.
How should the bishops describe the relationship between Father and Son, co-equal and co-eternal God? The Western bishops favored the Greek word homoousios, which means “consubstantial,” or of the same substance. The Western bishops wanted to press the Arian bishops to deny Arius’ central proposition: that Christ was created by the Father. The semi-Arians preferred the Greek word homoiousios, meaning “of like substance.” This phrase was rejected by the Western bishops because it failed to make clear that the Father and Son were of the same substance, co-equal and co-eternal. Ultimately, they settled on “consubstantial” and used that word to describe the relationship between Father and Son in the statement of faith they produced. That statement of faith came to be called the Nicene Creed and, with some modifications, is the creed that Catholic and Orthodox Christians proclaim even to this day.
In 381, the bishops of the world met again at the First Council of Constantinople, where they added to the Creed of Nicaea a greater affirmation of the faith of the Church in the Holy Spirit. The full name of the creed, then, is the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. Again, in 451, the bishops of the Church met at the Council of Chalcedon to address matters of import for the Church. It was at Chalcedon that the creed was reaffirmed and declared the standard of Apostolic faith.
This year, 2025, is the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council of the Church, and the council that gave us our creed, the creed that has been and still is proclaimed at every Mass all over the world. Benedicamus Domino!
Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.
Deacon Bob Hunt is a husband, father, grandfather, and parishioner at All Saints Church in Knoxville.