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Chapter IX. Theological Controversies, and Development of the Ecumenical Orthodoxy

§ 129. The Nicene and Constantinopolitan Creed

Page 133 of 185

We look now at the Creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople side by side, which sum up the result of these long controversies. We mark the differences by inclosing in brackets the parts of the former omitted by the latter, and italicizing the additions which the latter makes to the former.

The Nicene Creed of 3251430

the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 3811431

Pisteuomen eis hena Theon patera pantokratora, panton horaton te kai aoraton poieten

Pisteuomen eis hena Theon, patera pantokratora, poieten ouranou kai ges, horaton te panton kai aoraton.

Kai eis hena kurion Iesoun Christon, ton huion tou Theou; gennethenta ek tou patros [monogene; tout estin ek tes ousias tou patros; Theon ek Theou kai1432 ] phos ek photos, Theon alethinon ek Theou alethinou; gennethenta, ou poiethenta, homoousion to patri; di hou ta panta egeneto [ta te en to ourano kai ta en te ge;] ton di hemas tous anthropous kai dia ten hemeteran soterian katelthonta kai sarkothenta, kai1433 enanthropesanta; pathonta1434 kai anastanta te trite hemera, anelthonta eis tous1435 ouranous,1436 erchomenon krinai xontas kai nekrous.

Kai eis hena kurion Iesoun Christon ton huion tou Theou ton monogene; ton ek tou patros gennethenta pro panton ton aionon; phos ek photos, Theon alethinon ek Theou alethinou, gennethenta, ou poiethenta, homoousion to patri; di hou ta panta egeneto; ton di hemas tous anthropous kai dia ten hemeteran soterian katelthonta ek ton ouranon, kai sarkothenta ek pneumatos hagiou kai Marias tes parthenou, kai enanthropesanta; staurothenta te huper hemon epi Pontiou Pilatou, kai pathonta, kai taphenta, kai anastanta te trite hemera kata tas graphas, kai anelthonta eis tous ouranous, kai kathezomenon ek dexion tou patros, kai palin erchomenon meta doxes krinai zontas kai nekrous; hou tes basileias ouk estai telos.

Kai eis to hagion pneuma.

Kai eis to pneuma to agion, to kurion, to zoopoion, to ek tou pa-tros ekporeuomenon, to sun patri kai huio proskunoumenon kai sundoxazomenon, to lalesan dia ton propheton. Eis mian hagian katholiken kai apostoliken ek-klesian; homologoumen hen baptisma eis aphesin hamartion; prosdok-omen anastasin nekron kai zoen tou mellontos aionos. Amen.

'Tous de legontas, hoti1437 en pote hote ouk en; kai; prin gennethenai ouk en; kai hoti ex ouk onton egeneto; e ex heteras hupostaseos e ousias1438 phaskontas einai; e ktiston, e trepton, e alloioton ton uion tou Theou; anathematizei he hagia katholike kai apostolike1439 ekklesia. ``

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible, and invisible.

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible

"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the only-begotten, i.e., of the essence of the Father, God of God, and] Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made [in heaven and on earth]; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he cometh to judge the quick and the dead.

"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds ( aeons ),1440 Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being 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; he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and 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 ; from thence he cometh again, with glory , to judge the quick and the dead ; whose kingdom shall have no end .1441

"And in the Holy Ghost.

"And in the Holy Ghost, who is Lord and Giver of life, who pro-ceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. In one holy catholic and apostolic church, we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look fo r the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen .1442

["And those who say: there was a time when he was not; and: he was not before he was made; and: he was made out of nothing, or out of another substance or thing, or the Son of God is created, or changeable, or alterable; they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church." ]

A careful comparison shows that the Constantinopolitan Creed is a considerable improvement on the Nicene, both in its omission of the anathema at the close, and in its addition of the articles concerning the Holy Ghost and concerning the church and the way of salvation. The addition: according to the Scriptures, is also important, as an acknowledgment of this divine and infallible guide to the truth. The whole is more complete and symmetrical than the Nicaenum, and in this respect is more like the Apostles' Creed, which, in like manner, begins with the creation and ends with the resurrection and the life everlasting, and is disturbed by no polemical dissonance; but the Apostles' Creed is much more simple in structure, and thus better adapted to the use of a congregation and of youth, than either of the others.

The Constantinopolitan Creed maintained itself for a time by the side of the Nicene, and after the council of Chalcedon in 451, where it was for the first time formally adopted, it gradually displaced the other. Since that time it has itself commonly borne the name of the Nicene Creed. Yet the original Nicene confession is still in use in some schismatic sects of the Eastern church.

The Latin church adopted the improved Nicene symbol from the Greek, but admitted, in the article on the Holy Ghost, the further addition of the well-known filioque, which was first inserted at a council of Toledo in 589, and subsequently gave rise to bitter disputes between the two

Notes

  1. 1430

    It is found, together with the similar Eusebian (Palestinian) confession, in the well-known Epistle of Eusebius of Caesarea to his diocese (Epist. ad suae parochiae homines), which is given by Athanasius at the close of his Epist. de decretis Nicaenae Synodi (Opera, tom. i. p. 239, and in Thilo's Bibl. vol. i. p. 84 sq.); also, though with some variation by Theodoret, H. E. i. 12, and Socrates, H. E. i. 8. Sozomen omitted it (H. E. i. 10) from respect to the disciplina arcani. The Symbolum Nicaenum is given also, with unessential variations, by Athanasius in his letter to the emperor Jovian c. 3, and by Gelasius Cyzic., Lib. Synod. de Concil. Nicaeno, ii. 36. On the unimportant variations in the text, Comp. Walch, Bibl. symbol. p. 75 sqq., and A. Rahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, 1842. Comp. also the parallel Creeds of the Nicene age in the Appendix to Pearson's Exposition of the Creed.

  2. 1431

    Found in the Acts of the second ecumenical council in all the collections (Mansi, tom. iii. 566; Harduin, i. 814). It probably does not come directly from this council still less from the individual authorship of Gregory of Nyssa or Gregory of Nazianzum to whom it has sometimes been ascribed, but the additions by which it is distinguished from the Nicene, were already extant in substance under different forms (in the Symbolum Epiphanii, for example, and the Sym b. Basilii Magni), and took shape gradually in the course of the controversy. It is striking that it is not mentioned as distinct from the Nicene by Gregory Nazianzen in his Epist. 102 to Cledonius (tom. ii. 93 ed. Paris 1842), nor by the third ecumenical council at Ephesus. On the other hand, it was twice recited at the council of Chalcedon, twice adopted in the acts, and thus solemnly sanctioned. Comp. Hefele, ii. 11, 12.

  3. 1432

    Kai is wanting in Athanasius (De decretis, etc,).

  4. 1433

    Kai is wanting in Athanasius; Socrates and Galerius have it.

  5. 1434

    Gelasius adds taphenta, buried.

  6. 1435

    Without the article in Athanasius.

  7. 1436

    Al. kai.

  8. 1437

    Athanasius omits hoti.

  9. 1438

    Here hypostasis and essence are still used interchangeably; though Basil and Bull endeavor to prove a distinction. Comp. on the contrary, Petavius, De trinit. l. iv. c. 1 (p. 314 sqq.). Rufinus, i. 6, translates: "Ex alia subsistentia aut substantia."

  10. 1439

    Athanasius omits hagia and apostolike. Theodoret has both predicates, Socrates has apostolike, all read katholike.

  11. 1440

    This addition appears as early as the creeds of the council of Antioch in 341.

  12. 1441

    This addition likewise is found substantially in the Antiochian creeds of 341, and is directed against Marcellus of Ancyra, Sabellius, and Paul of Samosata, who taught that the union of the power of God (energeia drastike) with the man Jesus will cease at the end of the world, so that the Son and His kingdom are not eternal Comp. Hefele, i. 438 and 507 sq.

  13. 1442

    Similar additions concerning the Holy Ghost, the catholic church, baptism and life everlasting are found in the older symbols of Cyril of Jerusalem, Basil, and the two Creeds of Epiphanius. See § 128 above, and Appendix to Pearson on the Creed, p. 594 ff.

Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Volume 3: Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity, AD 311–600 (1884). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.