The Text of 325
We believe in one God,
the Father Almighty,
Maker of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God,
begotten of the Father, the only-begotten;
that is, of the essence of the Father,
God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father;
by whom all things were made,
both 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 shall come
to judge the quick and the dead.
And in the Holy Ghost.
The council appended this anathema to the creed itself.But 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 “He is of another substance” or “essence”,
or “The Son of God is created”, or “changeable”, or “alterable”:
they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.
The Creed was written in Greek; this is the traditional English rendering after Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom (1877), lightly repunctuated. “Of one substance” translates the decisive word homoousios, rendered “consubstantial” in the Creed said at Mass today.
At a Glance
- AdoptedAD 325 at Nicaea in Bithynia (modern İznik, Turkey), by the first ecumenical council of the Church.
- Convened byThe Emperor Constantine, with the council's doctrinal work done by the assembled bishops. See the history page for what Constantine did and did not do.
- AttendanceAncient sources disagree: Eusebius of Caesarea, who was there, says more than 250 bishops; the traditional figure of 318 is a round, symbolic number later linked to the 318 servants of Abraham (Genesis 14:14).
- AgainstArius of Alexandria, who taught that the Son was a creature: exalted above all others, but made, and therefore not truly God.
- Key wordHomoousios, “of one substance” (consubstantial) with the Father: the one word Arianism could not sign.
- Notable figuresBishop Alexander of Alexandria, attended by his deacon Athanasius, who would spend the next half-century defending this creed through five exiles.
- Its endingAn anathema condemning the slogans of Arius, including “there was a time when he was not”. The creed of 381 dropped it.
325 and 381 Compared
The Creed recited at Mass is the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381, which took the text of 325 and enlarged it. Reading the two side by side shows exactly what the Council of Constantinople added (shown in bold) and the one thing it removed. English for 381 is the Roman Missal translation; where the Latin tradition later differs from the Greek of 381, the notes below the table say so.
| Nicaea, 325 | Constantinople, 381 |
|---|---|
| We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. | I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. |
| And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made, both in heaven and on earth; | I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. (The Greek of 381 carries over neither “that is, of the essence of the Father” nor “God of God”; see note below.) |
| who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; | For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. |
| he suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; | For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. |
| from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. | He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end. |
| And in the Holy Ghost. | I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. |
| (nothing further) | I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. |
| But those who say: “There was a time when he was not” ... they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church. | (The anathema was dropped.) |
In the article on the Holy Spirit, the Greek of 381 reads ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, “who proceeds from the Father”. The words “and the Son” are a later Western addition (the Filioque). Likewise “God from God” in the Mass text is not an addition of 381: it stood in 325, fell out of the Greek of 381, and was restored in the Latin liturgical text.
Why 325 Ends Where It Does
The creed of 325 is a weapon forged for one battle. Arius had made the Son a creature, so the council poured everything into the article on the Son: begotten, not made; of the very essence of the Father; homoousios, of one substance with him. Every clause closes a door Arius had tried to leave open. When the text reaches the Holy Spirit, whose divinity was not then in dispute, it simply confesses “And in the Holy Ghost” and stops.
The anathema is not an afterthought but the creed's enforcement clause. Each phrase it condemns is a quotation or slogan of the Arian party: “there was a time when he was not” was the movement's catch-cry. A council defining the faith against a live heresy names the error and cuts it off; that is what an anathema is. Bishop Alexander of Alexandria signed with his deacon Athanasius at his side, and nearly all the assembled bishops, many of them confessors still scarred from the persecutions, signed with him.
Why 381 Expanded It
Between the two councils the battlefield moved. A new party, the Pneumatomachians (“Spirit-fighters”), accepted the divinity of the Son but denied that of the Holy Spirit; others, following Marcellus of Ancyra, taught that Christ's kingdom would one day end. So the Council of Constantinople in 381 wrote a full third article, confessing the Spirit as “the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified”, and added “and his kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:33). It completed the creed with the Church, one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection, giving the Creed the shape of the whole Christian life.
The anathema fell away for a practical reason: 381 produced a confession for professing the faith, above all at baptism and in the liturgy, not only a ruling against one heresy. Condemnations belong in a council's canons, and the council duly anathematised the Arians, Pneumatomachians and others in its first canon, keeping the creed itself a pure profession. That liturgical creed, the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, is the one the Catholic Church recites at Mass to this day. The full story, from Nicaea through Constantinople and beyond, is on the history page.
Continue
The Creed in Greek
The original language of both councils: the full Greek text of 381 with transliteration and parallel English.
History of the Creed
Nicaea to Constantinople and beyond: the Arian crisis, the councils, and the truth about Constantine's role.
Line-by-Line Meaning
What every phrase the councils fought for actually means, with the Scriptures and Fathers behind each line.