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Homoean Creed of Constantinople

Written in 360, in Constantinopolis (now Istanbul, Turkey).

The creed that says the Son is "like the Father" and no more; it was the official faith of the empire until 381.

Creed · first written in Greek

Translated by Archibald Robertson (editor) (1892). Athanasius, Select Works and Letters, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 4 (1892); older Oxford translations by J. H. Newman, M. Atkinson and others, revised Public domain. Source and rights

How we know the date and place
Date written sure
Athanasius, De synodis 8-30 (NPNF series 2 vol. 4); J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds (3rd ed. 1972) (Athanasius, De synodis 30; signed at Nike in 359 and at Constantinople in January 360)
Place written sure
Athanasius, De synodis 30; Pleiades https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/520998 (name and coordinates, checked 2026-10-12)

375 words. 1 section.

We believe [3594] in One God, Father Almighty, from whom are all things;

Homoean Creed of Constantinople

§ 1

And in the Only-begotten Son of God, begotten from God before all ages and before every beginning, by whom all things were made, visible and invisible, and begotten as only-begotten, only from the Father only [3595] , God from God, like to the Father that begat Him according to the Scriptures; whose origin no one knows, except the Father alone who begat Him. He as we acknowledge, the Only-begotten Son of God, the Father sending Him, came hither from the heavens, as it is written, for the undoing of sin and death, and was born of the Holy Ghost, of Mary the Virgin according to the flesh, as it is written, and convened with the disciples, and having fulfilled the whole Economy according to the Father's will, was crucified and dead and buried and descended to the parts below the earth; at whom hades itself shuddered: who also rose from the dead on the third day, and abode with the disciples, and, forty days being fulfilled, was taken up into the heavens, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father, to come in the last day of the resurrection in the Father's glory, that He may render to every man according to his works.

And in the Holy Ghost, whom the Only-begotten Son of God Himself, Christ, our Lord and God, promised to send to the race of man, as Paraclete, as it is written, the Spirit of truth' (Joh. xvi. 13), which He sent unto them when He had ascended into the heavens.

But the name of Essence,' which was set down by the Fathers in simplicity, and, being unknown by the people, caused offence, because the Scriptures contain it not, it has seemed good to abolish, and for the future to make no mention of it at all; since the divine Scriptures have made no mention of the Essence of Father and Son. For neither ought Subsistence to be named concerning Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But, we say that the Son is Like the Father, as the divine Scriptures say and teach; and all the heresies, both those which have been afore condemned already, and whatever are of modern date, being contrary to this published statement, be they anathema [3596] .