The Church Fathers Library

Library › Anonymous works

Nicene Creed (325)

Symbolum Nicaenum

Written in 325, in Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey).

The creed of the first general council, which says that the Son is of one substance with the Father.

Creed · first written in Greek · a major work

Translated by Henry R. Percival (1900). Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 14 (1900) Public domain. Source and rights

About this text (1 note)

The file was taken from the New Advent copy.

How we know the date and place
Date written sure
The council met at Nicaea in Bithynia from May to July 325 (Tanner, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 1990)
Place written sure
The council met at Nicaea in Bithynia from May to July 325 (Tanner, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 1990)

224 words. 1 section.

The Nicene Creed

Nicene Creed (325)

§ 1

The Synod at Nice set forth this Creed.

The Ecthesis of the Synod at Nice.

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, the only-begotten of his Father, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten (γεννηθέντα), not made, being of one substance (ὁμοούσιον, consubstantialem) with the Father. By whom all things were made, both which be in heaven and in earth. Who for us men and for our salvation came down [from heaven] and was incarnate and was made man. He suffered and the third day he rose again, and ascended into heaven. And he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead. And [we believe] in the Holy Ghost. And whosoever shall say that there was a time when the Son of God was not (ἤν ποτε ὅτε οὐκ ἦν), or that before he was begotten he was not, or that he was made of things that were not, or that he is of a different substance or essence [from the Father] or that he is a creature, or subject to change or conversion [τρεπτὸν in Greek; convertibilem in Latin] — all that so say, the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes them.