Nicene Creed

Nicene Creed, in Christian theology, confession of faith.

The first creed so named was adopted at the first Council of Nicaea in ad325 to settle a controversy concerning the persons of the Trinity. It was intended to cover debated questions as to the divinity of Christ, and it introduced the word homoousios (Greek, “of the same substance”) to correct the error of the homoiousian (“of like substance”) party. To it were added several clauses against Arianism.

A later creed that is popularly known as the Nicene Creed is more properly called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan or Constantinopolitan Creed. It is based on a 4th-century creed that was made under the influence of the bishop of Jerusalem, St. Cyril, and edited in a Nicene sense. It is contained in the Ancoratus of St. Epiphanius of Salamis and is traditionally but erroneously attributed to the first Council of Constantinople, which met in 381. Of the 178 words in the original of this second “Nicene Creed,” only 33 are positively taken from the creed of ad325. The second creed is received as ecumenical by the Eastern and Roman communions and by the majority of the Reformed churches. It employs the singular form of the words used for expressing assent, “I believe,” “I hope,” “I confess.” At the Council of Toledo (589), the Western church added the filioque clause and inserted the preposition “in” before the words “one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.” In the Book of Common Prayer, the preposition “in” is omitted, and by an accident the word “holy” does not appear; the phrase reads there “I believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church.”