Invented at Nicaea?

A friend of mine recently told me about a conversation she had with her friend who considered himself a follower of Jesus, but who also held to the popular Dan Brown myth that one also often hears from Jehovah Witnesses and Muslims, that the divinity of Christ was something invented by the Emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea.

I promised my friend that I would put together a post to demonstrate the Divinity of Christ from both Sacred Scripture and Early Church history, so here it is…

Biblical Jesus

Throughout the New Testament, Jesus Christ says things and does things which no man, no prophet, even no angel could say or do. To list and explain them all would take considerable time, so instead I’ll just provide a few passages:

[Jesus said] “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you…” – Matthew 5:27-28

So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath – Mark 2:28

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here” Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” – Luke 4:9,12

For this reason they tried all the more to kill [Jesus]; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God – John 5:18

[Jesus said] “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I AM!” – John 8:58

Thomas said to [Jesus], “My Lord and my God!”– John 20:28

Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! – Romans 9:5

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. – Philippians 2:6-7

[From] Simon Peter, …to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours… – 2 Peter 1:1

 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”…. To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again – Revelation 1:8, 2:8

There are many more passages in the New Testament to which we could point, but let’s now take a look at the witness of the Early Church, from the time of Jesus’ Ascension to the Council of Nicea in AD 325.

Historical Jesus

For anyone who would deny that the Early Church thought that Jesus was God, I would invite that person to examine the letters of St. Ignatius. Ignatius was a disciple of John and was the Bishop of Antioch, who was taken in chains to Rome for execution.

Ignatius is my favourite Church Father (sorry Jerome!). He has so much passion, such a great a love of Christ! You can read all of his letters in the Patristics Section of this website, but here are a few choice quotations from his letter to the Church at Rome:

AD 110
I salute you in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, …I wish abundance of happiness in Jesus Christ our God …

…[I]f I am truly found to be a Christian, then I may also be called one, and deemed faithful when I am no longer seen by this world. Our God, Jesus Christ, certainly is the more clearly seen now that He is with the Father.

Entreat Christ for me, that by these instruments [of death] I may be found a sacrifice to God… May nothing seen or unseen fascinate me, so that I may happily make my way to Jesus Christ!  … Permit me to be an imitator of the passion of my God… 

Remember in your prayers the Church in Syria, which now has God for its shepherd, instead of me. Jesus Christ alone will be her Bishop, together with your love – St. Ignatius of Antioch, “Letter to the Romans”

It is worth remembering that Ignatius wrote this as an old man, only ten years after the death of the last Apostle. This is clear evidence that the first Christians, the disciples of the Apostles, believed in the divinity of Christ, at least two hundred and fifteen years before Nicaea.

Other Patristic Witness

There are many, many other Church Father quotations that could be offered here in addition to the testimony of Ignatius, but again this would take an extraordinary amount of space. Instead I will simply offer a small sample of quotations arranged by approximate date:

AD 170
We do not act as fools, O Greeks, nor utter idle tales, when we say that God was born in the form of a man – Tatian the Syrian, “Address to the Greeks”

AD 170
The activities of Christ after his baptism….gave indication and assurance to the world of deity hidden in his flesh. Being God and also perfect man, he gave positive proofs of his two natures: of his deity…and his humanity – St. Anastasius of Sinai, “The Guide”

AD 189
…to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and king, according to the will of the invisible Father, “every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess” – St. Irenaeus of Lyons, “Against Heresies”

AD 195
[The] Word has now appeared as man, he alone being both God and man… – St. Clement of Alexandria, “Exhortation to the Heathen”

AD 210
God alone is without sin. The only man who is without sin is Christ; for Christ is also God – Tertullian of Carthage, “Treatise on the Soul”

AD 225
He in the last times, divesting himself [of his glory], became a man, and was incarnate although he was God, and while made a man remained the God that he was – Origen of Alexandria, “Fundamental Doctrines”

AD 227
For Christ is the God above all, and he has arranged to wash away sin from human beings, rendering the old man regenerate – St. Hippolytus of Rome, “Refutation of All Heresies”

AD 235
We must therefore believe, according to the rule prescribed, in the Lord, the one true God, and consequently in him whom he has sent, Jesus Christ, who would not have linked himself to the Father if he had not wished to be understood to be God also – Novatian of Rome, “The Trinity”

AD 255
…[the heretic] denies that Christ is God – St. Cyprian of Carthage, “Letters”

AD 265
There is one Lord, …God from God, image and likeness of Deity, …power formative of the whole creation…immortal of immortal and eternal of eternal… – St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, “Declaration of Faith”

AD 305
“Is that Christ of yours a god, then?” some raving, wrathful and exited man will say. “A God,” we will reply, “and the God of the inner powers“ – Arnobius of Sicca, “Against the Heathen”

AD 307
He became both the Son of God through the Spirit, and the Son of man through the flesh – that is, both God and man – Lactantius, “Divine Institutes”

…and finally, finally…we come to the Council of Nicaea:

AD 325
We believe…in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of this Father, of the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father. By whom all things were made, both in heaven and in earth – The Holy Catholic Church, “Nicene Creed”

So was the divinity of Christ invented by the Emperor Constantine at the Council of Niceae? I would suggest that there has just been significant evidence submitted above to prove otherwise…

Question: To what Scripture passage or Church Father would you point to show the divinity of Christ?