“The Creed of Constantinople (of the year 360)”
The Greek text as found in Athanasius, De Synodis, with an English translation alongside.
This creed, which the Emperor Constantius required the churches to accept, affirmed that the Son is like the Father as the divine Scriptures say and teach, and prohibited the use of terms including "essence", "substance" or "ousia" when speaking of God.
Click here to read at earlychurchtexts.com in the original Greek (with dictionary links and alongside the translation given below). The site also gives access to textual notes and further background information. The English translation below is from the NPNF series.
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We believe in One God, Father Almighty, from whom are all things;
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, 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’, 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. |
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Creed of
Constantinople
360
Ὅμοιον δὲ λέγομεν τῷ Πατρὶ τὸν Υἱόν, ὡς λέγουσιν αἱ θεῖαι Γραφαὶ καὶ διδάσκουσι.
Ὅμοιος
Homoian
Homoean
The Son is like the Father
Prohibition of homoousios
Arsacius
essence
substance
ousia
Ariminum and Seleucia
Rimini
Isauria
Athanasius De Synodis,
Emperor Constantius
Arian Controversy
