Did Arians describe the Son as a created being?

Summary

Worship JesusTo say that the so-called Arians described the Son of God as a created being is a distortion because they taught as follows:

He is the only being brought forth by God directly, and the only being able to endure direct contact with God. 

He is not part of this universe, for He was begotten outside time and created the entire universe.

He is our Creator, for God created all things through His Son.

Consequently, there is an infinite distinction between the Son and the beings created by His hand. He is our God.

However, Arius’ enemies claimed that Arius taught that the Son is an ordinary created being. Athanasius stated that, as Arius described Him, “the Son was no greater than the locust or caterpillar.” RPC Hanson describes this as a malicious distortion (Hanson, p. 20; cf. 13). Williams confirmed that Athanasius used “unscrupulous tactics in polemic” (Williams, p. 239).


Introduction

This article series is based on books by world-class scholars of the last 50 years. 

Due to research and a store of ancient documents that have become available during the 20th century, scholars today conclude that the traditional account of the Controversy – of how and why the church accepted the Trinity doctrine – is history written by the winner and fundamentally flawed (see here).

Following the book by Gwatkin at the beginning of the 20th century, only a handful of full-scale books on the Arian Controversy have been published. This article in particular quotes from:

RH = Bishop RPC Hanson
The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God –

The Arian Controversy 318-381, 1987

RW = Archbishop Rowan Williams
Arius: Heresy and Tradition, 2002/1987

LA = Lewis Ayres
Nicaea and its legacy, 2004

Ayres is a Professor of Catholic and Historical Theology

The so-called Arians did not follow Arius. Athanasius invented Arianism as a polemical device. 

Athanasius used Arius as a stick to beat his opponents with. He called his opponents ‘Arians’, meaning followers of Arius, and then selectively quoted Arius, pretending to refute his opponents. But his opponents did not follow Arius. Arius did not leave behind a school of disciples. He had very few real followers. Nobody regarded his writings as worth copying. His theology played no part in the Controversy after Nicaea. Therefore, the term ‘Arian’ is a serious misnomer. The only reason so many Christians believe Arius was important is that they accept Athanasius’ distortions (see here).

In reality, Arius was part of a group Ayres calls the ‘Eusebians’; followers of Eusebius of Caesarea and Eusebius of Nicomedia (see here). Consequently, this article series often refers to the anti-Nicenes as the Eusebians rather than ‘Arians’.

This article shows that the Eusebians did not describe the Son as a created being. 

As stated, the term ‘Arian’ is a serious misnomer. Ayres identifies the “Eusebians” as one of the trajectories in the Controversy and includes Arius among them. Show More

It is often claimed that Arianism described the Son of God as a created being. Show More

 However, this misrepresents Arian theology. They taught as follows:

‘Arian’ Theology

The Son is the only being brought forth by God directly

God produced all things through His Son. For the Eusebians, the term ”only” in “only-begotten” indicates that the Son is the only Being that was ever produced directly by God. Therefore, there is nobody like Him. For example:

“This direct creation means that the Son has nobody like him; the Arians’ favourite title for the Son was unigenitus (only-begotten, John 1:4, 18; 3:16)” (RH, 102).

“He does not exist in the same way … nor does he live a life comparable to those things which were produced through him, but he has been brought forth alone from the Father himself and is Life in himself” (RH, 56; quoting Eusebius, John 5:26). Show More

He is also the greatest being that God could produce. 

He also received everything that God is able to give:

He is “a perfect creature, not just ‘one among others’; he is the inheritor of all the gifts and glories God can give him” (RW, 98).

“The Greater One (the Father) is able to beget someone equal to the Son, but not someone more important or more powerful or greater” (De Synodis, RH, 15, quoting Arius). Show More

The Son is the Creator. He created this universe and everything in it. 

The ‘Arians’ argued that God created all things through His unique Son. Since the Son created this universe with all its creatures, He is the Creator and God of all creatures. That implies an infinite distinction between the Son and the universe. For example:

“The Father is the origin of everything made, but the Son brings everything into actual existence” (RH, 103).

“All things are said to be made through him” (RW, 96). Show More

The word “through” indicates that, for Arius, the Father is the primary Creator and the Son was His agent (cf. John 1:3; Col 1:16; 1 Cor 8:6; Heb 1:2). 

The Son is the only Being able to endure God’s immediate presence. All other beings would be consumed

Since God produced the Son to be the Mediator between God and creation, the Son is able to stand in God’s direct presence. Since He is the only Mediator, He is the only Being who can endure direct contact with God. This also makes an infinite distinction between the Son and the created universe. Show More

This argument may sound strange to modern ears, but it was foundational in Logos Theology, the church’s traditional explanation of the Son of God when the Arian Controversy began. Show More

In this theory, God could not come in direct contact with the creation, and the Logos was necessary to act as the Mediator between God and the created things; firstly to create all things and, thereafter, to be the communication between God and the created things. 

Since the Son created all things (the universe), He is not part of this universe. 

Arius and other Eusebians claimed time and again that the Son was begotten “before times and before aeons” (RH, 7). In other words, the Son was begotten before time even existed. If we argue that time began when the universe was brought into being, the Son originates from beyond the time, space, and matter of this universe; He comes from the unfathomable infinity beyond this finite universe. Show More

The Son is our God. 

The Arians referred to Him as “God” (theos). For example:

The Son is “‘God’ as far as the rest of creation is concerned” (RW, 177). 

Arius described the Son as the “only-begotten God” (RH, 14), “the Mighty God [Isa 9:15]” (RH, 15), and as “full of truth and grace, God” (, RH,6, quoting Arius). Show More

These concepts make an infinite distinction between the Son and the created things. The Son is above all other beings. In practice, He is the God for all other beings. He is our God, just like the Father is His God (e.g., Rev 1:6; 3:2, 12).

Arianism Misrepresented

Eusebians clearly stated that the Son is not like the created things, that He has nobody like Himself. 

Although the ‘Arians’ described the Son as created, they made sure that all understood that He is infinitely exalted above the beings who received their existence and all blessings through Him. For example:

Arius said that “His only-begotten Son … has nobody like him” (RH, 105). 

The Father “gave him existence alongside himself” (RH, 7), indicating a special close relationship, reflected by John 1:1 as: “The Word was with God.” Show More

Alexander and Athanasius claimed that the Eusebians taught that the Son is an ordinary created being. 

Athanasius and Alexander, the bitter theological enemies of Arius and other Eusebians, distorted Eusebian theology by saying that it presents the Son as a creature just like any other creature. Alexander, for example, would write that, for Arius:

“The Son is a creature.” “He is one of the products” (RH, 16).

“When he came into existence, he was then such as is every man” (Hanson, p. 17).

We are able to become the sons of God as he is.” (RH, 17).

And Athanasius would describe Arius as teaching:

The Son is “like all others” and “He is ‘proper’ to [the class of] made and created things” (See A(ii-iii, v-vi), Williams, p. 100-101).

“There are many powers. … Christ is not the true power of God, but he is one of those who are called powers, among which are also the locust and the caterpillar” (Hanson, p. 13).

“The Son is truly a Son of the Father and not just the same as any other created thing” (Ayres, p. 142).

Since Alexander presented the Arius’ Son as an ordinary created being, he attempted to reduce the impact of Arius’ statement that the Son created all things and interpreted Arius as saying:

“He was made for our sake, in order that God should create us through him as through an instrument” (RH, 16 – Alexander).

This distortion was known in Arius’ day. For example, in a letter, Eusebius of Caesarea took Alexander “to task for unjustly accusing Arius and his friends of teaching that ‘the Son has come into existence from non-existence like one of the mass‘, whereas what they had actually said was that the Son was “a perfect creature, but not as one of the creatures” (RH, 56-57).

Scholarly Trinitarians describe Athanasius’ misrepresentation as malicious. 

On pages 104-105, Rowan Williams discusses Athanasius’ quotes of Arius’ works and shows how Athanasius distorts Arius’ words. He concludes:

“The Son is repeatedly assimilated to the level of other creatures, and the phrases ‘like us’ and ‘like all others recur.” In contrast, Arius wrote: “The Son was a ‘perfect creature, yet not as one among the creatures, a begotten being, yet not as one among things begotten.” (RW, 104)

Athanasius says that Arius described the Son as “some kind of being” (A(iii), Williams, p. 100). Williams describes this as “a deliberately contemptuous paraphrase” (Williams, p. 104).  

Williams stated that Athanasius used “unscrupulous tactics in polemic and struggle” (RW, 239). Hanson wrote similarly:

“Athanasius, a fierce opponent of Arius … certainly would not have stopped short of misrepresenting what he said” (RH, 10).

“Athanasius … may be suspected of pressing the words maliciously rather further than Arius intended” (RH, 15).

Athanasius stated that, as Arius described Him, “the Son was no greater than the locust or caterpillar.” RPC Hanson describes this as a malicious distortion (Hanson, p. 20; cf. 13). 

Over the centuries, Trinitarian Christianity had continued to misrepresent the ‘Arians.’

Unfortunately, however, after Emperor Athanasius in 380 had made the Nicene (Trinitarian) Christianity the sole legal religion of the Roman Empire and brutally eliminated all other versions of Christianity from among the Roman people (see here), Trinitarian Christianity accepted Athanasius’ message as gospel truth. The “conventional account of the Controversy … stems originally from the version given of it by the victorious party” (RPC Hanson). But that conventional account “is now recognized by a large number of scholars to be a complete travesty.”


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The Dedication Council of Antioch of AD 341

Purpose

In 341, approximately 90 Eastern bishops met in Antioch and produced the Dedication Creed. The Eastern church previously exiled Athanasius and Marcellus, Athanasius in 335 for violence against the Melitians, and Marcellus for Sabellianism. However, in 340, the Western Church declared Athanasius blameless and Marcellus orthodox. Therefore, the Easteners met in 341 to discuss these events.

Both the Nicene and Dedication Councils were attended only by Eastern delegates, but the two creeds are very different.

While homoousios was the key term in the Nicene Creed, the Dedication Creed does not mention it at all.

While the Nicene Creed can be read as Sabellian, the Dedication Creed is strongly anti-Sabellian.

This article explains why these creeds differ. It also shows that, although the Easterners are accused of being Arians, the Creed is explicitly anti-Arian, describes the Son as God, but still presents the Son as subordinate to the Father.

In 341, approximately 90 Eastern bishops met in Antioch and produced the Dedication Creed. 

They produced four documents. The second, known as the Dedication Creed because the Council met to celebrate the dedication of a new church built by Emperor Constantius, is the most important.

This article quotes mainly from books published during the last 50 years by world-class Catholic scholars, specializing in the fourth-century Arian Controversy:

      • R.P.C. Hanson – The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God – The Arian Controversy 318-381, 1987
      • Rowan Williams – Arius: Heresy and Tradition, 2002/1987
      • Lewis Ayres – Nicaea and its legacy, 2004

Extracts from the Dedication Creed

Hanson provides the entire Creed (see below). Some important parts are as follows:

“We believe in one God Father Almighty,
artificer and maker and designer of the universe;

And in one Lord Jesus Christ his only-begotten Son, God,
Through whom are all things,
Who was begotten from the Father before the Ages,
God from God … Lord from Lord …
Unchanging and unaltering,
Exact image of the Godhead and the substance and will and power and glory of the Father,
First-born of all creation, who was in the beginning with God, God the Word according to the text in the Gospel [‘and the Word was God’, by whom all things were made, and in whom all things exist;]

And in the Holy Spirit

They are three in hypostasis but one in agreement.”

The Creed condemns all who say that:

“Either time or occasion or age exists or did exist before the Son was begotten.”

“The Son is a creature like one of the creatures” (Hanson, p. 286).

Purpose of the Council

The Council met to discuss the decision of the Western Church to vindicate Athanasius and Marcellus. 

The Eastern church previously exiled Athanasius and Marcellus, Athanasius in 335 for violence against the Melitians in his see (see here), and Marcellus for Sabellianism. Show More

However, in 340, the Western church, at a council in Rome, declared Athanasius blameless and Marcellus orthodox. Their vindication caused significant tension between the East and West. Show More

That tension was heightened by the letter that Julius, the bishop of Rome, wrote to the Eastern Church earlier in 341. In that letter, he accused the Eastern ‘Eusebians’ of Arianism, meaning that they are followers of Arius’ already discredited theology. The main purpose of the Dedication Council was to discuss these events. Show More

Like Nicaea, an Eastern Council

Both the Nicene Council of 325 and the Dedication Council were essentially councils of the Eastern Church.

The Dedication Council consisted exclusively of bishops from the Eastern part of the Empire. Show More

Similarly, almost all bishops attending Nicaea were from the East. Show More

But a Different Creed

Although the two meetings were held only 16 years apart and represented the views of the same people, there are significant differences between the Nicene and Dedication Creeds:

No Homoousios

While homoousios was the key term in the Nicene Creed, the Dedication Creed does not mention it at all.  

The Nicene Creed describes the Son using the terms ousia and homoousios. While these terms are viewed today as crucial, they are absent from the Dedication Creed.

The reason is that the term homoousios disappeared from the Controversy soon after Nicaea and was not mentioned for more than 20 years by anybody, not even Athanasius. Show More

Athanasius brought the Nicene Creed and the term homoousios back into the Controversy in the 350s. Show More

The Dedication Council of 341 and the Council of Serdica of 343 were both held during the period when nobody mentioned the term. 

Anti-Sabellian

While the Nicene Creed is pro-Sabellian, the Dedication Creed is anti-Sabellian.

The main difference between the two creeds is that, while the Nicene Creed is open to a Sabellian reading, the main purpose of the Dedication Creed is to oppose Sabellianism. Eminent recent scholars confirm the pro-Sabellian nature of the Nicene Creed. Show More

One indication of the Sabellian nature of the Nicene Creed is the use of the term homoousios. Before Nicaea, the term was preferred only by Sabellians. (See here) Sabellius himself, the Libyan Sabellians, Dionysius of Rome, and Paul of Samosata used it to say that Father and Son are one single Person. Show More

A second indication of the Sabellian nature of the Nicene Creed is that it states, in one of its anathemas, that the Father and Son are a single hypostasis (a single individual existence), which is the hallmark of Sabellianism. Show More

Thirdly, after Nicaea, the Sabellians claimed the Nicene Creed as support for their theology. Show More

This is not to say that the Nicene Creed is clearly Sabellian, but at the least, it can be said that it does not exclude Sabellianism. Elsewhere, Hanson describes it as “a drawn battle. Show More

Note that Hanson above associates Sabellianism with a one-hypostasis theology. Sabellianism is one form of one-hypostasis theology, which is the teaching that the Father, Son, and Spirit are a single Person with a single Mind. Monarchianism and Modalism are other one-hypostasis theologies. The main dividing line in the fourth-century Controversy was between one- and three-hypostases theologies. In other words, the main dispute was whether the Son exists as a distinct Person (See here).

While the Nicene Creed seems to support Sabellianism, which is the denial of a distinction between the three within the Godhead, the main purpose of the Dedication Creed is to oppose Sabellianism. Show More

In contrast to the single hypostasis of Sabellianism, the Dedication Creed explicitly asserts that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are “three in hypostasis but one in agreement” (Ayres, p. 118) “One in agreement” indicates the existence of three distinct ‘Minds’.

Why do these creeds differ?

The Nicene Creed is pro-Sabellian because Emperor Constantine sided with the Sabellians. 

Since almost all delegates at Nicaea were from the East and since almost all Easterners were ‘Arians,’ Alexander joined forces with the Sabellians. Similar to the Sabellians, Alexander believed that the Son is part of the Father and does not have an existence distinct from the Father. The Nicene Creed is pro-Sabellian because Emperor Constantine took Alexander’s part in the dispute. Consequently, the Sabellians were able to influence the wording of the Creed significantly. Show More

The Dedication Creed is strongly anti-Sabellian because the Nicenes were Sabellians. 

It is traditional to think that the Controversy was between the Nicenes and the Arians. However, both these terms are misleading:

Nicene theology was similar to Sabellianism. Both taught that the Son does not have a distinct existence but is part of the Father. Therefore, the Father and Son are a single hypostasis (one Person). Show More

The ‘Arians’ were not Arians because they did not follow Arius. They followed Origen. Since the Nicenes were accused of Sabellianism, which was already formally rejected, the Nicenes accused the Oigenists of Arianism, which was also already formally rejected (at Nicaea), but this was a false accusation. See here.

Anti-Arian

The Dedication Creed is anti-Arian.

Following Athanasius, the West accused the East of following Arius. For example, Julius, the bishop of Rome, in his letter to the Eastern Church, accused the Easterners of following Arius’ already discredited theology.

But the Easterners did not follow Arius. In the Dedication Creed, they said:

“We have not been followers of Arius.” (Ayres, p. 117-8)

“We have rather approached him as investigators and judges of his belief than followed him.” (Hanson, p. 285)

It is true that the Easterners did not follow Arius. Arius did not leave a school of followers. He was of little significance. Show More

Consequently:

“’Arianism’ as a coherent system, founded by a single great figure and sustained by his disciples, is a fantasy … based on the polemic of Nicene writers, above all Athanasius.” (Rowan Williams, p. 82) (Read More.)

Indeed, the Dedication Creed explicitly condemns some of Arius’ more extreme statements. Show More

The following describes the Dedication Creed:

It “represents the nearest approach we can make to discovering the views of the ordinary educated Eastern bishop who was no admirer of the extreme views of Arius but who had been shocked and disturbed by the apparent Sabellianism of N [the Nicene Creed], and the insensitiveness of the Western Church to the threat to orthodoxy which this tendency represented.” (Hanson, p. 290-1)

Subordinate

The Dedication Creed claims that the Son is subordinate to the Father. 

“The names of the Three signify the particular order and glory of each.” (Hanson, p. 287)

The Father alone is “Almighty.”

The Son is the Father’s agent in creation. The Father is “maker and designer of the universe,” but the Son is the One “through whom are all things” and “by whom all things were made.”

In contrast to the Father identified as the “one God,” the Son is the “one Lord.”

However, the subordination in the Creed is not a concession to Arius’ theology. At the time, all theologians, including the Nicenes, even Athanasius, regarded the Son as subordinate to the Father. Subordination was the orthodoxy at the time. Show More

Image of the Father’s substance

 The Dedication Creed interprets homoousios as meaning the Son is an image of the Father’s substance.

The Nicene Creed says that the Son is of the same substance as the Father (homoousios), which was understood by the Sabellians as means ‘one substance.’ The Dedication Creed claims that the Son is the image of the Father’s substance:

“The Son is ‘the exact Image of the Godhead, the ousia and the will and the power and the glory of the Father’.” (Hanson, p. 288)

This implies that the Son is distinct from the substance of the Father. Later in the fourth century, “image of the Father’s substance” became the catchphrase of the Homoiousians (meaning ‘similar substance’).

The Son is God.

 The Dedication Creed describes the Son as God.

The Creed regards the Son both as subordinate and as “God from God” (theos). However, the term theos in the Bible and in the 4th century was not equivalent to the modern word “God.” While we use the term “God” only for the Almighty, there were many theoi in ancient Greek:

“In the fourth century the word ‘God’ (theos, deus) had not acquired the significance which in our twentieth-century world it has acquired … viz. the one and sole true God. The word could apply to many gradations of divinity.” (Hanson, p. 456)

Commenting on the Council of Serdica in 343, where the ‘Arians’ issued a statement condemning “those who say … that Christ is not God,” Ayres says: “This reminds us of the variety of ways in which the term ‘God’ could be deployed at this point.” (Ayres, p. 124) 

See here for a more detailed discussion.

The Fourth Creed

The fourth creed avoids all non-Biblical language.

It was intended to serve as a means of reconciliation, and avoided all the terms derived from Greek philosophy, ousia and hypostasis. Show More

It condemns both Marcellus and Arius. “It has a special clause inserted against Marcellus” (Hanson, p. 292) and ends with an anathema against Arius:

“But those who say that the Son is from non-existence or of a different hypostasis, and not from God, and that there was once a time or age when he did not exist, these the holy Catholic Church recognizes as alien’.” (Hanson, p. 292)

It does not even address the crucial aspect of the number of hypostases in God. “it makes no attempt to establish the distinctness of the ‘Persons’ in an anti-Sabellian manner.” (Hanson, p. 292)

Full Dedication Creed

Hanson gives the Dedication Creed as follows:

“Following the evangelical and apostolic tradition, we believe in one God Father Almighty, artificer and maker and designer of the universe:

And in one Lord Jesus Christ his only-begotten Son, God,
through whom are all things,
who was begotten from the Father before the Ages,
God from God, whole from whole, sole from sole, perfect from perfect, King from King, Lord from Lord, living Wisdom, true Light, Way, Truth, unchanging and unaltering,
exact image of the Godhead and the substance and will and power and glory of the Father, first-born of all creation, who was in the beginning with God, God the Word according to the text in the Gospel [quotation of John 1:1, 3 and Col 1:17]

who at the end of the days came down from above and was born of a virgin, according to the Scriptures, and became man, mediator between God and men, the apostle of our faith, author of life, as the text runs [quotation of Jn 6:38], who suffered for us and rose again the third day and ascended into heaven and is seated on the right hand of the father and is coming again with glory and power to judge the living and the dead:

And in the Holy Spirit, who is given to those who believe for comfort and sanctification and perfection, just as our Lord Jesus Christ commanded his disciples, saying [quotation of Matt 28:19], obviously (in the name) of the Father who is really Father and the Son who is really Son and the Holy Spirit who is really Holy Spirit, because the names are not given lightly or idly, but signify exactly the particular hypostasis and order and glory of each of those who are named, so that they are three in hypostasis but one in agreement.

Since we hold this belief, and have held it from the beginning to the end, before God and Christ we condemn every form of heretical unorthodoxy.

And if anybody teaches contrary to the sound, right faith of the Scriptures, alleging that either time or occasion or age exists or did exist before the Son was begotten, let him be anathema.

And if anyone alleges that the Son is a creature like one of the creatures or a product like one of the products, or something made like one of the things that are made, and not as the Holy Scriptures have handed down concerning the subjects which have been treated one after another,

or if anyone teaches or preaches anything apart from what we have laid down, let him be anathema. for we believe and follow everything that has been delivered from the Holy Scriptures by the prophets and apostles truly and reverently.”


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