Overview
Council
of Nicaea was organised on 325 C.E. by the order of Constantine 1 by
the recommendation of a synod led by Hosius of Córdoba. In the
council the Nicaean creed was developed to battle against Arianism,
so the nature of Christ (p.b.u.h.) was determined. The day of
celebration of Passover (Ester) was also determined. It is said that
1800 bishops including both from east and west were invited for the
council, while only about 270 – 318 bishops attended. “1t is
significant that no one from the Church of Donatus was asked to
attend – although Cacealian, Donatus's chief opponent, was
invited.” (Rahim and Thomson, 1995, p96). Debates in the council
continued from 20th May to 19th June of 325
C.E.
One
of the main purpose of the Council of Nicaea was to eradicate the
unitarian belief which many Christians had at that time in the name
of resolving the disagreement which arose within the Church of
Alexandria regarding the relationship between the Son and Father.
Trinitarians of Pauline Church wanted to impose manifestation of God
in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, without any evidence from
their scriptures. Large controversy arose between Unitarians like
Arians and Trinitarians. Finally homoousian of father and the Son was
affirmed the Trinitarian belief was accepted as the fundamental
doctrine and termed as the official Christianity. The decision was
made by majority vote. Jesus Christ (p.b.u.h.) was declared as the
only begotten Son of the Father – begotten, not made. “Of those
who signed the Nicene Creed, some believed in it, some pretended to
believe in it, even though they did not really know what they were
putting their names to, and some, the majority of the delegates at
the Council, did not agree with the doctrine of Trinity at all, but
nevertheless signed the Creed with silent mental reservation, in
order to please the Emperor.” (Rahim and Thomson, 1995, p104).
Emperor decided that anyone who refused to believe in Nicaean creed
would be exiled and excommunicated.
According
to Christians the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus (p.b.u.h) was
at the same time as the Jews passover. However they believed that the
time Jews celebrated passover was miscalculated as the month Nisan
was before spring equinox. Some of them wanted to compute to
determine Nisan to set Easter separately as in recent times Nisan
never preceded equinox, while others thought it would be wise to keep
the traditional reliance on the Jews calender, even though the
computation of Jews were wrong. Independent computation of Nisan on a
Sunday in a lunar month chosen according to Christian criteria was
affirmed and the controversy was solved. Those who urged to
keep according to Jews calender followed the majority
Original
number of Gospels at the time of Council of Nicaea was unknown.
According to some reports there are at least 270 versions or perhaps
as many as 4000 different Gospels were there. According to Rahim and
Thomson these Gospels were placed under a table in the Hall of
Council and the door was locked. At that night Bishops prayed to find
most reliable Gospels on top of the table and in the morning they
found Matthew, Mark, Luke and John there. Twenty new Church laws
called canons were also promulgated in the Council of Nicaea.
Romans
considered their Emperor as the representation of sun-god in the
earth. So the Pauline Church declared Roman sun day to be the Sabbath
of Christians. Birthday of sun-god – 25th
of December – was considered as the birth day of Jesus. Cross –
the emblem of sun-god – was also adopted as the symbol of
Christianity.
Soon
after the Council of Nicaea Arius, Theonas, and Secundus who strongly
opposed the Nicaean creed were exiled to Illyria and excommunicated.
The Council of Nicaea increased the differences between the
Christians sects. To restore unitary among Christians over a million
Unitarians were prosecuted. Obeying the ruling of the Pauline Church
was made mandatory. Even though Nicaean Creed was an agreement on
profession of belief, the conflicts and controversies among the sects
which were there before the Council continued. Perhaps only the
Athanasius was loyal to it.
In
328 C.E. after the death of Bishop Alexander, strong fight for post
arose between the Arians and Meletians, but Athanasius was declared
as a bishop, who was accused of persecution, political intrigue and
even magic.
On
other hand the Emperor's sister expressed her great regret against
prosecution which the Unitarian Christians were facing. She also
opposed the banishing of Eusebius of Nicomedia due to his beliefs. So
Eusebius was finally allowed back and it was a great blow to the
Athanasian. As a result the Emperor lean towards the side of Arius.
When he heard the dispute on the election of Athanasius, new Bishop
was summoned to the capital. However Athanasius made excuses and did
not go to Constantinople.
The
First Synod of Tyre was called by Emperor and a letter was sent to
Athanasius that if he refuse to come he would be brought to the Synod
forcibly. The disapproval of Athanasius was confirmed by the bishops
gathering in Jerusalem. Finally Arius was invited to the
Constantinople, taken back into the Church and allowed to receive
communion. In desperate Athanasius came to the Constantinople and
Emperor granted him audience and Eusebius of Nicomedia was also
present in it. He accused Athanasius of hindering the supply of corn
to the Constantinople from Egypt.
As the charge was proven, Athanasius was exiled to Trier in Gaul
while Arius was appointed as the Bishop of Constantinople. He died
soon after in 336 C.E. Emperor suspected it to be a murder.
Athanasius was found to be guilty, and was condemned for poisoning
Arius. The Emperor was heartbroken by the death of Arius. He was
baptised by Eusebius of Nicomedia and died a year later, in 337 C.E.
-
Got Questions, Got Questions Ministries, ....... , What occurred at the Council of Nicea? [Online], available at http://www.gotquestions.org/council-of-Nicea.html, Accessed on 17th December 2014, 10:15 am
-
Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, last editied by Gabby Merger (2014), First Council of Nicaea [Online], Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea, Accessed on 16th December 2014, 13:05
-
Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, last edited by Special Contributions 24.187.148.244 (2014), First Synod of Tyre [Online], Available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Synod_of_Tyre, Accessed on 17th December 2014, 19:55
-
'Ata'ur-Ramm, M and Thomson, A (1995) Jesus Prophet of Islam (Revised Edition), Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd [Online], Available at http://wynnechambers.co.uk, Accessed on 17th December 2014, 10:32 am
No comments:
Post a Comment