29/07/2022
2 Popular Myths About the Council of Nicaea and Proven Facts that Debunk Them
Myth 1: Presided over by Constantine, the Council decided what books should belong in the Bible.
Fact: While this myth was popularized by the famous Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, this myth actually originated from a fictitious anecdote, Syndicon Vetus, a pseudohistorical account of the Early Church councils written at about AD 887. In fact, it is purported in this spurious account that the Council achieved the canon by a miracle in which all books were placed on a table and God caused the canonical books to remain on the table but the apocryphal ones to fall underneath.
There is no single historical evidence this happened at the Council. The question of the biblical canon wasn’t even discussed at the Council. Long before Constantine, most books of the Bible, including most of the New Testament, were already acknowledged by the Church as Scripture, as most Christians at that time were Jewish and were familiar with the Hebrew Bible, the four Gospels, and some epistles. They, by virtue of early interactions with Jesus’ teachings and the Apostles’, recognized those books which had apostolic and divine authority and those which did not, which implies early on Christians could discern spurious books from authentic ones. Paul considered Luke’s writing as authoritative as the OT (1 Tim. 5:18). Peter recognized Paul’s writings as Scripture (2 Peter 3:15–16). All of these happened centuries before the Council of Nicaea was convened. No church council created the canon, any more than Newton created gravity. (Down the years, the Council of Hippo and Carthage affirmed conclusively what books are canonical.)
Myth 2: Constantine invented the deity and divinity of Christ.
Fact: The deity of Christ wasn’t a council or a Roman empire invention. Right from Jesus’ days, there had been a widespread and established belief in his deity. Paul (Rom. 9:5; Phil. 2:5–8; Tit. 2:13), John (Jn. 1:1; 8:58; 20;28), and Peter (2 Pet. 1:1) believed that Jesus is God and established this truth in their writings. Early church fathers, for example, Ignatius (AD 50–117), Polycarp (AD 69-155), and Justin Martyr (AD 100–165), just to name a few, affirmed the deity of Christ centuries before the Council of Nicaea, so the deity of Christ is never an invention.
Jesus’ personal claims to his deity and divinity have been foundational to the Christian faith. This rules out any specious assertion that they were a human fabrication. At the Council, Arianism was addressed, which held that Jesus was a created being and not coeternal with God. The end of the meeting was not to invent an altogether new doctrine, but rather stomp out a false one which contradicted what was previously known and believed to be true.
