The original creed of the First Ecumenical Council at Nicaea.
Most liturgical texts are from the Book of Common Prayer (2019) of the Anglican Church in North America.
The New Coverdale Psalter, © 2019 by the Anglican Church in North America. Used by permission.
The original Nicene Creed is the work of the First Ecumenical Council, convened at Nicaea in AD 325 to settle the Arian controversy. Its 318 bishops — almost all Eastern, with Hosius of Spain as Western representative — set the terms "coessential" (ὁμοούσιος), "begotten before all worlds," and "very God of very God" as the trophies of orthodoxy. The Creed closes abruptly at "and in the Holy Ghost," followed by an anathema against the Arians. It remained the authorized form down to the Council of Chalcedon (451).
Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes, vol. I, §8 ("The Nicene Creed"). New York: Harper & Brothers, 1877; revised by David S. Schaff, 1931. Public domain; transcription from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the Son of God,
begotten of the Father, only-begotten,
that is, of the substance of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one substance with the Father;
through whom all things were made,
things in heaven and things on earth;
who for us men and for our salvation
came down and was incarnate
and was made man,
suffered, and rose again on the third day,
ascended into the heavens,
and is coming to judge the living and the dead.
And in the Holy Spirit.
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Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.
The oldest text in Christian liturgy. The Nicene Creed was composed at two universal councils of the undivided church – Nicaea in AD 325 and Constantinople in AD 381 – to state what Christians believe about the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the resurrection. It has been prayed in East and West for sixteen centuries and entered English worship with the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549.