Letter 125: A transcript of the faith as dictated by Saint Basil, and subscribed by Eustathius, bishop of Sebasteia. 1. Both men whose minds have been preoccupied by a heterodox creed and now wish to change over to the congregation of the orthodox, and also those who are now for the first time desirous of being instructed in the doctrine of truth, must be t...

**A Statement of Faith, as dictated by Basil and signed by Eustathius, Bishop of Sebasteia** [Sebasteia: modern Sivas, in central Turkey] **1.** Anyone who wants to leave a heretical group and join the orthodox church — or anyone learning the faith for the first time — should be taught the creed written by the blessed fathers at the Council of Nicaea [Nicaea: the council held in 325 AD that produced the foundational Christian creed, defining Christ as fully divine and "of one substance" with the Father]. This same creed is also extremely useful for people we suspect of opposing sound doctrine but who use clever arguments to hide what they really believe. The creed is all that's needed. Either it will cure their hidden errors, or — if they keep hiding them — they'll bear the consequences of their dishonesty. On the day of judgment, the Lord will uncover what is hidden in darkness and reveal the true intentions of every heart (1 Corinthians 4:5). So we should require not just that they affirm the *words* of the Nicene Creed, but that they accept the *meaning* those words were intended to carry. Because some people twist even this creed to fit their own ideas. Take Marcellus [Marcellus of Ancyra: a bishop who taught that Christ was merely the Word/Logos of God with no distinct personal existence — effectively denying that the Son is a real, eternal person]. He held impious views about the reality of our Lord Jesus Christ, reducing him to nothing more than the Logos. Yet he had the nerve to claim the creed supported his position by misreading the word *homoousios* [homoousios: Greek for "of the same substance" — the creed's key term affirming that the Son shares the Father's divine nature]. Meanwhile, followers of the Libyan Sabellius [Sabellius: a theologian who taught that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three distinct persons but merely three modes or masks of one God — effectively erasing the Trinity] — who treat *hypostasis* and *substance* as meaning the same thing — also try to find support in the creed. They point to where it says: "If anyone says the Son is of a different substance or hypostasis, the Catholic and Apostolic Church condemns him." But the creed did *not* say hypostasis and substance are identical. If both words meant the same thing, why use both? What actually happened is this: some people denied the Son was of the same substance as the Father, while others claimed the Son belonged to some other hypostasis entirely. The creed condemned *both* errors. When the fathers stated their own positive belief, they declared the Son to be "of the substance of the Father" — but they did not add "of the hypostasis." The first phrase condemns the wrong view; the second states the saving truth. We are therefore bound to confess that the Son is of one substance with the Father, as the creed says — while also affirming that the Father exists in his own distinct hypostasis [hypostasis: roughly "person" — the term the Cappadocian fathers used to distinguish the three persons of the Trinity while maintaining they share one divine substance], the Son in his, and the Holy Spirit in his. The fathers themselves made this clear. When they wrote "Light from Light," they showed that the Light who begets and the Light who is begotten are distinct — and yet both are Light. The definition of the substance is one and the same. Here is the actual creed as written at Nicaea: **2.** We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-Begotten, born of the Father before all ages — That is, from 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, both in heaven and on earth. Who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven and took on flesh [the text breaks off here in the source].

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA A transcript of the faith as dictated by Saint Basil, and subscribed by Eustathius, bishop of Sebasteia. 1. Both men whose minds have been preoccupied by a heterodox creed and now wish to change over to the congregation of the orthodox, and also those who are now for the first time desirous of being instructed in the doctrine of truth, must be taught the creed drawn up by the blessed fathers in the Council which met at Nicæa. The same training would also be exceedingly useful in the case of all who are under suspicion of being in a state of hostility to sound doctrine, and who by ingenious and plausible excuses keep the depravity of their sentiments out of view. For these too this creed is all that is needed. They will either get cured of their concealed unsoundness, or, by continuing to keep it concealed, will themselves bear the load of the sentence due to their dishonesty, and will provide us with an easy defense in the day of judgment, when the Lord will lift the cover from the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts. 1 Corinthians 1:5 It is therefore desirable to receive them with the confession not only that they believe in the words put forth by our fathers at Nicæa, but also according to the sound meaning expressed by those words. For there are men who even in this creed pervert the word of truth, and wrest the meaning of the words in it to suit their own notions. So Marcellus, when expressing impious sentiments concerning the hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ, and describing Him as being Logos and nothing more, had the hardihood to profess to find a pretext for his principles in that creed by affixing an improper sense upon the Homoousion. Some, moreover, of the impious following of the Libyan Sabellius, who understand hypostasis and substance to be identical, derive ground for the establishment of their blasphemy from the same source, because of its having been written in the creed if any one says that the Son is of a different substance or hypostasis, the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes him. But they did not there state hypostasis and substance to be identical. Had the words expressed one and the same meaning, what need of both? It is on the contrary clear that while by some it was denied that the Son was of the same substance with the Father, and some asserted that He was not of the substance and was of some other hypostasis, they thus condemned both opinions as outside that held by the Church. When they set forth their own view, they declared the Son to be of the substance of the Father, but they did not add the words of the hypostasis. The former clause stands for the condemnation of the faulty view; the latter plainly states the dogma of salvation. We are therefore bound to confess the Son to be of one substance with the Father, as it is written; but the Father to exist in His own proper hypostasis, the Son in His, and the Holy Ghost in His, as they themselves have clearly delivered the doctrine. They indeed clearly and satisfactorily declared in the words Light of Light, that the Light which begot and the Light which was begotten, are distinct, and yet Light and Light; so that the definition of the Substance is one and the same. I will now subjoin the actual creed as it was drawn up at Nicæa. 2. πιστεύομεν εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα παντοκράτορα, πάντων ὁρατῶν τε καὶ ἀοράτων ποιητήν· [ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς ὁρατῶν τε πάντων καὶ ἀοράτων·] καὶ εἰς ἕνα Κύριον Ιησοῦν Χριστόν, τὸν υἱ& 232·ν τοῦ Θεοῦ [τὸν μονογενῆ] γεννηθέντα ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς μονογενῆ. [τὸν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τών αἰ& 240·νων.] τουτέστιν ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ Πατρός, Θεὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ [omit], Φῶς ἐκ Φῶτος, Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ, γεννηθέντα οὐ ποιηθέντα, ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρι, δι᾿ οἷ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο, τά τε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ γῇ [omit]. τὸν δι᾿ ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρωποὺς καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμέτεραν σωτηρίαν, κατελθόντα [ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν] καὶ σαρκωθέντα. [ἑκ πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ Μαρίας τῆς παρθένου.] καὶ ἐνανθρωπήσαντα [σταυρωθέντα τε ὑπὲρ ημῶν ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, καὶ], παθόντα [καὶ ταφέντα], καί ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρα [κατὰ τὰς γραφὰς καὶ], ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς. [καὶ καθεζόμενον ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ Πατρός.] καί πάλιν ἐρχόμενον [μετὰ δόξης] κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς· [οὗ τῆς βασιλείας οὐκ ἔσται τέλος·] καί εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον. [τὸ Κύριον καὶ τὸ ζωοποιὸν τὸ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς ἐκπορευόμενον, τὸ σὺν Πατρὶ καὶ Υἱ& 254· συμπροσκυνούμενον καὶ συνδοξαζόμενον, τὸ λαλῆσαν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν· εἰς μίαν ἁγίαν καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν, ὁμολογοῦμεν ἓν βάπτισμα εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν, προσδοκῶμεν ἀνάστασιν νεκρῶν, καὶ ζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰ& 242·νος. ᾿Αμὴν.] τοῦς δὲ λέγοντας, ἦν ποτε ὅτε οὐκ ἦν, καὶ πρὶν γεννηθῆναι οὐκ ἦν, καὶ ὅτι ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων ἐγένετο, ἢ ἐξ ἑτέρας ὑποστάσεως ἢ οὐσίας φάσκοντας εἶναι, ἢ κτιστὸν ἢ τρεπτὸν ἢ ἀλλοιωτὸν τὸν Υἱ& 232·ν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τουτοὺς ἀναθεματίζει ἡ καθολικὴ καὶ ἀποστολικὴ ἐκκλησια. [Omit all the Anathemas.] 3. Here then all points but one are satisfactorily and exactly defined, some for the correction of what had been corrupted, some as a precaution against errors expected to arise. The doctrine of the Spirit, however, is merely mentioned, as needing no elaboration, because at the time of the Council no question was mooted, and the opinion on this subject in the hearts of the faithful was exposed to no attack. Little by little, however, the growing poison-germs of impiety, first sown by Arius, the champion of the heresy, and then by those who succeeded to his inheritance of mischief, were nurtured to the plague of the Church, and the regular development of the impiety issued in blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Under these circumstances we are under the necessity of putting before the men who have no pity for themselves, and shut their eyes to the inevitable threat directed by our Lord against blasphemers of the Holy Ghost, their bounden duty. They must anathematize all who call the Holy Ghost a creature, and all who so think; all who do not confess that He is holy by nature, as the Father is holy by nature, and the Son is holy by nature, and refuse Him His place in the blessed divine nature. Our not separating Him from Father and Son is a proof of our right mind, for we are bound to be baptized in the terms we have received and to profess belief in the terms in which we are baptized, and as we have professed belief in, so to give glory to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and to hold aloof from the communion of all who call Him creature, as from open blasphemers. One point must be regarded as settled; and the remark is necessary because of our slanderers; we do not speak of the Holy Ghost as unbegotten, for we recognise one Unbegotten and one Origin of all things, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: nor do we speak of the Holy Ghost as begotten, for by the tradition of the faith we have been taught one Only-begotten: the Spirit of truth we have been taught to proceed from the Father, and we confess Him to be of God without creation. We are also bound to anathematize all who speak of the Holy Ghost as ministerial, inasmuch as by this term they degrade Him to the rank of a creature. For that the ministering spirits are creatures we are told by Scripture in the words they are all ministering spirits sent forth to minister. Hebrews 1:14 But because of men who make universal confusion, and do not keep the doctrine of the Gospels, it is necessary to add yet this further, that they are to be shunned, as plainly hostile to true religion, who invert the order left us by the Lord, and put the Son before the Father, and the Holy Spirit before the Son. For we must keep unaltered and inviolable that order which we have received from the very words of the Lord, Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 28:14 I, Eustathius, bishop, have read to you, Basil, and understood; and I assent to what is written above. I have signed in the presence of our Fronto, Severus, the chorepiscopus, and several other clerics. About this page Source. Translated by Blomfield Jackson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 8. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) 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