You won’t find Isho the Nazorean, “the real Jesus Christ”,
by going to the creeds. By the time
those were composed, the real person Isho and his message had long been muddled
and lost. That actually began with Paul
of Tarsus and the publication of the written gospels, though the latter do
capture much of the essence, and even Paul’s writings in places. (Several have opined that Paul’s emphasis on
faith over works, especially vis-à-vis James’ contention that faith without
works is empty, is in direct contrast to what Isho taught. However, what Paul meant by “works” was
diligently following the prescriptions of the Torah to such a degree that that
was all that mattered; Isho taught the same thing, by deeds if not by explicit
words, at least as he is reported in all the gospels.)
As early as the third century CE, for example, the first
antipope, Hippolytus, launched his schism against the sitting bishop of Rome,
Callistus, because the latter had the temerity to readmit sinners to communion
after they had finished their period. As
I recall from the gospels, Isho never even required “penance”; he forgave sins
immediately. While Hippolytus was in
schism, Callistus was killed during a riot and became the first martyred pope.
The creeds of the Church had nothing to do with the “real
Jesus Christ”, Isho the Nazorean, and even less to do with his message. They are entirely about trying to harmonize
what little remnants of Israelite theology remained in Christianity with the
Hellenistic philosophies of the Gentiles.
The drafting and enforcement of the first of these came about by and for
the needs of imperial Rome, by then based in Constantinopolis, the modern
Istanbul.
The actual Nicene Creed
The actual Nicene Creed, adopted at the First Ecumenical
Council at Nicaea in 325 CE, was a bit shorter, and thinner on Christological
doctrine than the one which now bears that name. Its text is as follows:
We believe in one God, the Father,
the Almighty, maker of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father; the only-begotten; that is, of
the essence of the Father: God from God, Light from Light, true God from true
God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father. Through him all things were made, both in
heaven and on earth. For us and for our
salvation he came down, became incarnate, and was made man. He suffered, and the third day he rose again,
and ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and
the dead.
We believe in the Holy Spirit.
But those who say: ‘There was a time
when he was not;’ and ‘He was not before he was made;’ and ‘He was made out of
nothing,’ or ‘He is of another substance’ or ‘essence,’ or ‘The Son of God is
created,’ or ‘changeable,’ or ‘alterable’— they are condemned by the holy
catholic and apostolic Church. Amen.
The Council at Nicaea came about because of a theological
dispute between two presbyters of the church at Alexandria, Athanasius and
Arius. Athanasius was a proponent of the
now traditional doctrine of the Trinity of three distinct Persons who are
coequal and eternal, while Arius held that Jesus Christ (Isho the Nazorean) was
the incarnate Logos, subordinate to the Father.
Thus, though the validity of the doctrine of the Trinity was somewhat
involved, the nature of the dispute was mainly Christological.
Since the doctrine of the Trinity only began to develop well
into the second century CE, it is more precise to speak of a dispute between
the Athanasians and the Arians, rather than as most church histories do by
retroactively calling the former “Catholics”.
Ironically, the first Christians to include the Creed in
their Eucharistic service were the Arians whom it targeted, doing so as a form
of protest, though this probably took place after the Church adopted its
successor which is often mistakenly called by the same name.
The (Niceno-) Constantinopolitan Creed
Usually mistakenly referred to as the Nicene Creed, that which
liturgical churches throughout Christianity recite as part of their Holy
Eucharist was adopted at the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinopolis in
381 CE. It is thus more accurately the Constantinopolitan Creed,
or perhaps the “Niceno-Constantinopolitan” Creed. Its text consists of bulletpoints of belief
about the supernatural events of the gospels as well as the wholly Gentile
doctrine of the Holy Trinity of which Isho the Nazorean and Paul of Tarsus
would be appalled. It reads thus:
We believe in one God, the Father,
the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus
Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all time:
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of
one substance with the Father. Through
him all things were made. For us and for
our salvation he came down from heaven: he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit
from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death
and was buried. On the third day he rose
again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated
at the right hand of the Father. He will
come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have
no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the
Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped
and glorified. He has spoken through the
Prophets. We believe in one holy
catholic and apostolic Church. We
acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and
the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Council of Constantinopolis later in the century tweaked
several points of the original, dropped the anathemas, and firmed up the
definition of the Holy Spirit.
Athanasian Creed
The Athanasian Creed is
a rather cumbersome composition of the sixth century, probably in southern
Gaul, probably by Vincent of Lerins. The name of the one most responsible for
the Church adopting the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as its official party line
became attached in fairly short order.
Its Christology reflects doctrinal matters decided at the Third
Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431.
Although used widely in the West during medieval and early modern times,
it never caught on in the East. The
Episcopal Church used to inflict its recitation on its members on thirteen
occasions throughout the church year.
Chalcedonian Creed
The Chalcedonian Creed, or Definition of Chalcedon, was
adopted at the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451 CE. It concerns itself solely with defining the
two separate natures of “Our Lord Jesus Christ” in hypostasis, one individual
existence.
The same Council also affirmed to the Virgin Mary the
accolade “Theotokos”, variously translated into English, but most accurately as
“Birth-giver to God”, rather than “Mother of God” (which would be Meter tou Theou) or “God-bearer” (which
would be Theophoros).
Apostles’ Creed
The Apostles’ Creed
of Western churches is an adaptation of catechismic answers to questions at the
rite of baptism. In form, it is a
stripped down version of the Constantinopolitan Creed.
In the creeds, not only are both Isho the Nazorean, the
“real Jesus Christ”, and his message entirely lost, but both theology and
Christology are reduced to mere ideology.
They even leave out utterly the most singularly important point of the
gospels, the primary reason for which they (at least the Synoptics) were
written.
1 comment:
Great article: makes me want to know more about Izo (?) the Nazorean.
Keep writing : you have a gift of clear thought & communication.
David Tannahill
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