Primary source · Koine Greek
On the Decrees of the Council of Nicaea (De Decretis)
Athanasius of Alexandria · c. AD 350–356
What this text is
Why the fathers wrote homoousios: Athanasius's insider account of how the Arians dodged every scriptural phrase until only the unequivocal word remained.
Profile of Dionysius of Rome →
Public-domain translations
J. H. Newman, rev. Robertson (NPNF, 1892)
The Council wished to banish the impious phrases of the Arians and to write the acknowledged words of the Scriptures… but the bishops, discerning their craftiness, were compelled to express more distinctly the sense of the words 'from God,' and to write that the Son is 'one in essence' with the Father.
Manuscript witnesses
Athanasian corpus manuscripts
10th c. onwardDe decretis with the appended letter of Eusebius to Caesarea — Athanasius's own exhibit.
Patrologia Graeca, vol. 25 (Migne)
1857Standard pre-critical text of the corpus.
Provenance
Alexandria, c. AD 350–355 — why Nicaea said 'homoousios'
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Athanasius Werke IIHans-Georg Opitz, 1935–1941Critical edition.
- Nicaea and Its LegacyLewis Ayres, 2004The argument of De decretis in the century's debate.