The Creed finally promulgated by the Council of Nicaea was a rather awkward fusion of bits and pieces from the local baptismal confessions of churches in the Eastern Mediterranean with some new phrases aimed at clarifying one central and all-important problem.
Very briefly, the problem was this: no one seriously thought Jesus was no more than a human being; but exactly what kind of non-human power or agency did he embody?
Earlier generations had used language which might imply that he was the human avatar of a great archangelic presence in heaven, a heavenly high priest leading the eternal angelic liturgy. Other idioms and images built on the biblical idea of Jesus as the human expression of God’s eternal Wisdom and “Logos” – a life completely in tune with the mind and will of God; but it was less than clear that this eternal divine mind could be thought of as a real everlasting “subject”, the eternal Son of the eternal Father.
