The Symbol (Creed) of Chalcedon

In our last post, we concluded our exploration of the Nicene Creed. This post examines a third Creed of the Kehillah ~ The Symbol (Creed) of Chalcedon. As I indicated in my last post, I have not been exposed to this creed in my upbringing.

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood; truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body; consubstantial [coessential] with us according to the manhood; in all things like unto us, without sin; begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, according to the Manhood; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the distinction of nature’s being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us. ^[1]

Wow, the whole creed in one sentence.

The Creed of Chalcedon was adopted at the fourth and fifth sessions of the fourth ecumenical Council, held at Chalcedon, opposite Constantinople, A.D. 451 (Oct. 22d and 25th). It embraces the Nicene Creed and the Messianic doctrine outlined in the classical Epistola Dogmatica of Pope Leo the Great to Flavian, the Patriarch of Constantinople and martyr of diophysitic [2] orthodoxy at the so-called Council of Robbers (held at Ephesus in 449).

While the first Council of Nicea had established the eternal, pre-existent Godhead of Yeshua, the Symbol of the fourth ecumenical Council relates to the incarnate Logos, as He walked upon the earth and sits on the right hand of the Father. It is directed against the errors of Nestorius and Eutyches. They agreed with the Nicene Creed as opposed to Arianism but put the Godhead of Yeshua in a false relation to His humanity. It substantially completes the orthodox Messianic theology of the ancient Church.^[3]

In my next post, we examine the Athanasian Creed.

Click here for the PDF version.

^[1] Historic Creeds and Confessions. (1997). Lexham Press.

[2] A person who maintains that Yeshua has two natures, one divine, and the other human.

^[3] Schaff, P. (1878). The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The History of Creeds (Vol. 1, pp. 29–30). New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers.