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Date 351
Council Sirmium
CPG 8577
Greek Text Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole und Glaubensregeln der Alten Kirche (Breslau: E. Morgenstern, 1897), 196-9.
Ancient Source Athanasius, De Synodis, 27; Socrates, HE 2.30.5-30; Hilary, De Synodis, 38

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the Creator and Maker of all things, ‘from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named.’

And in his only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who before all the ages was begotten from the Father, God from God, light from light, by whom all things were made, in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible, being Word and Wisdom and True Light and Life, who in the last of days was made man for us, and was born of the holy virgin, and crucified and died and was buried, and rose again from the dead the third day, and was taken up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of the Father, and is coming at the consummation of the age, to judge the living and the dead, and to render to everyone according to his works; whose kingdom being unceasing endures unto the infinite ages; for He shall sit on the right hand of the Father, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

And in the Holy Ghost, that is, the Paraclete; which, having promised to the Apostles to send forth after His ascension into heaven, to teach and to remind them of all things, He did send; through whom also are sanctified the souls of those who sincerely believe in Him.

1. But those who say that the Son was from nothing or from other subsistence and not from God, and that there was a time or age when He was not, the holy and catholic church regards as aliens.

2. Again we say, whoever says that the Father and the Son are two Gods, be he anathema.

3. And whosoever, saying that Christ is God, before ages Son of God, does not confess that He has subserved the Father for the framing of the universe be he anathema.

4. Whoever presumes to say that the ingenerate, or a part of Him, was born of Mary, be he anathema.

5. Whoever says that according to foreknowledge the Son is before Mary and not that, generated from the Father before ages, He was with God, and that through Him all things were originated, be he anathema.

6. Whoever shall pretend that the essence of God is dilated or contracted, be he anathema.

7. Whoever says that the essence of God being dilated made the Son, or shall name the dilation of His essence Son, be he anathema.

8. Whoever calls the Son of God the mental or pronounced Word, be he anathema.

9. Whoever says that the Son from Mary is man only, be he anathema.

10. Whoever, speaking of Him who is from Mary, God and man, thereby means God the Ingenerate, be he anathema.

11. Whoever explains, ‘I God the first and I the last, and besides me there is no God’ (Isaiah 44:6), which is said for the denial of idols and of gods that are not, to the denial of the only-begotten, before ages God, as Jews do, be he anathema.

12. Whoever hearing ‘the Word was made flesh’ (John 1:14), considers that the Word has changed into flesh, or shall say that He has undergone alteration by taking flesh, be he anathema.

13. Whoever hearing the only-begotten Son of God to have been crucified, shall say that His Godhead has undergone corruption, or passion, or alteration, or diminution, or destruction, be he anathema.

14. Whoever says that ‘Let us make man’ (Genesis 1:26), was not said by the Father to the Son, but by God to Himself, be he anathema.

15. Whoever says that Abraham saw, not the Son, but the ingenerate God or part of Him, be he anathema.

16. Whoever says that Jacob wrestled, not the Son as man, but the ingenerate God or part of Him, be he anathema.

17. Whoever shall explain, ‘The Lord rained fire from the Lord’ (Genesis 19:24), was not the Father and the Son, and says that He rained from Himself, be he anathema. For the Son, being Lord, rained from the Father who is Lord.

18. Whoever, hearing that the Father is Lord and the Son Lord and the Father and Son Lord, for there is Lord from Lord, says there are two Gods, be he anathema. For we do not place the Son in the Father’s order, but as subordinate to the Father; for He did not descend upon Sodom without the Father’s will, nor did He rain from Himself, but from the Lord, that is, the Father authorizing it. Nor is He of Himself set down on the right hand, but He hears the Father saying, ‘Sit on my right hand’ (Psalms 110:1).

19. Whoever says that the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are one Person, be he anathema.

20. Whoever, speaking of the Holy Ghost as Paraclete, shall mean the ingenerate God, be he anathema.

21. Whoever denies, what the Lord taught us, that the Paraclete is other than the Son, for He said, ‘and the Father shall send you another Paraclete, whom I will ask’ (John 14:16) be he anathema.

22. Whoever says that the Holy Ghost is part of the Father or of the Son, be he anathema.

23. Whoever shall say that the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are three Gods, be he anathema.

24. Whoever says that the Son of God came to be at the will of God, as one of the works, be he anathema.

25. Whoever says that the Son has been generated, the Father not wishing it, be he anathema. For not by compulsion, led by physical necessity, did the Father, as He wished not, generate the Son, but He at once willed, and, after generating Him from Himself apart from time and passion, manifested Him.

26. Whoever says that the Son is without beginning and ingenerate, as if speaking of two unbegun and two ingenerate, and making two Gods, be he anathema. For the Son is the head, namely the beginning of all; and God is the head, namely the beginning of Christ. And so to one unbegun beginning of the universe do we religiously refer all things through the Son.

27. And in accurate delineation of the idea of Christianity we say this again: Whoever does not say that Christ is God, Son of God, as being before ages, and having subserved the Father in the framing of the universe, but that from the time that He was born of Mary, from there He was called Christ and Son, and took an origin of being God, be he anathema.

Translation from Athanasius, De Synodis 27 (NPNF2 vol. 4, p. 464-5)

Adapted by SMT

Last updated: 3-11-2011

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