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Arius (born c. 250, Libya—died 336, Constantinople [now Istanbul, Turkey]) was a Christian priest whose teachings gave rise to a theological doctrine known as Arianism. Arianism affirmed a created, finite nature of Christ rather than equal divinity with God the Father and was denounced by the early church as a major heresy.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
v. t. e. Arius (/ əˈraɪəs, ˈɛəri -/; Koinē Greek: Ἄρειος, Áreios; 250 or 256 – 336) was a Cyrenaic presbyter and ascetic. He has been traditionally regarded as the founder of Arianism, [1][2] which holds that Jesus Christ was not coeternal with God the Father, but was rather created before time. Arian theology and its doctrine ...
ARIUS âr’ ĭ əs. Arius (c. 250-336), the ascetic pastor of Baucalis Church in Alexandria, preached and propagated with words set to popular tunes that Christ was a created being with a different substance than God. The ensuing dispute with Bishop Alexander led the Emperor Constantine to convene the ecumenical council of Nicaea in 325.
Share. Arius and the Council of Nicaea. In the year 318, a priest of Libya named Arius began to preach a false doctrine about the Son of God. He denied that the Son is God in the same sense that the Father is God. According to Arius, the Son is not eternal nor of the same substance with the Father, but is a creature.
- Concept of Christ
- Arius
- Arius’ Views on Jesus
- Row with Alexander
- Constantine Learns of Conflict
- Council of Nicaea
- Arius in Exile
- Argument of The Arians
- Trinity Wins Favour
- References
At the start of the Fourth Century AD, the concept of God and the nature and role of Jesus(as) were not clearly understood, and hence there were numerous new strands of thought emerging and new heresies and schisms to deal with. Regarding the nature of Jesus(as)there were several philosophies which emerged during the course of time. These ideas dev...
Arius, a priest in Egypt, was born in 250 AD to parents thought to be of Libyan origin. He grew up in Alexandria. He became a priest in the spring of 312 under the episcopacy of Achillas, who was later followed by Alexander with whom Arius was to clash. He was greatly influenced by Lucian of Antioch, who had laid great stress on the Judaic monothei...
Arius caused a storm as he started to propagate the view that Jesus(as)was distinct from the Father. He believed that Christ was created (begotten) and hence before that point, would not have existed. He therefore concluded that Christ had a finite nature, whereas the Father had an eternal infinite nature. Socrates (440) records Arius’ formula as b...
News of his preaching angered Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, who called a series of conciliatory conferences to try to get Arius to change his views (to be the same as Alexander’s). Speaking of Arianism, Alexander is recorded by Athanasius as having written: It had spread through all Egypt, Libya and the Upper Thebais. Then we, being assembled wit...
Eventually, news got back to the Emperor Constantine about this conflict between Bishop Alexander and Arius. Constantine was concerned about the de-stabilising effects that such a feud might have. He asked his cleric Bishop Hosius of Cordova to write to both Alexander and Arius in the following terms: Yet, it soon became clear that simple politics ...
There had been twenty Arian sympathisers among the attendees to the synod, who are thought to have numbered more than three hundred. Indeed, it is suggested that Constantine changed the venue of the Council from Ancyra to Nicaea to make it easier for the Western bishops to attend, and hence turn the balance against the Eastern Church which still sy...
Following Nicaea, Arius was banished to Illyricum. Meanwhile, in an effort to stamp out the Arian view through brute force, the Emperor Constantine wrote: Such sentiments from the Church leader made it very difficult for Arius to propagate his views. Arius was undeterred. He maintained his views, and said of his maltreatment: Many years later, afte...
The Arians persisted with their views. There was a power struggle in Egypt as Christians tried to come to terms with the consequences of the debate. Arians maintained that their arguments stemmed from the Gospels themselves. For example, they could use the quote from the Gospel of John: There were repeated examples within the Gospels of Jesus(as)re...
A common argument used against Arius is that his views would have led to polytheism, and that they originated in paganism. Such an argument was first used by Athanasius who said that if Christ and the Father were separate entities as suggested by Arius, then the natural conclusion would be that there was a plurality of gods, and hence the heretic A...
Pagans and Christians, R L Fox, Penguin Books, 1986, p.602.Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism, H Shanks et al, SPCK 1993, p.274.History of Christianity, P Johnson, Pelican Books 1976, p.88-90.Jesus: The Evidence, I Wilson, Pan Books 1984, p.138ff.Sep 9, 2024 · Arianism, in Christianity, the Christological position that Jesus, as the Son of God, was created by God. It was proposed early in the 4th century by Arius of Alexandria and was popular throughout much of the Eastern and Western Roman empires. It was denounced as a heresy by the Council of Nicaea in 325.
Latin translation, with a portrait of Ptolemy II on the right. Bavarian State Library, circa 1480. The Letter of Aristeas, called so because it was a letter addressed from Aristeas of Marmora to his brother Philocrates, [5] deals primarily with the reason the Greek translation of the Hebrew Law, also called the Septuagint, was created, as well as the people and processes involved.
