The Chalcedonian Creed was adopted at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 in Asia Minor. That Council of Chalcedon is one of the seven ecumenical councils accepted by Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and many Protestant Christian churches. It is the first Council not recognized by any of the Oriental Orthodox churches.
The Chalcedonian Creed was written amid controversy between the western and eastern churches over the meaning of the incarnation and to settle disputes concerning the theological reconciliation of the divine and human natures of Jesus (see "Christology"). The western churches readily accepted the creed but the eastern churches did not, resulting in a split in the world church.
The creed became standard Roman Catholic doctrine, while the church of Alexandria dissented, and held to the oneness of Christ’s nature. The Alexandrian position was to become known as Monophysitism, from which emerged the Coptic Church of Egypt and Abyssinia and the Jacobite churches of Syria and Armenia (see Oriental Orthodoxy).
An English translation:
- 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 [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial 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 natures 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.
