Arius vs Athenasius
Regarding the Nature of Jesus
In his book When Jesus Became God, author Richard Rubenstein describes this
scene on December 14, 361 AD: By the time the men at the front of the mob
smashed through the prison gates, the crowd had
grown until it over-flowed the
square like water pouring over the sides of a full jar. Even for Alexandria,
where riots were as common as Mediterranean gales, this demonstration was
unusually large. More unusual still, the mixed crowd formed a unified mass.
Instead of fighting among themselves as the so often did, pagan and Christian
rioters stood side by side, bellowing for blood.
Then, he continues with a description of the gates being battered down and three prisoners being dragged from the local jail squealing in pain and terror.
Two of these unfortunates were high government officials who had earned the crowd’s hatred by carrying out the Roman emperor’s orders to close pagan temples, expel "heretical" Christians from the churches, and punish protesters (Haas, "The Alexandrian Riots of 356 and George of Cappadocia"). The mob’s prime target, however – the third man in manacles – wa a figure of greater importance than any civil servant. This was George of Cappadocia, the metropolitan bishop of Alexandria and titular head of Egypt’s huge Christian community.
George and his fellow prisoners died in the prison square, presumably as a result of lethal beatings. Historians report that after the rioters killed their victims, they paraded the corpses through the middle of the city after which, they burned the bodies to ensure their remains wouldn’t not become relics to be preserved and venerated by their followers.
What is all this? Christians attacking a murdering their bishop? What was this controversy all about?
Some time ago, a debate raged on regarding the views of the early church on the issue of the Trinity. One side insisted this was a doctrine held from the very beginning while the other argued it could not have been so since it was not even mentioned within the pages of the Bible. From that beginning, the debate raged into the very nature of Jesus, and how he related to the Godhead as represented by the doctrine of the Trinity. Again, the "orthodox" side insisted what we believe today has always been known by the Christian community. However, the scene in Alexandria shows how unsettled the issue was as late as the 4th century. It all related to the dispute between Arius and Athanasius as refereed by Constantine beginning with the Council of Nicaea.
As so often in history, in the case of Arius a small cause produced a great effect. In the year 319 Alexander, the Bishop of Alexandria, was delivering a lecture to a group of clerics. He asserted that a Oneness was present in the divine Trinity. In the subsequent discussion Arius contested this view, arguing that if the Father had begotten the Son, he who had been begotten had a beginning, and therefore there must have been a time when the Son didn’t exist. This view of Arius was not new; he was only expressing what many more radical theologians of the time thought. Bishop Alexander, however, would not tolerate contradiction from a subordinate, and sharply commanded him to withdraw his opinion. Arius believed that a man could not divest himself of his convictions on command – and the great debate was on.
This was more than a simple personality dispute. Consider the full consequence of the metaphysical question: "The Father begot his only begotten Son before aeonic times, through whom also he created the aeons and the universe. The Son was begotten before time, was made and created before the ages; not that he existed before he was begotten, but that he alone was begotten by the Father apart from time and before all things else."
(G. Pfannmuller: Jesus im Urteil der Jahrhunderte (1939) p. 104)
Though these may seem to be calcified arguments to us today, in 4th century Alexandria every shop boy and woman was debating on the street "What do you think about Christ?" What definition is given of the Son of Man? It is the central question in all understanding of the Gospel. This was why all Christendom was set aflame.
Bishop Alexander quickly lost his temper and wanted to be done with the whole business. Arius was to be removed from office as a Presbyter of the Church and excommunicated. This first public humiliation poisoned the air and gave the conflict a disastrous turn which continues to this day in debates amongst "Christians." "Haughty, avaricious, lustful were only a few of the insulting adjectives hurled a "the heretic."
The open war which resulted between these two factions carried into the decision by Constantine to hold a council at his private estate on the shores of Lake Niceae.
Next: Enter the Beast