This year marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea. That was when approximately 318 Christian Bishops gathered to formulate what we know as the Nicene Creed, which is still nearly universally used today. This first-ever ecumenical council met in the summer of A.D. 325 for two months at Nicea (modern Iznik) in Bithynia (northwestern Turkey). Aside from the Creed itself, the circumstances of the meeting were a testimony to God’s providential and miraculous work.
bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325) holding
the Creed. (Public domain.)
Hostile Bithynia
There was a Christian presence in Bithynia beginning in the first century, perhaps the result of converted Jews returning from their attendance at Pentecost (Acts 2:9-11), and later of those scattered from the Jerusalem church after the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8:1-4). The apostle Paul attempted to go into Bithynia on his second missionary trip, but the Holy Spirit did not permit him (Acts 16:7).
We know that Roman Bithynia was hostile to Christians for a couple of reasons. First, when the apostle Peter wrote his first and second letters he included Bithynia (1 Peter 1:1) and addressed their troubled circumstances (1 Peter 1:6; 2:12,19; 3:14; 4:12-19): “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you…but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing…”
Second, in the early second century, Pliny the Younger was the imperial legate to Bithynia under the Emperor Trajan. He consulted with the Emperor for proper procedures in dealing with Christians: “I have never been present at Christian trials…So far this has been my procedure when people were charged before me with being Christians…[I ask them] if they said ‘Yes,’ I asked them a second and third time, warning them of the penalty; if they persisted I ordered them to be led off to execution…The case seemed to me to be a proper one for consultation, particularly because of the number of those who were accused. For many of every age, every class, and of both sexes are being accused.”
The Emperor Trajan’s response: “You have acted with perfect correctness in deciding the cases of those who have been charged before you with being Christians.” To be a Christian in Bithynia was punishable by death!
In A.D. 303, during the persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian, Bithynia’s governor had a Christian young man by the name of Neophytos executed for his faith outside Nicea’s city walls, on the shore of Lake Ascania (Iznik). It is clear, then, that in the years leading up to the Council of Nicea, both it and Bithynia were hostile to Christianity.
Welcoming Bithynia
Jumping ahead a few years, the new Emperor Constantine the Great and his mother Helena had allegedly become Christians themselves. In A.D. 313 he issued the Edict of Milan that made Christianity a licit (lawful) religion throughout the empire. A shrine was then built on the site of Neophytos’ death in Nicea, to commemorate his martyrdom. Shortly thereafter, it was over this very site of martyrdom that Nicea’s Martyrion Church was built, which was to become the meeting location of the notable Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. There on the site of a martyr they penned a foundational creed of truth, hoping for a future for Christianity. This Nicene Creed has stood as a guide for the faith of Christians for 1700 years. The irony is striking!
Furthermore, since the church was quite small for such a large group, Christian author Eusebius wrote that there was a second venue for the Council, “the innermost hall of Constantine’s palace.” This “shift in venue from the martyrion church, located outside the city walls, to Constantine’s palace, located inside the city, may have symbolized Christianity’s new position at the center of civic life under the protection of the state.” The city of Nicea and Bithynia were now welcoming God’s people.
under Lake Ascanius when the water receded
after a drought. (Credit: Arkeofili/Public Domain,
licensed under Creative Commons 1.0).
The Council of Nicea and Archaeology’s Contribution
The location of the church and of Constantine’s palace had been lost to history. A severe earthquake in the eleventh century at the site of Nicea was reported in the news: “An earthquake happened in Nicea in Bithynia and brought almost total devastation and ruin to the place.” Memory of the church’s location faded from memory until 2014, when excavators discovered the remains of a submerged basilica beneath the rising waters of Lake Iznik. It was none other than the remains of the Martyrion Church built over the shrine of the Christian martyr Neophytos – a twenty-first century reminder of our humble heritage.
Finally, more than a thousand years after the earthquake, archaeology is revealing the church which is connected “to one of the most formative events in Christian history.” Its message still rings true:
We believe in one God, the Father almighty…
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God…
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life…
Source: Biblical Archaeology Review, Fall 2025, pp. 32-39
Featured Image: Council of Nicaea 325. Fresco in Salone Sistino, Vatican, by Giovanni Guerra (1544-1618), Cesare Nebbia (1534-1614) e aiuti. Public Domain
