page_title: Son of God (Christianity)
section_title: Theological development
hierarchical_section_title: Son of God (Christianity) / Theological development
caption_attribution_description: English: Symbolum Nicaeno-Constantinopolitanum. Icon depicting the First Council of Nicaea.Français&#160;: Concile de Nicée (325) représenté sur une icône. Le texte montré est une partie du «&#160;Symbole de Nicée-Constantinople&#160;» dans sa forme liturgique grecque, basée sur le texte adopté au premier concile de Constantinople (381), 56 ans après le Concile de Nicée Transcript: Πιστεύω εἰς ἕνα Θεόν, Πατέρα Παντοκράτορα, ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς, ὁρατῶν τε πάντων καὶ ἀοράτων. Καὶ εἰς ἕνα Κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν, τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ, τὸν ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων· φῶς ἐκ φωτός, Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ, γεννηθέντα οὐ ποιηθέντα, ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί, δι οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο. Τὸν δι ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν κατελθόντα ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν καὶ σαρκωθέντα ἐκ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου καὶ Μαρίας τῆς Παρθένου καὶ ἐνανθρωπήσαντα. Σταυρωθέντα τε ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, καὶ παθόντα καὶ ταφέντα...
context_page_description: The terms "son of God" and "son of the LORD" are found in several passages of the Old Testament. In Christianity, the title Son of God refers to the status of Jesus as the divine son of God the Father.
  It derives from several uses in the New Testament and early Christian theology. In mainstream Christianity, it also refers to his status as God the Son, the second divine person or hypostasis of the Trinity, although God the Son cannot be found.
context_section_description: Through the centuries, the theological development of the concept of Son of God has interacted with other Christological elements such as pre-existence of Christ, Son of man, the hypostatic union, etc. For instance, in Johannine "Christology from above" which begins with the pre-existence of Christ, Jesus did not become Son of God through the virgin birth, he always was the Son of God. The term "Son of God" is also found as a small fragment along with other Dead Sea Scrolls, numbered as 4Q246.
  Early Christians developed various view of how Jesus related to God and what role he played in God's plan for salvation.
  By the 2nd century, differences had developed among various Christian groups and to defend the mainstream view in the early Church, St. Irenaeus introduced the confession: "One Christ only, Jesus the Son of God incarnate for our salvation". By referring to incarnation, this professes Jesus as the pre-existing Logos, i.e. The Word. It also professes him as both Christ and the only-begotten Son of God.
  To establish a common ground, the Nicene Creed of 325 began with the profession of the Father Almighty and then states belief:
  "...in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of his Father, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father."
  Saint Augustine wrote at length on the Son of God and its relationship with the Son of man, positioning the two issues in terms of the dual nature of Jesus as both divine and human in terms of the hypostatic union. He wrote:
  Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is God and Man: God before all worlds, man in our world....
  But since he is the only Son of God, by nature and not by grace, he became also the Son of Man that he might be full of grace as well.
  However, unlike Son of God, the proclamation of Jesus as the Son of man has never been an article of faith in Christianity. The interpretation of the use of "the Son of man" and its relationship to Son of God has remained challenging and after 150 years of debate no consensus on the issue has emerged among scholars.
  Just as in Romans 10:9–13 Paul emphasized the salvific value of "professing by mouth" that Jesus is Lord (Kyrion Iesoun), Augustine emphasized the value of "professing that Jesus is the Son of God" as a path to salvation.
  For St. Thomas Aquinas (who also taught the Perfection of Christ), the "'Son of God' is God as known to God". Aquinas emphasized the crucial role of the Son of God in bringing forth all of creation and taught that although humans are created in the image of God they fall short and only the Son of God is truly like God, and hence divine.
caption: Emperor Constantine and the Fathers of the First Council of Nicaea of 325 with the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.
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