Separating the popular myth of Nicaea (319 CE) from the documented history of the 325 council.
Pop history claims the Council of Nicaea (325) invented Jesus' divinity, voted on which Gospels to include, or fabricated the Bible. None of this is supported. Nicaea did not decide the canon at all. It addressed a specific dispute — Arius taught that the Son was a created being; the council affirmed he is 'of one substance' (homoousios) with the Father. The vote was lopsided, not close. The divinity of Christ was already widely confessed (see Philippians 2, Ignatius); Nicaea defined and defended it against a challenge, rather than inventing it. Good history corrects both the conspiracy version and any frictionless 'it was always obvious' version: doctrine developed through real argument.
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