摘要：Many Christians today, having grown up in the Church appear not to be as mystified
with the Trinity as were the early Church Fathers of the second through the fifth
centuries. This is not to say that they have a complete understanding of the Trinity but it
is more of an attempt to convey the idea of a comfort or familiarity that is often times
confused with and supplants understanding. Yet when one begins to think of the Holy
Trinity in terms of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Jeffersonian questions
arise as to how can three be one and one be three.1 Questions of what it means to be both
divine and at the same time begotten challenge human sensibilities. This is only one of
many questions the ecumenical church councils such as Nicaea endeavored to answer.
Given the above, it is the purpose of this paper to show how the assertion by the
Council of Nicaea (in 325) that Jesus was both divine and eternal while being begotten of
the Father is neither mutually exclusive nor inconsistent.2
