[B-Greek] hOMOOUSIOS and hOMOIOUSIOS

Jeffrey B. Gibson jgibson000 at comcast.net
Sat Mar 27 14:01:26 EST 2004



bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca wrote:

> My 8 yr old son had these two words in his church history lesson. He told me that hOMOOUSIOS refers to Jesus being God, and hOMOIOUSIOS to Jesus being like God.
> I can see how these words would be 'related' to hOMOIWS but I don't know what exactly these words mean.
> Can someone help me out and maybe parse these words.
> I don't know if the transliteration is like the b-greek scheme but this is all I had.

The first (from hOMO = same  OUSIA = substance) means of one/the same substance. The second (from hOMOIOS = like, similar OUSIA = substance) means "of a **like**
substance".  The terms figured largely in the christological controversies of the 3rd and 4th centuries, especially with respect to the claims of Arius.

For further discussion, have a look at any good history of the Creeds and of early Christian doctrine -- such as those by J.N.D. Kelly or the older history of
doctrine by Bethune-Baker.

Yours,

Jeffrey Gibson
--

Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon.)

1500 W. Pratt Blvd. #1
Chicago, IL 60626

jgibson000 at comcast.net





More information about the B-Greek mailing list