The Nicene definition: "consubstantial with the Father"

The dispute that began in Alexandria over the interpretation of Prov 8:22 and Arius's teaching of the Son as a creature (on Arius see the article in the Christology section) was brought before the council at Nicaea convened by Emperor Constantine. Already in the spring of 325 a council at Antioch had supported Alexander of Alexandria and anathematized three dissenting bishops, including Eusebius of Caesarea. The Nicene Creed confessed the Son as "begotten of the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father" and anathematized those who say "there was when he was not". The word "consubstantial" (homoousios), according to the books, was proposed by the emperor, possibly at the prompting of Ossius of Córdoba; it was non-biblical, but it was needed because the Arians interpreted biblical expressions in their own way. Athanasius, according to Berkhof and González, grounded consubstantiality soteriologically: only One who is himself God can unite us with God.