A BRIEF HISTORY of the NICENE CREED

The Nicene Creed was formulated at the 1st ecuminacal council at Nicea in AD 334. It was expanded at the 2nd council in Constantinoble in 381 to balance it's coverage of the Trinity by including the Holy Spirit. It is the only creed worked on by any of the 7 Ecuminical councils. It is therefore considered the only creed that is truly eccuminical and universal. In the Orthodox Church it is the only creed.

The New Testament and the Nicene Creed are are deeply interwoven. The language and the concepts of the Creed are directly influenced by the New Testament. The most important debate at the council was whether a word that was not in the New Testiment should be used in the Creed. On the other hand when the church issued the Cannon of the New Testament it was custimary to compare them to the Nicene Creed to determine there orthodoxy.

You would be correct in stipulating that the Nicene Creed proceeds from the New Testiment, yet on the other hand you would also be correct if you stated the New Testiment proceeded from the Nicene Creed. More correctly the Nicene Creed and the Cannon of the New Testiment were formed as part of the same process.

for further reading go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene