Ultimate Truth Has Hair on His Arms

“Another common objection to the early creeds is their supposed ‘Hellenism.’ The early church was limited by its Greek cultural surroundings, so the argument goes, and so of course it is understandable that they unwittingly imported Hellenistic concepts into the Hebrew world of Scripture. This objection is tiresome because of the ignorance manifested by it, but it is also kind of fun to answer. The early creeds, foremost among them Nicaea and Chalcedon, were to Hellenism what Waterloo was to Napoloeon. It is quite true that the early centuries were a time of pitched battle between Hebraism and Hellenism in the church. It is quite true that this is what was at stake during these councils. But it was the heretics who wanted to make an accommodation with Hellenism, and it was men like Athanasius who maintained that the Eternal Word had ten fingers and ten toes — something unspeakably offensive to the philosophical Greek mind” (“Sola Scriptura, Creeds, and Ecclesiastical Authority” in When Shall These Things Be? pp. 280-281).