Suppose . If , then for some countable ordinal . The set is transitive and countable, so the transitive closure of lies in a countable set. Thus is hereditarily countable, proving
Conversely, let and choose a sufficiently large containing . By the Downward Lowenheim-Skolem theorem, there is a countable elementary substructure that contains every member of . The Mostowski collapse theorem gives a transitive collapse of , and the condensation lemma for the constructible universe identifies it with for a countable ordinal . Because contains the transitive closure of pointwise, the collapse fixes . Thus . Hence