CREED · 750 AD · ECUMENICAL (WESTERN)

The Apostles' Creed (received text)

WRITTEN

750 AD

TRADITION

Ecumenical (Western)

SECTIONS

This creed is held here twice, from two different editors. Read the other edition.

This document states its doctrine rather than quoting verses; its references are shown in the Berean Standard Bible.

Textus Receptus

SYMBOLA ŒCUMENICA. ŒCUMENICAL SYMBOLS I. SYMBOLUM APOSTOLICUM. (a) FORMA RECEPTA. Πιστεύω εἰς ΘΕΟΝ ΠΑΤΕΡΑ, παντοκράτορα, ποιητὴν οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς. Καὶ (εἰς) ἸΗΣΟΥΝ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΝ, υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ, τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν, τὸν συλληφθέντα ἐκ πνεύματος ἁγίου, γεννηθέντα ἐκ Μαρίας τῆς παρθένου, παθόντα ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, σταυρωθέντα, θανόντα, καὶ ταφέντα, κατελθόντα εἰς τὰ κατώτατα, τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἀναστάντα ἀπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν, ἀνελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανούς, καθεζόμενον ἐν δεξιᾷ θεοῦ πατρὸς παντοδυνάμου, ἐκεῖθεν ἐρχόμενον κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς. Πιστεύω εἰς τὸ ΠΝΕΥΜΑ ΤΟ ἍΓΙΟΝ, ἁγίαν καθολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν, ἁγίων κοινωνίαν, ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν, σαρκὸς ἀνάστασιν, ζωὴν αἰώνιον. Ἀμήν. I. THE APOSTLES' CREED. (a) RECEIVED FORM. I believe in God the Father Almighty; Maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ his only (begotten) Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell [Hades, spirit-world]; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven; and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body [flesh]; and the life everlasting. Amen. (b) THE OLD ROMAN AND AFRICAN FORM OF THE APOSTLES' CREED. Symbolum Augustini (354-430). Hippo Regius, Africa (Circ. 400). Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem. Et in Jesum Christum, Filium ejus unigenitum (unicum), Dominum nostrum; qui natus est per Spiritum Sanctum ex virgine Maria; sub Pontio Pilato crucifixus est, et sepultus; tertio die resurrexit a mortuis; ascendit in cælum, sedet ad dexteram Patris; inde venturus est judicaturus (ad judicandos) vivos et mortuos. Credo et in Spiritum Sanctum; sanctam ecclesiam; remissionem peccatorum; carnis resurrectionem (? in vitam eternam). The Roman Form Translated. I believe in God the Father Almighty. And in Jesus Christ his only-begotten Son our Lord, who was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary; crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost; the holy Church; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; (the life everlasting). (c) THE APOSTLES' CREED, ACCORDING TO RUFINUS AND FORTUNATUS. A.D. 390–570. Venantius Fortunatus. Circ. A.D. 570. Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem. Et in Jesum Christum, unicum Filium; qui natus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine; crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato; descendit ad infernum; tertia die resurrexit; ascendit in cælum; sedet ad dexteram Patris; judicaturus vivos et mortuos. Credo in Sancto Spiritu; sanctam ecclesiam; remissionem peccatorum; resurrectionem carnis. (d) AN OLD ITALIAN (Pseudo-Ambrosian) FORM OF THE APOSTLES' CREED. About A.D. 350. We believe in God the Father Almighty, Ruler and Creator of all ages and creatures. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was born of the Holy Ghost and from the Virgin Mary; who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and buried; on the third day he rose from the dead; ascended into the heavens; sitteth on the right hand of God the Father; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost; and the holy Catholic Church; the remission of sins; the resurrection of the flesh. NOTES. 1. This baptismal creed was copied, together with an Exhortatio sancti Ambrosii ad neophytos de Symbolo, by Dr. Caspari from two MSS. in the Vienna Library, and published in the second volume of his Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, Vol. II. (1869), pp. 128 sqq. It is inserted in this Exhortation, not in broken fragments, as is usual with ante-Nicene writers, but continuously, with a connecting itaque after credimus (p. 134). The Exhortation was directed against the heresy of Arianism, and borrows an expression ( Deus de Deo, lumen de lumine ) from the Nicene Creed, but makes no allusion to the Pneumatomachian controversy and its settlement in 381. It seems, therefore, to belong to the middle of the fourth century (350–370). Caspari denies the authorship of Ambrose (who was opposed to committing the creed to writing), and is inclined to assign it to Eusebius of Vercelli or Lucifer of Cagliari, in Sardinia, where the symbol may have been in use. 2. The symbol resembles the older Italian forms of Rome, Milan, and Ravenna. With the Roman it omits the articles descendit ad inferna, communionem sanctorum, and vitam æternam; but, unlike the Roman, it has catholicam after ecclesiam, and the peculiar clause sæculorum omnium et creaturarum regem et conditorem. A similar addition occurs in the Symbol of Carthage ( universorum creatorem, regem sæculorum, invisibilem et immortalem ). 3. Other Italian forms of the Western Creed, see in Hahn, pp. 6 sqq.

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  • Berean Standard Bible Public domain

The document's own wording is unchanged apart from the quoted verses described above. Its proof-text references were resolved against this site's own copy of the Berean Standard Bible; the references it does not carry would be shown as references with no verse words.

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