CREED · 381 AD · ECUMENICAL (UNDIVIDED CHURCH)

The Nicene Creed (Niceno-Constantinopolitan)

WRITTEN

381 AD

TRADITION

Ecumenical (Undivided Church)

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.

Text

II. SYMBOLUM NICÆNO-CONSTANTINOPOLITANUM. THE NICÆNO-CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED. (a) Forma Recepta Ecclesiæ Orientalis. A.D. 381. Latin Version of Dionysius Exiguus. Credimus in unum Deum Patrem omnipotentem; factorem cœli et terræ, visibilium omnium et invisibilium. Et in unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei [unigenitum], natum ex Patre ante omnia sæcula [Lumen de Lumine], Deum verum de Deo vero, natum [genitum], non factum, consubstantialem Patri; per quem omnia facta sunt; qui propter nos homines et [propter] salutem nostram descendit de cælis et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine et humanatus [homo factus] est; et crucifixus est pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato [passus] et sepultus est; et resurrexit tertia die [secundum scripturas]; ascendit in cœlum [cœlos], sedet ad dexteram Patris; iterum venturus, cum gloria, judicare vivos et mortuos; cujus regni non erit finis. Et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum et vivificantem [vivificatorem], ex Patre procedentem, cum Patre et Filio adorandum et conglorificandum, qui locutus est per sanctos prophetas. Et unam, sanctam, catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam. Confitemur unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. Expectamus resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam futuri sæculi. Amen. (b) Forma Recepta, Ecclesiæ Occidentalis. The Received Text of the Protestant Churches. I believe in one God the Father Almighty; Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds [God of God], Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance [essence] with the Father; by whom all things were made; who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And [I believe] in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceedeth from the Father [and the Son]; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; who spake by the Prophets. And [I believe] one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. (c) Symbolum Nicænum. A.D. 325. The Latin Version of Hilarius Pictaviensis, between 356 and 361. Credimus in unum Deum Patrem omnipotentem, omnium visibilium et invisibilium factorem. Et in unum Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei, natum ex Patre unigenitum, hoc est, de substantia Patris, Deum ex Deo, Lumen ex Lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero, natum, non factum, unius substantiæ cum Patre, quod Græci dicunt homoousion; per quem, omnia facta, sunt, quæ in cœlo et in terra; qui [propter nos homines et] propter nostram salutem descendit, incarnatus est et homo factus est, et passus est; et resurrexit tertia die, et ascendit in cœlos; venturus judicare vivos et mortuos. Et in Spiritum Sanctum. Eos autem qui dicunt: 'erat, quando non erat,' et 'antequam nasceretur, non erat,' et 'quod de non exstantibus factus est,' vel 'ex alia, substantia' aut 'essentia,' dicentes ['creatum,' aut] 'convertibilem et demutabilem Filium Dei,' hos anathematizat catholica [et apostolica] ecclesia. [See the English version both of the original and the enlarged Creed in Vol. I. pp. 28, 29.] APPENDIX. Other Oriental Creeds of the Nicene Age. With the Nicene Creed should be compared several similar Greek forms of the fourth century (see above, pp. 24–40, and Hahn, pp. 42–59), especially the following: (1.) The Creed of Cæsarea, which Eusebius read at Nicæa, 325, as his own baptismal creed. It omits θεὸν ἀληθινόν and ὁμοούσιον, but otherwise agrees nearly with the first Nicene Creed till πνεῦμα ἅγιον, and is the basis of it. (2.) The Creed of Jerusalem, which Cyril of Jerusalem taught in his Catechetical Lectures before 350. It likewise omits ὁμοούσιον, but has after ἅγιον πνεῦμα the articles: 'In ( εἰς repeated) one baptism for the remission of sins, and in one holy catholic Church, and in the resurrection of the flesh, and in the life everlasting;' resembling in this conclusion more the later Constantinopolitan Creed, of which it seems to be the chief basis. (3.) Two Creeds of Epiphanius, a longer and a shorter one, recorded in his Ancoratus about 374. Both contain the whole Nicene Creed, with the concluding anathema (enlarged in one formula), and at the same time almost literally the additional articles after 'the Holy Ghost,' which were incorporated in the Nicene Creed by the Synod of Constantinople; showing that these were current in the Churches before 381. (4.) The Creed of Arius, which he delivered to the Emperor Constantine (328), and which is recorded by Socrates and Sozomenus (also in Mansi, Tom. II. p. 1157; Walch, p. 47; Hahn, p. 192; and Denzinger, p. 8). It shrewdly omits the obnoxious words condemned by the Council of Nicæa, confesses Christ as θεὸν λόγον, δἰ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγέντο, and adds after ἅγιον πνεῦμα the articles: καὶ εἰς σαρκὸς ἀνάστασιν, καὶ εἰς ζωὴν τοῦ μέλλοντος αἰῶνος, καὶ εἰς βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν, καὶ εἰς μίαν καθολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν τοῦ θεοῦ, τὴν ἀπὸ περάτων ἕως περάτων.

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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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