Bibliotecha Symbolica Ecclesiae Universalis
THE CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM
with
A HISTORY AND CRITICAL NOTES
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOLUME II.
THE GREEK AND LATIN CREEDS, WITH TRANSLATIONS
Reprinted by arrangement with
Harper and Row, Publishers
THE CREEDS OF CHRISTENDOM
Copyright, 1877, by Harper & Brothers
Copyright, 1905, 1919 by David S. Schaff
NOTE.
In the present edition I have added, at the close of this volume, an important document--namely, the Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII., on the Christian constitution and government of States. It is closely connected with the famous Syllabus of his predecessor, Pius IX. (vol. II. pp. 213-233), and sets forth more fully the papal or mediaeval theory of the relation between Church and State.
PHILIP SCHAFF.
NEW YORK, December, 1889.
CONFESSIONES ECCLESIAE APOSTOLICAE.
SCRIPTURE CONFESSIONS.
CONFESSIONES ECCLESIAE APOSTOLICAE.
SCRIPTURE CONFESSIONS.
CONFESSIONES ECCLESIAE APOSTOLICAE.
SCRIPTURE CONFESSIONS.
The Bible is the Word of God to man; the Creed is man's answer to God. The Bible reveals the truth in the popular form of life and fact; the Creed states the truth in the logical form of doctrine. The Bible is to be believed and obeyed; the Creed is to be professed and taught. Hence we find few traces of creeds in the Bible.
In the Old Testament the fundamental doctrine of Monotheism is placed as a command at the head of the Decalogue, Exod. xx. 2, 3, and put in the form of a dogma, Deut. vi. 14:
sm ysr'l Hear, O Israel:
yhvh '?hynv yhvh 'chd Jehovah our Elohim, Jehovah is one [The Lord our God, the Lord is one].
These words form the beginning of what is termed Shama (Hear), and are repeated in the daily morning and evening services of the Jews. They are the Creed of the Jews, in distinction from the Gentiles or idolaters.
The sentence does not mean, 'Jehovah is our God, Jehovah alone' (and no other God), but it means either 'Jehovah, our God, Jehovah is one,' or, 'Jehovah, our God, is one Jehovah.' In either case it is an affirmation of the unity of God, and this is made the basis of the fundamental moral precept which follows (ver. 5): 'And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.' Hence our Lord, Mark iv. 29, quotes these two passages together as 'the first of all the commandments.'
Similar assertions of the unity of God are found in Deut. iv. 35, 39 ('Jehovah is the God; there is none else beside him'); 2 Sam. vii. 22; xxii. 32; 1 Kings viii. 60; I Chron. xvii. 20; Psa. xviii. 31 ('Who is God save Jehovah? or who is a rock save our God?'); Psa. lxxxvi. 10 ('Thou art God alone'); Isa. xliii. 10-12; xliv. 6, 8; xlv. 22; Joel ii. 27; Zech. xiv. 9.
The New Testament confirms this doctrine repeatedly: Mark xii. 29; John xvii. 3 ('Thee, the only true God'); 1 Cor. viii. 4 ('There is none other God but one'); Gal. iii. 20; 1 Tim. ii. 5.
But while the New Testament presupposes the unity of the Godhead, it makes the Divinity and Messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth the centre of the Christian religion in its distinctive fundamental creed. The following are the passages which furnished the nucleus for the ancient rules of faith and baptismal creeds.
The Confession of Nathanael (Bartholomew).
Apekrithe Nathanael kai legei auto ;
Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rhabbi, su ei ho huios tou theou, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God,
su ei ho basileus tou Israel.
Thou art the King of Israel.
Note.--'King of Israel' is a designation of the Messiah, and an anticipation of the Confession of Peter. Nathanael reasons from the divine character of Christ as revealed in his supernatural knowledge of the heart, to his Messiahship, and returns the commendation, 'Behold an Israelite indeed without guile,' by the acknowledgment, 'Thou art the King of Israel,' and hence my King. The term 'Son of God' was also a designation of the Messiah in his divine nature, derived from Psa. ii. 5,12 (comp. Isa. ix. 6), and is so used by Peter, Matt. xvi. 16; by the disciples in the ship, Matt. xiv. 33; by Martha, John xi. 27; and by the high-priest, Matt. xxvi. 63. The Apostles, before the pentecostal illumination, had no clear insight into the full meaning of the expression; but their faith, based upon the Old Testament and the personal knowledge of our Lord, contained the living germ of the full knowledge.
The Confession of Peter.
Matt. xvi. 16.
Apokritheis de Simon Petros eipen ;
And Simon Peter, answering, said,
Su ei ho Christos, ho huios tou theou tou zontos
Thou art the Christ [the Messiah], the Son of the living God.
Note.--This is the fundamental Christian Confession, and the rock on which the Church is built. See Schaff's Annotations to Lange on Matthew, pp. 293-295.
John vi. 68.
Kurie, pros tina apeleusometha? remata zoes aioniou echeis; kai hemeis pepisteukamen, kai egnokamen hoti
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast words of life eternal, and we have believed and known that
Su ei ho hagios tou theou
Thou art the Holy One of God.
Note.--This is the true reading, instead of the received text: 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God', ( su ei ho Christos, ho huios tou theou tou zontos ) which is conformed to Matt. xvi. 16. It is equivalent to Thou art the Messiah, and coincides with the testimony of the demoniacs (Mark i. 26), who with ghost-like intuition perceived the supernatural character of Jesus. This Confession of Peter belongs to an earlier period than the one recorded by Matthew. See Lange, Com. on John, pp. 234 sq. (Am. ed.).
The Confession of Thomas.
John xx. 28.
Apekrithe Thomas kai eipen auto; Thomas answered and said unto him, Ho kurios mou kai ho theos mou My Lord and my God!
Note.--This is the strongest apostolic Confession of Faith in the Lordship and Divinity of Christ, an echo of the beginning of the fourth Gospel (i. 1, 'the Word was God'), and an anticipation of its close (xx. 31, 'that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye may have life in his name'). For the words are undoubtedly addressed to Christ, as is evident from the preceding 'to him,' and from the appellation, 'My Lord;' and not an exclamation of astonishment addressed to God. For in the latter case Thomas would utter a profanity unrebuked by the Lord. The words indicate a triumph of faith over doubt. Thomas was not an unbeliever--he was not a doubter from indifference to the truth (as Pontius Pilate), still less from hostility to the truth, but from love of truth. He was an honest and earnest inquirer; his heart was anxious and ready to believe, but his understanding demanded evidence, which he embraced with joy as soon as it was presented. He represents the principle, intellectus precedit fidem, which is not entirely inconsistent with the other, fides precedit intellectum. He was a rationalist in the best sense of the term, animated and controlled by a love of truth. Blessed are those that seek the truth, for they shall find it. This kind of skepticism, or spirit of inquiry rather, is a stimulating and propelling force in the Church, and is necessary to the progress of theological science and historical and philosophical research. To such skepticism the words of the poet may be applied:
'There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds:
He fought his doubts, and gathered strength,
To find a stronger faith his own.'
And yet there is a higher faith, which believes without seeing (ver. 29; (1 Pet. i. 8; 2 Cor. v. 7), which holds fast to the invisible as seeing him (Heb. xi. 27), which goes to Christ as the child to his mother's breast, as heart to heart, as love to love, with undoubting, implicit, unbounded trust and confidence.
The Greek nominative with the article is used for the vocative, as in Matt. xi. 26, where God is addressed in prayer, ho pater; xxvii. 29, chaire ho basileus; in Mark xv. 34, ho theos mou, ho theos mou, eis ti enkatelipes me; in Luke viii. 54, and in many other passages.
Theodore of Mopsnestia: ' Quasi pro miraculo facto Deum collaudat. ' He is followed by Socinians and Rationalists.
The Baptismal Formula.
Matt. xxviii. 19.
Matheteusate panta ta ethne, baptizontes autous
Disciple [make disciples of] all the nations, baptizing them
eis to onoma tou patros
into the Name of the Father,
kai tou huiou
and of the Son,
kai tou hagiou pneumatos,
and of the Holy Ghost;
didaskontes autous terein panta hosa eneteilamen humin.
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
Note.--For an explanation of the Baptismal Formula, which is the basis of the old Trinitarian creeds, and for the various renderings of eis (into, to, in, with reference to), see Schaff and Lange, Com. on Matt. pp. 556-558.
The Confession of the Eunuch.
Acts viii. 37.
Pisteuo ton huion tou theou einai ton Iesoun Christon.
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Note.--This confession of the Ethiopian Eunuch before his baptism by Philip the Deacon, together with the preceding words of Philip, 'If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest' [be baptized], according to the received text (with sundry variations), is not contained in the best Uncial MSS., and is given up by critical editors (Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Alford, Westcott and Hort), as an interpolation made to suit the baptismal service of the Church; but it is found even in Irenaeus and Cyprian, and tends to prove the apostolical origin of a baptismal confession of faith in Christ as the Son of God.
One God and One Lord.
Heis theos ho Pater, There is One God the Father,
ex hou ta panta,
of whom are all things,
kai hemeis eis auton;
and we unto [for] him;
kai eis kurios Iesous Christos,
and One Lord Jesus Christ,
di hou ta panta,
by whom are all things,
kai hemeis di autou.
and we by him.
The Mystery of Godliness.
Homologoumenos mega estin to tes eusebeias musterion;
Confessedly great is the mystery of godliness:
Hos [Theos] ephanerothe en sarki,
'Who [God] was manifested in the flesh,
edikaiothe en pneumati,
justified in the Spirit,
ophthe angelois,
seen of angels,
ekeruchthe en ethnesin,
preached among the Gentiles,
episteuthe en kosmo,
believed on in the world,
anelephthe en doxe.
received up in glory.'
Note.--The relative OC ( hos, who) is best sustained by evidence ( ' AC--though Aleph has been meddled with, and B is wanting), instead of the noun Th C ( theos, God, in the text. rec.), or of the neuter gender, ho (which). See Tischendorf, ed. viii. maj. ii. p. 849, and the long notes of Alford and Wordsworth. The reading hos improves the rhythm without changing the sense; for it certainly refers to Christ the God-Man, whether we connect it with musterion (by transition from the mystery to the person of Him who is the sum and substance of the revelation of God), or regard it (in accordance with the parallelism and continuity of the following clauses) as a quotation from a primitive hymn or confession. Wordsworth refers 'who' to the preceding 'living God,' but God as such can not be said to have been 'received in glory.'
The Elementary Articles.
Dio aphentes ton tes arches tou Christou logon, epi ten teleioteta pherometha; me palin themelion kataballomenoi
Therefore, leaving the word concerning the beginning of [the] Christ, let us go unto perfection [maturity], not laying again a foundation
metanoias apo nekron ergon,
of repentance from dead works,
kai pisteos epi theon,
and of faith in God,
baptismon didaches,
of the doctrine of baptisms [washings],
epitheseos te cheiron,
and of laying on of hands,
anastaseos te nekron,
and of resurrection of the dead,
kai krimatos aioniou.
and of eternal judgment.
Note.--Many commentators suppose that the sacred writer here refers to the fundamental and elementary articles of catechetical instruction in the apostolic Church; but the articles mentioned were held by Christians in common with the Jews, and are distinguished from the fullness of Christian knowledge ( teleiotes ), or 'the strong meat for those who are of full age' (ver. 14). The passage has only a remote bearing on creeds. For details, see the commentaries of Bleek, Tholuck, Delitzsch, Lünemann, Alford, Moll and Kendrick.
Other Allusions to Creeds.
The duty of confessing the faith is taught by our Lord, Matt. x. 32, 33, and by St. Paul, Rom. x. 9, 10.
Allusions to a creed may be found in the following passages:
Acts xvi. 31, where Paul and Silas, in answer to the question of the jailer at Philippi, say: 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved, and thy house.'
Rom. xii. 6: ' The analogy of faith' ( kata ten analogian tes pisteos ).
1 Cor. xv. 3: 'I delivered unto you among the first things that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures,' etc.
2 Tim. i. 13, 14: 'Hold fast the form of sound words [ hupothuposin ton hugiainonton logon , a sketch or outline of the healing words] which thou hast heard from me, in faith and love, in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee [ ten paratheken , or parakatatheken, the deposit] keep, by the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in us.' Comp. ver. 12, and 1 Tim. vi. 20 ( ten paratheken phulaxon ).
Heb. v. 12: 'Ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of god' ( ta stoicheia tes arches ton logion tou theou ). Comp. vi. 1, 2.
1 John iv. 2: 'Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh [ homologei Iesoun Christon en sarki eleluthota ] is of God.'
2 John 10: 'If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine [ tauten ten didachen , viz., the doctrine of Christ, ver. 9], receive him not into your house.'
Jude 3: 'Exhorting that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints' ( te hapax paradotheise tois hagiois pistei ).
So Oehler (Theologie des A. Test. Vol. I. p. 159), and others: 'Our Elohim' is in apposition to the first Jehovah, and 'chd is predicate to the second Jehovah.
So our English Version, Keil, and others, who take 'Jehovah, our Elohim' as the subject, and 'one Jehovah' as the predicate, of the sentence. The Mohammedans have borrowed their monotheistic watchword from the Jews, with a heretical addition--'There is no God but Allah; and Mohammed is his prophet.'
REGULAE FIDEI
ECCLESIAE ANTE-NICAENAE ET NICAENAE.
ANTE-NICENE AND NICENE RULES OF FAITH
AND BAPTISMAL CREEDS.
REGULAE FIDEI ECCLESIAE ANTE-NICAENAE ET NICAENAE
ANTE-NICENE AND NICENE RULES OF FAITH AND BAPTISMAL CREEDS.
REGULAE FIDEI
ECCLESIAE ANTE-NICAENAE ET NICAENAE.
Ante-Nicene and Nicene Rules of Faith and Baptismal Creeds.
Introductory Remarks.
The Rules of Faith and Baptismal Confessions which we find among the ecclesiastical writers of the second and third centuries mark the transition from the Bible to the OEcumenical Creeds. They contain nearly all the articles of the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, and some are even more full, especially those of the East; for the Greek Church was, at an early period, disturbed by heretical speculations and perversions, and had a greater talent and taste for metaphysical theology than the less learned but more sober, practical, and steady Church of the West. I have included here also some creeds of the fourth century, to facilitate the comparison with the Apostles' and the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan symbols. In addition to the valuable collections of Hahn (Bibliothek der Symbols und Glaubensregeln, 1842) and Heurtley (Harmonia Symbolica, 1858, and De Fide et Symbolo, 1869), I have examined the more recent works of Caspari (Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols and der Glaubensregel, 1866-75, 3 vols.), Lumby (History of the Creeds, 1873), Swainson (Literary History of the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds, 1875), and Hort (Two Dissertations, etc., 1876).
Ignatius of Antioch. A.D. 107.
Epistola ad Trallianos, cap. 9.
The following passage is no creed nor part of a creed, but it shows what facts of the gospel history were most prominent in the mind of the famous bishop and martyr Ignatius, of Antioch, and the Church of his age, in opposition to the Gnostic heretics, who resolved the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ into an unreal and delusive show or phantom ( dokesis, hence Docetae}. A similar passage of greater length occurs in the commencement of his letter to the Christians at Smyrna.
The text is from the shorter Greek recension of the seven Epistles, with the chief interpolations of the longer Greek recension added in brackets. The latter mentions also Christ's lonely descent into Hades ( kathelthen eis haden monos ). In the short Syriac Ignatius there is no Epistle to the Trallians. On the Ignatian controversy and literature, see my Church History, Vol. I. § 119, pp. 463 sqq.
Kophothete oun, hotan humin choris Iesou Christou lale tis
Be deaf, therefore, when any would speak to you apart from (at variance with) Jesus Christ [tou huiou tou Theou] [the Son of God], tou ek genous [genomenou] Dabid who was descended from the family of David, tou ek Marias, born of Mary, hos alethos egennethe who truly was born [ kai ek theou kai ek parthenou... [both of God and of the Virgin... alethos anelabe soma; ho Logos truly took a body; for the Word
gar sarx egeneto kai epoliteusato aneu hamartias...],
became flesh and dwelt among us without sin...],
ephagen te kai epien [alethos], ate and drank [truly],
alethos ediochthe epi Pontiou Pilatou, truly suffered persecution under Pontius Pilate,
alethos [de, kai ou dokesei] estaurothe kai apethanen... was truly [and not in appearance] crucified and died...
hos kai alethos egerthe apo nekron [kai aneste dia trion hemeron],
who was also truly raised from the dead [and rose after three days],
egeirontos auton tou Patros autou... his Father raising him up...
[kai tessarakonta hemeras sundiatripsas tois Apostolois, [and after having spent forty days with the Apostles,
anelephthe pros ton Patera; was received up to the Father,
kai ekathisen ek dexion autou, and sits on his right hand,
perimenon heos an tethosin hoi echthroi autou hupo tous podas autou]. waiting till his enemies are put under his feet].
Irenaeus. A.D. 180.
Irenaeus was a native of Asia Minor, a pupil of Polycarp of Smyrna (Adv. Haer. Lib. III. cap. 3, § 4; Euseb. H. E. v. 20), and through him a grand-pupil of St. John the Apostle. He was bishop of the church at Lyons (Lugdunum), in the South of France, in 177, wrote his great work against the Gnostic heresies about 180, while Eleutherus (d. 185) was bishop of Rome (Adv. Haer. Lib. III. cap. 3, § 3), and died about 202.
He was therefore a connecting link between the East and the West, as well as between post-apostolic and ante-Nicene Christianity, and altogether the most important witness of the doctrinal status of the Catholic Church at the close of the second century. The ancient Massilia (Marseilles) was a Greek colony, and the churches of Lyons and Vienne in Gaul were probably planted by Eastern missionaries, and retained a close connection with the Eastern churches, as appears from the letter of those churches to their brethren in Asia Minor after the fierce persecution under Marcus Aurelius, A.D. 177 (see Euseb. H. E. v. 1).
Irenaeus refutes the heretics of his age by the Scriptures and the apostolic tradition. This tradition, though different in form from the New Testament, and perhaps older than the writings of the Apostles, agrees with them, being a summary of their teaching, and is handed down in all the churches through the hands of the presbyters. The sum and substance of this tradition is the baptismal creed, called by him the kanon tes aletheias, apostolon didache, to archaion tes ekklesias sustema, gnosis alethe, traditio veritatis, vera fides, praedicatio ecclesiae. He does not give the creed in full, but incorporates passages of it in several parts of his work. He gives most of the articles of the Apostles' Creed as it prevailed in the West, but has also several characteristic passages in common with the Nicene Creed ( hena... sarkothenta huper tes emeteras soterias... to dia propheton kekeruchos ). The ancient liturgies of Gaul likewise have a semi-Oriental character.
First Form
Contra Haereses, Lib. I. cap. 10, § 1 (Opera, ed. Stieren, Tom. I. p. 119).
He men gar ekklesia, kaiper kath' holes tes oikoumenes heos peraton tes ges diesparmene, para de ton Apostolon kai ton ekeinon matheton paralabousa ten [pistin]
The Church, though scattered through the whole world to the ends of the earth, has received from the Apostles and their disciples the faith
eis hena Theon, Patera pantokratora,
in one God, the Father Almighty,
ton pepoiekota ton ouranon, kai ten gen,
who made the heaven and the earth,
kai tas thalassas, kai panta ta en autois, pistin;
and the seas, and all that in them is;
kai eis hena Christon Iesoun, ton Huion tou Theou,
and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God,
ton sarkothenta huper tes hemeteras soterias;
who became flesh for our salvation;
kai eis Pneuma hagion,
and in the Holy Ghost,
to dia ton propheton kekeruchos tas oikonomias kai tas eleuseis [ten eleusin, adventum ],
who through the prophets preached the dispensations and the advents [advent],
kai ten ek Parthenou gennesin,
and the birth from the Virgin,
kai to pathos,
and the passion,
kai ten egersin ek nekron,
and the resurrection from the dead,
kai ten ensarkon eis tous ouranous analepsin tou egapemenou Christou Iesou, tou Kuriou hemon,
and the bodily assumption into heaven of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord,
kai ten ek ton ouranon en te doxe tou Patros parousian autou,
and his appearing from heaven in the glory of the Father,
epi to anakephalaiosasthai ta panta, to comprehend all things under one head,
kai anastesai pasan sarka pases anthropotetos,
and to raise up all flesh of all mankind,
hina Christo Iesou, to Kurio hemon, kai Theo, kai Soteri, kai basilei, kata ten eudokian tou Patros tou aoratou, pan gonu kampse epouranion kai epigeion kai katachthonion, kai pasa glossa exomologesetai auto, kai krisin dikaian en tois pasi poiesetai, ta men pneumatika tes ponerias, kai angelous parabebekotas, kai en apostasia gegonotas, kai tous asebeis, kai adikous kai anomous kai blasphemous ton anthropon eis to aionion pur pempse; tois de dikaiois, kai hosiois, kai tas entolas autou teterekosi kai en te agape autou diamemenekosi, tois ap' arches, tois de ek metanoias, zoen charisamenos, aphtharsian doresetai, kai doxan aionian peripoiese.
that, according to the good pleasure of the Father invisible, every knee of those that are in heaven and on the earth and under the earth should bow before Christ Jesus, our Lord and God and Saviour and King, and that every tongue should confess to him, and that he may execute righteous judgment over all: sending into eternal fire the spiritual powers of wickedness, and the angels who transgressed and apostatized, and the godless and unrighteous and lawless and blasphemous among men, and granting life and immortality and eternal glory to the righteous and holy, who have both kept the commandments and continued in his love, some from the beginning, some after their conversion.
Note.--Irenaeus adds to this Creed: 'The Church, having received this preaching and this faith, as before said, though scattered throughout the whole world, zealously preserves it ( epimelos phulassei ) as one household, ... and unanimously preaches and teaches the same, and hands it down as by one mouth ( sumphonos tauta kerussei kai didaskei kai paradidosin, hos hen stoma kiktemene ); for although there are different dialects in the world, the power of the tradition is one and the same ( he dunamis tes paradoseos mia kai he aute ). And in no other manner have either the churches established in Germany believed and handed down, nor those in Spain, nor among the Celts, nor in the East, nor in Egypt, nor in Libya, nor those established in the middle of the world. But as the sun, God's creature, is one and the same in all the world, so, too, the preaching of the truth shines every where and enlightens all men who wish to come to the knowledge of the truth. And neither will he who is very mighty in language among those who preside over the churches say other than this (for the disciple is not above his Master), nor will he who is weak in the word impair the tradition. For as the faith is one and the same, neither he who is very able to speak on it adds thereto, nor does he who is less mighty diminish therefrom.'
Second Form
Adv. Haer., Lib. III. cap. 4, § 1, 2 (Opera, Tom. I. p. 437).
If the Apostles had not left to us the Scriptures, would it not be necessary to follow the order of tradition, which those to whom they committed the churches handed down? To this order many nations of barbarians give assent, those who believe in Christ having salvation written in their hearts by the Spirit without paper and ink, and guarding diligently the ancient tradition, In unum Deum credentes, believing in one God, Fabricatorem caeli et terrae, Maker of heaven and earth, et omnium quae in eis sunt, and all that in them is,
Per Christum Jesum Dei Filium;