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-begoten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all thngs were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit 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 sits at the right hand of the Father. And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy christian 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.
The creed adopted by the Council of Nice in 325 was the baptismal formula of Cæsarea offered by Eusebius, with a number of additions and amendments, making its declaration of the Divinity of Christ more rigid. (See the “Formula of Cæsarea” and “Nicene Creed,” in parallel columns in Jacobs, Book of Concord, II. 20 sqq.) Until recently, the received opinion has been that this creed was amended in the Council of Constantinople of 381. But the researches of Prof. Hort of Cambridge disprove this theory. The creed as we now have it is earlier than 381, being found in Epiphanius in 374, and is not ascribed to that council until 451. The changes from the Nicene Formula of 325 are indicated in volume and place above cited. The probability is, that, as the true Nicene Creed is a revision of the baptismal formula of Cæsarea, so the Nicene Creed, as we know it, or the so-called Constantinopolitan, is an independent revision of a similar baptismal formula (Harnack says, of Jerusalem), which about the year 500 supplanted the creed of 325. (See Seeberg’s Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, I. 190; Loofs, Leitfaden, 158; Harnack in 2d ed. of Herzog, and in Dogmengeschichte, II. 266 sqq.) The value of the Nicene, like that of the Apostles’ Creed, rests not upon the correctness of the name by which it is known, but upon its scriptural character. Every word has reference to some historical circumstance calling for a doctrinal statement. “In truly lapidary style, every clause is a shout of triumph over a victory, and a tombstone over some vanquished foe” (Alt.).
Originally belonging to the mysteries of the faith, it was first introduced into the public service by Peter Fullo, Bishop of Antioch (471), and was adopted in Spain for this purpose by the Council of Toledo (589). It became Roman usage under Benedict VIII. in 1014. The Nicene Creed was said directly after the reading of the Gospel, on all Sundays and festivals.
Luther, in revising the service, retained the Nicene Creed in his Formula Missæ of 1523, and was followed by most Lutheran Orders. Dober’s Mass and Bugenhagen have the Apostles’ Creed in its place. In the “German Mass” of 1526, Luther prescribes a verified paraphrase, “Wir glauben all an einen Gott,” to be sung by the people. The Apostles’ Creed is properly the baptismal confession, and the creed of the minor services. The common service gives the Nicene Creed the first place. It is to be used on all the chief festivals and at every communion. (See chapter in Calvor, Rituale Ecclesiæ (1705); Kliefoth, Liturgische Abhandlungen, III. 311; V. 45; Alt, Christlicher Cultus, I. 564 sqq., containing a very full explanation of the Creed, sentence by sentence.)
Henry E. Jacobs, The Lutheran Cyclopedia, 1899, 340–341.