I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Luther, who called this creed one of the oecumenical confessions, adopted its previous recognition in the Church. He also held the common idea, prevalent in the Western Church since the sixth century, though already found in an explanation of the symbol by Ambrose, that the apostles had framed it. To each apostle, beginning with Peter, was ascribed a clause, perhaps owing to the faulty etymology of “symbol” as contribution. But the silence of the N. T., of the fathers of the Church down to the fifth century, of the whole Eastern Church, and the many and various forms of the creed, militate against this theory. The Apostles’ Creed was the result of growth. It originated from the baptismal confession, which delivered orally to the catechumens, was memorized. Changes or additions were introduced as heresies made it necessary to unfold the evangelical truth implied in and connected with its simple statements. Knowing the present form it can be traced back to its beginning, which was not in Rome in the second century (Harnack), but in apostolic times. It is probable from the comparison of 1 Tim. 6:12, 13; 2 Tim. 2:8; Rom. 1:3; 2 Tim. 4:1; Acts 10:42; 1 Pet. 4:5; 2 Tim. 2:2; 3:10; 1:13, 14, that Timothy at his baptism confessed Christ as “of the seed of David,” standing “before Pontius Pilate,” to come “to judge the quick and the dead.” This form reminding of the Jewish soil in the words “of the seed of David,” was changed between 70–120 to accord with the need of Gentile catechumens. In 130 we find this new form in Ephesus, 145 in Rome, and 180–210 in Carthage, Lyons, and Smyrna. It is the foundation of all baptismal confessions of the East and West. In it were added, as far as can be ascertained, “one God, the Almighty,” a fuller definition of Christ, and the words “a holy Church” leading gradually to other parts of the third article. About 200–220 “one” was omitted in Rome, because the Monarchian heretics used it to oppose Christ’s divinity, and “Father” was inserted. The churches of Italy, Africa, and Southern France adopted this change, while it was not introduced in the East. The Roman form, used in Rome and its closely allied churches down to 460 without change, is, according to a consensus of texts of the fourth century: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty; and in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, our Lord, born of the Holy Spirit and Mary the Virgin, crucified and buried under Pontius Pilate, risen on the third day from the dead, ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of the Father, whence he cometh to judge the quick and the dead; and in the Holy Ghost, the holy Church, forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the flesh.” In the Gallic, African, and Eastern churches changes had meantime been going on, whose history is mostly unknown, but in the fifth century Rome received, probably from Southern France, the later form, which is the present. Its additions are: “Creator of heaven and earth,” which was in most confessions since the council of Nice; “conceived by the Holy Ghost,” which only states the old form more fully; “suffered;” “died;” “descended into hell,” derived from the confession of Aquileia and originally interpreted by Rufinus “buried” (sepultus), but really containing the truth of Christ’s descent to the place of departed spirits; “catholic” used in its original sense, universal, for which the Lutheran Church has “Christian;” “communion of saints,” found first in the symbol of Nicetas (400) apparently with the meaning “fellowship of saints,” but perhaps also including participation in all holy things as e.g. the Sacraments, not, however, signifying “congregation of saints,” a meaning traced in Africa, prevalent since Luther as definition of “Church,” which is scriptural but not the original historical sense; “life everlasting” from the symbol of Ravenna.
The Apostles’ Creed is in content apostolic truth, “taken from the Bible and summarized” (Luther). Opposition to its statements rests upon critical rejection of the genuineness of essential parts of N. T. truth. Its force is irenic and unifying, its form rhythmic, and its brevity and comprehensiveness fits it for the creed of the people. Wisely has it therefore been made the basis of the creed in Luther’s Larger and Smaller Catechisms, in which Luther’s explanation, comprehensive and concise, has added, in sentences of harmonious structure and poetic power, the element of individual, truly evangelical, believing appropriation of the great objective facts of the Apostles’ Creed.
T. Zahn (Das Apostol. Symbolum), 1893; Seeberg, (Dogmengesch.). 1. p. 47 ff; Harnack, Dog. G., I. p. 148; for detail literature see Seeberg, p. 49; Realencycl. (3d ed.) 1. p. 471.
J. H.
John A. W. Haas, The Lutheran Cyclopedia, 1899, 20–21.