Hi! Welcome to “Dusty Phrases.” You will find below an ancient phrase in one language or another, along with its English translation. You may also find the power to inspire your friends or provoke dread among your enemies.
This is the first line from ‘The Apostles’ Creed’ in its original Latin. I recommend learning prayers, creeds, etc., in the original Latin. If you are part of a 2,000 year old Body, then communicating in the language that the Body used for most of that 2,000 years helps you feel connected to not just the long history of the Church, but also to its global nature. It promotes unity. Plus, Latin usually just sounds cooler.
The topic of creeds has been a point of interest in the U.S. Christian community recently. About a year ago, the Southern Baptist Convention debated whether or not to adopt the Nicene Creed (which is very similar to the Apostles’ Creed – and for a great article on the two click HERE) though the SBC ultimately decided against the adoption – at least in the short term. Technically, the SBC did not reject the Creed itself. The Church (probably wisely) made it very difficult to make changes to “The Baptist Faith and Message” so it is likely that last summer’s efforts were a first step in what will likely require many steps.
The Southern Baptists are the largest Protestant Denomination in the U.S., however, they are also decidedly in the global minority of Christianity as a whole, on certain issues – the issue of creeds among them. As someone who grew up in the SBC, I reached out to a couple of my friends who are/were deeply enmeshed in the Church we all attended, and asked if they’d ever even heard of the Apostles’ Creed growing up, and both said no (though they knew what it was when I reminded them of the song titled ‘Creed’ by Rich Mullins / Third Day.) This lack of knowledge absolutely blows the mind of some people who grew up Catholic, or in other Protestant traditions. Yet, all too often, those same Creed-not-knowing Southern Baptists can Bible Trivia the others into the dirt.
Perhaps eventually we’ll see an effort to unite – with everyone bringing their respective strengths to the table.
The Apostles’ Creed is actually pretty useful. It’s an excellent summary of what Christianity actually is – an increasingly difficult thing to define here in the 21st century.
The Apostles’ Creed (Latin: Symbolum Apostolorum or Symbolum Apostolicum), sometimes titled the Apostolic Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, is a Christiancreed or “symbol of faith”.
The expression “Apostles’ Creed” is first mentioned in a letter from the Synod of Milan dated AD 390, referring to a belief at the time that each of the Twelve Apostles contributed an article to the twelve articles of the creed.
History
The ecclesiastical use of Latin symbolum for ‘creed’—in the sense of “a distinctive mark of Christians”, from the sense of Greek σύμβολον, ‘a sign or token used for identification’—first occurs around the middle of the 3rd century, in the correspondence of St. Cyprian and St. Firmilian, the latter in particular speaking of the trinitarian formula as the “Symbol of the Trinity“, and recognizing it as an integral part of the rite of baptism. The term Symbolum Apostolicum appears for the first time in a letter, probably written by Ambrose, from a Council in Milan to Pope Siricius in about AD 390: “Let them give credit to the Symbol of the Apostles, which the Roman Church has always kept and preserved undefiled”. Ambrose’s term is here referring to the Old Roman Creed, the immediate predecessor of what is now known as the Apostles’ Creed. The narrative of this creed having been jointly created by the Apostles, with each of the twelve contributing one of twelve articles, was already current at that time.
This illumination from a 13th-century manuscript shows the apostles writing the Creed, receiving inspiration from the Holy Spirit.
The Old Roman Creed had evolved from simpler texts based on Matthew 28:19, part of the Great Commission, and it has been argued that this earlier text was already in written form by the late 2nd century (c. 180).
The earliest known formula is found within Testamentum in Galilaea D[omini]. N[ostri]. I[esu]. Christi written between 150 and 180. This formula states: “[I believe] in the Father almighty, – and in Jesus Christ, our Savior; – and in the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, in the holy Church, and in the remission of sins.” As can be seen, it lacks the Christological part of the Old Roman Creed.
While the individual statements of belief that are included in the Apostles’ Creed – even those not found in the Old Roman Symbol – are found in various writings by Irenaeus, Tertullian, Novatian, Marcellus, Rufinus, Ambrose, Augustine, Nicetas, and Eusebius Gallus, the earliest appearance of what we know as the Apostles’ Creed was in the De singulis libris canonicis scarapsus (‘Excerpt from Individual Canonical Books’) of St. Pirminius (Migne, Patrologia Latina 89, 1029 ff.), written between 710 and 714. Bettenson and Maunder state that it is first from Dicta Abbatis Pirminii de singulis libris canonicis scarapsus (idem quod excarpsus, excerpt), c. 750.
The text of what is now known as the Apostles’ Creed was most likely developed in southern Gaul around the midpoint of the 5th century. A creed that is virtually identical to the current one is recorded by Faustus of Riez. It is possible that Faustus had the identical text, as the original text written by Faustus cannot be reconstructed with certainty. A version that is identical to the current one with the single exception of infera in place of inferos is recorded in the late 5th century. However, the Old Roman Creed remained the standard liturgical text of the Roman Church throughout the 4th to 7th centuries. It was replaced by the “Gallic” version of the Apostles’ Creed only in the later 8th century, under Charlemagne, who imposed it throughout his dominions.
The phrase descendit ad inferos (‘he descended into hell‘) is not found in the Nicene Creed. It echoes Ephesians 4:9, “κατέβη εἰς τὰ κατώτερα μέρη τῆς γῆς” (‘he descended into the lower earthly regions’). This phrase first appeared in one of the two versions of Rufinus (d. 411), the Creed of Aquileia, and then did not appear again in any version of the creed until AD 650. Similarly, the references to the communion of saints is found neither in the Old Roman Symbol nor in the Nicene Creed. The reference to God as “creator of heaven and earth” likewise is not in the Nicene Creed of 325, but it is present in the extended version of the Nicene Creed (the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) of 381.
The Eastern Orthodox Church does not use the Apostles’ Creed, not because of an objection to any of its articles, but because of its omissions necessary for the definition of Nicene Christianity. The Orthodox delegates at the Council of Florence (1431–1449) explicitly challenged the western tradition that attributed the Apostles’ Creed to the Twelve Apostles. This tradition was also shown to be historically untenable by Lorenzo Valla. The Roman Church does not state that text dates back to the Apostles themselves, the Roman catechism instead explaining that “the Apostles’ Creed is so called because it is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the apostles’ faith.”
Text
The following gives the original Latin text, with the traditional division into twelve articles, alongside an English translation. Underlined passages are those not present in the Old Roman Symbol as recorded by Tyrannius Rufinus.
1. Credo in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae,
I believe in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
2. et in Iesum Christum, Filium Eius unicum, Dominum nostrum,
3. qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine,
who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary,
4. passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus,
who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried,
5. descendit ad inferos, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis,
descended into hell, rose again from the dead on the third day,
6. ascendit ad caelos, sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis,
ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty,
7. inde venturus est iudicare vivos et mortuos.
who will come again to judge the living and the dead.
8. Credo in Spiritum Sanctum,
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
9. sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, sanctorum communionem,
the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints,
10. remissionem peccatorum,
the forgiveness of sins,
11. carnis resurrectionem,
the resurrection of the body,
12. vitam aeternam. Amen.
and the life everlasting. Amen.
There is also a received Greek text, which alongside the Latin is found in the Psalterium Græcum et Romanum, erroneously ascribed to Pope Gregory the Great. It was first edited by Archbishop Ussher in 1647, based on a manuscript preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. The Latin text agrees with the “Creed of Pirminius” edited by Charles Abel Heurtley (De Fide Symbolo, 1900, p. 71). Four other Greek translations with slight variations were discovered by Carl Paul Caspari, and published in 1879 (Alte und neue Quellen zur Geschichte des Taufsymbols, vol. 3, pp. 11 sqq.).
The tradition of assigning each article to one of the apostles specifically can be traced to the 6th century. In Western sacral art, Credo Apostolorum refers to the figurative representation of the twelve apostles each alongside one of the articles. This artistic tradition extends from the high medieval to the Baroque period.
The precise division of the text and the sequence of attribution to the apostles has never been entirely fixed. For example, Pelbartus Ladislaus of Temesvár, writing in the late 15th century, divides article 5 in two but combines articles 11 and 12 into one, with the following attributions:
If you want to start practicing the Apostles Creed, in Latin, (you should because it will impress your friends and strengthen you against your enemies) then this video below provides a fantastic tutorial:
And if you prefer the Creed in song, I give you the late, the great, one of my favorite artists of all time, Mr. Rich Mullins:
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