The Apostles' Creed
Adolf Harnack, Thomas Bailey SaundersBooks.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
The first to place the three creeds, the Apostolic, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan, and the Athanasian, side by side, as a full expression of the ecumenical confessions in the Church (with the addition of the Te Deum Laudamus) was probably Luther. Certain it is that it was only after his time, that is, after the second half of the sixteenth century, that Protestants first spoke definitely of the three ancient symbols. Yet it is also certain on the other hand that in the West these very three symbols had been in use in the churches, and had enjoyed great consideration, at least as much as five centuries earlier. [2] In the strict sense of the word, however, the predicate "ecumenical" applies only to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, for in the Eastern Church neither the Apostolic nor the Athanasian confession of faith has at any time received official recognition. [3] Indeed, the Eastern Church has at no time traced any creed to an Apostolic origin, or designated any as Apostolic in the strict sense of the word. [4] In the West, on the other hand, the three symbols form part of the confessional writings of the main Church, and the shortest of them (Symbolum minus) bears the very name "Apostolicum." But we also find the name "Apostolic" here and there established and in use in the West as a designation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed; [5] nor is this only among Greeks who had become latinised. The three chief churches of the West possess the Symbolum Apostolicum in a form which agrees in all essential points ("Textus Receptus"). We shall therefore have to begin by treating of the origin of the creed in this form.Synopsis
The first to place the three creeds, the Apostolic, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan, and the Athanasian, side by side, as a full expression of the ecumenical confessions in the Church (with the addition of the Te Deum Laudamus) was probably Luther. Certain it is that it was only after his time, that is, after the second half of the sixteenth century, that Protestants first spoke definitely of the three ancient symbols. Yet it is also certain on the other hand that in the West these very three symbols had been in use in the churches, and had enjoyed great consideration, at least as much as five centuries earlier. [2] In the strict sense of the word, however, the predicate "ecumenical" applies only to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, for in the Eastern Church neither the Apostolic nor the Athanasian confession of faith has at any time received official recognition. [3] Indeed, the Eastern Church has at no time traced any creed to an Apostolic origin, or designated any as Apostolic in the strict sense of the word. [4] In the West, on the other hand, the three symbols form part of the confessional writings of the main Church, and the shortest of them (Symbolum minus) bears the very name "Apostolicum." But we also find the name "Apostolic" here and there established and in use in the West as a designation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed; [5] nor is this only among Greeks who had become latinised. The three chief churches of the West possess the Symbolum Apostolicum in a form which agrees in all essential points ("Textus Receptus"). We shall therefore have to begin by treating of the origin of the creed in this form.