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1. I Believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. 2. And

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1. I Believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth. 2. And 1. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. 2. And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, 3. suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. 4. He descended into hell. On the third day He rose again from the dead. 5. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. 6. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. 7. I believe in the Holy Spirit, 8. the holy Christian Church, 9. the communion of saints, 10. the forgiveness of sins, 11. the resurrection of the body, 12. and the life everlasting. Amen. 1 Creeds in general - c. Cullmann’s theory of formulation O. Cullmann, The Earliest Christian Confessions, E.T. 1949, pp. 25ff., has set forth the theory that the formulation of early creeds was controlled partly by the polemical needs of the church in the pagan world. When arraigned before the magistrates and required to attest their allegiance, the Christians’ reply would be ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’; and thus a credal form was shaped and systematized. The NT ‘creeds’ range in scope from the simple confession, ‘Jesus is Lord’, to implicit Trinitarian formulations, as in the apostolic benediction of 2 Cor. 13:14 and such references as Mt. 28:19 (on which, see Martin, Worship in the Early Church, ch. 8; A. W. Wainwright, The Trinity in the New Testament, 1962); 1 Cor. 12:4ff.; 2 Cor. 1:21ff.;, 1 Pet. 1:2; but excepting the interpolated 1 Jn. 5:7f. There are binitarian creeds which associate the Father and the Son, as in 1 Cor. 8:6 (which may be a Christianized version of the Jewish credo known as the Shema‘, based on Dt. 6:4ff.); 1 Tim. 2:5f.; 6:13f.; 2 Tim. 4:1. The main type, however, is the Christological formula with such detailed summaries as in 1 Cor. 15:3ff.; Rom. 1:3; 8:34; Phil. 2:5–11; 2 Tim. 2:8; 1 Tim. 3:16 (on which, see R. H. Gundry in Apostolic History and the Gospel, ed. W. W. Gasque and R. P. Martin, 1970, pp. 203–222) and 1 Pet. 3:18ff. (on which, see R. Bultmann, Coniectanea Neotestamentica 11, 1949, pp. 1–14).1 CREED. Formal fixed Christian creeds began to appear only in the 3rd and 4th cent., but they have their roots in biblical statements of faith. In the OT there are affirmations such as, “the Lord is our God, the Lord alone” (Deut 6:4; similarly 1 Kgs 18:39). There are also recitations of God’s saving deeds, such as the one Moses tells the Israelites to pass on to their children (Deut 6:21–23). In the NT there is the simple creedal acclamation: “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor 12:3; Phil 2:11). Paul elaborates, “if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). There are two-member formulae declaring that Jesus was crucified and that God raised him up (Acts 2:23; 4:10; 5:30–31; 10:39–40). In 1 Cor 15:3–7 is a statement with four elements: Christ died, was buried, was raised, and appeared to believers. A more developed recitation is found in 1 Tim 3:16: “He was revealed in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.” 1 Martin, R. P. (1996). Creed. In D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer, & D. J. Wiseman (Eds.), New Bible dictionary (3rd ed., pp. 241–242). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. cent. century 2 Such formulations, with their poetic rhythms, were used in liturgical contexts. Jesus’ command to his disciples to make disciples and to baptize them “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19) is clearly reflective of an early Christian baptismal liturgy. See CREDO, ANCIENT ISRAELITE; SHEMA, THE. BARBARA REID, OP2 ;shemaʿ]. The Shema is a prayer (Deut 6:4–9; 11:13–21 שְׁמַע] ´SHEMA, THE shuh-mah Num 15:37–41) that states the core beliefs of Judaism, primarily monotheistic faith: “Hear (shemaʿ), O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord alone.” The first paragraph declares God is the only supreme force; the second introduces reward and punishment; and the third recalls the exodus. These three themes underlie the obligation to obey God’s commandments. The exhortation to “Recite [these words] … when you lie down and when you rise” (Deut 6:7) was understood by tannaitic tradition as a command to recite the Shema morning and night. In later tradition the Shema was recited on one’s deathbed or on the verge of martyrdom. The Dead Sea Scrolls allude to the recitation of the Shema twice daily (1QS X, 10), which is also the first topic of discussion in the Mishnah. The Shema articulates several core commandments of Judaism: to love God and serve God with all of one’s resources; to teach this to children; to recite the Shema; to wear PHYLACTERIES and affix a MEZUZAH to each doorpost; not to worship other gods. The mezuzah and phylacteries (written on small scrolls, rolled or folded into their respective cases) feature in the first two paragraphs of the Shema. The third paragraph commands to attach fringes to four-cornered garments in order to protect people from temptation and sin so that they will be holy. God then recalls that it is he who accomplished the exodus “to be your God” (Num 15:41). The Nash Papyrus (ca. 150 BCE) contains Deut 6:4–5 as well as the TEN COMMANDMENTS. The tefillin and mezuzot found at Qumran also contain the first two paragraphs of the Shema, although inclusion of additional passages distinguishes them from modern tefillin. In the NT (Mark 12:28–31), Jesus is asked, “Which commandment is the first?” He recites the Shema (Deut 6:4–5) and adds a second commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). In the Matthean parallel (22:36), Jesus begins the quotation with Deut 6:4b, “You shall love the Lord your God …,” connecting the love of God and love of neighbor, and emphasizing the primacy of these two principles, upon which “hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt 22:40). Jesus’ quotations confirm the significance of the Shema in the Jewish practice of his time. See GOD, OT VIEW OF. LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN3 2 Reid, B. (2006–2009). Creed. In K. D. Sakenfeld (Ed.), The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Vol. 1, p. 788). Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. ´ Secondary Stress ca. circa 3 Schiffman, L. H. (2006–2009). Shema, The. In K. D. Sakenfeld (Ed.), The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (Vol. 5, p. 225). Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 3 CREED It is not easy to distinguish between “creeds”—the term used of rudimentary confessions of faith expressing Christian conviction—and other types of liturgical material as they appear in the Pauline letters. Clearly a full-scale creed, in the later sense of essential articles of the Christian faith enjoying ecclesiastical sanction, is not discernible in the NT letters. But there are fragments enshrining cardinal beliefs present in the hymns, baptismal responses and eucharistic forms which Pauline research has brought to light. 1. Marks and Usage of Creeds 2. Central Affirmation of the Creeds 3. Types of Confession 1. Marks and Usage of Creeds. Some of the telltale marks indicating the presence of creedal formulae are seen in 1 Corinthians 15:3–5: (1) The four-times-repeated “that” (hoti) suggests Paul is consciously citing material forming a set of propositions (e.g., that “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures”). (2) The vocabulary in these verses is full of rare terms and expressions Paul never uses in other places. (3) The introducing verbs that say that Paul “received” (parelabon) what follows as part of the instruction he had known in his early days as a new believer, and now in turn “handed on” (paredōka) to the Corinthians, are semitechnical terms for the transmission of “holy words” of the faith, both Jewish and Christian (see Tradition). (4) In its content this same passage looks to Isaiah 53 as a passion—and resurrection—testimonium, and it is argued (by R. H. Fuller) that Paul only uses such scriptural proof of the Suffering Servant when he is consciously indebted to his predecessors. Creedal formulations and hymnic material are not easy to separate on stylistic grounds (see Liturgical Elements). Bultmann has usefully made the distinction that the early confessions of faith tended to be expressed in simple, succinct sentences like “Jesus is the Christ” or “Jesus is Lord,” whereas the hymns represented a longer statement of the person and achievement of Christ (as in Phil 2:6–11; Col 1:15–20) capable of being analyzed in stanzas and sections. But ultimately the distinction is not important since creedal materials and hymnic compositions overlap. We confine our attention here, however, to the former type. Recent investigation of Paul’s use of rhetorical forms and structures in his letters (see Rhetoric) has suggested reasons for his introducing quoted materials, notably creedal fragments. Paul as letter writer put his epistolary compositions together in an artistic way, cleverly designed to make maximum appeal to his readers whom he needed to win over to his theological point of view.
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