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 , 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 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 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). . 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. One way he chose to do this was to cite creedal material, sometimes with added redactional touches to emphasize or to correct a previously cherished statement, as a common basis he believes will maintain the friendly relationship (Gr. philophronēsis) with his readers. Evidence of this is seen in Romans 1:3–4; 3:24–26; 2 Corinthians 5:18–21 and the hymnic Philippians 2:6–11. It is not surprising that he should employ this device since he is often building his polemical case 4 on what he regarded as “received” Christian convictions which he and his congregations shared. One sure way to recall the errant members to his gospel was to draw out the implications of a “creed” they had accepted but momentarily had deserted because of alien teachings (e.g., 2 Cor 11:12–15; Col 2:8).

2. Central Affirmation of the Creeds. The Pauline churches were made up of believing men and women whose new life in Christ was oriented to the risen Lord. Paul assumed that whatever the source of the proclamation that brought the saving message, it centered on the resurrection of Christ (1 Cor 15:11). This basic conviction gave the communities a sense of identity in the social world around them (1 Cor 10:32) and a missionary impulse to proclaim and embody the gospel in that social setting (Gal 1:8–9; 1 Cor 9:19–23; 15:1–2; 1 Thess 2:13). Moreover, possessing a body of Christian truth explains how, from the start, the church was a worshipping community with a devotion that centered on Christ as living Lord (Mt 18:20; 1 Cor 5:4; 16:22). Gradually this limpid confession of the risen Christ (seen in the later epigraphic motto of the fish, represented in Greek by the code word ICHTHYS, i.e., Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, the Greek words’ initials forming the word for fish, which in turn derives from such passages as Mk 1:17; 6:38–44 and par.; Jn 21:9–14) underwent developments according to the situations in which Christians were encouraged or required to confess their faith. Simple piety, however, still persisted, and in an unsophisticated form believers retained for several centuries an undeveloped faith in Christ’s person without much theological refinement.

3. Types of Confession. The life settings of the Pauline creedal forms are as follows: 3.1. Mission Preaching. With a body of doctrinal and practical beliefs known variously as “the word of life” (Phil 2:16), “the standard of teaching” (Rom 6:17), “the faith” (Col 2:6–7), “the truth” (Col 1:5; 2 Thess 2:13), “the gospel” (Rom 2:16; 16:25; Phil 1:7, 27), Paul’s churches confronted the pagan world around them, sought to win over new converts and then to indoctrinate fledgling members. At the core of such mission proclamation was the claim that God has exalted Jesus as sovereign Lord (Rom 10:9–10; see Exaltation) and that faith is seen primarily as obedience to his authority (Rom 1:5; 14:9). 3.2. Cultic Worship. As new adherents were led to confess Christ as Lord (Rom 10:9– 10) and to accept a new life in him (Col 2:6), it was natural that the honor paid in worship that put the risen Lord at the center would follow. The baptismal confession “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor 12:3; Rom 10:9–10; cf. Eph 5:26) and the Lord’s Supper service which is interpreted by Paul as a “proclaiming” of Christ’s death in an eschatological context (1 Cor 11:26) are the clearest ways in which Christ crucified and living, with his parousia anticipated (1 Cor 16:22), was set at the heart of worship practices in Paul’s congregations. par. parallel passage in another/other Gospel(s) 5 3.3. Opposition. As the Pauline churches met resistance and their beliefs were challenged, first by Jewish debaters and then from within, so the creeds became more nuanced to the situation. The primary creed confessing the messiahship of Jesus gave way to longer expositions hailing his cosmic authority over demonic powers (Phil 2:6– 11; Col 1:15–20; 1 Tim 3:16; see Principalities and Powers) which were placed in opposition to rival christologies and cosmologies (see World, Cosmology). Part of Paul’s response was to build on the Jewish monotheistic credo (Deut 6:4–5; Is 45:22) with its belief in one God (1 Cor 8:6) and to christianize it with a confession of the lordship of Christ, both pre-existent (Phil 2:6; 1 Cor 10:4; 2 Cor 8:9) and exalted (Phil 2:9–11; Rom 1:3–4). See also HYMNS, HYMN FRAGMENTS, SONGS, SPIRITUAL SONGS; LITURGICAL ELEMENTS; WORSHIP. BIBLIOGRAPHY. H. Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church (London: Oxford University Press, 1943); R. Bultmann, “Bekenntnisund Liedfragmente im ersten Petrusbrief,” Coniectanea Neotestamentica 11 (1949) 1–14; H. Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1975); O. Cullmann, The Earliest Christian Confessions (London: Lutterworth, 1949); R. H. Fuller, The Mission and Achievement of Jesus (London: SCM, 1954); G. A. Kennedy, New Testament Interpretation through Rhetorical Criticism (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1984); R. P. Martin, Worship in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974); V. H. Neufeld, The Earliest Christian Confessions (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1963). R. P. Martin4

R. P. Martin Martin, Ralph P., Ph.D. Professor, Department of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England: Center of Paul’s Theology; Creed; Early Catholicism; God; Hymns, Hymn Fragments, Songs, Spiritual Songs; Worship. 4 Hawthorne, G. F., Martin, R. P., & Reid, D. G. (Eds.). (1993). In Dictionary of Paul and his letters (pp. 190–192). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 6 The Apostle’s Creed research articles

4/18/2016 The Theology of the Ancient Creeds Part 2: The Apostles' Creed - Research - Chalcedon

The Theology of the Ancient Creeds Part 2: The Apostles' Creed By Greg Uttinger – bioCategory: Articles

Christianity, History, and Matter

As Christianity is a religion of words, it is also a religion of history and matter. Scripture begins with the creation of the temporal, material universe: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). God created man to function within that material and temporal environment (Gen. 1:26ff; 2:7, 15).

Yet God pronounced His creation "very good" (Gen. 1:31). Creation was not flawed because it was composed of matter or because it moved and changed in time. Man was not sinful because he was human or because his body was flesh. Sin began in man's heart when he chose to reject God's word and disobey His commandment (Gen. 3:1-7). Sin comes from the heart, not the body, from man's inner being, not from his environment (Mark 7:14-23).

For Christianity, then, salvation is redemption from sin and its effects: its goal is "the restitution of all things" ( Acts 3:21; cf. Rom. 8:18-23). Every other religion1 invites man to step out of history and creation into something else — pure spirit, non-existence, godhood; the Christian religion says that God has stepped into history to redeem and restore His creation.

The Bible not only begins with history; it is itself a book of history. It describes God's covenant acts in history from creation to the coming of Christ. It gives us genealogies and chronologies. It talks about real geography and calendar dates. It comes as biography and autobiography. Even the apostles' doctrinal letters were written to historical churches to meet actual and specific needs, and those letters at every point assume a historical Christ. In fact, when Paul summarized the gospel message, he wrote about the Christ of history:

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the

7 third day according to the scriptures: and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once . . . (1 Cor. 15:3-6a).

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory (1 Tim. 3:16).

A Historical, Trinitarian Confession

"God was manifest in the flesh." The Christ of history is also the eternal Son of God. The Christian faith is Trinitarian as well as historical, and any confession of Christ must be both, at least implicitly. Jesus commanded His disciples to baptize believers "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28:19). It was natural enough, then, for officers of the early church to ask candidates for such questions as: "Do you believe in God the Father? Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?" We actually have one such set of questions from about AD 215:

Do you believe in God the Father All Governing?

Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, Who was begotten by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and died (and was buried) and rose the third day living from the dead, and ascended into the heavens, and sat down on the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead?

Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, in the holy Church, and (in the resurrection of the dead)?2

At this early date, the Trinitarian questions had already become more detailed, particularly the second. And the material that was added consisted of the very historical details that Paul and the other Apostles placed at the heart of the gospel: the incarnation, the crucifixion, the burial, the resurrection, and the ascension.

The

Even earlier, however, the Church Fathers spoke of a Rule of Faith, a summary of those things that Christians must certainly believe. The Fathers followed in the Apostles' steps, recognizing that certain historical events were at the heart of Biblical Christianity. The

8 words of the Rule were not yet fixed, but the content was fairly consistent from writer to writer. Ignatius of Antioch anticipates the Rule, writing about AD 107:

Stop your ears, therefore, when any one speaks to you at variance with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, and was also of Mary; who was truly born, and did eat and drink. He was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate; He was truly crucified and [truly] died, in the sight of beings in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth. He was also truly raised from the dead, His Father quickening Him, even as after the same manner His Father will so raise up us who believe in Him by Christ Jesus, apart from whom we do not possess the true life.3About AD 180, the presbyters of Smyrna spoke of "what has been handed down."

We also know in truth one God, we know Christ, we know the Son, suffering as he suffered, dying as he died, and risen on the third day, and abiding at the right hand of the Father, and coming to judge the living and the dead. And in saying this we say what has been handed down to us.4 (c. AD 180) formulated the Rule of Faith in three different ways. Here is second.

To this order many nations of barbarians give assent . . . believing in one God, Maker of heaven and earth, and all that in them is, through Christ Jesus the Son of God; Who, for his astounding love towards his creatures, sustained the birth of the Virgin, himself uniting his manhood to God, and suffered under Pontius Pilate, and rose again, and was received in glory, shall come in glory, the Saviour of those who are saved, and the judge of those who are judged; and sending into eternal fire the perverters of the truth and the despisers of his Father and his advent.5 (c. AD 200) likewise records three forms of the Rule. This is the first.

The Rule of Faith is altogether one, sole, immovable, and irreformable-namely, to believe in one God Almighty, the Maker of the world; and His Son, Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, on the third day raised again from the dead, received in the heavens, sitting now at the right hand of the Father, coming to judge the

9 quick and the dead, also through the resurrection of the flesh.6

The third form of Irenaeus's Rule includes a "firm persuasion also in the Spirit of God." Tertullian's second and third forms both speak of Christ sending the Holy Ghost. So despite the particular emphasis on Person and work of Christ in the Rule of Faith, the Trinitarian form remained.

By AD 340, what we know as the Apostles' Creed was finally beginning to take shape. Marcellus of Ancyra gives us this form:

I believe in God, All Governing;

And in Christ Jesus His only begotten Son, our Lord, who was begotten of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and buried, who rose from the dead on the third day, ascending to the heavens and taking his seat at the Father's right hand, whence He shall come to judge both living and dead;

And in the Holy Spirit, the holy Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, life everlasting.7

In its current form, the Apostles' Creed dates from the late 6th or 7th Centuries:

I believe in God the Father Almighty; Maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ, His only (begotten) Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell [Hades]; the third day he rose from the dead; he ascended into heaven; and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic8 Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body [flesh]; and the life everlasting. Amen.

Confessing History

The creeds and confessions of other religions give us abstract ideas or claims about ultimate reality. The Apostles' Creed gives us history. God the Father is the Creator and

10 Ruler of history. Jesus Christ entered history to save His church. The Holy Spirit is at work within history, calling out and sanctifying that church. History will culminate in the Resurrection and the Last Judgment.

That the church should confess its faith in terms of God's great acts in history was inevitable given the nature of Christianity. That the church should confess the things she did when she did reflected her interaction and conflict with another religion, an anti- historical religion, called Gnosticism.

The Gnostic Error

After the Judaizing heresy that occupied so much of Paul's attention, the next significant religious enemy the early church faced was Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a hodgepodge religion rather than a Christian heresy, though some Christian heretics borrowed from it extensively.9 Paul and John both addressed such Gnostic-infected heresies.10

According to Gnosticism, there is a hierarchy of gods and god-like beings. The greatest of these is good and loving but completely detached from the world of time and matter. The actual creator of the world is a lesser being, the Demiurge. Because of this, matter is low and morally suspect. The human soul is a spark of divinity imprisoned in the sphere of matter, and man's salvation is the escape of his soul from its material prison back into the sphere of divinity. Esoteric knowledge — gnosis — provides the key.

Gnosticism made much of the magical and mystical, but it ignored the ethical. For Gnosticism, sin lay in matter itself: salvation involved an ascetic or, according to some, a licentious contempt for the body. In either case, God's law for His creation was irrelevant. What could the "spiritual" soul have to do with marriage, property, or children? Law was the province of the vengeful Demiurge.11 Within such a theology, atonement and forgiveness were meaningless concepts, and the Incarnation was unthinkable.

The church, too, had no place in Gnostic theology. Each man had to apprehend God on his own. Others were irrelevant, except those precious few with magical secrets to teach. Gnosticism reveled in its spiritual elitism. It was, after all, in the most Biblical sense, a

11 religion of the "flesh" (cf. Gal. 5:19-21).

The Anti-Gnostic Creed

The Apostles' Creed protests against Gnosticism at every point. It insists that the divine Father is also the Maker of the material universe. It tells us that the eternal Son took to Himself a true human nature in the womb of the Virgin; that in that nature He suffered and died; that He rose again in the flesh and ascended into the heavens where He sits today at God's right hand.

The Creed recognizes the covenantal and communal dimensions of salvation: it confesses "the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints." The Creed acknowledges both the reality of sin and the reality of judicial forgiveness. The Creed speaks of an end to redemptive history, and it speaks of the resurrection of the body — "of the flesh the again-rising," as one ancient English version has it.12 The Creed defines the faith in terms of history, matter, covenant, law, and divine sovereignty.

Conclusion

We live in an age full of religious mysticism, much of it Gnostic in character. We are part of a church that no longer thinks in terms of matter or history or creeds. The first condition is in large measure the result of the second. If we are to answer the spirit of our age, we will have to go back to first principles. We need to see creation, history, and salvation as God sees them. The creeds of the church and the doctrines they contain have never been more relevant.

Notes

1. Excepting, of course, secular religions like Marxism. But even here man is invited to transcend the ordinary flow of history and assume a place of lordship over history.

2. "The Interrogatory Creed of Hippolytus" in John H. Leith, Creeds of the Church (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), 23.

3. "The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians" (shorter version) in Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, editors, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I (Grand Rapids: Wm. B.

12 Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1987 reprint), 69.

4. "The Profession of the Presbyters of Smyrna" in Leith, 18.

5. "The Rule of Faith" of Irenaeus (2nd Form) in Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, Vol. II (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1990 reprint), 13.

6. "The Rule of Faith" of Tertullian (1st form) in Schaff, 17.

7. "The Creed of Marcellus" in Leith, 23.

8. "Catholic," of course, means "universal"; there is no reference here to Roman "Catholicism."

9. Docetism and Marcionism, for example.

10. See, for example, Paul's letter to the Colossians, especially ch. 2, and John's first and second epistles.

11. Marcion saw the whole Old Testament as the work of this vengeful, graceless God.

12. Quoted in Rousas J. Rushdoony, Foundations of Social Order (N.p.: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1972), 4.

Greg Uttinger teaches theology, history, and literature at Cornerstone Christian School in Roseville, California. He lives nearby in Sacramento County with his wife, Kate, and their three children.

13 The Apostles' Creed As the Christian church spread throughout the Roman world in the first century, and as the first leaders died out, there was a practical need for local churches to have a basic statement of beliefs. As false teachers began to bring in strange ideas, Christians needed to know “Just what is it that we believe?”

Some of these churches had a few books of the New Testament, perhaps some of Paul’s letters or one of the four Gospels. But none of the churches had all the New Testament. They needed a standard to judge whether a teaching was truth, or heresy. The early Christians also realized that new people didn’t have to know everything before they could be baptized and accepted as believers. How much should they know and accept before being admitted into the church? This was another reason that early churches wanted a brief statement of what they believed to be most essential.

Churches in different cities and regions made their own lists, which had many points in common, since all the churches had traditions tracing back to the apostles in one way or another. The small differences were eventually eliminated as church leaders discussed these things with one another. They shared not only the scriptures they had, but also their statements of faith.

When Christianity became a legal religion in the fourth century, this process became easier. Churches throughout the empire agreed on which books should form the New Testament, and they agreed on several basic statements of faith.

A summary of apostolic teaching

One of the doctrinal lists commonly used in the Western empire was called the Apostles’ Creed. The word “creed” comes from the Latin word credo, meaning “I believe.” It was called “Apostles” not because the apostles themselves wrote it (although some people may have thought this), but because the Creed was believed to be an accurate summary of what the apostles taught.

14 The Creed was useful in several ways:

• The Creed was a public statement of faith, a standardized way in which new people could confess their faith in Jesus Christ. • The Creed anchored Christian faith to a tradition, to make it difficult for people or churches to be led astray by strange doctrines. • The Creed was a preaching and teaching tool, giving an outline for further discipleship. • The Creed was memorized through frequent repetition, which helped the many believers who could not read. • The Creed provided a doctrinal basis for different churches to accept one another, and to reject those who did not accept the basic truths. • The Bible itself contains brief creed-like statements (1 Corinthians 8:6; 15:3-4; 1 Timothy 3:16). The early church leaders also wrote short creeds, perhaps as baptism ceremonies. These eventually were recited by congregations in their worship services. Writing in Greek somewhere around the year 200, Irenaeus describes a creed that has some similarities to the Apostles’ Creed, and may have been a precursor. He presented his creed not as something new, but as something the church had been using for a long time. He lived in what is now France, but had grown up in Asia Minor, where he had been taught by Polycarp, a student of the apostle John.

An early Latin version of the Creed is in the writings of Tertullian, from North Africa, about the year 220. About a century later, Marcellus, from Asia Minor, had a similar creed. In A.D. 390, after study in Rome, Egypt and Judea, Rufinus had a similar creed in northern Italy.

Augustine, bishop in North Africa in 400, had a nearly identical creed, and it was apparently standard in Gaul in 650. The text accepted today is identical to what was written in 750 by Pirminius, who lived in what is now Switzerland.

This history shows that churches in many different regions were involved in the development of the Apostles’ Creed. As churches in one part of the empire communicated with others, their short list of doctrines became standardized.

15 What does the Creed say? Let us look at what the Creed says, and comment on some of its points. It is short, so we’ll begin by quoting all of it.

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth; I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. (translation by the International Consultation on English Texts)

The Creed, although having a Trinitarian structure, is not explicitly Trinitarian. The Creed began to be developed before the Trinitarian controversy arose, and the Creed (unlike the ) was not an attempt to correct a specific heresy.

Numerous scriptures could be mentioned as support for the various points of the Creed. The Creed was believed to be in full agreement with the apostolic writings, and the same churches accepted both the Creed and the Scriptures as authoritative, as faithful reports of what the apostles taught.

The Creed begins with a simple statement of faith in God, who has all power and is the originator of everything. This statement is a rejection of pagan mythologies, but it was acceptable to Jews and to some of the more educated Greeks.

Most of the Creed is about Jesus Christ, for he is the definitive doctrine of the faith. Beliefs about Jesus separate Christians from everyone else. Jesus was a specific person, born of a woman, executed under a specific Roman governor. Unlike mythological deities, he did not come from the distant and hazy past — he interacted with the real world. He had a real body that was born, crucified and buried, and yet he was divine, too — conceived by the Holy Spirit, resurrected, ascended into heaven at a position of supreme power. He is the unique Son of God, a

16 unique Lord who is above all earthly lords, and he is the Judge who will return to earth to determine everyone’s reward.

The early church knew about Jesus’ earthly ministry and his miracles, but they did not feel that these were essential to the Christian faith. The Creed focuses more on his supernatural birth, his death and his supernatural power. These are of greatest theological significance, and were therefore included in the statement of faith.

‘Descended to the dead’ The phrase “descended to the dead” is of special interest, in part because it used to be translated “descended into hell.” Some medieval theologians came up with elaborate theories about what Jesus did in hell, but this misses the original purpose of the phrase.

Irenaeus and Tertullian do not have this phrase; it first appears in the writings of Rufinus, who said that it meant only that Jesus went to the grave, the “place” of the dead. This is in agreement with Scripture, which says that Jesus rose from “the dead” (a plural adjective used as a noun, meaning the situation that all dead people are in, as in Acts 4:10). Peter applied the words of Psalm 16 to Jesus: “You will not abandon me to the grave” — to Hades, the realm of the dead. When Jesus was dead, he was in Hades. Some believe he was conscious, and others believe he was not, but either way, he was in Hades, the realm of the dead.

The phrase “descended to the dead” disappeared from the creed for more than 200 years. Augustine did not have it. It occurs again in the Gallic Creed of 650 and remained from then on.

Some are troubled by this phrase and its history in the Creed; others are troubled by ancient and modern misinterpretations of the phrase. Some would prefer it be eliminated, since it does not add anything essential to the Creed, and is a point of disagreement rather than agreement.

17 Wayne Grudem argues:

Unlike every other phrase in the Creed, it represents not some major doctrine on which all Christians agree, but rather a statement about which most Christians seem to disagree. It is at best confusing and in most cases misleading for modern Christians. My own judgment is that there would be all gain and no loss if it were dropped from the Creed once for all. (Systematic Theology, Zondervan, 1994, 583- 594). Nevertheless, the words are in the Creed, and we cannot change the tradition. However, we can understand the words correctly so we can agree with them. Others may interpret these words differently, but we do not need to argue about that.

‘The holy catholic church’ The Creed ends with a few brief statements. We can easily agree to a belief in the Holy Spirit, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection and eternal life. (Some may question “resurrection of the body.” First Corinthians 15 says that our body will be transformed to be spiritual rather than fleshly, but it will still be our body.)

Some people are also put off by the words “holy catholic church.” The word catholic comes from the Greek words kat’ holos, literally meaning “according to the whole,” or in actual use, worldwide or universal. The word catholic became part of the Creed before “catholic” became associated with the Roman church, and many Protestant churches use the Creed with the word catholic. In the Creed, we do not express faith in a specific denomination, but in the church worldwide — that is, that there is one body, united by God’s Spirit. The phrase “communion of saints” implies the same thing — that as we all commune or have unity with Christ through the Holy Spirit, we also commune with each other. We will be united to one another forever. The Apostles’ Creed has been part of the Western church tradition for many centuries. It has not been perfect, but it has been useful for Christian confession, doctrine and discipleship. We accept the creed as a valid statement of faith for Christians. For further comments on the Apostles’ Creed, you may want to read Alister McGrath, “I Believe”: Exploring the Apostles’ Creed (InterVarsity, 1998). Several other authors have also written on this subject, including William Barclay, Stuart Briscoe and Michael Horton. Michael Morrison 18

Catholicism.org > Articles > The Apostles Creed The Apostles Creed by Brian Kelly July 9, 2015

The feast day of Saint Thomas the Apostle on the traditional Roman calendar is December 21. In the new calendar it is July 3, so I took the liberty of giving him honor on this day too. Saint Jerome had the Apostle’s feast day listed on July 3. It was transferred to July 3 in 1969 so that the feast would not interfere with the ferial days leading up to Christmas. Here at Saint Benedict Center we celebrate the feast on December 21 according to the old calendar.

Saint Thomas is coupled with Saint Matthew in the synoptic lists of the Apostles and there must have been a good reason for this — I could not find out the reason for that, but will do some research to find out why. Saint John refers to Thomas as Didymus, the “twin.” There is no tradition, however, about who the other twin was. Why Thomas doubted the word of the other Apostles when they told him that Jesus had risen from the dead is hard to understand, well deserving this rebuke from Our Lord when He appeared the second time in the Upper Room with the incredulous one present: “Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered, and said to him: ‘My Lord, and my God.’ Jesus saith to him: ‘Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed’” (John 20: 27-29).

He had a zeal, as did Peter, proclaiming his willingness to die with Jesus when Our Lord announced the death of Lazarus and that He was going to see the deceased in Bethania, near Jerusalem, even though the leaders of the Jews had threatened to arrest Him if they found Him: “Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples: Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16). Notice that Thomas tried to rally all the Apostles, that they would die together with Christ, while Peter was so confident in himself that he protested: “Although all shall be scandalized in thee, I will never be scandalized… Yea, though I should die with thee, I will not deny thee.” And so, too, “in like manner said all the disciples” (Matt. 26:33). Saint Thomas did shed his blood for Jesus in the year 74, while preaching the Gospel in India.

The Apostles Creed Tradition has it that each of the Twelve Apostles, including Matthias who replaced Judas, contributed to the formulation of a profession of Faith that we

19 call The Apostles Creed. This was done sometime before they left Jerusalem to teach all nations. Some early writers, Saint and Rufinus are two, maintain that it was composed under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost with each of the Apostles contributing one of twelve articles. It was not written down, but memorized, and that was the way it was throughout the history of the early Church. Catechumens committed the Creed to memory and professed it aloud at their Baptism. After the Council of Trent (1545-1563) those theologians who composed the Catechism of the Council defended this tradition:

“Now the chief truths which Christians ought to hold are those which the holy Apostles, the leaders and teachers of the faith, inspired by the Holy Ghost, have divided into the twelve Articles of the Creed. For having received a command from the Lord to go forth into the whole world, as His ambassadors, and preach the Gospel to every creature, they thought it advisable to draw up a formula of Christian faith, that all might think and speak the same thing, and that among those whom they should have called to the unity of the faith no schisms would exist, but that they should be perfect in the same mind, and in the same judgment.

“This profession of Christian faith and hope, drawn up by themselves, the Apostles called a symbol; either because it was made up of various parts, each of which was contributed by an Apostle, or because by it, as by a common sign and watchword, they might easily distinguish deserters from the faith and false brethren unawares brought in, adulterating the word of God, from those who had truly bound themselves by oath to serve under the banner of Christ.”

With very little variation both in the East and in the West this Creed, or Symbol, as it was originally called, was the standard profession of Faith. Symbol, as first used in “Symbol of the Apostles” by Rufinus, means “a token or sign.” Rufinus was not a saint, but a great scholar and translator, a master of Greek and Latin, who, at one time, was a friend of Saint Jerome. He wrote a long and excellent commentary on the articles of the Creed, in fact, he was the first Christian writer to do so. Although I could not find a patristic source for this, it was a tradition passed on at Saint Benedict Center that the articles of the Creed were composed as follows. (I know that this is not an arbitrary linking because Father Feeney always insisted that any ecclesiastical information that was recorded in the books published by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary had to have been found in the writings of at least one saint.)

1. “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth,” was given by Saint Peter;

20 2. “And in Jesus Christ His only Son, Our Lord,” by Saint John; 3. “Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,” by Saint James the Greater; 4. “Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried,” by Saint Andrew; 5. “He descended into hell and on the third day He arose again from the dead,” by Saint Philip; 6. “He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty,” by Saint Thomas; 7. “From whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead,” by Saint Bartholomew; 8. “I believe in the Holy Ghost,” by Saint Matthew; 9. “The Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints,” by Saint James the Less; 10. “The Forgiveness of Sins,” by Saint Simon; 11. “The Resurrection of the Body,” by Saint Jude; 12. “And Life Everlasting,” by Saint Matthias. The Apostles Creed is a summary of the basic tenets of the Catholic Faith. It is composed in four parts, the first three expressing Faith in the Blessed Trinity and the fourth, by extension, the Catholic Church. Major dogmas of Faith that are not explicitly stated in the articles of this Creed, such as the Redemptive work of Christ in His Passion, and the Sacraments, are contained in them implicitly by association. So, too, are the dogmas of the particular judgment, hell, and purgatory. The Nicene Creed, written in 325, would be more theologically developed. The Creed is recited, whether alone or with others, in the first person. It is a personal profession of the Faith. Thus it begins: “I believe.” In what do I believe? First of all “I believe in God.” This separates the Christian from all paganism and idolatry, the mark of which is polytheism, dualism, or pantheism.

What do I believe about God? I believe in the Blessed Trinity, One God in Three Persons. This separates the Christian from the unbelieving Jew or Mohammedan. The first Person is the Father, to whom is appropriated the creation of the heavens and the earth, all things visible and invisible, as is put forth in the Nicene Creed. The “invisible” things are the angels. The visible things are all other things. Man is composed of both the visible and the invisible, body and soul. “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.”

As Father Almighty, God begets a Son from all eternity; otherwise His paternity would be merely an analogical term in regard to angels and men as creatures 21 made in His image, but made from nothing. Attributes of God’s Fatherhood can be applied to intelligent creatures because God takes care of those made in His image as a father would take care of his children, even more so in that He not only feeds men but sustains men and angels in their very existence. Hence, even prescinding from supernatural grace, through which we are elevated to participate in the divine nature, God is our Father: “By whom he hath given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world” (2 Peter 1:4). I believe in “Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord.” The Son is the only-begotten of the Father, as is proclaimed in the scriptures and the Nicene Creed. Since the act of Begetting in God is of the eternal and infinite Spirit, there can only be one Begotten One. Receiving His divine Nature from the Father, He is co-equal, co- eternal with the Father, “God from God, Light from Light,” as we have it in the Nicene profession.

What do I believe of the Son? I believe that He became Man. In becoming Man, the Son received the Name, Jesus Christ. Jesus means “Savior,” Christ means “the Anointed,” the Messiah.

How was the Son anointed? By the Holy Ghost. The “anointing” was the vesting of the Incarnation. “He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man” (Phil. 2:7). I believe that Jesus Christ “was conceived by the Holy Ghost.”

Did Jesus truly become a Man, or did He just use a human body, appearing as a man, but not really uniting with a human nature, as the Apollinarist heresy maintained?

He became true Man. I believe He was “born of the Virgin Mary.” From His Father He had His divinity; from Mary He had His Flesh; from the Holy Ghost, He had His human Soul. His conception, although the work of the Holy Trinity, is appropriated to the Holy Ghost, the Love of God, for the Incarnation was a work of divine Love for man, drawn to its fruition by the love of the Immaculate Mary for her Creator. The Son of God was drawn from heaven by Mary’s love. He would never have been conceived as man were it not for the love of the “handmaid of the Lord” whom He made His mother

For our Redemption, I believe He truly endured agony and death and was buried, in a place, Jerusalem, in time, 2000 years ago. I believe He “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.”

22 I believe that, as the God-man, Jesus laid down His life by His own will, and that He took it up again and rose from the dead, for death had no dominion over the sinless One unless He allowed it for our sake.

He arose as He said He would after three days in the tomb. During those three days, the Soul of Christ, truly separated from the Body, visited the just in Limbo, also called here “hell,” in order to console them and announce their liberation to come some few days days hence.

I believe “He descended into hell and on the third day He arose again [anew, glorified] from the dead.”

After appearing many times to His disciples for forty days after His resurrection, proving His divine power, and instructing them further, He ascended into heaven.

I believe that “He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”

I believe that at the end of time “He will come to judge the living and the dead.” There will be a particular judgment immediately after death, but this article of the Creed refers to the general judgment which will take place after all men are reunited with their bodies, the good unto life everlasting in their glorified body, the evil unto everlasting punishment in their immortal, but unglorified bodies. Whether or not those living on earth at this final hour will undergo physical death is not a defined matter of faith.

Finally, we have the simple profession of Faith in the Holy Ghost. “I believe in the Holy Ghost.” This dogma, affirming the eternal procession of the Third Person of the Trinity, revealed explicitly by Christ, would be further developed at the Council of Nicea and Constantinople I in refutation of the heresy of Macedonius who denied the Trinity of Divine Persons in rejecting the eternal Procession of the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier.

The Creed concludes with a profession of Faith in the holy Catholic Church, followed by way of extension, with that of the communion of saints. The Church is not identical to the “communion of saints” until it becomes the Church triumphant in heaven because in this life the Church is composed of those who are in grace (in this sense they are “saints” as Saint Paul says) and sinners who have lost grace but are still members, albeit dead members. In the Church militant on earth the communion of saints is manifest in an imperfect state in the oneness that the living members of the Church share together with each other in Christ. Those members of the Church who are in mortal sin do not have life, so 23 they are without this holy communion of the saints. What a wonderful mystery this communion is that the good members of the Church have with one another in the Mystical Body of Christ! This union with Christ and each other (most effectively in the Eucharistic communio) is what makes our prayers and sacrifices for each other (and for the souls in purgatory) efficacious. Jesus gave His apostles and their successors in the priesthood the power to forgive sins. This was astonishing, to be sure, to the twelve humble Apostles. Therefore did Simon the Zealot suggest that it be included in the sacred Symbol of Faith. “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”

I have already spoken of the resurrection of the body. If Jesus had not risen we would not rise from the grave and, as Saint Paul says, our Faith would be in vain. If fact, Saint Paul repeats this great truth four times in chapter fifteen of his first epistle to the Corinthians: “And if Christ be not risen again, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (vs. 14). He even affirms that if there is no resurrection of the just, then neither did Christ rise, as if to say, that our union with Christ is no union at all if the just rise not at the last day. How could it be that the Head of the Body should rise in glory and the members remain in their dust? We will rise in glory with Christ; we will ascend with Christ; and we will sit with Christ at the right hand of the Father.

“Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

In becoming one with his wife Eve, scripture says that Adam “knew” her. After the resurrection, in a glorified state, our complete selves, will be united forever in Christ as one. We will not cease to be who we are, but we will become something more, something divine, as sons of God. When we “know,” we somehow become one with what we know. In the beatific vision, eternal life, we shall know Him with whom we are one. We shall see Him — yes, in the flesh with human eyes — but we shall “know” Him in the soul, in the intellect, as God — and the will shall rejoice therein. We shall hear the words: “Come ye blessed, enter into the joy of the Lord.”

Saint Augustine gives us a sublime truth in this regard. I will leave this article with his words: “[In the vision of eternal life] what shall we not see when we see Him who sees all?”

24 Origins[edit] (Wikipedia) The title Symbolum Apostolicum (Symbol or Creed of the Apostles) appears for the first time in a letter, probably written by Ambrose, from a Council in Milan to Pope Siricius in about 390: "Let them give credit to the Creed of the Apostles, which the Roman Church has always kept and preserved undefiled".[4][5] But what existed at that time was not what is now known as the Apostles' Creed but a shorter statement of belief that, for instance, did not include the phrase "maker of heaven and earth", a phrase that may have been inserted only in the 7th century.[6]

The account of the origin of this creed, the forerunner and principal source of the Apostles' Creed,[7] as having been jointly created by the Apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, with each of the twelve contributing one of the articles, was already current at that time.[5] The earlier text evolved from simpler texts based on Matthew 28:19,[5] part of the , and it has been argued that it was already in written form by the late 2nd century (c. 180).[5][8][9] 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, Nicet as, and Eusebius Gallus,[10] 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.[11] Bettenson and Maunder state that it is first from Dicta Abbatis Pirminii de singulis libris canonicis scarapsus (idem quod excarpsus, excerpt), c. 750.[12] This longer Creed seems to have arisen in what is now France and Spain. imposed it throughout his dominions, and it was finally accepted in Rome, where the Old Roman Symbol or similar formulas had survived for centuries.[5] It has been argued nonetheless that it dates from the second half of the 5th century, though no earlier.[13] Some have suggested that the Apostles' Creed was spliced together with phrases from the New Testament.[14] For instance, the phrase "descendit ad inferos" ("he descended into hell") echoes Ephesians 4:9, "κατέβη εἰς τὰ κατώτερα μέρη τῆς γῆς" ("he descended into the lower, earthly regions"). It is of interest that this phrase first appeared in one of the two versions of Rufinus in A.D. 390 and then did not appear again in any version of the creed until A.D. 650.[15] This phrase and that on the communion of saints are articles found in the Apostles' Creed, but not in the Old Roman Symbol nor in the Nicene Creed. 25 Ecumenical Christian Creeds

Dennis Bratcher, ed.

Apostles' Creed Nicene Creed Definition of Chalcedon

The first creeds of the Christian Church are called ecumenical (or universal) creeds because they were widely used before the Church permanently spilt into Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman) factions in AD 1054. However, this is a term that is primarily used in the Western branches of the Church. The Eastern Orthodox Church accepts the Nicene Creed, but not the Apostles' Creed or the Athanasian Creed. Later creeds reflect the diversity of the Christian tradition and tend to become more specialized expressions of particular doctrines for various groups.

The Apostles' Creed

The Apostles' Creed is one of the oldest creeds of Christianity, dating in an early form to at least the middle second century with roots in the biblical traditions of the Gospels. Some phrases were added for clarity as late as the fourth century, but the basic creed remained intact. The clearly Trinitarian structure was likely intended to counter the teachings of Marcion who denied that the God of the Old Testament was the same God revealed in Jesus the Christ. This Trinitarian formulation would remain the basic structure of all the early creeds. The Apostles' Creed has often been divided into 12 sections for catechesis, instruction for new converts or children.

There has been some misunderstanding surrounding the phrase "he descended into hell." In fact, some church traditions omit this phrase from public recital of the Creed because some see this phrase as confirming an early belief that Jesus preached to the dead during the time between his crucifixion and resurrection (cf. 1 Peter 3:19, 4:6). However, many biblical scholars do not agree that the biblical traditions actually describe Jesus preaching to the dead, and therefore understand the phrase to be a metaphor for burial: "he descended into the realm of the dead," that is, that he spent the time among the dead (see "He Descended into Hell": Sheol, Hell, and the Dead). Some Protestants have also objected to the phrase "holy catholic church," assuming that this is a reference to Roman Catholicism when in fact the term simply means "universal," "inclusive," or

26 "unified" (see Catholic Spirit). This creed is not used in the Greek Orthodox tradition. -Dennis Bratcher, ed.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth,

And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and 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 there he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Apostles' Creed has often been divided into 12 sections for catechesis, instruction for new converts or children.

1. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, 2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, 3. Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, 4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell. 5. The third day he rose again from the dead; 6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. 7. From there he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 8. I believe in the Holy Spirit, 9. I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, 10. The forgiveness of sins, 11. The resurrection of the body, 12. And the life everlasting. Amen.

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