The Ecumenical Creeds 3
Lesson 3: The Apostles’ Creed
This post is part of a series on The Ecumenical Creeds of Christendom. If you would like to go back to the beginning of this series you may do so by clicking HERE.
The Use of the Apostles’ Creed
We now begin the study of the Ecumenical Creeds themselves. Moving, sensibly enough, in chronological order we now come to our study of the Apostles’ Creed. This creed is among the earliest creeds to be developed outside of the pages of the Scriptures themselves (though not outside the bounds of Scriptural warrant). It may be helpful to note that the ecumenical creeds can be broadly divided into one of two camps, proactive or reactive. A creed may be said to be “proactive” if it was developed primarily as a means to give instruction to believers and new converts apart from any particular controversy. A creed may be said to be “reactive” if it was developed to combat and correct some false teaching (or teachings) which had arisen.
The Apostles’ Creed is a proactive creed. It was developed to summarize the core tenets of the Christian faith and to be used in the instruction of new believers who were typically converts from some pagan religion. The whole counsel of God’s word, from Genesis to Revelation, takes a long time to read, study, and assimilate into the heart, life, and mind of a Christian (especially for those who did not grow up as a member of the church). As a summary of the most critical doctrines of the Christian faith, which a new believer would need to know and affirm, creeds served as a kind of quickstart guide to Chrsitian orthodoxy. They were not, by any means, intended to be the terminus for one’s learning about the doctrines of the faith, but to be an entryway into further learning and deeper understanding. Every line of The Apostles’ Creed invites a believer to go to the Scriptures to see where that statement finds its basis. Every line is a jumping off point for a great deep dive into Christian theology and a systematic study of the Old and New Testaments. Even so, while a believer worked to grow into a deeper understanding of God’s word and gain maturity in Christ, every new believer could quickly learn and share with others what he believed as a Christian simply by memorizing the Apostles’ Creed.
Another point needs to be made. Creeds served a particularly important role in the church during a time when the vast majority of Christians did not have daily access to the Scriptures. In the first century, while the New Testament was still being composed, we have seen that there were already brief creedal statements coming into use in the church to help give believers sound doctrine for easy memorization. Even after the completion of the New Testament canon, however, complete copies of the Scripture were not plentiful. It took some time for all of the New Testament documents to reach complete circulation among all of the churches of Christ throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. Further still, even once all of the New Testament documents were adequately circulated, due to the nature of documents in the pre-printing press world, they were not reproduced plentifully enough for each believer to have a private copy of the Scriptures. The production of additional copies of the Scripture was something which took time and careful attention and was often a costly process as well. Most Christians, for many centuries, had to come to the meetings of their local church to hear the Scriptures read and preached because they did not have access to their own personal copy. This being the case, creeds played an important role in providing believers with orthodox Christian doctrine, which could be easily memorized, so they could articulate the teachings of Scripture in a clear and concise way.
The Apostles’ Creed was not only used in the early church to guide the initial instruction of converts to the faith, but it was also used as a baptismal vow for those coming to the church from the outside. Initiates to the Chrsitian religion were called catechumens. A person became a catechumen upon expressing interest in becoming a Christian and would then enter into a period of instruction under the direction of the elders of his church. This process was to make certain the catechumen understood what it meant to be a Christian and what it looked like to live a life according to the teachings of Jesus and his apostles. Upon the elders’ satisfaction that a particular catechumen both understood and genuinely affirmed the core tenets of the faith they would be baptized and enter into the membership of the church. The Apostles’ Creed became a standard confession of faith which new believers would recite and confess before the church (or even before non-believers since baptisms were often performed in rivers in full view of the public) immediately prior to their baptism. The new convert, turning away from the Greek or Roman or Egyptian gods, or some other vain philosophy, would profess his or her faith by reciting the creed and thereby publicly identifying that their life was now “hidden with Christ” (Colossians 3:1-3) by faith and that they belonged to him as a δοῦλος (slave) of Christ.
The Development and Structure of the Apostles’ Creed
The Apostles’ Creed was not something produced overnight. The need for its existence was felt for all the reasons mentioned above. The name of of the creed has misled some to think that it was developed by the apostles themselves, but this is incorrect. It is called “The Apostles’ Creed” not because of who authored it (indeed no one person or even small group of people can be credited for the creed as we know it today), but because its contents are “apostolic” in their content. In other words, the creed expresses a good and faithful summary of the Christian faith as contained in the writing of the apostles and authors of the New Testament. It is almost certain that numerous local churches attempted something like a version of the creed we have today in an attempt to meet the needs of instructing new believers about the basics of the faith. Those same churches and church leaders would certainly have discussed these with other churches and church leaders when they had occasion to meet or write to one another. All of these early believers and elders would have looked to the same source materials and drawn upon the same examples such as Peter’s confession (what we have called the Petrine Creed), and the other biblical creedal statements, while working to piece together a more complete summary of the central doctrines of their faith.
The process was a fluid one for some time, but eventually a more definite form came into being which many churches began to use. Among the earliest set forms of the Apostles’ Creed is what is often referred to as “The Old Roman Form.” Just how early this form was in use is not easy to say because the creed was kept strictly by oral memorization within the church for a long time, however there is evidence which strongly suggests some form of The Apostles’ Creed may have been in use as early as the second century. Nevertheless, the earliest anyone wrote down the Roman form of the creed, that we know of, is in a document by Rufinus which was written c. 390 A.D. There is an earlier Greek text (c. 340 A.D.) by Marcellus of Ancyra which contained a slightly different form of the creed which many scholars believe to have been a translation of a still earlier form of the creed. Regardless, that the practice of using some form of this creed was in practice very early in the ancient church is beyond question.
The Old Roman Form of the creed would eventually be augmented in the seventh and eighth century into the form most familiar to us today. The form and content of the creed is at all times intentionally Trinitarian, acknowledging the three persons of the godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, immediately. The creed also lays out the message of salvation and tells all who hear it what must be believed in order to be in the kingdom of God. Below you will find a side by side comparison of “The Old Roman Form” next to “The Received Form” which is commonly used today. As you will see, the latter form of the creed is mostly an expansion upon the points raised in the earlier form rather than any kind of correction or disagreement with the earlier form.
Of the four ecumenical creeds it ought to be noted that the Apostles’ Creed is the most ecumenical. In the case of the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed and the Definition of Chalcedon (which we will examine in subsequent lessons) while there is widespread agreement among Christians, even in widely different traditions, there are at least some points of contention and disagreement. When it comes to The Apostles’ Creed there is only agreement among those who name the name of Christ and believe the Bible. Philip Schaff offered this well stated praise concerning The Apostles’ Creed:
It is by far the best popular summary of the Christian faith ever made within so brief a space. It still surpasses all later symbols for catechetical and liturgical purposes, especially as a profession of candidates for baptism and church membership. It is not a logical statement of abstract doctrines, but a profession of living facts and saving truths. It is a liturgical poem and an act of worship. Like the Lord's Prayer, it loses none of its charm and effect by frequent use, although, by vain and thoughtless repetition, it may be made a martyr and an empty form of words. It is intelligible and edifying to a child, and fresh and rich to the profoundest Christian scholar, who, as he advances in age, delights to go back to primitive foundations and first principles. It has the fragrance of antiquity and the inestimable weight of universal consent. It is a bond of union between all ages and sections of Christendom.
And to this all we can add is our “Amen!”
Study Questions
Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)
What does it mean for a creed to be “proactive?”
What does it mean for a creed to be “reactive?”
What was The Apostles’ Creed developed to achieve?
What does every line of The Apostles’ Creed “invite” a believer to do?
What was the case concerning the Scriptures, particularly in the first few centuries of the early church, which made the creeds such an important part of the life of early Christians?
When and where were early Chrsitians expected to recite The Apostles’ Creed for what purpose?
How did The Apostles’ Creed come into being and who wrote it?
What is the case about the “form and content” of The Apostles’ Creed both in the Old Roman Form and in the Received Form?
“Of the four ecumenical creeds” what is most true of The Apostles’ Creed?
According to Philip Schaff, what kind of Chrsitians can take pleasure in reading, reciting, and studying The Apostles’ Creed?
Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)
Why might it be necessary for there to be some creeds which are proactive and others which are reactive? Why, for instance, can’t they all be proactive?
The reading stated that The Apostles’ Creed gives believers a “jumping off point” for greater study of Christian Doctrine. In what way might this be true?
What are some other challenges, beyond what was stated in our reading, which might have made the complete circulation of all the New Testament letters something that didn’t happen as quickly as might have been desirable?
Why might the early church have thought it necessary for a pagan, who was interested in becoming a Christian, to enter into a time of instruction as a catechumen prior to being admitted into the church?
Why might the early church have kept The Apostles’ Creed as purely oral tradition for the first couple of centuries?
When comparing “The Old Roman Form” against “The Received Form” of The Apostles’ Creed, what are the most notable differences which you find between them?
Why do you think The Received Form added to the creed while not taking anything away?
Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)
Since the goal is to know the whole of the Christian Scriptures well, and since we now have much greater access to the whole of Scripture as individual believers today, do creeds still have a place in the worship of the Christian church and in the daily lives of believers? Why or why not?
Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)
As our study of the ecumenical creeds has argued, a true Christian creed will only say that which God has already said himself in the inspired Scriptures. In light of this, take the twelve clauses of The Received Form of The Apostles’ Creed and match them to one or more of the following passages of Scripture.
Write the corresponding clause numbers from The Received Form of The Apostles’ Creed which are justified by each scripture reference.
1 Corinthians 15 Clause #s _________________________
Acts 1:6-11 Clause #s _________________________
Acts 2:1-4 Clause #s _________________________
1 Corinthians 12:12-31 Clause #s _________________________
Acts 17:30-31 Clause #s _________________________
Luke 1-2:21 Clause #s _________________________
John 16:5-15 Clause #s _________________________
Revelation 20:11-15 Clause #s _________________________
Genesis 1 Clause #s _________________________
Matthew 16:13-20 Clause #s _________________________
Matthew 9:1-8 Clause #s _________________________
John 20 Clause #s _________________________
Acts 2:32-36 Clause #s _________________________
Ephesians 2:11-22 Clause #s _________________________
Luke 23:39-43 Clause #s _________________________
John 3:16 Clause #s _________________________
Daniel 12:2 Clause #s _________________________
Matthew 27 Clause #s _________________________
John 11:25 Clause #s _________________________
Acts 10:34-43 Clause #s _________________________
*Note that these are but a very small sample of the very many places in Scripture to which one could go in order to justify the various claims of the individual clauses contained in The Apostles’ Creed.
Very interesting and insightful again, thank you!