Creed
Creed [1]
The following is the Greek text of the Apostles' Creed: Πιστεύω Εἰς Θεον Πατερα , Παντοκράτορα , Ποιητὴν Οὐρανοῦ Καὶ Γῆς . . Καὶ ( Εἰς ) Ι᾿Ησουν Χριστον , Υἱὸν Αὐτοῦ Τὸν Μονογενῆ , Τὸν Κύριον Ἡμῶν , Τὸν Συλληφθέντα Ἐκ Πνεύματος Ἀγίου , Γεννηθέντα Ἐκ Μαρίας Τῆς Παρθένου , Παθόντα Ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου , Σταυρωθέντα , Θανόντα , Καὶ Ταφέντα , Κατελθόντα Εἰς Τὰ Κατώτατα , Τῆ Τρίτῃ Ἡμέρᾷ Ἀναστάντα Ἀπὸ Τῶν Νεκρῶν , Ἀνελθόντα Εἰς Τοὺς Οὐρανούς , Καθεζόμενον Ἐν Δεξιᾶ '/ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς Παντοδυνάμου , Ἐκεῖθεν Ἐρχόμενον Κρῖναι Ζῶντας Καὶ Νεκρούς . Πιστεύω Εἰς Τὸ Πνευμα Το ῞Αγιον , Ἁγίαν Καθολικὴν Ἐκκλησίαν , Ἁγίων Κοινωνίαν , Ἄφεσιν Ἁμαρτιῶν , Σαρκὸς Ἀνάστασιν , Ξωὴν Αἰώνιον . Ἀμήν .
Dr. Schaff, in his Creeds of Christendom (N.Y. 1877, 3 volumes), which is the latest, and in many respects the most complete, treatise on ecclesiastical symbolics, arranges the Apostles' Creed as in pages 162, 163.
Dr. Heurtley, in his valuable collection of creeds of the Western Church, which has been supplemented by two "University Programmes" by Dr. C.J. Caspari, professor of theology at the Norwegian University, published at Christiana in 1866 and 1869, traces the growth of the creed (as far as it can be traced) through Tertullian and Cyprian; then we must take a leap from Novatian (A.D. 250) to Rufinus, bishop of Aquileia (A.D, $90), the intermediate space of one hundred and forty years affording only one stepping-stone, furnished by the notes of the belief of Marcellus of Ancyra, which he delivered on his departure from Rome. The date of this is A.D. 341. We might have expected Marcellus to exhibit his belief in the words of the creed of Niceea; the fact that he used another symbol is interesting for more reasons than one. It comes to us in Greek, and with the assurance that he had received it from the Scriptures, and been taught it by his forefathers in the Lord; by which he must have meant that he regarded it as in entire agreement with the Scriptures. The creed of Ancyra, then, must in substance have accorded nearly with the creed of Rome as we learn it from Rufinus, differing from it only in the following points, viz.: it omits the name Father in the first article; it reads "born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary;" and at the end there is added the clause "eternal life." The annexed table (taken from Smith's Dict. of Christ. Biog. s.v.) shows the principal forms of the Apostles' Creed in Latin, the variations being printed in italics.
