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Course 12 · Lesson 3.1

From baptismal confession to creed

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 12 outline

Module 1: The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Apologists

  1. Who the Apostolic Fathers were: Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp and the Didache
  2. Church order, worship and martyrdom in the second century
  3. Why Christians wrote apologies: charges, persecution and public defense
  4. Justin Martyr, philosophy and the Logos

Module 2: Irenaeus, Tertullian and Origen

  1. Irenaeus against the Gnostics: the rule of faith and apostolic succession
  2. Tertullian and the beginnings of Latin theology
  3. Origen: biblical scholarship, allegory and speculation
  4. Heresy and orthodoxy: the scholarly debate about early diversity

Module 3: Creeds and Councils: Nicaea to Chalcedon

  1. From baptismal confession to creed
  2. Arius, the Council of Nicaea (325) and Athanasius
  3. The Cappadocian Fathers and the Council of Constantinople (381)
  4. Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451): one Christ, two natures
  5. The seven councils and how the churches receive them

Module 4: Augustine, Chrysostom and the Desert

  1. Augustine: life, conversion and the Confessions
  2. Augustine on grace, the Pelagian controversy and the City of God
  3. John Chrysostom: preacher, pastor and critic of wealth
  4. The Desert Fathers and Mothers: Anthony, Macarius and Amma Syncletica

Module 5: The Medieval Church and Scholasticism

  1. The medieval setting: monasteries, cathedral schools and universities
  2. Anselm and the method of scholasticism
  3. Thomas Aquinas: life and the structure of the Summa Theologiae
  4. Aquinas on faith, reason, nature and grace
  5. East and West: the growing divide and the schism of 1054

Module 6: The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation

  1. Luther and the question of justification
  2. Zwingli, Calvin and the Reformed tradition
  3. The Radical Reformation and the English Reformation
  4. The Council of Trent and Catholic reform
  5. Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant readings of the Reformation

Module 7: Modern Theology and Tracing a Doctrine

  1. The Enlightenment and its challenges to inherited doctrine
  2. Schleiermacher, liberal theology and Karl Barth
  3. Vatican II, Orthodox renewal and the evangelical and Pentecostal movements
  4. How to trace a doctrine: development, change and corruption

All courses

Program / Course 12: Patristics and Historical Theology / Lesson 3.1

What you will learn

  • Trace the earliest confessions in the New Testament and in baptism toward the later creeds.
  • Explain what the Old Roman Creed was and how it relates to the Apostles’ Creed.
  • Describe the purposes creeds served in worship, teaching and controversy.
  • Recognize what is known and what is legend about the origins of the Apostles’ Creed.

The big idea

Christian creeds did not begin as legal documents. They grew out of what new believers said at baptism, and out of short statements in the New Testament such as Jesus is Lord. Over the second to fourth centuries, local churches developed set forms of the baptismal confession, usually in three parts that follow Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When disputes arose, churches turned to these forms and sometimes expanded them. A creed is therefore a prayer, a lesson and a boundary all at once.

Key terms

Creed
From the Latin credo, I believe. A short, set statement of the central Christian faith, used in worship and teaching.
Symbol (symbolum)
An old name for a creed, from a Greek word that can mean a token or a sign of recognition.
Confession
A public declaration of faith. The word can also mean admission of sin, but here it means declaring what one believes.
Catechumen
A person preparing for baptism by instruction. From a Greek word meaning to teach by word of mouth.
Old Roman Creed
A short creed used at Rome in the second to fourth centuries, the ancestor of the Apostles’ Creed.
Interrogatory creed
A creed in the form of questions, where the candidate answers I believe to each question as part of baptism.
Apostles’ Creed
The creed used widely in the West. Its present form is found from the eighth century, though it grew out of the older Roman creed.

Background

The New Testament contains small statements of faith. Paul writes that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). He tells the Corinthians that he passed on what he had received, that Christ died for sins, was buried and was raised on the third day (1 Corinthians 15:3-5). Matthew’s Gospel ends with the command to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). These passages show that Christians used brief confessions very early.

As the church grew, baptism became the main occasion for teaching and confessing the faith. Candidates, called catechumens, were taught for months, sometimes years, and then confessed their faith in the water. Local churches kept their own forms of words, with a shared pattern: belief in God the Father, in Jesus Christ his Son, and in the Holy Spirit. The writers of the second century sometimes describe this as the rule of faith, as the lesson on Irenaeus explained.

Written creeds were not mainly meant to settle arguments. Their first purpose was to say, in a form that could be memorized and said aloud, what Christians believed about the God into whose name they were baptized. Arguments came later and shaped the wording.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Baptism and the three questions

A document called the Apostolic Tradition, traditionally attributed to a Roman writer named Hippolytus in the early third century, describes baptism in the form of three questions. Do you believe in God the Father Almighty? Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, died and was buried, and rose on the third day? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, in the holy church and in the resurrection of the body? After each answer of I believe, the candidate was immersed. Scholars debate the date and authorship of this document and whether it reflects one church or a blend of practices, so it is used with caution.

The pattern is clear all the same. The faith was said in three parts, and the parts follow the baptismal name.

Step 2: The Old Roman Creed

The church at Rome used a short creed in the declaratory form, I believe. It is known from a Greek text preserved by Marcellus of Ancyra in the fourth century and a Latin text given by Rufinus around the year 400. It says that Christ was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, rose on the third day, ascended, sits at the right hand of the Father, and will come to judge the living and the dead. It speaks of the Holy Spirit, the holy church, the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection of the flesh.

This creed is the ancestor of what is now called the Apostles’ Creed. Over time, churches in Gaul and elsewhere added phrases such as descended into hell, the communion of saints, and life everlasting. The present text is first found in full in the eighth century.

Step 3: The legend of the twelve apostles

A story arose that the twelve apostles each contributed one article to the creed before they scattered. Rufinus mentions a tradition of this kind. Historians do not accept it as a historical account. The creed is called the Apostles’ because it summarizes the apostles’ teaching, and it is legitimately so called in that sense, but the apostles did not compose it in a room together.

Step 4: Local creeds and their purposes

Many churches had their own forms. Cyril of Jerusalem in the fourth century taught candidates a creed used in Jerusalem. Eusebius of Caesarea, as will be seen in the next lesson, offered the creed of his own church at Nicaea. These creeds shared a common shape and many phrases, but they differed in details.

Creeds served several purposes at once. They were part of the baptismal liturgy, a summary for teaching, a test of agreement between churches, and, when controversy arose, a way to mark what a church would not accept. Because they were recited, they also shaped prayer. A confession said aloud with other people is different from a statement read in silence.

Step 5: Why creeds grew longer

The early creeds say little about how Father, Son and Spirit relate. When teachers began to say, for instance, that the Son was a creature, churches needed words that excluded that claim. The wording of the Nicene Creed adds phrases for exactly that reason. The next lessons take this up. A student should keep in mind that longer creeds do not replace the older baptismal confession. They develop it in answer to particular questions.

  1. Why might a short statement be easier to remember than a long one?
  2. What is the difference between a confession said in worship and a rule used to judge others?
  3. What does the phrase I believe mean when said by a group at the same time?
  4. Why do you think the creeds follow the pattern Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
  5. What is gained and what is lost when a legend about origins is replaced by the history?
  6. Is a creed a summary of Scripture or something added to it? How would different Christians answer?

Examples

A baptism in the third century

A candidate stands in water. A minister asks about belief in the Father, the Son and the Spirit. After each question, the candidate answers I believe and is immersed. The creed is not a text to read but a pattern to say.

Rufinus’s explanation

Around 400, Rufinus wrote a commentary on the creed as used in Aquileia and compared it with the creed of Rome. He is a valuable witness to how local forms differed and to the legend about the apostles.

A creed as a test

When a visiting bishop arrived in a new city, the local church might ask whether his faith agreed with theirs. Reciting a creed was a way to answer. This function grew as disputes multiplied.

Different perspectives

Catholic

The Catholic Church uses both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, and treats the creeds as authoritative summaries of the faith received from the apostles. The Catechism explains the Apostles’ Creed as a summary that grew from baptismal confession.

Orthodox

The Orthodox Church recites the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the liturgy and does not use the Apostles’ Creed in the same way. It sees the creed as the faith of the councils, received by the whole church. The Orthodox also hold that the creed must not be changed by any single church.

Protestant

Most Protestant churches accept the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, and many Reformation confessions repeat them. Churches differ in how much weight they give to creeds. Some say creeds are subordinate standards under Scripture, and some traditions hold that they have no authority at all.

Scholarly views

Historians study the creeds as evidence of how liturgy and doctrine grew together. They debate details such as the date of the Apostolic Tradition, the relation of the Roman and Eastern forms, and whether baptismal creeds came before or after the rule of faith.

Why it matters

Many Christians say a creed every week without knowing where it came from. Learning its history shows that it grew from baptism and worship, not only from debate, and that it was shaped by people who wanted to say clearly what they had received. That history makes later conflicts easier to understand, since each added clause answers a specific question.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The twelve apostles wrote the Apostles’ Creed.

Correction: This is a legend. The creed grew from the baptismal confession of the Roman church and reached its present form in the West by about the eighth century. It is called the Apostles’ because it summarizes their teaching.

Misunderstanding: Creeds were invented to control believers.

Correction: They began as baptismal confessions. Later they were used in controversy, but their first use was in worship and teaching.

Misunderstanding: All churches always used the same creed.

Correction: Early churches had local forms with a common pattern. Standard creeds came later, and the East and West use different ones today.

Misunderstanding: Creeds replaced Scripture.

Correction: Most traditions treat them as summaries that point back to Scripture. How much authority they have varies.

Knowledge check

Where did creeds first take shape?

They grew from baptismal confessions. New Testament passages such as Romans 10:9 and 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 show short confessions, and later churches asked candidates to confess belief in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The earliest purpose was worship and teaching, not controversy.

What is the Old Roman Creed?

It is a short creed used by the church at Rome, known from fourth century Greek and Latin texts. It is the ancestor of the Apostles’ Creed. Over time other churches added phrases to it, and the present form of the Apostles’ Creed is found from about the eighth century.

Why is the story of the twelve apostles composing the creed not accepted by historians?

The story appears in later writers such as Rufinus and has no early support. The creed developed gradually from baptismal forms. It is called the Apostles’ Creed because it summarizes apostolic teaching, not because the apostles composed it together.

Why did creeds become longer in the fourth century?

Disputes arose about the relation of the Son to the Father, and churches needed wording that excluded certain claims. Longer creeds like the Nicene Creed added phrases in answer to those questions, while keeping the older baptismal pattern.

Think it through

  1. When you say or hear a creed, what does it mean to speak it with others?
  2. Does knowing the history of a creed change how you feel about it?
  3. Could a church be faithful without a written creed? What would it do instead?
  4. Which clause in the Apostles’ Creed would you find hardest to explain to a child?

Independent assignment

Compare three confessions

In your notebook, copy out Romans 10:9, 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 and the text of the Apostles’ Creed from the library. Underline the elements that appear in more than one. Then write a paragraph of about 200 words on how the later creed grows from the earlier statements. Aim for 350 to 500 words in all.

Further study