G. E. Post.
CRATES (K/xiT77r), a deputy left in charge of the citadel at Jerusalem (Acra) when the regular governor, Sostratus, was summoned to Antioeh by Antiochus Epiphanes, in consequence of a dispute with the high priest Menelaus (2 Mac 4^). Crates is termed the governor of the Cyprians (t4v {tI tCiv Kt/vpluy, RV ' who was over the Cyprians') : prob- ably he was sent to Cyprus shortly afterwards, when, in 1C8 B.C., Antiochus obtained possession of the island. Some MSS read here 'ZuiTTparos di Kparriaas twv iirl r. Kiw. ; 80 Vulg. Sostratus prwlatus est Cypriis. H. A. White.
CREATION.— See Cosmogony, CRE-TtrRE.
CREATURE is the somewhat loose rendering of nephesh (c;j), breathitig being, in On and Lv (once in Gn — l** — of sherez (\'~«f), swarming beinij, or, as it is there put, moving creature), and, in Ezk, of hai (T), living being (rendered, in each case, living creature). In NT, quite accurately, it represents Kriaim, and shares with creation the representation of KTlais. Neither /crdr/na nor ktIcis is ever emjiloyed by the LXX as a tr. of nephesh, sherez, or hai, the favourite equivalents for these words respectively being f t^i), fpirerliy, and fwov. In Gn the verb bdra' (k-;5, 'create') is tr. solely by iroieiK: nTlftii' represents it first in Dt 4''''', and afterwards more usually than iroieTii ; while both stand for it, sometimes side by side, in Deutero-Isaiah {e.g. 45'). Since iroieri' is simply tomnke, while /criffivis (classically) to found (a city, a colony), and so to mnke from the begin- ning, originally, for the first time (not necessarily
out of nothing), Krlieiv is especially fitted to express God's creative activity not only in the physical (Ec 12', Ro 1^), but also in the spiritual sphere (Col 3'". For an OT premonition of the spiritual sense, see Ps bV, where create, KTl^av, and renew, iyKaivticiv, recall together the /taii'Tj ktI<tis, new creature, of 2 Co 5"). The use of the subst. kWcth exactly corresponds. In contradistinction to KTlafia, which points to the creative act completed and embodied, it denotes sometimes the creative act in process (Ro P"), at other times the thing created, regard being paid to the process of its production. It is used ( 1 ) physically (a) of the whole creation (so invariably in OT and Apocr. ; in NT, Ro 8^), often with special reference to mankind as the creation (Mk 16", Col 1==) ; (6) of the individual creation, the creature (like the purely physical KTla/ia of the Apocr. and NT), Ro 8^ ; (2) spiritually, of the new creature (2 Co 5", Gal 6"), and the new creation (Ro 8^'^) in Christ Jesus, the original and originator of the new race, and the renovator of I nature as a whole. Cf. the rabbinical expressions berlyah huddshah, 'new creation,' of a man con- verted to Judaism ; and hiddush ha'Olam, ' the new age ' (lit. newness of the age) to be ushered in by the Messiah ; also Isaiah's ' new heavens and new earth' (65"), the TroXiTvextffia, regeneration (Mt 19^), and the diroKaTiaraatt iravTuy, restitution of all things (Ac 3-'). The classical sense of KTi^eiv, to found, occurs only in 1 Es 4**, but is traceable in the meaning of ktIiii% in 1 P 2", xdo-j ipBpuirlyjj KTltrei, 'every institution, i.e. ordinance, of man.'
J. Massie.
CREDIT.— 1 Mac 10" ' Wlien Jonathan and the people heard these words, they gave no credit unto them' {ovk iTTlar^vaav airoU, RV 'credence'). Cf. Introd. to Rhemish NT, 'The discerning of Canonical from not Canonical, and of their infal- lible truth, and sense, commeth unto us, only by the credite we give unto the Catholike Churche.'
J. Hastings.
CREDITOR.— See Debt.
CREED. — A creed is an authorized statement or definition of religious beliefs. The name is usually limited in its application to the three formulas known as the Apostles', the Nioene (or Constanti- nopolitan), and the Athanasian. The history of these documents has been the subject of minute and elaborate investigation. The most convenient collection of the materials for study is to be found in Hahn's Biblioth. d. Symb. u. Glaubensreq. d. alt. Kirche', 1897. The earliest traces of the Apostles' Creed are investigated in vol. i. pt. 2, of Gebhardt, Harnack, and Zahn's Patr. Apost. Op. , and Hamack, A nhang to Hahn (ed. 2) ; and the recent controversy as to its original meaning, and the source of certain clauses, is accessible in Harnack, Apost. Glaubens- bek., and Swete, Apostles' Creed. As Swainson has observed, it is necessary to remark that until the tenth century the name 'apostles" or 'apostolic' was applied to the Nicene as well as to the Western symbol to which it is now appropriated ; both were regarded as embodying the apostolic teaching, and the epithet 'apostolic does not always entitle us to say that the Latin symbol is the one meant. But the purpose of this article is not to enter in the origin and history of the creeds, but to indi- cate their biblical suggestions or anticipations.
Pagan religion was a rite rather than a doctrine ; if the ceremonial were duly performed, tJie worshipfjcr was at liberty to interpret it, or leave it unexplained, as he pleased. The myths which in a certain sense rationalize ritual do not amount to a doctrine ; there is nothing in them binding the reason or faith of the worshipper ; and pagan religion has no theology or creed. Neither 1«19 it a historical basis, which might be exUibif«l and