THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
The work of the Twelve was by no means confined to the Circumcision. At the end of the Pauline period Peter was still, both in Later Use person and by letters, exercising of the apostolic influence among the Gen- Term, tiles, and after Paul's death, John took the place of leader among them. Yet the special relation of the Twelve to the work among the twelve tribes is emphasized by the promise for the future in Matt. xix. 28. Though the word " apostle " is used in the New Testament in a wider sense, properly it is limited to the first and highest office in the Church, distinct from all other offices (I Cor. xii. 28; Eph. iv. 11), to be filled only by those personally chosen by the Lord; and after their death no others filled exactly the same place. [The word was used also in the early Church as a convenient term by which to refer to the epistolary literature of the New Testament (see Evangeliarium). It has been employed to designate the first or the principal missionary to a people, as Columba, Augustine of Canterbury, and others. It is used also in some modern Churches as the title of high dignitaries, as among the Mormons.]
(K. Schmidt.)
Bibliography: J. B. Lightfoot, Galatians, Excursus on The Name and Office of an Apostle, London, 1887 (opened up new views on the subject, and should be supplemented by A. Harnack in TU. ii. 1, pp. 93-118, Leipsic, 1884); C. Weizsacker, Apostolisches Zeitalter, pp. 584-590, Tubingen, 1901, Eng. transl. of earlier ed., 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1894; J. F. A. Hort, The Christian Scclesia, London, 1897 (contains important contributions); E. Haupt, Zum Verstandniss des Apostolats, Halle, 1896; A. V. G. Allen, Christian Institutions, consult Index, New York, 1897; A. C. McGiffert, Hist, of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, New York, 1897; A. Harnack, Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums, book iii., chap. 1, § 1, Berlin, 1902, Eng., transl., Expansion of Christianity, New York, 1904; DB, i. 126; EB, i. 264 sqq.
APOSTLES' CREED.
The First Ecumenical Creeds (§1).
Present Form not Earlier than Fifth Century (§ 2).
Earliest Appearance (§3).
Legend of its Origin (§ 4).
Greek Text of the Roman Symbol (§ 5).
Earliest Appearance of the Legend of its Origin (§6).
Age of the Roman Symbol (§ 7).
Comparison of Western Symbols (§ 8).
Assumption of an Asia Minor Original of the Roman
Symbol (§ 9). Summary (§ 10).
The Old Roman Symbol Displaced (§ 11). Interpretation of the Symbol (§ 12). Clauses not Found in the Old Roman Symbol (§ 13).
The Apostles' Creed or Apostolicum (i.e., apostolicum symbolum) is the briefest of the so-called ecumenical creeds (see Symbolics). With the Nicseno-Constantinopolitan and Athanasian creeds, for more than five centuries preceding i. The the Protestant Reformation it was in First use in the West and enjoyed especial Ecumenical authority (cf. E. Kollner, Symbolik, Creeds. Hamburg, 18.57, p. 5). The Eastern Church has never traced any symbol to the apostles, or designated any as apostolic in the strict sense of the word; and here and there in the West the Nicseno-Constantinopolitan creed has been called apostolic (cf. Caspari, i. 242, note 45; ii. 115, note 88; iii. 12, note 22). The three chief branches of the Church in the
West, however, have the so called symbolum apostolicum in essentially the same form (textus receptus).
Apart from details the textus receptus can be traced with some degree of certainty to the beginning of the sixth or the end of the 2. Present fifth century. On the other hand, Form not it can be proved that before that time Earlier this form of the symbol was nowhere than Fifth used officially in any Church whether Century, among the interrogationes de fide or the traditio and redditio symboli ; nor can any traces of it be discovered before the middle of the fifth century. Since it by no means came to the West from the East, and in the Western provincial Churches symbols were in use which differ greatly from the textus receptus of the Apostolicum, it follows that the latter could hardly have existed before the middle of the fifth century, and most likely originated about 500.
In its present form the Apostolicum is first found in a sermon of Csesarius of Aries (d. 542; Pseudo- Augustine, 244; cf. Kattenbusch, i. 164 sqq.), with which may be compared Sermo, 240, 241 (texts in Hahn, §§ 47-49), and the symbol in the Missale Gallicanum vetus (Hahn,
3. Earliest § 36). The immediate predecessor Appear- of Csesarius' and, consequently, of
ance. our " apostles' creed " is most likely the symbol of Faustus of Riez of about 460 (Hahn, § 38; Kattenbusch, pp. 158 sqq.), but its reconstruction is difficult. On the other hand, the stage succeeding that of the old Roman symbol (see below) in the direction of our . Apostolicum is represented by the highly interesting symbol discovered by Bratke in the Bern Codex n. 645 ssec. vii. (SK, lxviii., 1895, 153 sqq.), which is to be regarded as a Gallican, or rather Gallico- British, symbol belonging to the fourth century. It differs from the ancient Roman symbol only by the additions of passus, descendit ad inferos, catholicam, and vitam ceternam. These four additions all tend in the direction of our Apostolicum and at the same time prove that they are the four older additions, while conceptus, etc., and communionem sanctorum are the later ones (but creatorem cadi et terrce and mortuus are also older). Two considerations are against a Roman origin of the Apostolicum: (1) It is not found in Rome until the Middle Ages, i.e., many centuries after its attestation by Csesarius of Aries; (2) From the end of the fifth, or the beginning of the sixth century until the tenth the Nicasno-Constantinopolitan creed in Greek was used in Rome in the traditio symboli, and not the Apostolicum (Caspari, iii. 201- 202, 226; ii. 114-115, note 88); a shorter symbol was also in use in Rome (see below), but it was not identical with the Apostolicum. With the spread of the textus receptus in western Europe
4. Legend during the sixth century, the legend of its of its wondrous origin also spread
Origin. (cf. Hahn, §46/3). The fact that such
a late symbol is called from the
very beginning "the Apostolic," still more, that,
as concerns its origin, it is traced back to a
" bringing together " (Gk. symbule, Lat. collatio)