[30] The Latin version in Mansi: 'quæ ab una orbis terrarum ora ad alteram usque porrigitur.'
Eusebius, of Cæsarea. A.D. 325.
Socrates, Hist. Eccl. Lib. I. cap. 8.
Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, in Palestine (d. 340), the Church historian, the friend and eulogist of Constantine I., and a leading member of the Council of Nicæa (325), forms the connecting link between the ante-Nicene and the Nicene Church. In his account of that Council he mentions the following creed, which his church in Cæsarea had received from the bishops of former times in catechizing and at baptism, which he himself had learned from Scripture, believed, and taught, and which he had laid before the Emperor and the Council. It comes very near the Nicene Creed as adopted in 325, and was the basis of it, but the characteristic shibboleth of Nicene orthodoxy, the term homoousios or consubstantial, is wanting. See Eusebii Cæsareensis Episcopi de fide Nicænæ exposita, in Athanasius, Epistola de decretis Synodi Nicænæ (Opera, Tom. I. Pt. I. pp. 238 sqq., ed. Montfauc.); Socrates, Hist. Eccl. Lib. I. cap. 8; Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. Lib I. cap. 12.
Pisteuomen eis hena theon patera pantokratora,
We believe in one God the Father Almighty,
ton ton apanton horaton te kai aoraton poieten;
Maker of all things visible and invisible;
Kai eis hena kurion Iesoun Christon,
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
ton tou theou logon,
the Word of God,
theon ek theou,
God of God,
phos ek photos,
Light of Light,
zoen ek zoes,
Life of Life,
huion monogene,
the only-begotten Son,
prototokon pases ktiseos,
the first-born of every creature,
pro panton ton aionon ek tou theou patros gegennemenon,
begotten of God the Father before all ages,
di hou kai egeneto ta panta;
by whom also all things were made;
ton dia ten hemeteran soterian sarkothenta kai en anthropois politeusamenon,
who for our salvation was made flesh and made his home among men;
kai pathonta,
and suffered;
kai anastanta te trite hemera,
and rose on the third day;
kai anelthonta pros ton patera,
and ascended to the Father;
kai hexonta palin en doxe krinai zontas kai nekrous.
and will come again in glory, to judge the quick and the dead.
[Pisteuomen] kai eis hen pneuma hagion. [31]
[We believe] also in one Holy Ghost. [32]
Touton hekaston einai kai huparchein pisteuontes, patera alethos patera kai huion alethos huion kai pneuma hagion alethos pneuma hagion, kathos kai ho kurios hemon apostellon eis to kerugma tous heautou mathetas eipe; poreuthentes matheteusate panta ta ethne, baptizontes autous eis to onoma tou patros kai tou huiou kai tou agiou pneumatos.
We believe that each of these is and exists, the Father truly Father, and the Son truly Son, and the Holy Ghost truly Holy Ghost; even as our Lord, when sending forth his disciples to preach, said: 'Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'
To this creed Eusebius adds: 'And concerning these things we affirm that we so hold and so think, and have of old so held, and will so hold till death, and stand steadfast in this faith, anathematizing all ungodly heresy. We testify before Almighty God and our Lord Jesus Christ that we have thought all this in heart and soul ever since we knew ourselves, and we now so think and speak in truth, being able to show by evidence and to convince you that we in past times so believed and preached accordingly.'
[31] Here the Creed of Cæsarea stops. What follows is an explanatory summary or a personal confession of Eusebius. This difference Hahn seems to have overlooked (p. 47).
[32] Here the Creed of Cæsarea stops. What follows is an explanatory summary or a personal confession of Eusebius. This difference Hahn seems to have overlooked (p. 47).
Cyril, of Jerusalem. About A.D. 350.
From his Katecheseis .
Cyril was elected Bishop of Jerusalem in 350; was expelled by the Arians in 360; reinstated in 361; attended the second oecumenical Council in 381 as an advocate of the Nicene orthodoxy (although for some time he had sided with the semi-Arians); he died in 386. He wrote in 348, while he was presbyter of the Church in Jerusalem, twenty-three Catechetical Lectures ( Katecheseis ) or Sermons on the baptismal Creed used in Jerusalem, which he asserts to be the faith of the universal Church (Cat.XVII. § 3), also 'the holy and apostolic faith' (Cat. XVIII. § 32), although Cyril knows nothing of a literal composition by the Apostles. The Lectures were delivered to those who hoped to be baptized on the ensuing Easter eve. The Creed thus explained is not given at length in the manuscripts, since it was not to be written on paper, but to be engraved on the memory, and to serve to the baptized Christian as a viaticum for his journey through life, by which he might test the doctrine of Cyril or any other teacher. He claims for it antiquity and agreement with the Scripture from which it was drawn (Cat. V. § 12).
From these Lectures and ancient headings A. Aug. Touttée, the Benedictine editor of the Works of Cyril (Venet. 1763), has compiled the following creed. It closely resembles the Nicene Creed of 325, but, like that of Eusebius, it avoids the homoousion. At the same time, it contains most of the additional clauses of the Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.
Comp. the critical edition of Cyril's Lectures by Reischl and Rupp, Munich, 1848-1850; my Church History, Vol. III. pp. 924 sqq.; Swainson, l.c. pp. 16 sqq.; Hort, l.c. pp. 84 sqq. The fourth Catechetical Lecture of Cyril, in which he goes over the creed in a summary way, is printed in Heurtley's De Fide et Symbolo, pp. 42-60.
Longer Formula.
Pisteuomen eis hena Theon Patera pantokratora,
We believe in one God the Father Almighty,
poieten ouranou kai ges, horaton te panton kai aoraton;
Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible;
Kai eis hena kurion Iesoun Christon,
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
ton huion tou theou ton monogene,
the only-begotten Son of God,
ton ek huion tou patros gennethenta, pro panton aionon,
begotten of the Father before all ages,
theon alethinon,
very God,
di hou ta panta egeneto;
by whom all things were made;
en sarki paragenomenon, [33]
who appeared in the flesh,
kai enanthropesanta
and became man
[ek parthenou kai pneumatos agiou] [34]
[of the Virgin and the Holy Ghost]; [35]
staurothenta kai taphenta,
was crucified and was buried;
anastanta te trite hemera,
rose on the third day;
kai anelthonta eis tous ouranous
and ascended into heaven,
ai kathisanta ek dexion tou patros,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
kai erchomenon en doxe,
and will come again in glory,
krinai zontas kai nekrous;
to judge the quick and the dead;
hou tes basleias ouk esai telos.
of whose kingdom there shall be no end.
Kai eis hen hagion pneuma,
And in one Holy Ghost,
ton parakleton,
the Advocate,
to lalesan en tois prophetais.
who spake in the Prophets.
Kai eis hen baptisma metanoias eis aphesin hamartion,
And in one baptism of repentance for the remission of sins;
kai eis mian hagian katholiken ekklesian,
and in one holy Catholic Church;
kai eis sarkos anastasin,
and in the resurrection of the flesh,
kai eis zoen aionion.
and in life everlasting.
Shorter Formula.
In his Catechetical Lectures, XIX. § 9 (ed. Touttée, p. 309), where he gives an account of the baptismal service in the church of Jerusalem, Cyril mentions also a much briefer creed, as follows:
Pisteuo eis ton Patera, I believe in the Father, kai eis ton Huion, and in the Son, kai eis to hagion Pneuma, and in the Holy Ghost, kai eis hen bartisma metanoias. and in one baptism of repentance.
Note.--This is regarded by Touttée, Walch, and Swainson as an independent formula, as the shorter baptismal creed of the church of Jerusalem. On the other hand, Hahn (p. 58) endeavors to show from the context that this form was not properly a baptismal confession, but a preparatory form of consecration ( he prhos ton Christon suntaxis ) following the formula of renunciation ( meta ten apotaxin tou Satana ). It resembles in brevity the creed of Cyprian (p. 20), and, judging from its simplicity, is much older than the longer form.
[33] Ussher, Bull, and Hahn read sarkothenta, was made flesh.
[34] The words in brackets are doubtful, and are so considered by Touttée, Hahn, and Swainson.
[35] The words in brackets are doubtful, and are so considered by Touttée, Hahn, and Swainson.
Two Creeds of Epiphanius. A.D. 374.
Ancoratus, cap. 119, 120.
Epiphanius, the learned champion of a narrow and intolerant orthodoxy, was born in Palestine about 310, of Jewish parentage; Bishop of Salamis or Constantia, the capital of the island of Cyprus, 367; died at sea, 403. He has preserved to us two creeds at the close of his work Ancoratus ( ho ankurotos, secured as by an anchor, the Anchored One), which was written in 373 or 374, at the request of several presbyters in Pamphylia, as an exposition of the Nicene faith of the Holy Trinity, in opposition to the heresies of his age. The creeds are given as brief summaries of the preceding instruction. See Epiphanii 0pera, ed. Petavius, Tom. II. pp. 122 sqq.; ed. Migne, Patrol. Vol. XLIII. pp. 231 sqq.; also Hahn, l.c. pp. 56 sqq.; and Swainson, l.c. pp. 85 sqq. Comp. my Church History, Vol. III. pp. 926 sqq.
First Formula.
This is the shorter formula, and is chiefly interesting for its literal agreement with the fuller Nicene Creed as adopted, according to the current opinion, seven years afterwards by the second oecumenical Council (381). At the same time, it retains several clauses from the original Nicene Creed (325), especially 'Light of Light,' and the concluding anathema against the Arians. Epiphanius introduces this formula by the remark that 'this is the holy faith of the Catholic Church ( ten hagian pistin tes katholikes ekklesias ), as the holy and only Virgin of God [i.e., the pure Church] received it from the holy Apostles and the Lord to keep,' and that 'every person preparing for the holy laver of baptism must learn it as the common mother of us all confesses it, saying, We believe,' etc.
Pisteuomen eis hena Theon Patera pantokratora,
We believe in one God the Father Almighty,
poieten ouranou te kai ges, horaton te panton kai aoraton;
Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible;
Kai eis hena Kurion Iesoun Christon,
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
ton Huion tou Theou ton monogene,
the only-begotten Son of God,
ton ek tou Patros gennethenta pro panton ton aionon,
begotten of the Father before all worlds,
toutestin ek tes ousias tou Patros,
that is, of the substance of the Father,
phos ek photos,
Light of Light,
Theon alethinon ek Theou halethinou,
very God of very God,
gennethenta, ou poiethenta,
begotten, not made,
homoousion to Patri;
being of one substance (consubstantial) with the Father;
di hou ta panta egeneto, ta te en tois ouranois kai ta en te ge;
by whom all things were made, both those in the heavens and those on earth;
ton di hemas tous anthropous kai dia ten hemeteran soterian katelthonta ek ton ouranon,
who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven.
kai sarkothenta ek Pneumatos Hagiou kai Marias tes Parthenon, kai enanthropesanta;
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary, and was made man;
staurothenta te huper hemon epi Pontiou Pilatou,
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,
kai pathonta, kai taphenta,
and suffered, and was buried;
kai anastanta te trite hemera,
and the third day He rose again,
kata tas graphas;
according to the Scriptures;
kai anelthonta eis tous ouranous,
and ascended into heaven,
kai kathezomenon ek dexion tou Patros,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;