The Earliest Confessions — Creeds within the New Testament

AD 30s – 60s · the apostolic church

Its Origin and History

Before there were written creeds there were confessions — short, memorised statements of faith passed hand to hand in the first churches, some of them older than the letters that quote them. Paul cites one he himself had “received” (1 Corinthians 15:3), sings another as a hymn (Philippians 2), and seals a third with the words “without controversy” (1 Timothy 3:16). These are not the church’s words about the Bible; they are the Bible’s own words, and every later creed is a footnote to them.

The Full Text

THE GREAT MYSTERY (1 Timothy 3:16, KJV): “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”

THE HYMN OF THE SELF-EMPTIED CHRIST (Philippians 2:6 – 11, KJV): “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

THE RECEIVED GOSPEL (1 Corinthians 15:3 – 5, KJV): “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve.”

What It Affirms

Three confessions, three anchors of everything after: God manifest in the flesh (against every denial of the Incarnation); Christ’s humiliation and universal lordship (against every denial of His deity); and the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ “according to the scriptures,” attested by named witnesses — the gospel in one breath, preached within a few years of the events themselves.

The Scriptures Behind It

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”Christ died for our sins — 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (KJV)

“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”The name above every name — Philippians 2:9–11 (KJV)

A careful word: GTU note: when men ask why the church later bothered to write creeds at all, the answer is here — the faith was confessed in set words from the very beginning, because error made precision necessary. The creeds that follow are valuable exactly so far as they repeat these.

The Old Roman Creed

c. AD 150 – 250 · Rome

Its Origin and History

The baptismal confession of the church at Rome, ancestor of the Apostles’ Creed. Candidates for baptism were examined in its articles (“Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty?…”), and its text survives in Greek in Marcellus of Ancyra (c. 340) and in Latin in Rufinus (c. 404), who compares it word by word with his own church’s form. It was written for no council and against no single heresy: it is simply what a convert in Rome confessed before he went down into the water.

The Full Text

I believe in God the Father almighty; and in Christ Jesus His only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and was buried, and the third day rose from the dead, who ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead; and in the Holy Spirit, the holy church, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh.

What It Affirms

The skeleton of the faith as the second-century church confessed it at baptism: one God the Father; His only Son, truly born, truly crucified under a datable Roman governor, buried, risen, ascended, enthroned, and returning to judge; the Holy Spirit; the church; forgiveness; and the resurrection of the flesh — against the Gnostics, who denied that Christ had real flesh and that flesh could rise.

The Scriptures Behind It

“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”Born of a virgin — Matthew 1:23 (KJV)

“And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.”Crucified under Pontius Pilate — Matthew 27:2 (KJV)

“And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:”The resurrection of the flesh — Job 19:26 (KJV)

The Apostles’ Creed

Form reached by c. AD 700 · from the Old Roman Creed

Its Origin and History

Not written by the apostles’ own hands — the pretty medieval story that each apostle contributed one article is a legend — but apostolic in content: the Old Roman baptismal creed, enlarged across the early centuries (the phrases “Maker of heaven and earth,” “conceived by the Holy Ghost,” “He descended into hell,” “the communion of saints,” and “the life everlasting” were added article by article) until it reached its received form in the West by about the eighth century. For a thousand years it has been the baptismal creed of the Western church and the first summary of the faith taught to children. The text below is the traditional English form (as in the Book of Common Prayer, public domain).

The Full Text

I believe in God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

What It Affirms

Three articles, one for each Person of the Trinity. Of the Father: almighty Creator. Of the Son: the whole gospel biography compressed — conception, birth, suffering, crucifixion, death, burial, descent, resurrection, ascension, session, and return as Judge. Of the Spirit: His works in the church — one universal church, the fellowship of saints, forgiveness of sins — and the believer’s hope: the body raised and life everlasting. A child can memorise it in a week; a lifetime cannot exhaust it.

The Scriptures Behind It

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”The Father almighty, Maker — Genesis 1:1 (KJV)

“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”Conceived by the Holy Ghost — Luke 1:35 (KJV)

“And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”Rose again the third day — 1 Corinthians 15:4 (KJV)

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”The resurrection of the body — John 5:28–29 (KJV)

A careful word: TWO PHRASES EXPLAINED (as in the GTU Apostles’ Creed course): (1) “The holy catholic church” — catholic here is the old word for universal: the whole body of true believers in Christ in all ages and places. It names no denomination and bows to no bishop; every born-again believer is in it. (2) “He descended into hell” — hell in the King James Bible renders the Greek hades, the place of departed spirits (Acts 2:27, 31). The phrase confesses that Christ truly entered the state of the dead — His death was real, complete, and reached the realm of the dead — before He rose. It does not teach a second suffering for sin: on the cross He had already cried, “It is finished.”

The Creed of Caesarea (Eusebius’ Baptismal Creed)

Presented AD 325 · Caesarea, Palestine

Its Origin and History

When the Council of Nicaea assembled in 325 and a formula was demanded, Eusebius of Caesarea laid before the council the baptismal creed of his own church — the faith, he testified, in which he had been baptised and taught, received from the bishops before him. The council received it as sound, and built its own greater creed upon it. It is preserved in Eusebius’ letter to his church, and is the bridge between the simple baptismal confessions and the Nicene Creed.

The Full Text

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, God of God, Light of Light, Life of Life, the only-begotten Son, born before all creation, begotten of the Father before all ages, by whom also all things were made; who for our salvation was made flesh, and lived as a man among men, and suffered, and rose again the third day, and ascended to the Father, and shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. We believe also in one Holy Spirit.

What It Affirms

Note the guarding phrase already in place before Nicaea spoke: the Son is “God of God, Light of Light,” begotten before all ages — not a creature made in time. Eusebius could honestly sign Nicaea because his home creed already confessed the Son’s eternal deity; what Nicaea added was the one word (“of one substance”) that Arius could not sign.

The Scriptures Behind It

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”Light of the world — John 8:12 (KJV)

“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”Begotten before all creation — Colossians 1:15–17 (KJV)

The Nicene Creed

AD 325 at Nicaea · enlarged AD 381 at Constantinople

Its Origin and History

Summoned by the Emperor Constantine to Nicaea in Bithynia in 325, some three hundred bishops faced the teaching of Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria who sang that the Son was a created being — “there was when He was not.” The council answered with a creed built to exclude Arianism at every joint: the Son is “begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father.” In 381 the Council of Constantinople reaffirmed it and enlarged the article on the Holy Spirit against those who denied His deity. In this Nicene-Constantinopolitan form — the text below, in the widely used traditional English rendering (public domain) — it became the creed of the whole church, East and West.

The Full Text

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord, and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spake by the Prophets. And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

What It Affirms

The fullest short statement of the Trinity and the Incarnation ever penned. Its load-bearing word is homoousios — of one substance: the Son is not similar to God, nor the highest creature, but Himself God of God, begotten eternally, not made ever. The article on the Spirit answers the next century’s error in advance: the Spirit is “the Lord, and Giver of Life,” worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son — that is, He is God.

The Scriptures Behind It

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.”In the beginning was the Word — John 1:1–2 (KJV)

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”By whom all things were made — Colossians 1:16 (KJV)

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”The Spirit, Giver of Life — John 6:63 (KJV)

“And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”Whose kingdom shall have no end — Luke 1:33 (KJV)

A careful word: A HISTORICAL NOTE ON ONE PHRASE: the creed of 381 confessed the Spirit “who proceedeth from the Father” (John 15:26). The words “and the Son” (the filioque) were added later in the West — first in Spain, spread through the Carolingian church, and adopted at Rome about 1014. The addition became one of the formal grievances in the breach between East and West in 1054. We print the received Western text as the church in the West has confessed it, and note the history honestly.

The Athanasian Creed (Quicumque Vult)

c. AD 430 – 500 · probably Gaul

Its Origin and History

Named for Athanasius, the great defender of Nicaea against the Arian world — though scholars judge it a Latin work of the century after his death (c. 430 – 500, southern Gaul), written in his spirit against the errors still troubling the West: Arianism (denying the Son’s deity), Nestorianism (dividing Christ), and Eutychianism (confusing His natures). For a thousand years it was recited in the Western church’s morning prayer. It is the most exact and the most severe of the creeds: a definition of the Trinity in forty-odd clauses of balanced prose. Text: the traditional English rendering (public domain).

The Full Text

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

And the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one: the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal. As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not three Lords, but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be both God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say, There be three Gods, or three Lords.

The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son, neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; none is greater, or less than another; but the whole three Persons are co-eternal together, and co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right faith is, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man; God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man, of the substance of His mother, born in the world; perfect God, and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting; equal to the Father, as touching His Godhead; and inferior to the Father, as touching His manhood. Who although He be God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ; one, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ; who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into heaven, He sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil, into everlasting fire.

This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.

What It Affirms

A fence around two mysteries. On the Trinity: one substance, three Persons — every clause cuts off a specific error, affirming each Person fully God and Lord while forbidding both tritheism (three Gods) and modalism (one Person in three masks). On the Incarnation: Christ is perfect God and perfect man, with a reasonable (human) soul and human flesh, two natures in one Person without conversion or confusion — the faith Chalcedon would define in the same decades.

The Scriptures Behind It

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”One God, three Persons — Matthew 28:19 (KJV)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”The Word was God — John 1:1 (KJV)

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”God and man, one Christ — 1 Timothy 2:5 (KJV)

“And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”Everlasting fire / life eternal — Matthew 25:46 (KJV)

A careful word: A GTU WORD ON THE CREED’S OPENING SENTENCE: the anathemas (“except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved”) state the ancient church’s conviction that the doctrine of God is not a matter of indifference — a Christ who is not God cannot save. Grace Team University holds the doctrine of the Trinity as this creed states it, and teaches salvation by grace through faith in that Christ — the creed is history’s guard-rail for the gospel, not a replacement for it.

The Definition of Chalcedon

AD 451 · Chalcedon, across from Constantinople

Its Origin and History

The fourth ecumenical council (see The Church Councils) met to settle how the two natures of Christ hold together in one Person. Apollinarius had cut away Christ’s human mind; Nestorius seemed to split Him into two persons; Eutyches dissolved His humanity into His deity like a drop in the sea. Chalcedon, with some five hundred bishops, leaned on Cyril of Alexandria’s letters and on Leo of Rome’s Tome, and issued not a new creed but a Definition — upholding Nicaea unchanged and defining the Incarnation with four famous fences: without confusion, without change, without division, without separation. Text: the standard public-domain translation.

The Full Text

Wherefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance (homoousios) with the Father as regards His Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards His manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards His Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards His manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of Him, and our Lord Jesus Christ Himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has delivered to us.

What It Affirms

One Christ, two complete natures. Against Eutyches: the humanity is not swallowed — He is of one substance with us, like us in all but sin, with a true human soul. Against Nestorius: the Person is not split — it was God the Word who was born, suffered, and died in the flesh He made His own. The four “without”s have been the church’s grammar for Christology ever since: preach Him too divine and you lose the Saviour who can be touched with our infirmities; too human, and you lose the God who can save.

The Scriptures Behind It

“For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”Like us, apart from sin — Hebrews 4:15 (KJV)

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”The Word was made flesh — John 1:14 (KJV)

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”One Mediator — 1 Timothy 2:5 (KJV)

A careful word: A GTU NOTE ON “GOD-BEARER”: the title (Greek Theotokos) was defended at Ephesus and Chalcedon as a Christological statement — the One born of Mary was God the Son in person — not as an exaltation of Mary herself. Scripture’s Mary is the blessed, obedient handmaid (Luke 1:38, 48); Scripture’s mediator is one: “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). We keep the Definition’s doctrine of Christ and Scripture’s doctrine of prayer.