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.