I. SYMBOLUM APOSTOLICUM. (a) FORMA RECEPTA

Notes

1. 42

   The Latin and Greek texts of the Apostles' Creed are taken from the Psalterium Græcum et Romanum, erroneously ascribed to Pope Gregory the Great, first published from a MS. preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, by Archbishop Ussher: De Romanæ Ecclesiæ Symbolo Apostolico vetere, London, 1647. I used the Geneva edition, 1722, pp. 6, 7. The MS. is written in two parallel columns, the one Latin, the other Greek, but the Greek likewise in Latin characters. The same text is given by Hahn, Biblioth. der Symb. p. 10, and Heutley (in Greek), Harmonia Symb. pp. 81-83. The Latin text agrees with the creed of Pirminius (d. 758) in Heurtley, p. 71. Caspari discovered and published four other Greek translations from mediæval MSS. with slight variations, Vol. III. pp. 11 sqq.

2. 43

   See Footnote 45.

3. 44

   See Footnote 45.

4. 45

   Descendit ad inferna (other Latin copies: ad inferos , to the inhabitants of the spirit-world; so also in the Athanasian Symbol), katelthonta eis ta katotata (other Eastern creeds: eis hadou , viz., topon , or eis ton haden ), he descended into Hades. This clause was unknown in the older creeds, though believed in the Church, and was transferred into the Roman symbol after the fifth century, probably from that of Aquilcia, A.D. 390, where it first appears among Latin creeds, as we learn from Rufinus. In the East it is found before in Arian creeds (about 360). After this we meet it again in the Creed of Venantius Fortunatus, A.D. 590, who had the Creed of Rufinus before him. The words katotata and inferna, taken from Eph. iv. 9, correspond here to the Greek Haides , which occurs eleven times in the Greek Testament, viz., Matt. xi. 23; xvi. 18; Luke x. 15; xvi. 23; Acts ii. 27, 31; 1 Cor. xv. 55; Rev. i. 18; vi. 8; xx. 13, 14, and is always incorrectly translated hell in the English Version, except in 1 Cor. xv. 55. Hades signifies, like the Hebrew Sheol, the unseen spirit-world, the abode of all the departed, both the righteous and wicked; while hell (probably from the Saxon word helan, to cover, to conceal), at least in modern usage, is a much narrower conception, and signifies the state and place of eternal damnation, like the Hebrew gehenna, which occurs twelve times in the Greek Testament, and is so translated in the English Bible, viz., Matt. v. 22, 29, 30; x. 28; xviii. 9; xxiii. 15, 33; Mark ix. 43, 45, 47; Luke xii. 5; James iii. 6. The American editions of the Book of Common Prayer leave it optional with the minister to use, in the Creed, hell, or the place of departed spirits; but it would be much better to restore or popularize the Greek Hades. The current translation, hell, is apt to mislead, and excludes the important fact—the only one which we certainly know of the mysterious triduum—that Christ was in Paradise in the time between the crucifixion and the resurrection, according to his own declaration to the penitent thief, Luke xxiii. 43. Some connect the descent into Hades with the resurrection in one article; while others, on the contrary, connect it with the preceding article by placing a (,) after buried. It forms rather a separate article, and should be included in (;), as above. The clause has been explained in three different ways: 1. It is identical with sepultus (Rufinus), or means 'continued in the state of death and under the power of death' till the resurrection (Westminster divines). This makes it a useless repetition in figurative language. 2. It signifies the intensity of Christ's sufferings on the cross, where he tasted the pain of hell for sinners (Calvin and the Heidelberg Catechism). This is inconsistent with the order of the clause between death and resurrection. 3. An actual self-manifestation of Christ after the crucifixion to all the departed spirits, Luke xxiii. 43; Acts ii. 27, 31; 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19; iv.6; comp. Eph. iv. 8, 9; Col. ii. 15; Phil. ii. 10; Rev. i. 18. As such the descent is a part of the universality of the scheme of redemption, and forms the transition from the state of humiliation to the state of exaltation. This is the historical explanation, according to the belief of the ancient Church, but leaves much room for speculation concerning the object and effect of the descent.

5. 46

   'Resurrection of the body.' The older English translations of the Creed had the literal rendering flesh ( caro , sarx ), by which the ancient Church protested against spiritualistic conceptions of the Gnostics. But this may be misunderstood in a grossly materialistic sense, while the resurrection of the body is unobjectionable; comp. 1 Cor. xv. 50. According to Heurtley, l.c. p. 147, the change of flesh into body was first made 1543, in 'The necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man,' set forth by Henry VIII.; but in the Interrogative Creed, used at Baptism and at the Visitation of the Sick, flesh is retained.

6. 47

   The Latin text of the old Roman Creed first appears in Rufinus, Espositio Symboli Apostolici, towards the end of the fourth century (compare the Appendix to the Opp. Cypriæni, ed. John Fell, Oxon. 1682, fol. pp. 17 sqq.), but it must be much older (see note 3 below). The faithful transmission of the Creed in the Church of the City of Rome is testified by Ambrose, Epistola ad Siricium Pap.: 'Credatur Symbolo Apostolorum, quod Ecclesia Romana intemeratum semper custodit et servat;' and by Vigilius of Thapsus, Contra Entych. 1. IV. c. I: 'Romæ . . . a temporibus Apostolorum usque ad nunc . . . ita fidelibus Symbolum traditur.' Compare Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, pp. 3, 30, 42, 43. On the difference between the old Roman form and the enlarged received text, see Vol. I. pp. 21, 22.

7. 48

   With the early Roman form the Creed of the Church of Hippo Regius, as given in the second column from the genuine expositions of St. Augustine (De Fide et Symbolo; De Genesi ad literam; Enchiridion de Fide, Spe et Caritate), almost literally agrees; so also the Creed of Ambrose, as far as it is quoted in his Tractates in Symbolum Apostolorum (Hahn, p. 16). The close connection of Augustine with the Church of Rome and the Church of Milan (where he was baptized, 387) accounts for the agreement. In his genuine works, however, he never gives the Creed continuously, but, like Rufinus, mixed with the exposition in which it is imbedded, and at times it is difficult to separate it from the writer's own words. See Hahn, pp. 13-15, and especially Heurtley, pp. 32-47. The former adopts the reading de Spiritu S. et virg. Mar.; tertia die for tertio; and omits in vitam eternam.

8. 49

   The Greek text is to be found in Epiphanius, Hæres. LXXII. Opp. ed. Petav. Tom. I. p. 836; ed. Oehler in Corp. hæreseol. Tom. II. Pt. III. p. 52. It was inserted in a letter written by Marcellus of Ancyra to Julius I., Bishop of Rome, about 341 (or 337, as Hahn and Caspari assume), with a view to prove his orthodoxy against the Eusebians, who, under the impeachment of heresy, had previously deposed him. (As regards the chronology, see Zahn, Marcellus von Ancyra, Gotha, 1867, p. 68.) It occurs also, in Anglo-Saxon letters, in the Psaltery of King Athelstan (d. 941), to which Ussher first called attention. See a fac-simile in Heurtley, p. 80, and the copy and comments in Caspari, Vol. III. pp. 5 sqq. The Greek text of Marcellus differs from the Latin of Rufinus only by the omission of the predicate patera (Father) in the first article (which may be an error of the copyist), and by the addition of the last two words, zoen aionion (which occur also in the creed of Petrus Chrysologus of Ravenna). It was heretofore regarded as a translation of the Roman Creed, but Caspari, with a vast amount of learning (Vol. III. pp. 28 sqq.), has made it almost certain that it is the original Creed of the Roman Church, in which the Greek language prevailed during the first two centuries. It was probably transplanted to Rome from Asia Minor early in the second century. It is simpler and older than the rules of faith of Tertullian and Irenæus.

9. 50

   Taken from Rufinus (d.410), Expos. Symboli Apost. (in Cyprian's Op., ed. Fell, Appendix, pp. 17 sqq.; also in Jerome's Works). Comp. Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, etc., pp. 30 sqq.; Denzinger, Enchirid., p. 2; and Heurtley, Harmonia Symb., pp. 26 sqq. Hahn and Heurtley add the chief comments of Rufinus. He gives it as the Creed of the Church of Aquileja, where he was baptized (' illum ordinem sequimur, quem in Aquilejensi ecclesia per lavaori gratiam suscepimus '). There are, however, two other Creeds used in the churches of the province of Aquileja, of uncertain (possibly of earlier) date, which are more in harmony with the old Roman form, and omit invisibili et impassibili in the first article, hujus before carnis in the last article, and the clause descendit ad inferna. They were found and first published by De Rubeis (Venice, 1754), in his Dissertationes ... de Liturgicis Ritibus Ecclesiæ Forojuliensis, pp. 242, 243, 249; then by Walch. l.c. p. 54 sq.; Hahn, p. 39; and Heurtley, pp. 30 sqq.

10. 51

    From the Expositio Symboli of Venantius Honorius Clemens Fortunatus, an Italian presbyter, afterwards Bishop of Poitiers in France, d. about 600. He follows Rufinus very closely, and evidently made use of his Exposition. See Hahn, l.c. p. 33, and Heurtley, pp. 54-56. The Commentary on the Athanasian Creed, which Muratori and Waterland ascribe to the same author, is by an unknown Fortunatus of a later age. See Vol. I. pp. 34-37.

11. 52

    This is the oldest reading, as also in Jesu Christo, and in Spiritu Sancto. So Vallarsius (ed. of Jerome), Baluze (the Bened. editor of Cyprian), Walch, and Hahn. Other copies correct the ablative into the accusative: in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, invisibilem et impassibilem, in Jesum Christum. So the first printed ed. of 1468, the Bened. ed. of Jerome, Pamelius, Fell, Heurtley. On the article on the Holy Spirit, the majority of authorities agree in reading the ablative, which is confirmed by Fortunatus. The addition of the attributes invisible and impassible, which are not found in any other form, have a polemical reference to the heresy of the Patripassians and Sabellians, as Rufinus remarks (§ 5).

12. 53

    Rufinus (§ 18): 'Sciendum sane est quod in Ecclesiæ Romanæ Symbolo non habetur additum "Descendit ad inferna:" sed neque in Orientis Ecclesiis habetur hic sermo: vis tamen verbi eadem videtur esse in eo quod "sepultus" dicitur.'

13. 54

    Here Venantius adheres to the old Aquileian form, while in the first and second articles he uses the accusative. So also in his Commentaries: ' Ergo una divinitas in trinitate, quia dixit Symbolum; Credo in Deum Patrem, et in Jesum Christum, et in Spiritu Sancto. ' See Hahn, p. 36; Heurtley, p. 55.

14. 55

    The exceptional hujus is thus explained by Rufinus (§ 43): ' Ita fit ut unicuique animæ non confusum aut extremeum corpus, sed unum quod habuerat reparetur; ut consequenter possit pro agonibus præsentis vitæ cum anima sua caro vel pudica coronari, vel impudica puniri. '