I. SYMBOLA ECCLESIÆ ORIENTALIS. 1. SYMBOLUM HIEROSOLYMITANUM BAPTISMALE VETUS. THE following Creed is from that one of St. Cyril's Lectures, in which he gives an account of the Baptismal Service in use in the Church of Jerusalem. St. Cyril's lectures were delivered in the year 348; but the Creed, judging from its simplicity, may well be believed to have come down unaltered from the very earliest age. 1. ΠΙΣΤΕΥΩ εἰς τὸν Πατέρα, 2. καὶ εἰς τὸν Υἱὸν, 8. καὶ εἰς τὸ ̔́Αγιον Πνεῦμα, Cyril Hieros., Catech., xix. § 9. 4 2. SYMBOLUM EUSEBII, CESARIENSIS EPISCOPI . A.D. 325. THIS Creed was submitted to the Nicene Council for their adoption by Eusebius, and it formed the basis of the one which the Council eventually adopted. See the account which Eusebius gives of it in a letter to his flock at Cæsarea, in Socrates, Hist. Eccles., lib. i. c. 8. 1. ΠΙΣΤΕΥΟΜΕΝ εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα παντοκράτορα, Τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγον, Θεὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ, Φῶς ἐκ Φωτός, Ζωὴν ἐκ Ζωῆς, Υἱὸν μονογενῆ, πρωτότοκον πάσης κτίσεως, πρὸ πάντων τῶν αἰώνων ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ Πατρὸς γεγεννη μένον· δι ̓ οὗ καὶ ἐγένετο τὰ πάντα· 3. Τὸν διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτηρίαν σαρκωθέντα, καὶ ἐν ἀνθρώποις πολιτευσάμενον, 4. Καὶ παθόντα, 5. Καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ, 6. Καὶ ἀνελθόντα πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα, 7. Καὶ ἡξόντα πάλιν ἐν δόξῃ κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς· 8. Πιστεύομεν καὶ εἰς ἐν Πνεῦμα ̔́Αγιον b Socrates, Hist. Eccles., lib. i. c. 8. 3. SYMBOLUM NICENUM. A.D. 325. THE Creed of Nicea was a deliberate declaration of the faith, put forth by a Council of the Church Universal to guard against the heresy of Arius, which had begun to make havoc of Christ's fold. Its characteristic feature, as distinguished from the Creed which Eusebius had presented to the Council, and indeed from all previous Creeds, was the insertion of the words ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ Πατρὸς and ὁμοούσιον in the second Article. It will be observed that both this Creed and Eusebius's end at the eighth Article, the reason being doubtless, in both cases, not that the following Articles had not as yet a place in the Creed, but that no question having been moved respecting them, it was not thought necessary to repeat them. 1. ΠΙΣΤΕΥΟΜΕΝ εἰς ἕνα Θεὸν Πατέρα παντοκράτορα, πάντων ὁρατῶν τε καὶ ἀοράτων ποιητήν 2. Καὶ εἰς ἕνα Κύριον, Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, γεννηθέντα ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς μονογενῆ, τουτέστιν ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας τοῦ Πατρὸς, Θεὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ, Φῶς ἐκ Φωτός, Θεὸν ἀληθινὸν ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀληθινοῦ, γεννηθέντα, οὐ ποιηθέντα, ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πατρί δι ̓ οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο, τὰ τε ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ γῇ c Socrates, Hist. Eccl., lib. i. c. 8. 3. Τὸν δι' ἡμᾶς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ διὰ τὴν ἡμετέραν σωτη ρίαν κατελθόντα, καὶ σαρκωθέντα, ἐνανθρωπήσαντα, 4. Παθόντα, 5. Καὶ ἀναστάντα τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρα, 6. ̓Ανελθόντα εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς, 7. Ερχόμενον Κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς· 8. Καὶ εἰς τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ̔́Αγιον. - ΤΟΥΣ δὲ λέγοντας, Ην ποτὲ ὅτε οὐκ ἦν, ἢ οὐκ ἦν πρὶν γεννηθῆναι, ἢ ἐξ οὐκ ὄντων ἐγένετο, ἢ ἐξ ἑτέρας ὑποστάσεως ἢ οὐσίας φάσκοντας εἶναι, ἢ κτιστὸν, ἢ τρεπτὸν, ἢ ἀλλοιωτὸν τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, τούτους ἀναθεματίζει ἡ καθολικὴ καὶ ἀποστολικὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκκλησία. 4. SYMBOLUM APUD CONSTITUTIONES APO STOLICAS 4. Circ. A.D. 350. MUCH doubt exists as to the date of the Apostolical Constitutions: but Bp. Pearson, with considerable probability, conjectures them to be a patch-work, made up of documents belonging to various ages, which, however, must have been put together before the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451. If the clause, Οὗ τῆς βασιλείας οὐκ ἔσται τέλος, be not a later addition, the Creed cannot be assigned to an earlier date than the time of Marcellus of Ancyra, about A.D. 340, against whose heresy, then newly broached, it would seem to have been directed. See Cyril. Hieros. Catech., xv. § 27. Like the shorter Jerusalem Creed above given (p. 1), it is a baptismal formula. 1. ΠΙΣΤΕΥΩ καὶ βαπτίζομαι εἰς ἕνα ἀγέννητον, μόνον, ἀληθινὸν Θεὸν, Παντοκράτορα, τὸν Πατέρα τοῦ Χριστοῦ, κτίστην καὶ δημιουργὸν τῶν ἁπάντων, ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα· 2. Καὶ εἰς τὸν Κύριον Ἰησοῦν τὸν Χριστὸν, τὸν μονογενῆ αὐτοῦ Υἱὸν, τὸν πρωτότοκον πάσης κτίσεως, τὸν πρὸ αἰώνων εὐδοκίᾳ τοῦ Πατρὸς γεννηθέντα, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα ἐγένετο, τὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς, d Constitt. Apostoll., lib. vii. c. 41. |