The Apostles' Creed

The Apostles' Creed (Latin: Symbolum Apostolorum) is the most ancient baptismal creed of the Roman Church. It summarizes in twelve articles the essential content of the Catholic faith as the Apostles handed it on. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is structured around the Creed in its first part, treating each article in turn as the architecture of Catholic doctrine.

Origin and historical development

Catholic tradition holds that the substance of the Apostles' Creed dates from the apostolic age itself. A medieval legend (preserved in Pseudo-Augustine, Sermon 240) narrated that each Apostle contributed one article on the day of Pentecost, but the historical scholarship of the Catholic Church (since at least the work of Lorenzo Valla in the fifteenth century) has held that the Creed in its current form developed gradually in the early Church, reaching essentially its present form by the fourth or fifth century.

The earliest dated documentary witness to a creed close to the current Apostles' Creed is the Old Roman Creed (Latin: Symbolum Romanum), preserved in Greek and Latin in baptismal contexts from the second and third centuries. The current form of the Apostles' Creed (the Textus Receptus of the Latin) is preserved in the Sacramentary of Gellone (eighth century) and was confirmed in the Roman Catechism of Pope Saint Pius V (1566).¹

Theological structure

The Apostles' Creed is structured around the Most Holy Trinity, with three principal sections:

1. The Father and creation ("I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth"). The first article confesses the divine paternity, the omnipotence proper to God alone, and the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. The Catechism treats this article in paragraphs 232 to 421.

2. The Son and redemption ("and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord..." through "...he will come to judge the living and the dead"). The seven Christological articles confess the Incarnation, the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, the Ascension, the Session at the right hand of the Father, and the Second Coming. The Catechism treats these in paragraphs 422 to 682.

3. The Holy Spirit and the life of grace ("I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting"). The closing articles confess the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, the Church and her communion, the sacramental and final eschatological dimensions of Catholic life. The Catechism treats these in paragraphs 683 to 1065.

The article on the Descent into Hell

The article "He descended into hell" (Latin: descendit ad inferos) refers to Christ's descent into the realm of the dead between His Crucifixion and Resurrection. The Catechism teaches: "The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was 'raised from the dead' presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ's descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there" (CCC 632, citing 1 Peter 3:18-19).

This article is not a confession that Christ went to the place of damnation but that He went, in His soul, to the abode of the just who had died before His coming, and brought them with Him into the heavenly Kingdom on the day of the Resurrection. The doctrine is preserved in the Catholic Easter liturgy and in the famous ancient homily on Holy Saturday read in the Office of Readings.

When the Apostles' Creed is prayed

The Apostles' Creed is prayed:

• At the opening of the Holy Rosary, on the crucifix.
• At the renewal of baptismal promises during the Easter Vigil.
• At the celebration of Baptism, in the proclamation of faith.
• In Catholic catechetical instruction, as the framework of the doctrine.
• In the Catholic morning prayer of many faithful, as a daily renewal of faith.

Pairing the Apostles' Creed with other prayers

The Apostles' Creed is paired with:

• The Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be, in the rosary's opening prayers.
• The Catholic catechetical examination of conscience, since the articles of the Creed are the framework of belief.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), "Apostles' Creed," available at newadvent.org. Sacramentary of Gellone (eighth century). Roman Catechism of Pope Saint Pius V (1566). Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 184-1065 (the entire first part of the Catechism is structured around the Creed). Available at vatican.va. ↩