THE NICENE-CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED

A Resource Prepared by the Office of Theology and Worship
of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Some material in this resource first appeared in Praying Together (ELLC/Abingdon Press, 1988)
Edited and Printed with permission.

INTRODUCTION

Fresh translation of liturgical forms, including the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds, began with the work of the International Consultation on English Texts [ICET]. The ecumenical, international work of ICET culminated in the publication of Prayers We Have in Common (1970, 1971, 1975). The foreword to Prayers We Have in Common observed, "There has also been a growing realization that, at least in regard to those prayers common to all Christian confessions, this work should not be done independently by the various Churches, but should be done by them together."

The value of ICET’s vision and labor became even more apparent as many Churches revised their order of service and as opportunities were increased for Christians of different backgrounds to share in each other’s worship. A number of Christian Churches throughout the English-speaking world adopted many of the liturgical forms proposed for common use. Some of these found almost universal acceptance, but others clearly required further work and consultation.

An ecumenical liturgical consultation was held in 1983 to determine whether the time had arrived to constitute a body to succeed the International Consultation on English Texts. Out of this initial, exploratory meeting the English Language Lititurgical Consultation [ELLC] was formed. ELLC had its first formal meeting in Boston in 1985. The Consultation understood its task to be the presentation of common texts in an acceptable form. It sought to render the original Greek and Latin texts so that misleading implications were avoided and as little as possible of the original meaning lost. As will be evident from the commentary that accompanies the revised texts, a number of changes were made for the sake of accuracy.

In the months following the 1985 meeting, ELLC submitted its initial list of points for revision and the proposed guidelines to the member associations. The associations in turn submitted these to their participating Churches for response. Responses were returned to ELLC in 1986. In the meantime, ELLC established a committee of revisers which was authorized to carry on the actual work of revision. This committee, using the responses received, produced a preliminary revision of the texts with critical notes. These were submitted for comment to the member associations and, through them, to the Churches. In 1987 the committee of revisers met at Westminster Abbey, considered in detail the many responses received (which often cohered with each other), and further revised the existing drafts. Shortly thereafter, the latest revisions were considered and approved by the full meeting of ELLC in Brixen (Bressanone), Italy.

The present material is offered not only for consideration by different Churches, in the hope that the work will be found acceptable for widespread use in its present form, but also for the study of interested Christians who wish to remain abreast of current thinking and scholarship in the area. Not all scholars, of course, will agree with the conclusions reached. Some would prefer a different form of words either more conservative or more radical. The Consultation claims only to have considered seriously the very large number of submissions received through its member associations and to have done its best to produce texts which will be acceptable to the great majority in this generation.

May the work of the Consultation be found worthy of the use to which we hope it will be put, and so to promote the cause of Christian unity.

GUIDELINES FOR THE REVISION OF THE ICET TEXTS

The following guidelines were adopted by ELLC in 1985 for the revision of the 1975 ICET texts:

              1. In order to avoid pastoral disruption, only necessary changes should be made.

2. Sensitivity should be shown to the need for inclusive language.

3. The revision should be made bearing in mind that these texts are for use in the liturgical assembly. The ease with which they can be said, heard, and sung is an essential element of the revision.

4. The revision should use language that is contemporary and suited to the present version of the ICET texts.

The following comments on these guidelines and their application may be helpful.

1. Only necessary changes

The ICET texts have been approved and are now in use in many Churches throughout the English-speaking world. The aim of this guideline was to ensure that forms with which worshipers were familiar would be disrupted as little as possible. Only changes considered necessary for accuracy of translation or to comply with the several other guidelines were to be made. A change in a text was considered necessary when a significant number of Churches had consciously rejected an ICET word or phrase when publishing their own liturgical forms.

2. Inclusive language

The Consultation recognized that, because of changes in the received meaning of the words, the use of "man" or "men" for "human being(s)" can be misleading and is no longer generally acceptable in liturgical texts. This necessitated changes in lines 13 and 16 of the Nicene Creed and line 18 of the Te Deum. For similar reasons "forebears" was preferred to "fathers" in the Magnificat, line 17, and the Benedictus, line 8.

Male-oriented language referring to God presents greater problems. ELLC considered that the removal of all masculine forms would take the texts beyond the process of translation and into the realm of theological reinterpretation. Very few respondents urged ELLC to go as far as this.

The number of masculine pronouns referring to God can be reduced without compromising fidelity to the original texts. For example, the Consultation noted that the repeated pronoun "he" of the Magnificat in the ICET version had no counterpart in the original Greek. Similarly, the Holy Spirit was referred to as "he" several times in lines 25 to 28 of the Nicene Creed, whereas the word for "spirit" is feminine in Hebrew and Syriac, neuter in Greek, and masculine in Latin, and thus was rendered using the pronoun "who."

SENSE LINES

The texts in this booklet are given in sense lines, which help those who proclaim them to appreciate their shape and meaning. Punctuation has also been used to indicate natural pauses or links in the thought. The lines have deliberately been made neither too long nor too short. It is expected that ELLC texts will be printed in the sense lines given in this booklet.

When it is necessary to break one of these lines, the second part is indented (usually by one "em" space) to show its subordination to the first part. It helps proclamation if the break is made at a natural break in the line rather than going all the way to the right margin and leaving only one or two words on the second line. Thus, if necessary, line 21 of the Benedictus could be broken in this manner:

to shine on those who dwell in darkness

and the shadow of death,

For reasons of clarity, some have also suggested that line 4 of the Nicene Creed be broken so that the comma is observed:

of all that is,
     seen and unseen. 

INDENTATION

As printed in this booklet, the ELLC texts include indentation of certain lines or groups of lines to indicate subordination or consequence. It is expected that most editors and publishers will follow this style as given. For particular reasons, however, a Church may choose to print all ELLC texts "flush left," with all lines beginning at the same left margin, except for broken long lines as indicated above.

The English Language Liturgical Consultation requests that editors and publishers remain consistent in their layout of these texts in their liturgical publications, and in all other publications such as those produced by religious educators and editors of popular booklets and books of prayers.

MEMBERS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LITURGICAL CONSULTATION 1998

(*denotes a member of the committee of revisers)

Australian Consultation on Liturgy (ACOL)
The Rev. D'Arcy Wood
The Rev. Evan Burge*
Canadian Churches' Coordinating Group on Worship (CCCGOW)
The Rev. Msgr. Patrick Byrne
Consultation on Common Texts (CCT)
The Rev. Horace Allen, Jr.*
The Rev. Hans Boehringer*
International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL)
The Rev. John Fitzsimmons*
The Rev. Msgr. Frederick McManus*
Joint Liturgical Consultation within New Zealand (JLCNZ)
The Rev. Canon Robert McCullough
Joint Liturgical Group (JLG)
The Rev. Canon Donald Gray*
The Rev. A. Raymond George
Liturgical Committee, South African Church Unity Commission
The Rt. Rev. Frederick Amoore

Inquiries may be addressed to: English Language Liturgical Consultation
c/o International Commission on English in the Liturgy

The Nicene Creed

1 We believe in one God,
2     the Father, the Almighty,
3     maker of heaven and earth,
4     of all that is,
             seen and unseen.

5 We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
6     the only Son of God,
7     eternally begotten of the Father,
8     God from God, Light from Light,
9     true God from true God,
10     begotten, not made,
11     of one Being with the Father;
12     through him all things were made.
13     For us and for our salvation
14         he came down from heaven,
15         was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
16         and became truly human.
17         For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
18         he suffered death and was buried.
19         On the third day he rose again
20         in accordance with the Scriptures;
21         he ascended into heaven
22         and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
23         He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
24         and his kingdom will have no end.

25 We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
26     who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
27     who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
28     who has spoken through the prophets.
29     We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
30     We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
31     We look for the resurrection of the dead,
32     and the life of the world to come. Amen.

The Creed called "Nicene" or the Creed of Nicaea and Constantinople is first known in its present form from the Council of Chalcedon (451), where it was accepted as the Creed of the Council of Constantinople (381). That Council is recorded simply as having confirmed the Nicene faith. The Council of Nicaea (325) framed its own statement of Orthodox belief, stressing that the Son is of the same essential Being (homoousios) as the Father, against the Arian heretics who allotted the Son a lower rank. The original Nicene statement differs considerably from the one recognized at Chalcedon. The latter, our "Nicene Creed," appears to be based on an earlier baptismal creed possibly from Jerusalem or Antioch, and, in addition to the essential clauses from Nicaea, it incorporated material to combat later heresies.

Representing the statement of an ecumenical council, the Creed was naturally framed in the first person plural, "we believe." This plural use is not only original, but is also appropriate in corporate Worship. The reference is to the faith of the Whole Church, of all times and places, and not only to that of the local congregation. This is in contrast to the Apostles Creed, which began as a personal profession of faith. The liturgical use of the Singular "I believe" is, of course, a legitimate variation found both in the East and in the West. It may date back to the widespread use of this Creed for baptismal profession before its incorporation into the eucharistic liturgy. Its use in the Eucharist apparently began in Antioch in the late fifth century as a way of ensuring the Orthodox belief of the communicants and later spread in the West, but was not introduced in Rome until 1014.

Line 2. "the Almighty." The addition of "the" brings out the significance of the Greek pantocrator, which is a noun and not an adjective. In Revelation 1:8, 4:8 it renders the Hebrew Sabaoth of Isaiah 6:3 and expresses God's sovereign power.

Line 4. "seen and unseen." This refers to "heaven and earth" (that is, the whole created universe) in the previous line and not to some further acts of creation. While the reference thus includes the angels, it does not preclude the notion that further creative processes may be part of the divine plan. A comma has been introduced after "is" for greater clarity, to indicate that what follows is an expansion of "all that is."

Line 5. "We believe." The repetition of this phrase, clearly implied by the sense, is found in several early creeds.

Lines 6-10. "begotten." This word appears three times in the Greek to describe the Son's unique relationship with the Father, as distinct from the process of physical birth. The Latin text dropped the formal equivalent (genitum) in line 7, and has natum ex Patre ("born of the Father"), which seems less appropriate than the use of natus with Maria in the Apostles' Creed. It was thought sufficient to use "begotten" twice in English: it was dropped in line 6 as unnecessary and retained in line 7 to distinguish the truth conveyed by the Greek from any idea that the Son was created in time, or alternatively born in eternity.

Lines 7-23. In the original Greek the verbs in this section are expressed as a long series of participles which describe our Lord as one who is begotten (gennethenta) of the Father, descended (katelthonta) from heaven, made flesh (sarkothenta), became a human being (enanthropesanta), crucified (staurothenta), suffered (pathonta), buried (taphenta), risen (anastanta), ascended (anelthonta),sitting (kathezomenon),and coming (erchomenon). This sustained series could not be reproduced in the Latin version, nor can it be rendered satisfactorily in English. It has, however, influenced the handling of lines 14-16 as a closely linked sequence.

Line 7. "eternally begotten." This phrase represents one of the statements in the original Creed of Nicaea that were specifically anti-Arian, directed against the assertion that the Son came into being at a certain time and only the Father existed from all eternity. (See J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, 2nd cd. [New York: Harper & Row, 1960], p. 243, and Early Christian Creeds, 3rd ed. [London: Longman, 1972], p. 238.) In the preparation of the ICET translation philosophical objections were made to an earlier proposal, "before time began," while the older phrase "before all worlds" was thought to be archaic and obscure. A question has been raised whether the translation should read "begotten from" to represent the Greek ek, as in lines 8 and 9. It was finally decided that the English idiom "begotten of" more accurately represented the intimacy of the original.

Line 8. "God from God." The use of the preposition "from" makes for a clearer as well as a more literal translation of the Greek ek. This phrase, repeated more fully in the next line, is retained to conform with the usual Latin and English versions. The fullness of expression also appears in the Greek text of the Creed of Nicaea, but "God from God" is absent in the Greek text of the Chalcedonian formulation used in the liturgy. (See Denzinger-Schönmetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum, editio XXXVI [Freiburg: Herder, 1976], nos. 125, 180; also Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta [Basel, 1962], p. 20.)

Line 11. The crucial Nicaean term homoousios is difficult to translate, but "Being" seems preferable to "nature" or "essence" in a statement which tries to express the unity of the Godhead. The technical term "substance" has confusing materialistic overtones in modern English. "Being," here with a capital letter to indicate that this is a noun referring to the uncreated Being of the Godhead, comes nearest to the literal meaning of the Greek philosophical term. The argument of the sentence is that because the Son is not made but begotten, he shares the same uncreated Being as the Father.

Line 12. The separation of this line and the use of "him" rather than the relative "whom" shows that the line refers to the Son and not to the Father, and that he is the Father's agent in creation (John 1:3 and Hebrews 1:2).

Line 13. The omission of the generic "men" (Greek anthropous, latin homines) in apposition to "us" may appear to weaken slightly the sense of the original, but this was considered less serious than insisting on a term which is increasingly misleading or excluding as tied to only one gender. A suggested alternative, "for us all," was rejected because of a colloquial tendency in some places to attach "all" to virtually every plural pronoun, which would diminish the force of "us" as representing the whole human race.

Lines 15 and 16. These lines have been completely recast from the ICET version in favor of a fresh translation from the Greek. The new form of indentation makes it clear that the whole of our Lord's redemptive work was for the salvation of the human race.

Line 15. "was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary." The Greek original (ek Pneumatos hagiou kai Marias tes parthenou) uses only one preposition ek (literally "out of" or "from") in relation to both the Holy Spirit an our Lord's mother. In English renderings of the Creed, however, the traditional idiom has long been "incarnate of," which the Consultation has decided to retain. An objection to "from" in English is that it tends to suggest too slight a role for Mary, as a mere channel, in the work of redemption. For a similar reason it was decided to drop the ICET phrase "by the power of the Holy Spirit" (see the note on line 4 of the Apostles' Creed). The received Latin version of the Creed makes a distinction in the prepositions used of the Spirit (de Spiritu Sancto, "by the Holy Spirit") and the Virgin (ex Maria Virgine, "of or from the Virgin Mary"), but examination of earlier Latin forms of the Creed shows that this was at first a variant without special significance and may even have arisen from a scribal error (reading ex for et). There is an interesting and learned note in Pearson's Exposition of the Creed [originally published 1659, ed. James Nichols, London 1854], page 242, showing the inadequacy of the supposed distinction between de and ex to express what some have taken it to express, namely a difference between the efficient and the material cause. In the Vulgate version of the New Testament de is used, where the Greek original has ek, of both the Virgin (Galatians 4:4) and the Spirit (Matthew 1:20). The Consultation believes that its version of line 15 accurately represents the original text. The Latin text might be rendered "by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary" but this runs the risk of wrongly suggesting "Mary's Holy Spirit" Without making it clear what the respective roles of Mary and the Spirit are. The Creed wants to make it clear that Jesus, the incarnate Son, is completely God and completely human and that the operation of both the Virgin and the Spirit were equally essential. According to Diogenes, bishop of Cyzicus, speaking at Chalcedon, this clause was added to the original Nicaean formulation to guard against Apollinarianism (a refusal to admit the completeness of the Lord's humanity). For a critical discussion of this, see J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, pp. 333-337.

Line 16. "became truly human." The Consultation faced great difficulty in adequately rendering enanthropesanta (literally "inhumaned," see Denzinger-Schönmetzer, editio XXXVI, no. 150 where a literal version from the original Greek is given as inhumanatus est). In the original sequence of participles (see above on lines 7-23) this one has a pivotal place in making a link between our Lord's taking flesh and the reality of his suffering and death. It does not represent a further stage in time beyond the incarnation, but spells out clearly the meaning of the incarnation. In some old versions of the Creed (see, for instance, Denzinger-Schönmetzer, editio XXXVI, no. 44) enanthropesanta was spelled out even more fully: "that is, taking on a complete human person, soul and body and mind and all things that belong to a human being apart from sin." The Consultation believed that the sense was best captured by "became truly human." It rejected a suggestion that the text should read "and became human," as this, in common speech, implies something quite different, a change from severity to kindness. Some would have preferred to keep "and became man" as showing the particularity of the incarnation in a male person, Jesus. The Consultation rejected this as misrepresenting what the Creed affirms at this point. Neither the Greek anthropos nor the Latin homo carry male overtones as "man" in contemporary English normally does.

 Line 18. "suffered death." The Greek pathonta carries the notions of both suffering and death. (See Christine Mohrmann, Etudes sur le latin des Chrétiens [Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1958], 1:210, on passio.) It can also be reasonably argued that a reference to "death," as in the Apostles' Creed, provides a necessary link between "suffered" and "buried."

Line 20. "in accordance with the Scriptures." For kata tas graphas (1 Corinthians 15:4) "in accordance with" was felt to be closer to the sense than "according to". The latter might suggest that Scripture says one thing, while other authorities say something different. The Scriptures referred to are the Old Testament, as in the appeals to Scripture in, for example, Acts 2:25-28; 13:34-35.

Line 21. "he ascended." See the note on line 10 of the Apostles' Creed.

Line 22. "is seated." This is preferred to "sits," to emphasize the permanence of Christ's position of honor.

Line 25. "the Lord, the giver of life." These are two distinct phrases, both applying to the Holy Spirit. They avoid the possible misunderstanding of the older version, "the Lord and giver," which might be taken to mean "the Lord of life" and "the giver of life."

Lines 26-28. These lines have been recast to follow the original texts more closely and also to avoid referring unnecessarily to the Holy Spirit as "he."

Line 28. In the ICET version, "Prophets" was capitalized. The word has now been given a lower-case p in correction of an oversight or printing error.

Line 29. "We believe in one holy . . . " This phrase illustrates the need of reference to the Greek original, even for translation of the Latin. The latter here omits the preposition "in," which can be readily understood from line 25 and the use of the accusative case unam sanctam . . . ecclesiam. In the Greek eis mian clearly requires "belief in" the Church, as well as "in God" and "in Christ." Some Western Fathers argued from the Latin text that belief in the Church is of a different order from belief in God (see Rufinus in Jacques-Paul Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Latina, [Paris, 1844-1904], 21: 373 and Venantius Fortunatus, ibid., 88:350-51). Notice the indentation of this line, in subordination to "We believe in the Holy Spirit."

Home   Exegesis   Scripture   Worship   Ethics   Dialogue   Parables   Email   

1 in Faith: A Christian Bible Study † Copyright © 2000 by Robert Traer