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The Apostles’ Creed is an earlier and simpler Creed than the Nicene Creed. Unlike the Nicene Creed, it says nothing explicitly about the divinity of Jesus, nor that of the Holy Spirit.
English translations of the Apostles’ Creed have always used the ‘credo’ words ‘I believe’, rather than the ‘We believe’ previously used in the Nicene Creed.
The main change to the first part of this Creed (‘from the Holy Spirit’ instead of ‘by the power of the Holy Spirit’) brings the text closer to the original Latin:
| Former: |
New: |
| I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, And born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. |
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived from the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; |
The changes in the next two lines require some comment:
| He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. |
he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; |
The word ‘hell’ can be seen as having more than one meaning. It is usually taken as referring to ‘the abode of the eternally damned’. But in Ephesians 4:9–10 we read of Christ’s descent among the dead in the time between his death and his resurrection, and the Church has a longstanding tradition that, after Christ’s death, the righteous people of Old Testament times were released from Hell’s captivity as he triumphed over inferos (‘those below’). So ‘the abode of the just who died before Christ’ is the meaning of the word as it is used here.
| He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father |
he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; |
An obvious difference here is the addition of the words ‘God’ and ‘almighty’. The second of these comes from the original Latin: ad dexteram Patris omnipotentis. The addition of the word ‘God’ is based on Mark 16:19 and Hebrews 1:3.
The last sections are again similar:
| He will come again to judge the living and the dead. 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 |
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. 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. |
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