How the Apostles Composed the Creed

Our forefathers have handed down to us this tradition. After the Lord’s ascension, through the coming of the Holy Spirit, tongues of flame settled on each of the apostles so that they could speak many languages, and no nation, however foreign, and no tongue, however barbarous, would be closed to them or beyond their reach. Then the Lord commanded them to go out, each to a different nation, to preach the word of God. So, when they were about to part from one another, they first agreed together on a standard for their future preaching, so that once separated they would not differ at any point in what they said to those they invited to believe in Christ. All of them therefore met together, and being filled with the Holy Spirit they composed, as we have said, this brief summary of their future preaching, each contributing his own clause to one common summary. And they directed that the rule framed in this way should be given to those who believe. [a]

To this summary, for many very good reasons, they gave the name Symbol. For the Greek word symbolon answers to two Latin words: “indicium,” a sign or token, and “collatio,” a joint contribution made by several people. The second is what the apostles did in these words, each contributing his own clause. It is called “indicium” or “signum,” a sign or token, because at that time, as the apostle Paul says, and as the Acts of the Apostles relate, many of the wandering Jews pretended to be apostles of Christ and went about preaching for the sake of gain or for their belly’s sake. They named the name of Christ, but they did not deliver their message along the exact lines of the tradition. So the apostles laid down this summary as a sign or token by which anyone who preached Christ truly, according to the apostles’ rule, could be recognized. Finally, they say that in civil wars, since the armor of both sides is alike, the language the same, and the custom and way of fighting the same, each general, to guard against treachery, gives his soldiers a distinct symbol or watchword, in Latin “signum” or “indicium.” Then if someone is met whose side is in doubt, he is asked for the symbol, the watchword, and so shows whether he is friend or enemy. And for this reason, the tradition goes on, the creed is not written on paper or parchment but kept in the hearts of the faithful, so that it may be certain that no one has learned it by reading, as sometimes happens with unbelievers, but by tradition from the apostles. [b]

So the apostles, as we have said, being about to separate to preach the gospel, settled on this sign or token of their agreement in the faith. They were not like the sons of Noah, who, when they were about to separate from one another, built a tower of baked bricks and tar whose top might reach to heaven. The apostles raised a monument of faith able to stand against the enemy, built of living stones and of the Lord’s pearls, such that no winds could overthrow it, no floods undermine it, and no force of storm and tempest shake it. It was entirely just, then, that the first, who built a tower of pride when they were about to separate, were condemned to the confusion of tongues, so that no one could understand his neighbor’s speech; while the second, who were building a tower of faith, were given the knowledge and understanding of all languages. So the one became a sign and token of sin, the other of faith. [d] But it is time now to say something about these same pearls. Among them the first place is given to the fountain and source of all, where it is said: