Authority Both Divine and Human

You see, then, that the creed has the authority of God, for “the Lord will make a short word upon the earth.” But perhaps you want the authority of men. That is not lacking either, for God made it by means of men. As he fashioned the whole body of the sacred Scriptures through the patriarchs and, above all, through his own prophets, so he formed the creed through his apostles and priests. Whatever he set out at length in the Scriptures with full and abundant material, he here took in, in a most complete and compact form, through his own servants. [a]

So nothing is lacking in the creed. Since it was formed from the Scriptures of God by the apostles of God, it has all the authority it could possibly have, whether of men or of God. And yet what was made by men must be counted God’s work. For we should not regard it so much as the work of those through whom it was made as the work of him who actually made it. “I believe,” then, says the creed, “in one true and only God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, his only Son, and the firstborn of every creature; begotten of him before all ages, and not made; true God from true God, of one substance with the Father; through whom the ages were framed and all things were made; who for us came, and was born of the Virgin Mary, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was buried. And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and will come again to judge the living and the dead,” and so on.