The creeds
The Apostles’ Creed
The Apostles’ Creed is the oldest and simplest summary of the Christian faith, a short confession used in worship and baptism for over fifteen hundred years. It was not written by the apostles themselves, but it faithfully summarizes their teaching, and Christians across nearly every tradition still say it together.
A little history
The Apostles’ Creed grew out of the questions asked of new believers at baptism in the early church. An early form, the Old Roman Creed, dates to the second and third centuries; the wording we use today settled by around the eighth century. The name reflects the belief that it faithfully carries the apostles’ teaching, not that the twelve apostles each wrote a line, as a later legend claimed.
The creed
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
Traditional English text, in the public domain.
What it means
It confesses the Trinity in three movements: the Father who made all things, the Son who was born, died, rose, and will return, and the Holy Spirit and the life of the church. A few phrases people ask about:
- “The holy catholic Church” here means the whole universal church of all true believers, not the Roman Catholic Church specifically. “Catholic” simply means “universal.”
- “He descended into hell” is understood in different ways, most often that Jesus truly died and entered the realm of the dead. Some traditions phrase it “descended to the dead.”
- “The quick and the dead” means the living and the dead.
Frequently asked questions
- Did the apostles write the Apostles' Creed?
- Not directly. The creed faithfully summarizes the apostles' teaching and grew from early baptismal questions, with an early form (the Old Roman Creed) in the second and third centuries. A later legend that each apostle wrote a line is not historical.
- What does 'holy catholic Church' mean in the creed?
- It means the whole universal church of all true believers across time and place, not the Roman Catholic Church specifically. 'Catholic' simply means 'universal,' which is why Protestants also recite this line.
- Why do Christians recite creeds?
- Creeds summarize the core faith in shared words, teach it to new believers, guard against error, and let the whole church confess together across languages and centuries. The Apostles' Creed is the oldest and simplest of these.
The faith the creed confesses
The creed is a summary; the life is a person. You can meet the Jesus it confesses in the Gospels, where he is born, teaches, dies, and rises in the pages themselves.
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