Nicene Creed

I was planning to post the Nicene Creed here as what I thought was a universally accepted statement of Christian Faith. However, while researching the topic, I discovered that its use is not universal among Christians. Among those who do use the creed, many different English translations are in use today, so I needed to research which version to use.

While surveying many traditions' websites to determine what versions of the Nicene Creed are used, I found three distinct views about the use of creeds. Traditions representing 85%-90% of Christians use the Nicene Creed as a statement of faith. Many traditions also use the Apostles' Creed (a shorter creed containing the same basic beliefs expressed in the Nicene Creed) and the Athanasian Creed (a creed focused on explaining the Trinity.)

Some traditions (e.g. some Baptist, some Pentecostal, and some Non-Denominational churches) do not dispute anything in the Nicene Creed, but they do not use creeds because they are not in the scriptures. A few non-trinitarian traditions reject the Nicene Creed as they disagree with some part of it; they represent only around 2% of Christians.

Press here - to jump to the current Lutheran/Methodist/Presbyterian/Reformed Version

The Nicene Creed was written in 325 AD at the First Council of Nicaea. This was well before the Bible was finalized, and the Creed was intended to be a unified and unifying statement of core Christian beliefs and to counter Arianism, which held the heretical view that Jesus was not truly divine, and other heretical views. Questions arose, and it was then expanded to better address the Holy Spirit and the need for baptism in 381 AD at the First Council of Constantinople. The updated creed is called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. The Creed we use today is based on the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 AD but is commonly referred to as the Nicene Creed for convenience. The final determination of what books would be included in the bible was decided at the Council of Rome in 382. Full versions of the bible were not produced and distributed until after that time, so the Nicene Creed served an important purpose in the early church to establish and express the core beliefs of Christianity.

In 589 AD, the Third Council of Toledo proposed adding the phrase "and the son" to the creed, in the part about the Holy Spirit, indicating that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. They thought this concept was implied by John 15:16 that says the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and is sent by the Son. This change is called the filioque clause (a Latin word meaning "and the son.") It was gradually adopted and became part of Rome's liturgical practice in 1014. However, it was controversial. The eastern churches taught that the Holy spirit proceeds only from the Father. This difference was one of the causes of the East-West Schism in 1054, when the Eastern Orthodox churches broke with the Roman Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches exclude those words to this day.

While not scripture, this creed has been used as a profession of faith by the Catholic and Orthodox (without "and the son") churches since 381 AD and was also carried over into most Protestant denominations.

In 2011, the Catholic Church changed the words "We Believe" to "I Believe" to personalize the profession. They changed "one in Being with the Father" to "consubstantial with the Father" which is thought to be a more accurate translation. The words "seen and unseen" were changed to "all things visible and invisible" since the word unseen does not fully convey that some things like angels are genuinely invisible to humans. The words "And by the Holy Spirit was born of the Virgin Mary and became man" were changed to "And by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man" to strengthen the point that Jesus was fully human (incarnate) as well as fully God. Other traditions have made some of these changes as well.

The Nicene Creed was written in Ancient Greek, and no single accepted English translation exists. The following version shows many of the differences in common use. The differences are shown in bold and parentheses, excluding punctuation-related differences:

Nicene Creed - Consolidated Version

(We / I) believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, (creator / maker) of heaven and earth, of all (that is seen and unseen / things visible and invisible).

(We believe / I believe / And) in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only (-begotten)¹ Son of God, (begotten of the Father before all (worlds / ages) / eternally begotten of the Father / born of the Father), God (of / from) God, Light (of / from) Light, true God (of / from) true God, begotten not (created / made), (one in being / of one Being / one essence / consubstantial) with the Father. (by whom / Through him) all things were made. (who) For us (men)² and our salvation (he)² came down from heaven: (by the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the / was incarnate³ from the Holy Spirit and the) Virgin Mary and (made / became) man. (For our sake) he was crucified under Pontius Pilate (for us); he (suffered, died, / suffered death / suffered) and was buried. On the third day he rose again in (fulfillment of / accordance with) the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

(We believe / I believe / And) in the Holy Spirit⁴, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father [and the Son].⁵ With the Father and the Son he is (worshipped / adored) and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets.

(We believe / I believe / And) in one, holy, catholic⁶ and apostolic Church. (We acknowledge / I confess) one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. (We / I) look (for / forward to) the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Some translations include "-begotten." It means "caused to be" by the father as opposed to being born in a strictly human sense. "Eternally begotten of the Father" or "begotten of the Father before all (worlds / ages)" asserts that Jesus was begotten of the father in the beginning of creation and existed prior to his human birth.
Some translations exclude the words "men" and "he."
Incarnate means "embodied in flesh" included to make it clear that Jesus was truly man.
Older translations used the Holy Ghost instead of the Holy Spirit throughout.
The phrase [and the Son] was not in the original creed, see the history below.
The word "catholic" in the creed means "universal", it is not a reference the Catholic Church.

While quite messy, the consolidated version above captures most of the differences between the currently used translations. The full versions used by the largest denominations are included below.

Nicene Creed - Catholic Version:

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Source: From the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) website www.usccb.org, used since 2011.

Nicene Creed - Orthodox Version

I believe in one God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father through Whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried; And He rose on the third day, according to the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father; And He will come again with glory to judge the living and dead. His kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Creator of life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke through the prophets.

In one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come. Amen

Source: From The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America website, www.goarch.org.

Nicene Creed - Anglican Version

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, (seen and unseen / visible and invisible).

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the (only / only-begotten) Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us (men/ ) and for our salvation he came down from heaven, (by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate / was incarnate from the Holy Spirit) and the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, (With / who with) the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified, (He / who) has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Source: From the Anglican Communion website, www.anglicancommunion.org,which includes the Church of England, the Episcopal Church in the US, and many other Anglican Churches around the world. The Anglican Church of North America, www.anglicanchurch.net, uses a version that has minor differences as compared to the Anglican Communion version. The differences are shown in bold and in parenthesis, Anglican Communion version first.

Nicene Creed - Lutheran/Methodist/Presbyterian/Reformed Version

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

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Sources: Verified on the websites of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America www.elca.org, United Methodist Church www.umc.org Global Methodist Church www.globalmethodist.org, Presbyterian Church USA www.pcusa.org, (Presbyterian Church in Church in America does not post an official version) and the Reformed Church of America www.rca.org. This version is nearly identical to the English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC) version in Praying Together (1988), even though most of these sites do not credit that as the source.

Others

Many Baptists consider themselves "not a creedal people" since the creeds are not in the Bible. Most Baptists do not routinely recite the creed; however, it can be found on some Baptist websites websites and is used in some Baptist churches (Versions vary but are similar to the Anglican or Lutheran / Methodist / Presbyterian / Reformed Versions shown above). There is a move in the Southern Baptist Church to add the Nicene Creed to the Baptist Faith and Message "for the sake of doctrinal clarity and increased unity."

Pentecostals do not routinely use the Nicene Creed in their services as a statement of faith, but some Pentecostal denominations affirm the historic creeds and others view them as deposits handed down from the early church.

Depending on their origins, Non-Denominational churches have various traditions regarding the creeds. Many Non-Denominational churches have separated from one of the mainline denominations. Some use the Nicene Creed and others do not.