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THE APOSTLES’ CREED:
ITS RELATION TO
PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANITY
BY
H. B. SWETE, D.D.
HON. LITT. D. DUBLIN;
FELLOW OF GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE,
REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, CAMBRIDGE.
SECOND EDITION.
1894
The following pages contain the substance of a short course of lectures which was delivered in the Divinity School at Cambridge during the Lent Term of the present year.
Their purpose is to enable educated members of the English Church who do not possess the leisure or the opportunities necessary for a fuller study of the subject to form some judgement upon a recent controversy which intimately concerns all who have been baptized into the Faith of the Apostles’ Creed.
Cambridge,
June, 1894.
The second edition of this little book is a reprint of the first with the exception of a few changes in the notes suggested by the kindness of friends.
October, 1894.
CONTENTS
I
Attitude of the English Reformers towards the Apostles’ Creed.—Recent controversy on the Creed.—The Creed in England before the Conquest.—Two forms, the Old–Roman Creed, the ‘Symbolum Apostolorum.’—The forms compared.—Professor Harnack’s criticisms.—Importance of the issues raised
II
Primitive Christian conceptions of Divine Fatherhood and Omnipotence.—The deeper teaching not ignored in the first half of the second century.—In what sense is our Lord the ‘Only Son’?—Early use of the term ‘Only-begotten’—its purpose in the Creed.—The Sonship seen to be prehistoric, notwithstanding some indistinctness in early statements of the doctrine
III
The Holy Ghost of the Creed a Person.—Growth of the doctrine of the Spirit in the teaching of Tertullian and Origen.—His personality not denied by Arianism, or called in question by any party excepting the Macedonians.—Catholic theology in the fourth century not revolutionary, but in the deeper sense conservative.—A hypostatic Trinity confessed before Basil.—The Cappadocians did not create doctrine, but gave it scientific expression
IV
The Miraculous Conception maintained by Justin in controversy with Pagans and Jews—by Aristides and by Ignatius—recognised by early heretics—misrepresented by the Jews.—Sources of the Christian belief.—St Luke’s account.—St Matthew’s account.—Probable origin of the two narratives.—Variations in Matt. 1:16 do not affect the trustworthiness of the story.—Whether known to the first generation or not, the belief runs back into the Apostolic age
V
Early legends connected with the Descent.—Their probable history.—The Aquileian article Scriptural.—Original meaning of the words.—When and why introduced into the Creed.—Their subsequent history and justification
VI
The Ascension: silence of the Synoptists and of St Paul—silence of the sub apostolic writers.—Early testimony to the fact.—The Resurrection and Ascension not identified, although the interval is differently stated.—Witness of the Creeds to the Ascension.—Two symbolical expressions for the fact.—The prevalent form free from ambiguity
VII
‘Holy Church’ primitive.—‘Catholic’ not in the Old-Roman Creed, though early applied to the Church in East and West.—The ‘Catholic Church’ not an abstraction, or a symbol of subjection to Rome.—Why the name was limited to orthodox Churches and Christians.—‘Catholic’ at once comprehensive and exclusive.—Its retention in the English Creed
VIII
Origin of the phrase, ‘Communion of Saints.’—Its use in Gallican homilies of the sixth century.—Occasion of its introduction into the Creed.—How interpreted by the tradition of the English Church
IX
‘Resurrection of the Flesh’ not in Scripture.—Its adoption an early protest against Docetic error.—Not opposed to St Paul’s teaching.—How understood by Pseudo-Clement and Origen, by Jerome and Rufinus, by Augustine and the later Western Church.—Other phrases: ‘Resurrection of the Dead’—‘Resurrection of the Body’
Appendix.
A.— Western Creeds: Creed of the Prymer—the ‘King’s Book’—the Gelasian Sacramentary—the Sarum Ritus baptizandi—the first English Book of Common Prayer—Priminius—two British Museum mss.—Marcellus—Cod. Laudianus—Bangor Antiphonary—C. C. C. ms.—Aquileia—Venantius Fortunatus—Faustus of Riez
B.— Eastern Creeds: Creed of Jerusalem—of the Apostolical Constitutions—of Constantinople.
Μαθητεύσατε πάντα τὰ ἔθνη, βαπτίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος.
Chapter One
INDEX
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