Nicene Creed

=== Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed ===
What is known as the "Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed" or the "Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed",{{efn|Both names are common. Instances of the former are in the ''Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' and in the ''[[Roman Missal]]'', while the latter is used consistently by the [[Faith and Order Commission]]. "Constantinopolitan Creed" can also be found, but very rarely.}} received this name because it was adopted at the [[Second Ecumenical Council]] held in Constantinople in 381 as a modification of the original Nicene Creed of 325. In that light, it also came to be very commonly known simply as the "Nicene Creed". It is the only authoritative ''[[wikt:ecumenical|ecumenical]]'' statement of the Christian faith accepted by the [[Catholic Church]] (with the addition of the [[Filioque]]), the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], [[Oriental Orthodoxy]], the [[Church of the East]], and much of [[Protestantism]] including the [[Anglican communion]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Religion Facts, four of the five Protestant denominations studied agree with the Nicene Creed and the fifth may as well, they just don't do creeds in general |url=http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/charts/denominations_beliefs.htm |access-date=29 October 2014 |archive-date=19 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150319051531/http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/charts/denominations_beliefs.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Christianity Today reports on a study that shows most evangelicals believe the basic Nicene formulation |date=28 October 2014 |url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/october-web-only/new-poll-finds-evangelicals-favorite-heresies.html |access-date=29 October 2014 |archive-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111220327/https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/october-web-only/new-poll-finds-evangelicals-favorite-heresies.html |url-status=live }}</ref> (The Apostles' and Athanasian creeds are not as widely accepted.)<ref name="Britannica">{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/413955/Nicene-Creed |title=Nicene Creed |access-date=16 June 2013 |archive-date=13 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130613192032/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/413955/Nicene-Creed |url-status=live }}</ref>

It differs in a number of respects, both by addition and omission, from the creed adopted at the First Council of Nicaea. The most notable difference is the additional section:

{{blockquote|And [we believe] in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver-of-Life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets.

And [we believe] in one, holy, catholic and Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins, [and] we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.<ref>Schaff's [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.ix.iii.html ''Seven Ecumenical Councils: Second Ecumenical: The Holy Creed Which the 150 Holy Fathers Set Forth...''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205225410/https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.ix.iii.html |date=5 December 2020 }}</ref>}}

Since the end of the 19th century,<ref name="Kelly1">Kelly, J.N.D. ''Early Christian Creeds'' Longmans (1960{{sup|2}}) pp. 305, 307, 322–331 respectively</ref> scholars have questioned the traditional explanation of the origin of this creed, which has been passed down in the name of the council, whose official acts have been lost over time. A local council of Constantinople in 382 and the Third Ecumenical Council ([[First Council of Ephesus|Council of Ephesus]] of 431) made no mention of it,<ref name=davis>Davis, Leo Donald S.J., ''The First Seven Ecumenical Councils'', The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1990, {{ISBN|0-8146-5616-1}}, pp. 120–122, 185</ref> with the latter affirming the 325 creed of Nicaea as a valid statement of the faith and using it to denounce [[Nestorianism]]. Though some scholarship claims that hints of the later creed's existence are discernible in some writings,<ref name="Kelly2">Kelly, J.N.D. ''Early Christian Creeds'' London, 1973</ref> no extant document gives its text or makes explicit mention of it earlier than the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon in 451.<ref name="Kelly1" /><ref name=davis /><ref name=Chalcedon /> Many of the bishops of the 451 council themselves had never heard of it and initially greeted it skeptically, but it was then produced from the episcopal archives of Constantinople, and the council accepted it "not as supplying any omission but as an authentic interpretation of the faith of Nicaea".<ref name=davis /> In spite of the questions raised, it is considered most likely that this creed was in fact introduced at the 381 Second Ecumenical Council.<ref name="Britannica" />

On the basis of evidence both internal and external to the text, it has been argued that this creed originated not as an editing of the original Creed proposed at Nicaea in 325, but as an independent creed (probably an older baptismal creed) modified to make it more like the Nicene Creed.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc03/htm/ii.10.ii.htm| title = Philip Schaff, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. III: article ''Constantinopolitan Creed''| access-date = 12 January 2010| archive-date = 24 February 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200224171155/https://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc03/htm/ii.10.ii.htm| url-status = live}}</ref> Some scholars have argued that the creed may have been presented at Chalcedon as "a precedent for drawing up new creeds and definitions to supplement the Creed of Nicaea, as a way of getting round the ban on new creeds in Canon 7 of Ephesus".<ref name=Chalcedon>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6IUaOOT1G3UC&pg=RA1-PA3 Richard Price, Michael Gaddis (editors), ''The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon'' (Liverpool University Press 2005] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230108062044/https://books.google.com/books?id=6IUaOOT1G3UC&pg=RA1-PA3 |date=8 January 2023 }} {{ISBN|978-0-85323-039-7}}), p. 3</ref> It is generally agreed that the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed is not simply an expansion of the Creed of Nicaea, and was probably based on another traditional creed independent of the one from Nicaea.<ref name="Britannica" /><ref name="Kelly1" />

The Third Ecumenical Council (Ephesus) reaffirmed the original 325 version{{efn|It was the original 325 creed, not the one that is attributed to the Second Ecumenical Council in 381, that was recited at the Council of Ephesus.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/ephesus.html |title=The Third Ecumenical Council. The Council of Ephesus, p. 202 |access-date=11 January 2009 |archive-date=16 August 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000816024110/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/ephesus.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}} of the Nicene Creed and declared that "it is unlawful for any man to bring forward, or to write, or to compose a different ({{lang|grc|ἑτέραν}}) faith as a rival to that established by the holy Fathers assembled with the Holy Ghost in Nicaea" (i.e., the 325 creed). The word {{lang|grc|ἑτέραν}} is more accurately translated as used by the council to mean "different", "contradictory", rather than "another".<ref name=Ethereal>{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.x.xvi.xi.html |title=NPNF2-14. The Seven Ecumenical Councils |publisher=Christian Classics Ethereal Library |website=Ccel.org |access-date=29 November 2006 |archive-date=21 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150721224314/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.x.xvi.xi.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This statement has been interpreted as a prohibition against changing this creed or composing others, but not all accept this interpretation.<ref name=Ethereal/> This question is connected with the controversy whether a creed proclaimed by an [[ecumenical council]] is definitive in excluding not only excisions from its text but also additions to it.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}

In one respect, the Eastern Orthodox Church's [[textus receptus|received text]] of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed differs from the earliest text,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds2.iv.i.ii.i.html|title=Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume II. The History of Creeds|publisher=Christian Classics Ethereal Library|website=Ccel.org|access-date=29 November 2006|archive-date=8 December 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061208170255/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds2.iv.i.ii.i.html|url-status=live}}</ref> which is included in the acts of the [[Council of Chalcedon]] of 451: The Eastern Orthodox Church uses the singular forms of verbs such as "I believe", in place of the plural form ("we believe") used by the council. [[Byzantine Rite]] [[Eastern Catholic Churches]] use exactly the same form of the creed, since the Catholic Church teaches that it is wrong to add "[[Filioque|and the Son]]" to the [[Greek language|Greek]] verb "{{lang|grc|ἐκπορευόμενον}}", though correct to add it to the [[Latin]] {{lang|la|"qui procedit"}}, which does not have precisely the same meaning.<ref name="Catholic Greek-Latin">{{cite web|url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/CURIA/PCCUFILQ.HTM|title=Greek and Latin Traditions on Holy Spirit|website=Ewtn.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181228015533/http://www.ewtn.com:80/library/CURIA/PCCUFILQ.HTM |archive-date=28 December 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref> The form generally used in Western churches does add "and the Son" and also the phrase "God from God", which is found in the original 325 Creed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds2.iv.i.ii.ii.html|title=Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume II. The History of Creeds|publisher=Christian Classics Ethereal Library|website=Ccel.org|access-date=29 November 2006|archive-date=9 December 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061209123328/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds2.iv.i.ii.ii.html|url-status=live}}</ref>