I recently acquired Schaff’s “Creeds of Christendom” which had been in the possession of a now departed family member, a Lutheran preacher.
It contains a number of creeds, the Apostle’s creed, the Nicene, the Athanasian, that of Arius, etc. I’ve always wanted to see the background texts to the English versions that I hear in Church. I find that these early creeds are an interesting history of Christian theological thought.
Schaff starts with a text of Ignatius which isn’t really a creed. The text is from the shorter recension of Ignatius’ epistles. Epistola ad Trallianos, cap. 9.
Κωφώθητε οὖν, ὅταν ὑμῖν χωρὶς Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ λαλῇ τις [τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ], τοῦ ἐκ γένους [γενομένου] Δαβὶδ, τοῦ ἐκ Μαρίας, ὃς ἀληθῶς ἐγεννήθη [καὶ ἐκ θεοῦ καὶ ἐκ παρθένου…ἀληθῶς ἀνέλαβε σῶμα· ὁ Λόγος γὰρ σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐπολιτεύσατο ἄνευ ἁμαρτίας…], ἐφαγέν τε καὶ ἔπιεν [ἀληθῶς], ἀληθῶς ἐδιώχθη ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, ἀληθῶς ἐσταυρώθη καὶ ἀπέθανεν…ὃς καὶ ἀληθῶς ἠγέρθη ἀπὸ νεκρῶν [καὶ ἀνέστη διὰ τριῶν ἡμερῶν], ἐγείροντος αὐτὸν τοῦ Πατρὸς αὐτοῦ…[καὶ τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέρας συνδιατρίψας τοῖς Ἀποστόλοις, ἀνελήφθη πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα· καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ, περιμένων ἕως ἄν τεθῶσιν οἱ ἐχθροὶ αὐτοῦ ὑπο τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ].
The sections in brackets are from the longer recension, probably 4th century AD. The date of Ignatius’ martyrdom is traditionally 107 AD, under the persecution of Trajan, but the epistles may be completely pseudo-epigraphical.
Gibbon – to whom I have been listening on audiobook – doubts the persecution of Trajan, based on Pliny’s complete ignorance of the Emperor’s stand regarding Christianity.
The life of Pliny had been employed in the acquisition of learning, and in the business of the; world. Since the age of nineteen he had pleaded with distinction in the tribunals of Rome, filled a place in the senate, had been invested with the honours of the consulship, and had formed very numerous connections with every order of men, both in Italy and in the provinces. From his ignorance therefore we may derive some useful information. We may assure ourselves that when he accepted the government of Bithynia there were no general laws or decrees of the senate in force against the Christians; that neither Trajan nor any of his virtuous predecessors, whose edicts were received into the civil and criminal jurisprudence, had publicly declared their intentions concerning the new sect; and that, whatever proceedings had been carried on against the Christians, there were none of sufficient weight and authority to establish a precedent for the conduct of a Roman magistrate.