Philip Schaff · 33 of 60
Symbolum Quicunque: The Athanasian Creed.
IV. SYMBOLUM QUICUNQUE.
The Athanasian Creed.
NOTES.
1 The Latin text of the oldest known MS. in the Utrecht Psalter has been reproduced by Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy in his Report (London, 1873), and in the fac-simile ed. of the Utrecht Psalter (1875). It agrees nearly altogether with the text given above, but has a number of inaccuracies. I have compared also the texts of Waterland (Works, Vol. III. pp. 221 sqq,), Usher (De Romanæ Eccles. Symbolo Apost. vetere, 1647, Genev. ed. 1722, pp. 13–15), Montfaucon (in his ed. of Athanasius, Tom. II. pp. 719 sqq.), Hahn (pp. 122–125), Lumby (p. 259), and Swainson (p. 204). The numbering of verses differs: Waterland, Montfaucon, and the English Book of Common Prayer have only 40 verses by combining 19 and 20, 25 and 26, 39 and 40, 41 and 42; Walch and others make 44, the Roman Breviary 42. In my Church Hist. Vol. III. pp. 690–695, I have given the parallel passages from the fathers.
2 There is no authorized Greek text of the Athanasian Creed, since it was never adopted in the Oriental Church. There are several translations, which differ considerably. Usher gives a Greek version with many interpolations. Caspari (Vol. III. pp. 263–267) published for the first time two other Greek versions from MSS. in the Venetian Library of St. Mark and the Ambrosian Library of Milan.
3The English translation is that of the sixteenth century (1548), as found in the English editions of the Book of Common Prayer, and still in use in the public service of the Church of England. My emendations are inclosed in brackets. The punctuation is adjusted to the liturgical use of this Creed.
Ver. 1.—Some copies read opus habet for opus est . Usher: τὴν ὀρθόδοξον πίστιν , orthodoxam fidem. The MS. in the Utrecht Psalter begins with a grammatical blunder: 'Incipit fides catholicam.'
Ver. 2.—On the damnatory clause, which is twice repeated, ver. 28 and ver. 44, see the Introduction, pp. 39, 41. Some MSS. read inviolabilemque; some omit absque dubio.
Ver. 3.—Usher: Orthodoxa for catholica. Compare on this verse Gregory Naz., Orat. xxiii.: μονάδα ἐν τριάδι, καὶ τριάδα ἐν μονάδι προσκυνουμένην .
Ver. 4.—Person in the sense of persona , πρόσωπον (also ὑπόστασις in the post-Nicene use of the term), i.e., character, face, manifestation, subsistence. It must not be confounded with essence or being ( essentia , substantia , natura , οὐσία , φύσις ). God is one in essence, three in persons ( Deus est trinus, h. e. in essentia unus, tres habet subsistendi modos ). In modern philosophical usage the term person means a separate and distinct rational individual. But the tri-personality of God is not a numerical or essential of three beings (like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), for this would be tritheism; nor is it, on the other hand, merely a threefold aspect and mode of manifestation, in the Sabellian or Swedenborgian sense; but it is a real, objective, and eternal, though ineffable, distinction in the one Divine being, with a corresponding threefold revelation of this being in the works of creation, , and . Hence the distinction between the immanent, intrinsic (or ontological) trinity and the extrinsic or œconomical) trinity; in other words, between the trinity of essence and the trinity of manifestation.
Ver. 4.—The Latin substantia (that which stands under) and essentia correspond to the Greek οὐσία , as distinct from πρόσωπον . But in modern English, substance is used mostly in the sense of matter, body, or the most important part, summary. Hence essence or being is preferable. Hypostasis ( ὑπόστασις , foundation, groundwork, substratum , substantia ) was originally used in the same sense as οὐσία , but afterwards it became identical with prosopon , persona.
Ver. 6.—Usher reads after divinitas: ' Unum robur, una potestas, unum regnum ' (an interpolation of the Greeks).
Ver. 9.—Incomprehensible is a false translation, unless it be taken in the unusual sense, 'not to be comprehended within any bounds.' The Anglican translator of 1548 perhaps followed a Greek copy (of 1533) which renders immensus by ἀκατάληπτος . But other Greek copies read ἄπειρος or ἄμετρος instead. Usher's Greek text has παντοκράτωρ , omnipotent. The Latin immensus means, what can not be circumscribed or limited by any boundaries, what is illocal, omnipresent. Fortunatus explains the word: ' Non est mensurabilis in sua natura, quia illocalis est, incircumscriptus, ubique totus, ubique præsens, ubique potens. ' The author of the Athanasian Creed glories in the clear revelation and statement of the mystery of the Trinity rather than in the mystery itself. The Utrecht Psalter reads inmensus.
Ver. 20.—Waterland omits tres before Dominos. Usher reads for prohibemur: ' Non comprobamus, sed omnino prohibemus. '
Ver. 21.—Usher: sed ingenitus for nec genitus.
Ver. 23.—The Greek translation and the Latin text in Usher omit et Filio , which is contrary to the Greek doctrine of the single procession. Most Greek copies read only ἀπὸ τοῦ πατρός .
Ver. 25.—Usher: nullus primus aut postremus, nullus major aut minor , οὐδεὶς πρῶτος ἢ ἔσχατος, οὐδεὶς μέγας ἢ μικρός .
Ver. 29.— Fideliter is variously rendered in the Greek copies by ὀρθῶς , πιστῶς , βεβαίως .
Ver. 30.—Utrecht Psalter reads quia for quod , and omits pariter.
Ver. 31.—Usher's Greek text inserts here a long interpolation, which is not at all in keeping with the sententious character of the symbol.
Ver. 32.—Another long interpolation in Usher.
Ver. 38.—After passus est a Greek version adds the anti-patripassian clause: ἀπαθοῦς τῆς θεότητος μενούσης , impassibili manente divinitate.
Ver. 38.—Some MSS. read ad infernos or ad inferna. Usher's enlarged Greek copy omits the clause, and reads ταφεὶς καὶ ἀναστάς . The Utrecht Psalter reads et qui for qui vero.
Ver. 43.—Usher: εἰς αἰωνίους κολάσεις , ad cruciatus eternos.
Ver. 44.—The Greek copies read either πιστῶς alone, or πιστῶς τε καὶ βεβαίως , or ἐκ πίστεως βεβαίως πιστεύσῃ .
