The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed: both texts, and when each is used
The prayer
The Apostles’ Creed — recited in the rosary and taught in catechism
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
The Nicene Creed — professed at Sunday worship
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And 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, of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried. And on the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And in one holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. And I await the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
In short
Creed is the name of two different formulas. The Apostles’ Creed, the shorter one, is recited in the rosary and taught to children. The Nicene Creed, longer, is professed at Sunday Mass and in many Protestant services. This page gives both texts, in that order, and explains when each is used.
- Written by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 8 min read
When to pray it
The Apostles’ Creed opens the rosary, on the crucifix, before the first decade, and is the one learned by heart in catechism. The Nicene Creed is professed standing at Sunday worship, after the sermon or homily.
The Creed is the only piece on this site that asks for nothing. Every other prayer here has a verb aimed at God — give, forgive, deliver, pray. This one has a verb aimed at the person praying: I believe. That is why it is professed standing, aloud, and in the first person singular even in a crowd of a thousand: each one answers for himself.
Which of the two to say depends on where you are. At Sunday Mass, the Nicene, which is the text of the rite; in the rosary and in catechism, the Apostles’ Creed, shorter and the first to be memorised. Outside those settings either will serve — the second says everything the first says, with more precision and more words.
“The resurrection of the body” is a deliberate choice of word, not an archaism. The Creed could say “of the soul”, and it does not. The claim is meant to be uncomfortable: what is expected is not the survival of a spiritual part of the person but the recovery of the whole person, body included. The Nicene softens it to “resurrection of the dead”, which says the same thing without the word that jars.
“The communion of saints”, in the penultimate article, is not a compliment paid to canonised people. The Latin admits two readings — communion among holy persons, and communion in holy things, the sacraments — and both have circulated since early on. On either reading, the article states that whoever believes is not alone, neither in space nor in time.
Where this prayer comes from
When it appeared Apostles’ Creed, older form from the fourth century; Nicene, councils of 325 and 381
The legend that each of the twelve apostles dictated one article of the Creed is reported by Rufinus around the year 400 and repeated for a thousand years, but the text is not the apostles’ work. Its oldest ancestor is the Old Roman Symbol, attested in Greek around 340 and in Latin by Rufinus himself: it was a baptismal formula, the list of questions put to whoever was about to be baptised, each answered with an “I believe”. The full wording recited today appears around the eighth century, in Gaul, and from there became standard in the West.
The Nicene Creed has a different history and a different job. It is not the work of one person or one council: the Council of Nicaea, in 325, wrote the core against the teaching of Arius, who denied that the Son is God in the same sense as the Father; the Council of Constantinople, in 381, expanded above all the article on the Holy Spirit. Hence the double name it carries in scholarship, Niceno-Constantinopolitan.
The two are not rival versions of one text: they answer different questions. The Apostles’ Creed narrates — born, suffered, died, rose. The Nicene stops in the middle of the story to define: “God from God, Light from Light, begotten, not made”. That vocabulary exists only because someone, in a particular century, asserted the opposite.
Little-known details
“He descended into hell” is the newest article and the most argued over
“Holy catholic Church” does not mean Roman, which is why Protestants recite it
One phrase added in the West is behind a schism a thousand years old
The oldest creed-shaped text is inside a letter of Paul
What the passages say
3For I handed on to you, first of all, what I also received: that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures;
4and that he was buried; and that he rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures;
5and that he was seen by Cephas, and after that by the eleven.
The oldest creed-shaped formula in the New Testament, and Paul introduces it as something handed to him ready-made. Notice the order: died, was buried, rose, appeared. It is the same sequence as both texts above, written roughly three centuries earlier.
19Therefore, go forth and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
The baptismal formula with the three names, in the order the Creed organises them. This is the structural reason the text has three blocks rather than two or four: it began as a set of questions asked at baptism.
16And it is clearly great, this mystery of piety, which was manifested in the flesh, which was justified in the Spirit, which has appeared to Angels, which has been preached to the Gentiles, which is believed in the world, which has been taken up in glory.
Another passage with the look of a memorised formula sitting inside a letter: manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached, believed, taken up in glory. Six clauses in a row, without connectives — the shape of someone quoting what already circulated.
18For Christ also died once for our sins, the Just One on behalf of the unjust, so that he might offer us to God, having died, certainly, in the flesh, but having been enlivened by the Spirit.
19And in the Spirit, he preached to those who were in prison, going to those souls
The passage behind the article “he descended into hell”. The text says Christ, put to death in the flesh and enlivened in the Spirit, preached to those in prison — and it is over what exactly that means that the argument has never closed.