Athanasian Creed · 2 of 9

The Creed of Athanasius

7.THE CREED OF ATHANASIUS (First let it be presented in full.)

8.They saw there that God is one, although they assumed three Persons for their principle. (Show this by quotation, and how cautiously they worked.)

9.They saw that soul and body are one. (Show this by quotation, etc.)

10.They saw that His Divine, and not another Divine, assumed the Human.

11.They made His Divine to be altogether the same with the two other Divines.

12.That they so wrote was of the Lord’s Divine Providence, lest they should altogether wander away as to the Lord, and thus no one would be saved.

13.They made a distinction among the Persons; this was not from the Word; that they made a distinction among three, was from certain passages of the Word, from the sense of its letter not understood; they did not know that in the particular expressions of the Word there is a spiritual sense.

14.There is therefore a Trinity, or trine, or triunity, in the Lord - the Divine Itself, which is called the Father, the Divine Human which is called the Son, and the proceeding Divine which is called the Holy Spirit.

15.That they distinguished between the Divine nature and the Human nature was thus because they were in an obscure idea from the sense of the letter of the Word.

16.The cause of the Lord’s saying, “If there be faith, it shall be done,” and this in several places, was, that there might first be implanted in their minds that the Lord is God and is omnipotent; because this is the fundamental of all things of the doctrine of the church. Knowledge precedes with everyone; but still this does not become faith before he lives the life of faith, which is charity; what is before this, belongs to knowledge; for the Lord makes faith from the knowledges with man.

17.The hells were subjugated by the Lord (Luke 10:20).

18.Father and Son is the Lord alone. He is so called for the reason that He was in the world in the state of union. In the Old Testament also He is called Jehovah and the Holy One of Israel; here are two names, but nevertheless one, namely, the Lord. He is called Jehovah God, he is called Lord, he is called Jehovah and God, also Jehovah and Lord, and also Jehovah Zebaoth. (Let the passages be quoted in which he is called “Jehovah” and “the Holy One of Israel,” and in which he is called “Jehovah” and “God.”)