What the Apostles’ Creed means, line by line
The Creed has three parts, one for each person of the Trinity, because it grew out of baptism “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19, KJV). Here is each line with the Scripture behind it. In Faithero you can open any of these passages in the KJV or the Douay-Rheims and have the chapter read aloud.
The Father, Maker of heaven and earth
“I believe in God the Father Almighty”
“I believe” means more than “I agree.” It is trust placed in a person. The Creed starts with God as Father, the name Jesus taught his disciples to use: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name” (Matthew 6:9, KJV). “Almighty” echoes God’s word to Abram, “I am the Almighty God” (Genesis 17:1, KJV). Nothing is too hard for him, and nothing in the world is outside his care.
“Maker of heaven and earth”
The Bible’s first sentence is the Creed’s first claim: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, KJV). Everything that exists depends on God. That rules out two mistakes at once: thinking the world is God, and thinking the world is an accident or something evil to escape. Creation is good, and it belongs to its Maker.
Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord
“And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord”
Three titles in one breath. Jesus is his human name. Christ means the Anointed One, the promised King, which is what Peter confessed: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16, KJV). His only Son recalls that God “gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16, KJV). And our Lord is the oldest Christian confession of all: “that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11, KJV). To call him Lord is to give him the place that belongs to God (see Is Jesus God?).
“Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary”
The angel told Mary, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee” (Luke 1:35, KJV). Jesus did not begin as an ordinary man who later became special. He came from God, and he was truly born, a real baby with a real mother. Both halves matter: he is God with us, and he is one of us.
“Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried”
It is striking that a Roman governor is named in a creed. Pilate ties the gospel to a real time and place, as Paul does when he writes of “Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession” (1 Timothy 6:13, KJV). The verbs pile up on purpose: he suffered, was crucified, was dead, was buried. Jesus did not seem to die; he died. Paul’s summary of the gospel says it plainly: “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, KJV).
“He descended into hell”
This is the line people ask about most, so it has its own section below. In short, it means Jesus truly went where the dead go, and death could not keep him.
“The third day he rose again from the dead”
Paul goes on: “he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:4, KJV). The Creed does not say his memory lived on or that his cause survived. It says he rose, the same Jesus, in a body that had been dead. Everything else in Christian hope stands on this (see What Is the Gospel?).
“He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty”
After the risen Jesus had been “seen of them forty days” (Acts 1:3, KJV), “while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9, KJV). Sitting at the right hand is the language of rule, not rest. When he had dealt with our sins, he “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3, KJV), and from there he “maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:34, KJV). The risen Jesus reigns now, and he prays for his people.
“From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead”
“Quick” is old English for living, and the phrase comes straight from Scripture: “the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:1, KJV). History is going somewhere. The judge is the same Jesus who died for sinners, which is why Christians can look toward that day with hope rather than dread (see End Times Prophecy).
The Holy Ghost, the church and the life to come
“I believe in the Holy Ghost”
“Holy Ghost” is the older English name for the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is not a force but the third person of the Trinity, the one Jesus promised as “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost” who “shall teach you all things” (John 14:26, KJV). Every line after this one describes his work: gathering the church, joining believers together, forgiving, raising the dead (see The Trinity Explained).
“The holy Catholick Church”
The church is one people across every nation and century: “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:4-5, KJV). It is holy not because its members are perfect, but because it belongs to God. The word “catholic” has its own section below.
“The Communion of Saints”
In the New Testament every believer is a saint: Paul writes “to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi” (Philippians 1:1, KJV). “Communion” means sharing. Christians share one life in Christ, one faith and one Lord. Many Christians also hear in this line a family that death does not break, believers on earth joined with those already with the Lord, “so great a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1, KJV). The Catholic Catechism explains the phrase as a sharing in holy things and among holy people (CCC 946-948).
“The Forgiveness of sins”
Forgiveness is not an extra; it is at the center. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7, KJV). It comes right after the church in the Creed because the church is where forgiveness is preached, received and passed on to others (see How to Forgive Someone Who Hurt You).
“The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting”
Christian hope is not only that the soul goes to heaven. It is that God will raise the body too, changed and glorious: “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15:42, KJV). And the life that follows has no end. Jesus held both together: “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25, KJV). More on this in What Happens When We Die?
“Amen”
The Catholic Catechism points out that in Hebrew “amen” comes from the same root as the word “believe,” so the Creed’s last word repeats its first (CCC 1062-1064). It turns a list of truths into a personal yes.
Where the Apostles’ Creed came from
The Creed was not written in one sitting. Its source is the baptismal creed of the church in Rome, often called the Old Roman Creed (or Old Roman Symbol), which goes back in its essentials to the second century. By about AD 200 the bishop in Rome questioned each person at baptism about what they believed. Because baptism is given in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, that profession of faith was shaped around the three persons, which is why the Creed has three parts (CCC 189-190). Around AD 400, a writer named Rufinus wrote a commentary that gives the earliest continuous Latin text of the Creed. The longer wording said today grew over the following centuries and is not quoted in its present form until the 8th century.
Why the name? Rufinus passed on a story, which he said came from earlier generations, that the apostles composed the Creed together, and later tellings gave each of the twelve one article. Historians treat this as a legend. The name has stayed because, as the Catholic Catechism puts it, the Creed faithfully sums up the faith of the apostles (CCC 194).
“He descended into hell”: what it means
In the older English of the Creed, “hell” stands for the place of the dead, called Sheol in Hebrew and Hades in Greek, not only the place of final punishment. The King James Bible uses the word the same way when Peter says of Jesus that “his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption” (Acts 2:31, KJV). The line says Jesus truly died and went where the dead go. Christians explain the rest in a few ways:
Catholic teaching says that after his death Christ went down to the realm of the dead as Savior, proclaiming the good news and freeing the righteous who had died before him; he did not go to free the damned (CCC 632-635). Passages often read this way include 1 Peter 3:18-19, where Christ “went and preached unto the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19, KJV), and Ephesians 4:9.
Reformed churches, in the Heidelberg Catechism (Q&A 44), read the line as Christ’s anguish of soul on the cross and before it, suffered so that believers are spared the anguish of hell. The Westminster Larger Catechism (Q. 50) takes it to mean that Christ stayed in the state of the dead, under the power of death, until the third day.
Some modern wordings say “he descended to the dead,” as in the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer (1979), to make the older meaning of “hell” clear. Lutherans in the Small Catechism keep “He descended into hell.”
The line was not in the old creed of Rome. Around AD 400 Rufinus noted that it was part of the creed used at Aquileia, in Italy. It is part of the wording the Western churches use today.
Every reading agrees on the main point. Jesus did not seem to die; he went all the way into death, and he did not stay there. As Peter put it, “it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:24, KJV).
Why “catholic”?
“Catholic” comes from the Greek katholikos, from a phrase meaning “on the whole.” In the Creed it means universal: the one church of Christ spread through the whole world and through every age, not one building, nation or group. The Catholic Catechism gives the same meaning: universal, in keeping with the whole (CCC 830).
Roman Catholics say the line and understand it of the Catholic Church in the full sense their Catechism teaches. Anglicans, Episcopalians and Reformed Christians say the same words, “the holy catholic Church,” and mean the whole church of Christ. Lutherans in Luther’s Small Catechism say “the holy Christian church” to make that meaning plain. Whatever your church, the line is not a promise to join a particular denomination. It is a confession that Christ has one people.
How churches use the Apostles’ Creed
Catholic. The Catechism calls it the ancient baptismal creed of Rome and follows it in its own teaching on the faith (CCC 194-196). The first profession of faith is made at baptism (CCC 189), and when Catholics pray the Rosary, they begin by holding the crucifix and saying the Apostles’ Creed (see Rosary Mysteries for Today).
Anglican and Episcopal. In the Book of Common Prayer (1662) the Creed is said at Morning and Evening Prayer, minister and people standing. The Episcopal Church uses it as the basis of its baptismal covenant and in its daily offices.
Lutheran. Luther’s Small Catechism teaches the Creed in three articles, on creation, redemption and sanctification, each with the question “What does this mean?”
Reformed and Presbyterian. The Heidelberg Catechism recites the Creed (Q&A 23) and explains it line by line, in three parts: God the Father and our creation, God the Son and our deliverance, God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.
It is also a good place to start at home. Say it together at a meal or before bed, and let children ask about the words they do not understand; their questions make good teaching moments. To see how the Creed’s words connect to baptism and the Lord’s Supper, read Christian Baptism and Holy Communion.
The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed
The two creeds teach the same faith. Here is how they differ.
| Compared | Apostles’ Creed | Nicene Creed |
|---|---|---|
| Where it comes from | The baptismal creed of the church in Rome (CCC 194) | The councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) (CCC 195) |
| Length in the 1662 wording | 110 words | 224 words |
| What it says of Jesus | “his only Son our Lord” | “Very God of very God... Being of one substance with the Father” |
| Where you hear it | Baptism, daily prayer, catechisms and the Rosary | Holy Communion in the Book of Common Prayer; shared by the great churches of East and West (CCC 195) |
Creed wording from the Book of Common Prayer (1662); CCC is the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Frequently asked
Is the Apostles’ Creed in the Bible?
Not as a single passage. You will not find its wording in one place in Scripture, but every line sums up something the New Testament teaches, and the Bible already contains short creed-like summaries. Paul hands one on in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4: “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, KJV). The Creed gathers truths like these into one statement for baptism and worship.
What is the difference between the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed?
The Apostles’ Creed is shorter (110 words in the 1662 wording) and grew from the baptismal creed of the church in Rome. The Nicene Creed is about twice as long and comes from the first two councils of the whole church, at Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381. It says more about who Jesus is, “Very God of very God... Being of one substance with the Father,” in the Book of Common Prayer’s words. The Catholic Catechism notes that the Nicene Creed is common to the great churches of East and West (CCC 195), while the Apostles’ Creed is the ancient baptismal creed of Rome (CCC 194). They teach the same faith.
Did the apostles write the Apostles’ Creed?
Not word for word. Around AD 400 a writer named Rufinus passed on a story, which he said came from earlier generations, that the apostles composed it together, and later versions said each of the twelve wrote one article. Historians treat this as a legend. The Creed grew from the baptismal creed used in Rome, whose core goes back to the second century, and its present wording is not found until the 8th century. It carries the apostles’ name because it faithfully sums up what they taught.
Do Catholics say the Apostles’ Creed?
Yes. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls it the ancient baptismal creed of the Church of Rome (CCC 194) and follows it in its own teaching on the faith (CCC 196), and the Rosary begins with it. Catholics in English say it in a modern wording, with “Holy Spirit” for “Holy Ghost” and “the living and the dead” for “the quick and the dead.” When Catholics say “the holy catholic Church,” they mean the Church as universal in the full sense their Catechism explains (CCC 830-831).
What does “the quick and the dead” mean?
“Quick” is an old English word for living. The line means that Jesus will judge everyone: those alive when he returns and those who have died. The phrase comes straight from Scripture, which speaks of “the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:1, KJV).
How many articles are in the Apostles’ Creed?
By a custom already known to St. Ambrose, the Creed is counted as twelve articles, one for each apostle (CCC 191). It also falls naturally into three parts, for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Luther’s Small Catechism teaches it as three articles, on creation, redemption and sanctification, and the Heidelberg Catechism divides it the same way.
Saying “I believe” with the whole church
The Creed begins with “I believe,” and it is usually said together. Both matter. No one can believe for you; each person has to say the words for themselves. Yet no one says them alone. When you say the Creed you join a confession that has been spoken at baptisms and gravesides, in cathedrals and kitchens, for well over a thousand years.
On days when faith feels thin, the Creed can carry you. You do not have to feel every line to say it honestly. You can say it as a statement of where you are choosing to stand, and let the words do their slow work. Try saying it slowly once a day for a week. When one line catches you, stop there and turn it into a prayer or a question for God. The final “Amen” is your own yes to all of it.
The words of the Apostles’ Creed
In the Book of Common Prayer the minister and the people say this together, standing. A few words may be unfamiliar: Holy Ghost is the Holy Spirit, quick means the living, and Catholick is the old spelling of catholic, which means universal. Many churches now use a modern wording, with “Holy Spirit” and “the living and the dead,” but the content is the same.