1. From the beginning of the Apostles' Creed (Credo, I believe), to which the term is applied more particularly.
2. Kanoon tes pisteoos or tes aletheias, regula fidei, regula veritatis. These are the oldest terms used by the ante-Nicene fathers, Irenaeus, Tertullian, etc.
3. Sumbolon, symbolum (from sumballein, to throw together, to compare), means a mark, badge, watchword, test. It was first used in a theological sense by Cyprian, A.D. 250, and then very generally since the fourth century. It was chiefly applied to the Apostles' Creed as the baptismal confession by which Christians could be known and distinguished from Jews, heathen, and heretics, in the sense of a military signal or watchword (tessera militaris); the Christians being regarded as soldiers of Christ fighting under the banner of the cross. Luther and Melancthon first applied it to Protestant creeds.
4. Comp. (Matt. x. 32, 33: 'Every one who shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven.' Rom. x. 9, 10: 'If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus [Jesus as Lord], and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, then shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto [so as to obtain] righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.'
5. The similar confession, John vi. 69, is of a previous date. It reads, according to the early authorities, 'Thou art the Holy One of God' (su ei oo agios theou). A designation of the Messiah. This text coincides with the testimony of the demoniacs, Mk 1:26, who, with ghostlike intuition, perceived the supernatural character of Jesus.
6. For this reason a creed ought to use language different from that of the Bible. A string of Scripture passages would be no creed at all, as little as it would be a prayer or a hymn. A creed is, as it were, a doctrinal poem written under the inspiration of divine truth. This may be said at least of the ecumenical creeds.
13