"eternally begotten of the Father" and other questions

[fakename]

I have some questions about the creed:

“eternally begotten of the Father” -this means that Jesus was always Son, but not that he was always a human right?

&

“the only Son of God” -why can’t we say “the only Son of the Father”?

“For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried.”

But in the Apostle’s Creed it says, “He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried…” so why the difference in wording, if all the words of a creed have some doctrinal meaning, and why should some creeds have differences in punctuation etc.? I thought that the form of a prayer and its words are necessary for its use, but creeds are prayers so why should they be changed lest their power as prayers be vitiated?

 

[Corki]

Well, the new translation will be:

I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.

Is that any better?

 

[RyanBlack]

I have some questions about the creed:

“eternally begotten of the Father” -this means that Jesus was always Son, but not that he was always a human right?

&

“the only Son of God” -why can’t we say “the only Son of the Father”?

“For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered, died, and was buried.”

But in the Apostle’s Creed it says, “He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried…” so why the difference in wording, if all the words of a creed have some doctrinal meaning, and why should some creeds have differences in punctuation etc.? I thought that the form of a prayer and its words are necessary for its use, but creeds are prayers so why should they be changed lest their power as prayers be vitiated?

The Son was always the Son, but became a man at the time of the Incarnation.

As to why the Creed says “the only Son of God” as opposed to “the only Son of the Father,” I don’t know, but will note that right after saying “the only Son of God,” we say “eternally begotten of the Father,” so it is clear that Jesus is the only son of God the Father.

As to the difference between the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, I would point out that there were numerous local baptismal creeds. The Apostle’s Creed is very ancient in origin and was the baptismal creed of the Church at Rome. However, the Fathers at Nicea realized that wording in the Creed was needed that would specifically refute Arianism, and the various local creeds were likely deemed insufficient for refuting Arianism (in other words, an Arian could say the local creeds as they were and claim that they did not refute the belief that the Son was a creature).

 

[Big_Dummy]

I think the creed was worded the way it was to avoid semi-arianism.

 

[fakename]

Well isn’t the form of a prayer a necessary condition for having it work? So why is it possible to change a prayer (like the creeds) form?