When was the Apostles' Creed written?

Answer 1

Catholic AnswerWe don't know when the Apostles Creed was written. Ancient legends assign it to the twelve apostles on Pentecost composing it, supposedly, each apostle contributing one of the items. The earliest history that we have for certain is that it was probably a baptismal symbol used for those being baptized in the first couple centuries in Rome. For a full discussion, please see the Catholic Encyclopedia article below.

Answer 2

It probalby was written in the 2nd Century AD as an Orthodox (correct belief) reaction to the various versions of Gnosticism. But, there are very early suggestive traces in the New Testament of the recognition of a certain "form of doctrine" (typos didaches, Roman 6:17) which moulded, as it were, the faith of new converts to Christ's law, and which involved not only the word of faith believed in the heart, but "with the mouth confession made unto salvation" (Romans 10:8-10).

In close connection with this we must recall the profession of faith in Jesus Christ exacted of the eunuch ( Acts 8:37) as a preliminary to baptism (Augustine, "De Fide et Operibus", cap. ix; Migne, P.L., LVII, 205) and the formula of baptism itself in the name of the Three Persons of the Trinity (Matthew 28:19; and cf. the Teaching of the Twelve [Didache]7:2, and 9:5). Moreover, as soon as we begin to obtain any sort of detailed description of the ceremonial of baptism we find that, as a preliminary to the actual immersion, a profession of faith was exacted of the convert, which exhibits from the earliest times a clearly divided and separate confession of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, corresponding to the Divine Persons invoked in the formula of baptism. As we do not find in any earlier document the full form of the profession of faith, we cannot be sure that it is identical with our Creed, but, on the other hand, it is certain that nothing has yet been discovered which is inconsistent with such a supposition. See, for example, the "Canons of Hippolytus" (c. 220) or the "Didascalia" (c. 250) in Hahn's "Bibliothek der Symbole" (8, 14, 35); together with the slighter allusions in Justin Martyr and Cyprian.

Furthermore, it can be noted that towards the end of the second century we can extract from the writings of St. Iranaeus in southern Gaul and of Tertullion in far-off Africa two almost complete Creeds agreeing closely both with the old Roman Creed (R), as we know it from Rufinus, and with one another. So, we therfore can conclude that such a standard of belief of the faith had already been established. The Apostles Creed, as we have it, is actually just a refinement in lexicon of an earlier and Catholic (Universal) standard confession of faith.