I hate to admit it, but we Christians
even have a hard time agreeing about something as basic as the Nicene Creed. So let’s examine it one sentence, and if we
have to, one phrase or one word at a time.
Yesterday,
I was pleasantly surprised to hear a Roman Catholic recitation of the Nicene
Creed. I probably stumbled on it in
Facebook or Twitter, and it snapped my neck, so I looked it up. Here’s where I found it: http://www.beginningcatholic.com/catholic-nicene-creed.html. This is what the first sentence says:
“We
believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of
all that is, seen and unseen.”
Wow,
that’s almost exactly the same as my translation. I’m actually on the same page as somebody
else. Wow! In fact I don’t see any significant
differences at all. Let’s look at it in
greater detail:
·
The
first Greek word in the creed is “Pisteúomen,” “We believe.” Wow!
Absolutely! “Let’s build
something together.” Let’s work at this together
until we get it right. Amen!
·
The
Roman Catholic translation has articles (the) stuck in, but mine does not. No big deal here. What’s a “the” or two between friends; although,
they’re not there in the Greek text. My
only serious objection to the two extra articles is that they soften some of
the 3P Poetic Punch. Like I said, “It’s
no big deal.” We don’t know how to put
the Poetic Punch into English anyway.
·
The
Greek text has Poetic Punch in the three names of God: Patéra, Pantokrátora, Poiētén. Now, if somebody could only come up with a
way to bring that 3P Poetic Punch into the English language. That would take a literary genius. Nobody has ever done it before. Oh well, that’s why we study foreign
languages (like King James English).
·
Why
did I insert a comma after Poiētén? No
big deal either. I did it for the same
reason that I capitalized Poiētén, Maker.
I wanted to bring out the idea that this is a third name for God. I wanted to emphasize the Trinitarian Name,
just as I want to emphasize the Trinitarian God. 3 Ps pack a lot of poetic punch.
·
There
is another reason for the comma. The
phrases are three dimensional.
o Dimension One: God’s Names — “Patéra,
Pantokrátora, Poiētén”
o Dimension Two: God’s Creation of
the physical material universe — “heaven and earth”
o Dimension Three: God’s
Relationship between the physical and the spiritual — “seen and unseen” or “visible
and invisible” (potāto/potăto, nobody cares)
I
think that there is something really cool going on here:
·
God
is the Father of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
·
God
is the Almighty [Lord] of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and
invisible.
·
God
is the Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
There
is something else really cool here: If this were the only consideration on the
table, there is not one single thing in this sentence that would keep me from
being Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant: any one of the 30,000
denominations in this world. Almost
every one of them has nearly the same words in their doctrinal statement.
There
is one dissenting voice that I can think of: those folks who believe that Adam
matured to become God, but they’re not even Christians.
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