Friday, June 8, 2007

Credo

I believe.

In the Original Text it is written in the first person giving the one taking the Oath personal responsibility for what they are claiming to believe.

In One God The Father the Omnipotent.

While the vast majority of texts translate "Almighty" the word used in the Original is actually "Omnipotentem" which literally translates Omnipotent. Almighty sounds nicer true but it does not give the same feel or image to the line. Omni-potent: All powerful, All potential.

Creator the Celestial and the Terrestrial.

This is a line that eats at me every time I see it because while I think it is accurate literally translated the line is Factor(think of a factory) of celestial and terrestrial. I never know weather to translate it Creator of Heaven and Earth or Creator of the celestial and the terrestrial, one is a more modern term for the exact same thing though Language wise the Latter is more accurate.

All things visible and invisible.

Here the text exactly says "visible and all invisible", the reason for changing the order of the words (putting all first) and adding a word (things) is because of the lines relation to the previous line. What is being said is Creator of the Celestial and the Terrestrial all things visible and invisible. In Latin there is no exact set word order required to convey a message you can say the same thing 10 different ways and it still comes out to mean the exact same thing. Like in Spanish (which I only know enough of to get me in trouble) when you want to convey a message you can leave words out (you, things, are two examples) depending upon how you structure the sentence because the word is implied by the structure of the sentence and the other words used.

And in One Lord Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.

Again the exact translation is and in one Lord Jesus Christ. Accurately Christ is a title and in Latin there really is no "the" to indicate a name is a title so I can say "Deus Rex" which literally means God King but what says is God (the) King with king being a title. Et works as: and, the, also, and other such words. But depending on what your saying you leave Et as implied especially most cases where it applies to the use of the word "The".


The Son of God one genetics
As for the "Son God" being "The Son of God"; 'the' and 'of' explain the relationship of The Son to God. "unigenitum" would translate close to 'one genetics' or 'of one gene'. I have seen i translated "one in being" however this does not accurately portray the view we have of the relationship between the Father and the Son. the reason it is not accurate is because it is difficult (in trinitarian terms) to define being a persons. for most people because each person is a being its hard to get ones mind around, as far as genetics go most people nowadays know what they are or at least have some basic clue and a gene is a substance their for substance is closer to the original meaning of the text.

And with the Father produced all nature the world.

Here the translation is nearly perfect, the word order is slightly changed for grammatical reasons. The word for word translation is And Father nature produced all world. The problem here is an obvious one and easy to correct; the previous line was speaking about the oneness of the Father and the Son, and this is the first time we are hearing of nature. So we can conclude that the Father and Nature didn't produce all the world, but that the Father and the Son produced all Nature. The word 'produced" which the Latin word used is "ante" has no exact English translation.

God from God

The word "from" is de in Latin.

Light from Light

True God From True God

Begotten not created
Here the Latin text says "génitum non factum," genitum is akin to begotten, facturm again think factory but so it makes sense i used the word created.

Consubstantial with the Father

this line is really just reinforcing "unigenitum" rather than saying with one genetics they use the word Con(Latin and English for 'With') substance. So you could say With one substance or with substance. The reason for reinforcement of the "one genetics" "one substance" idea is because the time the creed was written it was written to combat Arianism. Arius denied that Jesus was both God and Man and Equal to the Father.

For who all things were made

Who on behalf us men and on behalf of our salvation(goodness) decended from the Celestial.

The Latin 'propter' has no precise English term but it translates roughly as "on behalf". 'nos' is our us or we. 'hómines' relates to homo or man, and 'salútem" literally translates into salvation, salvation in its English form as well as Latin means well being or good.

and was incarnated by the Holy Spirit with the Virgin Mary and was created man.

The word for word translation is something like "and incarnated was the Spirit Saint with Mary Virgin and man factored is" the line is in correlation with the previous one thus referring to Christ so we know it wasnt the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary who was incarnated but Jesus.

crucified truly for us under Pontus Pilate, died and was burried;

the last half of the line "died and was burried" 'passus et sepúltus est;' it literally means he passed and sepulcher, or passed and was placed in the sepulcher.

and resurrected on the third day according to the scripture,

and ascended in to the celestial, seated at the right hand of the Father

and once again favored is coming in glory judging the the living and the dead; and his kingdoms reign without end.

And in The Holy Spirit, Lord and life giver:

Exactly it is "and in Spirit Saint, Lord (dominate or master) and life giver"

Who from Father and Son proceeds

Who with Father and Son similarly is adored and with them is Glorified.

Who Spoke per the Prophets;

And in One Sanctified Catholic and Apostolic Church

the word Catholic means Universal, Jesus prayed in the Garden that the Church may be one this is why the word Catholic is used because of the belief in a Universal Church. Church in the line Apostolic is more properly Ecclesia or Ecclesiastical, but because of the general disuse of the word no one would know what it meant

I confess one baptism in remission of sin;
peccatorum;

and expect the resurrection of the dead and living and the coming world. Amen

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