22 September 2011

New Translation of the Creed

The Holy Family Shrine at Sacred Heart Church, representing the holy house of Nazareth, where God the Son became incarnate


We will be getting used to some different wording in the English version of the Creed. Every word of the Creed is important. It's important to note that it's not the Creed that's changing; it's just its English translation. The wording of the Creed goes back to the Church Councils of Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381. The Creed was drawn up in response to heresies that were disturbing the faith of the people and so there was huge debate about the right formula of words to express the faith of the Church properly. So, it’s very important that the English translation be faithful to the original text.

The original begins, ‘Credo in unum Deum’ which means ‘I believe in one God.’ The outgoing translation had us saying, ‘We believe in one God’. There is nothing wrong with that of course, but why not say what the other languages say? For example, the Irish says, ‘Creidim in aon Dia amháin.’ When we say ‘I believe’, each of us is personally making an act of faith, uniting ourselves with the faith of the Church.

Hostile commentators are making a big deal out of the word ‘consubstantial’. In the old translation, we had been saying that the Son is ‘of one being with the Father.’ The Latin here is ‘consubstantialem Patri’. Other languages use their version of the word ‘consubstantial’. ‘Con’ implies sameness, and ‘substantial’ refers to substance. God is one, so the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, while they are three persons, they are of the one substance as one another. Again, the Irish holds on to this, saying that the Son is ‘d’aon substaint leis an Athair.’ So, why not the English too? And therefore, the new English translation will be ‘consubstantial with the Father.’ I heard during the week of someone who thought the Church was introducing Martin Luther’s belief that the Eucharist involves consubstantiation, into the Creed because of the word 'consubstantial'. This is not so. In the Trinity the Divine Persons are of the same substance. Luther held that the substances of bread and wine are present in the Eucharist with the substances of the body and blood of Christ, whereas in the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, we believe that the substances of bread and wine are no longer present when the substances of Christ’s body and blood become present at the consecration. So our use of the word ‘consubstantial’ depends on what substances we are talking about being with each other! We all learn a few new words every week. We get used to a few specialised words if we are talking about the banking crisis, about rugby or about health matters, so it’s inevitable that there’ll be a few specialised words when we talk about heavenly things too.

In the old translation, we said the Son was ‘born of the Virgin Mary.’ That’s true, but it was supposed to translate ‘Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto’ which means he ‘was incarnate of the Virgin Mary’, and that’s how it’ll be said in the new translation. The story of the Incarnation of the Son of God goes back to his conception and not just to his birth, so it’s good that the new translation doesn’t confuse the Son’s incarnation with his birth. Again, English went a different way to the other languages here the first time, so we’re coming back into line now. And, yet again, horray for Irish, getting it right already again, ‘Ionchollaíodh le cumhacht an Spiorad Naoimh é.’ (I'm not saying that the current Irish translation is perfect. It is being renewed at the moment also and the new Missal translation in Irish is due later.)