How a poor translation of the Creed has undermined the received Church doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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The Creeds, the Apostles’ & Nicene, proclaim, teach and confess the doctrine of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. A major part of that sound doctrine is the statement as to the full identity of Jesus of Nazareth, and included in this is the statement of his human origin.

In the traditional English translations of these two Creeds we have the words: “who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary” and “and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”

When we turn to the English translation which has been used widely by Roman Catholics, Anglicans etc, we find that there is inserted into both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds the words “the power of” so that the conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary is said to be “by the power of the Holy Spirit” in contrast to “by the Holy Spirit.”

And in the addition of this expression “by the power of” is the beginnings of error and heresy.

Each and every conception by a female is “by the power of the Holy Spirit” who energizes the laws or workings of nature. Yet what has been and is claimed of the conception by the Virgin Mary is that it was not according to the laws or the normal working of nature. It was a new creation, a unique act of God, a supernatural event wherein a virgin conceived a boy child. And it occurred first because the Virgin was open to God’s grace and will and secondly because the Holy Ghost acted directly, individually and personally (not via the laws of creation) to cause the Virgin to conceive and to ensure that her conception was of the human nature belonging to the eternal and only-begotten Son of the Father. Thereby God the Father sent his Son into the world and this Son, theWord/Logos, was made flesh and dwelt amongst men. And thereby Mary became in the words of the Fathers, “Theotokos”, the birth-giving of God [the Son].

Thus the original Latin and the original Greek of these two Creeds have no words in them that could possibly be translated “by the power of”. These words in modern English renderings were additions made by liberal Roman Catholic translators in the 1970s because they wanted to make the conception and birth of Jesus to be something less than the full and complete Incarnation of the eternal Son of the everlasting Father almighty. They wanted the conception and birth to be remarkable (like that of John the Baptist and Samuel and Jacob) but not virginal.

It is perhaps necessary to note that the words of the angel in Luke 1:35, “…and the Power of the Most High will overshadow you” make use of a Name for the Lord God and that Name is “Power of the Most High.” It is a reference to the Shekinah Presence of the Lord overshadowing her as did the holy Cloud in the O.T. come down on the Tabernacle. Thus this expression is not a justification for erroneous translating of the Creed.

Happily in the vernacular translations into other European languages in the 1970s these words were not added and in the latest ecumenical efforts to translate the Creeds into English the expression “by the power of” has not been included.

This said, many people still use the two Creeds wherein is the erroneous translation and in doing so are constantly open to receiving a less than adequate understanding and view of the human origins of the Lord Jesus Christ.

At Christmas when the Church proclaims the Incarnation of the Son of the Father it is most important that she rightly stated the true identity and origins of that Son.


The Rev’d Dr. Peter Toon December 19,2001