信仰告白は元来、古代教会の洗礼式をSitz im Lebenとして形成、制定されたもので、讃美頌栄的な言葉をその特色としている。第一コリント15:3以下等、既に聖書の中に信仰告白的な伝承が存在しており、その多くは洗礼式と結合している。1世紀から2世紀にかけての使徒教父や、2世紀から3世紀の弁証家であるヒッポリュトス、テルトゥリアヌスらの文書中にも、信条の形成の萌芽を確認することが出来る。313年のミラノ勅令によるキリスト教公認以後、教会内部において幾つもの教理論争が生じ、そうした内部での混乱を収拾すべく開催された公会議において、信条が制定されていった。
Πιστεύομεν εισ ΄ενα κύριον `Ιησουν Χριστον, τον υ΄ιον του θεου, γεννηζέντα εκ του πατρος μονογενη, τουτέστιν εκ της ουσίας του πατρός, θεον εκ θεου αληθινου, γεννηθέντα, ου ποιηθέντα, ΄ομοούσιον τωι πατρί δι οϋ τα πάντα εγένετο, τα τε εν τωι ουρανωι και τα επι της γης τον δι ΄ημας τους ανθρώπους και δα την ΄ημετέραν σωτηρίαν κατελθόντα και σαρκωθέντα και ενανθρωπήσαντα, παθόντα, και αναστάντα τηι τριτηι ΄ημέραι, και ανελθοντα εις τους οθρανούς, και ερχόμενον κριναι ζωντασ και νεκρούς.
Και εις το ΄Αγιον Πνευμα.
Τους δε λέγοντας, ΄οτι ΄ην ποτε ΄ότε οθκ ΄ην, και πριν γεννηθηναι ουκ ΄ην, και ΄οτι εξ ΄ετερας ΄υποστάσεως η ουσιας φάσκοντας ειναι, [η κτιστόν,] τρεπτον η αλλοιωτον τον υ΄ιον του θεου, [τούτους] αναθεματίζει ΄η καθολικη [και αποστολικη] εκκλησία.
Adversus Haereses, 2.22.5-6. 異端駁論の第2巻第22章5節から6節の引用です（英訳）。
5. They, however, that they may establish their false opinion regarding that which is written, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, maintain that He preached for one year only, and then suffered in the twelfth month. [In speaking thus,] they are forgetful to their own disadvantage, destroying His whole work, and robbing Him of that age which is both more necessary and more honourable than any other; that more advanced age, I mean, during which also as a teacher He excelled all others. For how could He have had disciples, if He did not teach? And how could He have taught, unless He had reached the age of a Master? For when He came to be baptized, He had not yet completed His thirtieth year, but was beginning to be about thirty years of age (for thus Luke, who has mentioned His years, has expressed it: Now Jesus was, as it were, beginning to be thirty years old, Luke 3:23 when He came to receive baptism); and, [according to these men,] He preached only one year reckoning from His baptism. On completing His thirtieth year He suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who had by no means attained to advanced age. Now, that the first stage of early life embraces thirty years, and that this extends onwards to the fortieth year, every one will admit; but from the fortieth and fiftieth year a man begins to decline towards old age, which our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled the office of a Teacher, even as the Gospel and all the elders testify; those who were conversant in Asia with John, the disciple of the Lord, [affirming] that John conveyed to them that information. And he remained among them up to the times of Trajan. Some of them, moreover, saw not only John, but the other apostles also, and heard the very same account from them, and bear testimony as to the [validity of] the statement. Whom then should we rather believe? Whether such men as these, or Ptolemaus, who never saw the apostles, and who never even in his dreams attained to the slightest trace of an apostle?
6. But, besides this, those very Jews who then disputed with the Lord Jesus Christ have most clearly indicated the same thing. For when the Lord said to them, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad, they answered Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham? John 8:56-57 Now, such language is fittingly applied to one who has already passed the age of forty, without having as yet reached his fiftieth year, yet is not far from this latter period. But to one who is only thirty years old it would unquestionably be said, You are not yet forty years old. For those who wished to convict Him of falsehood would certainly not extend the number of His years far beyond the age which they saw He had attained; but they mentioned a period near His real age, whether they had truly ascertained this out of the entry in the public register, or simply made a conjecture from what they observed that He was above forty years old, and that He certainly was not one of only thirty years of age. For it is altogether unreasonable to suppose that they were mistaken by twenty years, when they wished to prove Him younger than the times of Abraham. For what they saw, that they also expressed; and He whom they beheld was not a mere phantasm, but an actual being of flesh and blood. He did not then want much of being fifty years old; and, in accordance with that fact, they said to Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham? He did not therefore preach only for one year, nor did He suffer in the twelfth month of the year. For the period included between the thirtieth and the fiftieth year can never be regarded as one year, unless indeed, among their Aons, there be so long years assigned to those who sit in their ranks with Bythus in the Pleroma; of which beings Homer the poet, too, has spoken, doubtless being inspired by the Mother of their [system of] error:?
