Remember that the Apostles’ Creed was written to refute certain ideas from
- the gnostics. Said the spiritual world is perfect.
- Marcion. Said the Old Testament God is not the same as the New Testament God. The God we see in Jesus is the true God; the creation by Yahweh is not good.
- pagan religions. Said new gods were created through the sexual shenanigans of the gods.
“born of the Virgin Mary”.
One of the issues in the early church was the question of Jesus’ humanity – was he a man? The virgin birth was not the issue for the early church, but rather the issue was the birth itself: Jesus was born as a human.
Writers of the creed also are referencing Biblical women who miraculously were able to bear children (for example Sarah, Hannah).
The virgin birth is not essential to the Christian faith, but the Lordship of Jesus is essential.
“He suffered under Pontius Pilate”.
“Suffered” denotes the human element.
“Under Pontius Pilate” says that the event happened at a specific time and place. It was a documentable event.
“Was crucified, died, and was buried.”
Crucified means tortured, humiliated, executed in the way that common criminals were executed. Jesus was treated as a common criminal, not a respectable decent guy in their society.
“Died and was buried” reaffirms that Jesus really died. There were other ‘gospels’ floating around that were gnostic gospels – some said Jesus did not really die.
