El Depositum Fidei en la Iglesia de Esmirna (siglos I-IV)

Abstract

The various types of symbols present in the NT faith recur in the documents of the Church of Smyrna; they are employed in catechetical, baptismal, and liturgical contexts, as well as in the context of persecutions and controversies against pagans, Jews and heretics. The profession of faith of the elders of Smyrna is particularly important; in it is proclaimed the oneness of God against the Gnostic and Marcionite ideas, while the distinction between God and Christ is raised against Noetus, and the confession of the true passion, death and resurrection is directed against Docetism. This normative confession of faith might have been a symbol of baptismal faith used by the community in the late second and early third centuries.