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My interest in the topic of suffering has been stimulated essentially by the experiences from the pastoral visits and pastoral encounters in a Transylvanian congregation where I work as a pastor. The interchange with the believers and their hardship lead me to conclude that many homes along the streets there are houses of suffering, many life-stories are stories of suffering. Often the suffering encountered at the heart of the believers’ home is something what makes them to “live as if they will never die and die as if they had never lived”. Nevertheless, accompanying the believers in their search for meaning and comfort I realized that they continue to believe in God despite suffering, impoverishment and oppression. But what I often experience is a struggle with ethical shortcuts in the midst of suffering.

In Jeremiah 28, there is a dispute between the prophets Jeremiah and Hananiah over the (il)legitimacy of prophecies of salvation concerning Judah and prophecies of judgement regarding Babylon. On the eve of Jerusalem’s fall to the Babylonians, the prophet Jeremiah, who proclaims judgement on Judah at the hands of Babylon, appears to be the true, genuine, canonical voice of God. While this text does not preclude the eventual authenticity of prophecies of salvation in the event that they are proven valid by being fulfilled, it nevertheless is rather strange that the book of Jeremiah ends with a collection of prophecies against the Chaldaeans. The anti-Babylonian statements in Jeremiah 50-51 are ascribed to the very same prophet who had once dismissed Hananiah for uttering similarly worded – and presumably uninspired – invectives before the people of Jerusalem.

In this short paper I would like to provide a comparative analysis of the passages concerning the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Early Christian confessions (among them the Apostolic Creed1 as well), because these passages are frequently the source of theological misunderstanding and debates. The main question which urged me to do this research had occurred in relation with the Apostolic Creed. How do we say correctly: ‘I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; He descended into hell…’ or ‘I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered, under Pontius Pilate He was crucified, died, and was buried; He descended into hell…’? I shall try to answer this question by analysing the relevant passages of the creeds which were composed in the first six centuries.