Yes they are both based on the teachings of the Bible. But they are not to be taken as part of the Bible, neither used to substitute any part or portion of the Bible.

I changed this entry to include the Nicene Creed since the Apostles Creed is the Readers Digest version of the Nicene Creed.

After Centuries of persecution, the Emperor Constantine granted tolerance to the Church. Like any good emperor he wanted peace and concord among his subjects. Two controversies were tearing at the Church in those days, Donatism in the West and Arianism in the East.

Constantine called a local synod of western church leaders to deal with Donatism. That met at Arles in 314 and does not concern us here. Constatine called a general council of the entire Church to meet at Nicaea in 325 to deal with the question of Arianism. The question was, of course, the validity of that doctrine.

If Arianism was orthodox, then I suppose, the emperor would have promulgated it all through the Roman world. Constantine presided in person. Only five bishops from the West were at the council out of the 220 who were present. The pope set two legates to act in his place. The entire future of Christianity was at stake, and you must read up on Arianism to get the picture. You might refer to Gibbons' Decline and Fall to get a good picture with the understanding that Gibbons was a Deist and sneered at Christianity.

The end result was the Nicene Creed that is a thumping rejection of Arianism. It is remarkable that no record of the proceedings of the council survive, but we do know the result and aftermath. The creed was promulgated throughout the Christian world and is one thing upon which Catholics, and orthodox Protestants agree. I collect church liturgy books, hymnals, and other such documents, and all the major denominations accept the creed.

What is interesting however is that one word homoousios troubled many churchmen, since that word is not found in the scriptures. We must remember, dear posters, that the proceedings and original creed were in Koine Greek (Greek of the Hellenistic Age.) Homoousios means that Christ is of one substance with the father. The fathers at the council evidently concluded that the scriptures concluded that homoousios was true. (With all the interpretation of the Bible floating around today, one marvels about the scruples of the members of the council.) The problem is that without homoousios, you do not have a co-equal trinity. So what do you do?

The Eastern Fathers who feared the use of homoousios were concerned that absolute equality between the father and the son would encourage a trend toward Sabellianism, of which, please check for yourselves. On the other hand, homoousios trumped Arianism, and Islam later wiped out Sabellianism, so the rest is history or maybe even theology.

Yes except for the part where it says that 'I believe in the holy Catholic church.' The Creed basically acknowledges that Jesus is our Lord and saviour and that they believe in the Trinity and the forgiveness of sins.