APOSTOLIC
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APOSTOLIC
two sources now unknown; while Harnatk iiniler-
takes to identify by name the now lost documents
upon which the compiler almost entirely depended.
The Sahidic (Coptic) text was published by l.agarde
in " .^ii^gyptiaca (Leipzig, 1S83), and the Bohairie
(Coptic) by Tattam (The Apostolical Constitutions,
or Canons of the Apostles, London, 1848). The
complete Syriac text, with English translation, was
published by Dr. Arendzen in "Journal of Theol.
Studies" (October, 1901).
Harxack, Tej-te und V ntersuchun^en (Leipzig, 1886), II, 5 sq.; PiTRA, Juris ecclesiast. Gracorum Hist, et Monum, (Rome, 1864). I, 75-SS; Funk, Doctrina Duodecim Apostolo- rum (Tubingen, 18871. 44 sq.. 50 sq.; Schaff. Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (New York. 1885). 127-132, 237-257. where the dependence of the Apostolic Church Ordinance (Canons 4-14) on the Didache is graphieallv set forth; Bar- DENHEWER. Gesch. der altkirch. Lit. (Freiburg, 1903), II, 262-269; Patrologie (ib., 1901). 141; Duchesne, Bulletin Critique (October, 1886), 361-370.
John B. Peterson.
Apostolic Constitutions, a fourth-century pseudo- Apostolic collection, in eight books, of independent, though closely related, treatises on Christian dis- cipline, worship, and doctrine, intended to serve as a manual of guidance for the clergy, and to some extent for the laity. Its tone is rather hortatory than precepti\e. for, though it was evidently meant to be a code of catechetical instruction and of moral and liturgical law, its injunctions often take the form of little treatises and exhortations, amply supported by scriptural texts and examples. Its elements are loosely combined without great regard for order or unity. It purports to be the work of the Apostles, ■\\hose instructions, whether given by them as in- dividuals or as a body, are supposed to be gathered and handed down by the pretended compiler, St. Clement of Rome, the authority of whose name gave fictitious weight to more than one such piece of early Christian literature. The Church seems never to have regarded this work as of undoubted Apostolic authority. The TruUan Council in 692 rejected the work on account of the interpolations of heretics. Only that portion of it to which has been given the name "Apostolic Canons" was received; but even the fifty of these canons which had then been ac- cepted by the Western Church were not regarded as of certain Apostolic origin. Where known, however, the Apostolic Constitutions were held generally in high esteem and served as the basis for much eccle- siastical legislation. They are to-day of the highest value as an historical document, revealing the moral and religious conditions and the liturgical observ- ances of the third and fourth centuries. Their text was not known in the Western Church throughout the Middle Ages. In 1546 a Latin version of a text found in Crete was published by Capellus, and in 1563 appeared the complete Greek text of Bovius and that of the Jesuit Father Torres (Turrianus) who, despite the glaring archaisms and incongruities of the collection, contended that it was a genuine work of the Apostles. Four manuscripts of it are now extant, the oldest an early twelfth-century text in St. Petersburg, an allied fourteenth-century text in Vienna, and two kindred sixteenth-century texts, one in Vienna, the other in Paris. In its present form the text rejjresents the gradual growth and evolution of usages of the first three centuries of Christian Church life. The compiler gathered from pre-exi.sting moral, disciplinary, and liturgical codes the elements suited to his purpose, and by adaptation and interpolation framed a system of constitutions which, while suited to contemporary needs, could yet pretend, in an iuicritical age, to Apostolic origin. Thanks to recent textual studies in early Christian literature, most of the sources of which the compiler made use are now clearly recognizable. The first six Imoks are based on the " Didascalia of the Apos- tles", a lost treatise of the third century, of Creek
origin, which is known through Syriac versions.
The compiler of the Apostolic Constitutions made
use of the greater part of this older treatise, but he
adapted it to the needs of his day by some modifi-
cations and extensive interpolation. Liturgical evo-
lution made necessary a considerable amplification
of the formulce of worship; changes in disciplinary
practice called for a softening of some of the older
laws; scriptural references and examples, intended
to enforce the lessons inculcated by the Apostolic
Constitutions, are more frequently used than in the
parent Didascalia. The seventh book, which con-
sists of two distinct parts, the first a moral instruc-
tion (i-xxxii) and the second liturgical (xxxiii-xlix).
depends for the first portion on the early seconcl-
century Didache or "Teaching of the Twelve Apos-
tles", which has been amplified by the compiler
in much the same manner as the Didascalia was
amplified in the framing of the first six books.
The rediscovery of the Didache in 1873 revealed
with what fidelity the compiler embodied it, almost
word for word, in liis expansion of its precepts, save
for such omissions and changes as were made nec-
essary by the lapse of time. The fact that the
Didache was itself a source of the Didascalia
will explain the repetition in the seventh book of
the Apostolic Constitutions of matters treated in
the preceding books. The source of the second
portion of the seventh book is still undetermined.
In the eighth book are recognized many distinct
elements whose very number and diversity render
it difficult to determine with certainty the sources
upon which the compiler drew. The eiglith book
of the Apostolic Constitutions may be divided into
three parts thus: the introductory chapters (i-ii)
have for their foundation a treatise entitled "Teach-
ing of the Holy Apostles concerning Gifts", possibly
a lost work of Hippolytus. The transitional third
chapter is the work of the compiler. The last
chapter (xlvii) contains the "Apostolic Canons".
It is the second part (iv-xlvi) which presents diffi-
culties the varied solution of which divides scholars
as to its sources. Recent studies in early Christian
literature have made evident the kinship of several
documents, dealing with disciplinary and liturgical
matters, closely allied with this eighth book. Their
interdependence is not so clearly understood. The
more important of these documents are: The "Canons
of [pseudo?] Hippolytus"; the "Egj-ptian Church
Ordinance"; and the recently discovered Syriac text
of "The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ". Accord-
ing to Dr. Hans Achelis, the "Canons of Hippolytus",
which he considers to he a third-century document
of Roman origin, is the parent of the "Egyptian
Church Ordinance", whence came, by independent
filiation, the Syriac "Gospel of Our Lord Jesus
Christ", and the eighth book of the Apostolic Con-
stitutions. In this hypothesis the "Canons of
Hippolytus", or more immediately the "Egyptian
Church Ordinance", and the contemporarj' iiractice
of the Church would be the source from which the
compiler of the Apostolic Constitutions drew. Dr.
F. X. Funk, on the other hand, argues strongly
for the priority of the eighth book of the latter,
whence, through a parallel text, arc derived the other
three documents which he considers as fifth-century
works, a conclusion not without its difficulties of
acceptance, particularly with regard to the place of
the "Canons of Hippolytus" in the chronology. If
the priority of the Apostolic Constitutions be
admitted, it is not cn-<y fn identify the sources on
which the compihr d.iiciHlcd. For the liturgical
element (v-xv), whiih i> :iii rxident interpolation, the
compiler may have l)Oca jii.spircd by the practice of
some particular church. The Antiochene " Di-
aconica" was not without some influence on him,
and it may be that he htul at hand other, now lost,
