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Apostolic Church-Ordinance

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The Apostolic Church-Ordinance (or Apostolic Church-Order, Apostolic Church-Directory or Constitutio Ecclesiastica Apostolorum) is an anonymous Oriental Orthodox Christian treatise which belongs to the genre of the Church Orders. The work can be dated at the end of 3rd century CE. The provenance is usually regarded as Egypt, or perhaps Syria.[1]

This text served as a law-code for the Coptic, Ethiopian Orthodox and other Oriental Orthodox churches. It superseded in authority and esteem the Didache, under which name it sometimes went.

Manuscript Tradition

The full and original text, in Greek, was found in a 12th-century manuscript discovered in 1843 at Vienna and published[2] in the same year by Johann Wilhelm Bickell,[3] which named it Apostolische Kirchenordnung. Only other four fragmentary Greek manuscripts are extant.

A complete Syriac ancient translation, with English translation, was published in 1901 by John Peter Arendzen.[4] The Ge'ez version was first published in 1691 by Hiob Ludolf.[5]

The Apostolic Church-Ordinance usually is found also in ancient collections of Church Orders. It is the second book in the Verona Palimpsest, it is the first book in the Alexandrine Sinodos and in the Bohairic version of the Clementine Octateuch, while the Arabic version of the Clementine Octateuch has it in the second place, and the Syriac version of it has it in the third place.[6] Thus many early translations of the Apostolic Church-Ordinance survive in Latin, Ge'ez, Bohairic Coptic, Sahidic Coptic, Arabic and Syriac.

The titles found on the manuscripts can be different, so the Bohairic Alexandrine Sinodos version is entitled "Canons of our Fathers the Holy Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, which they appointed in the Churches", while the Syriac version has "Third book of Clement, Teaching of the twelve Apostles".

Content

As usual in genre of the Church Orders, this texts purports to be the work of the Twelve Apostles, whose instructions, whether given by them as individuals or as a body. In antiquity this text was sometime mistakenly supposed to be gathered and handed down by the Clement of Rome.

The names of the Apostles are so listed: John, Matthew, Peter, Andrew, Philip, Simon, James, Nathanael, Thomas, Cephas, Bartholomew and Judas. The presence of both Peter and Cephas, and the first place given to John, is found also in the more ancient Epistula Apostolorum.

The content can be so summarized:

  • chapters 1-3 include a short introduction inspired by the Epistle of Barnabas
  • chapters 4-14 are an evident adaptation of the first six chapters of the Didache, the moral precepts of which are attributed severally to the Apostles, each of whom, introduced by the formula "John says", "Peter says", etc., is represented as framing one or more of the ordinances
  • chapters 15-30 treat in similar manner of the qualifications for appointment and ordination of bishops, presbyters, reader, deacons and widowers, and this section treats also of the duties of lay male and female and of deacons.[1]

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

A third-century pseudo-Apostolic collection of moral and hierarchical rules and instructions, compiled in the main from ancient Christian sources, first published in Ethiopic by Ludolf (with Latin translation) in the "Commentarius" to his "Historia Ethiopica" (Frankfort. 1691). It served as a law-code for the Egyptian, Ethiopian, and Arabian churches, and rivalled in authority and esteem the Didache, under which name it sometimes went. Though of undoubted Greek origin, these canons are preserved largely in Coptic, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Syriac versions. The Apostolic Church-Ordinance was first published in Greek by Prof. Bickell of Marburg (1843) from a twelfth-century Greek manuscript discovered by him at Vienna (Geschichte des Kirchenrechts, Giessen, 1843, I, 107-132). He also gave the code the name "Apostolische Kirchenordnung" by which it is generally known, though in English it is usually called as above, sometimes Apostolic Church-Order, Apostolic Church-Directory, etc. The document, after a short introduction (i-iii) inspired by the "Letter of Barnabas", is divided into two parts, the first of which (iv-xiv) is an evident adaptation of the first six chapters of the Didache, the moral precepts of which are attributed severally to the Apostles, each of whom, introduced by the formula "John says", "Peter says", etc., is represented as framing one or more of the ordinances. The second part (xv-xxx) treats in similar manner of the qualifications for ordination or for the duties of different officers in the Church. The work was compiled in Egypt, or possibly in Syria, in the third, or, at the latest, in the early part of the fourth, century. Funk assigns its compilation to the first half of the third century; Harnack to about the year 300. Who the compiler was cannot be conjectured, nor can it be determined what part he had in framing canons 15 to 30. Duchesne considers them largely the compiler's own work; Funk thinks he drew upon at least two sources now unknown; while Harnack undertakes to identify by name the now lost documents upon which the compiler almost entirely depended. The Sahidic (Coptic) text was published by Lagarde in "Ægyptiaca" (Leipzig, 1883), and the Bohairic (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).

HARNACK. Texte und Untersuchungen (Leipzig, 1886), II, 5 sq.; PITRA, Juris ecclesiast. Grœcorum Hist. et Monum. (Rome, 1864). I, 75-88; FUNK, Doctrina Duodecim Apostolorum (Tübingen, 1887), 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 graphically set forth; BARDENHEWER, Gesch. der altkirch. Lit. (Freiburg, 1903), II, 262-269; Patrologie (ib., 1901), 141; DUCHESNE, Bulletin Critique (October, 1886), 361-370.

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Bradshaw, Paul F. (2002). The Search for the Origins of Christian Worship. Oxford University Press. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-19-521732-2.
  2. Back to citation Geschichte des Kirchenrechts, Giessen, 1843, I, 107-132.
  3. Back to citation Johann Wilhelm Bickell was professor of canon law at the University of Marburg, and died (1848) as minister of justice of Hesse-Kassel. He was the father of Gustav Bickell.
  4. Back to citation Journal of Theol. Studies, October 1901.
  5. Back to citation In the "Commentarius" to his "Historia Ethiopica" (Frankfort 1691).
  6. Back to citation Ernst, Allie M. (2009). Martha from the Margins: The Authority of Martha in Early Christian Tradition. Brill. p. 228. ISBN 978-90-04-17490-0.

Bibliography

  • Stewart-Sykes, Alistair (2006). The apostolic church order: the Greek text with introduction, translation and annotation. St. Pauls Publications. ISBN 978-0-9752138-4-1.
  • Adolf von Harnack, Texte und Untersuchungen, Leipzig 1886, II, 5 sq.
  • Jean Baptiste Francois Pitra, Juris ecclesiast. Grœcorum Hist. et Monum., Rome 1864, I 75-88
  • Franz Xaver von Funk, Doctrina Duodecim Apostolorum, Tübingen 1887, 44 sq. 50 sq.
  • Philip 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 graphically set forth
  • Otto Bardenhewer, Gesch. der altkirch. Lit., Freiburg 1903, II 262-269; Patrologie, ib. 1901, 141
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