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
This text served as a
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
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
The names of the Apostles are so listed:
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
See also
- Baptist beliefs
- Egyptian Church Ordinance
- Infused righteousness
- Ordinance (Latter Day Saints)
- Sola gratia
Notes
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-521732-2.
- ^ Geschichte des Kirchenrechts, Giessen, 1843, I, 107-132.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Journal of Theol. Studies, October 1901.
- ^ In the "Commentarius" to his "Historia Ethiopica" (Frankfort 1691).
- ISBN 978-90-04-17490-0.
References
- 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
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Apostolic Church-Ordinance". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
External links
- Henry Tattam The Apostolical Constitutions... 1848: English text of the Bohairic version (at pages 2–30)
- J. P. Arendzen in Journal of Theological Studies October 1901: English text of the Syriac version (at pages 61–73)