§ 37. Collections Bearing the Name of the Apostles

I. The Period up to the Edict of Milan (313).

Except for the collections bearing the name of the apostles, no other canonical collection has come down to us from this period. Several canonical collections have been preserved under the name of the apostles.[1] But these are not collections that the apostles themselves composed in the form in which we have them today; rather they are ordinances of the apostles that were preserved by tradition in those churches which the apostles founded, and which individuals afterward gathered into one, handing them down to posterity in the form of a collection; or else they are ordinances that the apostles themselves issued orally to the successors of their authority, the bishops. All these collections bearing the name of the apostles were composed at various times, beginning from the time when the apostles ceased to live, down to when the church became free within the Greco-Roman state—that is, for the period from the formal founding of the church down to Constantine the Great. They contain, alongside the provisions of church law, also many other provisions touching on faith, morals, worship, and in general everything that could touch on both the religious and the social life of Christians. — Among these collections the principal ones are the following:

1. The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. Of this collection detailed knowledge was gained only a few years ago, namely when Philotheos Bryennios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia, found it in 1875 in the library of a Jerusalem monastery in Constantinople, and published it in 1883 in a separate book.[2] On the basis of the numerous works that have been printed on this in these few years,[3] it may be affirmed that it was composed in Egypt, in the first half of the second century. It is divided into 16 short chapters. Having first stated at the outset (1,1) that there are two ways, of which one leads to life and the other to death, it then describes the way to life (1,2–4,14), then the way to death (ch. 5), and how one must hold firmly to this teaching and by no means depart from it (ch. 6); it then prescribes how baptism is to be performed (ch. 7), how one is to fast (ch. 8), and how the eucharist is celebrated (ch. 9–10). This is the first part of the collection; the second part (ch. 11–16) sets forth provisions on church order, namely on the offices of apostles, prophets, teachers, bishops and deacons, and on the relations of the faithful to these ministers of the church. The significance of this collection for church law is shown chiefly by the content of the second part of the collection. This same collection is mentioned by Athanasius the Great in his letter on the feasts,[4] which entered the general church canonical collection, and then in his own writings on the canon law of the Orthodox church it is mentioned by Zonaras[5] and Blastares.[6]

2. The Collection of the Apostolic Canons. This collection is made up of those 85 canons of the holy apostles which were proclaimed by canon 2 of the Council in Trullo as generally binding for the whole ecumenical church, together with the canons of the councils and the fathers, of which we have already spoken.[7]

3. The Apostolic Constitutions. This collection is mentioned in the 85th apostolic canon, which states that Clement wrote them for the bishops in eight books, but that they ought not to be circulated among all, because they contain something mysterious.[8] These same constitutions are then mentioned in canon 2 of the Council in Trullo, where it is stated that heretics have introduced into them certain impious things, and that for this reason the council rejects them, so as to preserve the purity of the apostolic teaching.[9]

These Apostolic Constitutions, as they are published today,[10] are divided into eight books, and each book again into several chapters. The first book contains the general teaching on morals for laymen; the second speaks of the qualities and duties of priests in general; the third of widows, of baptism and of the ordination of bishops and clergy; the fourth of the care of the poor and of consecrated virgins; the fifth of martyrs and of feasts; the sixth of heresies, of continence and of the law of Moses; the seventh again contains the general teaching on morals, and then speaks of baptism, of fasts and of Christian prayer; the eighth book, finally, speaks of the extraordinary gifts of God and of ordination, then sets forth various liturgical provisions, and at the end of the book, as an appendix to the whole collection, stand the 85 apostolic canons. This whole collection, as we have it today, is divided into three particular and mutually distinct collections, of which one is made up of the first six books, the second of the seventh book, and the third of the eighth book, to which the apostolic canons are appended. This division is demonstrated both by the internal content of the whole collection and the relation between its first six books and the seventh book first, then to the eighth book, and likewise by the external composition of the collection. These three particular writings, or separate collections, which make up today’s collection of the Apostolic Constitutions, were composed in the period from the second to the fourth century, and had as their basis older, shorter writings, which were then expanded and, by some unknown person in the fourth century, gathered into one great collection.[11] According to the scholarly results obtained in this most recent period, after the publication of the aforementioned “Apostolic Teaching,” that is, after 1883, the basis of the first collection, or the first six books, is a writing that had the title: Διαταγαὶ τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων διὰ Κλήμεντος προσπεφωνημέναι, which writing could well have been written by Clement, bishop of Rome, or by some other Clement of the second century. In the third century this writing was subjected in Syria to supplements, and in many places one observes such thoughts as show that whoever supplemented the book must have been a semi-Arian.[12] The basis of the second collection, or the seventh book of the Apostolic Constitutions, is the aforementioned “Apostolic Teaching,” to which several formulas of prayers and instructions for baptism have been added. In making use of the “Apostolic Teaching,” whoever composed this seventh book must likewise have been a semi-Arian, for individual semi-Arian thoughts are observable in it as well, and it may well be that this was done by the same person who arranged the first six books of the Apostolic Constitutions in their present form.[13] The basis of the third collection, or the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions, is made up of various writings, which were gathered and arranged at that same time as the first two collections, that is, the first six books and the seventh book.[14] As for the time when this was, and in general when this collection of the Apostolic Constitutions was arranged in its present redaction, it may be reckoned at the latest the end of the fourth century.[15] Since, then, the chief basis of this collection was the aforementioned writing attributed to Clement, the compiler of the collection placed the name of Clement at the head of the whole collection, so as to show that the collection itself derives from Clement and thereby to give it greater weight.

The collection of the Apostolic Constitutions presents us a full picture of the constitution, administration and life of the Christian church in the first three centuries of Christianity, and is for this reason especially important for church law.[16] We have seen the decision of the Council in Trullo regarding these constitutions,[17] but by this the council did not thereby decisively deny their validity, for it acknowledges that their basis is “the exalted beauty of the divine ordinances,” but the council warns those concerned regarding these books, saying that such as they were in his Clement’s time, they cannot serve as an instruction for bishops and must be rejected; but the council does not say that they must be rejected even when they are purified of that which is not strictly Orthodox in them. That the church understood the ordinance of the Council in Trullo in this sense is attested to us by the multitude of manuscripts of these constitutions from later centuries,[18] from which manuscripts we judge that these same constitutions were used in church practice, purified of course of what is non-Orthodox in them, and history nowhere states that the church ever raised its voice against this use. And the best proof of this serves us the testimony of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Photius, who in his “Bibliotheca” mentions the Apostolic Constitutions, and says that there are only three things in them that ought to be rejected, but that these are such things as anyone can most easily notice, so that the rest of what is in these constitutions may freely be made use of.[19] This also explains why 17 canons under the name of the Apostle Paul (ch. 32),[20] were taken into the canonical Synopsis[21] from the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions, 17 canons under the name of Peter and Paul (ch. 33),[22] and 2 canons under the name of all the apostles (ch. 46),[23] which canons are also found in our Kormchaia.[24] On the respective places in this our work, we too make use of the Apostolic Constitutions, with the necessary criticism of the respective passages.[25]

Footnotes

[3] Ad. Harnack, Die Lehre der zwölf Apostel nebst Untersuchungen zur ältesten Geschichte der Kirchenverfassung und des Kirchenrechts. Leipzig, 1884.—Wünsche, Lehre der zwölf Apostel nach der Ausgabe des Metropoliten Phil. Bryennios mit Beifügung des Urtextes nebst Einleitung und Noten Leipzig. 1884—F. Funk, Doctrina duodecim apostolorum Tubingae, 1887—P. Sabatier, La Didachè ou l’enseignement des douze apôtres. Paris, 1885.—R. Majocchi, La dottrina dei dodici apostoli. Documento della chiesa primitiva pubblicato nel suo testo originale con versione e commento. Milano, 1885.—H. de Romestin, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. The Greek Text with Introduction, Translation, Notes and Illustrative Passages London, 1884. We have cited here only the main things that have been written about it in the West. In Russian this collection was translated, with a more or less extensive description of it, in “Orthodox Review” (1866, June), “The Pilgrim” (1884, December) and “Proceedings of the K. D. Academy” (1884, November). In Serbian it was translated, with a description of it, by J. Vučković, “The Apostolic Teaching”, Zadar, 1885. In Romanian, with notes—Const. Popovicii jun. “Invetatura celor doi-spre-dece apostoli.” Cernauti, 1887.

[9] ….Διατάξεις αἷς τισι πάλαι ὑπὸ τῶν ἑτεροδόξων ἐπὶ λύμῃ τῆς ἐκκλησίας νόθα τινὰ καὶ ξένα τῆς εὐσεβείας παρενετέθησαν, τὸ εὐπρεπὲς κάλλος τῶν θείων δογμάτων ἡμῖν ἀμαυρώσαντα· τὴν τῶν τοιούτων διατάξεων προσφόρως ἀποβολὴν πεποιήμεθα πρὸς τὴν τοῦ χριστιανικωτάτου ποιμνίου οἰκοδομὴν καὶ ἀσφάλειαν, οὐδαμῶς ἐγκρίνοντες τὰ τῆς αἱρετικῆς ψευδολογίας κυήματα, καὶ τῇ γνησίᾳ τῶν Ἀποστόλων καὶ ὁλοκλήρῳ διδαχῇ παρενείροντες. Ath. Synt. II, 308

[10] The full title of this collection is: Διαταγαὶ τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων διὰ Κλήμεντος τοῦ Ῥωμαίων ἐπισκόπου τε καὶ πολίτου καθολικὴ διδασκαλία. In Pitra’s edition (Jur. eccles. I, 113 - 416) the title is simply: Διαταγαὶ τῶν ἁγίων ἀποστόλων. See on this collection in its entirety and in its individual parts: Dr. I. S. v. Drey, Neue Untersuchungen über die Constitutionen und Kanones der Apostel. Erstes Buch. Untersuchungen über die Bestandtheile, Entstehung und Zusammensetzug. und den kirchlichen Werth der Apostol. Constitutionen (S 1—200).—J. W. Bickell, Geschichte des Kirchenrechts I, 52—70. 221—229.—C. C. J. Bunsen, Hippolitus und seine Zeit. I, 418—433. 455—527.—Ad. Harnack, Die Lehre der zwölf Apostel S. 170—192.—F. Funk, Doctrina duodecim apostolorum. Proleg. p. LVIII—LXI. 74—97. Φ. Βρυεννίου Διδαχὴ τῶν δώδεκα ἀποστόλων. Σελ. λε΄—ν΄. N. Zaozersky, On the Sources of Law in the First Two Centuries, in “Works of the Holy Fathers”. 1889 I, 170—235. 476—523.

[19] See Βιβλιοθήκη τοῦ Φωτίου. Κοδ. ρξ΄. August Vindel. 1601. p. 155. In the Latin translation, according to Migne’s edition (Patrol. Gr. ed. Lat. LIII 688), this passage reads: “Constitutiones porro tribus ex capitibus duntaxat reprehensioni videntur obnoxiae. Ex mala nimirum fictione, quam depellere non est admodum difficile; deinde quod contra Deuteronomium criminationes quasdam adducant, quae et ipse dilui facillime possunt; denique ex arianismo, quem item acarus paulo instando, refellere queas”. The newer Russian canonists, citing this passage from Photius’s “Bibliotheca”, demonstrate how insignificant even those very same three things that Photius mentions are, and how they have no significance for church law, since they do not concern law at all but questions of faith; and they conclude by way of demonstration that “Постановленія Апостольскія должны служить весьма важнымъ пособіемъ для науки права”. Lashkarev, Church Law. Pp. 137—138. Cf. Zaozersky, the aforementioned passage, p. 520.

[25] Besides these three collections that we have just cited—Διδαχὴ τῶν δώδεκα Ἀποστόλων, Κανόνες τῶν ἁγίων Ἀποστόλων and Διαταγαὶ τῶν ἁγίων Ἀποστόλων—there exist several other collections that bear the name of the apostles, namely: 1) Διατάξεις περὶ μυστικῆς λατρείας (Pitra. I, 49—63. NN. 1—14); 2) Αἱ Διαταγαὶ αἱ διὰ Κλήμεντος καὶ κανόνες ἐκκλησιαστικοὶ τῶν ἁγίων Ἀποστόλων (Pitra. I, 77—86. Bickell I, 107—132. Harnack. p. 225—237 Funk. S 50—72. Βρυεννίου Διδαχή. σελ. οβ΄—πλ΄.); 3) Τοῦ ἁγίου ἱερομάρτυρος Παμφίλου ἐκ τῆς ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ τῶν Ἀποστόλων συνόδου, τουτέστιν ἐκ τῶν συνοδικῶν αὐτῶν κανόνων μέρος τῶν εὑρεθέντων εἰς τὴν Ὠριγένους βιβλιοθήκην (Pitra I, 91—93. Bickell. I, 138—143); 4) Ἐκ τῶν διατάξεων κεφαλαία (Pitra. I, 96—100); 5) Ὅρος κανονικὸς τῶν ἁγίων Ἀποστόλων (Pitra. I, 103—104. Bickell. I, 133—137) and 6) Τῶν ἁγίων Ἀποστόλων ἐπιτιμία τῶν παραπιπτόντων (Pitra I, 105—107). With regard to these various apostolic collections, what Zonaras says in his commentary on Apostolic canon 85 applies (see n. 6, § 22).

§ 37. Collections Bearing the Name of the Apostles

§ 37. Зборници са именом апостола

§ 37

§ 37. Сборники с именем апостолов