Apostolic Tradition
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The ''Apostolic Tradition'' (or ''Egyptian Church Order'') is an early
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
treatise which belongs to the
genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
of the ancient Church Orders. It has been described to be of "incomparable importance as a source of information about church life and
liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
in the third century". Rediscovered in the 19th century, it was given the name of "Egyptian Church Order". In the first half of the 20th century this text was commonly identified with the lost ''Apostolic Tradition'' presumed to have been written by
Hippolytus of Rome Hippolytus of Rome (, ; c. 170 – c. 235 AD) was one of the most important second-third century Christian theologians, whose provenance, identity and corpus remain elusive to scholars and historians. Suggested communities include Rome, Palestin ...
. Due to this attribution, and the apparent early date of the text, ''Apostolic Tradition'' played a crucial role in the liturgical reforms of many mainstream Christian bodies. The attribution of the text to Hippolytus has since become a subject of continued debate in recent scholarship. If the ''Apostolic Tradition'' is the work of Hippolytus of Rome, it would be dated before 235 AD (when Hippolytus is believed to have suffered martyrdom) and its origin would be
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
; this date has been defended by scholars such as Brent and Stewart in recent debates over its authorship. Against this view, some scholars (see Bradshaw) believe that the key liturgical sections incorporate material from separate sources, some Roman and some not, ranging from the middle second to the fourth century, being gathered and compiled from about 375-400 AD, probably in
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
or even
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. Other scholars have suggested that the ''Apostolic Tradition'' portrays a liturgy that was never celebrated.


Manuscripts and sources

The original Greek text of the Apostolic Tradition has survived only in fragments; but the full Greek text circulated widely in the Eastern churches from the 4th century onwards, and is consequently found in translation in three ancient collections of the Church Orders, the
Alexandrine Sinodos The Alexandrine Sinodos (or ''Clementine Heptateuch'') is a Christian collection of Church Orders. This collection of earlier texts dates from the 4th or 5th century CE. The provenience is Egypt and it was particularly used in the ancient Coptic ...
, the Aksumite Collection and the
Verona Palimpsest The Verona Palimpsest (or ''Fragmentum Veronese'') is a manuscript, dated about the 494 AD, which contains a Christian collection of Church Orders in Latin. The manuscript, which contains many lacunae, is the only source of the Latin version of t ...
. The Alexandrine Sinodos was re-discovered in the 19th century: a Bohairic Coptic version was published in 1848 by Tattam, the earlier Sahidic Coptic version was published in 1883 by
Paul de Lagarde Paul Anton de Lagarde (2 November 1827 – 22 December 1891) was a German biblical scholar and orientalist, sometimes regarded as one of the greatest orientalists of the 19th century. Lagarde's strong support of anti-Semitism, vocal opposition t ...
, the Ethiopic and
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
versions in 1904 by
George William Horner George William Horner (1849–1930) was a British biblical scholar, an editor of the text of the New Testament in the dialects of the Coptic language. In the Bohairic version, Horner edited in four volumes from 1898 to 1905. In the Sahidic versio ...
. The text found in the Sahidic version was named by the publishers ''Egyptian Church Order'' and corresponds to what is now usually known as ''Apostolic Tradition''. The text was also found in the late 5th century
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
manuscript known as
Verona Palimpsest The Verona Palimpsest (or ''Fragmentum Veronese'') is a manuscript, dated about the 494 AD, which contains a Christian collection of Church Orders in Latin. The manuscript, which contains many lacunae, is the only source of the Latin version of t ...
, where it is the third item in the collection. This version was published in 1900 by
Edmund Hauler Edmund Hauler (17 November 1859, in Buda – 1 April 1941, in Vienna) was an Austrian classical philology, classical philologist born in Ofen to a Danube Swabian Germans, German family. His father, Johann Hauler (1829–1888) was also a classical ph ...
, but only just over half of the Apostolic Tradition section was preserved. A much earlier Ethiopic version translated directly from the Greek around the late 5th century, was discovered in Ethiopia in 1999 in a 13th-century, or earlier, manuscript, amongst the works in a compendium of synodical materials, known as the 'Aksumite Collection'. This version survives complete, albeit that it adds selected further material (taken from the
Didache The ''Didache'' (; ), also known as The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations (Διδαχὴ Κυρίου διὰ τῶν δώδεκα ἀποστόλων τοῖς ἔθνεσιν), is a brief anonymous early Christian tr ...
and Didascalia) before the concluding chapter 43. The text transmitted in the Aksumite Collection lacks the Anaphora of the Apostolic Tradition from Chapter 4; as this material is substantially duplicated in the Ethiopic Anaphora of the Apostles, which is recorded within a compendium of liturgical prayers elsewhere in the Collection. Chapter 36 of the probable
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
original text was identified in 1975 as one item in a florilegium of patristic fragments. In 1964, the Greek text of the prayer over the oils in Chapter 5 was recognised in an eleventh or twelfth century manuscript liturgy for the anointing of the sick, preserved in the monastery of St Catherine at Mount Sinai. The surviving Bohairic and Arabic versions are translations of the Sahidic, which was itself translated from a Greek manuscript around the 9th century. The later Ethiopic version is a translation of a different, and more complete, medieval Arabic version; although even before the discovery of the Aksumite Collection manuscript, it was apparent that the later Ethiopic text had been corrected in places with reference to an independent witness to the Greek. For sections witnessed in both texts, the Latin and Aksumite Ethiopic versions (which are both strictly literal) translate closely similar Greek undertexts of 4th century date; while the base text Greek for the Sahidic version is substantially revised and later. The Aksumite Ethiopic and Latin versions differ, however, in their concluding sections. In the Latin version a concluding chapter, and part of a previous chapter on occasions for private prayer are then found repeated in a modified and expanded form in a second ending of the text; and a similar duplication is also, partly, witnessed in the Sahidic version. For the Greek text underlying the Aksumite Ethiopic version there is only one ending, which corresponds to the second conclusion of the Latin, without any preceding duplication. Otherwise however, the Greek text underlying the Aksumite Ethiopic appears to have been marginally better than the text underlying the Latin version; but, of course, the much later date of the one surviving manuscript witness to the Aksumite Ethiopic implies a higher risk of accumulated copying errors of transmission.


Derived works

The Apostolic Tradition is amongst the earliest Church Orders to achieve widespread acceptance and circulation; and consequently many subsequent Church Orders, especially in the East, are expansions or adaptations of it. Hence, where the text in the versions may be unclear, missing or widely variant, it is sometimes possible to discern the most likely reading of the original Greek from consideration of counterpart passages one or more of these works. The main derived works are: * 'The Canons of Hippolytus'. An extensive reworking and adaptation of the Apostolic Tradition made in Egypt in the 4th century. It now survives only in an Arabic version, which translates a Sahidic translation of a Greek original. * ' Testament of the Lord'. Probably originating in Syria in the 4th or 5th century and extant in Syriac; this is an original composition, but one which makes extensive use of the Apostolic Tradition in parts. * 'The Eighth Book of the Apostolic Constitutions' The Apostolic Constitutions is a compendium of reworked Church Order materials, in which the Eighth Book depends on the Apostolic Tradition. The Eighth Book is also transmitted in an ''
epitome An epitome (; gr, ἐπιτομή, from ἐπιτέμνειν ''epitemnein'' meaning "to cut short") is a summary or miniature form, or an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment. Epitomacy represents "t ...
'', or summary, of 5th century date; which has considerable independent value as a source, as the epitomator returned to the Greek text of the Apostolic Tradition itself for some of the liturgical prayers. Consequently, there are several chapters of the Apostolic Tradition for which this epitome provides a Greek text; albeit one that is later and more heavily modified than is the source Greek text for the Latin and Aksumite Ethiopic versions.


Editions and publications

Producing a critical edition of a work that survives in several versions, of which none are in the original language, is highly problematic. Clearly the edition has to be a translation; but which language should be used as the common version? And should the editor try to recover something close to the 'original' text; or rather to produce the best text for one or another of the surviving versions? The first comprehensive critical editions were those of Gregory Dix in 1937, and then in 1946 by B. Botte. Dix and Botte both attempted to recover an 'original' text of the 3rd century; but translated into English and French respectively. Since then, G. Cuming prepared a student edition in English in 1976; taking the rather different approach of seeking to translate one of the versions; while Paul Bradshaw et al. have prepared a commentary in 2002 in which all versions are translated in synoptic columns, with no attempt to establish a primary text. Indeed, Bradshaw maintains that, as 'living literature' the Apostolic Tradition cannot be regarded as ever having had a single primary text. The more conservative approach of Dix and Botte has more recently been represented in the translation by Alistair Stewart. For the first edition in 2001, Stewart selected eclectically for each chapter, the version that looked to have the best text; and then translated that, with correction from the others. This approach has been criticised as implying a 'standard' text, when there was then no evidence that such a normative text had ever existed. The discovery of the Aksumite Ethiopic version - especially in respect of its close relationship with the Latin version in those sections where both are witnessed - is claimed by Stewart as demonstrating (at least for the 4th century) that at one time a 'standard' complete text did indeed circulate, however much this may have been adjusted and reordered in later versions and derived works. Stewart's second edition of 2015 mainly takes the Latin version as its base text; and translates the Aksumite Ethiopic for the most part for those chapters not witnessed in the Latin.


Date and place of composition

The context for the Church Order represented in the Apostolic Tradition is one where Christians face official persecution, are regularly imprisoned for their faith and occasionally face martyrdom. All Christian worship takes place within private houses. Prospective new converts are assumed to be all adults, and are to be questioned initially by a 'teacher' in private before being introduced to the Christian congregation (certain categories of trades and professions being prohibited admission); but baptism is also extended to children and infants in newcoming families. Regular worship includes not only a weekly
eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
, but also a shared fellowship meal, or agape feast. Ecstatic prophecy is occasionally encountered in worship. All of these observations confirm a date in the 3rd century or earlier. The wide range of forbidden trades specified (as for example, charioteers), confirm a place of composition in one of the two major urban centres of the Roman Empire, Rome itself, or Alexandria. Particular provisions in the Church Order relate to local practices which identify this place as Rome; specifically that the dead are buried in catacombs sealed into shelves with tiles; and also the stipulation that, in the regular Sunday eucharist, portions of the bread consecrated by the bishop are to be broken off by deacons and carried by them to presbyters in other churches in the city, wrapped in napkins. Recent scholarship, such as that by Bradshaw and Johnson, has called into question the degree to which the liturgical texts witnessed in the Apostolic Tradition may be taken as representing the regular forms of worship in Rome in the 3rd century. They propose that, over the centuries, later and non-Roman liturgical forms have accumulated within an older, and substantially Roman, Church Order.


Title

None of the manuscript versions carry a title, and so there is no direct evidence as to how the 'Apostolic Tradition' was originally known. The quotation of chapter 36 in the Ochrid fragment is labelled, ''Diataxis (Ordinances) of the Holy Apostles: Given through Hippolytus''; and this has been plausibly suggested as the probable title under which the whole text of the Apostolic Tradition circulated in Syria. The Epitome of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions refers to ''Regulations of the Holy Apostles concerning ordination through Hippolytus'', which could be an expansion on the same title. The commonly used title; 'Apostolic Tradition' depends on identifying this work with an item on a list inscribed on a statue - once thought to be of Hippolytus - now in the Vatican Library. Aside from the statue certainly not depicting Hippolytus (as it was originally female), there is no clear evidence for the inscribed list as being proposed to comprise Hippolytus's works. Alistair Stewart points out that 'Apostolic Tradition' denotes a genre rather than a particular work; as all Church Orders aspire to convey Apostolic Tradition. He also points out that the title on the statue ought properly to be read over two lines; which could then be rendered as ''On Spiritual Gifts; the Apostolic Tradition''. This could indeed well be the title of this work, as the first sentence of the current first chapter states "Those things then, concerning spiritual gifts which are worthy of note, we have set forth." On the face of it, this would imply an earlier, lost, section, setting out how God creates spiritual gifts within individual believers, as a prelude to the surviving initial discussion of rites of appointment and ordination.


Attribution to Hippolytus

The section of the
Alexandrine Sinodos The Alexandrine Sinodos (or ''Clementine Heptateuch'') is a Christian collection of Church Orders. This collection of earlier texts dates from the 4th or 5th century CE. The provenience is Egypt and it was particularly used in the ancient Coptic ...
, rediscovered in the 19th century, which was given the name of ''Egyptian Church Order'', was identified with the lost ''Apostolic Tradition'' attributed to
Hippolytus of Rome Hippolytus of Rome (, ; c. 170 – c. 235 AD) was one of the most important second-third century Christian theologians, whose provenance, identity and corpus remain elusive to scholars and historians. Suggested communities include Rome, Palestin ...
by Edward von der Goltz in 1906, and later by
Eduard Schwartz Eduard Schwartz (22 August 1858 – 13 February 1940) was a German classical philologist. Born in Kiel, he studied under Hermann Sauppe in Göttingen, under Hermann Usener and Franz Bücheler in Bonn, under Theodor Mommsen in Berlin and under Ul ...
in 1910 and by R.H. Connolly in 1916. This attribution was unanimously accepted by the scholars of that period, and became well-recognized through the works of Gregory Dix, in particular his famous ''The Shape of the Liturgy'' (1943, 1945). In addition to the above, according to Paul Bradshaw, the attribution to Hippolytus was based on the following data: * the name Hippolytus is present in later Ancient Church Orders clearly derived from the text of the ''Apostolic Tradition'', the Canons of Hippolytus and The Constitutions through Hippolytus. * the term "apostolic tradition" itself is found on both the first and last page of the text. * in 1551
Pirro Ligorio Pirro Ligorio ( October 30, 1583) was an Italian architect, painter, antiquarian, and garden designer during the Renaissance period. He worked as the Vatican's Papal Architect under Popes Paul IV and Pius IV, designed the fountains at Villa d’ ...
found an
ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
marble statue of a seated figure near
Campo Verano The Campo Verano (Italian: ''Cimitero del Verano'') is a cemetery in Rome, Italy, founded in the early 19th century. The monumental cemetery is currently divided into sections: the Jewish cemetery, the Catholic cemetery, and the monument to the ...
in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
and moved it to the
Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...
where it still is. On one surface of the chair was a calendar carved in Greek
paschal cycle The Paschal cycle, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is the cycle of the moveable feasts built around Pascha (Easter). The cycle consists of approximately ten weeks before and seven weeks after Pascha. The ten weeks before Pascha are known as ...
, which remembered the one attributed to Hippolytus, and on another surface the titles of numerous writings, some of them by Hippolytus, and one named "On the charismata—Apostolic Tradition". This brought the scholars to presume the existence of a writing named ''Apostolic Tradition'' by Hippolytus. More recently, the attribution of the ''Apostolic Tradition'' to Hippolytus of Rome has come under substantial criticism. According to several scholars, the ''Apostolic Tradition'' is a work written by another priest named Hippolytus, but who probably lived in
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, or it contains material of separate sources ranging from the middle second to the fourth century. The reasons given to support this understanding are the following: *the name “Hippolytus” is found in transmission of the Church Orders only about one century and half after his death; *the reference to Hippolytus and to a tradition coming from the Apostles in later Church Orders can be easily explained as a
pseudepigraphic Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseu ...
work typical of this genre; *the form of liturgy it describes are quite different from other information we have about the Christian liturgical uses in ancient Rome and are by far more in line with the forms of Church life in
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
or in
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
; *the statue found in 1551 was without head, and the present bearded head was added later by Ligorio himself. The statue was very probably carved as a copy of a famous statue of Themista of Lampsacus, a woman. The list of engraved titles includes many works which are not by Hippolytus, while it lacks most of the works surely ascribable to him. This sculpture was probably placed in the ancient library of the
Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone S ...
personifying one of the sciences and the engraved list could be the catalog of volumes kept nearby, a common use in Ancient Rome; *the title engraved on the statue refers to charismata also, but the ''Apostolic Tradition'' does not deal with this topic; *the probable original title of this treatise, according to J. Magne, was discovered in 1975 on a Greek fragment and it is not the one engraved on the statue.


Content

The Apostolic Tradition, as the other Church Orders, has the aim to offer authoritative "apostolic" prescriptions on matters of moral conduct,
liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
and Church organization. It can be divided in a
prologue A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...
(chapter 1) and three main sections. The chapter numbers and order are those of Botte. The first section, chapters 2 to 14, deals with the rituals of the organization of the Church, and it follows a hierarchical order starting from the bishops up to the lower levels of the structure. The content can be so summarized: * chapter 1: (Prologue) * chapter 2: 'On bishops' * chapters 3: 'Prayer for the
ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorization, authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominational ...
of a
bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
'; * chapter 4: (the
Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
at the consecration of the bishop. It is the well-known Anaphora of the Apostolic Tradition); * chapter 5: 'On the offering of oil'; * chapter 5: (on the offering of cheese and olives); * chapter 7: 'On
presbyter Presbyter () is an honorific title for Christian clergy. The word derives from the Greek ''presbyteros,'' which means elder or senior, although many in the Christian antiquity would understand ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning as ...
s'; * chapter 8: 'On
deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...
s'; * chapter 9: 'On confessors'; * chapter 10: 'On widows'; * chapters 11: 'On the
reader A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to: Computing and technology * Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader * Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application * A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
'; * chapter 12: 'On virgins'; * chapter 13: 'On subdeacons' * chapter 14: 'On a
Spiritual gift A spiritual gift or charism (plural: charisms or charismata; in Greek singular: χάρισμα ''charisma'', plural: χαρίσματα ''charismata'') is an extraordinary power given by the Holy Spirit."Spiritual gifts". ''A Dictionary of the ...
'. The second section, chapters 15 to 21, is about the catechumenate and the
baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...
; * chapter 15: 'On newcomers'; the first step in the catechumenate: the questions about marriage status and whether they are slave or free; * chapter 16: 'On trades and professions'; the questions about occupation and moral conduct. Some works are not considered compatible with the Christian life: these works include a manager of prostitutes, the sculptor or painter of idols, actors in the theater, teacher of "worldly knowledge" children (unless needed as the primary occupation), and a charioteer or
gladiator A gladiator ( la, gladiator, "swordsman", from , "sword") was an armed combatant who entertained audiences in the Roman Republic and Roman Empire in violent confrontations with other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. Some gla ...
in the gladiator competitions. Restrictions on military action are enumerated. * chapter 17: 'On the time during which they will hear the word after crafts and professions'; the length of the preliminary instruction, about three years; * chapter 18: 'On the prayer of the catechumens'; * chapter 19: 'On laying hands on the catechumens';the ritual at the end of the preliminary instruction; * chapter 20: 'Of those who will receive baptism'; the final examination and the preparation in the days before the baptism; * chapter 21: 'On the bestowal of holy baptism'; the detailed description of the baptismal liturgy. The last section, chapters 22 to 43, is a compilation of rules about the community, listed without a clear order: * chapter 22: (about the distribution of the Communion); * chapter 23: 'On
fasting Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see " Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after ...
'; * chapter 24: 'On gifts to the sick'; 'That those who receive should serve with haste'; about the distribution of the Communion to sick persons; * chapter 25: 'On the bringing in of lights at the supper of the congregation'; * chapter 26: 'On the occasion of eating'; description of a liturgical dinner; * chapter 27: 'That catechumens should not eat with the faithful' * chapter 28: 'That one should eat with understanding and moderation' * chapter 29: 'That one should eat with thanksgiving' * chapter 30: 'On supper for widows'; * chapter 31: 'On the fruits which it is right to offer'; * chapter 32: 'On the blessing of fruits'; (about the offering to the bishop of the first-fruits); * chapter 33: 'That nobody should touch any food at the Pascha before the proper time; * chapter 34: 'That it is proper for deacons to attend on the bishop'; * chapter 35: 'On the time when it is proper to pray'; * chapter 36: 'That it is proper to partake of the Eucharist first, before anything else is consumed'; * chapter 37: 'That it is proper to guard the Eucharist carefully'; * chapter 38: 'That it is improper that anything should be allowed to fall from the cup: * chapter 39: (everyday meetings of presbyters and deacons); * chapter 40: 'On the cemeteries; * chapter 41: 'On the time when it is proper to pray'; * chapter 42: (about the
Sign of the Cross Making the sign of the cross ( la, signum crucis), or blessing oneself or crossing oneself, is a ritual blessing made by members of some branches of Christianity. This blessing is made by the tracing of an upright cross or + across the body with ...
); * chapter 43: (conclusion).


Influence

The text of the Apostolic Tradition was part of three main ancient collections of the Church Orders, the
Alexandrine Sinodos The Alexandrine Sinodos (or ''Clementine Heptateuch'') is a Christian collection of Church Orders. This collection of earlier texts dates from the 4th or 5th century CE. The provenience is Egypt and it was particularly used in the ancient Coptic ...
, the Aksumite Collection and the
Verona Palimpsest The Verona Palimpsest (or ''Fragmentum Veronese'') is a manuscript, dated about the 494 AD, which contains a Christian collection of Church Orders in Latin. The manuscript, which contains many lacunae, is the only source of the Latin version of t ...
. Being included in the Alexandrine Sinodos, it was held to be authoritative in
Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
, Syria, Egypt and
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, where it was copied and re-edited. The Apostolic Tradition was also used as basis for great part of the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions, which had a great diffusion in antiquity. Also the ancient Canons of Hippolytus,
Testamentum Domini ''Testamentum Domini'' ("Testament of Our Lord") is a Christian treatise which belongs to the genre of the ancient church orders. The work can be dated about the 5th-century CE even if a 4th-century date is sometimes proposed. The provenience is ...
and Epitome of the eighth Book of the Apostolic Constitutions derive from it. The text of the Apostolic Tradition, believed to be authentically a work describing the early 3rd century
Roman liturgy The Roman Rite ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while dist ...
, has been widely influential on
liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
scholarship in the twentieth century and it was one of the pillars of the
liturgical movement The Liturgical Movement was a 19th-century and 20th-century movement of scholarship for the reform of worship. It began in the Catholic Church and spread to many other Christian churches including the Anglican Communion, Lutheran and some other Pro ...
. The anaphora included in chapter four was extensively used in preparing reforms for the
Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...
and the United Methodist Liturgies found in the current
United Methodist The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelic ...
Hymnal. This anaphora is also the inspiration for the Eucharistic Prayer n. II of the
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
Mass of Paul VI The Mass of Paul VI, also known as the Ordinary Form or Novus Ordo, is the most commonly used liturgy in the Catholic Church. It is a form of the Latin Church's Roman Rite and was promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1969, published by him in the 19 ...
. The Roman Catholic prayer of ordination of bishops, renewed after the
Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions) ...
, has been re-written and based on the one included in the Apostolic Tradition.


Notes


External links

*
Che cos'è la Traditio Apostolica
of Andrea Nicolotti, from «Rivista di Storia del Cristianesimo» II/1 (2005), pp. 219–237. {{Authority control 4th-century Christian texts Ancient church orders Christianity in Rome Texts in Koine Greek Italian manuscripts