Resumen
Resumen de The Apostolic Constitutions
Para quién es
For readers who love early Christian history, church life in Syria and the Greek East, and accounts of how ordinary believers were taught to live, from forgiveness and reading Scripture to conduct at home and in public.
De qué trata este libro
The Apostolic Constitutions is a manual of church life, written in Greek and arranged in eight books. Scholars place its compilation in Syria, most likely around the years 375 to 380. Its compiler is unknown. He gathered older material, rewrote it, and set it in the mouths of the twelve apostles, who speak in the first person and address the whole church. The first book, the subject here, speaks to ordinary believers, the laity, as distinct from bishops, priests and deacons, who are taken up in later books.
Book One is mostly a book of daily conduct. It warns against greed, urges believers to forgive one another, tells them what to read and what to leave alone, and sets out how men and women should dress, speak and behave at home and in public. Its tone is that of a firm but caring teacher. If you want to hear how Christians in the fourth century were told to live, this is a direct source. Let us begin with where the book comes from, because that shapes everything in it.
En este resumen
- 1A fourth century manual in apostolic voiceFree
- 2Covetousness is the root of many wrongs
- 3Forgive, avoid slander, and seek peace
- 4Read the Scriptures, and leave other books aside
- 5Modesty and order for men and women
- 6Why it stands outside the Bible and how it is read
Idea clave 1 de 6
A fourth century manual in apostolic voice
The Apostolic Constitutions belongs to a family of early Christian church orders. These are books that tell communities how to worship, whom to appoint, and how to behave. Scholars generally agree that the work was put together in the Greek-speaking East, probably in Syria, in the later fourth century. The compiler is unknown. Some later writers have guessed at his identity, but the question stays open.
He did not write from nothing. Book One draws heavily on an older work called the Didascalia of the Apostles, which was written in Syria in the third century and survives in full in Syriac. The compiler took its teaching, expanded it, smoothed its language and reshaped some of its advice. Later books of the Constitutions use other sources too, among them the Didache, a very short early manual, and a church order often linked with Hippolytus of Rome.
The key device is the voice. The text opens as a letter from the apostles, with Clement of Rome named as the one who carries it to the churches. So each command comes with the weight of the first generation of Christian leaders. The apostles say we, and they speak to believers as children and brothers.
Historians do not read this as a record of what the apostles really said. They read it as a window on what a Syrian church of the fourth century believed the apostles would have wanted. That is valuable in its own right. Believers who prize the book hear in it a living tradition of teaching. Historians hear a community describing its own ideals. Both can read Book One with profit.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Questions about The Apostolic Constitutions
What is the Apostolic Constitutions about?
It is a large collection of rules and teaching for Christian communities, in eight books. It covers lay conduct, clergy, worship, charity, and church law. Book One is addressed to the laity and deals with daily moral life.
Who wrote the Apostolic Constitutions and when?
The compiler is unknown. Scholars usually date the work to about 375 to 380, probably in Syria. It was written in Greek and presents itself as the teaching of the twelve apostles, with Clement of Rome as its messenger.
Is the Apostolic Constitutions in the Bible?
No. The churches did not count it among the New Testament writings, since it was seen as a later church order rather than the work of the apostles. It was valued as a guide to practice, not as Scripture.
What does Book One say about reading?
It tells believers to keep to the Scriptures and avoid the books of unbelievers. It points to the Old Testament for history, poetry, wisdom and the origin of the world, claiming these supply everything a believer needs.
Why did the Council in Trullo reject the Apostolic Constitutions?
In 692 the council said the work had been corrupted by heretical additions and should not be trusted as a whole. It did, however, keep the eighty-five canons that end the eighth book.