Apostolic Constitutions

The ''Apostolic Constitutions'' or ''Constitutions of the Holy Apostles'' (Latin: ''Constitutiones Apostolorum'') is a Christian collection divided into eight books which is classified among the Church Orders, a genre of early Christian literature, that offered authoritative pseudo- apostolic prescriptions on moral conduct, liturgy and Church organization. The work can be dated from 375 to 380 AD. The provenance is usually regarded as Syria, probably Antioch. The author is unknown, although since James Ussher it has often considered to be the author of the letters of Pseudo-Ignatius, perhaps the 4th-century Eunomian bishop Julian of Cilicia.

Content

The ''Apostolic Constitutions'' contains eight books on Early Christian discipline, worship, and doctrine, apparently intended to serve as a manual of guidance for the clergy, and to some extent for the laity. It purports to be the work of the Twelve Apostles, whether given by them as individuals or as a body.

The structure of the ''Apostolic Constitutions'' can be summarized:
* Books 1 to 6 are a free re-wording of the '' Didascalia Apostolorum'', an earlier work of the same genre.
* Book 7 is partially based on the ''Didache''. Chapters 33-45 of book 7 contain prayers similar to Jewish prayers used in synagogues.
* Book 8 is a more complex section composed as follows:
** chapters 1-2 contain an extract of a lost treatise on the charismata
** chapters 3-46 are based on the Apostolic Tradition, greatly expanded, along with other material
** chapter 47 is known as the Canons of the Apostles and it had a wider circulation than the rest of the book.

The best manuscript, Vatican gr 1506, has Arian leanings, which are not found in other manuscripts because this material would have been censured as heretical.

The ''Apostolic Constitutions'' is an important source for the history of the liturgy in the Antiochene rite. It contains an outline of an anaphora in book two, a full anaphora in book seven (which is an expansion of the one found in the Didache), and the complete Liturgy of the eighth book of the ''Apostolic Constitutions'', which is the oldest known form that can be described as a complete divine liturgy.

Influence

In antiquity, the ''Apostolic Constitutions'' were mistakenly supposed to be gathered and handed down by Clement of Rome, the authority of whose name gave weight to more than one such piece of early Christian literature (see also Clementine literature).

The Church seems never to have regarded this work as of undoubted apostolic authority. The ''Apostolic Constitutions'' were rejected as apocryphal by the Decretum Gelasianum. The Quinisext Council in 692 rejected most part of the work on account of the interpolations of heretics. Only that portion of Book 8 which has been given the name ''Canons of the Apostles'' was received in the Eastern Christianity. Even if not regarded as of certain Apostolic origin, however, in antiquity the Apostolic Constitutions were held generally in high esteem and served as the basis for much ecclesiastical legislation

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