_-_Canons_of_the_Apostles,_1-4.jpg)
Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Apostolic Canons
The Apostolic Canons, also called Apostolic canons (Latin: Canones apostolorum, "Canons of the Apostles"), Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles, or Canons of the Holy Apostles, is a 4th-century Syrian Christian text. It is an Ancient Church Order, a collection of ancient ecclesiastical canons concerning the government and discipline of the Early Christian Church, allegedly written by the Apostles. This text is an appendix to the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions. Like the other Ancient Church Orders, the Apostolic Canons uses a pseudepigraphic form.
These eighty-five canons were approved by the Council in Trullo in 692 but were rejected by Pope Sergius I. In the Western Church only fifty of these canons circulated, translated in Latin by Dionysius Exiguus in about 500 AD, and included in the Western collections and afterwards in the Corpus Juris Canonici.
The document contains a list of canonical books.
They deal mostly with the office and duties of a Christian bishop, the qualifications and conduct of the clergy, the religious life of the Christian flock (abstinence, fasting), its external administration (excommunication, synods, relations with pagans and Jews), the sacraments (Baptism, Eucharist, Marriage); in a word, they are a handy summary of the statutory legislation of the Early Church.
The last of these decrees contains a very important list or canon of the Holy Scriptures.
Most modern critics agree that they could not have been composed before the Council of Antioch of 341, some twenty of whose canons they quote; nor even before the latter end of the 4th century, since they are certainly posterior to the Apostolic Constitutions. Franz Xaver von Funk, admittedly a foremost authority on the latter and all similar early canonical texts, locates the composition of the Apostolic Canons in the 5th century, near the year 400. Thereby he approaches the opinion of his scholarly predecessor, Johann Sebastian Drey, the first among modern writers to study profoundly these ancient canons; he distinguished two editions of them, a shorter one (fifty) about the middle of the 5th century, and a longer one (eighty-five) early in the 6th century. Von Funk admits but one edition. They were certainly current in the Eastern Church in the first quarter of the 6th century, for in about 520 Severus of Antioch quotes canons 21-23.
The original Greek text claims the Apostolic Canons are the very legislation of the Apostles themselves, at least as promulgated by their great disciple, Clement. Nevertheless, the Catholic Encyclopedia considers their claim to genuine Apostolic origin is "quite false and untenable" despite the fact that they are "a venerable mirror of ancient Christian life and blameless in doctrine". At least half of the canons are derived from earlier constitutions, and probably not many of them are the actual productions of the compiler, whose aim was to gloss over the real nature of the Constitutions, and secure their incorporation with the Epistles of Clement in the New Testament of his day. The Codex Alexandrinus does indeed append the Clementine Epistles to its text of the New Testament. The Canons may be a little later in date than the preceding Constitutions, but they are evidently from the same Syrian theological circle.
The author seems to be from Syria, since the Syro-Macedonian calendar is utilized. The contents are borrowed mostly from the Syrian council (Council of Antioch, 341). According to Von Funk the Canons are identical with the compiler or interpolator of the Apostolic Constitutions, who was certainly also Syrian.
Hub AI
Apostolic Canons AI simulator
(@Apostolic Canons_simulator)
Apostolic Canons
The Apostolic Canons, also called Apostolic canons (Latin: Canones apostolorum, "Canons of the Apostles"), Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles, or Canons of the Holy Apostles, is a 4th-century Syrian Christian text. It is an Ancient Church Order, a collection of ancient ecclesiastical canons concerning the government and discipline of the Early Christian Church, allegedly written by the Apostles. This text is an appendix to the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions. Like the other Ancient Church Orders, the Apostolic Canons uses a pseudepigraphic form.
These eighty-five canons were approved by the Council in Trullo in 692 but were rejected by Pope Sergius I. In the Western Church only fifty of these canons circulated, translated in Latin by Dionysius Exiguus in about 500 AD, and included in the Western collections and afterwards in the Corpus Juris Canonici.
The document contains a list of canonical books.
They deal mostly with the office and duties of a Christian bishop, the qualifications and conduct of the clergy, the religious life of the Christian flock (abstinence, fasting), its external administration (excommunication, synods, relations with pagans and Jews), the sacraments (Baptism, Eucharist, Marriage); in a word, they are a handy summary of the statutory legislation of the Early Church.
The last of these decrees contains a very important list or canon of the Holy Scriptures.
Most modern critics agree that they could not have been composed before the Council of Antioch of 341, some twenty of whose canons they quote; nor even before the latter end of the 4th century, since they are certainly posterior to the Apostolic Constitutions. Franz Xaver von Funk, admittedly a foremost authority on the latter and all similar early canonical texts, locates the composition of the Apostolic Canons in the 5th century, near the year 400. Thereby he approaches the opinion of his scholarly predecessor, Johann Sebastian Drey, the first among modern writers to study profoundly these ancient canons; he distinguished two editions of them, a shorter one (fifty) about the middle of the 5th century, and a longer one (eighty-five) early in the 6th century. Von Funk admits but one edition. They were certainly current in the Eastern Church in the first quarter of the 6th century, for in about 520 Severus of Antioch quotes canons 21-23.
The original Greek text claims the Apostolic Canons are the very legislation of the Apostles themselves, at least as promulgated by their great disciple, Clement. Nevertheless, the Catholic Encyclopedia considers their claim to genuine Apostolic origin is "quite false and untenable" despite the fact that they are "a venerable mirror of ancient Christian life and blameless in doctrine". At least half of the canons are derived from earlier constitutions, and probably not many of them are the actual productions of the compiler, whose aim was to gloss over the real nature of the Constitutions, and secure their incorporation with the Epistles of Clement in the New Testament of his day. The Codex Alexandrinus does indeed append the Clementine Epistles to its text of the New Testament. The Canons may be a little later in date than the preceding Constitutions, but they are evidently from the same Syrian theological circle.
The author seems to be from Syria, since the Syro-Macedonian calendar is utilized. The contents are borrowed mostly from the Syrian council (Council of Antioch, 341). According to Von Funk the Canons are identical with the compiler or interpolator of the Apostolic Constitutions, who was certainly also Syrian.