Amid the burgeoning life of the early Church, a body of literature emerged to preserve, regulate, and transmit its moral convictions, liturgical patterns, and disciplinary customs. Though these documents claimed apostolic origin, they are post-apostolic in character, yet invaluable for understanding how the nascent Church saw itself—as both guardian of tradition and living organism, guided by the Spirit and formed through structure. Among these, the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, the Apostolical Constitutions, and the Apostolical Canons stand as monumental witnesses to early ecclesiastical order, reflecting a dynamic synthesis of Scripture, tradition, and pastoral exigency.
Sources and Editions
The primary sources for this body of law include two closely related texts: the Apostolical Constitutions (Διαταγαὶ τῶν ἁγίων Ἀποστόλων) and the Apostolical Canons (Κανόνες τῶν ἁγ. Ἀποστόλων). These were edited and preserved in various languages and recensions, with key contributions from scholars such as Turrianus (Venice, 1563), Cotelier, Mansi, and Harduin. Notably, Paul de Lagarde produced critical editions in Greek and Syriac (1854–1862), seeking to recover the earliest text forms, while Ueltzen sought to improve the textus receptus. Translations also appeared in Ethiopic, Coptic, and Arabic, reflecting the wide reception of these texts in Eastern Christendom.
W.G. Beveridge’s Pandectae Canonum (Oxford, 1672–82) and John Fulton’s Index Canonum (New York, 1872; rev. 1883) offered comprehensive codifications of these early laws. Critical studies by Bickell, Krabbe, Drey, and others probed their origins and theological implications. More recently, the recovery of the Didache by Bryennios (1883) and the research of Harnack and Schaff provided fresh insight into the development and interrelation of these texts.
1. The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
The Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, is the earliest and simplest extant church manual, likely originating from a Jewish-Christian community in Syria or Palestine around the close of the first century. Known to the early Fathers but long lost, it was rediscovered by Philotheos Bryennios in 1883.
Its sixteen brief chapters cover:
– A twofold moral catechesis structured around “the way of life” and “the way of death,” drawn from the Decalogue and the twin commandments of love.
– Liturgical instructions for baptism, the Eucharist, and communal meals (agape).
– Guidelines for ecclesiastical order, addressing apostles (as itinerant evangelists), prophets, teachers, bishops (identified with presbyters), and deacons.
– An eschatological exhortation, urging vigilance in light of the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the righteous.
This foundational document shaped later Church orders and survived in an expanded form within Book VII of the Apostolical Constitutions.
2. The Ecclesiastical Canons of the Holy Apostles
Also known as the Apostolical Church Order, this Egyptian text likely dates to the third century and builds upon the Didache in the format of a fictional dialogue among the apostles. First published in Greek by Bickell (1843) and later in Coptic and Syriac, it codifies directives on ethics, worship, and Church governance.
While it retains moral simplicity, the text introduces a stronger hierarchical framework. Its narrative device, presenting the apostles legislating in unison, lends the aura of apostolic authority to ecclesial tradition, a rhetorical strategy repeated and magnified in the Constitutions.
3. The Apostolical Constitutions
The Apostolical Constitutions represent the most extensive and significant compilation of early Church discipline and liturgy. Structured as a literary fiction in which the apostles, speaking through Clement of Rome, address the universal Church, it begins: “The apostles and elders, to all who among the nations have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with you, and peace.”
This eight-book corpus gathers materials from various traditions—Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome—dating as early as the late first century. Originally transmitted orally, these teachings were eventually systematized into the current compilation. The first six books, strongly Jewish-Christian in tone, emerged from Syrian circles around the end of the third century. Book VII adapts the Didache, while Book VIII presents liturgical texts and concludes with the Apostolical Canons.
Though of Eastern origin, the Constitutions do not exalt the Church of Rome. Rather, they aim to depict the full range of ecclesiastical life, emphasizing episcopal authority and sacred tradition. Their intent was to unify practice, moral teaching, and institutional form under the apostolic model—an ecclesiastical theocracy grounded in order and fidelity.
In the East, these Constitutions enjoyed immense authority, often consulted like Scripture itself in questions of discipline. Yet they never achieved legal status as a whole. The Trullan (Quinisext) Council of 692 ultimately rejected them for heretical interpolations, though it affirmed the appended Apostolical Canons.
The Apostolical Canons
These eighty-five (in some traditions fifty) brief directives address clerical conduct, ordination, church hierarchy, and sacramental discipline. Though purporting to be compiled by Clement from the direct instruction of the apostles—who speak in the first person in several canons—they are clearly a post-apostolic synthesis.
Sources include Scripture, especially the Pastoral Epistles, along with early synodal decrees (Antioch, Neo-Caesarea, Nicaea, Laodicea), and living tradition. Their purpose is clerical regulation; the laity appear only tangentially. The canons grew incrementally and were likely compiled in Syria between the mid-fourth and late fifth century.
The final (85th) canon provides a New Testament canon list—remarkable for including the two epistles of Clement alongside the canonical books and even citing the Apostolical Constitutions themselves as genuine writings.
The Trullan Council adopted the full set of eighty-five canons as authoritative in the Eastern Church. John of Damascus went so far as to rank them alongside the epistles of Paul—evidence of the blurred line between apostolic tradition and Scripture in some quarters of the early Byzantine Church.
The Latin West, initially skeptical, eventually received a truncated version of fifty canons, translated from Greek by Dionysius Exiguus around 500 AD. This smaller collection became the foundation of Western ecclesiastical law in the early medieval period.
Critical Evaluation
The Apostolical Constitutions and Canons reflect the growth and complexity of ecclesiastical life in a period when apostolic memory was preserved through literary idealization. They blend moral exhortation with pastoral realism, and ancient tradition with ecclesiastical invention. While they cannot claim canonical status, their influence was profound, and their authority—particularly in the East—remarkable.
Yet they are riddled with anachronisms and theological contradictions. James, martyred in 44 AD, is pictured debating theology with Paul; the apostles are depicted condemning heresies that did not emerge until well after their deaths. Interpolations abound, and episcopal power is often exaggerated to support the growing claims of clerical centrality.
Even so, these works provide unparalleled insight into how early Christians sought to structure their communities in faithfulness to the apostolic witness. They remain a treasury of primitive liturgy, Christian ethics, and evolving ecclesiology—echoes of the apostolic voice as heard by a Church learning to govern itself.
