APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS. - A pseudo-apostolic writing. One reads in it (VI, 18, 11) that it was sent to the Church by the Apostles through Clement and other disciples. According to the Apostolic Constitutions (VIII, 10, 7) there were four bishops at the beginning of the Church: James (Jerusalem), Clement (Rome), Evodius (Antioch) and Annianus (Alexandria). In VIII, 47, 85 (p. 592, 6 ff., ed. Funk) the compiler of the Apostolic Constitutions adds his 8 books to the 2 epistles of Clement in the list of canonical writings, yet ordering that they not be given publicity, on account of the mysteries (ibid., p. 592, 9) contained in them. This last text therefore attributes the authorship of the Apostolic Constitutions not to the Apostles, as in VI, 18, 11, but to Clement.
The forger was certainly acquainted with the pseudo-Clementine literature, and this explains, at least in part, the importance attributed to James and Clement. The author of the apocryphon wrote in Syria (contrary to H. Lietzmann, Geschichte der alten Kirche, III, Berlin 1938, p. 293), probably at Antioch, and perhaps presupposes the activity of St. John Chrysostom in that city. The purpose of this forgery is not clear. The assertion of Ed. Schwartz (Über die pseudo-apostolischen Kirchenordnungen, Strasbourg 1910, p. 20) that the writing was directed against monasticism seems erroneous. The first 6 books are a reworking of the Syriac Didascalia (v. DIDASCALIA). The seventh book is, in its first part, an expansion of the Didache. Chapters 33-38 are a collection of Jewish prayers, lightly Christianized, of the greatest importance for the history of the liturgy and of Antiochene theology. The text contains, among other things, a Trishagion in its Jewish form (VII, 35, 3) and a prayer for the Sabbath (ch. 36). Chapters 39-45 are precepts for the instruction of catechumens (cf. Drews, in Zeit. für Neutestum. Wissenschaft, 1907, p. 226 ff.) and for Baptism. Chapter 46 contains lists of the most ancient bishops; chapter 47 the angelic hymn (Gloria in excelsis Deo) for the morning Office (for the text v. A. Baumstark, in Hundert Jahre Marcus und Weber Verlag, Bonn 1919, p. 86 ff.); chapter 48 the Laudate pueri Dominum for the evening Office; chapter 49 a prayer for the meal. The eighth book is based on the Constitution of Hippolytus. Chapters 5-15 contain the famous liturgy generally called Clementine (12, 5, 6 also in a papyrus, cf. S. G. Mercati, in Aegyptus, 8 [1927], pp. 40-42), probably an ideal liturgical formulary which, in its relations with Jewish prayers, has been studied by W. Bousset, in Nachrichten der Götting. Gesellschaft. der Wissenschaften, 1915 (passim). There follow chapters on the consecration of the various grades of the hierarchy and other liturgical orders. Chapter 47 contains 85 Canones apostolorum (v. CANONI APOSTOLICI).
The author of the Apostolic Constitutions is not identical with the author of the long recension of the letters of Ignatius. In his theology he is neither Arian nor Apollinarian; he represents instead a type of ancient Syriac theology which, by its affinity with Jewish theology, gives the impression of Arianism. The Trullan Synod in 692 declared the Apostolic Constitutions a forgery; but this had no influence on their authority, because, despite the condemnation, they were introduced into the collections of the Eastern Churches.
Edition: Didascalia et Constitutiones apostolorum, ed. F. X. Funk, Paderborn 1906. For the text of book VIII v. Turner, in Journ. Theol. Studies, 31 (1930), p. 128 ff.
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Erik Peterson