1. Jerusalem received the ordination to the priesthood, as did all the country of Palestine, and the parts occupied by the Samaritans, and the parts occupied by the Philistines, and the country of the Arabians, and of Phoenicia, and the people of Cæsarea, from James, who was ruler and guide in the church of the apostles which was built in Zion.
2. Alexandria the Great, and Thebais, and the whole of Inner Egypt, and all the country of Pelusium, [3110] and extending as far as the borders of the Indians, received the apostles' ordination to the priesthood from Mark the evangelist, who was ruler and guide there in the church which he had built, in which, he also ministered.
3. India, [3111] and all the countries belonging to it and round about it, even to the farthest sea, received the apostles' ordination to the priesthood from Judas Thomas, who was guide and ruler in the church which he had built there, in which he also ministered there.
4. Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia, and Galatia, even to Pontus, received the apostles' ordination to the priesthood from Simon Cephas, who himself laid the foundation of the church there, [3112] and was priest and ministered there up to the time when he went up from thence to Rome on account of Simon the sorcerer, who was deluding the people of Rome with his sorceries. [3113]
5. The city of Rome, and all Italy, and Spain, and Britain, and Gaul, together with all the rest of the countries round about them, received the apostles' ordination to the priesthood from Simon Cephas, who went up from Antioch; and he was ruler and guide there, in the church which he had built there, and in the places round about it. [3114]
6. Ephesus, and Thessalonica, and all Asia, and all the country of the Corinthians, and of all Achaia and the parts round about it, received the apostles' ordination to the priesthood from John the evangelist, who had leaned upon the bosom of our Lord; who himself built a church there, and ministered in his office of Guide which he held there.
7. Nicæa, and Nicomedia, and all the country of Bithynia, and of Inner Galatia, [3115] and of the regions round about it, received the apostles' ordination to the priesthood from Andrew, the brother of Simon Cephas, who was himself Guide and Ruler in the church which he had built there, and was priest and ministered there.
8. Byzantium, and all the country of Thrace, and of the parts about it as far as the great river, [3116] the boundary which separates from the barbarians, received the apostles' ordination to the priesthood from Luke the apostle, who himself built a church there, and ministered there in his office of Ruler and Guide which he held there.
9. Edessa, and all the countries round about it which were on all sides of it, and Zoba, [3117] and Arabia, and all the north, and the regions round about it, and the south, and all the regions on the borders of Mesopotamia, received the apostles' ordination to the priesthood from Addæus the apostle, one of the seventy-two apostles, [3118] who himself made disciples there, and built a church there, and was priest and ministered there in his office of Guide which he held there.
10. The whole of Persia, of the Assyrians, and of the Armenians, and of the Medians, and of the countries round about Babylon, the Huzites and the Gelæ, as far as the borders of the Indians, and as far as the land [3119] of Gog and Magog, and moreover all the countries on all sides, received the apostles' ordination to the priesthood from Aggæus, a maker of silks, [3120] the disciple of Addæus the apostle.
The other remaining companions of the apostles, moreover went to the distant countries of the barbarians; and they made disciples from place to place and passed on; and there they ministered by their preaching; and there occurred their departure out of this world, their disciples after them going on with the work down to the present day, nor was any change or addition made by them in their preaching.
Luke, moreover, the evangelist had such diligence that he wrote the exploits of the Acts of the Apostles, and the ordinances and laws of the ministry of their priesthood, and whither each one of them went. By his diligence, I say, did Luke write these things, and more than these; and he placed them in the hand of Priscus [3121] and Aquilus, his disciples; and they accompanied him up to the day of his death, just as Timothy and Erastus of Lystra, and Menaus, [3122] the first disciples of the apostles, accompanied Paul until he was taken up to the city of Rome because he had withstood Tertullus the orator. [3123]
And Nero Cæsar despatched with the sword Simon Cephas in the city of Rome. [3124]
[3054] This work is taken, and printed verbatim, from the same ms. as the preceding, Cod. Add. 14,644, fol. 10. That ms., however, has been carefully compared with another in the Brit. Mus. in which it is found, Cod. Add. 14,531, fol. 109; and with a third, in which the piece is quoted as Canons of the Apostles, Cod. Add. 14,173, fol. 37. In using the second, a comparison has also been made of De Lagarde's edition of it (Vienna, 1856). This treatise had also been published before in Ebediesu Metropolitæ Sobæ et Armeniæ collectio canonum Synodicorum by Cardinal Mai. It is also cited by Bar Hebræus in his Nomocanon, printed by Mai in the same volume. These three texts are referred to in the notes, as A. B. C. respectively. [It seems to me that this and the Bryennios fragment are alike relics of some original older than both. To that of vol. vii. (p. 377) and the Apostolic Constitutions, so called, this is a natural preface.]
[3055] A. omits "three hundred and." They are supplied from B. The reading of C. is 342.
[3056] This month answers to Sivan, which began with the new moon of June.--Tr.
[3057] C. reads "fourteenth."
[3058] The day of Pentecost seems to be put for that of the Ascension.
[3059] Syr. "Baith Zaithe." Comp. Luke xxiv. 50 sqq.
[3060] Comp. Acts i. 12 sqq.
[3061] [It is evident that the apostles had no such ideas until after the vision of St. Peter, Acts x. 9-35.]
[3062] [It is evident that the apostles had no such ideas until after the vision of St. Peter, Acts x. 9-35.]
[3063] The reading of B. and C.: A. reads "answered them."
[3064] B. reads "suddenly." [The translator interpolates upon him.]
[3065] On praying toward the east, comp. Apost. Constitutions, ii. 57, vii. 44; and Tertullian, Apol., 16. A. C., ii. 57, contains an interesting account of the conduct of public worship. It may be consulted in connection with Ordinances 2, 8, and 10, also.--Tr.
[3066] Matt. xxiv. 27.
[3067] B. and C. read "at the last." Ebediesu has "from heaven."
[3068] i.e., the Eucharist.--Tr.
[3069] C. reads "His holy angels."
[3070] For Ords. 3 and 4, see Ap. Const., v. 13-15.
[3071] B. reads "His manifestation."
[3072] The reading of C.
[3073] Lit. " the evening," but used in particular of the evening of the sixth day of the week, the eve of the seventh: the evening being regarded, as in Gen. i. 5, as the first part of the day. Similarly, paraskeue , which the Peshito translates by our word, is used in the Gospels for the sixth day, with a prospective reference to the seventh.--Tr.
[3074] See Ap. Const., ii. 25.
[3075] Comp. Eccl. Canons, No. 43. The Gr. hupodiakonoi is here used, though for "deacon" the usual Syriac word is employed, meaning "minister" or "servant." From Riddle, Christian Antiqq., p. 301, with whom Neander agrees, it would seem that subdeacons were first appointed at the end of the third century or the beginning of the fourth.--Tr. [See vol. v. p. 417.]
[3076] ***, equivalent, not to episkopos, but to skopos = watchman, as in Ezek. xxxiii. 7.
[3077] For this B. reads "world."
[3078] B. has "camp."
[3079] See Ap. Const., v. 13. Christmas, of which no mention is made in these Ordinances, is called "the first of all," the Epiphany being ranked next to it in the Constitutions.--Tr. [See vol. vii. p. 492.]
[3080] January: the Jewish Tebeth. "The former Canun" is December, i.e., Chisleu.--Tr.
[3081] The era of the Seleucidæ, 311 a.c., appears to be referred to. In this new names were given to certain months, and Canun was one of them. See p. 666, supra.
[3082] Eccl. Can., No. 69.--Tr. See Ap. Const., v. 13-15.
[3083] Properly "the sealer:" for, although the word is not found in the lexicons, its formation shows that it denotes an agent. The meaning seems to be, that the Gospel gives completeness and validity to the Scriptures.--Tr.
[3084] C. reads "forty."
[3085] See Ap. Const., ii. 57; Teaching of Simon Cephas, ad fin.; Eccl. Can., Nos. 60, 85.--Tr.
[3086] B. and C., as well as Ebediesu, read "and."
[3087] Lit. "it is not certain (or firm) to him."--Tr.
[3088] The exact words of the Peshito of 1 Sam. ii. 3. The E.V. following the K'ri vlv, instead of the vl' of the text, renders "and by Him actions are weighed." The Peshito translator may have confounded the Heb. verb tkn, which appears not to exist in Aramæan, with its own verb tkn (***), through the similarity in sound of the gutturals k and q
[3089] See Eccl. Canons, No. 44.--Tr.
[3090] Comp. Eccl. Canons, Nos. 65, 70, 71.--Tr.
[3091] See Eccl. Canons, No. 35.--Tr.
[3092] See the letter of the Church of Smyrna on the martyrdom of Polycarp, and Euseb., Hist. Eccl., iv. 15; [also p. 664, note 4, supra].
[3093] Ps. xxxiv. 1.
[3094] The particip. ***, though usually pass., may, like some other participles Peil, be taken actively, as appears from a passage quoted by Dr. R. Payne Smith, Thes. Syr., s.v. This would seem to be the only possible way of taking it here.--Tr.
[3095] Comp. Ap. Const., ii. 45 sqq.
[3096] [Note the Institutions of Samuel, vol. vii. p. 531, and observe the prominence here assigned to that prophet. Comp. Acts iii. 24.]
[3097] [But note the case of Ambrose and Theodosius; Sozomen, Eccl. Hist., book vii. cap. 25.]
[3098] Acts xvi. 4; comp. ch. xv.
[3099] The belief was common among the Jacobites that Caiaphas, whose full name was Joseph Caïaphas, was the same person as the historian Josephus, and that he was converted to Christianity. See Assem., Bibl. Orient., vol. ii. p. 165.
[3100] [The visible Church and sacraments are necessary, on this principle, to the conversion of the world.]
[3101] [Perhaps a metaphrase of Job v. 12, 13.]
[3102] This would seem to have been written anterior to the time when the title of Bishop, as specially appropriated to those who succeeded to the apostolic office, had generally obtained in the East. [Previously named as in the Greek of 2 Cor. viii. 23.]
[3103] For writings ascribed to Andrew and Thomas, see Apocryphal Scriptures, this volume, infra. Comp. Eccl. Canons, No. 85.--Tr. There is no mention here of the Epistles of Paul. They may not at this early period have been collected and become generally known in the East. The Epistle of Jude is also omitted here, but it was never received into the Syriac canon: see De Wette, Einl., 6th ed. p. 342.
[3104] So the printed text. But "the apostles" seems to be meant.--Tr.
[3105] See note 10 on p. 668.--Tr. It is plain from this that the Epistles were not at that time considered part of what was called the New Testament, nor the prophets of the Old.
[3106] Lit. "nod," or "bidding," or "impulse."--Tr. [See Tertull., vol. iii. p. 252.]
[3107] Lit. "were quiet and silent at."--Tr.
[3108] Lit. "be an advocate."--Tr.
[3109] [Heb. x. 33, 34.]
[3110] C. reads "Pentapolis."
[3111] A. has "the Indians;" C. "the Ethiopians."
[3112] C. adds, "and built a church at Antioch."
[3113] See note 3, p. 673, infra.
[3114] [The omission of reference to St. Paul is a token of a corrupt and mediæval text here.]
[3115] The reading of C. The ms. A. gives what Cureton transcribes as Gothia, which is almost the same as the word rendered "Inner." Possibly this explains the origin of the reading of A. "Galatia" was perhaps accidentally omitted.--Tr.
[3116] C. has "the Danube."
[3117] Or "Soba," the same as Nisïbis.
[3118] The number seventy-two may have arisen from the supposition, mentioned in the Recognitions and in the Apostolical Constitutions, that our Lord chose them in imitation of the seventy-two elders appointed by Moses.
[3119] Or "place."--Tr.
[3120] See note 6 on p. 661.
[3121] B. reads "Priscilla," C. "Pricillas." Prisca and Priscilla are the forms in which the name occurs in the New Testament.
[3122] Probably the same as Manaen, mentioned in Acts xiii. 1, as associated with Paul at Antioch.
[3123] [The failure to praise the work of him who "laboured more abundantly than all" others, is noteworthy, and can only be accounted for by Middle-Age corruptions of the text.]