ARTICLE VI.-TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES.

[Recently discovered and published, etc. Edited with a translation, introduction and notes by Roswell D. Hitchcock and Francis Brown, Professors in Union Theological Seminary. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1884.]

THE recent publication of this document has awakened some interest, more because it claims to be a discovery of an early known, but long lost book, than because of anything new or important in its contents. It is said to have been found in the library of a monastery in Constantinople, occupying five of the one hundred and twenty parchment leaves which constitute the volume. The manuscript bears the signature of "Leon, notary and sinner," who completed the transcription in the month of June, A. D. 1056.

Is this a copy of a book known and in use at that time, or is it taken from a manuscript or book of an earlier date? Of course the genuineness of the document cannot be claimed; i. e. it was not originally written or dictated by the Apostles. It was not uncommon in the early centuries to resort to this kind of fiction, and books were made by unknown authors, which were ascribed to persons who were known and honored in the church, but no longer living to disclaim the authorship. As examples; in this lately found volume is the Epistle of Barnabas. To give it currency and authority in the early church, it was said to have been written by that Barnabas who was the companion of Paul. Later critics ascribe it to a Gentile teacher, who wrote in some respects perhaps in the spirit of Barnabas, and so the false tradition arose that it was written by the friend and fellow-laborer of the Apostle. (Hippolytus and his Age, vol. i., p. 53, 2d ed.; Neander, Hist. Ch., vol. ii., p. 406.) There is also the so-called second Epistle of Clement, not recognized as genuine, but falsely attributed to that holy man. Even the first Epistle seems to have been corrupted by some person of hierarchic aspirations. (Mosheim Ecc. Hist., vol. i., p. 75; Neander, vol. ii., p. 408, Bohn ed.) There are

This poor

also in this volume twelve epistles of Ignatius. "saint," concerning whom there is so much romance in regard to his martyrdom and his manuscripts, is the reputed author of sixteen epistles, not including one to the Virgin Mary. He was so near the apostolic age, that after his death many epistles were written in his name, filled with sentiments inconsistent with the times and circumstances in which he lived. The authors of these forgeries are unknown, but to give them authority they were ascribed to Ignatius. Many eminent critics have been inclined to doubt the genuineness of any of them as now known. A late critic has reduced their number to three; but these appear to be heavily loaded with interpolations of the fourth and fifth centuries. (Hippolytus and his Age, vol. i. p. 82.) The only remaining document in this volume is the "Teaching of the Apostles,” which is evidently a copy of some parts of manuscripts well known in ecclesiastical literature since the beginning of the fourth century. This is therefore no newly discovered manuscript, no new truth is brought to light, and the entire volume might have remained eight hundred years longer in its musty obscurity without inflicting any loss to the church or the world. The so-called "Teaching of the Apostles" may be found in substance in the Coptic Apostolic Canons, and in the seventh book of the Apostolic Constitutions, with only such differences as might be expected to occur from transcription, translation, addition and customs of local churches in which different copies of the same work were used.

Du Pin, speaking of the Apostolic Constitutions, says: "It is very difficult to determine the time when they first appeared. The author is wholly unknown. All that can be said or conjectured is that the Constitutions attributed to the Apostles, belong to the third, or rather to the fourth century, and that from time to time they have been expurgated, changed and augmented according to the customs of different times and countries. (Auteur's Ecc., vol. i., p. 31, ed. 1690.) Du Piu also says: "The book entitled the doctrine or teachings of the Apostles might be the same as the original Constitutions." He names three writers who believed the book mentioned by Eusebius and Athanasius was the same as the Apostles' Canons

or Constitutions. Such was the opinion of Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople, who lived in the eighth century; also of Zonaras in the twelfth century, and of Matthew Blastares who lived in the fourteenth century. The suggestion is also made that there were probably two parts of the Constitutions, one large, as now known (which included the Teachings), and the other an abridgment which was used to teach the discipline and faith of the church to catechumens. (Vol. i., p. 33.) Bunsen has written largely on the Apostolic Constitutions, their character, origin, and importance. He thinks the traditional customs, ordinances, or injunctions which were incorporated in them, "treated first on the teaching and reception of the catechumens, secondly on worship and rites, thirdly on the government and whole constitutional discipline of the church." "These books were specially intended for catechumens as a preparation for baptism, as Athanasius says expressly of the Apostolic Constitutions themselves." "The writers of the earlier part of the fourth century, such as Eusebius and Athanasius call the book in question the Doctrine or the Doc trines of the Apostles. It is in itself the most natural supposition that this Doctrine of the Apostles is no other than the Constitutions or Ordinances of the Apostles, for otherwise we should know nothing of a book so highly respected and so much read." (Hippolytus and his Age, vol. ii., pp. 403, 405.)

Vansleib in his "L'Histoire de l'Eglise d' Alexandrie," 1677, speaking of the Canons of the Coptic Church says: "Ils ont encore d'autres Canons, qu'ils appellent des Apôtres, lesquels, les Melchites, et les Nestoriens ont traduits en langue Arabe, et reduits en un volume." This volume is divided into two parts, in one of which, judging from the table of contents, is found the so-called "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles." This work is called, in Coptic and Arabic, "The Canons of our Holy Fathers the Apostles." (Vid. preface to translation of Coptic Apostolic Canons, by H. Tattam, 1848, London.)

Preliminary to the utterance of the so-called Teachings and Canons, the Apostles are represented as assembled together, and acting under the command of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they should "make known these words in all the world." "It therefore pleased them that John should speak first." Then

follow in turn the other Apostles, giving by this fictitious representation a plausible reason for calling the Canons, the Teaching or precepts of the twelve Apostles.

To facilitate a comparison of the "Teachings" with extracts from the Canons and Constitutions, a translation is here given. (Coptic Canons, Bk. I., translated by C. C. J. Bunsen. Hippolytus and his Age, vol. II.)

TEACHING OF THE LORD THROUGH THE DOCTRINE OF THE TWO WAYS.
THE TWELVE APOSTLES TO THE
NATIONS.

III.-My child flee from all wickedness and from everything like it. Be not prone to anger, for anger leadeth to murder; nor envious, nor quarrelsome, nor passionate, for Be not emulous, neither be conten