Didaskalia Apostolorum

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Didaskalia Apostolorum ( German  teaching of the apostles ) is an early Christian community order that emerged in Syria in the first half of the 3rd century . It was originally written in Greek , but only a complete version in the Old Syrian language (hence also often called Syriac Didaskalia ), a form of Aramaic , and a sketchy Latin translation have survived. Apparently influenced by the Didache , it later found dissemination as part of the Apostolic Constitutions . After their appearance there are no more traces of the Didaskalia.

content

The content includes the following, associatively connected topics (chapter counting according to the edition by Achelis and Flemming):

  • Admonitions on the Christian Life and Prayer (Chapters I to III)
  • Rules on the qualification, conduct of life and teaching of the bishop (Chapters IV to XII)
  • Liturgical Prescriptions for the People of the Church (Chapter XIII)
  • Rules deacons and deaconesses and widows (Chapter XIV-XVI)
  • Raising children, caring for orphans (Chapter XVII)
  • Acceptance of alms (Chapter XVIII)
  • On Martyrdom (Chapter XIX)
  • Teaching on the Resurrection of the Dead (Chapter XX)
  • Doctrine of the Passover and Resurrection of Christ , fasting regulations (Chapter XXI)
  • About Education (Chapter XXII)
  • On Heresies and Divisions (Chapter XXIII)
  • State of the Church and affirmation that all of the rules contained herein were established by the Twelve Apostles (hence the title of the book) (Chapters XXIV and XXV)
  • Condemnation of Jewish ritual practices ( Mishnah ) and repetition of the law, final doxology (Chapter XXVI).

Bishops, male and female deacons, priests and widows are named as church officials , and sub-deacons in one place . The main task of the bishops is to preach and acknowledge repentance .

A theological comparison makes it clear that this is a hierarchical structure of offices: the bishop is compared with God the Father, the deacon with the son and the deacon with the Holy Spirit , who is female in the Semitic languages . “There was no more room for the priests, they are compared with the apostles.” In the Didaskalia this leads to the surprising conclusion that the deaconesses are spiritually superior to the priests.

The text indicates that the congregation for which this ordinance was written apparently consisted of men, women, children, bishops, deacons, deacons, lay people , widows, orphans, and strangers. Furthermore, rules are given for the ethical attitude , social life, religious teaching and pastoral care within the community.

Text transmission

The original Greek text, which Paul Lagarde published in 1854 from the Codex Sangermanensis , is only available in its entirety in Syrian , after he had already proven in 1852 that the Didaskalia Apostolorum formed the basis of the Apostolic Constitutions.

A palimpsest with a Latin translation of the work ( Codex Veronensis LV (53), dated to the end of the 5th century, between 486 and 494) was found and deciphered by Edmund Hauler in Verona, published in part in 1896 and in full in 1900. Hauler's edition contains about two fifths of the text. In 1979 Arthur Võõbus published Greek fragments of the Didaskalia Apostolorum.


literature

expenditure

  • Franz Xaver Funk : Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum. 2 volumes, 1905.
  • Didascalia apostolorum. Syriace. Ed. Paul de Lagarde. Reprod. photogr. ed. 1854. Osnabrück: Zeller; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 1967
  • Hans Achelis , Johannes Paul Gotthilf Flemming : The Syrian Didaskalia. Translated and explained (= The oldest sources of oriental canon law, Volume 2). Hinrichs, Leipzig 1904 ( digitized version )

Studies

Web links

Individual evidence

The Didaskalia Apostolorum is quoted as DA (page), (line) according to the edition by Achelis and Flemming.

  1. ↑ Hans Achelis, Johannes Paul Gotthilf Flemming: The Syrian Didaskalia. Translated and explained (= The oldest sources of oriental canon law, Volume 2). Hinrichs, Leipzig 1904, p. 390
  2. ^ Ernst Leuninger: Women in early Christianity. Lecture given in Limburg on September 28, 1997
  3. ↑ DA 46,26ff.
  4. ↑ a b c Valentina Ragucci: Didascalia apostolorum: testo siriaco, traduzione italiana, sinossi e commento sulla formazione del testo. Dissertation, University of Bologna . ( online )
  5. ↑ Hans Achelis, Johannes Paul Gotthilf Flemming: The Syrian Didaskalia. Translated and explained (= The oldest sources of oriental canon law, Volume 2). Hinrichs, Leipzig 1904, foreword, p. IV
  6. ^ A b Hans Achelis, Johannes Paul Gotthilf Flemming: The Syrian Didaskalia. Translated and explained (= The oldest sources of oriental canon law, Volume 2). Hinrichs, Leipzig 1904, foreword, p. I