1 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. 14m173, 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 Metropolitoe Soboe et Armenioe collectio canonum Synodicorum by Cardinal Mai. It is also cited by Bar Hebraeus 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.]
2 A. omits "three hundred and." They are supplied from B. the reading of C. is 342.
3 This month answers to Sivan, which began with the new moon of june.-TR.
5 The day of Pentecost seems to be put for that of the Ascension.
6 Syr. "Baith Zaithe." Comp. Luke xxiv. 50 sqq.
8 [It is evident that the apostle shad no such ideas until after the vision of St. Peter, Acts x. 9-35.]
9 [It is evident that the apostle shad no such ideas until after the vision of St. Peter, Acts x. 9-35.]
10 The reading of B and C.: A. reads "answered them."
11 B. reads "suddenly." [The translator interpolates upon him.]
12 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.
14 B. and C. read "at the last." Ebediesu has "from heaven."
16 C. reads "His holy angels."
17 For Ords. 3 and 4, see Ap. Const., v. 13-15.
18 B. reads "His manifestation."
20 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, paraskeuh/, which the Peshito translates by our word, is used in the Gospels for the sixth day, with a prospective reference to the seventh.-TR.
22 Comp. Eccl. Canons, No. 43. The Gr. u0podia/konoi 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.]
23 , equivalent, not to e0pi/skopoj, but to skopo/j = watchman, as in Ezek. xxxiii. 7.
26 See Ap. Const., v. 13. Christmas, of which no mentikon 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.]
27 January: the Jewish Tebeth. "The former Canun" is December, i.e., Chisleu.-TR.
28 The era of the Seleucidae, 311 a.d., appears to be referred to. In this new names were given to certain months, and Canun was one of them. See p. 666, supra.
29 Eccl. Can., No. 69.-TR. See Ap. Const., v. 13-15.
30 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.
32 See Ap. Const., ii. 57; Teaching of Simon Cephas, ad fin; Eccl. Can., Nos. 60, 85.-TR.
33 B. and C., as well as Ebediesu, read "and."
34 Lit. "it is not certain (or firm) to him."-TR.
35 The exact words of the Peshito of 1 Sam. ii. 3. The E.V. following the K'ri wlw
, instead of the )lw
of the text, redners "And by Him actions are weighted." The Peshito translator may have confounded the Heb. verb Nbt@
which appears not to exist in Aramaean, with its own verb Nqt@
( ), throught the similarity in sound of the gutturals 'th/
and q
36 See Eccl. Canons, No. 44-TR.
37 Comp. Eccl. Canons, Nos. 65, 70, 71.-TR.
38 See Eccl. Canons, No. 35.-TR.
39 See the letter of the Church of Smyrna on the martyrdom of Polycarp, and Euseb., Hist. Eccl., iv. 15: [also p. 664, note 4, uspra].
41 The particip. , though usually pass., may, like some other participles Peil, be taken actively, as appears from a passage qutoed by Dr. R Payne Smith, Thes. Syr., s.v. This would seem to be the only possible way of taking it here.-TR.
42 Comp. Ap. Const., ii. 45 sqq.
43 [Note the Institutions of Samuel, vol. vii. p. 531, and observe the prominence here assigned to that prophet. Comp. Acts iii. 24.]
44 [But note the case of Ambrose and Theodosius; Sozomen, Eccl. Hist., book vii. cap. 25.]
46 The belief was common among the Jacobites that Caiaphas, whose full name was Joseph Caiaphas, was the same person as the historian Josephus, and that he was converted to Christianity. See Assem., Bibl. Orient., vol. ii. p. 165.
47 [The visible Church and sacraments are necessary, on this principle, to the conversion of the world.]
48 [Perhaps a metaphrase of Job v. 12, 13.]
49 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.]
50 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 in to the Syriac canon: see De Wette, Einl., 6th ed. p. 342.
51 So the printed text. But "the apostles" seems to be meant.-TR.
52 See note 10 on p. 668.-TR. It is plain from this that the Epistles were not at that time considered pat of what was called the New Testament, nor the prophets of the Old.