The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus: Translated into English with Introduction and NotesHippolytus, Antipope
Religion
The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus: Translated into English with Introduction and Notes
Hippolytus, Antipope
Canon law -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Church orders, Ancient
The Latin codex, now in Verona, is a palimpsest,[63] probably of the
sixth century, over which some two centuries later three books of
Isidore of Seville’s _Sentences_ were written. The translation itself
appears to have been made in the fourth century, and is a rendition of
a Greek book of church laws, in which Hippolytus’s book is preceded by
portions of the Didascalia and the complete Apostolic Church Order.
The translator, who presumably had no idea of the authorship of the
closing portion, made his version pedantically literal; a great
advantage to the modern student. Unquestionably neither the
sixth-century copyist, the translator nor the Greek text used was
infallible; the last certainly contained duplications.[64] But the
version is incomparably the best guide that we have. It includes 1.
1-9. 11a, 21. 14-24. 12a, 26. 3b-38. 2a.
The Oriental manuscripts, all comparatively modern,[65] are fairly
numerous,[66] and are likewise collections of laws. The Sahidic—known
also as the Egyptian Heptateuch, from its seven Books—begins with the
Apostolic Church Order. Then (Book II) comes Hippolytus’s work, in
which chapters 1, 3, 4. 4-13, 5-6, 8. 2-5, 9. 9-12 are omitted and
chapters 11-14 are arranged in the order[67] 12, 14, 11, 13; there are
also minor variations to which attention is usually called in the
translation and notes. Books III-VI are parallel to Constitutions
VIII; Book VII contains the Apostolic Canons. Like other Coptic
ecclesiastical writings it teems with transliterated Greek words, so
that the original terms are obvious. But the first translator was
evidently often in doubt as to the meaning of the original, and his
indecisions have not been clarified by later copyists.
The Bohairic was made from an inferior Sahidic manuscript in the early
nineteenth century. All readings of any consequence are listed by
Horner.
The Arabic was made from the Sahidic, which it follows in most
regards, although chapters 11-14 are not disarranged; it was therefore
made from a manuscript other than the archetype of the known Sahidic
codices and has a certain independent textual value. Otherwise its
features are just about those to be expected in a secondary version.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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