Thoughts on Antiquity

This post is part 6 of my series on ancient canonical lists.

The pseudo-Clementine Apostolic Constitutions are a fascinating Christian document from century IV. Their genre is that of church order, similar in style to the Didache, the Didascalia, or the so-called Apostolic Church Ordinance, all of which are discussed in the Catholic Encyclopedia entry hosted by New Advent.

Book 8 contains the 85 Apostolic Canons in its last chapter, and the last of these canons contains a list of the canonical books of both Testaments of the Bible.

Apostolic Constitutions 8.47.85b:

Ημετερα δε, τουτ εστι της καινης διαθηκης, ευαγγελια μεν τεσσαρα, ως και εν τοις προλαβουσιν ειπομεν, Ματθαιου, Μαρκου, Λουκα, Ιωαννου, Παυλου επιστολαι δεκατεσσαρες, Ιακωβου μια, Ιωαννου τρεις, Ιουδα μια, Πετρου δυο, Κλημεντος δυο, και αι διαταγαι υμιν τοις επισκοποις δι εμου Κλημεντος εν οκτω βιβλιοις προσπεφωνημεναι, ας ου χρη δημοσιευειν επι παντων δια τα εν αυταις μυστικα, και αι πραξεις ημων των αποστολων.

But our [books], that is, those of the New Testament, are the four gospels, as we have also said in the foregoing, of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the fourteen epistles of Paul, one of James, three of John, one of Jude, two of Peter, two of Clement, and the constitutions dedicated to you the bishops by me, Clement, in eight books, which it is not necessary to publicize before all on account of the mysteries in them, and the Acts of us, the Apostles.

Doubtless it will help to see these works in list format:

• Four gospels.
  1. Gospel of Matthew.
  2. Gospel of Mark.
  3. Gospel of Luke.
  4. Gospel of John.
• Fourteen Pauline epistles.
• One epistle of James.
• Three epistles of John.
• One epistle of Jude.
• Two epistles of Peter.
• Two epistles of Clement.
• The constitutions of Clement in eight books, containing mysteries.
• Acts.

Several oddities stand out in this list.

First, both epistles of Clement make the list. Counting the first epistle as canonical is rare; counting the second is practically unique, at least to date. Eusebius does imply in History of the Church 3.38.4 that some churchmen in his day regarded it as genuine:

Ιστεον δ ως και δευτερα τις ειναι λεγεται του Κλημεντος επιστολη· ου μην εθ ομοιως τη προτερα και ταυτην γνωριμον επισταμεθα, οτι μηδε τους αρχαιους αυτη κεχρημενους ισμεν.

But it must be observed also that there is said to be a second epistle of Clement. But we know that this is not recognized like the former, since we do not find that the ancients have made any use of it.

Second, the author of our list counts his own eight-volume work amongst the canonical books! I am not aware of any other list that does this, though the warning in Revelation 22.18-19 perhaps bears a somewhat similar character. Of course, the author is passing himself off as Clement of Rome, so he is not actually claiming that a contemporary text (contemporary to someone living in century IV) is canonical in so many words; he is claiming that the historical Clement wrote mysteries and did not publicize them. I suspect that this is a way of explaining why nobody would have heard of these eight volumes during the centuries intervening between I and IV.

Third, the position of the book of Acts is interesting. It is listed at the very end, even after the 8 books of Clement.

It also bears mentioning that this list includes the fullest complement of catholic epistles that we have seen. We have noted that Eusebius of Caesarea named all seven of the catholic epistles that are now deemed canonical (1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, Jude, James), but placed all but 1 Peter and 1 John into his disputed category. Our present list makes no such distinction; all are equally canonical, it would appear.

The epistle to the Hebrews is apparently counted amongst the Pauline epistles, since the number is given as 14. That the apocalypse of John, then, should be excluded from this otherwise very inclusive list surprises me a bit, but it ought to be remembered that the apocalypse was one of the very last books to enjoy catholic status as a canonical book.

In my next post of this series I will consider the canon of the Jerusalem father Cyril.