PART IV

35. ¹Let all the faithful, whether men or women, when early in the morning they rise from their sleep and before they undertake any tasks, wash their hands and pray to God; and so they may go to their duties. ²But if any instruction in God’s word is held [that day], everyone ought to attend it willingly,[136] recollecting that he will hear God speaking through the instructor and[137] that prayer in the church enables him to avoid the day’s evil; any godly man ought to count it a great loss if he does not attend the place of instruction, especially if he can read.

³If a [specially gifted][138] teacher should come, let none of you delay[139] to attend the place where the instruction is given, for grace will be given to the speaker to utter things profitable to all, and thou wilt hear new things,[140] and thou wilt be profited by what the Holy Spirit will give thee through the instructor; so thy faith will be strengthened by what thou hearest, and in that place thou wilt learn thy duties at home; therefore let everyone be zealous to go to the church, the place where the Holy Spirit abounds.[141]

36. ¹But if on any day there is no instruction, let everyone at home take the Bible and read sufficiently in passages that he finds profitable.

²If at the third hour thou art at home, pray then and give thanks to God; but if thou chance to be abroad at that hour, make thy prayer to God in thy heart. ³For at that hour Christ was nailed to the tree; therefore in the old [covenant] the law commanded the showbread to be offered continually for a type of the body and blood of Christ, and commanded the sacrifice of the dumb lamb, which was a type of the perfect Lamb; for Christ is the Shepherd, and he is also the Bread that came down from heaven.

⁴At the sixth hour likewise pray also, for, after Christ was nailed to the wood of the cross, the day was divided and there was a great darkness; wherefore let [the faithful] pray at that hour with an effectual prayer, likening themselves to the voice of him who prayed [and] caused all creation to become dark for the unbelieving Jews.

⁵And at the ninth hour let a great prayer and a great thanksgiving be made, such as made[142] the souls of the righteous ones, blessing the Lord, LAT the God who does not lie, who was mindful of his saints and sent forth his Word to enlighten them. ⁶At that hour, therefore, Christ poured forth from his pierced side water and blood, and brought the rest of the time of that day with light to evening; so, when he fell asleep, by making the beginning of another day he completed the pattern of his resurrection.

⁷Pray again before thy body rests on thy bed.

⁸At midnight arise, wash thy hands with water and pray. ⁹And if thy wife is with thee, pray ye both together; but if she is not yet a believer, go into another room and pray, and again return to thy bed; be not slothful in prayer.

¹⁰He who has used the marriage bed is not defiled; for they who are bathed have no need to wash again, for they are clean. ¹¹By signing thyself with thy moist breath, and so spreading spittle[143] on thy body with thy hand, thou art sanctified to thy feet; for the gift of the Spirit and the sprinkling with water, when it is brought with a believing heart as it were from a fountain, sanctifies him who believes.

¹²It is needful to pray at this hour; for those very elders who gave us the tradition taught us that at this hour all creation rests for a certain moment, that all creatures may praise the Lord: stars and trees and waters stand still with one accord, and all the angelic host does service to God by praising Him, together with the souls of the righteous. ¹³For this cause believers should be zealous to pray at this hour; for the Lord, testifying to this, says: “Behold at midnight is a cry, Behold the Bridegroom cometh! Rise up to meet him!”; and he adds insistently: “Watch ye therefore, for ye know not at what hour he cometh”.

¹⁴And at cockcrow rise up and pray likewise, for at that hour of cockcrow the children of Israel denied Christ, whom we have known by faith; by which faith, in the hope of eternal life at the resurrection of the dead, we look for his Day.

¹⁵And so, all ye faithful, if ye thus act, and are mindful of these things, and teach them to one another, and cause the catechumens to be zealous, ye can neither be tempted nor can ye perish, since ye have Christ always in your minds.

37.[144] ¹But imitate him always, by signing thy forehead sincerely; for this is the sign of his Passion, manifest and approved against the devil if so thou makest it from faith; not that thou mayest appear to men, but knowingly offering it as a shield. ²For the adversary, seeing its power coming from the heart, that a man displays the publicly formed image of baptism,[145] is put to flight; not because thou spittest, but because the Spirit in thee breathes him away. ³When Moses formed it by putting the blood of the Paschal lamb that was slain on the lintel and anointing the side-posts, he signified the faith which now we have in the perfect Lamb.

38.[146] ¹And so, if these things are accepted with thanksgiving and right faith, they give edification in the church and eternal life to believers. ²I counsel that these things be kept by all who know aright; for over all who hear the apostolic tra[dition] SAH and keep it, no heretics or any other man will prevail to lead them astray. ³For the many heresies have increased because their leaders would not learn the purpose of the apostles but acted according to their own wills, following their lusts and not what was right.

⁴Now, beloved, if we have omitted anything, God will reveal it to those who are worthy, guiding the holy church to its mooring in [God’s] quiet haven.

LATER ADDITIONS

ETH 24. ¹On Saturday and Sunday the bishop shall whenever possible give the people the bread with his own hand, while the deacons break it. ²The presbyters too shall break the bread to be delivered; and whenever a deacon approaches a presbyter he shall hold out his robe,[147] and the presbyter shall take the bread and deliver it to the people with his hand.

³On other days they shall give the bread as the bishop determines.

On this section compare p. 31. It may be further observed that section 2 is pretty clearly an addition.

ETH 26. ¹⁴In time of need the deacon shall be diligent in giving the blessed bread[148] to the sick. ¹⁵If there is no presbyter to give out what is to be distributed, the deacon shall pronounce the thanksgiving and shall supervise[149] those who carry it away, to make sure that they attend to their duty and [properly] distribute the blessed food; the distributors must give it to the widows and the sick. ¹⁶Whoever is entrusted with the duty by the church[150] must distribute it on the same day; if he does not, he must [at least] do so on the next day with the addition of what is then given him. ¹⁷For [it is not his own property]; it is given him only [in trust] as bread for the poor.

¹⁸When evening has come and the bishop is present, the deacon shall bring in a lamp. ¹⁹Then the bishop, standing in the midst of the believers, before giving thanks shall first give the salutation:

The Lord be with you all.

²⁰And the people shall say:

[And] with thy spirit.

²¹And the bishop shall say:

Let us give thanks to the Lord.

²²And the people shall say:

It is meet and right: Majesty, exaltation and glory are due to Him.

²³But they shall not say “Lift up your hearts”, for that belongs to the oblation. ²⁴And he prays thus, saying:

We give thee thanks, O God, because thou hast enlightened us by revealing the incorruptible light. ²⁵So we, having finished the length of a day, and being come to the beginning of the night, satisfied with the light of the day that thou hast created for our satisfaction; and now, since by thy grace we lack not a light for the evening, we sanctify thee and we glorify thee. ²⁶Through thine only Son our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom be to thee with him glory and might and honour with [the] Holy Spirit, now, etc.[151]

²⁷And they shall all say: Amen.

²⁸Then, rising up after supper, the children and virgins having prayed, they shall sing psalms. ²⁹Then the deacon, holding the mixed cup of the offering, shall say a Hallelujah Psalm.[152] ³⁰Then, the presbyter having commanded, “And also such-and-such Psalms”, after the bishop has offered the cup[153] with the proper thanksgiving, all shall say “Hallelujah” as the Psalms are sung. ³¹And they shall say:

We praise Him who is God most high; Glorified and praised is He, Who founded the world with a single word.[154]

³²Then, when the Psalm is completed, he shall give thanks over the bread, and shall give the fragments to all the believers.

On these sections compare p. 31. An evening service, that included bringing in the lamp, is widespread in early Christianity and is eventually derived from Judaism; the particular service described here is a prelude to a congregational agape. There is nothing in sections 18-32 that necessarily implies a date later than Hippolytus, but the ceremony is badly placed between the private agapes and the equally private meals for the widows, and it is followed by a duplication of 26. 2, 10-12.

LAT 31. ¹The faithful, early in the morning, as soon as they have awaked and arisen, before they undertake their tasks shall pray to God and so may then go to their duties. ²But if any instruction in the word is held, let each give first place to that, that he may attend and hear the word of God, to his soul’s comfort; so let each one hasten to the church, where the Spirit abounds.

32. ¹But let each of the faithful be zealous, before he eats anything else, to receive the eucharist; for if anyone receives it with faith, after such a reception he cannot be harmed even if a deadly poison should be given him. ²But let each one take care that no unbeliever taste the eucharist, nor a mouse nor any other animal, and that nothing of it fall or be lost; for the body of Christ is to be eaten by believers and must not be despised. ³The cup, when thou hast given thanks in the name of the Lord, thou hast accepted as the image of the blood of Christ. ⁴Therefore let none of it be spilled, so that no alien spirit may lick it up, as if thou didst despise it; thou shalt be guilty of the blood, as if thou didst scorn the price with which thou hast been bought.[155]

In the Oriental versions the position of chapters 31-32 between chapters 30 and 33 is impossible. Chapter 30 addresses the church’s officers, chapters 31-32 individuals, chapters 33-34 the officers, and chapter 35 individuals again; chapter 31, in addition, is only a condensation of 35. 1-3. But the Hauler manuscript clears up the difficulty. In it chapter 32 is followed immediately by the Latin A form of 37. 1-38. 2a, breaking off at the end of a leaf with “apo” (for “apostolic”). The next leaf begins with “God” in the middle of 36. 5, and the text continues through 36, gives the Latin B form of 37. 1-38. 2a and breaks off this time with “tra” for “tradition”. So two versions of the work were current with different endings; in one chapter 30 was followed by 31-32 and the A conclusion, in the other it was followed by 33-35 and the B conclusion. In the Hauler manuscript both endings were reproduced, although the leaves containing the last two sentences of the first and a considerable part of the second have been lost. In the Oriental versions—or the Greek codex underlying them—the glaring duplication caused by the ending after 32 was suppressed, although the doubling of 35. 1-3 in 31 remained.

Since chapter 34 is unmistakably Roman and consequently Hippolytean, the longer ending is original; chapter 33, moreover, is perfectly in place after chapter 30. So Schwartz[156] and Jungklaus are correct in holding[157] that