The Apostolic Constitutions

Church father · about 375

A manual of church order in eight books, compiled in Syria about 375 and set out as the teaching of the apostles. Its first six books rework an older church order, the Didascalia, of the 3rd century.

Quoted For

  • Matthew 6:13 “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen”
    Apostolic Constitutions 7.24 · Quotes part of it
  • John 7:53–8:11 “And every man went unto his own house …”
    Apostolic Constitutions 2.24 · Alludes to it

The church fathers are the early Christian writers. Their quotations show which reading was known, where, and when, often earlier than any manuscript of the passage that survives.