Hippolytus: The Apostolic Tradition

From Prayers of the Eucharist: Early and Reformed

R.C.D. Jasper and G.J. Cuming

 

The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus is generally believed to have survived in the form of an anonymous, untitled work which in the nineteenth century was given the name of The Egyptian Church Order. This has come down to us in Latin, Coptic, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, and in various adaptations such as The Apostolic Constitutions (see pp. 70-79) and the Testamentum Domini. Its identification with the work of Hippolytus was proposed by E. Schwartz (1910) and R.H. Connolly (1916), and implied a date of c. A.D. 215. The work professedly reflects ‘the tradition which has remained until now’, and so may be taken as a witness to Roman practice some fifty years earlier. This brings it close to the time of Justin, with whose account it agrees quite closely. Like Justin, Hippolytus describes two eucharists, one following the consecration of a bishop, the other after a baptism. He gives us the earliest surviving text of a eucharistic prayer, but this should be regarded as an individual specimen rather than as an invariable form.

Since the original Greek is largely lost, the translation is necessarily debatable. Here chapters 4, 5, 6, 22 and 23 (Dix’s numbering; in Botte’s they are 4, 5, 6 and 21) are translated from the Latin; chapter 10 (Botte 9), which is lacking from the Latin, from the Sahidic Coptic version.

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

B. Botte, La Tradition Apostolique de Saint Hippolyte (1972).

G. Dix, The Apostolic Tradition of Saint Hippolytus (1986, ed. H. Chadwick).

R.H. Connolly, “The Eucharistic Prayer of Hippolytus”, in Journal of Theological Studies, 39 (1938), pp. 350-369.

G. Dix, The Shape, pp. 157-62

J.A. Jungmann, The Early Liturgy (1960), pp. 52-73

Bouyer, pp. 158-82

 

Chapter 1: Prologue

Chapters 2, 3: Consecration of a Bishop

 

Chapter 4: The Eucharist

1.         And when he has been made bishop, all shall offer the kiss of peace, greeting him because[1] he has been made worthy.

2.         And the deacons shall present the offering to him; and he, laying his hands on it with all the presbytery, shall say, giving thanks:

3.         The Lord be with you.[2]

And all shall say:

            And with you spirit.

            Up with your hearts.[3]

            We have them with the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord.

It is fitting and right.

And then shall he continue thus:

4.         We render thanks to you, O God, through your beloved child[4] Jesus Christ, whom in the last times you sent to us as saviour and redeemer and angel of your will;

5.         who is your inseparable Word, through whom you made all things, and in whom you were well pleased.

6.         You sent him from heaven into the Virgin’s womb; and, conceived in the womb, he was made flesh and was manifested as your Son, being born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin.

7.         Fulfilling your will and gaining for you a holy people, he stretched out his hands when he should suffer, that he might release from suffering those who have believed in you.

8.         And when he was betrayed to voluntary suffering that he might destroy death, and break the bonds of the devil, and tread down hell, and shine upon the righteous, and fix the limit, and manifest resurrection,

9.         he took bread and gave thanks to you, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body, which shall be broken for you.” Likewise also the cup saying, “This is my blood, which is shed for you;

10.       when you do this, you make my remembrance.”

11.       Remembering therefore his death and resurrection, we offer to you the bread and the cup, giving thank because you have held us worthy to stand before you and minister to you.

12.       And we ask that you would send you Holy Spirit upon the offering of your holy Church; that, gathering them into one, you would grant to all who partake of the holy things (to partake_ for the fullness of the Holy Spirit for the confirmation of faith in truth;[5]

13. that we may praise and glorify you through your child[6] Jesus Christ, through whom glory and honour to you, to the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit, in your holy Church, both now and to the ages of ages. (Amen.)

 

 

Chapter 5: The Blessing of the Oil

1.         If anyone offers oil, (the bishop) shall render thanks in the same way as for the offering of bread and wine, not saying (it) word for word but with similar effect, saying:

2.         O God, sanctifier of this oil, as you [7]give health to⁷ those who use[8] and receive (that) with which you anointed kings, priests, and prophets, o may it give strength to all those who taste it and health to all that use it.

 

Chapter 6: The Blessing of Cheese and Olives

1.         Likewise if anyone offers cheese and olives, he shall say thus:

2.         Sanctify this milk which has been coagulated, coagulating us also to your love.

3.         Make this fruit of the olive not to depart from your sweetness, which is an example of your richness which you have poured from the tree of life to them that hope in you.

4.         But in every blessing shall be said:

            To you be glory, to the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit, in the holy Church, both now and always and to all the ages of ages. (Amen.)

 

Chapter 7: Spurious Prayers

Chapter 8.1 – 10.2: Priests, Deacons and Confessors

 

Chapter 10

3.         And the bishop shall give thanks according to what we said above.

4.         It is not at all necessary for him to say the same words as we said above, as though trying (to say them) from memory, hen giving thanks to God; but let each pray according to his ability.

5.         If indeed he is able to pray sufficiently long with a solemn prayer, it is good. Bu if, when he prays, he recites a prayer according to a fixed form, no one shall prevent him. Only, let his prayer be correct and orthodox.

 

Chapters 11-15: Minor Orders

Chapters 16-19: Catechumens

Chapters 20, 21: Baptism

 

Chapter 22

1.         Post-baptismal prayer.

3.         Anointing.

3, 4.     Sealing

5.         Thenceforward (the newly baptized) shall pray together with all the people; but they shall not previously pray with the faithful unless they have carried out all these things.

6.         And after the prayers, let them offer the kiss of peace.

 

Chapter 23: The Paschal Eucharist

1.         And then let the offering be brought up by the deacons to the bishop: and he shall give thanks over the bread for the representation, which the Greeks call antitype, of the body of Christ; and the cup mixed with wine [9]for the antitype, which the Greeks call likeness⁹, of the blood which was shed for all who have believed in him;

2.         (and over) milk and honey mixed together in the fulfillment of the promise which was made to (our) fathers, in which he said, “a land flowing with milk and honey”; in which also Christ gave his flesh, through which those who believe are nourished like little children, making the bitterness of the heart sweet by the gentleness of his word;

3.         and (over) water, as an offering to signify the washing, that the inner man also, which is the soul, may receive the same things as the body.

4.         And the bishop shall give a reason for all these things to those who receive.

5.         And when he breaks the bread, in distributing fragments to each, he shall say:

            The bread of heaven in Christ Jesus.

6.         And he who receives shall answer: Amen.

7.         And if there are not enough presbyters, the deacons also shall hold the cups, and stand by in good order and reverence: first, he who holds the water; second, the milk; third, the wine.

8.         And they who receive [10]shall taste of each thrice, he who gives it saying¹⁰: In God the Father Almighty.

And he who receives shall say: Amen.

9.         And in the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)

10.       And in the holy Spirit and the holy Church.

And he shall say: Amen.

11.       So shall it be done to each one.

 

Chapters 24-38: Other Church Observances