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Harnack, Adolf. “Prolegomena, § 6. "Die Bearbeitungen der Διδαχὴ τῶν ἀποστόλων und ihre Geschichte in der kirchenrechtlichen Literature" pp. 170-268
“1. Die Διδαχήund das 7. Buch der apostolischen Constitutionen.” pp. 170-192.
Harnack dates book seven of the Apostolic Constitutions to the years 340-380, originating in Syria or Palestine (Harnack 1884, 170). He sees this as an important time of the development of church orders and symbolic formulae, most of which arise from contentions in the Church.
The discovery of the Didache made it clear to scholars that much of the material of book seven of the Apostolic Constitutions, particularly chapters 1-32, is adapted from the Didache (Harnack 1884, 171). This, in turn, has led to further insight into the accuracy of different manuscript traditions of the Apostolic Constitutions. Specifically, in Harnack’s opinion, the Constantinopolitan manuscript of Apostolic Constitutions gives a whole transcript of the Didache, without interpolations (Harnack 1884, 172). Harnack therefore lists a few, in fact only six, small conrrections he thinks should be made to Apostolic Constitutions based on the Didache.
Harnack is most interested that the inclusion of the Didache gives a picture of the development, or possibly rather the stability, of Christianity over the two hundred years between 150 and 350 (Harnack 1884, 173). In numerous ways, detailed by Harnack, the Didache is affirmed in the Apostolic Constitutions.
While chapters 1-6 of the didache were basically transcribed into the Apostolic Constitutions, chapters 7-10 had more commentary added, along with some passages omitted (Harnack 1884, 176). Chapters 11-16 are reproduced with very little change or comment.
Harnack continues his work with the Greek text of Apostolic Constitutions VII.1-32 (Harnack 1884, 178-192).