What is the Clementine Octateuch?

A Syriac collection of church orders in eight books, translated in the late 7th century. Its first two books are the Testament of Our Lord, the third is the Apostolic Church Order, and the rest draw on Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions. It was used by the Syriac Orthodox and the Church of the East.

What is the Clementine Heptateuch?

Another name for the Alexandrine Sinodos: a seven-book Egyptian collection of church orders from the 4th or 5th century, built from the Apostolic Church Order, the Apostolic Tradition and Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions. It survives in Coptic, Arabic and Ge'ez and was used by the Coptic and Ethiopian churches.

Are these collections part of the Bible?

No. They are church law and worship manuals, not scripture. The Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches count some of them in their “broader canon”, which is a wider circle of authoritative writings beyond their standard 81 books.

Did Clement of Rome write them?

No. They are attributed to him in their own titles, but scholars regard that as pseudonymous framing, and the works were compiled and reworked centuries later.

What Are the Clementine Octateuch and Heptateuch?

Early Christians wrote rulebooks in the names of the apostles, then bundled them into bigger books. Different churches kept different bundles, and the names are easy to confuse.

First, what is a church order?

A church order is a manual for how a Christian community lives and worships: how bishops, elders and deacons are ordained, how converts are taught and baptized, how the Eucharist and Easter are kept, how widows are cared for and the dead buried. Many were written in the names of the apostles, or of Jesus himself speaking to the apostles after the resurrection, which gave them authority and explains why they were copied, expanded and combined for centuries. They are not scripture in kind: no church received them into its Bible in the way it received the gospels or the Psalms. But some churches treated particular collections of them as binding rules, and that is why the collections have names.

Why “Clementine”?

Several of the collections are attributed to Clement of Rome, the first-century bishop whose letter to the Corinthians is one of the Apostolic Fathers. The attribution is pseudonymous: the compilers presented their work as the twelve apostles' teaching, arranged and sent out by Clement. Scholars do not think he had anything to do with them. The name stuck as a label for the family.

The Apostolic Constitutions: the eight-book original

The Apostolic Constitutions is the largest single church order, in eight books, written in Greek in Syria and generally dated to the later fourth century. It reworks earlier material, including the Didache and the Didascalia, and is the source of the other collections below. In 692 the Council in Trullo rejected most of it as corrupted by heretical interpolation, but approved the 85 Apostolic Canons that close Book VIII. That is why the Eastern Orthodox Church still holds those canons in high regard while treating the rest of the work as a historical document.

The Clementine Octateuch

“Octateuch” means “eight books.” The Clementine Octateuch is a Syriac collection of church orders in eight books, translated in the late seventh century, and it also survives in Bohairic Coptic and Arabic. It is arranged on the pattern of the eight-book Apostolic Constitutions, but it is not the same work: its first two books are the Testament of Our Lord, its third is the Apostolic Church Order, and its remaining books are drawn from Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions (the Arabic form also includes the Apostolic Tradition). It was used by the Syriac Orthodox (the “Jacobites” of older books) and the Church of the East (the “Nestorians”), as church law for their clergy.

This is why the Testament of Our Lord has a Syriac Orthodox line as well as an Ethiopian one in its canon note on this site: in Syriac it is the opening of the Octateuch, while in Ethiopic it is counted among the church-order books of the broader canon.

The Alexandrine Sinodos, or Clementine Heptateuch

“Heptateuch” means “seven books.” The Alexandrine Sinodos is an Egyptian collection of seven books, dated to the fourth or fifth century, that draws on three sources: the Apostolic Church Order (Book 1), the Egyptian Church Order also known as the Apostolic Tradition (Books 2 and 3), and Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions without its closing Apostolic Canons and its liturgical prayers (Books 4 to 7). The Greek original is lost. It survives in Sahidic and Bohairic Coptic, Arabic and Ge'ez, and it was used in particular by the Coptic and Ethiopian churches.

The Ethiopic Sinodos

In Ethiopia this literature is gathered under the name Sinodos, a collection of church orders that belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox “broader canon” rather than its standard 81 books. The part attributed to the apostles is traditionally divided into four sections: the Ser'atä Seyon (Order of Zion), the Te'ezaz (the Statutes of the Apostles), the Gessew and the Abtelis, and manuscripts often contain more material than that. Scholars note that much of it is Clementine in origin and overlaps with the Syriac Octateuch: the Abtelis is very similar to Book VIII of the Octateuch, and parts of the Te'ezaz appear in its Books III to V. The Alexandrine Sinodos above also exists in Ge'ez, so the Ethiopian church kept material from both families; how the two Ethiopic collections relate is not settled here. The Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches count the Sinodos among their broader-canon books. Even there they are church law and teaching, not the Bible: the broader canon is a wider circle of authoritative writings around the 81.

How they relate

Read together, the pattern is one of borrowing. The Apostolic Constitutions absorbed the Didascalia and the Didache. Book VIII of the Constitutions then became the shared core of both the Syriac Octateuch and the Egyptian Heptateuch, which is why the same prayers and canons turn up in Syriac, Coptic and Ethiopic dress. What differs from one church to another is which bundle it kept and how much authority it gave it.

Where to read them

This site has a Church Orders shelf holding the eight books of the Apostolic Constitutions, the Ethiopic Didascalia, the Sinodos texts and the Testament of Our Lord, each with a note on which churches have used it.

Common questions

What is the Clementine Octateuch?: A Syriac collection of church orders in eight books, translated in the late 7th century. Its first two books are the Testament of Our Lord, the third is the Apostolic Church Order, and the rest draw on Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions. It was used by the Syriac Orthodox and the Church of the East.
What is the Clementine Heptateuch?: Another name for the Alexandrine Sinodos: a seven-book Egyptian collection of church orders from the 4th or 5th century, built from the Apostolic Church Order, the Apostolic Tradition and Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions. It survives in Coptic, Arabic and Ge'ez and was used by the Coptic and Ethiopian churches.
Are these collections part of the Bible?: No. They are church law and worship manuals, not scripture. The Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches count some of them in their “broader canon”, which is a wider circle of authoritative writings beyond their standard 81 books.
Did Clement of Rome write them?: No. They are attributed to him in their own titles, but scholars regard that as pseudonymous framing, and the works were compiled and reworked centuries later.