Origins of the Canons of Hippolytus

Nathan P. Chase (1990-2025) was assistant professor of liturgical and sacramental theology at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. He contributed articles to the field of liturgical studies, including pieces on liturgy in the early Church, initiation, the Eucharist, inculturation, and the Western Non-Roman Rites, particularly the Hispano-Mozarabic tradition. With Maxwell E. Johnson, he co-authored The Apostolic Tradition: Its Origins, Development, and Liturgical Practices (Liturgical Press, 2025), and The Origins of the Canons of Hippolytus (Liturgical Press, 2024). He was the author of The Homiliae Toletanae and the Theology of Lent and Easter (Peeters, 2020) and The Anaphoral Tradition in the ‘Barcelona Papyrus’ (Brepols, 2023).Maxwell E. Johnson is emeritus professor of liturgy at the University of Notre Dame and a retired presbyter in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His numerous publications are on the origins and development of early Christian liturgy, contemporary rites, and current ecumenical and theological questions in both East and West. He is the author and/or editor of more than twenty-five books and over one hundred essays and articles. He is also a former president of the North American Academy of Liturgy, a member of the Society of Oriental Liturgy, a member of Societas Liturgica, and a member of the scientific advisory board for the journal Ecclesia Orans. He has received the Berakah Award from the North American Academy of Liturgy and the Christus Rex Award from the Liturgical Studies Institute at Valparaiso University.

• ContentsAbbreviations   ixIntroduction   xiI. The Church Orders   xiiII. Comparing The Apostolic Tradition and the Canons of Hippolytus   xviiiCommentaryCH §1 – Concerning the Holy Faith   3CH §2 – Concerning Bishops   5CH §3 – Prayer over him who becomes Bishop, and Order of the Liturgy   15CH §4 – Concerning the Ordination of Presbyters   21CH §5 – Concerning the Ordination of Deacons   25CH §7 – Concerning the Choice of Reader and of Subdeacon   27CH §9b – [Concerning . . . the Function of Widows]   29CH §12 – Prohibition of Several Occupations: He who is involved in them is only to be received after Repentance   31CH §16 – Concerning the Christian who has a Concubine and is Married to Another   35 CH §17 – Concerning the Free Woman: What she [must] do   37CH §18 – Concerning the Midwives and the Separation of Women from Men during Prayer:The Girls are to Veil Their Head; Concerning the Women who give Birth   41CH §19   4319a  Concerning the Catechumen who is Killed because of Witness before Baptism: He is to be Buried with the Martyrs.Concerning the Catechumens: The Conditions which the Catechumens are to fulfil during the Baptism and the Exorcism,the Order of the Liturgy of Baptism, and the Consecration of the Liturgy of the Body and the Blood19b  Chapter of the CatechumensCH §20 – Concerning the Fast of Wednesday, of Friday, and of the Forty   53CH §21 – Concerning the Assembly of all the Priests and of the People at the Church each Day   57CH §22 – Concerning the Week of the Passover of the Jews, During which one sets aside Joy:Concerning what one Eats then, and Concerning him who was Abroad and did not know the Pascha   63CH §§24/25a   6724    Concerning the Visit of the Bishop to the Sick: When a Sick Person has Prayed in Church and has a Home, he is to go there25a  Concerning [the Appointment of] the Steward of the Sick by the Bishop . . .CH §§25b/26/27   7125b  [ . . . Concerning the Times of Prayer] 26 Concerning the hearing of the Word in Church and Prayer There 27 Concerninghim who does not go to Church, Each Day he is to Read the Scriptures—Each Time you Pray, Wash your Hands—and Concerningthe Exhortation to Prayer in the Middle of the Night and at the Time when the Cock CrowsCH §28 – None of the Faithful is to Taste Anything until after having Partaken of the Mysteries, especially on the Days of Fasting   77CH §29 – Concerning Vigilance over the Altar so that Nothing falls into the Cup: Nothing is to fall [into it] by [the fault of] thePriests or the Faithful, for Fear that an Evil Spirit should have Power over it. One is not to say anything behind the Veil, except in Prayer.When they have finished communicating the People, all those who enter into the [Holy] Place are to recite the Psalms in Place of the Bells. AndConcerning the Sign of the Cross, and the Dust of the Sanctuary which is to be thrown into the Stream   81CH §30 – Concerning the Catechumens   85CH §32 – Concerning the Virgins and Widows: They are to Fast and Pray in the Church. The Clergy are to Fast according to their Choice.The Bishop is not to be held to the Fast, except with the Clergy. And concerning a Meal or Supper arranged for the Poor   87CH §35 – Concerning a Deacon present at a Meal in the Absence of a Presbyter. He is to replace him for the Prayer and the Breakingof the Bread, for the Blessing but not for the Body. Concerning the Dismissal of the Widows before Evening   93 CH §36 – Concerning the First Fruits of the Earth, the First of their Floors and their Presses: Oil, Honey, Milk, Wool, andthe Rest which one brings to the Bishop for him to Bless It   95CH §37 – Concerning the Fact that Every Time the Bishop offers the Mysteries, the Deacons and the Presbyters are to join [him],Clothed in White Garments, more magnificent than [those of] all the People: Similarly, the Readers   99CH §38 – Concerning the Night when our Lord was Raised: No one is to Sleep that Night, and one is to Bathe [beforehand].Concerning him who sins after Baptism and Explanation of that, And the Prohibition of what one ought not [to do],and of the Practice of what one ought [to do]   103Conclusion   113

"In the many iterations of the so-called Apostolic Tradition, the Canons of Hippolytus is an important early example. Drawing on the Ethiopian evidence of the Aksumite Collection, Nathan Chase and Maxwell Johnson present a well-argued and convincing case for accepting Egypt as the sole provenance of this Church Order. This work is crucial for all who study liturgy and ministry in early Christian Egypt."Bryan D. Spinks, Bishop F. Percy Goddard Professor Emeritus of Liturgical Studies and Pastoral Theology, Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School