Apostolic Constitutions

Now, as to women's baptizing, we let you know that there is no small peril to those that undertake it. Therefore we do not advise you to it; for it is dangerous, or rather wicked and impious. For if the "man be the head of the woman," [1 Corinthians 11:3] and he be originally ordained for the priesthood, it is not just to abrogate the order of the creation, and leave the principal to come to the extreme part of the body. For the woman is the body of the man, taken from his side, and subject to him, from whom she was separated for the procreation of children. For says He, "He shall rule over you." [Genesis 3:16] For the principal part of the woman is the man, as being her head. But if in the foregoing constitutions we have not permitted them to teach, how will any one allow them, contrary to nature, to perform the office of a priest? For this is one of the ignorant practices of the Gentile atheism, to ordain women priests to the female deities, not one of the constitutions of Christ. For if baptism were to be administered by women, certainly our Lord would have been baptized by His own mother, and not by John; or when He sent us to baptize, He would have sent along with us women also for this purpose. But now He has nowhere, either by constitution or by writing, delivered to us any such thing; as knowing the order of nature, and the decency of the action; as being the Creator of nature, and the Legislator of the constitution.

Let him use those tenths and first-fruits, which are given according to the command of God, as a man of God; as also let him dispense in a right manner the free-will offerings which are brought in on account of the poor, to the orphans, the widows, the afflicted, and strangers in distress, as having that God for the examiner of his accounts who has committed the disposition to him. Distribute to all those in want with righteousness, and yourselves use the things which belong to the Lord, but do not abuse them; eating of them, but not eating them all up by yourselves: communicate with those that are in want, and thereby show yourselves unblameable before God. For if you shall consume them by yourselves, you will be reproached by God, who says to such unsatiable people, who alone devour all, "You eat up the milk, and clothe yourselves with the wool;" [Ezekiel 34:3] and in another passage, "Must you alone live upon the earth"? [Isaiah 5:8] Upon which account you are commanded in the law, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself." [Leviticus 19:18] Now we say these things, not as if you might not partake of the fruits of your labours; for it is written, "You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox which treads out the grain;" [Deuteronomy 25:4; 1 Corinthians 9:9] but that you should do it with moderation and righteousness. As, therefore, the ox that labours in the threshing-floor without a muzzle eats indeed, but does not eat all up; so do you who labour in the threshing-floor, that is, in the Church of God, eat of the Church: which was also the case of the Levites, who served in the tabernacle of the testimony, which was in all things a type of the Church.

Account these worthy to be esteemed your rulers and your kings, and bring them tribute as to kings; for by you they and their families ought to be maintained. As Samuel made constitutions for the people concerning a king [1 Samuel 8:11-18], in the first book of Kings, and Moses did so concerning priests in Leviticus, so do we also make constitutions for you concerning bishops. For if there the multitude distributed the inferior services in proportion to so great a king, ought not therefore the bishop much more now to receive of you those things which are determined by God for the sustenance of himself and of the rest of the clergy belonging to him? But if we may add somewhat further, let the bishop receive more than the other received of old: for he only managed the affairs of the soldiery, being entrusted with war and peace for the preservation of men's bodies; but the other is entrusted with the exercise of the priestly office in relation to God, in order to preserve both body and soul from dangers. By how much, therefore, the soul is more valuable than the body, so much the priestly office is beyond the kingly. For it binds and looses those that are worthy of punishment or of remission. Wherefore you ought to love the bishop as your father, and fear him as your king, and honour him as your lord, bringing to him your fruits and the works of your hands, for a blessing upon you, giving to him your first-fruits, and your tithes, and your oblations, and your gifts, as to the priest of God; the first-fruits of your wheat, and wine, and oil, and autumnal fruits, and wool, and all things which the Lord God gives you. And your offering shall be accepted as a savour of a sweet smell to the Lord your God; and the Lord will bless the works of your hands, and will multiply the good things of the land. "For a blessing is upon the head of him that gives." [Proverbs 11:26]

Let us therefore, beloved, consider what sort of glory that of the seditious is, and what their condemnation [is]. For if he that rises up against kings is worthy of punishment, even though he is a son or a friend, how much more the one who rises up against the priests! For by how much the priesthood is more noble than the royal power, since its concern is for the soul, so much has the one a greater punishment who ventures to oppose the priesthood than the one who ventures to oppose the royal power, although neither of them goes unpunished. For neither did Absalom nor Abdadan escape without punishment; nor Korah and Dathan. The former rose against David, and strove concerning the kingdom; the latter against Moses, concerning preeminence. And they both spoke evil; Absalom of his father David, as of an unjust judge, saying to every one, “Your words are good, but there is no one that will hear you, and do justice. Who will make me a ruler?” But Abdadan [said], “I have no part in David, nor any inheritance in the son of Jesse.” It is plain that he could not endure to be under David’s government, of whom God spoke, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my commands.”

For you know undoubtedly that those that are by us named bishops, and presbyters, and deacons, were made by prayer, and by the laying on of hands; and that by the difference of their names is showed the difference of their employments. For not every one that will is ordained, as the case was in that spurious and counterfeit priesthood of the calves under Jeroboam; [1 Kings 13:33] but he only who is called of God. For if there were no rule or distinction of orders, it would suffice to perform all the offices under one name. But being taught by the Lord the series of things, we distributed the functions of the high-priesthood to the bishops, those of the priesthood to the presbyters, and the ministration under them both to the deacons; that the divine worship might be performed in purity. For it is not lawful for a deacon to offer the sacrifice, or to baptize, or to give either the greater or the lesser blessing. Nor may a presbyter perform ordination; for it is not agreeable to holiness to have this order perverted. For "God is not the God of confusion," [1 Corinthians 14:33] that the subordinate persons should tyrannically assume to themselves the functions belonging to their superiors, forming a new scheme of laws to their own mischief, not knowing that "it is hard for them to kick against the pricks;" [Acts 26:14] for such as these do not fight against us, or against the bishops, but against the universal Bishop and the High Priest of the Father, Jesus Christ our Lord. High priests, priests, and Levites were ordained by Moses, the most beloved of God.

For it is written thus in the fourth book of Kings and the second book of Chronicles, or of Days: “Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, following the abominable practices of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars for Baal, made a sacred pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done, worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ‘In Jerusalem I will put my name.’ He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord.” And Manasseh raised altars and served Baal there and said, “My name will last forever.” “He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. He made his son pass through fire; he practiced soothsaying and augury and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. The carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord said to David and to his son Solomon, ‘In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever; I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land that I gave to their ancestors, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.’ ” But they did not listen; Manasseh misled them to do more evil than the nations had done that the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.The Lord said by his servants the prophets, “Because King Manasseh of Judah has committed these abominations, has done things more wicked than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has caused Judah also to sin with his idols; therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I am bringing on Jerusalem and Judah such evil that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line for Samaria and the plumb line for the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will cast off the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies; they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their ancestors came out of Egypt, even to this day.” Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he caused Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” “Therefore the Lord brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh captive in manacles, bound him with fetters and brought him to Babylon.” And he was bound and shackled all over with iron in the house of the prison. And bread made of bran was given to him scantly and by weight, and water mixed with vinegar but a little and by measure, so much as would keep him alive; and he was in straits and sore afflictions. “While he was in distress he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. He prayed to him,” saying, “O Lord, almighty God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and of their righteous seed, who have made heaven and earth, with all the ornaments thereof, who have bound the sea by the word of your commandment, who have shut up the deep and sealed it by your terrible and glorious name, whom all people fear and tremble before your power; for the majesty of your glory cannot be borne, and your angry threatening toward the sinner is insupportable. But your merciful promise is unmeasurable and unsearchable; for you are the most high Lord, of great compassion, long suffering, very merciful and who repents of the evils of humankind. You, O Lord, according to your great goodness, have promised repentance and forgiveness to them who have sinned against you, and of your infinite mercy you have appointed repentance to sinners, that they may be saved. You therefore, O Lord, that are the God of the just, have not appointed repentance to the just as to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who have not sinned against you; but you have appointed repentance to me that am a sinner: for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied; my transgressions are multiplied, and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven for the multitude of my iniquity. I am bowed down with many iron bands; for I have provoked your wrath and done evil before you, setting up abominations and multiplying offenses. Now, therefore, I bow the knee of my heart, beseeching you of grace. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge my iniquities; wherefore I humbly beseech you, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and do not destroy me with my iniquities. Be not angry with me forever, by reserving evil for me; neither condemn me into the lower part of the earth. For you are the God, even the God of them that repent, and in me you will show your goodness; for you will save me that am unworthy, according to your great mercy. Therefore I will praise you forever all the days of my life; for all the powers of the heavens do praise you, and yours is the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
“And God heard his plea” and had compassion on him. And there appeared a flame of fire about him, and all the iron shackles and chains that were about him fell off; and the Lord healed Manasseh from his affliction and “restored him again to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord indeed was God.” And he worshiped the Lord God alone with all his heart and with all his soul, and all the days of his life; and he was esteemed righteous. “He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them out of the city. He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of well-being and of thanksgiving; and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord the God of Israel.” … You have heard, our beloved children, how the Lord God for a while punished him who was addicted to idols and had slain many innocent persons; and yet that he received him when he repented, and forgave him his offenses and restored him to his kingdom. For he not only forgives the penitent, but also reinstates them in their former dignity.