The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus

Rules for worship and communal life take shape in this English translation of an ancient church order attributed to Hippolytus. The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus appears here with an introduction and notes by Burton Scott Easton. His introduction places church orders within the growth of early Christian communities, explaining how practical needs, inherited customs and scriptural interpretation contributed to increasingly detailed regulations.

The volume moves between religious practice and the work of comparing surviving texts. Directions concerning the cup and consecrated bread sit alongside discussion of differing chapter arrangements, missing manuscript leaves and alternative conclusions. Notes also consider the election of a bishop and the authority claimed for church teaching. Readers interested in early Christian worship or the history of canon law will find both a translated source and an account of the textual questions that shape its interpretation.