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Eusebius and Ordination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Everett Ferguson
Everett Ferguson
Affiliation:
Dean of Northeastern Institute for Christian Education, Villanova, Penna., U.S.A.
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Extract

The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius employs a variety of expressions in describing the episcopal successions of the important churches. Some of these are theologically colourless, as the forms of λαμβάνειν to declare that one has ‘received’ the episcopate, or often the ‘ministry’ (λειτουργία), of a given church. Other formulae are related to the most important motifs associated with ordination in the ancient Church.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , October 1962 , pp. 139 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1962

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References

page 139 note 1 A sampling of the numerous instances may be given: H.E., II. xxiv; III. xiv; xxxv; xxxvi. 1, 15; xxxvii. 4; IV. i; v. 5; xix; xx; V. pref.; V. v. 8 f.; v. 12. Ehrhardt, A. (Apostolic Succession, London 1953, 35–61)Google Scholar finds the pattern for Christian episcopal lists in Jewish succession lists of high priests. Cf. also C. H. Turner's note on ‘succession’ language in non-Christian and early Christian writers— Essays on the Early History of the Church and the Ministry, ed. Swete, H. B., London 1918, 197 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 139 note 2 H.E., II. viii. 1; III. xii. 1; xx. 8; xxi; IV. iii. 1; and frequently.

page 139 note 3 H.E., III. xxvi. 1.

page 139 note 4 H.E., V. xvii. 4.

page 139 note 5 H.E., VI. vi.

page 139 note 6 Molland, Einar, ‘Irenaeus of Lugdunum and the Apostolic Succession’, in this Journal, i (1950), 12–28Google Scholar. Cf. the statement of the Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, 2: ‘The seat is a symbol of teaching’. Adv. Haer., IV. xli. 1 (IV. xxvi. 3 f.) identifies being a presbyter with holding a seat.

page 139 note 7 H.E., II. i. 2; xxiii. 1; III. v. 2; xi; xxxv; IV. xxiii. 1; VI. xxix. 4; VII. xiv; xxxii. 29; xix. The references have been compiled with the aid of the index in the edition of Eusebius by Eduard Schwartz for Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller.

page 139 note 8 H.E., X. iv. 44; iv. 66.

page 139 note 9 H.E., VI. xix. 13, using καθεζμενον.

page 139 note 10 H.E., VII. xxx. 9.

page 140 note 1 Ehrhardt, Arnold, ‘Jewish and Christian Ordination’, in this Journal, v (1954), 125–38Google Scholar.

page 140 note 2 Clem. ad Jac., ii. 2; iii. 1, 2; v. 3, 4; xvii. 1; xix. 1.

page 140 note 3 Hom., III. lx–lxxii.

page 140 note 4 Instinsky, H. U. (Bischofsstuhl und Kaiserthron, Munich 1955, 11–34)Google Scholar traces the origin of enthronement from the practice of eastern kings to the Roman emperor and thence to Christian bishops. Stommel, Eduard (‘Bischofsstuhl und höher Thron’, Jahrbuch Jür Antike und Christentum, i (1958), 52–78)Google Scholar reviews Instinsky and concludes that a high throne was used by other officials than the emperor and that solemn seating in the ante-Nicene Church began from Jewish roots.

page 140 note 5 I am indebted to Prof. A. D. Nock of Harvard, invaluable tutor in many respects, for calling my attention to this relevant fact.

page 140 note 6 Didas., 4; Apos. Const., VIII. v. 9 f.; Vita Polyc, xxiii; Theodoret, H.E., IV. xx, xxi.

page 140 note 7 Greg. Naz., Or., xviii. 33; xxi. 8; Synesius, Ep., lxvii.

page 140 note 8 Ἀξιον—H.E., III. xi; VI. xliii. 17; VII. vii. 6, xxxii. 30. Δοκιμζειν ἄξιον—VI. viii. 4.

page 140 note 9 H.E., VI. xi. 1; VII. xxx. 17; VI. xxix. For other strong assertions of divine choice see Cyp., Ep., xlviii. 3; lxvi. 1, 9 (and frequently); Lucifer of Cagliari, de S. Athan., i. 9; Ambrose, Ep., lxiii. 2 and 3.

page 141 note 1 H.E., VII. xxxii. 23; X. iv. 23.

page 141 note 2 The δοκιμασα was a feature of entrance into office in Greek civil life: Aeschines, iii. 15; Plato, Laws, vi. 763–5; and especially, Aristotle, Ath. Pol., 55. Indications of an examination of a candidate's worthiness for church office, particularly as it related to the approval of the people, are found in the following passages: Did., xv. 1; 1 Clement, xlii. 4; Ep. Pet. ad Jac., i. 2; Didas., 4; Origen, Hom. in Lev., vi. 3; Hippolytus, Apos. Trad., ii. 2; Cyprian, Ep., lxvii. 4; Hist. Aug., ‘Life of Severus Alexander’, xlv. 6 f.; Nicaea, Can. 9 (where an examination is supposed but not as a general practice).

page 141 note 3 Testament of our Lord, i. 21, where the people three times cry, ‘He is worthy’, after the ordination prayer, the place where the cry Ἄξιος occurs in the Orthodox Liturgy today. In the Apos. Const., VIII. iv. 2 ff. the bishops before proceeding with the ordination three times call upon the people to testify that the candidate is worthy. This testimony may have been given by the acclamation, Ἄξιος, which became stylised in the later liturgy.

page 141 note 4 H.E., III. 2; iv. 8; v. 2; xxxvi. 2; IV. i; V. vi. 2.

page 141 note 5 Ehrenberg, ‘Losung’, in Real-Encyclopädie, ed. Pauly-Wissowa, Stuttgart 1927, xiii. 1451–1504. Cf. Plato, Laws, 759 C and IG., XII. 3, 178.

page 141 note 6 The fact that in Eusebius's quotation of Irenaeus (H.E., V. vi. 2) Clement is allotted the πισκοπν weakens the suggestion that κληροσθαι may have been taken as a technical term for Clement ‘inheriting’ the function of Peter, a suggestion made in Walter Ullmann's provocative article, ‘Significance of the Epistola Clementis’, in Journal of Theological Studies, N.S., xi (October 1960), 297–8.

page 141 note 7 For κληροσθαι, as an expression for the selection of Church officers, Markos Siotis, ‘Die Klassische und die Christliche Cheirotonie in ihrem Verhaltnis’, in Θεολογα xxi. 458.

page 141 note 8 H.E., II. i. 2; xvii. 23; xxiii. 1; III. xxxvii. 3; IV. xi. 6; xxiii. 1, 3; V. ix; VI. xxi. 2.

page 141 note 9 H.E., II. i. 10; III. xxix. 1.

page 142 note 1 Vita Const., III. 62; Soc., H.E., II. 6.

page 142 note 2 Hatch, Edwin, ‘Ordination’, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, ii. 1501Google Scholar; Siotis, op. cit., 459.

page 142 note 3 A case in point is the synodal letter of the council of Nicaea preserved in Theodoret, H.E., I. ix. 7 ff. and Socrates, H.E., I. 9. The translators have taken προχειρζεσθαι to mean ‘nominate’. Its usage alongside both χειροθετεῖν and ὑποβλλειν νομα would seem to exclude a reference to either ordination in the limited sense or proposing a name. Either ‘select’ (with a view to someone else ordaining) or ‘appoint’ to a minor order would fit the linguistic history of the word and the context.

page 142 note 4 In the Apostolic Constitutions προχειρζεσθαι occurs often and with the same range of usage as χειροτονεῖν. It covers any formal appointment or institution, especially by God: Paul (II. xxiv. 4), a judge (II. xxxvi. 9), the Christian priesthood (III. ix. 2), rulers and priests in the Old Testament (VIII. v. 4), Melchisedec (VIII. xii. 23), Philip and Ananias (VIII. xlvi. 17). In VII. xxxi. 1, where the Didache has χειροτονεῖν (perhaps preserving the meaning ‘elect’) the Apostolic Constitutions compiler (to whom χειροτονεῖν had lost this sense) substitutes προχειρζεσθαι. A similarly less technical reference to ordination is VI. xxii. 5. Προχειρζεσθαι refers to the installation into office in III. xvi. 1 and VIII. xlvi. 15—specifically mentioned are the bishop (II. iii. 1), deacon (VIII. xxiii. 2), and sub-deacon (VIII. xxi. 4), all of whom receive χειροτονα;προχειρζεσθαι but not χειροτονεῖν is used of deaconnesses (VIII. xx. 1) and readers (VIII. xxii. 2), but these too receive a laying on of hands.

page 142 note 5 Canon 3 of Ancyra and Canon 10 of Nicaea (where προχειρζεσθαι is the equivalent of the laying on of hands in Canon 9) use προχειρζεσθαι for ordination.

page 142 note 6 H.E., VI. xxix. 3. The continuation of the meaning ‘elect’ into the fourth century may be illustrated by Athanasius, Apol. c. Arian., xi and Socrates, H.E., ii. 6 (a passage which uses χειροτονεν in other senses also).

page 142 note 7 H.E., II. i and VI. xliii. 10, 17 where χειροτονεῖν is accomplished by the laying on of hands and prayer; probably VI. x also.

page 142 note 8 H.E., VI. xix. 16.

page 142 note 9 For example, H.E., III. iv. 9; xxxvii. 3; IV. xx; xxiii. 3 f.; VI. xi. 4; xlvi. 4; VII. xi. 26; xiv. 1; xxx. 17; xxxii. 1, 22.

page 143 note 1 Κατοταοις was the prevailing word in Egypt; see, e.g., Athanasius (ad Dracon. ii), Serapion's Prayer Book, Apostolic Church Order, 17. Note the Council of Sardica in the midfourth century which issued canons in both Latin and Greek. The Greek generally has κατστασις for the Latin ordinatio: e.g., Can. 10 (13); but once ρζω renders ordinare, in Can. 15 (19). If the eastern versions faithfully preserve Hippolytus's usage in the Apostolic Tradition, then χειροτονεῖν was already a technical term for ordination in the Greek-speaking Church at Rome in the early third century and it is, perhaps, to this locality that we should look for the origin of what became the exclusive use of χειροτονεῖν.

page 143 note 2 In the former category belong VII. xvi. 1 (God's appointment of kings), V. xx. 11 (His ordaining of the Roman monarchy), II. xxvii. 5 (His ordination of the high priest in the Old Testament), III. ix. 3 (Gentilesσ ordaining women priests), and II. xliii. 3 (the Devil's ordination of wicked persons to be a reproach to the Church). In the latter category belong III. xx; II. ii. 3; and frequent references in Book VIII where χειροτονα is used of the three major orders and sub-deacons and is specifically denied to confessors, virgins, widows, and exorcists.

page 143 note 3 Josephus, Ant., iv. 297; vi. 81 (cf. vi. 60 and Bell. Jud., iv. 592); Vita, 341; Bell. Jud., iv. 256. Philo, Quod Deus sit immutabilis, xxiv. 112; de Mut. Nom., xxviii. 151; de Spec. Leg., 11. xl. 231 (cf. iv. ii. 9).

page 143 note 4 Josephus, Ant, vi. 83, and passages cited below. Philo, de Post. Cain., xvi. 54; de Jos., 248; Quod. Det. Pot., 145; de Op. Mundi, 84. This appointment may be performed by a single person: Josephus, Ant., xiii. 45; Philo, Quod. Det. Pot., 66; In Flacc., 109. For the appointment of cult officers in particular see Philo, de Agricultura, xxix. 130; de Vita Mos., ii. 141–3 (in the latter passage αἱρεθναι is also used of the choosing, whereas καθσταναι occurs in reference to installation); Josephus, Bell. Jud., iv. 147 (in the following section καθσταναι is used, apparently interchangeably with χειροτονεῖν).

page 143 note 5 Josephus, Ant, iv. 34, 54, 66. Josephus especially makes the choice of kings an act of God: Ant, vii. 53; ix. 108; vi. 312. Philo, Quod. Det. Pot., 39; de Sac. Abel., 9 (= Quod. Det. Pot., 161); de Vita Mos., i. 198; de Virtutibus, x. 64; de Vita Mos., i. 148; Not specifically religious appointments are God's appointment of Joseph to his position in Egypt (de Mig. Abrah., 22) and the recognition of Abraham as a king (de Virt., xxxix. 218; cf. de Somniis, 11. xxxvi. 243 where the appointment is ascribed to nature and not specifically to God).

page 143 note 6 Turner, C. H., ‘χειροτονα, χειροθεσα, Ἐπθεσις; χειρν’, Journal of Theological Studies, xxiv (1923), 499Google Scholar.

page 144 note 1 Ant, iii. 190–2.

page 144 note 2 De Praemiis et Poenis, ix. 54. Cf. Ambrose, Ep., lxiii. 3: ‘Where the demand of all is unanimous, ought we to doubt that the Lord Jesus is there as the Author of that desire!’

page 144 note 3 χειροθεσα in Vita Const., iv. 61 may refer either to admission to the catechumenate or to confirmation.

page 144 note 4 The Apostolic Constitutions makes a distinction, reserving the latter for ordination. This distinction is foreign to earlier writers: cf. C. H. Turner, op. cit., 496 f. The context shows χειροθεσία referring to ordination in Canon 19 of Nicaea and in its Synodal Letter (Theodoret, H.E., I. ix. 7 ff.) and therefore probably in Canon 8.