The Apostolic Constitutions (Latin: Constitutiones Apostolicae) is an eight-book compilation conventionally dated to approximately AD 375–380 and associated with an anonymous Syrian redactor, almost certainly located in or near Antioch. The work is not a physical artifact recovered through excavation but survives through medieval manuscript transmission. The earliest complete Greek manuscripts date from the tenth and eleventh centuries AD, with the text established critically by Franz Xaver Funk in his edition Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum (Schöningh, 1905), which remains foundational. The compilation pseudonymously attributes its contents to the Twelve Apostles and claims transmission through Clement of Rome, a framing convention typical of late-antique church orders. The eight books span approximately 130,000 Greek words. Books I–VI rework the early-3rd century Didascalia Apostolorum; Book VII adapts the late-1st to early-2nd century Didache, incorporating expanded catechetical and liturgical material; Book VIII draws on the Apostolic Tradition attributed to Hippolytus and contains detailed ordination prayers, the full Clementine liturgy, and the eighty-five Apostolic Canons. The work references baptismal practice connected to Matthew 28:19, Eucharistic institution drawn from 1 Corinthians 11:23–26, and episcopal qualifications derived from 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. The Clementine liturgy in Book VIII represents one of the most complete early Christian anaphoral texts surviving from antiquity. For biblical scholarship, the Apostolic Constitutions provide critical evidence for how apostolic letters and gospel material functioned normatively within a living liturgical and disciplinary framework before the formal closure of the New Testament canon in the Greek East. The embedded Didache text in Book VII preserves what many scholars regard as the earliest extant Christian liturgical formulae, offering comparative data for reconstructing first-century eucharistic and catechetical traditions. The compilation's canonical list in Book VIII diverges from later Nicene consensus, confirming ongoing fluidity in scriptural definition as late as the AD 380s. **Sources:** Franz Xaver Funk, *Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum* (Schöningh, 1905); Alistair Stewart-Sykes, *The Apostolic Church Order* (St. Pauls, 2006); Marcel Metzger, *Les Constitutions Apostoliques*, Sources Chrétiennes 320, 329, 336 (Cerf, 1985–1987); 1 Corinthians 11:23–26; Matthew 28:19.
The Apostolic Constitutions preserve the most extensive surviving late-antique church order, embedding earlier documents such as the Didascalia Apostolorum and the Didache within a Syrian redaction that illuminates how early Christian communities interpreted apostolic authority, liturgy, and discipline.