INTRODUCTION TO SYRIAC TEXT. THE Syriac text of the Didascalia Apostolorum was edited by Dr Paul de Lagarde from the Paris MS. No. 60, ff. I — 90, the only complete MS. of it hitherto known, and it was published at Leipzig in 1854, the issue being limited to 100 copies, so that it is now very difficult to obtain. This work is of great importance in ecclesiastical history, being assigned to the third century, the first six books of the Apostolical Constitutions being an amplification of it, made a century later. So long ago as 1857, Dr de Lagarde expressed the opinion that the Didascalia had its origin amongst the heretical sect of the Audseans. Dr Zahn, in the Neue kirchl. Zeitschrift, n (1900) p. 498 f., has the same idea with regard to that cognate work, the Testamentum D. N. J. C., which has been lately edited by the Patriarch Rahmani. See also the statement of St Epiphanius quoted by Nau (La Didascalie, pp. 112, 162). As the original Greek is unknown, and as no English translation of the Syriac has yet been published, I was induced to undertake one two years ago at the suggestion of the Rev. Canon F. E. Warren. My reason for editing the Syriac text as well is that the Paris Codex (Codex Sangerma- nensis) above mentioned no longer stands alone. Dr J. Rendel Harris, whilst in Mesopotamia a few years ago, succeeded in obtaining an accurate copy of an ancient Syriac MS., which he most kindly placed at my disposal, and from it my text is printed. It contains a long addition to Chapter III. which is not contained in Cod. Sang. ; there is also a different arrangement of the text in Chapter VI. As there is a large gap in the Mesopotamian MS., in f. 2 a; and as f. 2 b seems to be entirely blank, I have supplied these deficiencies in smaller type from Codex Sangermanensis. The other collations which I have made are from 1. Testamentum D. N. J. C. as edited by Rahmani. This only affects a few passages. 2. Lagarde, Reliquiae Juris Eccles. Antiq. from p. ^ 1. 13 to p. rnf\ 1. 17, also fragmentary. This I have indicated as Rel. These two fortunately come into the portion of our text which is not in Cod. 6".