Original - The Coptic Orthodox Church

INTRODUCTION. XI
decrees of the 4 th century, nor with the Canons of Timothy
of Alexandria. l
They consist, not - - as the subsequent
Arabic distribution into sections might easily lead us to
expect - - of brief, judicially conceived paragraphs, but for
the most part of lengthy disquisitions on the importance
and sanctity of the priestly office, frequently interspersed
with dogmatical or exegetical comments, sometimes too with
narratives of the writer s own experiences. By the concluding
words the writer (or a later continuator) wishes apparently
to indicate the arrangement of the work (p. 67, 105):
This whole writing doth consist of three chief parts, whereof
the first treateth of the fear of God and of the altar, the
second of compassion toward the poor, and the third of the
keeping of virginity. Whoso etc.*
(v. p. 67).
then might be referred to verecundia, 82 91
The first 81
to miser i-
cordia, 92 104 to castitas. But such a division presents
difficulties, and it is possible that the passage cited does not
refer to the arrangement of the work, but is intended as a
development of 104, wherein the author had exhorted to
the observation of all His (God s) commandments and all
the words that are written in this book of the church s law ,
to which he then adds the observation that the contents of
these numerous injunctions may be gathered under three main
ideas: reverence for the sanctuary, charity and purity. Yet
even thus an indication as to the arrangement of the whole
work would be afforded ; for these are, in fact, the principal
conceptions which, whether in homiletic or ascetic disquisitions
or in separate rules, are here applied to the concrete rela
tionships
of Christian life.
The author is without doubt a cleric, since he addresses
is a bishop, and even appears
the clergy as his brethren . He
to stand in an authoritative relation towards other bishops;
for he gives them both instruction and commands (e.g.
i
Migne, PG. ff.
33, 1293
14,