13 A Qedushat ha-Yom in Greek

Abstract

This chapter offers a brief commentary on the fourth of the six prayers in the Apostolic Constitutions (AC), namely 7.36, an early Greek version of the Qedushat ha-Yom. There is a communis opinio among scholars that the six prayers in AC 7.33-38 are christianized Greek versions of the Seven Berakhot for the Sabbath: 7.33 corresponds to Avoth, 7.34 to Gevuroth, 7.35 to Qedushat ha-Shem, 7.36 to Qedushat ha-Yom, 7.37 to Avodah, 7.38 to Hoda ʾah; the seventh benediction is lacking. These prayers were adopted by judaizing Christians in Syrian Antioch in the second half of the fourth century CE and incorporated in their christianized form by an anonymous compiler in a church-order, the AC, in the 80s of that century. The chapter demonstrates how difficult it is to distinguish sharply between tradition (the Jewish source text) and redaction (the Christian reworking) in these prayers.Keywords: Apostolic Constitutions (AC); christianized Greek versions; Jewish source text; Qedushat ha-Yom; Sabbath; Seven Berakhot