The Dating of the 25 Canons of Antioch
From the mid-fifth century until the mid-twentieth, these 25 canons were almost universally associated with the Council of Dedication at Antioch in AD 341. Recent scholarship, however, has produced some convincing arguments against such a dating. The list of subscriptions attached to the canons in the manuscripts does not correspond with records of attendance at the dedicatory council. Bishops known to have attended the council in 341 were not listed among the subscribers to these canons, while other bishops not in attendance are listed. In some instances, subscribers had actually died prior to the Council of Dedication in 341, for example Eusebius of Caesarea who died in 339. Assigning these canons to 341, therefore, is clearly untenable. Hamilton Hess argued for a date of 328 since the list of subscriptions to the canons corresponds closely with that of the 324/325 Council of Antioch. He further interpreted some of the canons as being composed in justification of that council’s removal from office of Eustathius of Antioch the previous year (see Hess, Canons of Serdica, pp. 145-150). When a half-century later he updated many things In the second edition of his book, he maintained this dating (The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Sardica, p. 53).
Even more recently, Chrisotpher Stephens has argued that the canons fit better a decade later, in 338. He sees them as responding to the attempts of Athanasius and others to reclaim their sees after the death of Constantine (337). The frequent councils held in Antioch during this period were a source of confusion to the later historians and copyists, accounting, Stephens argues, for the attribution of the canons to the more famous Dedication Council of 341 (Canon Law and Episcopal Authority, esp. 15-49).
Sources:
Hess, Hamilton. The Canons of the Council of Sardica A.D. 343: A Landmark in the Early Development of Canon Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958.
Hess, Hamilton. The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Stephens, Christopher W. B. Canon Law and Episcopal Authority: The Canons of Antioch and Serdica. Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs. Exford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
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Last updated 5/12/2025 by GLT
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