similar statements which
elevate the Apostles into the history of revelation, the unanimity of
all the Apostles is always presupposed, so that the statement of Clem.
Alex. (Strom VII., 17, 108: [Greek: mia he panton gegone ton apostolon
hosper didaskalia houtos de kai he paradosis], see Tertull., de praescr.
32: "Apostoli non diversa inter se docuerent," Iren. alii), contains no
innovation, but gives expression to an old idea: That the twelve
unitedly proclaimed one and the same message, that they proclaimed it to
the world, that they were chosen to this vocation by Christ, that the
communities possess the witness of the Apostles as their rule of conduct
(Excerp. ex Theod. 25 [Greek: hosper hupo ton zodion he genesis
dioikeitai houtos hupo ton apostolon he anagennesis]) are authoritative
theses which can be traced back as far as we have any remains of
Gentile-Chnstian literature. It was thereby presupposed that the
unanimous _kerygma_ of the twelve Apostles which the communities possess
as [Greek: kanon tes paradoseos] (1 Clem. 7), was public and accessible
to all. Yet the idea does not seem to have been everywhere kept at a
distance that besides the _kerygma_ a still deeper knowledge was
transmitted by the Apostles or by certain Apostles to particular
Christians who were specially gifted. Of course we have no direct
evidence of this, but the connection in which certain Gnostic unions
stood at the beginning with the communities developing themselves to
Catholicism and inferences from utterances of later writers (Clem. Alex.
Tertull.), make it probable that this conception was present in the
communities here and there even in the age of the so-called Apostolic
Fathers. It may be definitely said that the peculiar idea of tradition
([Greek: theos--christos--hoi dodeka apostoloi--ekklesiai]) in the
Gentile Churches is very old but that it was still limited in its
significance at the beginning and was threatened (1) by a wider
conception of the idea 'Apostle' (besides, the fact is important that
Asia Minor and Rome were the very places where a stricter idea of
Apostle made its appearance. See my Edition of the Didache, p. 117), (2)
by free prophets and teachers moved by the Spirit, who introduced new
conceptions and rules and whose word was regarded as the word of God,
(3) by the assumption not always definitely rejected, that besides the
public tradition of the _kerygma_ there was a secret tradition. That
Paul as a rule was