Didache 4.5

Anonymous · Didache · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · place unknown · Read in context

Pseudonymous: Its title presents it as 'the teaching of the Lord through the twelve apostles'; it was compiled by unknown authors from earlier material. It was rediscovered in 1873 in a manuscript of 1056 (Codex Hierosolymitanus) and published in 1883.

Summary: Do not be eager to take but slow to give.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:314

Μὴ γίνου πρὸς μὲν τὸ λαβεῖν ἐκτείνων τὰς χεῖρας, πρὸς δὲ τὸ δοῦναι συσπῶν.

English · Claude translation

Do not be one who stretches out his hands to receive but draws them back when it comes to giving.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:314 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 308–333 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Lake, LCL 24. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7 (1886) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Extrabiblical texts

Sir 4:31 (Sirach) · allusion, high confidence

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Did. 4.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/didache/4/5/).

Plain text

Did. 4.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/didache/4/5/).

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