Didascalia Apostolorum

Contents

Reading pages: 0–2.1.2 · 2.2–2.14.2 · 2.15.1–2.20 · 2.21.1–2.25 · 2.26.1–2.40 · 2.41–2.52 · 2.53–2.63 · 3.1–3.8.2 · 3.9–4.4.2 · 4.5–5.6 · 5.7.1–5.13 · 5.14–5.19 · 5.20–6.11.2 · 6.12–6.17 · 6.18.1–6.23

1. 0
2. 1.1.1
3. 1.1.2Covetousness of a neighbor's wife or goods is already adultery and theft; Christians keep the one simple law of not doing to others what they would not have done to themselves.
4. 1.2Christians bless those who curse them, leave vengeance to the Lord, and love their enemies.
5. 1.3
6. 1.4
7. 1.5
8. 1.6.1
9. 1.6.2The law binding Christians is the Decalogue and the judgments given before the golden calf; the laws added after it are a “second legislation” from which Christ released believers.
10. 1.7.1A long quotation from Proverbs 7 and 5 warns against the adulterous woman.
11. 1.7.2
12. 1.8.1
13. 1.8.2A Christian woman walks modestly and does not bathe in the men's bath.
14. 1.9If a woman must use a mixed bath, she bathes rarely, briefly, modestly, and at the tenth hour.
15. 1.10A Christian wife avoids quarrelling, so that her husband, believer or not, is not driven to blaspheme, and wins outsiders by modesty and meekness.
16. 2.1.1The bishop should be blameless and at least fifty years old, though in a small parish a young man of proven meekness may be appointed.
17. 2.1.2
18. 2.2
19. 2.3
20. 2.4
21. 2.5
22. 2.6
23. 2.7.1
24. 2.7.2Christians are presumed to have abandoned heathen sins, for sin after baptism leads to Gehenna, but they are slandered by the heathen for keeping apart.
25. 2.8The falsely slandered are blessed, but a Christian convicted of wrongdoing is a hypocrite, and the bishop must keep apart from him.
26. 2.10A partial bishop who tolerates sinners corrupts the flock, but a pure clergy and flock move the sinner to shame and repentance.
27. 2.13.1The bishop sits in the church with authority to judge sinners in God's place, as one given the power to bind.
28. 2.13.2
29. 2.14.1
30. 2.14.2A long quotation of Ezekiel 18: each person lives or dies by his own righteousness or iniquity, and God desires the wicked to turn and live.
31. 2.15.1The quotation of Ezekiel 18 ends with God's call to turn and live, and the author points to God's mercy.
32. 2.15.2
33. 2.16
34. 2.17
35. 2.18.1
36. 2.18.2A long quotation of Ezekiel 34: God himself will seek, gather, and feed his scattered sheep and set his servant David over them as shepherd.
37. 2.18.3
38. 2.19
39. 2.20
40. 2.21.1
41. 2.21.2A bishop who expels sinners and refuses to receive them back when they repent kills them forever, since Christ commands forgiveness.
42. 2.22.1As an example for bishops judging sinners, the story of King Manasseh's idolatry is told from Kings and Chronicles.
43. 2.22.2
44. 2.23.1Manasseh's prayer is heard and he is restored, showing that even idolatry may be forgiven to the penitent, whereas Amon, who sinned counting on later repentance, was swiftly destroyed.
45. 2.23.2
46. 2.24
47. 2.25
48. 2.26.1
49. 2.26.2Old Testament sacrifices and tithes correspond to the church's prayers and offerings, which are brought through the bishop; bishop, deacon, deaconess, presbyters, and widows are honored as types of God, Christ, the Spirit, the apostles, and the altar.
50. 2.27Offerings are brought to the bishop, who knows the needy and distributes fairly, and he sends the neediest widows to those who give agapes.
51. 2.28.1The bishop's portion of the agape is set apart; deacons receive double what an elder woman receives, and the presiding bishop fourfold.
52. 2.28.2
53. 2.29
54. 2.30
55. 2.31
56. 2.32
57. 2.33
58. 2.34.1
59. 2.34.2The bishop, who binds and looses with heavenly power over soul and body, is to be loved as father, feared as king, and honored as God, and the people's tithes and offerings are given to him to distribute.
60. 2.34.3
61. 2.35
62. 2.36
63. 2.37
64. 2.38
65. 2.39
66. 2.40
67. 2.41
68. 2.42
69. 2.43
70. 2.44
71. 2.45
72. 2.46
73. 2.47
74. 2.48
75. 2.49
76. 2.50
77. 2.51
78. 2.52
79. 2.53
80. 2.54
81. 2.55
82. 2.57
83. 2.58.1
84. 2.58.2A visiting bishop is honored and invited to preach; the bishop does not interrupt the word to seat important visitors, and the deacon sees that the young give up their seats to the old.
85. 2.59The bishop gives his own seat to the poor and old, and urges the people never to miss the assembly.
86. 2.60.1The faithful must not scatter Christ's body by staying away, but put everything aside on the Lord's day to come to church.
87. 2.60.2
88. 2.61
89. 2.62
90. 2.63
91. 3.1
92. 3.2
93. 3.3
94. 3.4
95. 3.5
96. 3.6.1
97. 3.6.2Widows who seek gain and gossip are not heard in prayer, but the quiet widow who prays night and day and works to give to others is heard at once, like the widow of the two coins.
98. 3.8.1Widows are to be subject to the bishop and deacons and do nothing, not even visiting, fasting, receiving gifts, or praying with laying on of hands, without the bishop's counsel.
99. 3.8.2
100. 3.9
101. 3.12
102. 3.13.1
103. 3.13.2Deacons must serve the brothers even to laying down their lives, after the example of Christ who washed the disciples' feet, and must visit the needy and report to the bishop.
104. 4.1Christians without a son should adopt orphan boys, and those with a son should take in orphan girls as future wives for them.
105. 4.2Bishops see to the upbringing of orphans, and orphan boys learn a trade so as to support themselves.
106. 4.3Those who can support themselves should not take from the needy; those who receive from true need are honored as God's altar and pray for their givers.
107. 4.4.1Those who receive alms in hypocrisy or out of idleness will give account, and the hoarder is like a serpent sleeping on its treasure.
108. 4.4.2
109. 4.5
110. 4.6
111. 4.7
112. 4.9
113. 4.10
114. 4.11
115. 5.1
116. 5.2
117. 5.3
118. 5.5
119. 5.6
120. 5.7.1
121. 5.7.2The resurrection is taught by the prophets, foreshadowed even by the Sibyl and by the phoenix, and guaranteed by Christ's resurrection, so believers should welcome martyrdom, for which a greater glory is promised.
122. 5.7.3
123. 5.10
124. 5.11
125. 5.12
126. 5.13
127. 5.14
128. 5.15
129. 5.17
130. 5.18
131. 5.19
132. 5.20
133. 6.1
134. 6.3
135. 6.4
136. 6.5
137. 6.6
138. 6.7
139. 6.8
140. 6.9.1
141. 6.9.2The apostle tells how Simon Magus, flying through the air, fell at the name of Jesus and broke his thigh, yet his heresy took root.
142. 6.11.1The heretics agreed in rejecting the prophets, blaspheming the Father, and denying the resurrection, but differed in forbidding marriage, meat, or pork, or in requiring circumcision.
143. 6.11.2
144. 6.12
145. 6.13
146. 6.14.1The apostles, gathered in Jerusalem, write this Teaching and decree that the penitent be kept in the church and the unrepentant heretics be cast out and shunned.
147. 6.14.2
148. 6.14.3The apostles disperse to their missions, heal the misled and expel the incurably perverted, and leave this Teaching to the catholic church.
149. 6.15Converts from the Jewish people should leave the ritual observances of the “second legislation”; the abiding law is the Decalogue and the judgments, in which the name of Jesus is signified by the iota (ten).
150. 6.16.1The law of the Decalogue is simple and light, without food laws or sacrifices; the altar law of Exodus 20 is only a concession, since God never needed sacrifice.
151. 6.16.2
152. 6.17
153. 6.18.1The law gives life and binds Jews and Gentiles in the church as a yoke, but the “bonds” of the second legislation, from which Christ frees believers, are distinct from it.
154. 6.18.2
155. 6.19.1
156. 6.19.2Taking on the second legislation brings a curse; believers follow Christ and the Gospel, while the law of the Decalogue stands and binds even the lawless.
157. 6.20Keeping to the church's rule and the Gospel, believers must guard themselves from heretics who reject the law and prophets, abstain from foods, and forbid marriage.
158. 6.21Christians must not keep the Levitical purity rules about menstruation, seminal flow, and intercourse, as though the Holy Spirit received in baptism left them, and so abstain from prayer, the eucharist, and the Scriptures.
159. 6.22Purity rites from the second legislation must be abandoned; Christians gather and offer the eucharist in cemeteries for the departed, touch the dead without fear, and treat menstruation and seminal flow as no bar to prayer, while adultery alone truly defiles.
160. 6.23The apostles close the Teaching, defending its severity as the physician's knife, and end with a creed-like doxology to Christ.