Didache 16

Watch for your life's sake; let your lamps not go out, and your loins not be relaxed, but be ready; for ye know not the hour in which our Lord com- eth. But ye shall come together often, and seek the things which befit your souls; for the whole time of your faith thus far will not profit you, if ye do not be- come perfect in the last time. For in the last days the false prophets and the corruptors shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate; for when lawlessness in- creaseth they shall hate one another, and shall persecute and shall deliver up, and then shall appear the world- deceiver as the Son of God, and shall do signs and won- ders, and the earth shall be given into his hands, and he shall commit iniquities which have never get been done since the beginning. Then all crated men shall com into into the fire of trial, and many shall be made to stumble and shall perish. But they that endure in their faith shall be saved from this curse. And then shall appear the signs of the truth; first the sign of an opening in heaven, then the sign of the trumpet's sound, and thirdly, the resurrection of the dead; yet not of all, but as it hath been said: The Lord will come and the saints with him. Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven. [================================================] USE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES IN THE “TEACHING.”¹ Old Testament Line Line *Deut. 5:17-19 35 f. *Sirach 4:31 86 f. *Tobit. 4:15 7 f. Zech. 14:5 315 f. *Sirach 2:4 75 f. *Mal. 1:11, 14 273 f. *Sirach. 4:5 91 f. New Testament Line Line *Matt. 5:5 69 f. *Matt. 24:3-4 298 f. *Matt. 5:22 284 f. *Matt. 24:24-31 313 f. *Matt. 5:26 30 f. *Matt 24:31 200 f. *Matt. 5:39-48 16 f. *Matt. 24:43, 44 291 f. Matt. 6:5-13 155 f. Matt 28:19 140 f. *Matt. 6 and 7 289 *Luke 6:27-35 10 *Matt. 7:6 183 f. *Luke 9:1-6 215 f. *Matt. 7:15-23 215 f. Luke 10:4-21 215 f. *Matt. 10:5-12 215 f. Luke 11:2-4 215 f. *Matt. 10:10 256 f. *Luke 11 and 12 289 f *Matt 12:31 224 f. *Luke 12:35 291 f. *Matt. 18:15-17 284 *Acts 4:32 92 f. *Matt. 18:21-35 284 *Eph 6:5, 9 103 f. Matt. 21:9 205 *1 Thess. 5:22 50 f. Matt. 22:27-39 5 f. *1 Pet. 2:11 15 f. ¹ This table is that of Bryennios, who adds: “By this sign [*] are distinguished the passages which are not verbally cited in the ‘Teaching,’ and those to which the ‘Teaching,’ simply refers, with the words, ‘As the Lord commanded in the gospel.’” —Eds. [================================================] NOTES THE TITLE “Teaching of the Lord through the Twelve Apostles.” Athanasius also calls it διδαχή. But Eusebius (Hist iii. 25) uses the plural, διδαχαί. And Clement of Alexandria cites it as γραφή. Κεφ. αʹ. — CHAP. I. P. 2, 1.8.—“do not to another”] The Golden Rule occurs both here and in the Apostolic Constitutions (vii. 2), in a negative form, as in the teachings of Confucius. P. 2, 1.11.—“fast for them that persecute you”] The emphasis put upon fasting, here and elsewhere in this document, is not sign of Montanism, since fasting was much emphasized in the early Church, and Montanism itself was, in this respect, only an exaggeration of common usage. P. 4, 1.15—“ye shall have no enemy”] Suggested, apparently, by 1 Pet. iii.13, “And who is he that will harm you, if ye be zealous of that which is good?” P. 4, 1.22—“for indeed thou canst not”] Because Christians were forbidden to go to law before the unrighteous,” 1 Cor. vi. 1. P. 4, 1.32—“Let thine alms sweat in thy hands, until thou knowest to whom thou shouldst give”] A very graphic injunction of carefulness in giving. Κεφ. βʹ. — CHAP. II. P. 4, 1.36.—“thou shalt not corrupt boys”] The παιδεραστία of Classic writers, referred to by Paul in Rom. i.27. P. 6, 1.38.—“by abortion”] Another heathen abomination. P. 6, 1.42, 43.—“δι…