CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE: Immortality Bestowed at Advent, Wicked Destroyed

I. Didache—Follows Standard Pattern on the Two Ways

Still another early depiction of the now frequently stressed two ways—the “way of life” and the “way of death” in Christian conduct—was The Didache or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. This ancient Christian treatise, ^{11) The document was recovered by Greek Patriarch Philotheos Bryennios of Nicodemia, in the library of the Jerusalem Monastery of the Most Holy Sepulchre at Constantinople.} dealing with early Christian order, beliefs, and worship, was still used as late as the fourth century. It was a discipline, employed in catechetical instruction, to prepare new converts for baptism.CFF1 774.1

The Didache is quite similar in emphasis and somewhat in phrasing to The Epistle of Barnabas. Both writers obviously drew from a common source, building on and expounding the current beliefs and practices for the subapostolic age. The treatise was “food for lambs,” not for those “of full age.” In size it is about the same as the Sermon on the Mount, and is couched in the simple language of that transitional period from New Testament usage to ecclesiastical Greek.CFF1 774.2

The Didache corresponds in teaching not only to The Epistle of Barnabas but to The Shepherd of Hermas, as well as to The Apostolic Constitutions. It is referred to by various early Christian writers, including historian Eusebius (d. c. A.D. 340). Athanasius (d. A.D. 373) states that it comprised reading for catechumens of Gentile birth. The purity of the text cannot be determined. There are doubtless some corruptions. Its timing is reckoned as approximating that of Barnabas, and is now placed at about A.D. 120. Its origin was possibly Egypt or Syria. (See Tabular Chart F.)CFF1 774.3

The Didache was not prepared for ecclesiastical centers, but more for remote sections. There are frequent Old Testament references, with citations from the Gospels, as the New Testament was not yet compiled. There is marked similarity in eschatological outline to Paul’s Thessalonian letters. And it is in definite conformity with apostolic teaching, representing a viewpoint that erelong came to be abandoned under the impact of the Neoplatonic pressures. Hence it differs from the recorded positions of the church generally, as held in post-Nicene times. But it was still the apostolic voice echoing in subapostolic times.CFF1 775.1