, 4).
Hnally, let them ‘ watch’ in the interests of their ‘life,’ to be ready when the Lord comes. The last days may be very near, marked by abundance of pseudo - prophets and corrupters (already on the horizon, xi. 2) and by degeneration of the sheep. Then, as lawlessness increases, hatred shall go the length of persecution and treachery among the brethren, until there shall appear the world- deceiver as God’s Son, with signs and wonders, and run a course of temporary triumph. Thus man- kind shall be tested, and even many believers shall fail: ‘but those who shall endure in their faith
* Ja, 31 ‘Become not many of you teachers, my brethren’; cf. Ac 181, 1 Co 1228, Eph 411, 1 Ti 517%, 2 P 21, Barn. i. 8, iv. 9.
+ Kupiaxh zvpiov, perhaps as replacing the chpBarov zupiov Ot the OT; cf. ch. viii., where new fast-days are prescribed.
t ‘Transgression between man and his fellow the Day of Atonement does not expiate, until his fellow be reconciled’ (Mishna, Yomd, viii. 9; cf. Mt 528f, Ja 516), i ‘
§ So the citation of this passage in de Aleatoribus, iv., has ‘ne inquinetur et impediatur oratio vestra’; cf. Tert. Apol. 30, adv. Mare. iv. 1. Se :
|| Cf. Mt 523f G5, Mix 1125, for the conditions of true supplica- tions (with an implied vow, <dxés), and Mt 61-4 for alms.
shall be saved by the curse* itself.” And then shall appear the signs of the truth; first, the sign of outspreading (the Crucified with outspread arms) in heaven; next, the sign of a trumpet’s voice; and third, resurrection of the dead—not of all, however, but, as it was said, ‘the Lord shall come and all the saints with Him.’ ‘Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.’
ii. MATERIALS FOR COMPARATIVE CRITICISM.— In view of this summary most will agree with Harnack (Herzog’s PRE® i. 713) when he says: ‘Even if we knew nothing of the document from separate tradition, were aware of no later recen- sions of it, and were not in a position to supply its sources, we should—apart from some passages in the first chapter, which, in any case, raise the suspicion of being later additions—have toacquiesce in the assumption of the integrity of the writing.’ Perhaps this is to overlook one or two secondary features in chs. vii.—xvi., particularly ch. vil. ; but, broadly speaking, it is true. When, however, we turn to the traces of the work in the ancient Church, and to certain related documents that have reached us, perplexities and complications arise on every hand. ‘These we must now examine, yet without ignoring the unity in style and lan- guage, as well as in feeling, which marks our Didache as a whole.
(a) Textual witnesses: (1) Primary—
(a) A=Apostolical Constitutions, vii. 1-32. This embodies the whole of the Didache, almost as found in our MS—the 7wo Ways largely verbatim (1-21), the rest with more reserve ; but throughout occur large additions meant to suit the taste of certain circles of Syrian Christians in the latter half of the 4th century. Its special value lies at once in the relative completeness of its use of our Didache, and in the fact that it belongs, broadly speaking, to the same region.
It opens with the reference made by ‘the lawgiver Moses’ to choice between the Ways of Life and Death (Dt 3019), and having cited the words of ‘the Lord Jesus,’ ‘No man can serve two masters,’ continues: ‘As in duty bound (évayza/ws), we also, following the Teacher (d:dacxéw), Christ, . . . say that “Two Ways there are,”’ etc. Thisrather points to knowledge of Adaya Kupicv in the title, just as the opening of the Apost. Const. as a whole, réor réis && ebvaiv rirreicaow, points to ros ebvecw. As to the Twelve Apostles, this is found in the title of the Didascalia (see below), the basis of Apost. Const. i.-vi., which runs: ‘The Didascalia, or the Catholic Teaching of the Twelve Apostles and holy disciples of our Saviour.’
(8) B=Epistle of Barnabas. In chs. xviii.-xx. it quotes the bulk of the Zwo Ways as found in Did. i-yv., but in a very different order and with some textual variation (partly due to freedom of citation, partly, perhaps, also to original textual differences). ‘There are slight echoes of the 7'wo Ways in other parts of the Epistle, as also a rather close parallel in iv. 9, 10 to Did. xvi. 2. The great value of the Epistle of Barnabas is that it supplies an early date (see below, iii. (b)) in the literary his- tory of the Didache.
(y) CO= Apostolic Church Ordinances, 1-14. This compilation of about A.D. 300+ does for the Egyptian Church what Apost. Const. vii. does for the Syrian ; it works up the local recension of the Didache into a form more accordant with current sentiment. This work (which exists in Greek, Coptic, and Syriac) is our chief witness for the textual trans-
mission of the 7wo Ways in Egypt; for there is
% For the idea of salvation through suffering, for Messiah’s people as well as for Messiah, see Barn. viii. 6: ‘In his king- dom there shall be evil and foul days, in the which we shall be saved: for he who suffers pain in the flesh is healed through the foulness of the hyssop’ ; cf. vii. 11 and Rev 19.