THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
"Teaching;, so called, of the Apostles " among the books which are not canonical but useful for the instruction of catechumens. Rufinus repeats this statement of Athanasius {Com})ic)it. in Si/mb. Apost., xxxvi.-xxxviii. ), but in i)la,ce of " Teachina:, so called , of the Apostles," he puts " The Two AVays," or " The Judgment of Peter," or "According tol'cter," for the " Teaching of the Apostles." Jerome (De vir. iU.,\.) likewise mentions "Peter's Judgment" among five apocryphal books ascribed to that Ajiostle. The last mention of the " Teaching of the Apostles," so far as present knowledge goes, was made in the ninth century by Nicephorus, who speaks of such a book as among the Apocrypha of the Xew Testament, and as consisting of 20(1 lines. The manuscript discovered by Bryennios numbers 203 lines.
X. Importance of the Work: From vii. to the end each section of the " Teaching " is a source of the first rank for the points it covers, baptism, fasts, prayers, the eucharist, apostles, prophets, teachers, Sunday, the episcopate and diaconate. But its greatest importance lies in the fact that it affords so much better an understanding of the organization of the earliest Christian churches, where the interest of early Christianity lay, and how it became in literary matters the heir of Judaism. (Adolf Harnack.)
Bibliography: The literature on the Didache has become enormous. A hst down to 1887 is given in ANF, Index vol., pp. 83-86; down to 1888 in P. Schaff, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, pp. 306-320, 3d ed.. New York, 1890; and by Baumer, in Literarischer Handweiser fiir das katholische Deutschland, xxvii (1888), 393-398, 425- 430; and to 1900 by A. Ehrhard, Die altchristliche Litteratur und ihre Erforschung, i. 37-68, Freiburg, 1900. The editio princeps is by P. Bryennios, Constantinople, 18S3; the best edition, at least in Eng., is by Schaff, ut sup., giving Greek text. Eng. tran.sl., introduction, and discus.^ions. Other good editions are by A. Harnack, Leipsic, 1SS4; R. D. Hitchcock and F. Brown, New York, 1885; P. Sabatier, Paris, 1885; H. D. M. Spence, London, 1885; F. X. Funk, Tiibingen, 1887; J. R. Harris, Baltimore, 1SS7; J. B. Lightfoot, in Apostolic Fathers, London, IS93; J. Schlecht, Freiburg, 1900. Most of the foregoing contain translations in the tongue of the editor, besides notes, introduction, and discussions. Eng. transl. exists also in ANF, viii. 377-382, and in G. C. Allen, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, London, 1903. Many of the most important discussions are in periodicals, especially those of 1884-87. Discussions of especial worth are: J. R. Harris, The Teaching of the Apostles and the Sibylline Books, Cambridge, 1885; A. Harnack, Die Apostellehre und die jiidischen heiden Wege, Leipsic, 1886; C. Taylor, The Teachinri of the 12 Apostles with Illustrations from the Talmud, Cambridge, 1886; B. B. Warfield, in Biblwtheca Sacra, 188(;, pp. 100-161; J. Heron, The Church of the Sub-Apostolic Age in the Light of the
Teaching of the 12 Apostles, London, 1888; G. Wohlenberg. Die Lehre der 13 Apostel in ihrem Verhaltniss gum neutestamentlichen Schrifttum, Erlangen, 1888; P. Batiffol, in Studia patristica, ii. 117-160, Pari.s. 1890; G. Salmon, Introduction to N. T., pp. 551-566, London,
1892; DCB, iv. 806-815; C. H. Hole, The Didorhe, London, 1894; L. E. Isclin, in TU, xiii. 1, 1895; J. Schlecht, Die Lehre der 12 Apostel m der Litiirgie, Freiburji, 1901; T. Schermann, Fine Elfapostelmoral, Munich, 1903; Kruger, History, pp. 63-67.
DIDASCALIA. See Apostolic Constitutions
AND CaNOXS.
DIDEROT, did"ro', DENIS: The most prominent of the Encyclopedists (q.v.); b. at Langres (150 m. s.e. of Paris) in Cliampagnc Oct. 5, 1713, d. at Paris July 31, ITSl. He was educated by
tlic Jesuits, and, refusing to enter one of the learned professions, was turned adrift by his father and came to Paris, where he lived from hand to mouth for a time. Gradually, however, he became recognized as one of the most powerful writers of the (lay. His first independent work was the Essai sur le mcrite et la vertu (1746). As one of the editors of the Dictionnaire de medecine (6 vols., Paris, 174(')), he gained valuable experience in encyclopedic system. His Pensees philosophiques (The Hague, 1746), in which he attacked both atheism and the received Christianity, was burned by order of the Parliament of Paris. In the circle of the leaders of the " Enlightenment" Diderot's name became known especially by his Lettre sur les aveugles (London, 1749), which supported Locke's theory of knowledge. He attacked the conventional morality of the day, with the result (to which possibly an allusion to the mistress of a minister contributed) that he was imprisoned at Vincennes for three months. He was released by the influence of Voltaire's friend Mme. du Chatelet, and thenceforth was in close relation with the leaders of revolutionary thought. He had made very little pecuniary profit out of the Encyclopedie, and Grimm appealed on his behalf to Catherine of Russia, who in 1765 bought his library, allowing him the use of the books as long as he lived, and assigning him a yearly salary which a little later she paid him for fifty years in advance. In 1773 she summoned him to St. Petersburg with Grimm to converse with him in person. On his return he lived until his death in a house provided by her, in comparative retirement but in unceasing labor on the undertakings of his party, writing (according to Grimm) two-thirds of Raynal's famous Histoire philosophique, and contributing some of the most rhetorical pages to Helvetius's De I'esprit and Holbach's Systeme de la nature, Systeme social, and Morale universelle. His numerous writings include the most varied forms of literary effort, from inept licentious tales and comedies which pointed away from the stiff classical style of the French drama and strongly influenced Lessing, to the most daring ethical and metaphysical speculations. Like his famous contemporary Samuel Johnson, he is said to have been more effective as a talker than as a writer; and his mental qualifications were rather those of a stimulating force than of a reasoned philosopher. His own position gradually changed from theism to deism, then to materialism, and finally rested in a pantheistic sensualism (see Deism, II., § 2). In Sainte-Beuve's phrase, he was " the first great writer who belonged wholly and undividedly to modern democratic society," and his attacks on the political system of France were among the most potent causes of the Revolution.
Bibliography: CEuvres completes, 20 vols., Paris, 1875-77; CEuvres choisies, 1884; A. Collignon, Diderot, sa vie. ses aiuvres, sa correspondance, Paris, 1895; J. A. Naigeon, Memoires . sur . Denis Diderot, ib. 1821; E. Salverte, Eloge de Diderot, ib. 1847; E. Bersot, Etudes sur Diderot, ib. 1855; L. Assehne, Diderot, ib. 1866; P. Duprat, Les Enci/clopedistes, Brussels, 1866; K. Rosenkranz, Diderot's Leben und Werke, Leipsic, 1S66; J. Morley, Diderot and the Enriidopwdists, 2 vols., London, 1S79; E. Scherer, Diderot, elude, Paris, 1880; F. Picavet, Les Idea-