QUOTE: The difference between the way of life and the way of death
is great. Therefore, do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn
infant. [Book of Christian
apostolic teachings, circa 80 A.D.]
AUTHOR: The Didache (ˈdɪdəkiː/; Koine Greek: Διδαχή) or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Didachē
means "Teaching") is a brief early Christian treatise, dated by most
scholars to the late first or early 2nd century. But J.A.T. Robinson argues
that it is first generation, dating it c.40-60. The first line of this treatise
is "Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles (or Nations) by the Twelve
Apostles"
The
text, parts of which constitute the oldest surviving written catechism, has three
main sections dealing with Christian ethics, rituals such as baptism and
Eucharist, and Church organization. It is considered the first example of the genre
of the Church Orders.
The
work was considered by some of the Church Fathers as part of the New Testament but
rejected as spurious or non-canonical by others,
eventually not accepted into the New Testament canon. The Ethiopian Orthodox
Church "broader canon" includes the Didascalia, a work which draws on
the Didache.
Lost
for centuries, a Greek manuscript of the Didache was rediscovered in 1873 by
Philotheos Bryennios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia in the Codex Hierosolymitanus.
A Latin version of the first five chapters was discovered in 1900 by J.
Schlecht.
The Didache is considered part of the category of second-generation Christian
writings known as the Apostolic Fathers.
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