Didascalia Apostolorum

tr. Connolly, 1929

XI. An Exhortation to Bishops and Deacons

Strive therefore, O bishops, together with the deacons, to be right with the Lord; for the Lord has said: If ye will¹ be right with me, I also will be right with you; and if ye will walk perversely with me, I also will walk perversely with you, saith the Lord of Hosts.² Be right therefore, that you may deserve to receive praise of the Lord, and not blame (from him who is) of the contrary part.

Let the bishops and the deacons, then, be of one mind; and do you shepherd the people diligently with one accord. For you ought both to be one body,³ father and son; for you are in the likeness of the Lordship.⁴ And let the deacon make known all things to the bishop, even as Christ to His Father. But what things he can, let the deacon order, and all the rest let the bishop judge. Yet let the deacon be the hearing of the bishop, and his mouth and his heart and his soul; for when you are both of one mind, through your agreement there will be peace also in the Church.

Now for a Christian this is becoming praise, that he have no evil word with any man. But if by the agency of the Enemy some temptation befall a man, and he have a lawsuit, let him strive to be quit of it, even though he be to suffer some loss: and at all events let him not go to the tribunals of the heathen. And you shall not admit a testimony from the heathen against any of our own people; for through the heathen the Enemy contrives against the servants of God. Wherefore, because the heathen are to stand on the⁵ left, He called them ‘the left hand’;⁶ for our Saviour spoke thus to us: Let not your left hand know what your right hand doeth.⁷ For the heathen are not to know of your lawsuits, and you shall not admit a testimony from them against yourselves, nor go to law before them: as also in the Gospel⁸ He saith: Give what is Caesar’s to Caesar, and what is God’s to God.⁹ Be thou willing therefore to suffer a loss, and striving rather to make peace. For when thou shalt suffer any worldly loss for the sake of peace, with God it shall be gain to thee, because that thou fearest God and doest according to His commandment.

But if there be brethren who have a quarrel one with another—which God forbid—you the leaders should know forthwith that it is no work of brotherhood in the Lord that they perform who have dared so to do. But if one of them be found to be of the sons of God, being meek and yielding, he is a son of the light.¹⁰ But one who is hard and froward,¹¹ and overreaching and blasphemous, is a hypocrite, and the Enemy works in him. Reprove him therefore, and rebuke and upbraid him, and put him forth for correction; and afterwards, as we have already said, receive him, that he may not utterly perish. For when such are corrected and reproved, you will not have many lawsuits. But if they know not the word which was spoken by our Lord in the Gospel, which saith: How many times, if my brother offend against me, shall I forgive him?¹² but are angry one with another and become enemies, teach them, you, and reprove them, and make peace between them; for the Lord has said: Blessed are the peacemakers.¹³ And know that it behoves the bishop and the presbyters to judge warily: as our Saviour said when we asked Him, How many times, if my brother offend against me, shall I forgive him? unto seven times?¹⁴ But our Lord taught us and said to us: Not seven times, I say, only, but even unto seventyfold seven.¹⁵ For so the Lord desires, that they who are His in truth should never have anything at all against any man, and should not be angry with any man: how much less does He desire that men should have lawsuits one with another? But if aught should happen to come about through the agency of the Enemy, so let them be judged before you as you also are surely to be judged.

First, then, let your judgements be held on the second day of the week, that if perchance any one should contest the sentence of your words, you may have space until the Sabbath to compose the matter, and may make peace between them that are at odds¹⁶ and reconcile them on the Sunday. Now let the presbyters and the deacons be ever present in all judgements with the bishops. Judge without respect of persons.

When therefore the two parties¹⁷ who have the suit or¹⁸ quarrel one with another shall come and stand together in the judgement, as the Scripture saith, after you have heard them, pass sentence righteously. And give diligence to keep them in friendship before the sentence is pronounced upon them, lest there go forth from you against one of them, being a brother, a condemnation of earthly judgement. And judge as you also are surely to be judged, even as you have Christ for partner and assessor and counsellor and spectator with you in the same cause. But if there be any who are accused by some one, it being charged against them that they conduct themselves not well in the way of the Lord: again, hearing both parties, make diligent inquiry, as being to give sentence in a matter of everlasting life or cruel and bitter death. For if a man is truly convicted, and he be condemned and go forth from the Church, he has been cast out from life and glory everlasting, and is become reprobate among men and guilty before God. Judge therefore, according to the magnitude of the charge, whatever it be, with much mercy; and incline rather¹⁹ to save alive without respect of persons than to destroy, by condemning, those who are judged.

But if there be one who is innocent, and he be condemned by the judges through respect of persons, the judgement of unjust judges shall do him no hurt with God, but shall rather profit him; for but for a little while is he unjustly judged by men, but afterwards, in the day of judgement, because he has been unjustly condemned, he shall be the judge of (his) unjust judges. For you have been the arbiters of an unjust judgement, and therefore shall be requited by God accordingly, and cast out of the Catholic Church of God. And that shall be fulfilled in your case: With what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged.²⁰

Wherefore, when you sit to judge, let both parties—²¹ for we do not call them brothers until peace has been made between them—come and stand together; and do you make prudent and diligent inquiry as between those who have the suit and quarrel one with another. And learn first concerning him who makes the accusation, whether there be any accusation against him also, or whether perchance he has brought charges against others as well; and again, whether he has brought his accusation out of any former enmity or quarrel, or out of envy; and (inquire) also of what manner his conversation is—whether he is meek, and without anger, and not given to slander, and whether he loves the widows and the poor and strangers, and is not greedy of filthy lucre;²² and whether he is quiet, and friendly to all and a lover of all; whether he is merciful and open-handed to give,²³ and not a glutton and greedy, nor grasping, nor drunken, nor intemperate, nor slothful: for the perverse heart contriveth evil, and the same disturbeth cities at all times;²⁴ and whether no such evil has been committed by him as is (done) in the world, And if he that makes the accusation is free from all these things, it is already evident and manifest that he is trustworthy, and that his accusation is true. But if he is known to be perverse and contentious, and his conduct not right, this (also) is evident, that he brings false witness against your brother. When therefore he is found and known to be an injurious person, rebuke him and put him forth for a time, until he repent and be converted and weep: lest perchance he again blaspheme against some other of our brethren who is of good conversation; or lest, while he sits in your congregation, some other like him, seeing him unreproved, should himself dare to do in like manner to one of our brethren, and should perish before God. But if he who has sinned is rebuked and corrected and put forth for a season, he also who was ready to imitate him and to do as he did, having seen him put forth, will fear lest it happen to him in like manner, and will submit himself: and he shall live before God,²⁵ and in no wise be put to shame among men.

And concerning him again who is judged take counsel and thought among you in like manner: and observe his manners and conduct in the world, whether perchance you have heard many charges against him, or whether he has committed many crimes. For if he is found to have committed crimes, it is likely that this charge also which they prefer against him is true. But again, it may happen that he had formerly committed some sin, but is innocent of this present charge. Wherefore, make diligent investigation of these things, that you may give sentence with great caution and surety; and do you judge rightfully concerning him who is found to be guilty, and pass judgement upon him. But let any one of them who will not abide by your judgement be reproved and put forth from the congregation until he repent and make entreaty of the bishop or of the Church, and confess that he has sinned, and is penitent. And thus shall advantage accrue to many: lest at any time some other, seeing him sit in the Church unrebuked and uncorrected, should himself dare to do as he did, thinking him alive among men, whereas with God he is lost.

But if²⁶ you hear one party²⁷ alone, while the other is not present to make his defence to the charge which they bring against him, and you pass sentence hastily, without counsel and without inquiry, and, in accordance with the falsehoods which you have believed, condemn him while he is not present to defend himself: you shall be partners before God of him that brought the false witness, and with him you shall be punished by God. For the Lord has said in Proverbs:²⁸ He that meddleth in a quarrel that is not his own, is as he that taketh hold of a dog’s tail;²⁹ and again in another place He has said: Judge right judgement;³⁰ and again He has said: Judge the fatherless, and justify the widows; and again He saith: Deliver the oppressed, and sever every bond³¹ of iniquity.³² But if you resemble those elders who were in Babylon, who bore³³ false witness against Susanna and wickedly condemned her to death, you also shall be partners of their judgement and of their condemnation; for the Lord by Daniel saved Susanna from the hand of the ungodly, and those elders who were guilty of her blood He condemned to fire.

Now very far apart do we set the things of the sanctuary from those of the world; nevertheless (this) we say: You see, brethren, how, when murderers are brought before the (civil) authority, the judges question diligently those who bring them, and learn from them what they have done. And then again they ask the criminal whether these things are so; and though he himself confess and say, ‘Yea’, they do not send him straightway to death, but question him again for many days, and drawing the curtain take thought and counsel much together. And then at length they pass upon him the sentence of death, and lifting up their hands to heaven protest that they are innocent of the man’s³⁴ blood. And these things they do though they are heathens and know not God nor the requital they receive from God for those whom they judge and condemn unjustly. And do you, who know who is our God and what His judgements, dare to give sentence upon one who is not guilty? We counsel you therefore that you make inquiry with diligence and much caution. For the word of sentence which you decree ascends straightway to God; and if you have justly judged, you shall receive of God the reward of justice, both now and hereafter; but if you have judged unjustly, again you shall receive of God a recompense accordingly. Strive therefore, brethren, that you be worthy to receive praise from God, and not blame; for praise from God is everlasting life to men, but blame from God is eternal death to men.

Have a care therefore, O bishops, that you be not in haste to sit in judgement forthwith, lest you be constrained to condemn a man; but before they come and stand in the judgement, admonish them and make peace between them. And admonish those who have the suit and quarrel one with another, and teach them in the first place that it is not right for any man to be angry, because the Lord has said: Every one that is angry with his brother is liable to the judgement;³⁵ and secondly, that if it should happen through the agency of the Enemy that some anger arise, they ought at once, that very day, to be reconciled and appeased, and to be at peace with one another. For it is written: Let not the sun go down upon thine anger³⁶ against thy brother; and in David also He saith: Be angry, and sin not;³⁷ that is, be speedily reconciled, lest, if anger continue, malice arise and beget sin.³⁸ He saith³⁹ in Proverbs: The soul that keepeth malice shall die.⁴⁰ And our Lord and Saviour also said: If thou offer thy gift upon the altar, and there remember that thy brother keepeth any malice⁴¹ against thee, leave thy gift before the altar, and go, first be reconciled with thy brother: and then come, offer thy gift.⁴² Now the gift of God is our prayer and our Eucharist. If then thou keep any malice against thy brother, or he against thee, thy prayer is not heard and thy Eucharist is not accepted; and thou shalt be found void (both) of prayer and Eucharist by reason of the anger which thou keepest. A man ought to pray diligently at all times; but those who bear anger and malice towards their brethren God does not hear; and though thou pray three times in one hour, thou shalt gain nothing, for thou art not heard by reason of thine enmity against thy brother. Wherefore, if thou carest and strivest to be a Christian, follow the saying of the Lord which saith: Loose all ties of iniquity; and sever the bands of violence and oppression.⁴³ For upon thee has our Saviour laid this power, that thou shouldst forgive thy brother who has offended against thee unto seventyfold seven times,⁴⁴ that is, four hundred and ninety.⁴⁵ How many times then hast thou forgiven thy brother, that thou wilt no more forgive him, but keepest malice and maintainest enmity, and desirest to go to law? Therefore is thy prayer hindered. But even if thou hast forgiven the full four hundred and ninety times, add still more for thine own sake, and of thy bounty, without anger, forgive thy brother. And if thou do it not for thy brother’s sake, bethink thee and do it at least for thine own; and forgive thy neighbour, that thou mayest be heard when thou prayest, and mayest offer an acceptable oblation to the Lord.

Wherefore, O bishops, that your oblations and your prayers may be acceptable, when you stand in the Church to pray let the deacon say with a loud voice: ‘Is there any man that keepeth aught against his fellow?’, that if there be found any who have a lawsuit or quarrel one with another, thou mayest entreat them and make peace between them. They who enter a house and say, Peace be in this house,⁴⁶ both are proclaimers of peace and do bring peace. If then thou preach peace to others, still more does it behove thee to have peace with thy brethren. As a son of light and peace therefore, be thou light and peace to all men; and contend with no man, but be in quiet and peace with all men. And be a helper with God that (the number of) those who are saved may be increased; for this is the will of the Lord God. But they who love enmity and quarrels, and contentions and lawsuits, are enemies of God. For the Lord from the beginning, through the prophets and righteous men, called all generations to repentance and salvation; and we, moreover, the Apostles, who have been accounted worthy to be the witnesses of His manifestation and preachers of His divine word, have heard from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and do know of a surety and say what is His will, and the will of His Father, that no man⁴⁷ should perish, but that all men should⁴⁸ believe and be saved. For this is that which He taught us to say when we pray: Thy will be done in earth, as in heaven⁴⁹; that as the angels of heaven and the hosts and all (His) ministers praise God, so too on earth all men should praise God. It is His will, then, to save all; and this is His pleasure, that they who are saved should be many.

He who is contentious, or makes himself an enemy to his neighbour, diminishes the people of God. For either he drives out of the Church him whom he accuses, and diminishes her and deprives God of the soul of a man which was being saved, or by his contention he expels and ejects himself from the Church, and so again he sins against God. For God our Saviour spoke thus: Every one that is not with me, is against me; and every one that gathereth not with me, scattereth.⁵⁰ Wherefore thou art no helper with God for the gathering together of the people, because thou art a disturber and a scatterer of the flock, and an adversary and enemy of God. Be not therefore for ever embroiled in contentions and quarrels, or wrangling, or enmity, or lawsuits, lest thou scatter some one from the Church. For we by the power of the Lord God have gathered (men) from all peoples and from all tongues, and have brought them to the Church with much labour and toil and in daily peril, that we might do the will of God and fill the house with guests,⁵¹ that is His holy Catholic Church, that they might be glad and rejoicing, and be praising and glorifying God who called them to life.

Be you then, O laymen, peaceable one with another, and strive like wise doves to fill the Church, and to convert and tame those that are wild and bring them into her midst. And (for) this⁵² is the great reward that is promised by God: if you deliver them from fire, and present them to the Church firmly established and faithful.

Notes

If ye will, etc.] The second part of this text would be satisfied by the references given to Lev. xxvi, but the first part is not from any scriptural source. Funk points out that the whole is found in some later writers, of whom Macarius Chrysocephalus (s. xiv) refers it to Clem. Alex. in the form ἐὰν ὀρθοὶ πρός με ἥκητε, κἀγὼ ὀρθὸς πρὸς ὑμᾶς· ἐὰν πλάγιοι πορευήσθε, κἀγὼ πλάγιος, λέγει κύριος τῶν δυνάμεων. AC has only the second clause, thus, ἐὰν πλάγιοι πορεύησθε, κἀγὼ πρὸς ὑμᾶς πλαγίως πορεύσομαι, and then adds Ps. xvii (xviii) 26 f.
? (Cf. Ps. xvii 26 f., Lev. xxvi 23-24, 27-28).
one body] Cf. p. 148 l. 25, and note.
for you . . . the Lordship] A peculiar expression: cf. Didache iv 1 ὅθεν γὰρ ἡ κυριότης λαλεῖται, ἐκεῖ κύριός ἐστιν. See again p. 129 l. 4, and note.
Cf. Mt. xxv 33.
the left hand] See again p. 143, l. 12. The author of the Op. imperf. in Matth., Hom. xiii, refers to a Liber Canonum of the Apostles for the following: ‘Dextera est populus christianus, qui est ad dexteram Christi; sinistra autem omnis populus, qui est ad sinistram. Hoc ergo dicit: ne christianum facientem eleemosynam, qui est dextera, infidelis aspiciat, qui est sinistra’ (see Funk vol. ii p. 8). AC has substituted other words for the passage in Didasc., and therefore cannot be the source of this reference.
Mt. vi 3.
Cf. 1 Cor. vi 1.
Mt. xxii 21, Lk. xx 25.
son of the light] See pp. 6, 63.
Cf. Joh. xii 36.
Mt. xviii 21.
Mt. v 9.
Mt. xviii 21.
Mt. xviii 22.
are at odds] lit. ‘are held (or holding) one against the other’: τοὺς διαφερομένους πρὸς ἀλλήλους AC.
parties] lit. ‘persons’ (πρόσωπα): προσώπων AC. See also p. 112, l. 25.
Cf. Deut. xix. 17.
rather] lit. ‘a little’, or ‘somewhat’.
Mt. vii 2.
parties] lit. ‘persons’. Cf. p. 111, l. 23.
1 Tim. iii 8.
open-handed to give] So εὐμετάδοτος is rendered at p. 8, l. 3.
Prov. vi 14.
live before God] Cf. p. 16, l. 3 and note.
But if, etc.] Comp. Hermas Mand. ii 2 πρῶτον μὲν μηδενὸς καταλάλει, μηδὲ ἡδέως ἄκουε καταλαλοῦντος· εἰ δὲ μή, καὶ σὺ ὁ ἀκούων ἔνοχος ἔσῃ τῆς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ καταλαλοῦντος, ἐὰν πιστεύσῃς τῇ καταλαλιᾷ.
party] lit. ‘person’.
Proverbs] This title appears here for the first time in Didasc. (see note on p. 17). AC introduces the quotation differently, and without naming the source.
Prov. xxvi 17.
Cf. Deut. i 16, Zech. viii 16 (cp. Joh. vii 24).
bond] Here a written bond (shĕṭāra): twice elsewhere the text is quoted with the reading ḳetra, ‘knot’ or ‘band’, which is the word in Pesh. answering to σύνδεσμον. The word used here corresponds to συγγραφήν in the second half of the verse.
Isa. i 17: lviii 6.
Dan. xiii (Susanna).
the man’s] ‘men’s’ text: τοῦ ἀνθρώπου AC.
Mt. v 22.
Eph. iv 26.
Ps. iv 5, Eph. iv 26.
lest . . . beget sin] ὅπως μὴ ἡ ἐπίμονος ὀργὴ μνησικακία γένηται καὶ ἁμαρτίαν ἀπεργάσηται AC. Cf. Hermas Vis. ii 3. 1 μνησικακία θάνατον κατεργάζεται. The word which I translate ‘malice’ here and in the following lines denotes animosity or resentment: here it renders μνησικακία, and in the text from Prov. μνησίκακος.
Cf. Hermas Vis. ii 3. 1.
Prov. xii 28.
malice] this insertion appears in syr. cur., sin. and vulg., and also in Aphraates (see Burkitt in loc.).
Mt. v 23 f.
Isa. lviii 6.
Mt. xviii 22.
four hundred and ninety] Comp. Aphraates Hom. ii 13 (after quoting Mt. xviii 22) ‘Even, saith He, if he offend against thee 490 times, forgive him in one day’ (see also Hom. xiv 44 ad fin.).
Mt. x 12, Lk. x 5.
that no man, etc.] ἵνα μηδεὶς ἀπόληται, ἀλλὰ πάντες ἄνθρωποι [συμφώνως] πιστεύσαντες [αὐτῷ αἶνον σύμφωνον ἀναπέμψαντες αὐτῷ] ζήσωσιν [αἰωνίως] AC. The second part of the text above appears to be from 1 Tim. ii 4; the first words may imply acquaintance with 2 Pet. (iii 9) μὴ βουλόμενός τινας ἀπολέσθαι, ἀλλὰ πάντας εἰς μετάνοιαν χωρῆσαι. Funk and Flemming refer only to Joh. iii 16, which hardly seems to be in view here.
Cf. 2 Pet. iii 9: 1 Tim. ii 4.
Mt. vi 10.
Mt. xii 30.
Mt. xxii 10.
And (for) this, etc.] Compare for the construction, and in part for the sense, 2 Clem. iii 3 οὗτος οὖν ἐστὶν ὁ μισθὸς ἡμῶν, ἐὰν οὖν ὁμολογήσωμεν δι᾽ οὗ ἐσώθημεν.