Didascalia Apostolorum

tr. Connolly, 1929

An instruction to women, that they should please and honour their husbands alone, caring…

And let a woman also be subject to her husband; because the head of the woman is the man, and the head of a man¹ that walks in the way of justice is Christ. After the Lord Almighty, our God and the Father of the worlds, of the present and of that which is to come, and the Lord of every breath and of all powers, and His living and Holy Spirit—to whom is glory and honour for evermore, Amen—woman, fear² thy husband and reverence him, and please him alone, and be ready to minister to him; and let thy hands be (put forth) to the wool, and thy mind be upon the spindle, as He saith in Wisdom: ¹⁰ A valiant woman who shall find? For she is more worth than goodly stones of great price³; ¹¹ and the heart of her husband relieth upon her, and provision is not wanting to her. ¹² For she is a helper to her husband in all things, and causeth that nothing be wanting to him in his living.⁴ ¹³ She made wool and linen with her ready hands. ¹⁴ She is become a good provider, as a merchant ship, and hath gathered all her riches from afar. ¹⁵ She rose up in the night and gave victuals to her household, and work to her handmaids. ¹⁶ She looked upon a field,⁵ and bought it; and of the fruits of her hands she planted a possession. ¹⁷ She girded her loins with strength, and made firm her arms, ¹⁸ and tasted that it is good to work: and her lamp was not put out all the night long. ¹⁹ Her arms she stretched forth with diligence, and her hands to the spindle. ²⁰ Her hands she extended to the poor, and of her fruits she gave to the needy. ²¹ And her husband hath no anxiety for the house; for all his household have been clothed with a double raiment. ²² She made for her husband garments of fine linen and scarlet: ²³ her husband is notable in the gates, when he sitteth in the seat of the elders. ²⁴ She made in her house linen cloths and girdles, and sold to the Canaanites. ²⁵ Strength and comeliness are her raiment: and she shall rejoice in the last day. ²⁶ She opened her mouth with wisdom and with prudence, and her tongue speaketh orderly. ²⁷ The ways of her house are strict: and bread she hath not eaten slothfully. She opened her mouth in wisdom, rightly: ²⁸ and the law of mercy is upon her tongue. Her sons rose up and were enriched, and praised her: and she shall rejoice in them in her last days. Her husband also congratulated her: ²⁹ and her many daughters have gotten riches. And many great things she did, and she was exalted above all the women: ³⁰ for a woman that feareth God shall be blessed, and the fear of the Lord shall glorify her. ³¹ Give unto her of her fruits, which are worthy of her lips, and let her be praised in the gates: and in every place let her husband be praised. And again: A valiant woman is the crown of her husband.⁶

You have heard, then, how great praise a chaste woman and one that loves her husband receives of the Lord God, one that is found faithful and is minded to please God. Thou therefore, O woman, shalt not adorn thyself that thou mayest please other men; and thou shalt not be plaited with the tresses of harlotry, nor put on the dress of harlotry, nor be shod with shoes so that thou resemble them that are such; lest thou bring upon thee those who are ensnared by these things. And if thou sin not thyself in this work of uncleanness, yet in this thou wilt have sinned, that thou hast constrained and caused that (man) to desire thee. But if thou also sin, thou hast destroyed thy life from God, and art become guilty also of the soul of that (man). And moreover, when thou hast sinned with one, thou wilt grow reckless⁷ and go also to others; as in Wisdom He said: When the wicked is come to the depth of evil, he contemneth and groweth reckless:⁸ and there cometh upon him dishonour and reproach.⁹ For one who is such that she is wholly stricken in her soul and taken with desire,¹⁰ leads captive the souls of them that lack understanding.

But let us learn concerning these also, how the holy word in Wisdom exposes them;¹¹ for it saith thus: As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, so is beauty to a woman that doeth evil.¹² And again: As a worm in wood, so doth an evil woman destroy a man.¹³¹⁴ And again: ¹³ A woman¹⁵ void of understanding and boastful cometh to want bread, and knoweth no shame. ¹⁴ For she sitteth in the street, by the door of her house, upon a high chair, ¹⁵ and calleth to them that pass by the way, and to them that walk in her paths, and saith: ¹⁶ Whoso among you is a simpleton, let him draw nigh to me; and to him that wanteth understanding I will say: ¹⁷ Touch lovingly the hidden bread, and stolen waters that are sweet. ¹⁸ And he knoweth not that valiant men perish with her, and come even to the depth of Sheol. But flee thou, and tarry not in that place; and lift not up thine eyes to look upon her.¹⁶ And again: It is better to sit upon a corner of the roof than to dwell with a prating and quarrelsome woman within the house.

Thou therefore that art a Christian, do not imitate such women; but if thou wouldst be a faithful woman, please thy husband only. And when thou walkest in the street, cover thy head with thy robe, that by reason of thy veil thy great beauty may be hidden. And adorn not thy natural face;¹⁷ but walk with downcast looks, being veiled.

And take heed that thou bathe not in a bath with men. For when there is a women’s bath in the city or in the village, a believing woman may not bathe in a bath with men. For if thou coverest thy face from strange men with a veil of modesty, how † then¹⁸ † canst thou go in with strange men to a bath? But if there is no women’s bath, and thou art constrained to bathe in a bath of men and women,—which indeed is unfitting¹⁹ —bathe with modesty and shame, and with bashfulness and moderation: and not at all times, nor every day, and not at midday; but let there be an appointed season for thee to bathe at, (to wit) at the tenth hour. For it behoves thee, as a believing woman, by every means to fly from the vain and curious gaze²⁰ of the many which is met with in a bath.

And thy strife with all, and especially with thy husband, check²¹ and restrain as a believing woman; lest thy husband, if he be a heathen,²² be offended by reason of thee and blaspheme against God, and thou receive a Woe from God: for, Woe to²³ them, by reason of whom the name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles²⁴; or (lest) again, if thy husband be a believer, he be constrained, as one who knows the Scriptures, and say to thee the word from Wisdom: It is better to sit upon a corner of the roof than to dwell with a prating and quarrelsome woman within the house.²⁵ For it behoves women by a veil of modesty and humility to shew (their) fear of God, for the conversion and the increase of faith of them that are without, (both) of men and women.

Now if we have admonished and instructed you in brief, our sisters and our daughters and our members, do you as wise women seek and choose out for yourselves those things that are good and honourable and without reproach in worldly conversation; and learn and know those things whereby you may arrive at the kingdom of our Lord, and may find rest, pleasing Him with good works.

Notes

Eph. v 22 f., 1 Cor. xi 3.
In punctuating this passage I have followed the guidance of AC, which begins a new sentence with μετὰ οὖν τὸν παντοκράτορα θεόν (l. 10). This also harmonizes with the author’s manner and usage elsewhere: e. g. he says at p. 60, l. 23 that the layman should fear and love the bishop ‘as father and lord, and as God after God Almighty’, and at p. 93, l. 30 that the bishop is the layman’s father ‘after God’. For the parenthetical doxology comp. pp. 4, 156, 167. In any case I think the author intended to say that the wife should reverence her husband after God, not that the head of the man is Christ, after the Father and the Holy Spirit: though the Syriac admits of this construction, and cod. S even suggests it by placing an emphatic stop (܀) after ‘Amen’. AC omits reference to the Holy Spirit, and it may be that ‘and . . . H. Sp.’ is an addition due to the translator.
Prov. xxxi 10-31.
For she . . . his living] H: BS have ‘her living’: τὸν βίον AC LXX. The passage is quite unlike AC LXX Heb. Pesh.
a field] lit. ‘a cultivation’ (as Pesh.): γεώργιον AC LXX.
Prov. xii 4.
grow reckless] lit. ‘ let thyself go’, i. e. abandon thyself: ἀπογνοῦσα AC.
contemneth and groweth reckless] A double trans. of καταφρονεῖ (AC LXX).
Prov. xviii 3.
wholly . . . desire] Seemingly a paraphrase of ἀφειδῶς τετρωμένη (AC).
exposes them] Or ‘lays them bare’: θριαμβεύει AC. This verb seems to have contained the idea of despoiling, cf. Col. ii 15 ἀπεκδυσάμενος τὰς ἀρχὰς . . . θριαμβεύσας αὐτοὺς ἐν αὐτῷ.
Prov. xi 22.
Prov. xii 4.
Prov. ix 13-18.
A woman, etc.] The quotation is in fair agreement with LXX, but ‘valiant men’ (l. 23) and ‘the depth of Sheol’ (ll. 23-24) are due to Pesh. AC omits the quotation.
Prov. xxi 9, 19.
thy natural face] lit. ‘the face of thy nature’; but the text has by a slight corruption ‘the face of thine eyes’, which is meaningless.
how then] πῶς γυμνή AC (= Lat.): we should prob. restore ‘how canst thou go in naked’.
unfitting] Equivalent to παρὰ τὸ προσῆκον.
the vain and curious gaze, etc.] lit. ‘the multiplicity of vain sight of loftiness of eyes’, a very clumsy paraphrase of, apparently, τὴν πολυόφθαλμον περιεργίαν (AC).
check] lit. ‘cut off’: περίκοψον AC.
if he be a heathen] ἐὰν ἢ πιστὸς (one MS. ἄπιστος) ἢ ἐθνικός AC (= Lat.). Syr. is logical in omitting ‘a believer or’, even if that be what the author wrote.
Woe to, etc.] οὐαὶ γὰρ, φησίν, δὶ οὗ τὸ ὄνομά μου βλασφημεῖται ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν AC. The ‘Woe’ is not in Isa. or Rom.; but comp. 2 Clem. xiii 2 λέγει γὰρ ὁ κύριος· διὰ παντὸς τὸ ὄνομά μου βλασφημεῖται ἐν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν· καὶ πάλιν· οὐαὶ δι’ ὧν βλασφημεῖται τὸ ὄνομά pov. See also Ignatius Trall. viii 2 and Polycarp Phil. x 3 (Resch Agrapha p. 314).
Isa. lii 5 (Rom. ii 24).
Prov. xxi 9, 19.