Διδαχή των Δώδεκα αποστόλων = Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
Religion
Διδαχή των Δώδεκα αποστόλων = Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
Church polity -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Didache; Worship -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600
The Lord’s Day is the day for worship and for the Eucharist.
No mention is made of the seventh day of the week.
Κεφ. ιε΄. — CHAP. XV.
P. 26, 1.277—“Now appoint for yourselves,” χειροτονήσατε
οὖν ἑαυτοῖς] Χειροτονέω occurs only twice in the New
Testament (Acts xiv.23; 2 Cor. viii.19), and, in both places,
means simply to “appoint.” Josephus uses the word in the
same sense in Ant. xiii.2, 2, where Alexander Balas, the
pretended son of Antiochus Epiphanes, “appoints” Jonathan
High Priest. The same meaning appears in Ant. vii 9, 3;
vii. 11, 1. In ant. vi. 5, 4, however, the noun χειπροτονία is
used of the coronation of Saul. In Josephus, accordingly, the
prevailing sense of χειροτονέω is to “appoint.” This is the
meaning of the word also in the Epistles of Ignatius (about
115 a.d.). See Philadelphians, Chap. 10; Smyrnæns, Chap. 11;
Polycarp, Chap. 7.
But in the “Apostolic Canons,” I. and II., and in the
“Apostolic Constitutions,” viii. 4, 5, χειροτονέω means
to “ordain.” This represents the usage of the third century,
as the New Testament, Josephus, and Ignatius represent
the usage of the first and second centuries.
Now, it is noteworthy, that in the “Apostolic Constitutions,”
vii. 31 (the section corresponding to the passage before us),
the word employed is not χειροτονέω, which then meant
“ordain,” but προχειρίζομαι, a new usage having obtained.
In this fifteenth chapter of the “Teaching,” χειροτονέω is
employed, evidently, in its original sense of “appoint.” This
indicates the high antiquity of the document, antedating by
decades, if not by a whole century, the “Apostolic Canons”
and the “Apostolic Constitutions.”
As for the officers to be “appointed,” only Bishops and
Deacons are mentioned. By Bishops must, of course, be
meant Presbyters, or Elders. There is no sign of a Bishop
as distinguished from a Presbyter; nor of a Ruling Elder as
distinguished from a Teaching Elder; and, apparently, there
was in each congregation a plurality both of Bishops (or
Elders) and Deacons.
Κεφ. ιϛ΄. — CHAP. XVI.
The document concludes with a vision of the Lord coming
upon the clouds of heaven, and all the saints with him. The
resurrection is of the dead, νεκρῶν, though “not of all the
dead.” Not a word is said of any second resurrection. If there
is to be a second resurrections, it is only implied. Of course,
no interval is indicated. Premillennarianism, accordingly, is
not directly, perhaps not even indirectly, taught. Following
the lead of the New Testament, as in Matt. xxiv. 31,
and in 1 Thess. iv. 13-18, our document may, after all,
only be emphasizing the resurrection of the righteous.
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Errors In The Codex Corrected By Bryennios.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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