Didascalia Apostolorum

tr. Connolly, 1929

Showing that the Apostles returned once more to the Churches and set them in order

Now the decision¹ which we reached with counsel and thought² concerning those who have already gone astray, we have thus affirmed³ and established. And we will return yet again and go to the Churches a second time, as in the beginning of the preaching, and will confirm the faithful that they may avoid the offences aforesaid, and may not receive those who come deceitfully in the name of apostles, but may know them by the changeableness of their words and by the performance of their works. For these are they of whom our Lord said: There shall come unto you men having on the clothing of lambs, but inwardly ravening wolves: and by their fruits ye shall know them. Beware of them therefore. Now there shall arise false Christs and lying prophets, and lead many astray; and by reason of manifold iniquity the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.⁴⁵

Now let those who⁶ have not erred, and those also who repent of their error, be left in the Church. But as for those who are still held fast in error and repent not, we have decreed and enjoined that they be put forth from the Church and be separated and removed from the faithful, because they are become heretics; and that the faithful be commanded wholly to avoid them, and not to communicate with them either in speech or in prayer. For these are enemies and spoilers of the Church; for concerning these our Lord commanded us and said to us: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees⁷⁸; and: Into the cities of the Samaritans ye shall not enter. Now the cities of the Samaritans are those of the heresies, which go in a perverse way, concerning which He said in Proverbs: There is a way which men think right: but the end thereof leadeth to the bottom of Sheol.⁹ These are they concerning whom our Lord sternly and bitterly gave sentence and said: It shall not be forgiven them, neither in this world nor in the world to come.¹⁰ For as regards the People, who believed not in Christ and laid hands upon Him, it is against the Son of Man, on whom they laid hands, that they blaspheme; and our Lord said: It shall be forgiven them¹¹;¹² and again our Lord said of them: My Father,¹³ they know not what they have done,¹⁴ nor what they speak: if¹⁵ it be possible, forgive them.¹⁶ And as for the Gentiles again, it is against the Son of Man also that they blaspheme, by reason of the cross; and for these there shall come forth forgiveness. For to those who have believed, from the People or from the Gentiles, forgiveness of their evil works has been granted through baptism; as the Lord Christ said: Wherefore¹⁷ I say unto you: All sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven to men: but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit shall not be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come. And every one that shall say a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but every one that shall say (it) against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come.¹⁸ But those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit, those who lightly¹⁹ and in hypocrisy blaspheme God Almighty, those heretics who receive ⟨not⟩²⁰ His holy Scriptures, or receive them ill, in hypocrisy with blaspheming, who with evil words blaspheme the Catholic Church which is the receptacle of the Holy Spirit: it is they who, before the judgement to come and before ever they can make a defence, are already condemned by Christ. For that which He said, It shall not be forgiven them, is the stern sentence of condemnation which goes forth²¹ for them.

And when we had ordained and affirmed and set down ⟨these things⟩ together with one accord, we set forth to go each one to his former province, confirming the Churches. For those things which were foretold have been fulfilled, and the hidden wolves are come, the false Christs and lying prophets²² have appeared. And this is evident and manifest, that when the times draw near and the Advent is at hand, there will be yet many more and worse than these: from whom the Lord God will deliver you.

Those then who have repented of the error of (their) godless apostasy we have healed with much admonition and with the word of doctrine ⟨and⟩ exhortation, and have made them whole and have suffered them to remain in the Churches; but those²³ who are smitten unto death with the perverse word of error,²⁴ and for whom there is no cure, we have driven out, that they may not contaminate the holy Catholic Church, the pure Church of God: that (the evil) may not creep like a leprosy and travel to all like a putrid²⁵ gangrene, but that pure and without stain or blemish or scar the Church may²⁶ remain sound unto the Lord God. And these things we so do in every place and in every city, and throughout the whole world; and we have given (our) testimony, and have left this Catholic Didascalia justly and rightly²⁷ to the Catholic Church for a memorial and for the confirming of the faithful.

Notes

decision] lit. ‘mind’, or ‘purpose’.
reached with counsel and thought] lit. ‘consulted and thought out’.
affirmed] S: ‘sent’ H (by change of a diacritical point).
Mt. vii 15 f.
Mt. xxiv 11-13, 24.
those who] + ‘sustinuerint et’ Lat., and rightly (cf. l. 18).
Mt. xvi 6.
Mt. x 5.
Prov. xiv 12.
Mt. xii 32.
It shall be forgiven them] Referring to Mt. xii 32, as below.
Mt. xii 32.
My Father, etc.] This strange quotation has occurred already at p. 52, where Lat. is not extant.
they have done] ‘fecerant’ Lat.: ‘they do’ at p. 52.
if] ‘but if’ at p. 52.
? (cf. Lk. xxiii 34, Mt. xxvi 39, 1 Tim. i 7).
Wherefore, etc.] The shorter form of this quotation in Lat. is perhaps the original.
Mt. xii 31 f.
lightly] lit. ‘hastily’: ‘apertissime’ Lat.
⟨not⟩] From Lat.
goes forth] The present tense is indicated by the pointing, but perh. the perfect should be read: cf. Lat.
Mt. xxiv 24, Mk. xiii 22.
but those, etc.] τοὺς δὲ ἀνιάτως ἔχοντας ἐξεβάλομεν τῆς ποίμνης, ἵνα μὴ ψωραλέας νόσου μεταδῶσιν καὶ τοῖς ὑγιαίνουσιν ἀρνίοις, ἀλλὰ καθαρὰ καὶ ἄχραντα, ὑγιῆ καὶ ἄσπιλα διαμείνῃ κυρίῳ τῷ θεῷ AC, with considerable abridgement.
of error] + ‘magis autem sine uerbo peruersione’ Lat.: corresponding words have prob. fallen out in Syr.
putrid] I conjecture that ܣܦܝܟܐ (an unknown form) may cover the Gk. σηπεδών. S marg. has a noun which means ‘white lead’: H substitutes ‘the sore of’.
Cf. Eph. v 27.
justly and rightly] ἀξίως καὶ δικαίως AC. Comp. Hippol. in Dan. lib. ii c. 29 ἀξίως κ. δικαίως, and lib. iii c. 4 ἀξίαν κ. δικαίαν—neither in any liturgical context.