5 a. Introduction (5.1a)
3. The Way of Death (5.1-2)
a. Introduction (5.1a) la And the way that leads to death is this.
Above all, it is evil and full of accursed ness .. .
\ • may in turn conceive the way of life as a "way full of blessing" (oboq evAoyLaq peorp).
The introductory expression p 8e rov davarov oboq eonv avrp (v. la) corresponds exactly to the clause introducing the via vitae in 1.2a.1 It functions as a title.
As the previous section began (in 1.2) with a fundamen tal commandment (irponov aya'Kpoeiq top deop), the key word irptirov is repeated here: Ttpwrov ttocptup
The development of the theme follows. Understand ably enough, however, the author of the tractate was not able to present anything by way of explication of the way of death other than a doublet of the series of prohibi tions in 2.2-7—although now in the form of a vice list.
■novppa €Otl nai narapaq peorp.2 The statement that the way of death is iropppa seems banal; however, the phrase "full of accursedness" (narapaq peorp, also attested in Barn. 20.1) is important. This appears to be an old tradition with which this part of the tractate began. The phrase narapaq peorp is found in our litera ture only here and in Barn. 20.1.3 Karapa probably means the divine "curse" that strikes the violator of the law.4 If the way of death is a way beset with curses, one
1 Barn. 20.1a deviates sharply from Did, 5.1: p 8e tov peAapoq 686q eortp okoAlol ncei narapac; peorp.
68oc; yap eorcp daparov aiarLov pera rcpupLag, ev p eorip ra aroAAvPTa rpp ^vxpv avrau ("But the way of the Black One is crooked and full of cursing, for it is the way of death eternal with punishment, and in it are the things that destroy their soul"). Is this (from the point of view of tradition history) more original than the text in the Didache? Doctrina reads Mortis autem via est illi contraria ("the way of death is, however, contrary to that one").
2 npurop irdvToiv Tiovppd eon has no parallel in Barnabas and may be only a mechanical approxima tion of Did. 1.2. Doctrina has primum nequam et maledictis plena. . . .
But cf. Ps 9:28: ov dpag to OTopa avTov yepet nai TTiKplac; nai 8oAov ("whose mouth is filled with bit terness and deceit"), and Ps 13:3: up to oropa dpdq nai mKpLag yepei ("whose mouth is filled with cursing and bitterness," quoted in Rom 3:14).
Cf., remotely, Heb 6:7-8 and the Karapaq TOKva in 2 Pet 2:14 (although there the reference is to false teachers).
5.1b-2
b. Catalog of Vices (5.1 b-2) 1b [Characteristic of it are] acts of murder, adul tery, passion, fornication, theft, idolatry, magic, mixing poisons, robbery, false wit ness, hypocrisy, duplicity, guile, pride, malice, willful stubbornness, avarice, obscene speech, jealousy, insolence, arrogance, boast fulness, lack of fear <of God>.
2 [Characteristic of it are also] people who perse cute the good, who hate truth, who love falsehood, who do not know the merit of righteousness, who do not adhere to what is good or to just judgment, who watch not for the good, but for evil, who are far from mild ness and patience, who love what is futile, who are out for recompense, who do not show mercy to a poor person, who are not distressed by [the plight of] the oppressed, who do not know him who made them, [who are] child murderers, who destroy what God has formed, who turn away from the needy person, who oppress the person who is dis tressed, [who are] defenders of the rich [and] unjust judges of the poor—[people who are] sinners in everything that they do.
Analysis This catalog consists of two parts. In the first part dence in H). Beginning with v-Kepr)<p(xvi(x, Doctrina again corresponds to the Didache, although u\poq seems to appear twice in Doctrina, as superbia and as altitudo.
(v. lb), twenty-three vices are listed;1 in the second part (v. 2), we fjjid nineteen groups of evildoers.2 The begin ning of the catalog (roughly the first half of the first part) has a different sequence in Doctrina. This is one of the passages in which Doctrina deviates rather sharply from H. The expressions vTTOKpiaetq, 8tTrXoKap8La, and The vice list in Barn. 20.1 deviates still more sharply from Did. 5.1.3 Only from Did. 5.2 onward are Didache and Barnabas again parallel, although with deviations.
On the whole, the catalog in the Didache text seems more orderly than that in Doctrina, or certainly in Barnabas,4 One may ask which has the older or oldest version.5 The remaining differences between Didache and Doctrina are attributable either to the didachistic
8oXog, sequential in H, have nothing corresponding to them in Doctrina (and the same is true, in turn, of the affectiones in Doctrina, for which there is no correspon
1 For d(popLa (i9eov)? at the end of v. 1, see below.
2 Wengst (Didache, 74) conjectured ov <po(5ovpevoi rov deov at the end of 5.1, and adds that phrase to the following sequence. In this way, he obtains twentytwo vices (eleven each in plural and singular), and (because he counts his conjecture with the list of vices) twenty groups of evildoers. Cf. Wengst,
Didache, 75 n. 48.
3 This is true of the number of vices (the catalog in Barnabas is shorter), the sequence, and also by virtue of the fact that the series in Barnabas is sin gular from the outset, while Didache and Doctrina begin with plural expressions and only later fall into the singular. There is no parallel in the Didache for TrapdfiaoLq.
4 Audet, Didache, 349: "5.1 is the 'way of death' in the instruction to the Gentiles." Did. 5.2 is supposed (cf. what was said above) to stem from another situation from the point of view of tradition history, and to be a later addition, "an adaptation of the instruc tion to the poor on the original plan of the Duae viae" (Didache, 349). Did. 5.2 is said to come from the same hand to which we owe the introduction to the "instruction to the poor" (ibid.).
We can determine that there is a certain parallelism (stronger at the beginning) between Did. 2.2-7 and 5.1. Is the later ordering from the hand of the redactor (who intervened to establish some order, at least at the beginning) different from the original order of the sources? Or is this order the original?
that with the word bLirXoKapbia the series moves to the singular. AoXoq]° is lacking in 2.3-5, but cf., at least for the content, 2.5. redaction or to a confusion in the tradition behind
Doctrina. Certainty cannot be obtained.6
Comment In the series "pride" {v'Keprppotpior,n cf. v-neppipoLPoq in 2.6), "malice" (/ta/da; cf. KaKopdpq in 2.6), and "will ful stubbornness" {avddbeia; cf. avddbpq in 3.6), at least pride and stubbornness belong together. Then fol low (although no connection is evident) "avarice"
{irXeopeZ'ict; cf. ovk eorj TtXeopeKTpq in 2.6), "obscene speech" (aloxpoXoyioc; aloxpoXoyoq in 3.3), and "jeal ousy" (frjXoTviria; cf. QjAanpq in 3.2).
■ 1b At the outset we can discern an arrangement of the list of vices. As it had at 2.2, Didache first models itself on the sequence of the Decalogue, treating violations of the fifth, sixth, and seventh commandments. The text thus begins, here also, with "acts of murder" {<povoi-, cf. ov tpovevoeiq in 2.2),7 and continues with a listing of sins against the sixth commandment, "adultery, passion, for nication" (/xocyeZotL, eitLdvpiai, itoppeZotc, cf. 2.2, ov poixtvoeiq . . . ov iroppevoecq, although nothing corre
The next three vices, "insolence" (dpaovrrjq; -dpdaoq in 3.9), "arrogance" {vi/roq; ov\ v\J/uoei.q aeavrop and v\pr)Xd in 3.9), and "boastfulness" {dXa^oPeia.), again constitute a group. Only dXa^OPeia has not been men tioned before.12 * sponds to eiU'dvpLot at that point). Then follow, as in 2.2, the sins against the seventh commandment, "thefts"
(kAo7tgt; in 2.2, ov KXeipetq). At that point the sequence oriented to the Decalogue ends.
Then follow—as before—sins of false religion, begin ning with "idolatry" {eibccXoXarpLou,), then "magic"
{payeZac) and "sorcery" (<,papp.aKiot.i-, there is nothing corresponding to eibuXoXotTpiotL in 2.2, but cf. 3.4; cf. also in 2.2 ov payevoetq, ov (pappotKevoecq). The follow ing "acts of robbery" (apirayaZ) could correspond to the phrase ovk eTudvprjoeLq rd tov TcXpolop in 2.3 (?).
The first part of the catalog may well have ended with the summary phrase "lack of fear of God" {d<po(3La deov; thus Barn, in Sc H V; cf. deumn non timentes in Doctrina) or (more probably) only d(po{3ia (Constitutions,
Barnabas in S*). The word is lacking here in H and should probably be conjectured.14 Geov or deum is a sub sequent interpretation, but it correctly represents the intended meaning of dipoftia. All vices are summarized in a lack of <p6/3oq toward God (cf. 4.9). As <p6f3oq deov is the epitome of the right way, so is d(po(3ia {Geov) the epitome of the way that leads to death.15
Next follow four vices that have to do with falsity with in and without (cf. 2.3-5): "false witness, hypocrisy, duplicity, guile" {i/revbopapTvpLca, viroKpLoecq, bnrXoKapb'ia, and SoAog). Compare ifcevbopapTvpiai with ov if/evbopocprvprioeLq in 2.3. TTroKpioecq here is not "sin," as in 2.6 and 4.12, but "hypocrisies, falsifica tions," or "misrepresentations."8 Compare bLirXoKapbia9 10 * with bcypccpup, biyXuoooq, and btyXomoLcc in 2.4. Note
■ 2 Thus the first series in the catalog comes to an end.
The second series consists of a listing not of vices but of evildoers.16 This catalog also has parallels in Barn. 20.2, including the sequence. There are no discernible subdi6 Agreements between the Didache and the vice list in 11
Mark 7:21-22/Matt 15:19 and in Hernias Man.
8.3-5 do not indicate literary relationships. Koester 12 (Synoptische Uberlieferung, 163-70) and Rordorf and Tuilier (Doctrine, 167 n. 1) find striking parallels (?) to IQS 4.9-10. 13
From here on Didache and Doctrina are again parallel in sequence.
In vice lists: 1 Clem. 35.5; Hermas Man. 6.2.5; 8.5.
Otherwise: Jas 4:16; 1 John 2:16; frequently in 1 Clem. 13.1; 14.1; 16.2; 21.5; 35.5; 57.2.
In f2 deum has been added above the line.
With Franz Xaver Funk, Doctrina duodecim apostolorum: Canones Apostolorum ecclesiastici ac reliquiae doctrinae de duabus viis. Expositiones veteres (Tubingen:
Laupp, 1887) 14; Bihlmeyer, Apostolischen Vater, 4; Rordorf and Tuilier, Doctrine, 166. Klauser
{Doctrina, 20) and Audet {Didache, 232) conjecture aipo/3La deov. Harnack {Lehre, 18) and Lietzmann
{Didache, 8) stand by the text transmitted in H. Cf.
Niederwimmer, "Textprobleme," 123. Wengst {Didache, 74) conjectures ov tpofiovpevoi tov deov.
Cf. on this his remarks at Didache, 75 n. 50.
15 Cf. Prov. 15:16: Kpeiooav puipa peplq pera <p6(3ov
7 Barnabas and Doctrina transpose: pocxeia {moecha14 tiones), (popoq (homicidia).
8 See above, p. 92 n. 48.
9 For the construction of this word see BDF, §120 (4); BDR, §120 (5); it occurs only here and in the paral lel in Barnabas. Again, it is a characteristic expres sion of the tractate.
10 Common in vice lists: Corp. Herm. 13.7 (Nock and Festugiere, 2.203); Mark 7:22; Rom 1:29;
1 Clem. 35.5 (boXovq). It is also found frequently in the NT and a few times in the Apostolic
Fathers.
5.1b-2 visions. The initial phrase Siooktcu ayadwp is, once again, a characteristic expression of the tractate.17 The subsequent contrast is stated in parallelismus membrorum: puoovPTeq dArj'&eioip/dyonruPTeq pevboqA8 The phrase ov yiVuoKOVTeq pcoBop biKaioavppq19 means: they know nothing about the reward for righteous deeds, because they do not do any righteous deeds. Entirely captive to the Jewish(-Christian) milieu in its phrasing is the following ov KoWupepoi ayadui20 ovbe KpLoet biKOtiq.21 Barnabas continues: xVPd K(XL bp(pa.pqs ov sciously, by Ps 4:3 (dyatraTe paTaiorpTa.)21 AiUKOPTeq dpTanobopa ("who are out for recompense")28 is (again perhaps unconsciously?) quoted from Isa 1:23. The repri mand is directed at those who are continually seeking to be rewarded for their deeds.
The next two clauses are in parallelismus membrorum'. ovk eAeovvreq tttuxop,29 ov noPovvTeq eiri KCtTotiropovpepu.
The KOCTonrovovpevoq is the oppressed person.30 IlTuxbq and KaTorKovovp.6voq are parallel to one another. In addition, the play on words in itopsIp — KOtToritoPOvpevoq should be noted;31 it presupposes a Greek original
7tpooexovreq (which may be original). :AypwKPovPTeq ovk eiq to ayadop,22 aAA'eig to ■novyjpov. they care "not for what is good, but for what is evil."23 The vices listed are contrasted to the attitude of the anawim (see above): they are typical of the powerful and of tyrants, hence the continuation: up paKpav24 itpavT-qq nai i)irop,ovr)2b
These last two phrases are a hendiadys, describing the virtue of the anawim.26 The phrase pctTotLOt dyairwvTeq
("who love what is futile") is inspired, perhaps uncon for the tractate.32 The ov ytPuoKOPTeq top itOLpootPTOL ai)Tovq are those who forget God. Cf. 6 deoq 6 iroLpoaq
Kvpiov/rj Pqoavpol peyaXoc pera a<po[3iaq ("Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble without it"). Cf. also a<po18la with TtXavr], dmoria, etc., in the vice list in Ps.
Clem. Horn. 1.18.3 (GCS2 1.32).
16 There is no occasion here for source-critical or tra dition-historical hypotheses. The transition is, in fact, as unimportant as that from plural to singular in 5.1.
17 AidiKT-qq Hos 6:8 Symmachus; 1 Tim 1:13. It was fre quently used later by the Fathers; cf. Lampe, s.v. On this topic, cf. 1 Clem. 45.4: ebibx'b'qoav b'lKCuoi, aXX' virb dvopav ("the righteous were persecuted, but by the lawless").
18 For the last, cf. Ps 4:3: tva tL dyaTrdre pcytcylottjtcy elq, cf. Eph 6:18; aypvKvelv em, Dan 9:14 LXX; virep, Heb 13:17.
23 Doctrina has preserved the metaphor: pervigilantes non in bono sed in malo. Barnabas: aypwKvovvTeq ovk eiq <po(3op deov.
24 Barnabas'. paKpav Kal iroppoi.
25 Doctrina has superbia proximo instead of viropovi], and nothing corresponding to the following parata ayarruPTeq.
26 Cf. Did. 3.7-8.
27 Cf. also Prov 12:11.
28 Doctrina: remuneratores.
29 This is a common expression in Proverbs: eXeau be / TTTaxovq, 14:21; eXeci ittuxop, 14:31; 6 eXeuv tttuxop, 19:17; 22:9; t<S eXem>tl Trruxovq, 28:8.
30 Cf. Acts 7:24; James Hope Moulton and George Milligan, Vocabulary of the Greek Testament (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1930) 331; esp. BGU 4.1188.17
(from the time of Augustus): KaraTrovovpePoq bird tuv TeXuvdu. BAGD (s.v.) refers to UPZ 110.87-88:
Kal fyTelTe pevboq ("How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?"); and the iptXwv Kal ttoluv pevboq in Rev 22:15.
19 Objective genitive; Doctrina has (secondarily) mercedem veritatis. Regarding piodov biKaioavvpq, cf. ptadbq {rfjq) abiKiaq, Acts 1:18; 2 Pet 2:15.
20 KoXXapevoi tu dyada, Rom 12:9. Characteristic of the same milieu is T. Ash. 3.1: 'Tpelg ovv, reeva pov, pi] ylpeode ear ai)Tovq biirpovairoL, dyadorproq
Kal Kaelaq' dAAa rrj dyador-pri poprj KoXXi]Pr]Te ("But you, my children, do not be two-faced like them, one good and the other evil; rather, cling only to goodness").
21 Cf. John 7:24, and the contrary in Polycarp Phil.
6.1. Of divine judgment: 2 Thess 1:5; Rev 16:7. Of Jesus' eschatological judgment: John 5:30.
22 XypvKveiv is used metaphorically. For Aypvnrelr , 6W) rovq ev tt) icoXet Kal bed WKTofq] Kal ppepaq ev \ ralq XetTovpyiaiq KaTamvoupevov «vevov»q.
31 Walter Bauer reproduces the play on words (Walter Bauer, Griechisch-deutsches Worterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und derfruhehristliehen Literatur
[ed. Kurt and Barbara Aland; 6th ed.; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1988]); BAGD, s.v., has "toil for [the one who is] downtrodden."
32 In Barnabas this is followed by evxeptlq ev KaraXcyXlo., which is lacking in Didache and Doctrina.
irXovoiup napduXriTOL37 oe in 1.2.33 Compare tpovelq tokpup34 with ovde ■K6Pr)TU)P apopoi npiTai is also parallelismus membrorum. IlapdcKXrjToq is someone who intervenes on behalf of another.38 Its use here is ironic: they ought to act as advocates for the poor and needy, but no; they turn out instead to be advocates for the rich! The whole thing recalls the style of prophetic cursing. The superabundance of sins is summarized in the word Trap$apdpTr}Toq 39 76PP7]§ep anoKTevelq in Did. 2.2. $&opelq TtXdopaToq
("who destroy what God has formed") is rendered cor rectly, with interpretation, in Doctrina as avortuantes (sic, for abortantes).35 The verbal echo between tpovelq and ipfiopeZq again suggests a Greek original for the tractate.
What follows is again parallelismus membrorum: dirooTpetpopePOL top epdeopepop,36 KaTanopovPTeq top dXifiopepop, and materially it is a repetition of the attitude previously deplored: ovk eXeovpreq ittuxop ktX. (see above).
37 Doctrina has advocationes iustorum devitantes. There is nothing corresponding to the second line.
38 Cf. BAGD, s.v.
39 This term is found only here, Barn. 20.2, and Apostolic Constitutions. It is thus practically speaking a hapax legomenon. The expression is again charac teristic of the language of the tractate. It is omitted in Doctrina.
33 On this matter, cf. also Wis 15:11: on r)yv6r)oev rov irAdoaura avrov ("because they failed to know the one who formed them"); and Hos 5:4: rov be Kvpiov ovk eTteypuioav ("they do not know the Lord").
34 Wis 12:5: reevav re ipovaq apeXeripopaq ("their merciless slaughter of children").
35 Schlecht, Doctrina, 62. For the betacism, cf. Leo Wohleb, Die lateinische Ubersetzung der Didache kritisch und sprachlich untersucht (SGKA 7.1;
Paderborn: Schoningh, 1913; repr., New York:
Johnson, 1967) 8.
36 Doctrina: avertentes se a bonis operibus ("turning your self away from good works")—perhaps to avoid a doublet with non miserantes pauperum . . . etc.?
5.2
c. Final Admonition (5.2 [end]) 2 (end) Children, from all this [or: from all these men] may you [pi.] be preserved.
The long list of evils and evildoers is followed by this evildoers just named (masculine), or to the vices prev summary expression, at the same time a warning and ously listed (neuter). wish: pvadeLr]T€, t^kpol, d:7ro tovtup] dirdprup. The final sentence is lacking in Barnabas. The address, reKPa,1 2 again recalls the sapiential character of 3.1-6. It is of no consequence whether d7ro tovtwp dirdpTWP refers to the 1 'Pveatfca onro npog is a genitive of separation: BDF,
§180.1; BDR, §180.1 and(l).
2 Doctrina has the singular, Abstine te fili. . . . Audet (Didache, 232) conjectures (unnecessarily) pvcr&eiriTL, tckvop. Constitutions also has the plural.