A Much Better Ancient Document
In recent editions I have spoken about a number of ancient Egyptian manuscripts. These were the manuscripts of produced by a group of early heretics known as the Gnostics. They wrote documents that including some fantasy ideas about the childhood of Jesus and his post-Crucifixion life. They imagined that Jesus did not die, that he survived the Cross, married Mary Magdalene and had children, all before eventually dying peacefully in Rome. These Gnostics were regarded as heretics by the early Coptic Church who were orthodox in their beliefs and faith. As a result the Gnostic writings were mostly destroyed with the exception of some that were discovered in Egypt in 1946. They formed the basis of Dan Brown’s book and subsequent film The Da Vinci Code.
The Gnostic writings should not encourage us to think the all the manuscripts that have survived from the Ancient World were imaginary and unorthodox in belief. One stands as the most reliable Christian writing outside of the New Testament. It is called the Didache or The Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles.
This short treatise was counted by some of the Church Fathers as next to Holy Scripture. It was rediscovered in 1883 by Bryennios, the Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Nicomedia, in the codex from which, in 1875, he had published the full text of the Epistles of St. Clement.
For convenience the contents may be divided into three parts: the first is the “Two Ways”, the Way of Life and the Way of Death; the second part deals with baptism, fasting, and Holy Communion; the third speaks of ministry. Doctrinal teaching is presupposed, and none is imparted.
The Didache is mentioned by Bishop Eusebius after the books of Scripture (H. E., III, xxv, 4):
“Let there be placed among the spuria the writing of the Acts of Paul, the so-called Shepherd and the Apocalypse of Peter, and besides these the Epistle known as that of Barnabas, and what are called the Teachings of the Twelve Apostles, and also . . . the Apocalypse of John, if this be thought fit . . .”
Over twenty of the early Fathers of the Church make references to the Didache. Why don’t you take a few minutes to read an English translation?
So not only did early manuscripts survive bearing crazy ideas, but also many solid manuscripts with very sound teaching which testify to the truths of the Christian faith as given in the New Testament.
GORDON MOYES
