Didascalia Apostolorum

tr. Connolly, 1929

VIII. Warnings to Bishops, how they ought to conduct themselves

You shall not be lovers of wine,¹ nor drunken; and you shall not be extravagant, nor luxurious, nor spending money improperly. You shall make use of the gifts of God not ⟨as alien (funds), but⟩² as your own, as³ being appointed good stewards of God, who is ready to require at your hands an account of the discharge of the stewardship entrusted to you. Let that suffice you therefore which is enough for you, food and clothing and whatsoever is necessary. And you shall not make use of the revenues (of the Church) improperly, as alien (funds), but with moderation; and you shall not procure pleasure and luxury from the revenues of the Church: for sufficient⁴ for the labourer is his clothing and his food.⁵⁶ As good stewards of God, therefore, dispense well, according to the command,⁷ those things that are given and accrue to the Church, to orphans and widows and to those who are in distress and to strangers, as knowing that you have God who will require an account at your hands, who delivered this stewardship unto you. Divide and give therefore to all who are in want.

But be you also nourished and live from the revenues of the Church; yet do not devour⁸ them by yourselves, but let them that are in want be partakers with you, and you shall be without offence with God. For God upbraids those bishops who greedily and by themselves make use of the revenues of the Church, and make not the poor to be partakers with them, saying thus: The milk ye eat, and with the wool ye are clothed.⁹ For the bishops ought to be nourished from the revenues of the Church, but not to devour them; for it is written: Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out¹⁰ (the corn). As then the ox which works unmuzzled in the threshing floor eats, indeed, but does not consume the whole, do you also, who work in the threshing floor which is the Church of God, be nourished from the Church, after the manner of the Levites who ministered in the tabernacle of witness, which in all things was a type of the Church: for even by its name¹¹ it declares (this), for the tabernacle ‘of witness’ foreshowed the Church. Now the Levites who ministered therein were nourished from those things which were given as offerings to God by all the people—gifts, and partofferings,¹² and firstfruits, and tithes, and sacrifices, and offerings, and holocausts—without restraint, they and their wives and their sons and their daughters; because their work was the ministry of the tabernacle alone; and therefore they received no inheritance of land among the children of Israel, because the inheritance of Levi and his tribe was the produce of the people.

You also then to-day, O bishops, are priests to your people, and the Levites who minister to the tabernacle of God, the holy Catholic Church, who stand continually before the Lord God. You then are to your people priests and prophets, and princes and leaders and kings, and mediators between God and His faithful, and receivers of the word, and preachers and proclaimers thereof, and knowers of the Scriptures and of the utterances of God, and witnesses of His will, who bear the sins of all, and are to give an answer for all. You are they who have heard how the word sternly threatens you if you neglect and preach not God’s will, who are in sore peril of destruction if you neglect your people. You again are they to whom is promised from God the great reward which is not falsified nor withheld, and grace unspeakable in great glory, when you shall minister well to the tabernacle of God, His Catholic Church. As then you have undertaken the burden of all, so also ought you to receive from all your people the ministration of food and clothing, and of other things needful. And so again, from these same gifts that are given you by the people which is under your charge, do you nourish the deacons and widows and orphans, and those who are in want, and strangers. For it behoves thee, O bishop, as a faithful steward to care for all; for as thou bearest the sins of all those under thy charge, so shalt thou beyond all men receive more abundant glory of God. For thou art an imitator of Christ: and as He took upon Him the sins of us all, so it behoves thee¹³ also to bear the sins of all those under thy charge; for it is written in Isaiah concerning our Saviour thus: We saw him having no splendour nor beauty, but as one whose aspect was marred and dejected beyond that of men; and as a man that suffereth, and knoweth to bear infirmities. For his face was changed: he was despised, and was nothing accounted in our eyes. But he endured our sins, and for our sake did sigh. But we accounted him as one smitten and plagued and brought low. Yet for our sins was he smitten, and was made sick for our iniquities: and by his stripes all we are healed.¹⁴ And again He saith: He bare the sins of many, and for their iniquity was delivered up.¹⁵ And in David and in all the prophets, and in the Gospel also, our Saviour makes intercession for our sins, whereas He is without sin. Therefore, as you have Christ for a pattern, so be you also a pattern to the people under your charge; and as He took upon Him (our) sins, so do you also take upon you the sins of the people. For you are not to think that the burden of the bishopric is light or easy.

Wherefore, as you have taken up the burden of all, so the fruits also which you receive from all the people shall be yours, for all things of which you have need. And do you nourish well them that are in want, as being to render an account to Him who will require it, who can make no mistake nor be evaded. For as you administer the office of the bishopric, so from the same office of the bishopric ought you to be nourished, as the priests and Levites and ministers who serve before God, according as it is written in the Book of Numbers: ¹ The Lord spake with Aaron and said: Thou and¹⁶ thy sons and thy father’s house¹⁷ shall take upon you the sins of the sanctuary; and thou and thy sons shall take upon you the sins of your priesthood. ² And thy brethren the sons of thy father, the tribe of Levi, bring nigh unto thee, and let them be added to thee and minister unto thee. ³ And thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before this tabernacle of witness. Howbeit the sons of Levi shall not come nigh unto the vessels of the sanctuary and unto the altar, lest they die, they and you; ⁴ but let them be added unto thee, and let them keep the charges of the tabernacle of witness, according to all the ministry of the tabernacle: and a stranger shall not come nigh unto thee. ⁵ And ye shall keep the charges of the sanctuary and the charges of the altar: and there shall be no wrath against the children of Israel. ⁶ And I, behold, I have taken your brethren the sons of Levi from among the children of Israel: as a gift they are given unto the Lord, that they may perform the ministry of the tabernacle of witness. ⁷ And do thou and thy sons with thee keep your priesthood, according to all the ministry of the altar and of that which is within the veil; and perform your ministry as that which is given to your priesthood. But the stranger that cometh near shall die the death. ⁸ And the Lord spake with Aaron and said: Behold, I have given to you the charges of the firstfruits, of every thing which is hallowed unto me by the children of Israel: to thee have I given them for a ministry, and to thy children after thee: (it is) an everlasting ordinance. ⁹ And this shall be yours, of every holy thing which is hallowed of their fruits and of their offerings, and of all their sacrifices, and of all their trespass offerings, and of all their sin offerings: all that they shall offer to me of things hallowed shall be for thee and for thy sons. ¹⁰ In the holy place ye shall eat thereof: every male of you shall eat thereof, thou and thy sons: it shall be for thee a holy thing. ¹¹ And these shall be for thee the firstfruits of their gifts, of all the part-offerings of the children of Israel: to thee have I given them, and to thy sons and thy daughters with thee: (it is) an everlasting ordinance: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat thereof. ¹² All the firstfruits of oil, and all the firstfruits of wine, and the firstfruits of corn, even all things that they shall give to the Lord, shall be thine:¹⁸ ¹³ every one that is clean in thy house shall eat thereof. ¹⁴ And every devoted thing of the children of Israel shall be thine; ¹⁵ and all that openeth the womb of all flesh, even all which they offer to the Lord, from men even unto beasts, shall be thine. Howbeit the firstborn of men and the firstlings of unclean beasts which shall be offered, shall be redeemed. ¹⁶ And the redemption of them (shall be on this wise): from a month old and upward thou shalt redeem with a price, five shekels according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which are twenty shekels of silver. ¹⁷ But the firstlings of oxen, and the firstlings of sheep and of goats, thou shalt not redeem: they are holy: their blood thou shalt pour out before the altar, and the fat of them thou shalt offer up for an offering of a sweet savour unto the Lord; ¹⁸ and their flesh shall be clean to thee. And the top of the breast of the part-offering, and the right shoulder shall be thine. ¹⁹ All part-offerings of the sanctuary, which the children of Israel shall set apart unto the Lord, to thee have I given them and to thy sons and to thy daughters with thee: an ordinance for ever and an everlasting covenant is it before the Lord unto thee and unto thy seed after thee. ²⁰ And the Lord spake with Aaron and said: In their land thou shalt receive no inheritance, and thou shalt have no portion among them; for I am thy portion and thine inheritance among the children of Israel. ²¹ And to the sons of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithes of the children of Israel for an inheritance, in return for their ministry which they minister in the tabernacle of witness. ²² And the children of Israel shall no more come nigh to the tabernacle of witness, lest they contract a sin of death; ²³ but the Levites shall perform the ministry of the tabernacle of witness, and they shall take upon them their sins: it is an everlasting ordinance unto their generations. And among the children of Israel they shall receive no inheritance; ²⁴ because the tithes of the children of Israel, even all that they shall set apart as partofferings to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. For which cause I said unto them: Among the children of Israel they shall receive no inheritance. ²⁵ And the Lord spake with Moses and said unto him: ²⁶ Speak to the Levites and say to them: When ye receive of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for an inheritance, set by thereof, ye also, a part-offering unto the Lord, a tithe of the tithes: ²⁷ and your part-offering shall be accounted unto you as the corn from the threshing floor, and as the partoffering of the winepress. ²⁸ So shall ye set apart, ye also, a part-offering unto the Lord of all your tithes which ye receive from all the children of Israel; and ye shall give thereof a partoffering for the Lord unto Aaron the priest. ²⁹ Of all your gifts ye shall set by a part-offering unto the Lord, even of the firstfruits, (part) whereof he halloweth unto himself. ³⁰ And say thou unto them: When ye have set apart his firstfruits therefrom, it shall be reckoned unto the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress: ³¹ and do ye eat thereof in every place, ye and your households, because it is your reward in return for your ministry in the tabernacle of witness: ³² and ye shall contract no sin by reason thereof, when ye shall set apart the firstfruits thereof. And the holy things of the children of Israel ye shall not profane, lest ye die.

Notes

1 Tim. iii 2, Tit. i 7.
not ⟨as alien (funds), but⟩] μὴ ὡς ἀλλοτρίοις, ἀλλ᾽ (ὡς ἰδίοις) AC (= Lat.). Syr. reads ‘As not your own you shall make use of the gifts of God’, but see l. 9 f. below. For ἀλλοτρίοις comp. Lk. xvi 12.
Cf. 1 Pet. iv 10.
for sufficient, etc.] Cf. Epiphanius Haer. lxxx 5 ἄξιος γὰρ ὁ ἐργάτης τοῦ μισθοῦ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀρκετὸν τῷ ἐργαζομένῳ ἡ τροφὴ αὐτοῦ. See Resch p. 147, and Ropes p. 93: neither makes reference to this passage of Didasc., though possibly it suggested Epiphanius’ second clause. AC conforms the saying to Lk. x 7.
Cf. Mt. x 10, Lk. x 7, 1 Tim. v 18.
Cf. 1 Pet. iv 10.
according to the command] Cf. Didache i 5: AC has here τὰ διδόμενα κατ᾽ ἐντολὴν θεοῦ τῶν δεκατῶν καὶ τῶν ἀπαρχῶν ὡς θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος ἀναλισκέτω.
yet do not devour, etc.] ἀλλὰ μὴ κατεσθίοντες αὐτὰ μόνοι, κοινωνοῦντες δὲ τοῖς χρήζουσιν AC. Cf. Hermas Vis. iii 9. 2 καὶ μὴ μόνοι τὰ κτίσματα τοῦ θεοῦ μεταλαμβάνετε ἐκ καταχύματος, ἀλλὰ μεταδίδοτε καὶ τοῖς ὑστερουμένοις.
Ez. xxxiv 3.
Deut. xxv 4 (1 Cor. ix 9, 1 Tim. v 18).
for even by its name, etc.] προσέτι δὲ καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ὀνόματος μαρτύριον τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἡ σκηνὴ προωρίζετο AC. Our author may only be playing on the Gk. word μαρτύριον; but it has been suggested that he is connecting the Heb. word עדות, ‘testimony’, with the regular Syriac word for ‘church’ (עדתא): so Nestle in Zeitschrift für neutestam. Wissenschaft, 1901, p. 263.
part-offerings] I adopt this as a rendering of the word purshāne, which here translates ἀφαιρεμάτων (AC), and in the following passage from Num. xviii (see p. 82) represents both ἀφαιρέματα and ἐπιθέματα. The word signifies separation, distinction, and then something set apart as a gift or sacrifice. ‘Part-offering’, therefore, is to be understood in the sense of an offering set apart.
Cf. 1 Pet. ii 24
Isa. liii 2-5.
Isa. liii 12.
This quotation is in fair agreement with LXX. AC has kept only vv. 1, 8-10, and a few words from 21-22.
Nu. xviii 1-32.
shall be thine] Here the first part of v. 13 is wanting.