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Didache 1

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The Lord's Teaching to the Heathen by the Twelve Apostles
The Two Ways
(Psalm 1:1–6; Epistle of Barnabas 18:1–2)

1There are two Ways, one of Life and one of Death, and there is a great difference between the two Ways.

The Way of Life
(Leviticus 19:9-18; Deuteronomy 6:1-19; Mark 12:28-34; Matthew 22:34-40)

2The Way of Life is this: “First, thou shalt love the God who made thee, secondly, thy neighbour as thyself; and whatsoever thou wouldst not have done to thyself, do not thou to another.”a

The Explanation
(Matthew 5:38-48; Luke 6:27-36)

3Now, the teaching of these words is this: “Bless those that curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those that persecute you. For what credit is it to you if you love those that love you? Do not even the heathen do the same?” But, for your part, “love those that hate you,” and you will have no enemy. 4“Abstain from carnal” and bodily “lusts.” “If any man smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other cheek also,” and thou wilt be perfect. “If any man impress thee to go with him one mile, go with him two. If any man take thy coat, give him thy shirt also. If any man will take from thee what is thine, refuse it not” not even if thou canst.b

Alms-giving

5Give to everyone that asks thee, and do not refuse, for the Father’s will is that we give to all from the gifts we have received. Blessed is he that gives according to the mandate; for he is innocent. Woe to him who receives; for if any man receive alms under pressure of need he is innocent; but he who receives it without need shall be tried as to why he took and for what, and being in prison he shall be examined as to his deeds, and “he shall not come out thence until he pay the last farthing.” 6But concerning this it was also said, “Let thine alms sweat into thine hands until thou knowest to whom thou art giving.”

Footnotes

a2 not thou to another.” — This is the so-called “negative form of the Golden Rule.” It is found in some MSS. in the “Apostolic decrees” in Acts xv. 28, and is, in various forms, met with in Jewish and Early Christian literature.
b4 not even if thou canst. — The Greek is literally “for thou art not even able”; but this makes no sense, and though an emendation is difficult the sense must be something like that given by the translation — unless, indeed, the whole phrase be merely a flippant gloss, which has been erroneously taken into the text.