Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VII/The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles/The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles/Chapter XIV

by Anonymous

Chapter XIV.^[1]—Christian Assembly on the Lord’s Day.

1. But every Lord’s day^[2] do ye gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions,^[3] that your sacrifice may be pure.^[4] 2. But let no one that is at variance^[5] with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned. 3. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice;^[6] for I am a great King, saith the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations.^[7]  

Footnotes

1. Verses 1 and 3 are given substantially in Apostolic Constitutions, vii. 30. This chapter would seem to belong more properly before chap. viii.; but the same order of topics is followed in Apostolic Constitutions,—a remarkable proof of literary connection.  
2. Comp. Rev. i. 10. Here the full form is κατὰ κυριακὴν δὲ Κυρίον. If the early date is allowed, this verse confirms the view that from the first the Lord’s Day was observed, and that, too, by a eucharistic celebration.  
3. Comp chap. iv. 14. No parallel in Apostolic Constitutions.  
4. On this spiritual sense of “sacrifice,” comp. Rom. xii. 1; Phil. ii. 17; Heb. xiii. 15; 1 Pet. ii. 5.  
5. “That hath the (or, any) dispute” (ἀμφιβολίαν); comp. Matt. v. 23, 24.  
6. [See Mal. i. 11. See Irenæus, cap. xvii. 5, vol. i. p. 484.]  
7. Mal. i. 11, 14. Quoted in Apostolic Constitutions and by several Ante-Nicene Fathers, with the same reference to the Eucharist.