Page:Didache Hoole.djvu/9

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INTRODUCTION
vii

contrasted. "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it;" and this passage is most likely the real source of the doctrine of the two ways found in the "Epistle of Barnabas," where we read, "There are two ways of teaching and authority, one of light and the other of darkness, and the difference is great between the two ways." This idea of the two ways is expanded and worked out at some length, first in the "Epistle of Barnabas," and afterwards in the "Apostolic Constitutions " and the "Epitome of the Holy Apostles," and for some reason the name of St. Peter came to be connected with it. Thus it is stated by Athanasius in his remarks on the Canon—"There are also other books, not canonical, but called by the fathers ecclesiastical, such as the book called 'The Shepherd of Hermas' and that which is called 'The Two Ways, or the Judgment of Peter;'" and the same work seems to be mentioned by Eusebius with the title of "The Teachings of the Apostles," διδαχὰι τῶν ἀποστόλων. Thus a new manual of ethics was formed for the use of the Christian Church, based partly on the actual teaching of Christ as found in the Gospels, partly on the application of the ideas contained in it, which are arranged and enlarged so as to form a complete manual of duty. To this was added, apparently on the same authority, the oral tradition of the Apostolic teaching, directions for the administration of the Sacraments and the appointment and maintenance of ministers of religion. The work thus edited would supply a code of Christian duty and discipline, based upon what was supposed to have