Monday, May 18, 2009

The Didascalia apostolorum on James 2:1-7

"if, as you are sitting, some one else should come, whether a man or a woman, who has some worldly honour, either of the same district or of another congregation: thou, O bishop, if thou art speaking the word of God, or hearing, or reading, shalt not respect persons and leave the ministry of thy word and appoint them a place; but do thou remain still as thou art and not interrupt thy word, and let the brethren themselves receive them. . . . But if a poor man or woman should come, (whether of the same district) or of another congregation, and especially if they are stricken in years, and there be no place for such, do thou, O bishop, with all thy heart provide a place for them, even if thou have to sit upon the ground; that thou be not as one who respects the persons of men, but that thy ministry may be acceptable with God."

Didascalia apostolorum XII.ii.58, trans. Connolly (pp. 123-124 from http://www.bombaxo.com/didascalia.html for now). I was put onto this by David Bentley Hart, Atheistic delusions: the Christian revolution and its fashionable enemies (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009), 170.

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