Didache 5.2

Summary: Those on the way of death oppress the poor and kill children.

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Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:318

διῶκται ἀγαθῶν, μισοῦντες ἀλήθειαν, ἀγαπῶντες ψεῦδος, οὐ γινώσκοντες μισθὸν δικαιοσύνης, οὐ κολλώμενοι ἀγαθῷ οὐδὲ κρίσει δικαίᾳ, ἀγρυπνοῦντες οὐκ εἰς τὸ ἀγαθόν, ἀλλʼ εἰς τὸ πονηρόν· ὧν μακρὰν πραΰτης καὶ ὑπομονή, μάταια ἀγαπῶντες, διώκοντες ἀνταπόδομα, οὐκ ἐλεοῦντες πτωχόν, οὐ πονοῦντες ἐπὶ καταπονουμένῳ, οὐ γινώσκοντες τὸν ποιήσαντα αὐτούς, φονεῖς τέκνων, φθορεῖς πλάσματος θεοῦ, ἀποστρεφόμενοι τὸν ἐνδεόμενον, καταπονοῦντες τὸν θλιβόμενον, πλουσίων παράκλητοι, πενήτων ἄνομοι κριταί, πανθαμάρτητοι· ῥυσθείητε, τέκνα, ἀπὸ τούτων ἁπάντων.

English · Claude translation

persecutors of the good, haters of truth, lovers of falsehood, not knowing the reward of righteousness, not holding fast to what is good or to just judgment, watchful not for what is good but for what is evil; far from them are meekness and patience; loving vanities, pursuing reward, having no pity for the poor, not toiling for the oppressed, not knowing the one who made them, murderers of children, destroyers of God's handiwork, turning away the needy, oppressing the afflicted, advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, utterly sinful. May you be delivered, children, from all these.

About this passage

Source
Lake, LCL 24:318 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 308–333 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Translation
Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912); made independently of existing English translations.
Scripture
Extrabiblical texts
  • Wis 12:5 (Wisdom of Solomon) · echo, low confidence
Topics
Ethics

Notes

Translation notes

  • “Murderers of children … destroyers of God's handiwork”: abortion and infanticide (compare 2.2).

Notes on the original text

  • Digital text corrected (digitization slip against Lake's printed text (wrong letter); punctuation slip in the digital text (missing raised dot)): πονηρόν ὧν → πονηρόν· ὧν; τούτωι → τούτων.

Cite this passage

Did. 5.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/didache/5/2/).

Plain text
Did. 5.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/didache/5/2/).

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