Didascalia Apostolorum 6.18.1–6.23

… bind them with the burdens of the second legislation, which are not good. For the Lord God himself, who gave them the law and the second legislation, bears witness in the law that there is life in it for those who use it, but shows that the second legislation is a bond of blindness. For everywhere he distinguishes them, bearing witness to the law and convicting the other, and he commands us to be in the law. For everyone who is not under the law is in the law; therefore he bears witness to the law thus: “But in the law of the Lord is his will, and in his law he will meditate day and night. Not so the ungodly.” We see, brothers, that the righteous are blessed by him in righteousness and in the conduct of the law, but not so the ungodly; for they are neither righteous nor agree with the law nor meditate on it. So he called those ungodly who do not use the law. For in the Gospel too he confirms the law. But from the burden of the bonds and from the second legislation he calls us out and leads us forth. And because the second legislation is something different, he distinguishes it in David too, saying: “Let us burst their bonds and cast their yoke from us.” See how the Holy Spirit speaks as with the sound of one voice, and, announcing the thought of the people, declares that the yoke is the law and the bonds the second legislation. He calls the law a yoke for this reason, that, like a yoke of oxen, it was laid both on the former people and on the people of the church, as it is now in the church both on us, who were called from the People, and on you, who have obtained mercy from among the Gentiles. Both, then, in

… you may be able. Hence, when you begin to touch it, you will fall under the curse, and by binding yourself you will incur a woe and obtain the curse; because it is against the Savior, you will be condemned as one resisting God; but following Christ you will possess blessings. “A disciple is not above his teacher”; him we must follow, and be content with the name of the Gospel, and keep away in every way from the second legislation, just as the Lord himself, when he entrusted the kingdom to human beings and knew that the righteous ought to keep his precepts, made laws of determination according to the times. Having, therefore, the Gospel, the recapitulation and summit of the law, the seal, which is more than the law and the prophets, seek nothing else beyond the Gospel. For the second legislation has been abolished, but the law confirmed; and those who wish to be without law are under the law against their will. In the law it says: “You shall not kill.” If anyone, then, kills, he is condemned by the law through the Romans and is under the law.

But if we use the church's rule and the form of the Gospel and are content with them, our hope in the Lord will not be diminished. Guard yourselves, then, from every heretic: they do not use the law or the prophets, and, not believing God Almighty, they are hostile, and abstain from foods and forbid marriage and

… do not wish to rise in the flesh, as not wishing to eat and drink, but would have people rise as spirits, like demons, in phantoms; and they will be condemned to perpetual fire forever, and there they will be judged. Flee from them, then, so that you do not perish with them. But if any, observing according to the second legislation, keep the customary observances concerning the natural flow of their seed and intercourse with women, first let them know, as we said before, that from the second legislation, which is a curse against the Savior, they confirm vain things to their own condemnation; then let them say during which hours or days they take care not to pray or receive the eucharist or touch the book, on the ground that they are emptied of the Holy Spirit. For through baptism we have received the Holy Spirit, who is always with those who live righteously and watches over them. From a woman he is never separated because of the natural flow and intercourse; but he is always present and guards those who possess him, as the Lord says in Proverbs: “When you sleep, may it guard you, and when you rise, may it speak with you.” And again in the Gospel likewise the Lord says: “To everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.” So to those who have, more is added; but from those who think that on certain days they do not have, even what they think they have on other days is taken away. For if you think, O woman, that during the seven days of your sitting apart you are emptied of the Holy Spirit, if you die in those days you will depart empty and without hope. But if you always have the Spirit, and yet you shun prayer and the thanksgiving and the books, consider that prayer is accepted through the Holy Spirit, and the thanksgiving is sanctified through the Holy Spirit, and the books, being the voice of the Holy Spirit, are holy. If, then, you have the Holy Spirit within you, it is vain and empty that you take care not to touch the works of the Holy Spirit, like those who say: “Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is upon it is bound.” To them the Lord said: “Fools and blind, which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it; and whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it; and whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.” If, then, you keep this observance, you will likewise hear from the Lord God, Christ: “Foolish and blind woman, which is greater, the bread or the Holy Spirit who sanctifies the bread?” So if you possess the Holy Spirit, you observe vain things and keep vain things. If you have the Holy Spirit, why do you keep these observances? For the Holy Spirit is always present with those who possess him, and is always far from those he has left. But if the Holy Spirit … from anyone, a spirit enters, as the Lord said: “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he goes about through waterless places” (that is, through people who are not baptized), “and when he finds no rest, he says, ‘I will return to my former house from which I came out.’ If, then, coming he finds it empty, … with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and coming they will dwell in that man, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” Why, then, when the unclean spirit has gone out, does he find rest nowhere? Learn that every person is filled, the believer with the Holy Spirit, the unbeliever with the unclean spirit, and does not admit the entrance of a foreign spirit; but whoever through baptism has rejected and put off the unclean spirit and been freed from him is filled with the Holy Spirit. If, then, he does good, the Holy Spirit remains in him, and he stays filled, and the unclean spirit finds no place. For all people are full of their own spirits, and they will not be wholly free of heathen promptings as long as they remain heathen, even if they do good; there is no other cure to make the unclean spirit depart from a person except the holy cleansing and holy baptism. So, since he cannot enter, he will never return to the one who rejected and put him off. And whoever is filled with the Holy Spirit does not receive him. But you, O woman, if, as you say, you are empty in the days of your sitting apart, are filled with the unclean spirit; for he returns into you and finds the place empty, and there will be in you forever the entering and leaving of the unclean and the clean spirit, and perpetual war. Why, then, do you hold such a foolish supposition? And because you keep such observances, by your supposition there will be in you an emptying of the Holy Spirit and a filling by the unclean spirit, and so there will be rejection of life and eternal burning. Tell me again, O woman: for the seven days of your purification or of your sitting apart you will be unclean in your own eyes according to the second legislation; are you then found, after seven days, as though unbaptized, and are you purified or baptized, so as to seem cleansed? And, to complete it, since you have not found cleansing of sins, you are handed over to eternal fire as though unbaptized. For according to your supposition you remain unclean, and the vain abstinence of seven days profits you nothing but is rather harmful, because you are defiled in conscience and are condemned as one defiled. Consider these things above all, you who keep observances concerning flows of seed and intercourse with women; for all such observances are foolish and harmful. For if anyone who has had a flow of seed, or has come near a woman, is to be baptized and wash his bed, this will be a weariness to him, never ceasing from baptizing and from washing things and his bed, and he will be able to do nothing else. For if after a flow of seed and intercourse you are baptized according to the second legislation, it is necessary

for you also to do this: even if you tread on a mouse, to be baptized; and if you touch the bone of a dead body, or a skin, or a wounded bone, or a tomb, you must be baptized. And you never come out clean; for you also wear shoes made from the skins of dead animals and of sacrificed calves, and clothe yourself with garments of such wool, and you will never be able to be cleansed; and you weaken the most holy baptism and renew your offenses and are found in your former sins, and you will receive the second legislation into yourself and confirm the idolatry of the calf. For when you receive the second legislation into yourself, you receive also the idolatry on account of which the second legislation was imposed; and you will put upon yourself the alien and most ancient sins, like a long cord and like the bond of the law, a yoke and a strap and a yoke, and draw a woe upon yourself; you confirm the second legislation, you consent even to the curse that was against the Savior, and to what is against the blessing; and Christ, who distributes the blessing to the worthy, is cursed, while you bear witness to the curses and confirm them … For if anyone curses, he is cursed. Of what curses, and what and how great condemnations, will they be guilty who praise the curse of our Savior, the Lord God! Flee, then, from such observances, most beloved, and since you have received release, do not bind yourselves again, and, having been relieved by the Lord and Savior, do not burden yourselves; but do not observe at all, nor suppose that such things are defilements, nor seek separations or sprinklings or baptisms or purifications. According to the second legislation [they count] the touching of a tomb or of a dead person [unclean], and are baptized. But you, according to the Gospel and according to the power of the Holy Spirit, gather also in the cemeteries and read the holy Scriptures, and offer prayers to God unceasingly, and offer the royal eucharist, which is after the likeness of the royal body of Christ, both in your assemblies and in the cemeteries and at the departure of those who have fallen asleep, setting out pure bread, which is made by fire and sanctified by invocation; and without hesitation, praying, offer for those who have fallen asleep. For those who have believed in God according to the Gospel, even if they have died, are not dead, as our Lord and Savior says to the Sadducees: “Concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what is written, ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” For Elisha the prophet too, after he had fallen asleep, raised a man who was already long dead; for his body touched the body of the dead man and raised it. This would never have happened unless the body of him who had fallen asleep had been holy and filled with the Holy Spirit. Therefore do not abhor those who are at rest, but touch them without these observances, and do not set apart what is in the customs. For the woman too who suffered from a flow, when she touched the healing fringe, was not rebuked, but rather was found worthy to be healed. So, when your wives have their natural flow, do not come together with them, but bear with them, and, knowing that they are your own members, love them as your own souls, as it is also written in Malachi, who was called an angel, in the Twelve Prophets: “… because the Lord has borne witness between … whom you have forsaken; and she is your partner; and did not one make her, and the remnant of his spirit? And you said: What else does the Lord seek but seed? And keep watch in your spirit, and do not forsake the wife of your youth.” So the woman, when she is in her menses, and the man, when he has a flow of seed, and the man and the woman who come together lawfully in marriage, may pray without these observances and unwashed, and they are clean. But whoever seduces another man's wife and defiles her after enlightenment, which the Greek calls … or a harlot, when you rise from her, even if you wash in the whole sea and in all the rivers, you cannot be clean. Beware of foolish observances; and, keeping steadfastly and lovingly the things that confer immortality, in one

marriage, keep your body spotless and without defilement … of God and of communion, and, receiving the promise of the Lord God, may rest for ages of ages. And though we still have many more such demonstrations by which to make the teaching clearer to you, since the writing would grow too long, we here lay down the word, lest through truth too severe the discourse of our teaching should weary you. Do not, then, take hard what has been said; for our Lord and Savior himself also, answering with severity those who deserved condemnation, said: “Take them and cast them into the outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” and: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels.” And the word does the work of fire and sword. And through Jeremiah he says: “The word of the Lord is like an axe cutting stone, and a fire going through and consuming.” Sword, then, and fire and axe it is not to those who listen to the truth; but the word which the people did not hear willingly when they were rebuked by our Lord and Teacher — they did not believe, supposing it to be like iron and fire, because, though they heard, they did not do what he said; for his words seemed hard to them. So he said to them: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Likewise our writing too seems to some most severe because of its truth. For if we had written more leniently, to please people, many could have been weakened in the faith, and we would have been guilty for them. As, then, a wise physician does not long treat a festering wound with medicines and plasters, but comes to a sharper remedy, that is, to the knife and the cautery, by which alone he overcomes the disease and heals the patient, so the word of the Lord is a plaster and poultice and soothing salve to those who hear it and do it, but to those who hear it and do not do it, it seems to be knife and fire. To him, then, who is able to open the ears of your heart, so that you may receive the oracles of the Lord ministered through the Gospel and through the teaching of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate and fell asleep, to preach the good news to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and to all his saints, both of the end of the world and of the resurrection of the dead that will be, and who rose from the dead, to show and give to those who know him a pledge … through the power of God and of his Spirit, and who sits at the right hand of the throne of God Almighty above the Cherubim, who comes with power and glory to judge the living and the dead: to him be power and glory and majesty and kingdom, to the Father and the Son, who was and is and will be, both now and to generations of generations and to all the ages of ages. Amen.