Texts in Conversation
The Didache describes a future time of lawlessness in which many abandon the community, while a faithful remnant remains, using eschatological language that follows Jewish traditions similar to those found in 4 Ezra.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
4 Ezra 6:25
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
24 At that time friends will make war against one another like enemies. The earth will stand in fear with those who dwell in it. The springs of the fountains will stand still, so that for three hours they won’t flow. 25 “It will be that whoever remains after all these things that I have told you of, he will be saved and will see my salvation, and the end of my world. 26 They will see the men who have been taken up, who have not tasted death from their birth. The heart of the inhabitants will be changed and turned into a different spirit.
Date: 70–132 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Didache 16:5
Early Christian
4 As lawlessness grows, people will hate, persecute, and betray each other. The world's deceiver will appear as the Son of God, performing miracles, and unprecedented sin will be committed. 5 Humanity will face a fiery trial, and many will fall away. But those who remain steadfast in faith will be saved from under the curse. 6 Then, the signs of truth will appear: the sign in Heaven, the sound of the trumpet, and the resurrection of the dead.
Date: 90–120 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... A similar instance may occur in Didache 16:5 ... compare Matthew 24:13, Mark 13:13, Matthew 10:22. it can be argued that the parallel is not by itself very significant. The language is not unusual in such an eschatological context (compare Daniel 12:12; 4 Ezra 6:25), though the verbal agreement between these texts and the Didache is not as close as that between the Didache and Matthew/Mark. Whether the verse in Mark is part of Mark’s Vorlage is debatable. But whatever its origins, the parallel here provides another instance of the Didache showing verbal links with material which Matthew shares with Mark ..."
Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, eds., The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 115.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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