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About this book

Didache

About this book

Be Ready for the End

Chapter 16

1 Protect your life, keep your lamps burning, and always be ready. You do not know when the Lord will come.⁠ 2 Frequently gather together and seek what benefits your souls.⁠ The entirety of your faith won't be of value unless you're found perfect at the end. 3 In the last days, false prophets and corruptors will increase, the faithful will be led astray, and love will turn into hate.⁠ 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. 7 However, not all the dead will rise, as it was said, 'The Lord will come, and all His saints with Him.'⁠ 8 Then, the world will see the Lord coming on the clouds of Heaven.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Matthew 24:11 and Didache 16:3

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

In Matthew, Jesus warns that false prophets will deceive many and that lawlessness will make love grow cold at the end of the age. The Didache, an early church manual, echoes this tradition in a similar warning about the last days.

Passages

Matthew 24:11

New Testament
9 “Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and will kill you. You will be hated by all the nations because of my name. 10 Then many will be led into sin, and they will betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will appear and deceive many, 12 and because lawlessness will increase so much, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the person who endures to the end will be saved.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

Didache 16:3

Early Christian
3 In the last days, false prophets and corruptors will increase, the faithful will be led astray, and love will turn into hate. 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. 7 However, not all the dead will rise, as it was said, 'The Lord will come, and all His saints with Him.' 8 Then, the world will see the Lord coming on the clouds of Heaven.
90–120 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Didache

References

“... The existence of verbal echoes and possible allusions between Did. 16 and material peculiar to Matt. 24 is widely recognized. In Did. 16. 3–5 there is a cluster of such echoes, mostly of Matt. 24. 10–12, but also of other passages in Matthew, though in no case could one say there is anything like a ‘citation’. ‘False prophets being multiplied’ in Did. 16. 3 uses similar vocabulary to Matt. 24. 11–12 (‘false prophets’ in Matt. 24. 11, being ‘multiplied’ in Matt. 24. 12); ‘sheep becoming wolves’ in Did. 16. 3 uses imagery similar to that of Matt. 7. 15; ‘love turning to hate’ reflects Matt. 24. 10, 12 (‘love’ in v. 10, ‘hate’ in v. 12) [...]. In fact, all the parallels to Did. 16. 3–5 in Matthew include the three references in Matthew to ‘false prophets’ (Matt. 7. 15; 24. 10–12; 24. 24). This might be readily explained if the Didachist were attempting to cull from Matthew language and ideas associated with false prophets. ...”
Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, eds., The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 117.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Matthew 24:11 and Didache 16:3

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