Go to Related Reading
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 LXX Zechariah 14:5 and Didache 16:7

Septuagint · Early Christian

Share:

Summary

In the Didache, an early church manual, Zechariah's promise that God will come with all his holy ones is quoted in the language of the Greek Septuagint translation. There the verse refers to those who rise at the end rather than to Israel.

Passages

LXX Zechariah 14:5

Septuagint
4 And his feet shall stand in that day on the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall split apart, half of it toward the east and half of it toward the west, a very great division; and half the mountain shall lean to the north, and half of it to the south. 5 And the valley of my mountains shall be closed up, and the valley of the mountains shall be joined on to Azal, and shall be blocked up as it was blocked up in the days of the earthquake, in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Zechariah

Didache 16:7

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

“... Analogously, the explicit citation of Zech 14:5 in Did. 16,7 is ‘slanted’ towards doctrinal implications: the national meaning (present in the prophetic text of Zechariah: the saints alluded to could be the people of Israel) disappears, and a ‘new’ meaning appears closely connected to the canons referring to the eschatological expectation. [...] Did. 16 cites Zechariah not according to the MT but to the LXX. The text, in fact, has [...] (with him) and not with me (as in MT). ...”
Marcello Del Verme, Didache and Judaism Jewish Roots of an Ancient Christian-Jewish Work (London: T&T Clark International, 2004), 202.

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

Tags

Your feedback

LXX Zechariah 14:5 and Didache 16:7

Leave a comment

Your questions and comments are welcome!

Comments

Glossary

Search the Library