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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 Daniel 7:13 and Matthew 24:30 and Didache 16:8

Hebrew Bible · New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

The Didache says that at the end of the age, the world will see Jesus arriving on clouds from heaven, a reference to the Son of Man in Matthew, which is itself a reference to the son of man from Daniel.

Passages

Daniel 7:13

Hebrew Bible
12 As for the rest of the beasts, their ruling authority had already been removed, though they were permitted to go on living for a time and a season. 13 “I was watching in the night visions, And with the clouds of the sky, one like a son of man was approaching. He went up to the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him. 14 To him was given ruling authority, honor, and sovereignty. All peoples, nations, and language groups were serving him. His authority is eternal and will not pass away. His kingdom will not be destroyed.
200–101 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Daniel

Matthew 24:30

New Testament
30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man arriving on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
70–90 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Matthew

Didache 16:8

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. 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

“... Potentially one of the most significant parallels in this passage occurs in Did. 16. 8 with the reference to the Lord coming on the clouds of heaven. With its clear allusion to Dan. 7. 13, the Didache is very close here to the wording of Matt. 24. 30, which in turn is (probably) MattR of Mark 13. 26. The Didache shares with Mark and Matthew the use of [...], and the inversion of the order of the ‘coming’ and the ‘clouds’ as compared with Dan. 7. Further, the Didache agrees with Matthew’s redaction in having the person come ‘on’ the clouds [...], and adding [...]. A priori there is a strong case for seeing the Didache here reflecting MattR of Mark, and hence presupposing Matthew’s finished gospel. ...”
Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, eds., The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 115.

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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Daniel 7:13 and Matthew 24:30 and Didache 16:8

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