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About this book

Didache

About this book

What the Way of Life Forbids

Chapter 2

1 But the second commandment of the teaching is: 2 You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery;⁠ you shall not corrupt boys; you shall not commit fornication; you shall not steal; you shall not practice magic; you shall not use love potions; you shall not cause abortion, nor kill newborns;⁠ you shall not desire your neighbor's possessions. 3 You shall not commit perjury; you shall not lie; you shall not speak ill; you shall not bear grudges. 4 You shall not be double-minded or double-tongued, because that leads to death.⁠ 5 Your words shall not be false or meaningless but followed by actions. 6 You shall not be greedy or exploitative, nor a hypocrite, nor evil-minded, nor arrogant; you shall not plan evil against your neighbor. 7 You shall not hate anyone; some you will correct, some you will pray for, and some you will love more than your own life.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 19:17 and Didache 2:7

Hebrew Bible · Early Christian

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Summary

In Leviticus, God forbids hating a brother, commands reproving a neighbor, and calls for loving the neighbor as oneself. The Didache, an early church manual, echoes this in its teaching to hate no one, reprove some, and love some more than life.

Passages

Leviticus 19:17

Hebrew Bible
15 “‘You must not deal unjustly in judgment: You must neither show partiality to the poor nor honor the rich. You must judge your fellow citizen fairly. 16 You must not go about as a slanderer among your people. You must not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is at stake. I am the Lord. 17 You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him. 18 You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Didache 2:7

Early Christian
3 You shall not commit perjury; you shall not lie; you shall not speak ill; you shall not bear grudges. 4 You shall not be double-minded or double-tongued, because that leads to death. 5 Your words shall not be false or meaningless but followed by actions. 6 You shall not be greedy or exploitative, nor a hypocrite, nor evil-minded, nor arrogant; you shall not plan evil against your neighbor. 7 You shall not hate anyone; some you will correct, some you will pray for, and some you will love more than your own life.
90–120 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Didache

References

“... Ca VII.5 recognises the allusion to Lev. 19:17 and brings the text into line with the LXX, but omits the second half of the text, replacing it with Prov. 9:8 [...] The origin of Did. 2:6b-7 seems to lie in a free rendering of Lev. 19:15-18. This becomes clear when the text is compared with that of LXX and Ba. 19:3-5 (though the text of the latter has been disturbed by the intrusion of Decalogue material): ...”
Jonathan Alfred Draper, “A Commentary on the Didache in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Documents” (PhD diss., University of Cambridge, 1983), 57–58.

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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Leviticus 19:17 and Didache 2:7

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