“... Within the Didache the burning process has a dual function. The first is to entrap and to destroy those whom the Lord judges as unfit for the Kingdom. The Greek verb skandalizein comes from skandalon (“snare/ trap”) and literally means to cause someone to fall into a trap or snare (figuratively “into sin”). The literal sense works well here, for in the overall design of Didache 16 the framers of the Didache suggest that the world-deceiver had remarkable success in fooling many into imagining that he was “a son of God” (16:4a) and, by implication, to follow him in his ways. But the justice of God is not fooled; rather, it entraps and utterly destroys (apollumi being the emphatic form of ollumi) “the false prophets and the corruptors” (16:3a) along with “the world-deceiver” and his supporters. The second function of “the burning-process” is saving those “having remained firm in their faith” (16:5b). One finds instances of this in the prophetic notion that God’s judgment will destroy the wicked but purify the elect. Here the image of the refiner’s fire is employed to suggest that the elect are like metals being purified as they pass through the final judgment (Isa 1:25-26; Jer 6:29; Ezek 22:20; 24:11; Zech 13:9; Sir 2:5; Prov 17:3). The prophet Malachi provides the clearest image of this dual functioning of the burning process when he explains that “the day of his [the Lord’s] coming” will be like a “refiner’s fire” (3:2). This fire “will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver” (3:2-3) while “the arrogant and all evildoers” among God’s people shall be like straw in the oven: “the day that comes shall burn them up” (4:1). ...”