Page:Didache Hoole.djvu/8

VI

But what, it may be asked, was the nature of this teaching, supposed to have been handed down by tradition as having been delivered by the first Apostles? The idea was that of the Duæ Viæ or two ways, a series of ethical precepts as to what was to be avoided, and what was to be followed in conduct, to which were added a few directions as to the administration of the Sacraments, and the appointment of church officers.

The notion of the two ways or modes of conduct laid before men is one of great antiquity, occurring in Scripture as early as the Book of Deuteronomy, xxvii. 4, where the Israelites are commanded, after they had entered Palestine, to select the two mountains of Ebal and Gerizim—Gerizim representing the path of obedience and Ebal that of transgression, blessings being pronounced from the one and curses from the other; and the command, we are told, was actually carried out by Joshua after the Israelites had occupied Palestine. The same notion occurs in the prophecies of Jeremiah xxi. 8: "Thus saith the Lord, Behold I set before you the way of life and the way of death." It is also found in the classical writers as early as Hesiod, and it appears in the fable called "The Choice of Hercules," attributed to Prodicus the sophist. The notion is that of two paths placed before a person at the commencement of his career, the one narrow and difficult but right, the other easy and pleasant but wrong. In this shape it is found in the Canonical Gospels, cf. Matt. vii. 13, where the εὐρύχωρος ὁδὸς and the τεθλιμμένη ὁδὸς are mentioned and