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thecoach

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but…just curious. Why isn’t The Didache included in the New Testament?
 
I have read that during the period of time when the bishops of the Church reflected under the wisdom of the Holy Spirit on the canon of the Bible, there were several criteria used to make that decision:

  1. *]Apostolic Origin — attributed to and based on the preaching/teaching of the first-generation apostles (or their close companions).
    *]Universal Acceptance — acknowledged by all major Christian communities in the ancient world (by the end of the fourth century).
    *]Liturgical Use — read publicly when early Christian communities gathered for the Lord’s Supper (their weekly worship services).
    *]Consistent Message — containing a theological outlook similar or complementary to other accepted Christian writings.
    The basic factor for recognizing a book’s canonicity for the New Testament was divine inspiration, and the chief test for this was apostolicity. The term apostolic as used for the test of canonicity does not necessarily mean apostolic authorship or derivation, but rather apostolic authority. Apostolic authority is never detached from the authority of the Lord.

    So - the Didache did not make the cut for one or more of those reason(s), I am guessing it was #3 or maybe #2 but I am not sure.
 
I’m not sure this helps, but from the earliest times it was not considered part of the canon.

“The so-called Epistle of Barnabas, of uncertain origin, but of highest antiquity, cites a passage from the First Gospel under the formula “it is written”. The Didache, or Teaching of the Apostles, an uncanonical work dating from c. 110, implies that “the Gospel” was already a well-known and definite collection.”

newadvent.org/cathen/03274a.htm
 
thanks, I was wondering about this, because the Ethiopian Oriental Orthodox Church include it in their Biblical canon, and has since the spread of the Christian faith to Ethiopia.
 
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