English: There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between these two ways. (Holmes, p. 344)
Greek: Ὁδοὶ δύο εἰσί, μία τῆς ζωῆς καὶ μία τοῦ θανάτου, διαφορὰ δὲ πολλὴ μεταξὺ τῶν ὁδῶν. Didache [1.1]
The "
Didache" is a special Greek manuscript knowns as "
The teaching of the twelve apostles". It is a short and early (first century A.D.) manuscript.
The Didache was considered by some early church fathers as scripture but eventually was considered (by most) as highly authoritative but not at the level of scripture.
The very first line of the Didache states that there are two ways, one of life, one of death, and there is a great difference between the two ways. This is a nice top-down backward-chaining way of starting the text. Barnabas makes a similar statement.
Benjamin Franklin Spickler ( July 6, 1941 - February 26, 2022, 80 years old)
He was preceded in death by his parents, Franklin S.
Spickler and Mary Ann (
Hertzler) Wanamaker; brother, Thomas Spickler.
