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)
English: Now this is the way of life: First, you shall love God, who made you. Second, you shall love your neighbor as yourself; but whatever you do not wish to happen to you, do not do to another. (Holmes, p. 344)
The two ways appear to be "
God's way" and "
man's way" which can be called
humanism,
socialism, etc.
Deceptions (Satin, etc.):
1. Did God really say? (create doubt, nothing bad will happen, etc.)
2. You can be as a god! (desire to be great, be a leader, influence people, have a legacy, etc.)
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.
Greek: Ὁδοὶ δύο εἰσί, μία τῆς ζωῆς καὶ μία τοῦ θανάτου, διαφορὰ δὲ πολλὴ μεταξὺ τῶν ὁδῶν. Didache [1.1]
Greek: Ἡ μὲν οὖν ὁδὸς τῆς ζωῆς ἐστιν αὕτη· πρῶτον ἀγαπήσεις τὸν θεὸν τὸν ποιήσαντά σε, δεύτερον τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν· πάντα δὲ ὅσα ἐὰν θελήσῃς μὴ γίνεσθαί σοι, καὶ σὺ ἄλλῳ μὴ ποίει. Didache [1.2]
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.
Matthew 7:28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: [kjv]
και εγενετο οτε ετελεσεν ο ιησους τους λογους τουτους εξεπλησσοντο οι οχλοι επι τη διδαχη αυτου [gnt]
… admirabantur … doctrinam … [v]
Matthew 7:28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: [kjv]
και εγενετο οτε ετελεσεν ο ιησους τους λογους τουτους εξεπλησσοντο οι οχλοι επι τη διδαχη αυτου [gnt]
… admirabantur … doctrinam … [v]
And it was doon, whanne Jhesus hadde endid these wordis, the puple wondride on his techyng; [wy]
And it came to passe that when Iesus had ended these saynges the people were astonnyed at hys doctryne. [ty]
Matthew 7:29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. [kjv]
ην γαρ διδασκων αυτους ως εξουσιαν εχων και ουχ ως οι γραμματεις αυτων [gnt]
… docens … scribae … [v]
Matthew 5:2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, [kjv]
και ανοιξας το στομα αυτου εδιδασκεν αυτους λεγων [gnt]
