Excerpt from The Oldest Church Manual: Called the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles The call for a new edition gave me a welcome opportunity to make a number of corrections and improvements in the plates, and to add a supplement to the literature in an appendix (pp. 297 sqq.). The Didache continues to engage the pens of biblical and historical scholars in Europe and America, and will continue to do so for some time to come. The last word on this important discovery has not yet been spoken. The Didache has secured a permanent place in every future collection of the Apostolic Fathers, in every future history of the New Testament Canon, of catechetical instruction, of primitive worship and discipline, and in Commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew. So far there seems to be a growing unanimity on the views expressed in this book, and I have no reason to change them. I feel profoundly grateful for the favorable public notices and private letters of competent scholars at home and abroad. P. S. New York, March 23, 1886. Preface To The First Edition. As soon as I received a copy of the newly discovered Teaching of the Twelve Apostles I determined, in justice to myself and to my readers, to prepare an independent supplement to the second volume of my revised Church History, which had appeared a few months before. Accordingly, during a visit to Europe last summer, I made a complete collection of the Didache literature, but could not put the material into shape before the fourth volume of that History was published. The delay has enabled me to use several important works which reached me while my own was passing through the hands of the printer. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.