Chapter V.
2427
—The Way of Death.
1. And the way of death
2428
is this: First of all it is evil and full of curse:
2429
murders,
2430
adulteries, lusts, fornications, thefts, idolatries, magic arts, witchcrafts, rapines, false witnessings, hypocrisies, double-heartedness, deceit, haughtiness, depravity, self-will, greediness, filthy talking, jealousy, over-confidence, loftiness, boastfulness; 2. persecutors of the good,
2431
hating truth, loving a lie, not knowing a reward for righteousness, not cleaving
2432
to good nor to righteous judgment, watching not for that which is good, but for that which is evil; from whom meekness and endurance are far, loving vanities, pursuing requital, not pitying a poor man, not labouring for the afflicted, not knowing Him that made them, murderers of children, destroyers of the handiwork of God, turning away from him that is in want, afflicting him that is distressed, advocates of the rich, lawless judges of the poor, utter sinners.
2433
Be delivered, children, from all these.
2434
2427
This chapter finds nearly exact parallels in
Barnabas
, xx., and
Apostolic Constitutions
, vii. 18, but with curious variations.
2428
Barnabas
has “darkness,” but afterwards “way of eternal death.”
2429
Not in
Apostolic Constitutions
, and no exact parallel in
Barnabas
.
2430
Of the twenty-two sins named in this verse,
Barnabas
gives fourteen, in differing order, and in the singular;
Apostolic Constitutions
gives all but one (
υψος
, “loftiness” “haughtiness”), in the same order, and with the same change from plural to singular.
2431
This verse appears almost word for word in
Barnabas
, with two additional clauses.
2432
The
Apostolic Constitutions
give a parallel from this point; verbally exact from the phrase, “not for that which is good.”
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The word
πανθαμαρτητοι
occurs only here, and in the parallel passage in
Barnabas
(rendered in this edition “who are in every respect transgressors,” vol. i.
p. 149
), and in
Apostolic Constitutions
(rendered “full of sin”). A similar term occurs in the recently recovered portion of 2 Clement, xviii., where Bishop
Lightfoot
renders, as above, “an utter sinner.”
2434
Found
verbatim
in
Apostolic Constitutions
, not in
Barnabas
: with the latter there is no further parallel, except a few phrases in chap. xvi. 2, 3 (which see).