We, then, twelve Apostles of the only Son, the Everlasting Word of God, our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus the Christ, being assembled with one accord in Jerusalem the city of the great King, and with us our brother Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, and James the Bishop of the above-mentioned city, have established this Didascalia, in which are included the Confession and the Creed, and we have named all the Ordinances, as the ordinances of the heavenly bodies, and thus again the Ordinances of the Holy Church. We assert that every one shall stand < and confess and believe in what has been allotted to him by God ; that is to say, the Bishop as a shepherd ; the Elders as teachers ; the Deacons as ministers ; the Subdeacons as helpers ; the Lectors as readers ; the Singers as psalmists with intelligence and with constancy ; and that the rest of the populace should be hearers of the words of the Gospel according to discipline. When we had completed and confirmed these Canons, we established them in the Church. And now we have written , this other Book of doctrine which will enlighten all the habitable earth, and we have sent it by the hands of Clement our comrade. This which ye hear, O Christian Nazarenes, who are beneath the sun [is] that ye may learn with diligence and care. He who hears and keeps these commandments which are written in this Didascalia, will have everlasting life, and great boldness before the judgment-seat of our Lord Jesus the Christ the Son of God, He who taught us about His great mystery. And he who is contentious, and doth not keep them, they shall put him out as an opposer and quarreller, as it is written that those who do evil things shall go to f. 2 a