HOW COME THE DIDACHE WAS EXCLUDED FROM THE CANON OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES?

The title of the Didache in the manuscript discovered in 1873

Anonymous said...

fr. abe bakit hindi sinali ang didache sa bible?

fiel po to 

June 9, 2011 5:15 PM 

 

Fr. Abe, CRS said... 

 

 Dear Fiel,

 

The Didache was probably written during the Apostolic time c.100A.D. There are some Fathers of the Church who considered it canonical. But eventually it was not included by the Catholic Church in the Canon of Sacred Scriptures.

Why? Because for many centuries the copy of Didache was lost. It was rediscovered only in 1873. Always bear in mind that THE WORD OF GOD CANNOT BE LOST. It must be alive in the heart and mind of the Catholic communities.

The canonical writings were not lost because they were being read in the churches. They were being kept at home. The Catholics were memorizing them by heart and the monks copied them day and night for preservation. If a text was not given by the early Catholics such a canonical treatment and love them they must have sensed that it was not part of the Word of God. The sensus fidei or the sense of the faithful didn't recognize it as a Word of God. Otherwise the Holy Spirit Himself would have inspire the early Catholics: Popes, Bishops, priests, deacons, hermits, monks, and even the lay faithful to preserve the copies of the Didache and memorized them by heart as we are doing in the Gospels and the canonical writings.

If all copies of the Bible shall be lost by fire or by accidents the Christian communities can reconstruct the Bible based on oral tradition or from memory. The Holy Spirit kept the Word of God alive in the heart and mind of the Church. 

But, even though it is not canonical the Didache is still very important as one of the most ancient documents of the early Church. 

June 9, 2011 6:25 PM