Didascalia Apostolorum

Historical source scan page 72

44 DIDASCALIA. they and their wives and their sons and daughters, because their work was the service of the Tabernacle alone. Therefore they received no inheritance of land among the children of Israel, for the inheritance of Levi and of his tribe was the inheritance1 of the people. Therefore ye also to-day, O Bishops, are priests to your people, and Levites who serve in the house of God, the Holy Catholic Church, those who remain continually before the Lord God. Therefore ye are to your people priests and prophets and chiefs and governors and teachers and mediators between God and the believers, receivers of the Word, preachers of it, evangelists of it, knowers of the Scriptures and of the words of God, witnesses of His will, ye who bear the sins of all men, and who will give account concerning all men ; ye who hear how that word is kindled hardly against you, if ye despise, and do not preach the will of God, ye are they who are in grave danger of perdition, if ye despise your people. Ye again are those to whom is promised by God a great reward that will not disappoint nor be snatched away, and unspeakable grace in that great glory, if ye serve well the Tabernacle of God, the Catholic Church. Therefore as ye bear the burden of all men, thus also it is required of you that ye receive from all who are f. 30 a with you the service of food and clothing, and other things, such as are necessary. It is required also that ye take from the gifts that are given you by the people who are under your hands, and provide for the deacons and the widows and the orphans, and those that are in want. For it is required of thee, Bishop, that thou care for all men as a faithful steward, for as thou earnest the weight of all those who are under thy hands, thus, and more than all men, thou shalt receive the glory of excellency from God ; for thou art the propitiator2 of the Christ ; and as He has borne the sins of us all, thus it is required of thee that thou carry the sins of all those who are under thy hands. For thus it is written in is. liii. 2 Isaiah about our Saviour, " We have seen Him, that He had no splendour in. w and no beauty, but His visage was more shamed and humiliated than liii. 3 men, and that He was a man of suffering ; and knoweth 3[how] to under- 4 stands sicknesses; for His face was changed and done despite to, and He was of no account in our eyes. He then hath carried our sins, and for us He died ; and we thought Him wounded and grieved and 5 humiliated. But He was wounded for our sins, and afflicted for our iniquities, and by His wounds we are all healed." Again he saith, that 12 " He bore the sins of many, and was betrayed because of their iniquity." 1 S. offerings a S. imitator 3 S. to bear