The Didache (complete)
Unknown — an early church community, c. A.D. 50–120
More about An early Christian community →
The teaching of the Twelve, whole at last.
Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
Higher now, because the whole teaching is here instead of one leaf. It is still not high: the book was lost for centuries.
High. Nobody disputes what the complete Didache says, and that certainty is what Defend measures.
A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.
By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.
| Lv | Move | Type | Cat. | Pwr | Acc | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Test the Teacher | Ethics | Argument | 60 | 100% | 15 |
| 16 | Martyr’s Resolve | Ethics | Argument | 50 | 100% | 15 |
| 19 | The Broken Bread | Ecclesiology | Restore | — | — | 10 |
| 21 | Watch the Hour | Eschatology | Argument | 70 | 95% | 10 |
| 50 | Speak Greek | History | Status | — | 100% | 5 |
How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.
Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.
“And every prophet teaching the truth, if he does not do what he teaches, he is a false prophet.”
Didache 11.16 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).public domain
In the gameThe manual’s practical test: does he do what he teaches? Often takes the credibility out from under the foe, lowering its Contend. Hits forged and pseudonymous books especially hard.
“Eighty and six years have I served him, and he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”
Martyrdom of Polycarp 9 (public domain trans.).public domain
In the game"Eighty and six years…" Strikes half again as hard when the book is nearly spent.
“As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became one, so may your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom.”
Didache 9.8–9 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).public domain
In the gameThe oldest eucharistic prayer we have. What was scattered is gathered into one: clears every status effect from your whole team.
“Be watchful for your life; let your lamps not be quenched and your loins not ungirded, but be ready; for you know not the hour in which our Lord comes.”
Didache 16.1 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).public domain
In the gameLamps lit, belt fastened, watching. The ready argument catches an unready one off its guard — often finds the telling stroke.
The passages the Scriptorium holds on screen, word for word from a public-domain translation. Written in Koine Greek.
“As this broken bread was scattered upon the mountains and being gathered together became one, so may your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom; for yours is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever and ever.”
Didache 9.8–9 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).
“Neither pray as the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded in his Gospel, thus pray: Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth… Three times in the day pray so.”
Didache 8.3–11 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).
“Whosoever therefore shall come and teach you all these things that have been said before, receive him; but if the teacher himself be perverted and teach a different doctrine to the destruction thereof, hear him not; but if to the increase of righteousness and the knowledge of the Lord, receive him as the Lord.”
Didache 11.1–3 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).
“And every prophet teaching the truth, if he does not do what he teaches, he is a false prophet.”
Didache 11.16 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).
“Be watchful for your life; let your lamps not be quenched and your loins not ungirded, but be ready; for you know not the hour in which our Lord comes… For in the last days the false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate.”
Didache 16.1–6 (trans. Lightfoot, public domain, lightly modernized).
Sixteen short chapters, in four parts: the Two Ways (1–6), the liturgy — baptism, fasting, the Eucharist (7–10), church order and the testing of travelling ministers (11–15), and the last things (16).
The manual’s test for a travelling prophet is not a doctrinal quiz. It is whether he does what he teaches. The earliest church already knew that a teacher can be checked.
