Observe those who hold erroneous opinions concerning the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how they run counter to the mind of God! They concern themselves with neither works of charity, nor widows, nor orphans, nor the distressed, nor those in prison or out of it, nor the hungry or thirsty. From Eucharist and prayer they hold aloof, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father in His loving-kindness raised from the dead. And so, those who question the gift of God perish in their contentiousness. It would be better for them to have love, so as to share in the resurrection. It is proper, therefore, to avoid associating with such people and not to speak about them either in private or in public, but to study the Prophets attentively and, especially, the Gospel, in which the Passion is revealed to us and the Resurrection shown in its fulfillment.
I have two concerns:
1] I don't have much confidence in the authenticity of the document, based on what I read in the Catholic Encyclopedia about conflicting manuscripts and authorship.
2] If authentic, it was written about 70 years after the death of Christ...about 3 generations had passed. If he was a disciple of John, that says a lot for him; but did he not learn at the knee of anyone else? Did all his learning come from John? How long did John disciple him? I mean, was he a disciple in the true sense of the word, or did he just audit a couple of weekend classes? 8^ D Keep me posted if you find anything else, especially from that first century. Thanks, dadwags.