[The Didache] states, “Do not abandon the commandments of the Lord, but guard what you have received, neither adding to them or taking away.” It is obvious that the author is drawing an express parallel to Deuteronomy 4:2 (LXX): ” You shall not add to the word that I command you, not take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord.” Most noteworthy, the “commandments of the Lord” in this passage of the Didache no longer refer to the Old Testament commandments as in Deuteronomy 4:2, but now refer to the teachings of Jesus. Therefore, the teachings of Jesus, wherever those may be found, not only bear equal (if not superior) authority to the Old Testament, but now have a new “inscriptional curse” attached to them—the people must be careful that they are “neither adding to them or taking away.” … [The] historical usage [of an inscriptional curse] from Deuteronomy to Josephus, … implies a written text. Given that the Didache likely cites from the written text of Matthew, such language is suggestive that the manual may have viewed Matthew as an authentic writing worthy of its own inscriptional curse.