By Bart Ehrman
- An Important Early Christian Writing. Extract follows.
- The early second-century book known as The Didache of the Twelve Apostles (didache literally means “the teaching”) was virtually unknown until the end of the nineteenth century, when it was discovered in a monastery library in Constantinople. Since then it has made a tremendous impact on our understanding of the inner life of the early Christian communities. Among other things, it (a) preserves our earliest account of how the early Christians practiced their rituals of baptism and the eucharist, (b) discloses the kinds of prayers that early Christians said, (c) indicates the days on which they fasted, and (d) demonstrates the existence of itinerant Christian apostles, prophets, and teachers who roved from town to town, addressing the spiritual needs of the Christian communities in exchange for daily food and shelter.
- Three Early Christian Writings Spliced Together Into One: The Didache. Extract follows.
- …scholars have long maintained that the document is in fact a composite piece rather than a literary unity. If this is correct, then the different portions of the text may well have been composed in different times and places, only to be assembled together at a secondary level at a later time. When and where each of the portions derived, and when and where they were finally assembled, and then possibly subjected to further editorial revision, are a matter of ongoing debate.
- The first six chapters of the book present a set of ethical admonitions organized according to the doctrine of the “Two Ways,” those “of Life and Death.”
- Like the “Teaching of the Two Ways,” the second portion of the Didache may be drawn from one or more earlier sources or it may represent the anonymous author’s own composition. It is a kind of “church order” in which instructions are given for various kinds of church activities.
- The Didache continues by giving extended instructions concerning what to do with the traveling apostles, teachers, and prophets who arrive in town to minister to the community (chaps. 11–13). These three categories of persons appear to overlap.
- The Didache finally gives instructions concerning wandering prophets who decide to settle down within the community.
- The concluding chapter of the book provides a kind of apocalyptic discourse, an exhortation to be ready for the imminent end of the world which will be brought by “the Lord coming on the clouds of heaven” (16:7). Given its loose connection with what precedes it, this chapter may have been tacked on to the Didache at a later date.
- …scholars have long maintained that the document is in fact a composite piece rather than a literary unity. If this is correct, then the different portions of the text may well have been composed in different times and places, only to be assembled together at a secondary level at a later time. When and where each of the portions derived, and when and where they were finally assembled, and then possibly subjected to further editorial revision, are a matter of ongoing debate.
The Didache: A Missing Piece of the Puzzle in Early Christianity Biblical Archaeology Society by Staff, December 12, 2017. Edited by Jonathan A. Draper and Clayton N. Jefford.
The post at BAS is about the book of the same name as the post published by the Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2015), 631 pp. Edited by Jonathan A. Draper and Clayton N. Jefford. Extracts from the book are in the article and several are included below.
The Didache, also known as the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, is mentioned by several church fathers of the fourth century, but it was not available to scholars until 1873 when it was discovered in an 11th-century Greek codex. In the decades since, other sources have been found, including fragments in Greek and Coptic, a complete Georgian translation, and excerpts in Latin, Ethiopic, and Syriac. Scholars are still divided over its origins, with suggested dates ranging from prior to 50 C.E. to the third century. However, they are largely united in characterizing the Didache as a composite work, combining a set of moral instructions about the “Two Ways,” which juxtaposes the “way of life,” or a manual of church order and practice, and the “way of death,” or an apocalypse.
Particularly striking is the Didache’s lack of interest in essential tenets of Pauline Christianity. Not only does it affirm Torah observance, but it also makes no mention of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and its Eucharist celebration makes no connection of the meal with the body and blood of Christ. This position suggests alignment of the community with, once again, the Gospel of Matthew and with the anti-Pauline “faith without works is dead” theology of the Epistle of James. The Didache imagines Jesus as the servant of God, not a dying and rising son of God whose eschatological return ushers in a new kingdom.
Draper opens his conclusion to the volume with the statement that “if [the Didache] is indeed a genuine document of the first or even early second century C.E., it is hard to see how pessimism with regard to its use in the reconstruction of the emergence of early Christianity can be justified.” He is certainly correct. This comprehensive collection of essays demonstrates how the Didache needs to be placed front and center in discussions of Jewish-Christianity, the Matthean Gospel community, anti-Paulinism, and a host of other topics.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didache for more about the chapters and multiple sources.
