VolumeTH E Number

117 E X P O5S IPages

T O 177–181
RY TIMES 177
EXPOSITORY Copyright © 2006 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA, and New Delhi)

THE
DOI: 10.1177/0014524606062770
TIMES http://EXT.sagepub.com

The Apostolic Fathers: The Didache

Y
By PROFESSOR JONATHAN A. DRAPER
School of Religion and Theology, University of Kwazulu-Natal

The Didache is perhaps the earliest test in the collection of writings known as the Apostolic Fathers. It purports
to be a collection of instructions given by Jesus, through the twelve apostles, to provide catechesis for new
Gentile converts prior to |baptism. The text is particularly important in providing insight into the life of an
early Jewish Christian community, including its baptismal and Eucharistic liturgy, as well as offering evidence
for the evolution of leadership structures in at least one early Christian community.

F
ew of the Apostolic Fathers have occasioned such
controversy and such a flood of literature as the
Didache or ‘Teaching of the Twelve Apostles’.1
Published first in Athens by Archbishop Bryennios in
1883 from a twelfth-century manuscript containing
a variety of texts, it was popularized by the learned
text and commentary of the great German scholar
Adolf von Harnack in 1884.2 A work of this title had
been known from its listing among the ‘disputed’
writings in Eusebius’ canonical texts (HE 3.25) and
the stichometry of Nicephorus, but had been lost.
There remains some doubt as to whether Eusebius
refers to the full text of the Didache or to the shorter
text of the Two Ways found in chapters 1–6, whose
independent circulation is attested by the Latin text
Doctrina apostolorum.3 In any case, the entire work is
taken up (and revised) in the Apostolic Constitutions
VII and is treated as ‘Scripture’ by a number of early
Christian writers. Additional evidence for the text
of the Didache has been found in a fragment from
Oxyrhyncus, a Coptic translation of part of the
text and an Ethiopic translation of part of the text
incorporated into the Ethiopic Church Order.
1
There are many texts and commentaries available. The best
critical text of the Greek, together with an excellent commentary
is provided by W. Rordorf and André Tuilier, La Doctrine des
Douze Apôtres (Didachè) (2nd edn; Paris: Éditions du Cerf,
1998). A cautious historical critical (redactional) approach is
provided by K. Niederwimmer, The Didache (ET, Minneapolis,
MN: Fortress Press [Hermeneia], 1998).
2
Die Lehre der zwölf Apostel nebst Untersuchungen
zur ältesten Geschuchte der Kirchenverfassung und des
Kirchenrechts (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1884).
3
The text is provided in the edition of Rordorf and Tuilier,
207–10.
1. Date and Origin of the Text
Harnack found in this short text the key to the
evolution of the early Christian Church, since it
portrays a community which still knows active
apostles and prophets and which is beginning to elect
bishops and deacons. He saw here a bridge in the
process of ‘early catholicization’ of the Church from
a charismatic to an institutional form, and it formed
the basis of his widely influential work translated
into English in 1908 as The Mission and Expansion
of Christianity in the First Three Centuries.4
This early enthusiasm for the text was overturned
some thirty years later by the sceptism of a group
of influential English scholars, 5 who argued
that the Didache was dependent on the Epistle
of Barnabas and Matthew in particular, but in
addition had borrowed from virtually every book
4
Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den
ersten drei Jahrhunderten. 1905. ET: The Mission and
Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries 1–2
(New York: G. P. Putnam, 1908).
5
J. A. Robinson, Barnabas, Hermas and the Didache:
Donnellan Lectures at the University of Dublin (London:
SPCK; New York: Macmillan, 1920); R. H. Connolly, ‘The
Didache in Relation to the Epistle of Barnabas’, JTS 33
(1932), 237–53; ‘The Didache and Montanism’, Downside
Review ns 36 (1937), 339–47; J. Muilenburg, The Literary
Relations of the Epistle of Barnabas and the Teaching of
the Twelve Apostles (Yale Dissertation: Marburg, 1929);
F. E. Vokes, The Riddle of the Didache: Fact, Fiction, Heresy
or Catholicism? (London: SCM Press, 1938). There were
strong dissenting English voices, but they were swept away
in the tide of disillusionment: e.g. J. V. Bartlet, ‘The Didache
Reconsidered’, JTS 22 (1921), 239–49; B. H. Streeter, ‘The
Much-Belaboured Didache’, in The Primitive Church (London:
Macmillan, 1936), 369–74.

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178 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES
of the New Testament to reconstruct a fraudulent
and tendentious picture of life in the early Church.
As the eminent J. Armitage Robinson expresses it
in his Donnellan Lectures in 1920: ‘He disguises
his borrowings indeed; but he also disguises the
actual conditions of his own time. The result is
that he contributes almost nothing, except doubtful
exegesis, to advance our knowledge of the early
Christian ministry.’6 In the face of this uncertainty,
few scholars referred any longer to the Didache in
their historical reconstructions of Christian origins,
except for those interested in the evolution of the
eucharist.7 Even the late date in the third century
given by Robinson still means that it provides the
earliest extant eucharistic prayer.
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948
revolutionized the situation once again, since, as
demonstrated by the French Canadian scholar
Jean-Paul Audet,8 the Two Ways teaching, found
in the first six chapters of the Didache and also in
the Epistle of Barnabas, shows clearly that both
Christian texts are dependent on an earlier, possibly
Jewish, source best attested by the Latin Doctrina
apostolorum. In addition, the watershed study of the
New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers undertaken
by Helmut Köster cast doubt on the dependence of
the Didache on Matthew’s Gospel.9 While the debate
over the relationship between the two writings has
still not been settled,10 and some, myself included,
would argue contrariwise for a dependence of
Matthew on the Didache,11 few scholars now date
6
Robinson, 102.
7
E.g. Dom Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy
(Westminster: Dacre, 1945). More recently, E. Mazza, The
Origins of the Eucharistic Prayer (Collegeville, MA: Liturgical
Press) 1995.
8
‘Affinités littéraires et doctrinales du “Manuel de
Discipline”’, RB 59:219–38. ET: ‘Literary and Doctrinal
Relationships of the “Manual of Discipline”’, in J. A. Draper
(ed), The Didachè in Modern Research (Leiden: Brill, 1996)
129–47. Audet went on to write a major commentary arguing
for apostolic authorship in two redactional phases with
interpolations: La Didache: Instructions des apôtres (Paris:
Gabalda, 1958), which has carried rather less conviction.
9
H. Köster, Synoptische Überlieferung bei den apostolischen
Vätern (Berlin: TU 65, 1957), 159–241.
10
See, e.g., the dissenting voices in H. van de Sandt
(ed.), Matthew and the Didache: Two Documents from the
Same Jewish-Christian Milieu? (Assen: Royal Van Gorcum;
Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2005).
11
A. J. P. Garrow, The Gospel of Mattthew’s Dependence on
the Didache (London/ New York: T&T Clark International,
2004); J. A. Draper, ‘Do the Didache and Matthew Reflect an
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the text later than the end of the first century ce or
the first few decades of the second.12 If dependence on
Matthew is ruled out, then there is little to establish
the date of the text except for internal evidence, so
that a number of recent studies have even argued for
a very early date in the mid-first century.13 In any
case, the recent shift in the dating of the Didache
has led to a flurry of attention and a further flurry
of books arguing for the importance of the work in
understanding the evolution of the Church.
The place of origin has also been a matter of
much dispute, but it is now widely accepted that the
text originates in the general area of Syria, or more
narrowly in Antioch. It seems to originate from a
Jewish Christian community trying to remain faithful
to the Torah, even though it has opened itself to
Gentile converts.14 It also relates in some way to the
Gospel of Matthew, with which it shares obvious
parallels and to which it may well be subordinated
in its final redactional phase (15:4).
2. The Yoke of the Lord
One of the most intriguing issues raised by the
Didache, if it is Jewish Christian and Antiochene
in origin is the reference to the ‘yoke of the Lord’
at the conclusion to the Two Ways instruction (6:
3), since it then appears to relate to the issue of
Torah observance and table fellowship which
lay at the centre of controversy in the earliest
Christian communities which Acts describes as
resolved amicably at the Council of Jerusalem (15:
6–29). Gentiles joining the Didache community are
not obligated to become ‘perfect’ Torah observant
Jews by ‘taking the whole yoke of the Lord’ upon
themselves, but they are nevertheless instructed
to keep as much of the Torah and the food laws
“Irrevocable Parting of the Ways” with Judaism’ in van de
Sandt (ed.), Matthew and the Didache, 217–41.
12
A. Milavec, The Didache: Faith, Hope, and Life of the
Earliest Christian Communities, 50–70 C.E. (New York/
Mahwah, NJ: Newman, 2003); Garrow, The Gospel of
Matthew’s Dependence on the Didache.
13
See the recent commentary by Milavec, The Didache.
14
This has been most substantially argued by the recent
work of H. van de Sandt and D. Flusser, The Didache: Its
Jewish Sources and its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity
(Assen: Royal van Gorcum; Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press,
2002). See most recently, M. del Verme, Didache and Judaism:
The Jewish Roots of an Ancient Christian-Jewish Work
(Harrisburg, PA: Continuum, 2005).
 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES
as they can ‘bear’ and to keep strictly from food
offered to idols. Paul, on the other hand, forbids the
Gentiles in Galatia to keep the Torah (submit to the
‘yoke of slavery’ 5:1) or risk losing their salvation
(5:4), and also argues that eating food from the
market which may have been offered to idols is no
problem unless someone makes an issue of it (1 Cor
10:25–30). The Didache may thus be a key text in
understanding the nature of the issues between Paul
and his opponents.15 While the Didache is usually
known by its shorter title, there is a second title,
which has sometimes been taken as an interpolation
but may indeed have been part of the original text:
‘Teaching of the Lord through the Twelve Apostles
to the Gentiles/Nations.’16
3. The Two Ways
The Two Ways instruction in Didache 1–6 is found
in many forms in Jewish (1 QS 3:13–4:26; Testament
of Asher; Derek Erets) and early Christian writings
(e.g., Epistle of Barnabas, Doctrina apostolorum,
Apostolic Church Order, Epitome, Life of Shenudi),
where it passes into the monastic tradition in the
Rule of St. Benedict. Its function in the Didache is
to provide catechesis for the preparation of new
Gentile converts in an extensive training at the
hands of an instructor (4:1–2) prior to baptism
(‘Having said all these things beforehand, baptize
. . .’ 7:1). In the Didache the two ways are ethically
conceived as ways of life and death (cf. Deut 30:15),
rather than drawing on the cosmic opposition of
angels of light and darkness found in Qumran and
the Epistle of Barnabas. Opening with the double
command to love God and neighbour as oneself,
followed by the negative form of the Golden Rule,
it consists mostly of an elaboration of the ethical
sections of the Ten Commandments. It targets
particular Gentile practices regularly abhorred by
Jewish writers: pederasty, abortion, exposure of
infants, astrology, magic, idolatry and so on.
15
See Slee, The Church in Antioch in the First Century C.E.
(Sheffield: T&T Clark International, 2003); J. A. Draper, ‘A
Continuing enigma: the ‘Yoke of the Lord’, in Didache 6.2–3
and early Jewish-Christian Relations’, in P. J. Tomson and
D. Lambers-Petry, The Image of the Judaeo-Christians in
Ancient Jewish and Christian Literature (Tübingen: Mohr-
Siebeck, 2003), 106–23.
16
This has been the subject of much debate. See the extensive
discussion in Audet, 91–103.
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179
One of the interesting aspects of the Two Ways
section is that a block of Jesus tradition (1:3–6) is
inserted at the beginning of the Way of Life as a
first instruction, relegating the legal material to the
status of a ‘second commandment’ (2:1). There is no
indication in the Didache that this comes from Jesus,
nor that it is part of the ‘gospel’. The teaching comes
mostly from ‘Q’ material organized by Matthew in
the Sermon on the Mount and Luke in the Sermon
on the Plain. It follows neither of the canonical
gospels in its structure and exact wording, though
it is closer to Matthew than to Luke. This supports
an interpretation of the origin of this ‘Q’ material
in catechetical instruction, set as a block on the lips
of Jesus by the evangelists to underpin its authority.
In any case, it presents a rare glimpse of the kind of
ordered programme of initiation undertaken by an
early Christian community.17
4. Baptism and Eucharist
The Didache presents evidence of the utmost
significance for the study of the origins of Christian
liturgy and worship, since it offers the earliest
picture of baptism (7–8) and eucharist (9–10) in the
early Church. It differs strikingly from traditional
pictures and later practice, offering a markedly
Jewish emphasis. Moreover, since liturgical practice
was likely to be long established in the community
before it was written down and collected in the
Didache, it offers witness to a practice pre-dating
the text by some time.
The emphasis in the baptismal instruction is not
on repentance and forgiveness of sins, of which there
is no mention, but on the ritual purity and therefore
the purifying nature of the water (7:2–3). There is no
mention of baptism into the death of Christ as this is
set out in Paul (Rom 6:1–11), and although baptism
is ‘in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’
in chapter 7, there is a suspicion that this may have
been a later redaction, since 9:5 speaks of baptism
‘in the name of the Lord’. Fasting by the initiand and
the officiator for one or two days is required before
the baptism (7:4) and subsequent to baptism for two
days a week on Wednesdays and Fridays. Likewise,
the Didache specifies that the newly baptized person
should pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day (8).
17
For an extensive presentation of this position see Milavec,
The Didache; also J. A. Draper, ‘The Role of Ritual in the
Alternation of Social Universe: Jewish-Christian Initiation of
Gentiles in the Didache’, Listening 32 (1997), 48–67.
180 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES
In both instances, it appears that the instruction
is intended to differentiate the new member from
members of the community led by the ‘hypocrites’,
probably the Pharisaic party.
Even more surprising is the eucharistic liturgy
provided in chapters 9–10, since it contains no
mention of the ‘Words of Institution’ nor of the
sacrificial death of Christ. The blessing over the cup
precedes the blessing over the broken bread, followed
by a full meal and then by a further set of blessings
(probably, though it is not mentioned, involving a
further cup of wine in the Jewish fashion found also
in Luke’s description of the Last Supper 22:17–20).18
The eucharistia over the cup gives thanks to the
Father for the ‘holy vine of David’ made known to
the community in Jesus ‘your son/ servant’ (pais, 9:
2), reflecting a Davidic Christology found also in
the final acclamation of the liturgy ‘Hosannah to
the house of David’ (10:6).19 The Davidic emphasis
matches the emphasis on the ‘kingdom’ into which
members are gathered ‘like broken bread which was
scattered on the mountains’ found in the eucharistia
over the bread (10:3–4) and in the eucharistia after
the meal (10:5). As with baptism, the eucharistic
prayers reveal a concern with ritual purity: the
unbaptized must be excluded from the meal because
‘you shall not give what is holy to the dogs’ (9:5),
and only the holy may partake: ‘If any one is holy
let that person come, if any one is not let that person
repent’ (10:6; cf. 14:1–3).
While the usual officiant at the eucharist is not
mentioned, an unexpected concluding instruction,
which prepares the hearer for what follows, allows
a prophet to ‘eucharistize as she or he wills’ (10:7).
5. Apostles, Prophets, Teachers, Bishops,
Deacons and Visitors
What first excited Harnack continues to fascinate
and perplex interpreters of the Didache: itinerant
apostles and prophets are envisaged as still active
in the community, alongside bishops and deacons
elected by the community itself. There seem to be
tensions between ‘charismatic’ figures appointed
18
For a summary of the discussion of the problems
associated with the textual tradition of Luke at this point
see B. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New
Testament (United Bible Societies, 1971), 173–77.
19
Following the Coptic witness to the text, where the
manuscript of Bryennios (H54) has ‘God of David’ and the
Apostolic Constitutions has ‘son of David’.
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by the Spirit, who wish to ‘settle down’ in the
community and this emerging local ‘hierarchy’
(15:1–2). Moreover, much in the description of the
apostles and prophets in chapter 11 echoes themes
running through the gospel tradition: apostles are to
move on after a stay of one or two days and should
receive food but no money; prophets speak ‘in the
Spirit’ and may not be contradicted for ‘blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven’. The
renewed search for the ‘historical Jesus’ and his
community has led to an increasing interest in this
material, particularly in the light of Gerd Theissen’s
theory that Jesus ‘the bearer of revelation’ initiated
a movement of wandering charismatic ascetics
supported by a network of local communities, which
has been taken up by J. Dominic Crossan, Burton
Mack, Leif Vaage and many others.20
Another point of view would make the apostles
emissaries of Jerusalem, carrying letters of
authorisation for their final destination but entitled
to hospitality along the way. Any attempt by such
people to stay for a longer period than a few days
living off the community’s good will would suggest
that they were not genuine.21 People who wish to
settle must support themselves or else they are ‘Christ
traders’ (13:5). Prophets, on the other hand, appear
to be welcome settlers, whose charismatic work
entitles them, like [full time] teachers, to community
support (14:1–2) from the ‘first fruits’ of their labour
(14:3–7).
6. The Return of the Lord
The Didache concludes with eschatological teaching
alluding back to the Two Ways instruction: ‘Watch
over your life’ (16:1). It also echoes the ‘Q’ material
found in Matthew 24 and Luke 12:35–40, again
in words and order which indicate independent
use of the same tradition. It envisages a time when
members of its community will turn against it, when
lawlessness will increase and a ‘world deceiver’ will
20
G. Theissen, The First Followers of Jesus: A Sociological
Analysis of Earliest Christianity (ET, London: SCM Press),
1978; J. D. Crossan, The Historical Jesus: Portrait of a
Mediterranean Jewish Peasant (San Francisco, CA: Harper
Collins), 1991; B. Mack, The Lost Gospel: The Lost Book of
Q and Christian Origins (San Francisco, CA: Harper) 1993;
L. Vaage, Galilean Upstarts: Jesus’ First Followers According
to Q. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International. For a
contrary viewpoint.
21
See J. A. Draper, ‘Weber, Theissen, and “Wandering
Charismatics” in the Didache’, JECS 6/4 (1998), 541–76.
 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES
emerge to perform signs and wonders to lead the
world astray and inaugurate a time of ‘fiery testing’
(16:4–5). Three ‘true signs’ subsequently announce
the coming end of all things: a sign ‘spread out
in the sky’, the sound of the trumpet and the
resurrection of the righteous departed. Finally the
Lord comes on the clouds with his holy ones (176:
6–7). Interestingly, Matthew seems to structure his
use of the apocalypse in Mark 13 around these
three signs, while the Didache shows no knowledge
of the Markan material in Matthew at all, raising
again the questions about redaction and priority
with which this paper began.22 The text seems to
break off suddenly in mid-sentence at the end of
the apocalypse (16:8), where one would expect a
description of the judgment of the wicked and the
vindication of the righteous, and this has led to many
attempts at reconstruction by scholars.23
7. Conclusions
The survival of the Didache as an independent text
is, to some extent, accidental. It presents us with
a moment frozen in time, a community which still
lived within the Jewish world-view and practice,
competing with the successors of the Pharisees
for control of the same social space. It remains
focused on the Torah and its fulfilment in practice,
even though it admits Gentiles without requiring
them to become Jews. It is concerned about ritual
purity in baptism and eucharist. Its Christology is
Davidic and it envisages a return of the Lord on
the clouds, accompanied by the righteous departed,
to gather it from the four winds into the kingdom
(10:5, perhaps echoing Ezek 37:7–14), probably to
establish it ‘on earth as it is in heaven’ (8:2). Its local
elected leadership of bishops and deacons seems to
be in contention with Spirit-inspired prophets and
teachers, while apostles might present themselves
at its door claiming their right to support on their
journeys. This is a picture much at odds with the
Church as it emerged in subsequent centuries. Jewish
Christian communities which tried to continue
this kind of tradition were marginalized and even
demonized as heretics, while few traces of their life
and witness to Jesus have survived. The evidence of
22
See J. S. Kloppenborg, ‘Didache 16:6–8 and Special
Matthean Tradition’, ZNW 69–70 (1978–79), 54–67.
23
See R. E. Aldridge, ‘The Lost Ending of the Didache’,
VC 53 (1999) 1–15; Garrow, Matthew’s Dependence on the
Didache, 29–66.
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181
the Didache is thus particularly valuable as evidence
of, and a witness today of, the roots of the Christian
movement in Torah faithful Judaism.
Bibliography:
Jean-Paul Audet, La Didachè: Instructions des apôtres
(Paris: Gabalda, 1958).
J. A. Draper (ed.), The Didache in Modern Research
(Leiden: Brill, 1996).
J. A. Draper, ‘Weber, Theissen, and ‘Wandering
Charismatics’ in the Didache’, JECS 6/4 (1998),
541–76.
J. A. Draper, ‘A Continuing enigma: the “Yoke of the
Lord” in Didache 6.2–3 and early Jewish-Christian
Relations’, in P. J. Tomson and D. Lambers-Petry,
The Image of the Judaeo-Christians in Ancient
Jewish and Christian Literature (Tübingen: Mohr-
Siebeck, 2003), 106–23.
J. A. Draper, ‘Do the Didache and Matthew Reflect an
“Irrevocable Parting of the Ways” with Judaism’
in van de Sandt (ed), Matthew and the Didache,
(Assen: Royal van Gorcum; Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 2005), 217–41.
A. J. P. Garrow, The Gospel of Mattthew’s Dependence
on the Didache (London/ New York: T&T Clark
International, 2004).
Adolf von Harnack, Die Lehre der zwölf Apostel
nebst Untersuchungen zur ältesten Geschuchte der
Kirchenverfassung und des Kirchenrechts (Leipzig:
Hinrichs, 1884).
C. Jefford (ed.), The Didache in Context: Essays on
its Text, History and Transmission (Leiden: Brill,
1995).
A. Milavec, The Didache: Faith, Hope, and Life of the
Earliest Christian Communities, 50–70 C.E. (New
York/Mahwah, NJ: The Newman Press, 2003).
K. Niederwimmer, The Didache (ET, Minneapolis:
Fortress Press [Hermeneia], 1998).
J. A. Robinson, Barnabas, Hermas and the Didache:
Donnellan Lectures at the University of Dublin
(London: SPCK; New York: Macmillan, 1920).
W. Rordorf and André Tuilier, La Doctrine des Douze
Apôtres (Didachè) (2nd edn; Paris: Éditions du Cerf,
1998).
H. van de Sandt & D. Flusser, The Didache: Its
Jewish Sources and its Place in Early Judaism and
Christianity (Assen: Royal van Gorcum; Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 2002).
H. van de Sandt (ed), Matthew and the Didache,
(Assen: Royal van Gorcum; Philadelphia: Fortress
Press, 2005).
M. del Verme, Didache and Judaism: The Jewish Roots
of an Ancient Christian-Jewish Work (Harrisburg,
PA: Continuum, 2005).