The Didache and Christians

Do you know what The Didache is? (DEE-Da-Kay)

I didn’t either until a teacher recently mentioned it in passing.

“You might consider looking at The Didache to learn how the first century Christians treated each other.”

He warned it wasn’t Scripture, it’s not part of the Bible.

It’s a short book for first-century Believers to apply what they knew about Jesus to their fledgling church life.

The Didache ≠ Scripture

The actual title is “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles to the Nations, Known as THE DIDACHE.”

Scholars believe it was written about 65-80 AD/CE. That period began within a few decades of Jesus’ death. It included the years when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem.

(By the way, few, if any, Christians were in Jerusalem by 70 AD. Most heeded Jesus’ earlier warning and fled.)

Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry provided insight:

The work is cited by Eusebius who lived from 260 – 341 and Athanasius 293-373.  In the Didache, 16:2-3 is quoted in the Epistle of Barnabas in 4:9, or vice versa. The Epistle of Barnabas was written in 130-131 A.D. 

The Didache is not inspired but is valuable as an early church document.

Wikipedia weighs in:

The Didache is considered part of the group of second-generation Christian writings known as the Apostolic Fathers. 

Written in Koine Greek, it’s considered one of the first forms of “Church Orders.” It describes how Jewish Christians should adapt to Gentile Believers. (See many of Paul’s writings on this subject in the New Testament!)

Where did the Didache come from?

An Eastern Orthodox Arch-Bishop, the Greek Metropolitan Philotheo Bryennios discovered the ancient manuscript in the Jerusalem Monastery of the Most Holy Sepulchre.

(He also found other ancient manuscripts experts dismiss as “spurious”).

A well-educated professor, Bryennios recognized he’d made a significant find. While third and fourth centuries Christian writings had referenced the work, no one had seen it for 1700 years.

He published The Didache in 1883.

So, what’s in it?

Or, why should I look at it if it isn’t really Scripture?

The Didache is in the public domain. You can download it for free, which is what I did. The PDF is here.

It’s only 17 pages long, and I read it out of curiosity.

So many changes happened to those believers in the first century–particularly after Jesus went to heaven and the Holy Spirit came.

They didn’t have our advantages. They didn’t have a written Bible. While the priests could read the Torah and the Old Testament on scrolls at the temple, if you had a question, you couldn’t read it yourself. (Of course, there was no temple after 70 AD/CE)

In the period after Jesus died and Paul began writing his letters, many questions and questionable practices arose.

Having a small portion like The Didache could help followers understand the new Way.

It reads much like the Gospel of Matthew.

To me, like a simple version of the Sermon on the Mount.

The Didache samples

The English version linked above is full of cross-references. Here’s a sample from the opening:

There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between the two ways.

Cross references: Jeremiah 21:8; Matthew 7:13

The way of life is this. First of all, you shall love the God who made you.

Second, love your neighbor as yourself.b And all things you would not want done to you, do not do to another person.c

b: Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:37-39; c: Matthew 7:12.

All those statements sound familiar to me.

As I read through the work (in about ten minutes), not much surprised me.

But there was this:

You shall not practice sorcery.z You shall not murder a child by abortion, nor kill a child at birth. You shall not covet your neighbor’s things.a

z: Deuteronomy 18:10; a: Matthew 5:40

The conclusion has a reference to The Epistle of Barnabas 19:8. I’d never heard of The Epistle of Barnabas, which took me on a search.

Here’s the conclusion:

Beware, lest anyone lead you astray from this way of righteousness, for he teaches apart from God.

For if you can bear the whole yoke of the Lord, you will be perfect; but if you cannot, do as much as you can. t

t: The Epistle of Barnabas 19:8.

I didn’t read anything in The Didache which sat poorly in my soul.

Do we need to read the early Christian letters?

No.

We don’t need to read the Apocrypha either–I haven’t.

But, they can be illuminating if we’re curious about what the church was like in its early days.

Think how hard it would have been for those early Christians–particularly the Jews.

Their temple, the place where they sacrificed for their sins, was destroyed.

Jesus came to earth and died in a shocking way. How did they live without Jesus?

He sent the Holy Spirit to enlighten His followers. Men who knew Jesus wrote about Him: John, Peter, Luke. And then the Apostle Paul saw the light and explained all.

The book of Acts is full of dynamic changes. Galatians, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, all deal with early church issues.

And then, of course, the book of Romans puts everything into perspective.

But, for an historian like me–and maybe some of you–it’s interesting.

I try to wrap my mind about what early Believers were thinking. How did they know what was Scripture? Who could you trust?

(See LaTayne C Scott’s fine novel about Priscilla and Aquilla: A Conspiracy of Breath. Or, Tessa Afshar’s Bread of Angels or Thief of Corinth.)

Believers at the time wanted to know, too. The Didache allowed them to get a sense of what Jesus taught and how they should live in their house churches.

Fortunately for us in 2020, we can hold a book of God’s words to teach us.

All we have to do is open it up and read the truth.

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