RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Dickinson Didache
vided into two, or perhaps three parts. The first contains precepts of Christian morality, and brief instructions for the specific ecclesiastical acts which gave Christian character to the Church (i.-x.); the second, directions for churchly intercourse and life (xi.-xv.); the closing chapter (xvi.) is an exhortation to be ready for the coming of the Lord. The first part, again, contains, i.-vi., under the form of a description of the " Two Ways," the way of life and the way of death, the laws of Christian morality; while vii. deals with baptism; viii. with fasting and daily prayer; and ix.-x. with eucharistic prayers. In regard to specific points: baptism should be preceded by fasting; the Lord's Prayer, given in the words of Matthew with slight alterations and with the doxology, should be said three times every day. The Lord's Supper should be partaken of only by the baptized; and the " prophets " were at liberty to use, instead of the eucharistic prayers given, such thanksgiving as they would. The second part lays down rules for the treatment of the teachers of the Divine Word and of the peripatetic brethren, and gives distinguishing tests of their character (xi.-xiii.), and also the usages each congregation should observe (xiv.-xv.).
II. Title, Address, and Purport: The manuscript has two titles: " Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" and "Teaching of the Lord through the Twelve Apostles to the Gentiles." By " the Gentiles " were meant the Christians who had come from heathenism, just as the epistle " to the Hebrews " was addressed to Christians who had come from Judaism. The document, consequently, is not addressed to catechumens — for it is not adapted to lead persons to Christianity, but to those already Christians, that they might learn from it how to conduct their lives upon Gospel principles, and what they were to impress on the newly won brethren [cf. Schaff's edition, pp. 15 sqq. The document is commonly quoted and referred to simply as the " Didache," which means the "Teaching"].
III. Transmission and Integrity: The present text has comparatively few errors, yet the appearance of the document in later recensions has raised suspicions whether it is so free from interpolations as it seems to be. Suspicions are caused only through derived works cited in patristic sources.
IV. Language and Vocabulary: The idiom is Hellenistic, more exactly the idiom of the Septuagint of the poetical books and of the Old Testament Apocrypha. There are numerous Hebraisms, but the Greek is better than that of Hermas. The style is simple, popular, and concise, while being somewhat rhythmical and liturgical. The document contains 2,190 words (about 10,700 letters), and 552 different words. Of these 504 are found also in the New Testament; 38 of the remaining 48, in the Septuagint, Barnabas, or other older Greek writers (cf.Schaff, ut sup., pp. 95-113).
V. Sources : There is no known primitive Christian writing which, with originality in arrangement and form, so combines dependence upon older writings. The author avows his dependence, for he seeks merely to set forth the teaching of the Lord through the twelve apostles, and finds no
room for his own ideas. There are eight express quotations: two (xiv. 3, xvi. 7) are from the Old Testament (Mai. i. 11, 14; Zech. xiv. 5); five from the Gospels, introduced by certain formulas (viii. 2, ix. 5, xi. 3, XV. 3, 4), and one (i. 6) from some unknown " Sacred Scripture." The Old Testament
is, moreover, frequently drawn upon I. Biblical in the first five chapters, the decalogue Writings, and the Wisdom literature (Prov.,
Eccles., Tobit) being used. The Old Testament alone is " Sacred Scripture "; of a New Testament Canon there is no trace. The author in the five cited passages does not draw from the written Gospel alone; throughout he weaves into his writing references and longer or shorter citations, twenty-three in all, from what he calls " the Gospel," which he presupposes his readers know. Seventeen of the twenty-three citations must be referred to Matthew; but other citations are plainly combinations of the text of Matthew and Luke, strikingly like the text of Tatian's Diatessaron. In the citations there is no trace of John's Gospel; but the eucharistic service is conceived on the lines of John vi. and xvii., without, however, directly borrowing anything. The Pauline Epistles are not cited, yet traces of acquaintance with them appear. More important are certain resemblances to Jude and II Peter. There is no trace of acquaintance with the Pastoral Epistles.
The much-disputed question, as to the relation of the " Teaching " to the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas, is thus to be answered; it is in the highest degree probable that Barnabas is prior to the "Teaching"; i. 1-2, ii. 2-7, iii. 7vi. 2 of the " Teaching " agree substantially, if not verbally, with Barnabas xviii.-xx.; but the order of the phrases is different, and while that in Barnabas
is confused, that in the " Teaching "
2. Barnabas, is clear. In the description of the
" Two Ways," the " Teaching " offers further (a) in i. 2-5 a series of evangelical sayings: (b) in i. 6 a fragment from an unknown other writing; (c) in iii. 1-6 a section imitated from the Old Testament proverbial literature; (d) in ii. 2-
3, 5, 6, iii. 8, iv. 2, 8, 14 a series of additions to the sections common to it and to Barnabas. Barnabas, on the other hand, offers in the chapters in question only a couple of phrases (xix. 2, 3, 8), an unintelligible sentence (xix. 4), and some further words in xix. 10. Further, xvi. 1, 3-8 of the " Teaching " are confessedly a compilation of evangelical passages and Zech. xiv. 5, together with a tradition concerning Antichrist. Verse 2, however, is not so derived, but has in Barnabas IV, X. 9 an almost verbally exact parallel. Now, were Barnabas later, he would have appropriated the only verse in this passage of the " Teaching " which is peculiar. Hence it is probable that, since all the other verses of xvi. are borrowed, this verse (xvi. 2) is also borrowed. Moreover (and this appears still more decisive of the priority of Barnabas), the author of Barnabas is convinced that the last times have already come (iv. 3, 9); the author of the " Teaching," on the other hand, does not so hold. The decision therefore must be that the " Teaching " as it now is given in the Con-
Didache