RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Didache
not a follower of Paul, but a universalist, knowing no distinction between peoples; in his prayers acknowledging God, the creator of all things and Father of all men, who provides them with food and drink; he acknowledges Jesus, the son of God, the God of David, the vine of David, and the Lord who spoke by the prophets, and he awaits his coming; he also acknowledges the Holy Ghost, who has prepared those whom God called. He believes in the Old Testament and in the Gospel; he acknowledges baptism and the Lord's Supper as important acts; one becomes a Christian by baptism and remains a Christian by partaking of the euchaj'istic celebration.
VII. Time and Place of Composition: It has been placed in every decade from 50 a.d. to 190 A.D., and even as late as the fourth century. Generally the three generations 70-100, 100-130, 130- 160 A.D. are the most favored. Internal evidence can not decide the time, because the " Teaching " is avowedly a compilation, and some of its sources are very old. External evidence proves that it must be before 165 a.d., for Clement of Alexandria knew it as " Scripture." A number of negative facts taken together show that it is earlier than / 160 A.D.; it shows no traces of a New Testament Canon or of the authority of the Pauline Epistles; or of a regula fidei or of regular doctrinal instruction; or of a monarchical episcopate — prophets were
the chief teachers and were not yet I. Limits superseded by bishops; or of an or- 70-160 A.D. dered church service, like that to
which Justin testifies; or of a regular administrator of baptism, while it gives the congregation authority to depose bishops and deacons; or of symbolical ceremonies accompanying baptism; or of a yearly Easter festival ; or of prohibition of blood and things strangled; or of Montanism and the characterization of heretics. Other marks seem to fit better into the time 80-120 a.d. than 120-160 a.d., e.g., its treatment of apostles, prophets, and teachers. But care must be taken not to give definite dates to documents of primitive Christianity, for not all the steps are known of the development of Christianity during the empire till Catholic Christianity in most of the provinces, and in no province is the development fully known. Having set the limits for the " Teaching " between 70 and 160 a.d., the question may be asked whether there is anything to prove that it must have been written after some Christian generations had passed. With the greatest probability an affirmative answer may be given, as follows: Apostles and prophets no longer occupy their primitive unapproachable position, hence the strongest conservative measures are enjoined; respect for the prophets is declining, hence the exorbitant demand on the church and the severest menaces; mistrust of the " old prophets," who belong to a past generation. These are not the Old Testament but older Christian prophets; the present text shows in the " Two Ways " of i. certain diminution of evangelical demands, and in the appendix to the same, in vi., a contrast between a higher and a lower Christian morality; the injunctions about first-fruits, fixed prayers, and fasts,
which in a Gentile Christian land is the indication of a later time; the injunction that since bishops and deacons minister to the congregations " the ministry of the prophets and teachers," therefore
despise them not, can not apply to the 2. Not primitive state of things; the regu- Before lation of fasting before baptism, and 120 A.D. permission to pour; the eschatological
closing section has not the glow which the prayers transmitted to the author have, and lacks the description of the glorious kingdom of Christ upon the earth. These observations are strengthened by noticing the author's use of Matthew, and perhaps also Luke, in a comparatively late form; and the relation of the " Teaching " to Barnabas, which probably belongs to Hadrianic time (before Bar Kokba). All these considerations show that the writing can not with certainty be set earlier than 120 a.d. or earlier than 100 a.d. with any probability, but that the probable limits are 120 and 160 a.d., and within these limits the earlier dates are in most cases freer from difficulty than the later. Taken all in all, the " time of Hadrian " has the most probability in its favor. The place of composition was probably Egypt, as the external testimonies and the source seem to prove. The arguments for Syria, derived from mention of the bread " upon the hills " (ix. 4), and from the adoption of the " Teaching " with the " Apostolical Constitutions," are not decisive; for the mention occurs in a prayer most probably copied by the author, and the Syrian forger had the library of Eusebius at his command.
VIII. History of the Document : A book called " The Two Ways" was composed by Jews in the first century or perhaps earlier for the instruction of proselytes. It comprised what is found in the " Teaching," i. 1-3, ii. 2-v. 2, which passed over into the Christian Church, and was used as an a,ddress at baptism. The author of the Epistle of Barnabas incorporated this writing into his, without, however, knowing it as a " teaching of the Apostles." Another unknown Christian made the Jewish instruction a " teaching of the (twelve) apostles," and added vii.-xvi. This edition is now lost. The present one, the Didache of the Constantinopolitan manuscript, contains, in order to give evangelical coloring to the Jewish original, chap. i. 3-ii. 1, by which the tone of the " Two Ways " was wholly changed. This passage being an interpolation, the original form of the Christian " Teaching " may be put considerably earlier than the present recension.
IX. The Witnesses: Before Clement of Alexandria no direct use of the " Teaching " can be proved. On the other hand, Clement employs it in several places, and in one (Stromata, i. 20 = " Teaching," iii. 5) calls it " Scripture," counting it among the holy writings. Evidences of its use have been found inOrigen {Horn., vi. in lib. Jud. ; De principiis, iii. 2, 7), who also called it " Holy Scripture," but the quotation may have been taken from the Epistle of Barnabas. Eusebius {Hht. eccl, III. XXV.) is the first to mention the book byname, "the so-called Teachings of the Apostles," and puts it among the antilegomena. Athanasius (Epi.stola festalis, xxxix., of the year 367) mentions the
Didache Didymus