DIDACHE
A QUOTE
It is appropriate here to say a word about the writing called the Didache.
Although this document was not considered for inclusion in the canon during the
early history of the church, many scholars have thought it to be a very early
document and some today quote it as if it were an authority on the teaching of
the early church on the same level as the New Testament writings.
It was first discovered in 1875 at a library in Constantinople but probably dates from the first or second century A.D. Yet it contradicts or adds to the commands of the New Testament at many points. For example, Christians are told to let alms sweat in their hands until they know to whom they are giving (1.6); food offered to idols is forbidden (6.3); people are required to fast before baptism, and baptism must be done in running water (7.1–4); fasting is required on Wednesdays and Fridays but prohibited on Mondays and Thursdays (8.1); Christians are required to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day (8.3); unbaptized persons are excluded from the Lord’s Supper, and prayers unknown in the New Testament are given as a pattern for celebrating the Lord’s Supper (9.1–5); apostles are prohibited from staying in a city more than two days (11.5; but note that Paul stayed a year and a half in Corinth and three years in Ephesus!); prophets who speak in the Spirit cannot be tested or examined (11.7, in contradiction to 1 Cor. 14:29 and 1 Thess. 5:20–21); salvation requires perfection at the last time (16.2).
Such a document, of unknown authorship, is hardly a
reliable guide for the teachings and practices of the early church.
MY ANALYSIS
The Didache, otherwise known as the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, is older
than the Gospels. Scholars agree that the work is probably the product of the
oral tradition that finally resulted in the formation of the gospels for it is
so simple. It is probably Syrian in origin and from the late first century (page
14, the Lion Concise Book of Christian Thought).
The Didache gives the words of Jesus similar to the Gospels but different enough
to indicate that its author knew nothing about these works. Anyway, it is
significant that it does not attribute these words to Jesus.
The Didache claims to be the teaching of the apostles which implies that it is
giving the teaching of these men about Jesus. Since Jesus was regarded as
infallible it is unthinkable that the author would not have stated what sayings
came from Jesus.
Section Two of the Didache is a Church manual. It gives the words for baptism
as, “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”, but does not agree with
Matthew’s text which adds, “I baptise you”. The words have to be said right to
administer a valid baptism and the Didache leaves out an important part if it
really belonged in them in the first place. The Gospels were not available to
the author of the Didache. This formula is simpler and therefore probably
earlier than Matthew.
The Didache commands baptism in cold running water if it is available. This
command is not in the New Testament. It suggests that the author did not hear of
the Gospels which describe the mode of water baptism.
The Eucharist it prescribes says nothing about the, “This is my body,” stuff
that the New Testament has. It is simply a thanksgiving coupled with prayers for
unity. The manual prescribes, “Begin with the chalice” (9). The gospel Jesus
started with the bread. Then the manual gives the ritual refuting those who say
that the Eucharist words of Jesus were said before this ritual, which it calls
the “eucharistic prayer,” was given. Eucharist means thanksgiving. Now the
Eucharist words of Jesus are about giving thanks, “This is my body being
sacrificed for you. Do this in memory of me,” and since this writer tells us to
begin using the thanksgiving prayer as he says it is clear that the simple
ceremony he gives is all there is to the Eucharist in his opinion. The Didache
insists that people must be free from sin when they eat the Eucharist for it is
a sacrifice. This may mean that it is the offering to God of the Church which
suffers for him. Whoever wrote the Didache did not know of the gospels which
recommend a different Eucharist ceremony. Whoever heard of an elementary Church
manual that would omit the Eucharistic words having known of them?
The Didache speaks of broken bread being used at the Eucharist. That it is never
called the body of Christ disproves the Catholic claim that the early Church
always believed that it was the body of Christ. The Didache calls it bread which
it would not do unless that is all it is for if the bread is Jesus then that is
too important a doctrine to be left out of a elementary lesson on the faith. The
bread might have been broken before the ceremony so the Christian view that it
was broken during an unmentioned part of the ceremony is just fantasy. At the
last supper Jesus gave thanks first before he used the bread and wine. In the
Didache Eucharist, God is thanked first for the wine and then the broken bread
which would have been done before the this is my body or blood bit had this bit
been used for that is logical. You don’t thank God for the bread after you say
the this is my body over it. So clearly the Didache is giving the whole
Eucharist rite as it knows it.
The way the book is written and never mentions the apostles being alive and that
readers can go to them for further information suggests that they were either
dead or had vanished. You might feel that it could mean that the apostles wrote
it but there is no reason to think that. Its author would have told the readers
to be sure that the apostles approved of his book if they had still been going
around preaching. The gospel of Mark (the earliest gospel), at least, could have
been out by the time the Didache appeared so the silence of the Didache
concerning gospels proves that Mark was hidden.
It is unthinkable that in a Church that tended to apostasy after the departure
of the apostles for the next world, like the New Testament records, that
teachings like the inspiration of the New Testament and the rite of the
Eucharist would have been left out. The Didache contains very basic teaching and
its author would not leave out other basic teachings unless they were unknown or
rejected.
The Didache warns that it is an awesome crime to subject a prophet to
verifications and it shall not be pardoned. This contradicts the gospel Jesus’
willingness to give evidence for his claims and the apostolic approval for
trying prophets out. It could be a hint that the resurrection of Jesus might be
believed in by faith and not by evidence at all. The Didache, however, states
that any prophet who leads an unholy life is to be condemned as a fraud. This
naïve work should be acknowledging that there can be wolves dressed as sheep.
Jesus did that in Matthew (7:15) but then the author never read this book for he
never heard of it. You cannot say it might mean he did know it and despised it
for this command he rejected was just commonsense and he would have agreed with
it if he had known of it.
The Didache promises that if you love your enemy then you will have nobody to be
an enemy to you. This contradicts the Beatitudes which say that the loving are
those who are hated the most. And the life of Christ proves that if he was
perfect then love was the torture and death of him. The Didache seems to be
saying either that Jesus was not sinless or not crucified. This would explain
why it was not centred on the person of Jesus but on his doctrine.
The Didache appropriates to itself the title, “The Teaching of the Twelve
Apostles”, and claims to be divinely inspired. This is saying that Judas
Iscariot, who the four gospels see as a traitor and a fake, was a true prophet
betraying the fact that the early Church did not know what the Gospels said
about him for the Didache says that real prophets are invariably good men.
Though I reject the notion that the New Testament says that Jesus did away with
the Old Testament food laws, the Didache says that the laws are still in force
and this proves that it did not know of Jesus’ teaching or the gospels. Jesus
said that he made all foods clean in the context of condemning the Jewish habit
of condemning too many foods. It was only the man-made food laws he was opposed
to and not to the biblical ones. Most in the early Church made the mistake of
thinking he made all food on earth clean over reading the gospels and it is
telling that the Didache did not make the same error. The Didache was early and
the Gospels were non-existent or secret. Their traditions did not exist.
The book says we must reprove one another without anger. Nobody had heard then
that Jesus was very sarcastic and insulting to the Jewish leaders. There were no
public gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
The Didache is good evidence that the Jesus of the gospels never existed. It
shows that the apostles were not as centred on Jesus as the New Testament says
but on his teaching. If he did not exist or if he was obscure they could not
afford to be. The only thing the book is interested in about Jesus is his
visible return on the clouds of Heaven after the world is led astray by a false
son of God who does seemingly holy miracles. There is no evidence that the book
makes mistakes so it is denying that Jesus did miracles because why do them when
they are not evidence of holiness? The Didache says that the truth is its own
verification which is why it condemns trying out prophets which by implication
condemns looking for miracles from them. If the return of Jesus is all that
matters as this book infers by saying nothing else about Jesus apart from his
being a good teacher and servant of God then the Jesus of the past does not
matter and the Jesus of the past could only matter if he was known. The Didache
believes that Jesus existed but hints that there is no reason to believe that
for he was an enigma.
The Didache tells Christians to do whatever they are told and read in the Gospel
of our Lord. The Didache has two sections, the first section is the Two Ways
which explains how we are to be saved and be good Christians and the second is A
Church Manual. The Church Manual is the section that tells us to read the Gospel
of our Lord. The first section of the book or the first book if you prefer is
about the way of life so this may be the Gospel of our Lord. Internal evidence
shows that the book cannot mean anything like a New Testament gospel. It means
the first part of the Didache for at the end of that part it says that it is the
teaching of God and nobody is allowed to change it so it claims to be inspired
by God. The whole Didache is like it is written for morons so it could not mean
another book.
By the way, the Didache is better and wiser and saner than the New Testament.
Christians should burn the New Testament and make it the new New Testament.
There were books which some included in the Bible, like the Book of Tobit which
Catholics added to the Bible. These are writings next in importance to the
Bible. The Didache was one such book, according to Athanasius. Clement of
Alexandria and Origen subscribed to the sentiment of the Church at Alexandria
that this book was as much inspired scripture as the New Testament (page 194,
The Canon of Scripture). The book purports to be the teaching of the apostles so
it claims to be inspired for the apostles were regarded as inspired and even the
gospels never claim to embody apostolic doctrine so this book is superior to
them. Yes they say they are about the apostles but that is not the same thing
for only the apostles can speak for the apostles while the gospels are at best
interpretations. And it says that the false Son of God will mislead the world
and names no source. This is telling us that it foretells the future by God’s
power. It understands itself to be scripture.
The early writings all show that the generation that studied them did not have
our gospels because it was that generation that reverenced them and kept them
and did not edit them to make them fit any gospels. Thus, nobody can argue that
the books just reflect the deviations of the authors and that we can infer
nothing about the Church’s doctrine at that time.