The Didaché (Greek: Διδαχή, romanized: Didakhé, lit. ’Teaching’), also known as The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Gentiles is a brief anonymous early Christian treatise written in Koine Greek. Only relatively recently discovered in 1873, “few manuscript discoveries in modern times have created the stir caused by the discovery and publication of the Didache in the late nineteenth century. ” (Bart Ehrman). Many scholars once dated the text to the early second century, but most scholars now assign the Didaché to the first century.  The community that produced the Didaché could have been based in Syria, as it addressed the gentiles but from a Judaic perspective, at some remove from Jerusalem, and shows no evidence of Pauline influence.  The text, parts of which constitute the oldest extant written catechism, has three main sections dealing with Christian ethics, rituals such as baptism and Eucharist, and organization.

Author J.B. Heard tells us: “The “teaching of the twelve” clearly marks a state of transition in which the importance of a sacramental system and sacerdotal order is beginning to dawn on the Christian consciousness; but as yet the new theology, as it was then considered, had not taken dogmatic form.  It nestled behind the phrase διδαχή; it has not as yet been formulated.  It is only a δόξα [doxa], or private opinion, which in the end, as a δόγμα [dogma] would put on the air of authority, and enforce itself under the threat of an Anathema.”

The Ekklesía of the first-century Didaché was still very much one of First Thoughts.

Didaché Notes: Translations of the Didaché are readily available online. It is very short (under 10 pages) and is really worth the read. Below are my notes and highlights.

Chap. 1.2 The path of life consists of three Commandments:  Love God, Love your neighbor as yourself, and the Golden Rule. (First Thoughts)

Chap. 1.3 Further exhortations from the Sermon on the Mount. (First Thoughts)

Chaps. 2 – 4 Ethical Injunctions (First Thoughts)

Chaps 7-10 Rituals of the Ekklesía:

—– Chap. 7. How to Baptize (First Thought)

—– Chap. 8.1 How to fast (First Thought)

—– Chap. 8.2 How to pray (Πάτερ ἡμῶν. Our Father- (First Thought))

—– Chaps. 9 – 10 How to celebrate the communal thanksgiving meal or Eucharist (First Thoughts)

Chap. 11  How to deal with itinerant Christian teachers, apostles, and, especially, prophets indicating their special status before God (First Thoughts). Note the alignment with Paul’s list of ministries in 1Cor.12:28.

Chaps. 14 – 15  Further instructions for communal worship, including election of bishops and deacons… “for these also conduct the ministry of the prophets and teachers among you.” (the rationalization of an After Thought?!) The nascent arrival of earthly institutional organization, administration, and control can be sensed.

Chap. 16  an apocalyptic scenario as the 1^st century Ekklesía realized that the Parousia may not be as imminent as they had previously believed.