The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and Its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity

Abstract

The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and Its Place Early Judaism and Christianity, by Huub van de Sandt and David Flussser. CRINT sect. 3: Jewish Traditions Early Christian Literature 5. Assen: Royal Van Gorcum; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002. Pp. 431. $58.00 (cloth). In this book, the Didache is examined and found to be nexus between Judaism, Jewish-Christianity, and Gentile-Christianity. It is mapped to late-first-century Syria a network of villages and small towns . . . rural Christian congregation some Greek speaking part of [Western] Syria or, possibly, the borderland between Syria and Palestine at the close of the first century, [p. 52]). It contains substantial Instruction on the Two Ways (Did. 1-6), as well as Instruction on Baptism-Fasting/Praying-Eucharist (Did. 7-10), Instruction on Teachers-Apostles-Prophets (Did. 11-15), and brief End Times Prediction (Did. 16). The burden of the authors is to show that no part of any of these Instructions is without genesis Jewish traditions of some kind, be they scriptural, rabbinic, those documented from Qumran (sometimes Essene), or apocalyptic. A chief exception to this is Did. 9.4, 10.5, where the authors detect Gentile preference for envisioning gathering of the church instead of gathering of Israel; this is taken to be indicative of how the Didache community had grown more Gentile than Jewish members' families of origin. Even Did. 7.3 (baptism the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) has roots Jewish traditions. First, there is the rabbinic idiom in the name of (bsm; e.g. m. Avot 6:6) used to identify from whom teachings originate. Second, the twelfth-century rabbinic texts Sefer Hamanhig and Sefer Hasidim document possible ancient traditions of tripartite immersions. Put it all together and you might get three water actions, each accompanied by bsm. The latter is not the best example the book of this type of work and the authors admit an argument hinging on two twelfth-century texts is weak. Yet the authors rarely have to stretch to such lengths to find plausible Jewish for elements the Didache. Just the opposite is the case. The book is marvel of close reading of chronologically relevant texts, from the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs to various rabbinic texts to IQS to the Epistle of Barnabas to the Doctrina Apostolorum. Especially an examination of the Two Ways, early Christian testimony to the persistence and integrity of this tradition is brought out clearly and detail. The testimonies of Athanasius's Festal Letter and of Ps.-Didymus are taken to show how the Two Ways was fixed its use pre-baptismal catechism, or exactly the way which the authors suggest the Two Ways first functioned (as represented the Didache). So we find this book remarkable breadth of scope, ranging from numerous Jewish documentary precedents to long history of early Christian testimony. Examination of the Two Ways is fact the largest portion of the book, and its mention the book's title of sources is no misdirection to the reader. The manuscript for our Didache today are reviewed (Manuscript of Jerusalem H, POxy 1782, Coptic fragment, the Ethiopic Canones Ecclesiastici, and indirectly the Apostolic Constitutions). Questions about traditional within the documents arise when examination is made of the Two Ways material the Epistle of Barnabas 18-20 and the Doctrina Apostolorum (varying manuscript traditions are included). How are these texts related to the Didache? Can time line be established between them? Did one serve as source to another? A turn to source analysis is absolutely primary the authors' method. Admission is made that, the Hellenistic world, traditions of Two Ways (especially the Herakles story) were common and fluid. These were not the source for the Jewish-Christian Two Ways. Rather, besides some general scriptural models (life/death, blessing/cursing), more specific are identified Sir 33:11 (in different paths He has them walk), T. …