Didaché

DIDACHÉ. - The only manuscript of this opuscule was discovered by Theophilus Bryennios, metropolitan of Nicomedia, in 1875 in the Library of the monastery of the Holy Sepulchre in Constantinople (reproduction of the manuscript edited by R. Harris, London 1897).

Two Greek papyrus fragments (chaps. 1, 3-4; 2, 7; 3, 2) of the 4th century were published by A. L. Hunt (The Oxyrhynchos Papyri, XV [London 1922], no. 1782, pp. 12-15).

In the Constitutiones Apostolorum, VII, chaps. 1-32, another recension of the Greek text of the D. has been preserved almost entirely. A Coptic translation of chaps. 10, 3b-12, 2a was found in a papyrus by G. Horner (Journal of Theol. Studies, 25 [1924], pp. 225-31; see also C. Schmidt, in Zeitschrift für Neutestam. Wissenschaft, 24 [1925], pp. 81-99). A Georgian translation of the entire text was made known by G. Peradze in the same journal (31 [1932], pp. 111-6, 206). The Latin translation, published by J. Schlecht, Doctrina XII Apostolorum (Freiburg 1900) contains only chaps. 1-6, 1. Other means for the history of the text are the ancient Church Orders and the Arabic life of the monk Scenudi.

I. INTEGRITY OF THE TEXT

The Oxyrhynchus papyrus XV, no. 1782 has in some places (e.g., 1, and 2:7) preserved the original text better. Chapter 1, 5-6 and 13, 5-7 are missing in the Georgian translation. The Coptic text adds (as does the Greek text in Const. Ap., VII, 27) at the end of chapter 10 a prayer over the chrism. Chapter 1, 3; 2, 1 is missing in a part of the translations (e.g., A. Casamassa, I Padri apostolici, Rome 1938, p. 10 ff.). It must be remembered that the text of Bryennios, written in 1056, is relatively recent and that, for the reason that the D. was used in teaching, one must reckon with reworkings (lengthenings or shortenings) of the text. It is not possible to reconstruct the original text or to wish to recover it in the manuscript of Bryennios.

II. CONTENT

1) Moral part (chaps. 1-6). The way of life (chaps. 1-4). Love of God and neighbor. The golden rule. The love of the enemy is placed at the beginning. The individual sins that are to be avoided are listed in the text of Bryennios in great disorder. Recommendation of alms, of respect for teachers, duties toward members of the family, confession of sins (4, 14). That the confession takes place in the church is a late addition, as Barnabas, 19, 12 and Constit. Ap., VII, 14, 31 demonstrate. The way of death (chaps. 5-6). New list of sins, beginning with murder and adultery. The obligation to abstain from food offered to idols. Preceding it is the counsel to bear the yoke of the Lord and to observe foods (ascetic precepts, 2). 2) Liturgical part (chaps. 7-10). Baptism, if possible, in "living" (running) water. Trinitarian formula for Baptism. Fasting (one or two days) of the one being baptized and of the one baptizing. Twice a week fasting, in contrast with Jewish customs. Three times a day prayer of the Our Father. Thanksgiving before and after a meal over the chalice and the bread. Exclusion of the unbaptized from the banquet. 3) Part concerning the "Apostles and prophets" (chaps. 11-16). Distinction of the true and the false "prophet." The "prophets" receive the firstfruits as did the priests of the Old Testament. Sunday eucharistic celebration. Ordination of bishops and deacons who must not be despised, because they too render service as "prophets and teachers." 4) Eschatological part (chap. 16). The second coming of Jesus.

III. I PROBLEMI DELLA D

a) Its literary character. The D. is not a writing that reflects a real situation of the early Church, but a literary fiction intended to describe the customs and doctrines of the apostolic Church. The D. presupposes the written Gospel, perhaps the Diatessaron of Tatian (doxology after the Our Father; quotation of Lk. 6:30 in 1:4; cf. Funk, Patres apostolici, I, Tübingen 1901, p. 5 note). The author knew the letter of Barnabas, which he copies clumsily (D. 4:12 compared with Barnabas 19:10). The pair of "prophets and teachers" in 15:1 is based on the mention of this group in Acts 13:1, but the author was no longer aware of the original meaning of this pairing (cf. E. Peterson, La ἐκτωρυχάς des Prophètes et des didascalés à Antioche, in Recherches de science religieuse*, 36 [1949], pp. 577-579). In the attempt to represent the most ancient rite of Bap-

Baptism (in "living water") cannot conceal baptismal usages of a later era (7, 2, 3). b) The date of the D. It is very probable that in D. 1, 5 the Shepherd of Hermas was used (Mand., II, 4-6); on the other hand the D. was known to the author of the Syriac Didascalia; therefore the date of our apocryphon must be fixed between the Shepherd of Hermas and the Didascalia (perhaps around 150). c) The milieu in which the D. was written. The liturgical usages presupposed in the D. have much in common with those of the pseudo-Clementine literature: Baptism in "living water" (D. 7, 12 and Pseud.-Clem. Contestatio, ch. 1, p. 4, 20, ed. P. de Lagarde; Homily 26, p. 117, 4 and 12 Lag.), fasting of one or two days before Baptism (D. 7, 4, Homil. XI 35, p. 119, 32; XIII 9, p. 136, 21; XIII 11, p. 137, 7; Recogn., VII 34, 30), and it is Peter who teaches the doctrine of the two ways. Now it is known from Rufinus (Commentaria in Symb. apost. 38; see also St. Jerome, De viris illustr., 1) that the doctrine of the two ways, which he identified with the D. of St. Athanasius, Epist. festiva, 39, also bore the title "iudicium secundum Petrum". This fact suggests placing the D. in the list of apocrypha that deal with Peter. If, as the studies of recent years have shown, the D. is a literary fiction, one might perhaps connect it with certain apocryphal Acts (of Peter, 2), just as the Syriac Didascalia likewise presupposes knowledge of the pseudo-Clementine literature. It must be stressed, however, that this is only a hypothesis. Moreover the D. is clearly distinguished from the pseudo-Clementine literature: whereas the latter exalts the hierarchy of the Church, the preferences of the D. go toward the "charismatics" who bear the names of "apostles, prophets and teachers". It is impossible to explain the term "prophet" in the D. by Montanism (against Connolly and Vockes), because the Montanists limited the use of this word to three persons, while the propagandists of Montanism instead received a salary and were not respected as prophets. It is certain that the language of the New Testament had a great influence on the vocabulary of the D., but it is also perhaps true that there existed in the Syriac Church groups of charismatics who are called "prophets" (or similarly) by the author of the D. The possibility is not to be excluded that these are the same wandering ascetics of whom the Epistles of Pseudo-Clement to the virgins give an impressive description. d) Survival of the D. The D. was very much in vogue in Egypt, as the papyri, St. Athanasius, the life of Schenoudi, etc. prove. It is interesting that the Egyptian Church knew not only "the two Ways" (which by some are wrongly regarded as a Jewish work), but also the much-discussed prayers of chs. 9 and 10. From the Egyptian tradition no sure conclusion can be drawn about the original meaning of these prayers. While D. 9, 2 and 4 is also found in eucharistic texts (Serapion, Sacramentarium, XIII, 13, ed. F. X. Funk, Paderborn 1905, p. 174, Papyrus of Der Balyzeh, in C. H. Roberts and B. Capelle, An early Euchologium [*Bibliothèque du Muséon, 3], Louvain 1949, p. 26 ff.; Ethiopic Anaphora of St. Gregory, ed. O. Löfgren, S. Euringer [Orientalia christiana, 30, 2, Rome, 1933, p. 125 v., p. 78), it has been demonstrated by (ps. 1) Athanasius, Logos Soterias, ch. 13 (ed. E. v. der Golts [Texte und Untersuchungen, new series, 14, 11], Leipzig 1905, p. 47, 5) that the prayer in D. 9, 4 was also used in ordinary table prayers. The exclusion of the unbaptized in D. 9 from the banquet is not a proof of the eucharistic character of these prayers, as is demonstrated by the Logos soterias C. e. p. 47, 11 ff. In the Pseudo-Clementines too the unbaptized are excluded from ordinary banquets. Moreover the text of Bryennios with the substitution of "bread" by "broken" (D. 9, 4) is a proof of the influence of Egyptian liturgical language on the text of Bryennios (cf. E. Peterson, Méris, Hostiens-Partikel und Opfer-Anteil, in Ephemerides liturgicae*, 61 [1947], p. 6).

Journal of Theol. Studies, 35 (1934), pp. 113-45; id., The D. with additional notes, ibid., pp. 225-47; R. H. Connolly, Canon Streeter on the D., ibid., 38 (1937), pp. 364-79 (contro l'ipotesi della interpolazione di 1, 3 b-2, 1); F. W. Vockes, The riddle of the D., Londra 1938; Th. Klawer, in Floritarium patristicum, I, Bonn 1940. Sulle preghiere in cap. 9 e 10 v. Lietzmann, Messe und Herrenmahl, Bonn 1926, p. 230 sg.; M. Dibelius, Die Mahlgebete der D., in Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 37 (1938), pp. 32-41; E. Peterson, D. cap. 9 e 10, in Ephemerides liturgicae, 58 (1944), pp. 3-13.

Erik Peterson