Didascalia

DIDASCALIA. - This apocryphal writing purports to be "the Catholic doctrine" of the 12 Apostles and claims to have been written in Jerusalem after the "decree" of the Apostles (Acts 15:23 ff.). Like the decree, the D. of the 12 Apostles likewise intends to prevent the infiltration of Jewish customs into the Church of the Gentiles. For this reason the theoretical center of the book is a discussion of the value of the Jewish law. The author distinguishes between the Decalogue and the ceremonial law. The latter was given after the sin of the golden calf (Ex. 32:4) and is called δευτέρωσις, "secundatio," that is, miñāh in the sense of Jewish tradition. The first law is a "iugum" (iugum suave: Mt. 11:30), the second a "vinculum." Christ came to abolish the second law: "secundationem destruxit" (p. 227, 11a ed., edited by R. H. Connolly). One of the bishop's principal tasks is to distinguish the second legislation from the first (p. 34). Sacrifices were not demanded by God, and thus is explained the fact that Abel was killed during a sacrifice and that Noah received no praise from God when he sacrificed after the flood (quotation from an apocryphon: see p. 221, 7 ff.). Instead of sacrifices God wanted "orationes et precaiones et gratiaurum actiones" (p. 87, 10). This evaluation of the law does not come, as has been said, from Justin and Irenaeus, but has much in common with the ideas of the Jewish Christians and of the pseudo-Clementine literature (cf. C. Schmidt, Studien zu den Pseudo-Clementinen [Texte und Untersuchungen, 46, 1], Leipzig 1929, p. 263). The author of the D., who writes for Gentile Christians (quotation from the Sibyl, p. 173), knew the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (Peter, Paul, perhaps also Thomas), the Gospel of Peter (see L. Vaganay, L'Evangile de Pierre, Paris 1930, pp. 167 ff., 184 ff.) and that of the Hebrews (L. Vaganay, op. cit., p. 186; R. H. Connolly, part 1, p. xxvii ff.) and the prayer of King Manasseh. The pseudo-Clementine literature is not cited, but Jewish traditions came to the author (p. 100, 15 ff., Jewish interpretation of Deut. 6:5: see H. L. Strack-P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, I, Munich 1922, pp. 100, 110, 4, the pagans and the left side of God: see Apocalypse of Abraham, p. 36, 16, Bonwetsch) perhaps by means of Jewish-Christian traditions. Coincidences with the Didache, Barnabas and Hermas can also be explained without the hypothesis of a literary dependence, but the epistles of St. Ignatius were certainly known to the author of the D., and one encounters Ignatius in the importance he gives to the episcopate and its activity (distribution of the oblations). On the liturgical service there is little information, but interesting are the passages on fasting (strange chronology of Holy Week), on widows, on martyrs and on order in the church during religious service (orientation of prayer). The original work, preserved in Syriac translations and in part in Latin (manuscript of Verona), was written in Greek (small fragment published by V. Bartlet, The Didaché reconsidered, in Journal of Theological Studies, 13 [1917], p. 303 ff.). The Greek translation in the Apostolic Constitutions is a reworking. The work was probably written in Syria in the first half of the 3rd century. From Epiphanius, Haer. 70, 10 it is known that the D. was read among the Audians. It appears that Aphraates (see R. H. Connolly, op. cit. in bibl.) knew it; the same holds for Epiphanius (see K. Holl, op. cit., p. 209 ff.). Among Eastern Christians the D. is often included among the canonical writings.

Erik Peterson