Theological Term of the Week

the Didache
“An early Christian manual of church practice from around the turn of the century (c. AD 100)”;1 also called the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles or Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles.

• From the Didache:

Neither pray ye as the hypocrites, but as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, thus pray ye:

Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done,
as in heaven, so also on earth;
give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debt,
as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for Thine is the power and the glory for ever and ever. (Didache 8:2)

• From Canon Revisited by Michael J. Kruger:

[The Didache] states, “Do not abandon the commandments of the Lord, but guard what you have received, neither adding to them or taking away.” It is obvious that the author is drawing an express parallel to Deuteronomy 4:2 (LXX): ” You shall not add to the word that I command you, not take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord.” Most noteworthy, the “commandments of the Lord” in this passage of the Didache no longer refer to the Old Testament commandments as in Deuteronomy 4:2, but now refer to the teachings of Jesus. Therefore, the teachings of Jesus, wherever those may be found, not only bear equal (if not superior) authority to the Old Testament, but now have a new “inscriptional curse” attached to them—the people must be careful that they are “neither adding to them or taking away.” … [The] historical usage [of an inscriptional curse] from Deuteronomy to Josephus, … implies a written text. Given that the Didache likely cites from the written text of Matthew, such language is suggestive that the manual may have viewed Matthew as an authentic writing worthy of its own inscriptional curse.

Learn more:

1. GotQuestions.org: What is the Didache?
2. Theopedia: Didache
3. Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry: Didache
4. Christian History Institute: The Didache
5. Spurgeon.org: J. B. Lightfoot’s translation of the Didache

Related terms:

• canon of scripture
• inscriptional curse

Filed under Person, Work, and Teaching of Christ

1 From Canon Revisited by Michael J. Kruger, p. 232.

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