Didjaredit? Quiz
1. What the Didache is = “The teaching of the ___
_______________.”
2. What are the “two ways” mentioned in the
Didache?
3. What 2 Sacraments are mentioned in the
Didache?
4. Chapter 8 says that Christians should fast on the
_________ (#) day of the week.
5. The 10th chapter of the Didache contains a prayer
for after _______________.
6. The final chapter enjoins all to watch for…?
• The Didache is also called the The
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
• Didachē means "Teaching“
• is a brief early Christian treatise,
• dated by most scholars to the
late first/early second century.
• The first line of this treatise is "Teaching of
the Lord to the Gentiles (or Nations) by the
Twelve Apostles"
PARTS
• The text have parts which may have
constituted the first written catechism
(religion book!)
• The contents may be divided into four parts,
which most scholars agree were combined from
separate sources by a later redactor:
– the first is the Two Ways, the Way of Life and the Way
of Death (chapters 1-6);
– the second part is a ritual dealing with
baptism, fasting, andCommunion (chapters 7-10);
– the third speaks of the ministry and how to deal with
traveling prophets (chapters 11-15);
– and the final section (chapter 16) is a brief apocalypse.
• It was considered by some of the Church
Fathers as part of the New Testament but
rejected as non-canonical by others, and
eventually it was not accepted into the New
Testament canon.
• Lost for several centuries, the Didache was
rediscovered in 1873 by Philotheos Bryennios,
Metropolitan of Nicomedia. While in Istanbul, he
discovered the manuscript in the Jerusalem
Monastery of the Most Holy Sepulcher.
• An English translation was first published in 1883.
• It is considered part of the collection of Apostolic
Fathers.
• “The Didache of the Twelve Apostles” had
been written and widely disseminated by
about the year 100, and became
increasingly important in the second and
third Christian centuries.
• It is an anonymous work not belonging to
any single individual, and a pastoral
manual "that reveals more about
how Jewish-Christians saw themselves
and how they adapted their Judaism
for gentiles than any other book in the
Christian Scriptures."
• The Didache is mentioned by Eusebius (c. 324 –
first known Church historian) as the Teachings of
the Apostles following the books recognized
as canonical.
• Athanasius (367) and Rufinus (c. 380) list
the Didache among apocrypha.
• The section Two Ways shares the same
language with the Epistle of Barnabas, chapters
18-20, sometimes word for word, sometimes
added to, dislocated, or abridged.
• There are echoes in Justin
Martyr,Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch, Cyprian,
and Lactantius.
Matthew and the Didache
• At the same time, significant similarities between
the Didache and the gospel of Matthew have
been found as these writings share words,
phrases, and motifs.
• Modern scholars do not support the thesis that
the Didache used Matthew.
• This close relationship between these two writings
might suggest that both documents were created
in the same historical and geographical setting.
• Also, the Two Ways teaching (Did. 1-6) may have
served as a pre-baptismal instruction within the
community of the Didache and Matthew.
• Some scholars also consider the Didache to come
from the preaching of Sts. Paul and Barnabus –
Apostles to the Gentiles.
Therefore…
• The Didache is one of the earliest Christian
documents we have.
• Regarded as a church handbook and not a
Gospel or absolutely based on the teachings of
Jesus
• Provides valuable insights concerning the moral
doctrines, theology, rituals, and congregational
testing of apostles and prophets, and the basic
organization of 1st century Christianity.
The Didascalia
• The Ethiopian Orthodox
Church accepts the
DIDASCALIA as part of
their New Testament.
• The Ethiopian Orthodox
believe Christ had one
nature, not two natures,
as Catholics believe.
(Comes from the
“Monophysite heresy, p.
44 in green text)
• http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=NJfbtupcGbs
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7
UATMs3V5FQ
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E
mJWEPzLq1k
How is it different from the Didache?
• The Didascalia, or the Catholic Teaching of the
Twelve Apostles and Holy Disciples of Our
Saviour, is a Church Order, composed,
according to recent investigations, in the first
part, perhaps even the first decades, of the third
century, for a community of Christian converts
from paganism in the northern part of Syria. The
work is modelled on the Didache (cf. vol. I, pp.
29-39) and forms the main source of the first six
books of the Apostolic Constitutions.
Author
• The unknown author of
the Didascalia seems to have been of
Jewish descent. A bishop with a
considerable knowledge of medicine, he
lacked special theological training. He
makes ample use of Holy Scripture and
borrows from the Didache, Hermas,
Irenaeus, the Gospel of Peter and the Acts
of Paul.
Some 1st Ctry. Christian Art
found in Catacombs of Rome
Madonna and Child
Earliest known
Madonna from
1st Ctry
Catacomb of St.
Priscilla in
Rome.
Christ the philosopher – seated much
like Socrates with his disciples –
notice the Greek toga.
The Good Shepherd (of Hermas)
The “FISH”
Christian symbols of
two fish and what
appears to be a trident,
which was probably a
disguise for the cross
symbol, which might
identify the person as a
Christian and subject
his family to
persecution.
Catacombs. Pictures
of Crucifixion didn’t
appear until about 4th
Ctry.
Ichthys
• Ichthys is ancient Greek word for FISH.
• used by Early Christians as a secret symbol[1] and
now known colloquially as the "sign of the fish" or the
"Jesus fish."
• Ichthys can be read as an acrostic :
– Iota (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for "Jesus".
– Chi (ch) is the first letter of Christos (Χριστός), Greek for
"anointed".
– Theta (th) is the first letter of Theou (Θεοῦ), Greek for
"God's", the genitive case of Θεóς,Theos, Greek for "God".
– Upsilon (u) is the first letter of huios (Υἱός), Greek for "Son".
– Sigma (s) is the first letter of sōtēr (Σωτήρ), Greek for
"Savior".
The Alexamenos Graffito
The graffito shown below is
from first century (AD) Rome.
Thought to have been
scratched on a beam of plaster
somewhere on the Palatine Hill
in Rome.
The significance of this graffito
is the portrayal (or caricature)
of early Christianity by the
average Roman. It obviously
mocks a Christian, suggesting
that his worship is ill-founded.
The human figure with the ass
head on the cross is
presumably Jesus, which may
represent the old calumny
against Jews that they
worshipped an ass. Says in
Greek, “"Alexamenos
worshipping God.”
Earliest Known Christian Hymn
• Outside of the Hymns in the New
Testament (for which we have no known
music), the earliest known hymn is found
in the eastern tradition: the Phos Hilaron
or in English, “O Gladsome Light.”
• This hymn was mentioned by St. Jerome
in about 150 AD as already having been
an “old hymn” in the Church.
• Verbatim translation
– O Light gladsome of the holy glory of the Immortal
Father,
• the Heavenly, the Holy, the Blessed, O Jesus
Christ,
– having come upon the setting of the sun, having seen
the light of the evening,
• we praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit:
God.
– Worthy it is at all times to praise Thee in joyful voices,
• O Son of God, Giver of Live, for which the world
glorifies Thee.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifZmG01v0YU