What Is the Didache?

In 1873 Philotheos Bryennios, then head of a Greek Orthodox school in Constantinople and later a metropolitan, found in the library of the Jerusalem monastery of the Holy Sepulchre there, bound into a small eleventh-century book, a text that scholars had known only by name. Its heading reads "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," and its first words are: "There are two ways, one of life and one of death." Since it was published in 1883 it has become one of the most discussed writings of early Christianity.

The Didache (Greek for "teaching") is short, sixteen brief chapters, and it reads like a church manual. It tells Christians how to live, how to baptize, when to fast, how to pray, how to give thanks over the bread and cup, and how to tell a true prophet from a fraud. Because it may come from within a generation or two of the apostles, everyone wants it on their side. That is a good reason to read it carefully, and to be honest about what it does not tell us.

In brief

The Didache is an anonymous Christian church order, found complete in only one Greek manuscript, copied in 1056 and discovered by Philotheos Bryennios in 1873. Small Greek and Coptic fragments from the fourth and fifth centuries confirm its text. Scholars date it anywhere from the middle of the first century to the second, and most now see it as a compilation built up in stages; Syria or Palestine is the most common guess for its origin. It contains a "Two Ways" moral teaching with Jewish roots, including an early Christian prohibition of abortion; baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, preferably in "living" (running) water; fasting on Wednesday and Friday; the Lord's Prayer three times a day; Eucharistic prayers restricted to the baptized; Sunday worship described as a "sacrifice"; and rules for travelling apostles and prophets alongside local bishops and deacons. Eusebius did not count it as Scripture, and St Athanasius listed it among books to be read by new Christians. For the Orthodox Church it is a witness to the apostolic way of life, not part of the Bible.

Thesis: The Didache gives a rare, early glimpse of a Christian community whose fasting, baptism and Eucharist the Orthodox Church still recognises as her own, though its date and its picture of church order should not be pressed beyond the evidence.

How the Didache was found

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1908 records that the text "was rediscovered in 1873 by Bryennios, Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Nicomedia," in the same codex from which he had already published the full text of the letters of St Clement of Rome in 1875. It gives the manuscript's two titles, "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" and the longer "Teaching of the Lord through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations," and notes Bryennios's first edition, published at Constantinople in 1883. (Bryennios was in fact named to Nicomedia only in 1877; in 1873 he was head master of the higher Greek school at Constantinople.)¹

The manuscript itself is now called Codex Hierosolymitanus 54. John Dominic Crossan describes how its scribe "signed the last leaf as 'Lean, notary and sinner,' and dated that completion to June 11, 1056," and how the book, kept in a small library in the Fener (Phanar) district of Istanbul, "was removed to the Patriarchate at Jerusalem in 1887, where it remains."² A single medieval copy might make a reader nervous, but earlier fragments exist. Two scraps of a fourth-century Greek papyrus from Oxyrhynchus (P.Oxy. 1782) contain parts of chapters 1 to 3, and Crossan judges their wording "very close" to Bryennios's text. A Coptic papyrus of about 400 (British Library Oriental Manuscript 9271) preserves chapters 10 to 12.³ A Latin translation of the first chapters was found in 1900.⁴ {{strong: The Didache's text rests on one complete Greek manuscript of 1056, supported by Greek and Coptic fragments from the fourth and fifth centuries.}}

Known by name long before

Ancient writers knew the book. Eusebius of Caesarea, writing in the early fourth century, placed "the so-called Teachings of the Apostles" among the "rejected writings" (the Catholic Encyclopedia renders the term "spuria") along with the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas, while distinguishing all of these from the heretical forgeries he dismissed outright.⁵ St Athanasius's Festal Letter of 367 lists "that which is called the Teaching of the Apostles" among books "not indeed included in the Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who newly join us."⁶ So the early Church read it, valued it for teaching catechumens, and did not count it as Scripture. That is still the Orthodox view.

Later church orders absorbed it. Book 7 of the fourth-century Apostolic Constitutions reworks the Didache's Two Ways and its rules on fasting and prayer, sometimes keeping its wording closely.⁷ The Epistle of Barnabas, chapters 18 to 20, contains a different version of the Two Ways.⁸

When and where was it written?

No one knows, and it is better to say so plainly. The Didache names no author, no place and no datable event. Jonathan Draper sums up the range of scholarly opinion: it "has been depicted by scholars as anything between the original of the Apostolic Decree (c. 50 AD) and a late archaising fiction of the early third century."⁹

Several lines of argument point early. John Chapman, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia, argued that its simple baptismal rite, its unscripted prophets and above all its ministry of "bishops and deacons" without a separate rank of presbyters fit the first century, or else "some backwater of church life."¹⁰ Stephen Patterson notes that once the Didache's parallels with Barnabas and Hermas were no longer taken as proof of dependence, "the trend is to date the Didache much earlier, at least by the end of the first century or the beginning of the second, and in the case of Jean-P. Audet, as early as 50-70 C.E."¹¹ Others prefer the early second century: Udo Schnelle dates it "about 110 CE," and John Kloppenborg calls it "an early second-century Christian composition."¹²

Many scholars also think the book was assembled from earlier units. Kloppenborg writes that "the dominant view today is that the document was composed on the basis of several independent, preredactional units," and Robert Kraft notes developments within the text itself, such as "the change from itinerant to local ministry in 15:1-2."¹³ If so, parts of it may be older than the whole. Kraft adds that most commentators favour Syria or Syria-Palestine, but warns that this preference "is not in itself an indication that the supporting evidence is compelling."¹⁴ {{debated: The Didache, or its earliest layers, was written in the late first or early second century.}}

What the Didache says

The Two Ways (chapters 1 to 6)

The quotations here follow M. B. Riddle's translation in the Ante-Nicene Fathers (vol. 7), as revised for New Advent. The book opens: "There are two ways, one of life and one of death; but a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, your neighbour as yourself."¹⁵ Sayings close to the Sermon on the Mount follow: bless those who curse you, turn the other cheek, go the second mile.

Kraft reports "a general consensus that the 'two ways' material in chaps. 1-6 has a prehistory that connects with Jewish ethical concerns."¹⁶ The second chapter is a Christian commentary on the commandments. Among them: "you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten."¹⁷ Barnabas has the same prohibition ("You shall not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shall you destroy it after it is born"), and the Apostolic Constitutions repeat it.¹⁸ This is one of the earliest Christian statements on the subject, and it places both abortion and the killing of the newborn under the commandment against murder.

Baptism (chapter 7)

"Baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living water. But if you have not living water, baptize into other water; and if you can not in cold, in warm. But if you have not either, pour out water thrice upon the head into the name of Father and Son and Holy Spirit." The one baptizing, the candidate and "whatever others can" should fast beforehand, the candidate for one or two days.¹⁹ "Living water" means running water, as in a river or spring. The formula is the one given in Matthew 28:19. Pouring is a concession, not the norm, and even then it is threefold. In the middle of the second century St Justin Martyr describes the same pattern of prayer and fasting followed by "the washing with water" in the name of the Father, of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit.²⁰

Fasting and prayer (chapter 8)

"But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites; for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week; but fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday)." The "hypocrites" echoes Matthew 6:16. Christians are then to pray the Lord's Prayer, in a form close to Matthew's and ending "for Yours is the power and the glory forever," and "thrice in the day thus pray."²¹ The Catholic Encyclopedia observes that the Monday and Thursday fasts being avoided were Jewish customs, and that the Wednesday and Friday fasts and three set times of prayer are themselves "modelled on Jewish custom."²² The Apostolic Constitutions later give the reason for the days: on Wednesday "the condemnation went out against the Lord, Judas then promising to betray Him," and on Friday "the Lord suffered the death of the cross."²³

The Eucharist (chapters 9, 10 and 14)

Chapter 9 gives thanksgivings over the cup ("for the holy vine of David Your servant") and the broken bread, with a prayer for the Church's unity: "Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let Your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Your kingdom." Then a firm rule: "let no one eat or drink of your Thanksgiving (Eucharist), but they who have been baptized into the name of the Lord; for concerning this also the Lord has said, Give not that which is holy to the dogs."²⁴ Chapter 10 gives thanks "after you are filled" for "spiritual food and drink and life eternal," and ends: "If any one is holy, let him come; if any one is not so, let him repent. Maran atha. Amen."²⁵

Chapter 14 describes Sunday: "every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure." Those at odds with a neighbour must be reconciled first, and the passage quotes Malachi's prophecy of "a pure sacrifice" offered in every place.²⁶

Scholars disagree about chapters 9 and 10. Burton Mack, for example, stresses that they "do not contain any reference to the death of Jesus" and reads them as prayers for a community meal.²⁷ Chapman read them as prayers said around Communion in an early Eucharist, and noted that the cry "If any is holy, let him come" recalls the later liturgies.²⁸ Whatever the setting of chapters 9 and 10, chapter 14 calls the Sunday breaking of bread a "sacrifice," requires confession and reconciliation beforehand, and chapter 9 limits the meal to the baptized. Justin, writing perhaps a few decades later, says plainly that the Eucharist is received "not as common bread and common drink" but as "the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh."²⁹ Our article What Did the Early Christians Believe About the Eucharist? follows that evidence further.

Apostles, prophets, bishops and deacons (chapters 11 to 15)

The most unusual section deals with travelling ministers. "Let every apostle that comes to you be received as the Lord. But he shall not remain except one day; but if there be need, also the next; but if he remain three days, he is a false prophet." If an apostle "ask money, he is a false prophet." Prophets are tested by their way of life: "from their ways shall the false prophet and the prophet be known." A visitor who will not work is "a Christ-monger."³⁰ True prophets who settle receive the community's firstfruits, "for they are your high priests."³¹

Then comes the local ministry: "appoint for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, men meek, and not lovers of money, and truthful and proven; for they also render to you the service of prophets and teachers. Despise them not therefore."³² The book closes (chapter 16) with a call to watchfulness and a short description of the last days.

The Orthodox position

The Orthodox Church does not treat the Didache as Scripture; St Athanasius's ranking, as a book for instruction, is the traditional one. Nor is it a source of dogma on its own. Its value is as a witness, and much of what it describes is still practised. Orthodox Christians still keep Wednesdays and Fridays as fast days throughout the year, except in fast-free weeks; the Orthodox Church in America explains that the Wednesday fast remembers "the betrayal of Christ" and the Friday fast "His crucifixion and death."³³ Orthodox baptism is still a threefold immersion in the name of the Holy Trinity, preceded by prayer and fasting. The Eucharist is still restricted to the baptized who share the Church's faith (see Why Can't Non-Orthodox Christians Receive Communion in an Orthodox Church?), and the faithful still prepare by confession and reconciliation. The Lord's Prayer is said at every service, and the Church still teaches what the Didache taught about the unborn.

The Didache also shows how the Church's life took settled form. Its travelling prophets did not last, and its pairing of "bishops and deacons" reflects the earlier usage of the New Testament, where "elder" and "bishop" (overseer) can name the same office (Titus 1:5-7; Philippians 1:1), before the threefold order of bishop, presbyter and deacon that Ignatius of Antioch describes in the early second century. The Orthodox Church sees here not a different church order but the one apostolic ministry, its form made explicit under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Our articles What Did the Apostolic Fathers Actually Teach? and Did the Early Church Believe in Apostolic Succession? place the Didache among its contemporaries.

The strongest objections

"The Didache shows a simple Church without priests, liturgy or real presence."

This is the strongest Protestant reading, and it has real support: no presbyters are named, the prayers in chapters 9 and 10 do not mention Christ's body and blood, and prophets may "make Thanksgiving as much as they desire." But the same text calls the Sunday Eucharist a "sacrifice," ties it to Malachi's prophecy, fences it from the unbaptized, and requires confession first. It assumes fixed fast days and set prayers. It is a manual for a community that already has a disciplined sacramental life, even if its vocabulary is earlier than that of later liturgies. An argument from what a short manual does not mention is weak in either direction. The Orthodox Church, with Justin, confesses that the Eucharist is truly the Body and Blood of Christ, and nothing in the Didache contradicts that faith.

"If it is so early, why is it not in the Bible?"

Because the early Church did not judge books by age alone. Eusebius and Athanasius knew it and kept it outside the canon while recommending it; the same was true of 1 Clement and the Shepherd of Hermas. A book could be orthodox, ancient and useful without being received as apostolic Scripture. See How Was the Biblical Canon Actually Formed?

"Pouring is allowed, so the mode of baptism does not matter."

The Didache does allow pouring when water is lacking, and the Orthodox Church also recognises necessity. But the text makes running water the norm and the concession a fallback. It supports the Orthodox practice of immersion as the ordinary form, with mercy in hard cases, rather than indifference to the form.

"Apologists date it early because it suits them."

That temptation is real, and this article does not rest anything on a first-century date. Even on the later dates scholars propose, the Didache is among the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament, and Athanasius's testimony shows it was read in the fourth century as a book of the Church.

What we can say confidently

• Philotheos Bryennios discovered the complete Greek text in 1873 in a manuscript copied in 1056, and published it in 1883.
• Fourth- and fifth-century Greek and Coptic fragments confirm parts of the text.
• Eusebius placed it outside the canon, and Athanasius listed it among books to be read by new Christians.
• It teaches Trinitarian baptism, Wednesday and Friday fasting, the Lord's Prayer three times a day, a Eucharist restricted to the baptized, and Sunday worship called a sacrifice.
• It forbids abortion and infanticide in its Two Ways section.

What remains disputed

• Its date, from the mid-first century to the early second (with outlying views later), and whether parts are much older than the whole.
• Its place of origin, most often placed in Syria or Palestine.
• Whether chapters 9 and 10 are Eucharistic prayers, prayers at a fuller meal, or both.
• How its "bishops and deacons" relate to the threefold ministry found in Ignatius.
• How the Didache's Two Ways relates to the versions in Barnabas and in Jewish sources.

Conclusion

The Didache is not a lost gospel or a secret key to Christian origins. It is something humbler and more useful: a set of instructions for ordinary believers, telling them to love God and neighbour, protect the unborn, fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, pray the Lord's Prayer three times a day, be baptized into the Holy Trinity, confess their sins and be reconciled before the Sunday sacrifice, and test anyone who comes asking for money. An Orthodox Christian reading it today finds a family likeness, and also a reminder that the Church's life has always been both received and growing. Its closing words fit every age: "Watch for your life's sake."³⁴

Notes

1. John Chapman, "Didache," The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4 (New York: Robert Appleton, 1908), https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04779a.htm. The title translations are the article's own transliterations rendered into English. On Bryennios's post in 1873 and the library: "Introduction and Elucidation" to the Didache (nineteenth-century English introduction), Bibliothek der Kirchenväter, https://bkv.unifr.ch/works/cpg-1753/versions/introduction-and-elucidation/divisions/2.
2. John Dominic Crossan, The Birth of Christianity, p. 364, as quoted at Early Christian Writings, "Didache," http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/didache.html.
3. Crossan, as quoted at Early Christian Writings (P.Oxy. 1782, dated there to the "late fourth century," and British Library Or. 9271, "end of the fourth or start of the fifth century").
4. Chapman, "Didache."
5. Eusebius, Church History 3.25.4-7, trans. Arthur Cushman McGiffert, NPNF2 1, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250103.htm.
6. Athanasius, Festal Letter 39.7, trans. R. Payne-Smith, NPNF2 4, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2806039.htm.
7. Apostolic Constitutions, Book 7, trans. James Donaldson, ANF 7, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/07157.htm.
8. Epistle of Barnabas 18-20, trans. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, ANF 1, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0124.htm.
9. Jonathan Draper, Gospel Perspectives, vol. 5, p. 269, as quoted at Early Christian Writings.
10. Chapman, "Didache," section "Date."
11. Stephen J. Patterson, The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus, p. 173, as quoted at Early Christian Writings.
12. Udo Schnelle, The History and Theology of the New Testament Writings, p. 355; John S. Kloppenborg Verbin, Excavating Q, pp. 134-135; both as quoted at Early Christian Writings.
13. Kloppenborg, Excavating Q; Robert A. Kraft, "Didache," Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 2, p. 197; both as quoted at Early Christian Writings.
14. Kraft, Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 2, p. 197, as quoted at Early Christian Writings.
15. Didache 1.1-2, trans. M. B. Riddle, ANF 7, revised for New Advent by Kevin Knight, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm.
16. Kraft, as quoted at Early Christian Writings.
17. Didache 2.2 (Riddle).
18. Barnabas 19; Apostolic Constitutions 7.3.
19. Didache 7.1-4 (Riddle).
20. Justin Martyr, First Apology 61, trans. Marcus Dods and George Reith, ANF 1, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm.
21. Didache 8.1-3 (Riddle); Matthew 6:16.
22. Chapman, "Didache," sections "Second Part" and "Sources."
23. Apostolic Constitutions 7.23.
24. Didache 9.1-5 (Riddle).
25. Didache 10.1-6 (Riddle).
26. Didache 14.1-3 (Riddle); Malachi 1:11.
27. Burton Mack, Who Wrote the New Testament?, as quoted at Early Christian Writings.
28. Chapman, "Didache," section "Second Part."
29. Justin Martyr, First Apology 66.
30. Didache 11.4-12 and 12.5 (Riddle).
31. Didache 13.3 (Riddle).
32. Didache 15.1-2 (Riddle).
33. Orthodox Church in America, "Orthodox Fasting," Questions and Answers, https://www.oca.org/questions/dailylife/orthodox-fasting; "Fasting and Fast-Free Seasons of the Church," https://www.oca.org/liturgics/outlines/fasting-fast-free-seasons-of-the-church.
34. Didache 16.1 (Riddle).

Bibliography

Primary sources

• The Didache. Trans. M. B. Riddle. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7. Buffalo: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886. Revised for New Advent by Kevin Knight.
• Apostolic Constitutions, Book 7. Trans. James Donaldson. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, 1886.
• Epistle of Barnabas; Justin Martyr, First Apology. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, 1885.
• Eusebius. Church History. Trans. Arthur Cushman McGiffert. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 1, 1890.

Orthodox and patristic sources

• Athanasius. Festal Letter 39. Trans. R. Payne-Smith. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 4, 1892.
• Orthodox Church in America. "Orthodox Fasting" (Questions and Answers) and "Fasting and Fast-Free Seasons of the Church" (Liturgics). oca.org.

Other scholarship (including scholars who disagree)

• Chapman, John. "Didache." The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton, 1908.
• Crossan, John Dominic. The Birth of Christianity. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1998.
• Draper, Jonathan. In Gospel Perspectives, vol. 5.
• Kloppenborg Verbin, John S. Excavating Q.
• Kraft, Robert A. "Didache." Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 2.
• Mack, Burton. Who Wrote the New Testament?
• Patterson, Stephen J. The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus.
• Schnelle, Udo. The History and Theology of the New Testament Writings.
• Kirby, Peter, ed. "Didache." Early Christian Writings, earlychristianwritings.com (the scholarly quotations above are read there).