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In 1873 Philotheos Bryennios, then Head Master of the higher Greek school at Constantinople… discovered a remarkable collection of manuscripts in the library of the Jerusalem Monastery of the Most Holy Sepulchre at Constantinople. This collection is bound in one volume, and written by the same hand. It is signed “Leon, notary and sinner,” and bears the Greek date of 6564 = a.d. 1056.” (Riddle’s introductory notice, Ante-Nicene Fathers (1885))
Included in this collection, among other works from the apostolic period and beyond, was the Didache, short for The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, short for The Lord’s Teaching through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations, a work to which Eusebius and Athanasius made reference but which, until its discovery in 1873, had been thought lost to history. The work is thought to be a late first century compilation. A first translation from Greek to English was made available in 1884, just one year before the publication of the Ante-Nicene Fathers series.
The Didache can be sorted into
four parts. A first (1-6) is a set of catechises on the moral duties of the
Christian, likely intended as a preparation for Baptism and the other
sacraments. A second (7-10) gives instruction on Baptism and the Eucharist. A
third (11-15) gives practical instruction regarding Christian hospitality. And
a fourth part (16) warns the faithful of the imminent Second Coming of
Christ. For me, things get going at Chapter 7.
Chapter 7 contains the earliest extant
extrabiblical instruction on the sacraments. “Having first said these things,”
meaning (presumably), having communicated the contents of the earlier parts of
the Didache and thus having catechized the candidates,
“baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”
in “living water,” meaning running water. Evidently, the desire was to baptize
as far as possible in the same manner as had Jesus had been baptized…
… 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.
(Today we apparently look past what were in earlier
times seen as the more optimal practices in favor of the more convenient). Immediately
after this we are, perhaps, treated to the earliest extant reference to the
origins of the penitential season of Lent.
But before the
baptism let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whatever others can; but
you shall order the baptized to fast one or two days before.
Was this fast later extended to the 40 day period
leading ultimately to the Easter Vigil at which baptisms now traditionally take
place?
Chapter 8 appears to indicate the origins of the
penitential days of Wednesday and Friday: “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 [Wednesday] and the Preparation [Friday].” Moreover, the
faithful are admonished to pray the ‘Our Father’ three times daily, to which is
attached the earliest extant record of the doxology “for Yours is the power and
the glory forever,” which, I have learned, has as its origin 1 Paralipomenon
29: 11-13 (1 Chronicles, for the uninitiated).
Next (Ch. 9), the Eucharist is introduced and a set
of thanksgiving prayers are provided, one of which brings out the communal
character of the Eucharist by a connection that I had not before considered:
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.
And, moreover, reference and an authoritative
defense is given to the injunction that the Blessed Sacrament not be
distributed liberally: “But let no one eat or drink of your Thanksgiving, 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” (Matthew 7: 6).
The section on the sacraments ends in Chapter 10
with a beautiful set of prayers of the sort that are traditionally said after
receiving. One can discern acts of thanksgiving, “We thank You, holy Father,
for Your holy name which You caused to tabernacle in our hearts,” an act of
Faith, “to us You freely gave spiritual food and drink and life eternal through
Your Servant,” and acts of contrition and hope, “Remember, Lord, Your Church,
to deliver it from all evil and to make it perfect in Your love, and gather it
from the four winds, sanctified for Your kingdom which You have prepared for
it.” Our author, then includes the doxology
for Yours is the
power and the glory forever. Let grace come, and let this world pass away.
Hosanna to the God (Son) of David! If any one is holy, let him come; if any one
is not so, let him repent. Maranatha. Amen.
This, on my view, is the greatest chapter of the
work, for we see in it a sign that the Church it was written for appreciated
the power of the moment at which Christ sacrificed is offered to the Father
anew on our behalf and we with him, thus rendering our otherwise unworthy
prayers and sacrifices worthy of the Father. It is at this moment that Christ’s
mediatory role is exercised most acutely. And it is for this reason, and with
this in mind, that these most fundamental prayers (viz. those pertaining to the
theological virtues) are uttered by the faithful in that moment. I’m waxing
philosophically but this is how I see the Mass.
After this (in the third part of the work) we get a
depiction of what might best be described as a kind of wild west period in the
life of early Church in which false teachers, apostles, and prophets were
making the rounds and taking advantage of Christian hospitality, a reality
apparently so common that the writer felt it prudent to introduce criteria by
which false apostles and prophets might be identified (Ch. 11). The same is
applied also to the pseudo-faithful, false Christians who would leach of the
hospitality of the faithful. This sort of person, our author colorfully refers
to as a “Christ-monger” (Ch. 12).
The rest of the text is, on my view, a bit less
exciting, but a triad of things jumped out at me. The first is at Chapter 14
where the faithful are admonished to confess their sins before receiving: “But
every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give
thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice
may be pure.” The second is in 15. There the faithful are instructed to
“appoint for [themselves] bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord.” Wait a
minute! Does this mean that the faithful pick their own bishops? The language,
thankfully, is not that of ordination. In fact, this seems to be a better
policy than that in place today where bishops are chosen from on high by people
without knowledge either of the bishop or the diocese. Lastly, our author, when
speaking of the imminent return of Christ (Ch. 16) stresses the need of the
faithful to persevere to the end so as not to perish and characterizes the
Second Coming as “upon the clouds” thus identifying the event described at
Thessalonians 4: 17 not with a pre-return rapture but with the Second Coming
itself. These last points will, perhaps, be appreciated only by another of my
particular background.
DSMW
