The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and Its Place in Early Judasim and Christianity

by David Flusser, Huub van de Sandt

Overview

This latest addition to the monumental Compendia series offers original thinking and impressive erudition about the Didache. The early Christian manual for baptismal catechesis focuses a valuable lens on the nascent Christian community and early Judaism. In the document's rules for church morals, ritual, and discipline, Huub van de Sandt and the late, great scholar David Flusser find clues to the evolution of Christianity and Judaism from a shared heritage in Jewish sources. The authors hypothesize that an initial Jewish tractate (the so-called Two Ways tractate) evolved into a composite Judaeo-Christian text (independently circulating until Medieval times) and then into its final form as the Didache in an anti-Jewish, gentile church.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800634711
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	07/09/2002
Series:	Compendia Rerum Ludaicarum Ad Novum Test Series , #5
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

The late David Flusser was Professor of Comparative Religion at Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He closely collaborated for five years on the project with Huub van de Sandt who teaches in the theological faculty of the Catholic University of Tilburg, the Netherlands.

Huub van de Sandt is Lecturer in New Testament Studies in the Faculty of Theology, Tilburg, the Netherlands. He is co-author of The Didache (Fortress Press, 2002).

Table of Contents

Editor's Foreword

Preface

Introduction: History and Text of the Didache

The Prominence and Decline of the Didache in Early Christianity

The Text of the Didache

Composition and Purpose of the Didache

The Eschatological Conclusion of the Didache

The Evangelical Section (Did 1:3b-2:1)

Date and Provenance

The Jewish Source of Didache 1-6: The Two Ways

The Contents of the Two Ways Section in Did 1-6

The Didache Form of the Two Ways Tradition and the Tradition's Ancestry

Other Forms of the Two Ways Tradition in Early Christian Literature

Toward the Earlist Form of the Two Ways Tradition in Early Christian Literature

The Influence of the Two Ways in Christian Literature

The Early Christian Period

The Merovingian and Carolingian Period

A Reconstruction of the Two Days

The Doctrina Apostolorum

A Reconstruction of the Greek Two Ways

The Two Ways as a Jewish Document

The Dualistic Setting of the Two Ways

The Two Ways in its Essene and pre-Essene Form

The Various Traditional Materials Preserved in the Greek Way of Life

Traditional Derekh Erets Materials Preserved in the Whole of the Greek Two Ways

The Tractate of the Greek Two Ways in its Jewish Setting

II. THE DIDACHE'S PLACE IN EARLY JUDAISM AND NASCENT CHRISTIANITY

The Two Ways and the Sermon on the Mount

The Preamble (Matt 5:3-16) and Conclusion (7:13-27) of the Sermon on the Mount

The Statements of Principle (Matt 5:17-20) and the so-called Antitheses (5:21-48)

Conclusion

A Jewish-Christian Addition to the Two Ways (Did 6:2-3)

Introduction

Did 6:2-3 in a Wider Perspective

Conclusion: Did 6:2-3

The Didache's Ritual: Jewish and Early Christian Tradition (Did 7-10)

Baptism (Did 7)

Fasting and the Lord's Prayer (Did 8)

Eucharist (Did 9-10)

The Didache Community and its Jewish Roots (Did 11-15)

The Literary Composition of Didache 11-15

Teachers, Apostles, Prophets and the Milieu of the Didache Community

Didache 11-15 and its Jewish Roots

Abbreviations

Bibliography

Indices