The Didache: Text, Translation, Analysis, and Commentary

by Aaron Milavec

Overview

Most Christians believe that everything about Jesus and the early church can be found in their New Testament. In recent years, however, the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas and the reconstruction of the Q-Gospel have led scholars to recognize that some very early materials were left out. Now, due to the pioneering efforts of Dr. Aaron Milavec, the most decisive document of them all, namely, the Didache ("Did-ah-Kay"), has come to light. Milavec has decoded the Didache and enabled it to reveal its hidden secrets regarding those years when Christianity was little more than a faction within the restless Judaisms of the mid-first-century.

The Didache reveals a tantalizingly detailed description of the prophetic faith and day-to-day routines that shaped the Jesus movement some twenty years after the death of Jesus. The focus of the movement then was not upon proclaiming the exalted titles and deeds of Jesus - aspects that come to the fore in the letters of Paul and in the Gospel narratives. In contrast to these familiar forms of Christianity, the focus of the Didache was upon "the life and the knowledge" of Jesus himself. Thus, the Didache details the step-by-step process whereby non-Jews were empowered by assimilating the prophetic faith and the way of life associated with Jesus of Nazareth.

Milavec's clear, concise, and inspiring commentaries are not only of essential importance to scholars, pastors, and students but also very useful for ordinary people who wish to unlock the secrets of the Didache. Milavec's analytic, Greek-English side-by-side, gender-inclusive translation is included as well as a description of how this document, after being fashioned and used 50-70 C.E., was mysteriously lost for over eighteen hundred years before being found in an obscure library in Istanbul. The study questions, bibliography, and flowcharts enable even first-time users to grasp the functional and pastoral genius that characterized the earliest Christian communities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814658314
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	10/01/2003
Series:	Old Testament Message Series
Pages:	111
Product dimensions:	6.04(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.36(d)

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
	Acknowledgments	xix
	Greek Text with Side-by-Side Gender-Inclusive Analytic Translation	1
	A Brief Commentary	39
	Bibliography	95
	Flowcharts
Flowchart A	Progression of Events Implied by the Internal Logic of the Didache	107
Flowchart B	Progression of Events Experienced during Training in the Way of Life	108
Flowchart C	Progression of Events Surrounding the Baptism of a Woman	109
Flowchart D	How Prophets Came into Being and Disappeared	110
Flowchart E	Progression of Events during the End-Times	111

Editorial Reviews

This little book is a gem—learned, accessible, illuminating and challenging to both scholarly conventions and conventional Christianity. Students of early Christianity are in Milavec's debt, not least for his innovative website, www.Didache.info.
Pacifica


. . . a useful means of introducing the Didache to beginners.
Theoforum


Any future bibliography on the Didache will have to include this ambitious, impressive work.
Theological Studies


This is a book of rare quality and importance that has already been recognized by the most prominent scholars in the field as the fundamental reference work of the study of the Didache.
Robert J. Daly, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts


This is a book of rare quality and importance that has already been recognized by the most prominent scholars in the field as the fundamental reference work for the study of the Didache . . . Extensive indexes make the book an extrodinarily valuable research work.
Fourth R


Will undoubtedly challenge many who seek to understand the background and perspectives of the Didache.
The Catholic Biblical Review


Milavec’s work merits wide study and discussion especially because it presents alternative views and profound challenges to what has been the scholarly consensus on the development and interpretation of the text.
Worship


This volume, however, is significant by itself and provides for a wider audience a very accessible introduction to Milavec’s work on this important document.
Worship

From the Publisher