The Earliest Known Church Manual: The Didache
When reading Church history, we can see little glimpses of how Christians structured their gatherings on Sunday. There are similarities and many differences to how they worshipped and fellowshipped compared to today’s Church. We read the same New Testament, but to put the Christian faith into practice when gathering can be diverse. The closest thing we get to a “Church manual” in the New Testament is 1st Corinthians 11-14, so many Christians have had different conclusions on what Sunday worship should look like.
One of the most controversial yet telling writings that gives us insight to how the early Church gathered is a writing called The Didache, or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. We don’t know for sure the date, but it’s often agreed to be late first century (Holmes, 2006, pg. 159). Many early Christians reference the writing, and a copy was eventually discovered in 1873. Christian scholar Kenneth Howell points out how influential this instruction manual was for hundreds of years in the Church:
“In the first three centuries, some authors cited or referred to it as if it were part of the scriptural canon. And even if it were never accepted as scriptural in most places, it was still widely known and valued as a marker of the apostolic tradition… That the Didache continued to be important in the fourth century is seen in Athanasius’s Festal Letter 39, in which he says that the work was read in the church (of Alexandria) for the instruction of the faithful while being excluded from the biblical canon.”
Chances are your denomination has some kind of instruction for church order and tradition besides the Bible. Whether it’s a catechism, a hymnal, or a simple statement of faith, the Church has always tried to have in writing and communication an understanding to putting the Scriptures to practice. To understand what the Scriptures mean and how to put your faith to practice requires teaching and traditions.
The Didache has Jewish and early Christian depth to its content. Much of the content implies it was possibly influenced by the Gospel of Matthew (or the other way around), and seems to be a pretty early Christian writing due to its heavy Jewish tone. While it is a short read, there’s a lot of rich content to discuss, so this post will just briefly summarize the Didache, and we’ll go more in depth in future posts.
Summary of The Didache
1. The Two Ways: Living a Christian Life
The manual opens with commandments to follow, saying there are two ways to live: one to life and one to death. This is an instruction believed to be rooted in Jewish thought, and is seen more than once in other writings of the Apostolic Fathers. It can also be seen in the warning Jesus gives in Matthew 7:13-14 about entering through the narrow gate as opposed to the wide gate that leads to destruction. For more information of the Two Ways, check out our separate blog on the subject.
The first five chapters list the do’s and do not’s for the way of life. Many of these commands are from the Sermon on the Mount, as well as other commands Jesus gives such as the Great Commandment to love God and your neighbor.
Although I plan to go into more detail about this passage in the next blog, something that is consistently seen in this passage and the rest of The Didache is the call for church community. These commands are not just things the individual Christian is called to do, but as a church they need to be obeyed and done together.
2. Liturgy
The second part of The Didache goes into liturgical instruction. It discusses food, baptism, fasting, prayer, and the Eucharist (communion). The prayer section teaches the Lord’s Prayer as given in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:9-13, with the longer ending) and instructs to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day (8.3).
The main part of this section though is the Eucharist. Similar to how liturgical churches practice worship (Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, etc.), it seems the “main event” of the gathering was not a sermon, but the partaking in the Lord’s Supper.
3. Church Leadership
Chapters 11-13 focus on instructions for Church leaders. The most fascinating and controversial part of this passage is the detailed instructions for prophets and apostles. On one hand, churches are strictly taught not to shut down or dismiss prophetic words. On the other hand, prophets are held to a very high standard (as they should be), and it is obvious the writer(s) of The Didache wanted churches to be very discerning against false prophets.
4. Awaiting the Return of Christ
The last three chapters give some more instructions for church meetings, teachers, and deacons. Continuing to use language from the Gospel of Matthew, The Didache closes with a reminder of false teachers that will arise in the last days, and to be on guard for the unknown but soon to be expected return of Christ.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to digest, discuss, and debate about the content of this short church manual. In the next couple posts, I wish to break down each section and see what we can learn about the early Church, and what we can take away from it for today’s Church.
Bibliography
Holmes, M. (2006). The Apostolic Fathers in English (3rd ed.). Grand Rapids, MI. Baker Academic.
Howell, K. (2012). Clement of Rome and The Didache: A New Translation and Commentary. Zanesville, OH. CHResources.
Thumbnail image: https://archive.org/details/oldestchurchmanu00scha