Didjaredit? Quiz1. What the Didache is = “The teaching of the ___ _______________.”

2. What are the “two ways” mentioned in the Didache?

3. What 2 Sacraments are mentioned in the Didache?

4. Chapter 8 says that Christians should fast on the _________ (#) day of the week.

5. The 10th chapter of the Didache contains a prayer for after _______________.

6. The final chapter enjoins all to watch for…?

• The Didache is also called the The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles

• Didachē means "Teaching“• is a brief early Christian treatise, • dated by most scholars to the late first

/early second century.• The first line of this treatise is "Teaching of

the Lord to the Gentiles (or Nations) by the Twelve Apostles"

PARTS• The text have parts which may have

constituted the first written catechism (religion book!)

• The contents may be divided into four parts, which most scholars agree were combined from separate sources by a later redactor: – the first is the Two Ways, the Way of Life and the Way

of Death (chapters 1-6);– the second part is a ritual dealing with baptism, fasting

, andCommunion (chapters 7-10); – the third speaks of the ministry and how to deal with

traveling prophets (chapters 11-15); – and the final section (chapter 16) is a brief apocalypse.

• It was considered by some of the Church Fathers as part of the New Testament but rejected as non-canonical by others, and eventually it was not accepted into the New Testament canon.

• Lost for several centuries, the Didache was rediscovered in 1873 by Philotheos Bryennios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia. While in Istanbul, he discovered the manuscript in the Jerusalem Monastery of the Most Holy Sepulcher.

• An English translation was first published in 1883. • It is considered part of the collection of 

Apostolic Fathers.

• “The Didache of the Twelve Apostles” had been written and widely disseminated by about the year 100, and became increasingly important in the second and third Christian centuries.

•  It is an anonymous work not belonging to any single individual, and a pastoral manual "that reveals more about how Jewish-Christians saw themselves and how they adapted their Judaism for gentiles than any other book in the Christian Scriptures."

• The Didache is mentioned by Eusebius (c. 324 – first known Church historian) as the Teachings of the Apostles following the books recognized as canonical.

• Athanasius (367) and Rufinus (c. 380) list the Didache among apocrypha.

•  The section Two Ways shares the same language with the Epistle of Barnabas, chapters 18-20, sometimes word for word, sometimes added to, dislocated, or abridged.

• There are echoes in Justin Martyr,Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch, Cyprian, and Lactantius.

Matthew and the Didache• At the same time, significant similarities between

the Didache and the gospel of Matthew have been found as these writings share words, phrases, and motifs.

• Modern scholars do not support the thesis that the Didache used Matthew.

• This close relationship between these two writings might suggest that both documents were created in the same historical and geographical setting.

• Also, the Two Ways teaching (Did. 1-6) may have served as a pre-baptismal instruction within the community of the Didache and Matthew.

• Some scholars also consider the Didache to come from the preaching of Sts. Paul and Barnabus – Apostles to the Gentiles.

Therefore…

• The Didache is one of the earliest Christian documents we have.

• Regarded as a church handbook and not a Gospel or absolutely based on the teachings of Jesus

• Provides valuable insights concerning the moral doctrines, theology, rituals, and congregational testing of apostles and prophets, and the basic organization of 1st century Christianity.

The Didascalia• The Ethiopian Orthodox

Church accepts the DIDASCALIA as part of their New Testament.

• The Ethiopian Orthodox believe Christ had one nature, not two natures, as Catholics believe. (Comes from the “Monophysite heresy, p. 44 in green text)

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJfbtupcGbs

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UATMs3V5FQ

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmJWEPzLq1k

How is it different from the Didache?

• The Didascalia, or the Catholic Teaching of the Twelve Apostles and Holy Disciples of Our Saviour, is a Church Order, composed, according to recent investigations, in the first part, perhaps even the first decades, of the third century, for a community of Christian converts from paganism in the northern part of Syria. The work is modelled on the Didache (cf. vol. I, pp. 29-39) and forms the main source of the first six books of the Apostolic Constitutions.

Author

• The unknown author of the Didascalia seems to have been of Jewish descent. A bishop with a considerable knowledge of medicine, he lacked special theological training. He makes ample use of Holy Scripture and borrows from the Didache, Hermas, Irenaeus, the Gospel of Peter and the Acts of Paul.

Some 1st Ctry. Christian Artfound in Catacombs of Rome

Madonna and Child

Earliest known Madonna from 1st Ctry Catacomb of St. Priscilla in Rome.

Christ the philosopher – seated much like Socrates with his disciples – notice the Greek toga.

The Good Shepherd (of Hermas)

The “FISH”

Christian symbols of two fish and what appears to be a trident, which was probably a disguise for the cross symbol, which might identify the person as a Christian and subject his family to persecution. Catacombs. Pictures of Crucifixion didn’t appear until about 4th Ctry.

Ichthys • Ichthys is ancient Greek word for FISH.• used by Early Christians as a secret symbol[1] and

now known colloquially as the "sign of the fish" or the "Jesus fish."

• Ichthys can be read as an acrostic :– Iota (i) is the first letter of Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for "Jesus".– Chi (ch) is the first letter of Christos (Χριστός), Greek for

"anointed".– Theta (th) is the first letter of Theou (Θεοῦ), Greek for

"God's", the genitive case of Θεóς,Theos, Greek for "God".– Upsilon (u) is the first letter of huios (Υἱός), Greek for "Son".– Sigma (s) is the first letter of sōtēr (Σωτήρ), Greek for

"Savior".

The Alexamenos Graffito

The graffito shown below is from first century (AD) Rome. Thought to have been scratched on a beam of plaster somewhere on the Palatine Hill in Rome.

The significance of this graffito is the portrayal (or caricature) of early Christianity by the average Roman. It obviously mocks a Christian, suggesting that his worship is ill-founded. The human figure with the ass head on the cross is presumably Jesus, which may represent the old calumny against Jews that they worshipped an ass. Says in Greek, “"Alexamenos worshipping God.”

Earliest Known Christian Hymn

• Outside of the Hymns in the New Testament (for which we have no known music), the earliest known hymn is found in the eastern tradition: the Phos Hilaron or in English, “O Gladsome Light.”

• This hymn was mentioned by St. Jerome in about 150 AD as already having been an “old hymn” in the Church.

• Verbatim translation

– O Light gladsome of the holy glory of the Immortal Father,

• the Heavenly, the Holy, the Blessed, O Jesus Christ,

– having come upon the setting of the sun, having seen the light of the evening,

• we praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: God.

– Worthy it is at all times to praise Thee in joyful voices,• O Son of God, Giver of Live, for which the world

glorifies Thee.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifZmG01v0YU