Style and Structure
Style and Structure
The Didache is an instructional manual for a Church community. Accordingly, it has points in common with other ancient community manuals, such as the earlier Qumran documents of the Dead Sea sect, The Manual of Discipline and The Community Rule (1QS). As instructional literature, it also rests upon the Wisdom traditions of the Hebrew Bible, which are found in such books as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiasticus, and specific psalms.
The Didache is divided into three main parts. The first (the so-called Two Ways, found in Didache 1-6) contains general moral teachings for those seeking to join the Christian faithful. Consequently, in its current form, it can be considered a catechism. Most scholars believe the Two Ways material originally existed as an independent text of Jewish origin, which was adopted and adapted by some early Christians. The influence of this independent Jewish material was so considerable that it was incorporated into a number of other early Church documents, such as the Epistle of Barnabas (chapters 18-21) and the Ecclesiastical Canons.
(Note: The Epistle of Barnabus, either used the Didache, or it used the “Two Ways” source independently of the Didache. The Epistle of Barnabus, however, frames the Two Ways materials with a more overt dualism than that found in the Didache. It can not be known if the dualism was original to the author of Barnabus or if it stemmed from the theoretical Two Ways source itself and was omitted by the author of the Didache.)
If the Two Ways did not originally exist as a separate Jewish source, then the only other plausible conclusion is that it stems from the early Church in a community still profoundly influenced by Judaism, probably a Jewish-Christian one.
The format of the Two Ways presents a rule and then expands upon its meaning and ramifications; that is, how to enact it. The rules are loosely strung together. The basic foundation of rules is taken from the Hebrew Bible, perhaps from an originally Two Ways Jewish document. Christian teachings were then suspended upon the Jewish scaffolding. Notably absent from this section is any hint of a polemical framework of the sort found in Matthew 5:21-22 (“You have heard how it was said¼but I say this to you¼”) or in later Church writings, such as those of John Chrysostom. Rather, Christian teaching appears in uninterrupted flow from the traditions of the Hebrew Bible. The emphasis here is on continuity, rather than breach.
The second section is comprised of rules for the formal conduct of the Church. This section can be further subdivided into liturgical concerns and church leadership. The liturgical section focuses upon baptism, fasting, prayer, and the Eucharist. The church leadership section is sufficiently early to include some primitive issues of authority about soon-to-be extinct types of leaders.
The final section is an apocalyptic conclusion, which many believe was originally part of the Two Ways material but was separated from it in the current work. Most scholars feel that the apocalyptic section ends too abruptly and has been artificially truncated. It is possible that the scribe Leon’s source broke off at the end.
Nevertheless, the Didache, like the Hebrew Bible, ends on a note of hope (Didache 16). In the case of the Didache, it is an eschatological hope couched in apocalyptic terms.