The Manuscripts
The Manuscripts
The Jerusalem Codex is the only extant copy of the complete Didache in a primary biblical language. The manuscript was written without spaces to indicate chapter or paragraph divisions, but it did include colons, periods, and some commas. There were no quotation marks used in the Didache. In keeping with the character of the codex as a whole, only the beginning of the book was capitalized.
Apart from the Jerusalem Codex, there are only a few fragments in assorted languages that are useful for study of the Didache. The oldest surviving pieces of the Didache are two 4th century parchment fragments in Greek from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, containing parts of chapters 1-3. These were published in 1922. While they differ from the text of the Jerusalem Codex, the fragments are too small to be of use for reconstructing an “original” version.
In Coptic, there is a papyrus fragment of chs.10:3b to 12:2a, dating to the 5th century. It was found in Cairo and published not long after the Oxyrhynchus fragments. This material adds to the Eucharistic prayer a thanksgiving prayer for holy oil for confirmation, which is also in the Apostolic Constitutions.
In Ethiopic, significant parts of the Didache appear in the Ecclesiastical Canons, or Ethiopic Church Order, preserved in late manuscripts. Interestingly, the Didache sections do not appear in the Coptic or Arabic versions of this same Church Order.
Other witnesses:
In Syriac, the Didascalia Apostolorum (3rd century) cites the Didache.
The Greek text of the Apostolic Constitutions (7:1-32) contains most of the Didache, but with many changes and insertions so that it is considered to be a paraphrase or reworking. These changes brought the earlier material of the Didache into conformity with later practice and pointedly omit some of the Jewish-influenced material. The text also contains reworked material from the Didascalia. The Apostolic Constitutions stems from late-4th century Syria.
In Arabic, the "Two Ways" material is found in a fifth-century hagiography, Life of Schenoute.
In Latin, two manuscripts (9th -11th centuries) with the title, Doctrine of the Apostles, exist that contain Two Ways material.
In Georgian, a complete translation survived in a 19th century manuscript located in Constantinople. It contained some variant readings. This codex is now lost.
Other witnesses, such as the Epistle of Barnabas, cite the Two Ways material, but their exact relationship to the Didache or the theorized earlier version of the Two Ways is unclear.