WILLY RORDORF, An Aspect of the Judeo-Christian Ethic:
AN ASPECT OF THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN ETHIC:
THE TWO WAYS
WILLY RORDORF
Neuchatel It is well known that the Didache, discovered by P. Bryennios and published by him in 1883, opens with this phrase: "There are two ways, one of life and one of death." The teaching of the two ways, which is an ethical teaching, essentially takes up chapters 15 of the writing.! Very soon, people began to designate it as a manual of the Two Ways,? as die beiden Wege? or zwei Wege,* or more simply as the duae viae.> The teaching of the two ways, preserved in different forms in many Christian writings of the first centuries,® has not ceased exciting the curiosity of scholars. The research undertaken over almost a century has, among other things, concentrated on two problems:
1. The question of the provenance of the duae viae; 2. The question of the Sitz im Leben of the duae viae; to which I intend to add a third problem, that of the Nachleben of the duae viae in Christianity which, it seems to me, has been somewhat neglected. In what follows, I allow myself to take up each of these problems, one after the other; I apply myself to take account of past research and to draw the conclusions indicated by the present research.
I. THE QUESTION OF THE PROVENANCE OF THE DUAE
VIAE'
The resemblance between Didache 1-5 and the Epistle of Barnabas 18-20 already struck the first editor of the Didache. At For the moment we leave aside the question as to whether or not chapter 6 forms the conclusion of the duae viae, or whether chapter 16 also originally belongs to the duae viae (cf. below, nn. 32, 36, and p. [10]).
? So C. Taylor, The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles with illustrations from the Talmud (Cambridge: Deighton Bell, 1886).
3 So A. Harnack, Die Apostellehre und die jiidischen beiden Wege (Leipzig: J.
C. Hinrichs, 1886, 18962).
* So R. Knopf, Die Lehre der zwélf Apostel. Die zwei Clemensbriefe (Tiibingen:
Mohr, 1920 [HNT-E 1)).
3 The Doctrina apostolorum, known already in part in 1884, begins in fact with the words: Viae duae sunt in saeculo, uitae et-mortis...
® Apart from Did 1-5, one must point especially to Barn 18-20, Doctr, EccCan 4-13 and EpEccCan, Const VII.1-18, Vie de Chenoute (Arabic), and various Pseudo-Athanasian texts. Cf. S$. Giet, L'énigme de la Didaché (Paris: Ophrys, 1970
[PFLUS 149]) pp. 19-26.
7 One finds summaries of the history of research in J.-P. Audet, La Didache.
Instructions des apétres (Paris: Gabalda, 1958 [EBib}) pp. 2-21; P. Prigent-R.A.
Kraft, Epitre de Barnabé (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1971 [SC 172]) pp. 12-20.
Cf. also A. Turck, Evangélisation et catéchése aux deux premiers siécles, 1962.
THE TWO WAYS
first, people thought there were only two possible solutions to the problem: either the Didache follows the Epistle of Barnabas in the duae viae section (so Bryennios, Harnack), or the other way round, and Barnabas here depends on the Didache (so Zahn,
Funk). It was C. Taylor§ who advanced the hypothesis of a common source which he believed to be Jewish; Harnack was won over to his point of view.° Since the complete text of the Doctrina apostolorum has been known and published,!° there is a new problem to be resolved: is it-a translation of the Didache or an independent text which was even closer to the supposed common source of Didache and Barnabas? The second response seems more plausible.!! But it has not helped to determine whether the common source was of Christian or Jewish provenance.
A fervent defender of the Jewish origin of the duae viae was A. Seeberg. In several publications,!? he tried to prove the existence of a primitive Christian catechism containing the two ways, instructions concerning food (cf. Did 6!), instructions concerning baptism, prayer, the eucharist (cf. Did 7-10!) and a doctrinal teaching, in imitation of the catechism that the Jews used to initiate their proselytes, and which was inspired partly by the "Holiness Code" (Lev 17ff).!3 Because of their boldness, these theses of Seeberg have not found the hearing that they deserve;!4 the fact remains that P. Carrington!5 and, following him, E.G.
Selwyn!¢ were clearly inspired by him in their much better known 8 Teaching of the Twelve Apostles; before Harnack, so it seems, J. Wordsworth,
"Christian Life, Ritual and Discipline at the Close of the First Century", The Guardian, London, 19 March 1884, Supp., cited by J.-P. Audet, Didaché, p. 12, n. 3.
9 Apostellehre; cf. Die Apostellehre, in RPThK I (18963) pp. 723ff; Didache, in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge Ill (1909) p. 423.
10 By J. Schlecht, Doctrina XII apostolorum (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1901); cf. L. Wohleb, Die lateinische Ubersetzung der Didache kritisch und sprachlich untersucht (Paderborn: Schéningh, 1913 [SGKA 7]).
11 Cf. E. Hennecke, "Die Grundschrift der Didache und ihre Rezensionen", ZNW 2 (1901) pp. 58-72; E.J. Goodspeed, "The Didache, Barnabas and the Doctrina", ATR 27 (1945) pp. 228-247; B. Altaner, "Zum Problem der lateinischen Doctrina apostolorum", VgChr 6 (1952) pp. 1-47.
12 Der Katechismus der Urchristenheit (Leipzig:
A. Deichert, 1903); Das Evangelium Christi (Leipzig:
A. Deichert, 1905); Die beiden Wege und das Aposteldekret (Leipzig: A. Deichert, 1906); Die Didache des Judentums und der
Urchristenheit (Leipzig: A. Deichert, 1908).
13 G. Klein, Der dlteste christliche Katechismus und die jlidische PropagandaLiteratur (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1909), goes still further: according to him, all the Christian moral teaching rests in actual fact on Gen 6:12 and Ps 34 (33)!
14 Cf. F. Hahn, in his introduction to the book, Der Katechismus der Urchristenheit reprinted in 1966; cf. also A. Turck, Evangélisation, pp. 20ff.
1S The Primitive Christian Catechism. A Study in the Epistles (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1940).
16 The First Epistle of St. Peter (London: Macmillan, 19472) Essay II, pp. 363466.
WILLY RORDORF
work on the primitive Christian catechism; but these two authors have not included the duae viae in their research (at least not directly).
, After Seeberg, the question of provenance—Jewish or Christian—of the duae viae has not been much in the foreground.
This disinterest is due to J.A. Robinson who, since 1912,17 took up again the thesis of the first editors of the Didache, namely that the duae viae of the Didache depends on that of the Epistle of Barnabas since the latter is an integral part of the whole Epistle which forms a literary unity. Robinson has been followed by the majority of scholars.18
In one stroke, the problem of the provenance of the duae viae seemed to be resolved: it was quite simply the creation of the author of the Epistle of Barnabas. Few were the critical voices who dared to say that the problem of the possible common source for Barnabas and the Didache remained completely unanswered. !9
The discoveries of Qumran forced scholars to return to the problem left suspended. In fact, the Manual of Discipline (3:134:26) contains an instruction on the two spirits which resembles at many points the duae viae that we find in the Epistle of Barnabas and in the Didache; it even seems that the form of the duae viae represented by the Doctrina apostolorum is closer to it, which confirmed, after the event, the warning given long ago by Hennecke, Goodspeed, Altaner.2° Audet has the merit of having been the first to turn to this problem and to have shown in detail that the Christian duae viae must have depended, in one way or another, on his Qumran model.?! His demonstration has found a largely positive response.22 Daniélou, in various publications,?3
17 "The Problem of the Didache", JTS 13 (1912) pp. 339-356: cf. Barnabas, Hermas and the Didache (London: SPCK, 1920); "The Epistle of Barnabas and the Didache", JTS 35 (1934) pp. 113-146; 225-248.
'8 Besides J. Muilenburg, The Literary Relations of the Epistle of Barnabas and the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Marburg: no publisher given, 1929); R.H.
Connolly, "The Didache in Relation to the Epistle of Barnabas", JTS 33 (1932) pp.
237-253; "The Didache and Montainism", DRev
(1937) pp.
477-489:
F.E.Vokes, The Riddle of the Didache. Fact or Fiction, Heresy or Catholicism?
(London: SPCK, 1938). M. Vokes has recently said to me that he no longer holds his thesis of the Montanist origin of the Didache.
19 J.-P. Audet (op. cit., pp. 20f) cites the following names: J.V. Bartlet, B.
Capers A.J. McLean, C.H. Turner, B.H. Streeter, J.M. Creed, Th. Klauser.
Crna 1, 21 Cf. his article, "Affinités littéraires et doctrinales du Manuel de discipline" ,
RB Poe pp. 219-238; and his weighty commentary on the Didache (op.cit.), pp.
121-105.
22 Cf. the most recent editions of the Didache and the Epistle of Barnabas, in R.A. Kraft, Barnabas and the Didache (New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1965
[AF 3]), and P. Prigent & R.A. Kraft, Epitre de Barnabé (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1971 [SC 172]). Cf. also J. Liebaert, Les enseignements moraux des Péres apostoliques, 1970, pp. 99f.
THE TWO WAYS
15d has shown the same point of view. S. Wibbing*4 has supported this thesis in proving that the Christian lists of vices and virtues depends on the same section of the Manual of Discipline from Qumran. In his turn, E. Kamlah25 has uncovered the religionsgeschichtlich background of this form of paraenesis in the writing of late Judaism and early Christianity.
Light thus seems to have been cast on the provenance of the duae viae: it issued from a dualistic Essene tradition and has made its way into Christianity.2° However, there are still questions which pose themselves and which future research must take into consideration if it wishes to come to solid established results.
Here are the questions:
1. One must not lose the unique perspective that the comparison between the Manual of Discipline from Qumran and the different forms of the Christian duae viae brings concerning the dualistic framework (which is absent in the Didache!) and concerning the general literary genre of instruction which places side by side a list of virtues and a list of vices; but in the detail of content and vocabulary, resemblances are missing. Moreover, if Audet is to be believed, the duae viae of the Didache was addressed "to the Gentiles"2' and consequently is situated in a universalist and not in a particularist orientation (as in Qumran). One is then forced to admit, with Audet,?8 that "the duae viae has known, doubtless in 23 Cf. for example, "Une source de la spiritualité chrétienne dans les manuscrits de la Mer Morte: la doctrine des deux esprits", DViv 25 (1953) pp. 127ff; The Dead Sea Scrolls and Primitive Christianity, trns. §. Athanasio (Baltimore, Md:
Helicon, 1958) pp. 41ff; The Theology of Jewish Christianity 1 (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1964) pp. 28ff, 315ff; and again more recently, La catéchése aux premiers siécles (1968) pp. 127ff.
24 Die Tugendund Lasterkataloge im Neuen Testament (Berlin: de Gruyter,
1959 [BZNW 25].
25 Die Form der katalogischen Pardnese im Neuen Testament (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1964 [WUNT 7]). Cf. previously A. Wlosok, Laktanz und die philosophische
Gnosis (Heidelberg, 1960 [Abh. HAW, Philhist. K1.2]) pp. 107ff.
26 H. Braun, Qumran und das Neue Testament Il (Tiibingen: Mohr, 1966), pp.
ff, 286ff, summarizes the discussion in a very nuanced and competent manner.
According to E. Robillard ("L'Epitre de Barnabé: trois époques, trois théologies, trois rédacteurs", RB 78 (1971) pp. 184-209), it was Barnabas, the companion of Paul, who took up the Jewish duae viae for his own missionary purposes!
27 In fact, J.-P. Audet, Didaché, pp. 91ff, places confidence in the long title of the writing which he believes would have had, in a Jewish milieu, the following sense: Avdax7 Kupiov (= God!) Toi¢ &veouv.
28 Didache, p. 158. So too Prigent in Prigent & Kraft, Epitre de Barnabé, p. 20.
Cf. the critical remarks of F. E. Vokes, "The Didache—Still debated", ChQR 3 (1970) pp. 58f, 62.
WILLY RORDORF
the first period of its history (pre-Christian?), a very active recensional phase."
2. On the whole, the relationship between the Manual of Discipline and the duae viae, dazzling because recently discovered, does not seem to be much closer than one had established, before the "new wave" from Qumran, between Jewish proselyte catechetical instruction and the duae viae that one believed to be a Christian catechetical instruction.2° Although we might be poorly informed on the baptism of Jewish proselytes in the primitive
Christian epoch, the parallels which it presents to Christian baptism are undeniable.*° Future research must not neglect this aspect of the problem.
3. There is another matter: that is the Old Testament background of the duae viae. I am not thinking here of the allusions to the theme of the two ways which are found in the Old Testament, but I am thinking of the very specific genre of the Bundesformular which K. Baltzer3! has revealed in certain Biblical texts, and that he has uncovered, in new forms, precisely in the Manual of Discipline at Qumran and the Christian duae viae. One must be careful to take this view of things seriously in future.*2
Given the complexity of the problem of the provenance of the duae viae, one should above all avoid simplistic, unilateral solutions; it does not seem, in fact, that the duae viae (in all its forms)
29 Cf. in particular A. Benoit, Le baptéme chrétien au second siécle (Paris:
Presses Universaires du France, 1953) pp. 5-33, but also D. Daube, The New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism (London: University of London Athalone, 1956), pp.
106ff. The Golden Rule and the Household Code incorporated into the duae viae are also situated rather in this context: cf. A. Dihle, Die goldene Regel (Gottingen:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1962 [StAW 7]), and D. Schroeder, Die Haustafeln des Neuen Testamentes (Thesis, Hamburg, 1959). A. Adam ("Erwagungen zur Herkunft der Didache", ZKG 68 [1957] pp. 30ff), is very specific: he sees in the duae viae the catechetical manual of the Jewish proselytes of Adiabene.
30 M. Dujarier (Le parrainage des adultes aux trois premiers siécles de l'Eglise,
1962) while dealing entirely with the possible background in Qumran (pp. 103ff), has not ignored this problem (pp. 73ff). Cf. also J. Jeremias, Infant Baptism in the First Four Centuries, ts. D. Cairns (London: SCM, 1958) pp. 28ff.
31 Das Bundesformular (Neukirchen, Vluyn:
Neukirchner Verlag, 19642 [WMANT 4]). Cf. the good summary in French in J. L'Hour, La morale de
Valliance, in CahRB 5 (1966). See also J. Becker, Untersuchungen zur Entstehungsgeschichte der Testamente der zwdlf Patriarchen (Leiden: Brill, 1970).
32 E. Kamlah, Pardnese, p. 163 n. 1, has made the criticism very easily! We should note, however, that the two authors agree in saying that chapter 16 of the Didache belongs to the primitive duae viae.
Cf.
Késter, Synoptische Uberlieferung bei den apostolischen Vatern (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1957 [Tu
65]}) pp. 160, 173, 189f, and R.A. Kraft, Barnabas and the Didache, pp. 12ff.
THE TWO WAYS
comes from Qumran, nor that it is derived uniquely from the instruction given to Jewish proselytes, nor again that it was a late expression of the covenant morality rooted in the Bundesformular.
By way of hypothesis, I see the evolution rather in the following manner: the Old Testament ethical tradition attached to the Bundesformular has undergone in certain circles of late Judaism
(not in all) a clearly dualistic modification under Persian influence (in this area, I freely follow Kamlah). Christianity has inherited both these currents, dualistic and non-dualistic. In the New Testament, we find both these traditions.33 Is it not possible that the different forms of the Christian duae viae also reflect the two traditions? From this point of view, the Doctrina apostolorum and the Epistle of Barnabas take their place in the dualistic lineage of moral instruction that is found in the Manual of Discipline, while the Didache and the documents derived from it represent the nondugalistic lineage of moral instruction which was formed in the course of the history of Israel and which has passed into the sapiential and synagogal teaching of Judaism (and eventually into the catechism given to proselytes).34 A study of the question of the Sitz im Leben will, perhaps, provide us with further light on this subject.35
Il. THE QUESTION OF THE SITZ IM LEBEN OF THE DUAE
VIAE In Didache 7:1 we read as follows: "On the subject of baptism, baptize thus: after having taught all which precedes (radTa ta&vTa
Tpoe.movTec), baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." The words tatta mta&vTa mpoeim6vTEs must refer back to chapter 1-5(6)3° of the Didache, which contains
33 Roughly (I take this with a grain of salt!), the synoptic gospels represent the non-dualistic tradition, while the Johannine and Pauline literature reflects the dualistic tradition.
34 Cf. Audet, op.cit., pp. 255f. R.A. Kraft (Barnabas and the Didache, p. 136) places the accent on the criteria of eschatological intensity to distinguish between the traditions; he comes close to my point of view. In my opinion, however, the criterion of the presence or absence of the dualistic framework goes more to the heart of the problem.
35 It is quite useless to try to say what the exact content of the pre-Christian duae viae was. Of course, the "gospel section" (Did 1:3-2:1) was not included. Giet
(op.cit. (n. 6), pp. 153ff) wishes to be more specific: the Jewish duae viae did not contain the double love commandment, nor the "instruction of the wise" (Did 3:16), nor even (possibly) the way of death. There is no space here to discuss this thesis. As far as the double love commandment is concerned, cf. the implicit critique of C. Burchard in Der Ruf Jesu und die Antwort der Gemeinde, Festschrift fur
Joachim Jeremias, ed. E. Lohse (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1970) pp.
39-62.
36 Didache 6:1 seems to be the end of the duae viae. However, the precept concerning foods (6:3) has its roots in an equally ancient tradition; cf. the apostolic
WILLY RORDORF
properly the duae viae. Consequently, the first editors of the Didache, Bryennios and Harnack, thought that the duae viae was without doubt a part of the catechetical teaching preparatory to baptism, in the milieu from which the writing emerged.%' At first this interpretation was unanimously accepted by the scholarly world. It was Audet who first, as far as I know, questioned this assumption.3 He begins with the observation that the words
TadTA ToVTA TpoEeLMovTEs are only found in the manuscript discovered in Constantinople (from A.D. 1056) and in the Georgian version, but not in the remains of the Didache in book VII of the Apostolic Constitutions, from the end of the fourth century. He can see only one possible explanation for this fact: the compilator of the Apostolic Constitutions did not find the words in question in the text of the Didache which he used. Moreover, he sees in the words tadra mé&vTa TpoettévTec a stylistically awkward insertion into the text from a second hand, which he does not hesitate to omit from his edition of the Greek text.3? This particular reading of the manuscript from Constantinople would then be a gloss of a copyist, who reflected the usage of the Egyptian church, to appropriate the duae viae for the instruction of catechumens.*°
The thesis of Audet is very fragile. As far as the question of the style of the Didache is concerned, P. Nautin*! has already shown it. One could also remark that the style of the "addition" does not seem strange to the manner of expression of the editor of the Didache, since he utilizes in 11:1 a formula virtually identical:
TAVTA TAVTA TA TpoELpnpéva. But what is more serious, is that Audet does not even ask the question whether the compilator of decree which is reflected , in an archaic form and in a catechetical context in the Pseudo-Clementines; cf. on this subject the work of E. Molland, in Opuscula
Patristica (1970), pp. 25-60; A.F.J. Klijn, in NT 10 (1978) pp. 305-312; M.
Simon, in BJRL 52 (1969-1970) pp. 437-460; and Y. Tissot, in RB 77 (1970) pp.
321-346. One could even ask the question as to whether Didache 6:2-3 does not show that the duae viae is addressed originally to the God-Fearers (cf. the Noachic precepts of the Rabbinic tradition: Billerbeck III, 36ff); this is the thesis of M.
Simon (cf. already J.-P Audet, op.cit., p. 354, and A. Stuiber, "Das ganze Joch des
Herrn (Didache 6,2-3)" in Studia Patristica IV, ed. F. L. Cross (Berlin: AkademieVerlag, 1961 [TU 79]) pp. 323-329). But, in Christianity, the unit of 6:2-3 belongs rather to an ascetic tradition: cf. below, pp. 161f.
37 A. Harnack (Did Lehre der zwolf Apostel (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs Verlag, 1884 (TU 2,1-2)] p. 22) leaves open the question of whether it was a matter of a baptismal discourse immediately preceding baptism or of actual catechetical instruction.
38 Didache, pp. 58ff; cf. p. 358f.
39 Ibid., p. 232.
40 Cf. Athanasius, EpFest 39, but also Ce 12.
41 "La composition de la "Didache" et son titre." RHR 78 (1959) pp. 206f. Cf. also B. Botte, in BTAM 8 (1958) pp. 168.
THE TWO WAYS
the Apostolic Constitutions could not have had an interest in changing the text of the Didache for the reason that in his time and in his church the duae viae was no longer used for the instruction of catechumens.'? One has the impression that this is the right answer when one reads an account of the baptismal catechesis in the Apostolic Constitutions VI1.39ff.
If the critique of Didache 7:1 by Audet seems unjustified, then,#3 the question of the Sitz im Leben of the duae viae is not resolved for all that. In fact, it remains true that the duae viae was not used exclusively in catechesis preparatory to baptism. Proof is provided by the Epistle of Barnabas: in all probability it was addressed to Christians already baptized;'4 at the end it takes them back to the teaching of the two ways.45 In the Didache, the duae viae then has its place in prebaptismal teaching; in the Epistle of Barnabas, on the contrary, it has its place in postbaptismal teaching. Can we speak about it any longer as a prebaptismal ethical instruction and its Sitz im Leben?
Let us first pose a preliminary but important question: to whom was the duae viae addressed? To Jewish-Christians? Or to Gentile-Christians? Can the titles of the Didache give us the information we want? In fact, the manuscript of Constantinople carries two titles:
"Didache of the Twelve Apostles" and "Didache of the Lord to the Gentiles through the Twelve Apostles." It is not a matter of solving here the problem of the relation of these two titles to each other and to the rest of the writing, a problem which is very complicated.' It is beyond doubt, however, that the long title (which seems inspired by Mt 28:19f) intends to present the Didache as a teaching given to converts coming from paganism.47 A passage of the duae viae itself confirms this interpretation: in Didache 2:2 it is said, "You shall not commit murder; you shall not commit adultery.48 You shall not 42 A linguistic indication that tends to support this assumption: why does he express himself just here in the following way: #5n pév xa mpdrepov dietaé apeba?
43 Daniélou, in his publications on the subject (cf. n. 23), has always had confidence in the text of Did 7:1.
44 Cf G. Schille, "Zur urchristlichen Tauflehre. Stilistische Beobachtungen am Barnabasbrief", ZNW 49 (1958) pp. 31-52.
45 Cf, the allusions to the duae viae in 1 & 2 Clement and in the Shepherd of Hermas, thus in writings which are addressed to baptized Christians.
46 Audet (Didache, pp. 91ff) complicates it still more; cf. P. Nautin, in RHR 155
(1959) pp. 210ff.
47 So already Harnack, Die Lehre, pp. 27ff, contra Bryennios.
48 Doct places the sin of adultery at the beginning, following in this the order of the Decalogue in the Septuagint (cf. also Philo, Decal 121; Clement of Alexandria,
Protr 108; Paed I1.89:1). This order must be early (cf. S. Giet, L'énigme, p. 103).
This is again an indication of the situation of origin of the duae viae in a milieu of "diaspora" Judaism and Christianity.
WILLY RORDORF
commit sodomy; you shall not commit fornication; you shall not steal; you shall not use magic; you shall not use sorcery; you shall not kill the child in the womb and you shall not kill the child already born." The precepts envisaging pederasty, magic, abortion and exposure of babies, which are opposed to the commandments of the Decalogue, are more comprehensible if they are addressed to ancient Pagans.*? The duae viae seems then to have been destined for God-fearers or proselytes in a Jewish milieu, and to Gentile Christians in a Christian milieu.
This conclusion can help us to understand why the Didache speaks of the duae viae as part of the catechetical instruction in preparation for baptism. Often, in fact, one has the impression that this testimony of the Didache was absolutely unprecedented in early Christian literature. The New Testament (apart from Heb
6:1ff) does not seem to say anything to us of a prebaptismal catechesis; most of the moral instruction of the New Testament seems linked to post-baptismal paraenesis;>° the accounts of baptism contained in Acts suggests to us that one was baptized without losing any time with a preliminary catechesis. However, we should not forget that the first baptisms were the baptisms of Jews or God-fearers converted to Christianity. These did not have any further need to be initiated into the morality of the Covenant, they knew it and practised it even before they came to be Christians. Consequently, their faith in Christ Jesus was sufficient for them to be admitted to baptism. Quite different was the situation of those first converts from Paganism seeking baptism: it was necessary to instruct them, prior to their baptism, in the rudiments of ethical behaviour in accordance with faith in one God. Saint
Irenaeus, apparently knowing of this problem, writes as follows:
Wherefore also Paul, since he was the apostle of the Gentiles, says, "I laboured more than they all" (1 Cor 15:10). For the instruction of the former, [viz., the Jews,] was an easy task...But although they who were of the circumcision still did not obey the words of God, for they were despisers, yet they were previously instructed not to commit adultery, nor fornication, nor theft, nor fraud; and that whatsover things are done to our neighbours' prejudice, were evil, and detested by God. Wherefore also they did readily agree to abstain from these things, because they had been thus instructed. But they were bound to teach the Gentiles also this very thing, that the works of such a nature were wicked, prejudicial,and useless, and destructive to those who engaged in them. Wherefore he who had received the apostolate to the Gentiles, did labour more than those who preached the Son of God among them of the circumcision. 5!
49 Cf. Audet, Didaché, pp. 286ff. See also Did 3:4. ied Cf. for example F. Hahn, Introduction to Seeberg, Der Katechismus, p. xxviii; this is one of the criticisms he makes of the studies of A. Seeberg.
4 Haer IV.24:1-2; tms. W.H. Rambaut, The Ante-Nicene Fathers I (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans), p. 495. Is there an allusion to the duae viae in this text?
THE TWO WAYS
Not only must we postulate that such was indeed the situation of the mission among the Gentiles, already in the first century, but we have indications which confirm this point of view. In addition to what Dujarier5? has provided, with respect to the New Testament, one could cite two texts from the beginning of the second century which, in all likelihood, pre-suppose prebaptismal ethical instruction. These are the letter of Pliny the Younger, on the one hand, and a passage from the Book of Elchesai, on the other. In his well-known letter to Trajan (X.96:7, trans. in J. Stevenson, A New Eusebius (London: SPCK, 1957], 13), Pliny says, speaking of the Christians whom he has interrogated:
They maintained, however, that the amount of their fault or error had been this, that it was their habit on a fixed day to assemble before daylight and recite by turns a form of words to Christ as god; and that they bound themselves with an oath, not for any crime, but not to commit theft or robbery or adultery, not to break their word, and not to deny a deposit when demanded.
According to the interpretation of this passage given by H.
Lietzmann,>3 and which still remains the most plausible, the "binding oath" (sacramental) of which the text speaks, was the baptismal oath. In that case, we must suppose that an ethical instruction has preceded baptism. The same conclusion is supported by the passage of the Book of Elchesai which Hippolytus%4 as follows:
(The one who dips himself in the water says:) "Behold, I call to witness the heaven and the water, and the holy spirits, and the angels of prayer, and the oil, and the salt, and the earth. I testify by these seven witnesses that no more shall I sin, nor commit adultery, nor steal, nor be guilty of injustice, nor be covetous, nor be actuated by hatred, nor be scornful, nor shall I take pleasure in any wicked deeds.
Although it is here a question of a second baptism, as an act of penitance, which was made by self-immersion, it is beyond doubt that it belongs strictly to the rite of first baptism.
We must add to this the testimony of the Pseudo-Clementine Preaching of Peter, a little later, it is true.55 These preachings of 52 Le parrainage, pp. 117ff. Cf. J. Daniélou, La catéchése, pp. 37ff.
53 "Die liturgischen Angaben des Pliniusbriefs", in Geschichtliche Studien fiir A.
Hauck zum 70. Geburtstag, pp. 34ff.
54 Rey. omn. haer., 1X.15:5-6 (ANF V, p. 133). Cf. with respect to this passage E. Peterson, Frithkirche, Judentum und Gnosis (Rome: Herder, 1959) pp. 221-235.
G. Kretschmar (Studien zur frithchristlichen Trinititstheologie, 1956, p. 212) rightly also refers to the baptism of Jewish proselytes. Cf. moreover the Ps.Clem.
Contestatio (1:1). os 55 Cf. G. Strecker, "Die Kerygmata Petrou", in New Testament Apocrypha Il,
WILLY RORDORF
Peter's are particularly interesting for our purpose since they reflect without doubt a prebaptismal ethical teaching which proves to be very close to the duae viae. We need only cite Homily VII:°°
Peter preaches first to Tyre. As elsewhere,>' it underlines the importance of following the precepts of the Apostolic Decree and further gives an explanation of the Golden Rule which takes up part of the Ten Commandments (cf. Did 1:2; 2:2-3). After this catechesis (the Greek text already uses the verb xatnxetv!) which lasts many days, the hearers are baptized en masse. Peter goes on to Sidon, where he takes up his catechetical teaching which leads to a large number of baptisms, speaking as follows:
But I shall not refuse to show you the way in which you must be saved.
For I have learned from the Prophet of truth the conditions fore-ordained of God...Knowing, then, these good and evil deeds, I make known unto you as it were two paths, and I shall show you by which travellers are lost and by which they are saved, being guided by God. The path of the lost, then, is broad and very smooth—it ruins them without troubling them; but the path of the saved is narrow, rugged, and in the end it saves, not without much toil, those who have journeyed through it.** And these two paths are presided over by unbelief and faith.
I believe that it is also necessary to mention, in this context, the baptismal rite of abrenuntiatio. Although it is attested explicitly only at the end of the second century,°? its roots must go back far in time. In fact, it is unthinkable that one could have created, at the end of the second century, a rite of renunciation of Satan, of his angels and his works, a rite which expresses a very marked eschatological dualism. This rite must be connected to a Jewish and Jewish Christian dualistic conception, to which was attached in its turn, as we see it, certain forms of the duae viae. But the right of renunciation of Satan implies the existence of a prior ethical catechesis.©
That is to say that there was, without doubt, an uninterrupted tradition of prebaptismal ethical instruction in the Christian church of the first two centuries, a tradition which has its roots in ed.
E. Hennecke & W. Schneemelcher (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1965) pp.
102¢f.
36 One could also cite Hom XI and XVIII.
57 Cf. the works mentioned in note 36. The translation given is from ANF VII, 269.
38 The influence of Mt 7:13f is obvious here.
*° Cf. H. Kirsten, Die Taufabsage, 1960; G. Kretschmar, in Leiturgia 5 (1970) pp. 72, 96ff.
6 Tertullian, De cor. 3:2 tells us, moreover, that the first renunciation was already made some time before the baptism. To this should be added the testimony of Justin, JApol 64 (cf. also 2 Clem 17:1).
THE TWO WAYS
Judaism, which has its Sitz im Leben in the context of the intiation of Gentile converts, and which led to the institution of the Christian catechumenate at the end of the second century. The duae viae has its place in this tradition.®!
To end this section, I would like again to make a plea. The 'interest in "catechetical" traditions in the nascent church has grown appreciably in these last few years. One asks about the catechetical structure of the Sermon on the Mount,® one looks for it in the Synoptic Gospels in their entireties; likewise, one studies again, after Carrington and Selwyn, the catechetical elements in the epistolary paraenesis of the New Testament.*+ But one generally forgets to specify whether one is speaking of preor post-baptismal catechesis. It would be wise, it seems to me, to distinguish these things more, and to reserve the term catechesis for the instruction which one is sure was given before baptism. The application of a certain methodical rigour in this domain would clarify the situation and would, at the same time, I am convinced, cast new light on the ethical instruction prior to baptism.®
Il. THE NACHLEBEN OF THE DUAE VIAE
IN CHRISTIANITY
In the first decades which followed the discovery of the Didache, people turned up all the passages in the Christian literature of the 61 It is difficult to say whether one can compare the Christian catechumenate and the Qumran "catechumenate"
(affirmatively, J. Daniélou, in RHPhR 35, 1955, 105ff); the context is in any case very different.
62 Cf. E. Massaux, The Influence of the Gospel of Saint Matthew on Christian Literature before Saint Irenaeus 1 (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 19901993); G. Bornkamm, Uberlieferung und Auslegung im Matthdusevangelium
(Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchner Verlag, 19654 [WMANT 1] p. 15 (Cf. idem, in Mélanges Dodd, 1956, p. 225); J. Jeremias, The Sermon on the Mount, trns. N.
Perrin (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1963 [Biblical Series 2]) pp. 19ff; C.H. Dodd, "The primitive Catechism and the Sayings of Jesus", in New Testament Essays in Memory of T.W. Manson, 1959, pp. 106-118; W.D. Davies, The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964) pp. 370ff; O. Hanssen, in Lohse, Der Ruf Jesu (op.cit.) pp. 94-111.
63 Cf. G. Schille, in NTS 4 (1957-1958) pp. 1-21; 101-114.
64 C.H. Dodd, Gospel and Law: the Relation of Faith and Ethics in Early Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965°); W. Schrage, Die konkreten Einzelgebote in der paulinischen Pariinese, 1961; K. Wegenast, Das Verstdndnis der Tradition bei Paulus und in den Deuteropaulinen (Neukirchen-Vluyn:
Neukirchner Verlag, 1962 [WMANT 8)); cf. also G. Schille, in ZNW 46 (1955) pp.
81ff; ZNW 48 (1957) pp. 270-280; ZNW 51 (1960) pp. 112-131; F.L. Cross, J Peter. A Paschal Liturgy (London: Mowbray, 1954); M.E. Boismard, in RB 63
(1956) pp. 182-208; RB 64 (1957) pp. 161-183.
65 The close relationship between the duae viae of the Didache and the Sermon on the Mount is undeniable (cf. the works mentioned in n. 62). Do they have the same Sitz im Leben? Cf. also J. Daniélou, La catéchése aux premiers siécles, 1968, p. 134f.
WILLY RORDORF
first three centuries which cited the duae viae or seemed to allude ~ to it.6© Two texts have come to be added in 1907 and 1914. These are the Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching of St. Irenaeus,*' and the Sermon De centesima, de sexagesima, de tricesima.® A.
Turck®? has the honour of having made the connection between the first text and the duae viae. As far as the Sermon is concerned, J.
Daniélou" has seen that it cites Did 6:2; we shall come back to it.
It is not my intention to add to this list of citations and allusions; moreover one cannot always say with certainty whether the allusions that one believes one has found really refer to the duae viae. I intend rather to study those texts of the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries which seem to me to be influenced by the duae viae and which noone has taken much account of. These texts show us at the same time that the Sitz im Leben of the duae viae has changed in the course of its history.
The first text to cite is the Epitome of the Divine Institutions of Lactantius. In chapters 53-62, where Lactantius takes up book
VI of the Divine Institutions, De vero culto, the influence of the duae viae is undeniable.7! In fact, we not only find allusions to one or another passage from the duae viae, but—what is more—we find the entire framework of the duae viae as it is preserved for us in the Didache and the Doctrina apostolorum. At the beginning is placed the theme of the two ways of life and death. The way of life is explained in the following way: firstly, one must love God who made us, secondly, one must love one's neighbour. Love of the neighbour is explained, in its turn, by the Golden Rule (cf. Did/Doct 1:1-2). One must first combat vices, then plant virtues.72 To combat vices, one must begin by tearing up their roots in the heart: the passions (ira, avaritia, libido); then, one will be able to keep the Decalogue and the other
66 A. Harnack, in his edition of the Didache (n. 37), already presented a rich dossier of parallels, but it was above all A. Seeberg who, in his various publications (cf. n. 12), assembled a vast documentation on this subject; cf. also G.
Resch, Das Aposteldecret, 1905, pp. 92ff.
67 Published by Ter-Mekerttschian, in TU 31/1, 1907.
68 Published by R. Reitzenstein, "Eine frithchristliche Schrift von den dreierlei
Friichten des christlichen Lebens", ZNW 15 (1914) pp. 60-90.
69 Op.cit. (n. 7) pp. 128ff.
70 In his review of J. Liébaert, Les enseignements moraux des Péres apostoliques, in RSR 59 (1971) p. 68. Cf. now his article in VigChr 25 (1971) pp. 71-81.
71 Despite the statement to the contrary by B. Altaner, "Zum Problem", p. 162.
Cf. M. Gerhardt, Das Leben und die Schriften des Lactantius (Erlangen Thesis), 1924, pp. 121-128.
7" But, as Lactantius says in a formula: primum est enim non nocere, proximum, prodesse. Ambrose, OfMin I, again follows this scheme, and in this exact way, he surpasses Cicero.
THE TWO WAYS
Christian precepts (cf. Did/Doct 2-4).73 Finally, one can pass to the Christian virtue, which is love (cf. Did 1:3-2:1). Of course,
Lactantius develops the primitive teaching of the duae viae in the light of the Christian philosophy which was his own; but it is all the more interesting to establish that an ancient manual of Jewish
Christian ethics could have served him as the basis to do uty because this instruction proved so substantial that it could not be abandoned, and at the same time so supple that it could be transformed in its function for the needs of a new epoch. This endeavour of Lactantius, innovator and at the same time profoundly attached to the tradition, could perhaps inspire us today when it is also a matter of reformulating the Christian ethic in a new language.74
A second text which I wish to cite is the sermon which is found at the end of the Canons of Hippolytus.75 Canon 38, the last of the collection, bears the title: "Concerning the night when our
Lord was raised: that a person should not sleep on this night and that one should bathe (previously). Concerning the person who sins after baptism, and an explanation of this; concerning the prohibition of what one must not (do), and the practice of what one must (do)." In the list of titles, at the beginning of the collection, one reads as follows: "And if anyone wishes to imitate the angels." Very quickly, the author passes over to direct discourse; this part of Canon 38 seems then to be a sermon given during the Paschal Vigil. The preacher—the moment was well chosen to do it—repeats the baptismal liturgy in ordér to exhort his listeners.7¢
If they have rejected Satan, they must persevere, as good soldiers, in their promise, and not return to evil deeds, or else the Lord will not recognize them as his in the time of judgment: they must
"Walk in the precepts of Christ."
Then follows a long list "concerning the things which one must not do," a list which, in both literary genre and in content, resembles very closely the duae viae; it is followed, at the end, by a list of things "which one must do" which, itself, recalls the "Gospel section" of the duae viae.
The list of things "which one must not do" finishes in this way:
"If the Christian perseveres in all this, that is to say imitates Christ, he will be at his right hand, he will be sent with the angels
73 It is true that Did/Doct do exactly the opposite of Lactantius: they first repeat the sins condemned by the Decalogue and then show those passions pushing a person to commit these sins.
7 Cf., in a general way, the fine remarks of J. Daniélou, La catéchese, pp.
170ff.
75 Cf. the recent edition of R.-G. Coquin, in Patrologia Orientalis 31/2 (1966) pp. 413ff. For the editor, the Canons of Hippolytus has been edited in Egypt, about
A.D. 340.
76 One must suppose that there were newly baptized among them also.
WILLY RORDORF
and will be honoured by him; since he has taken the crown of the good, has accomplished his duty and has kept the faith, he will receive the crown of life which has been announced to those who love him,"—a passage which recalls the end of the Doctrina apostolorum. However, the text continues thus: "If the Christian wishes to be of angelic rank, then he shuns women once and for all and determines in his heart neither to look at them nor to eat with them. He swiftly gives away all his goods to the poor, he has the rule of the angels in humility of heart and of body." The preacher addresses himself here to a different class of Christians, who go beyond what the ordinary faithful do; these select Christians live in celibacy and are voluntarily poor, give themselves to suffering and "give themselves to death every moment, because of Christ, for the faith," as the text says. They have to undergo the three temptations of Christ, "which are gluttony, pride and covetousness." It is interesting to note that this part of the sermon has close parallels in certain monastic texts belonging to the same milieu.77 One must add to these texts the Syntagma doctrinae and the Pseudo-Athanasian Faith of the 318 Fathers which, as is well known, incorporates summaries of the duae viae. There also we find these two classes of Christians, but it receives a supplement reserved to the novdfovteg which is in the same vein as the sermon preserved in the Canons of Hippolytus. If one reads these texts, one is tempted to say that chapter 6 of the Didache to which these texts refer, reflects the same ascetic tradition; it seems that the form of the duae viae attested by the manuscript of Constantinople has been marked by this tradition.78
If we turn towards the West, we find confirmation of what we have come to see. In his explanation of the Sower (Mt 13:1 ff, par.), the author of the sermon De centesima, de sexagesima, de tricesima" distinguishes three classes of Christians: the martyrs
7 Yt is a matter of the Pseudo-Athanasian Treatise on Virginity (which has, moreover, utilized the prayers of Did 9-10), of the two treatises of Evagrius of oe and a text of John Cassian, pointed out by R.-G. Coquin, Patrologia, pp.
78 The relationship of this manuscript with the Liber graduum has been noted by A. Adam, "Erwagungen", pp. 25f, by E. Peterson, Friihkirche, pp. 150f, and by G. Kretschmar, "Ein Beitrag zur Frage nach dem Ursprung friihchristlicher
Askese", ZThK 61 (1964) pp. 40f (the latter links the tradition in question to itinerant Syrian ascetics; it goes back to primitive Christianity and is reflected in the Gospel of Matthew and in the Apocalypse of John). In the other texts which reproduce the duae viae (cf. n. 6), the equivalent of Did 6:2-3 is missing; Const
VII.19-21 also omits Did 6:2.
79 According to R. Reitzenstein ("Friihchristliche Schrift"), the sermon was written as early as the end of the second century in North Africa (cf. also J. Daniélou, op.cit.); according to D. de Bruyne, in ZNW 15 (1914) p. 281, it is from the third century.
THE TWO WAYS
who produce fruit "one hundred-fold", the ascetics who produce fruit "sixty-fold", and the chaste who produce fruit "thirty-fold" .
To support his point of view, he slips in on behalf of the martyrs, the citation of scriptura which goes as follows: si potes quidem, fili, omnia praecepta domini facere, eris consummatus; sin autem, uel duo praecepta, amare dominum ex totis praecordiis et similem tibi quasi [te ipsum]. The beginning is an almost literal citation of Didache 6:2a;®° the end is a valuable commentary on the very obscure phrase of Did 6:2b: "but if not, do what you can": we now hear that "what is possible" is the double love commandment, that is to say the very contents of the duae viae of which it is the explanation. The author of the sermon is eager to add that the fulfilment of the double love commandment is still not perfection, but that there are various stages (gradus) to pass through on the way (uia) which leads to perfection. We are in the same perspective that we have found in the sermon at the end of the Canons of Hippolytus: the duae viae is good for the mass of believers, but the "perfect" Christian goes further in his ascetic effort and in his readiness for martyrdom.
In the sixth century, the situation has evolved still further: the duae viae is no longer an instruction addressed to all believers and which receives in ascetic circles a characteristic supplement, but is has become part of the monastic rule itself, both in Egypt and in the West. For Egypt we have the well-known evidence of the Arabic Life of Shenoude;*' for the West we have the Regula
Benedicti.*2 In my opinion, it is undeniable that St. Benedict, in his prologue and fourth chapter of his Rule, was inspired by a form of the duae viae. In the prologue, the master addresses the sons and instructs them, in the manner of Psalm 34 (33), the "way of life" which tells us to do good and to avoid evil; this way of health is straight and narrow, expecially at the beginning, but it leads those who persevere to eternal life. Chapter 4 gives the list of things to do and to avoid; it begins with the double love commandment and also cites the Golden Rule (cf. Did/Doct 1:2), then
80 The only change: 6Aov Tov fvyé6v becomes omnia praecepta.
81 Cf, L.E. Iselin, in TU 13/1, 1895, p. 10f. The Arabic text is only from the seventh century, but it is the translation of a Coptic text which goes back to the sixth century, if not the fifth century. The teaching of the two ways seems moreover already to have played a rle in the earlier cenobitic tradition: cf. the first catechesis of Pachomius, edited and translated by L.-T. Lefort, in CSCO 159, 1965, pp. ff and CSCO 160, 19642, pp. 1ff. By contrast, the Rules of Saint Basil does not seem to have been inspired by the duae viae despite their use of the double love commandment.
82 Cf. the recent edition of R. Hanslik, in CSEL 75, 1960. According to B.
Steidle, Die Regel St. Benedikts, 1952, pp. 24ff, Benedict was eventually inspired by the rule of the monks of Lérins.
WILLY RORDORF
it makes one follow the precepts found in the second table of the Decalogue (cf. Did/Doct 2). The rest of the chapter also has many parallels of detail with Did/Doct 3-4 and with Did 1:3-2:1. Of course, precepts with a typically monastic character are now found mixed up with the primitive teaching of the duae viae, but the framework of the latter is still visible.8? Once the duae viae had made its way into the monastic tradition, it ceased to exist outside it.8+ It could be that the Waldenses have tried to use the duae viae in their preaching which essentially calls for conversion; but it is not certain.®
Today when we know the importance that the duae viae has had for the ancient Church, one must pose the question as to whether it is not necessary for it to regain a place in our catechetical instruction. I do not know a better way to express the value of the duae viae than by availing myself of Cardinal Daniélou's own teaching: "The theme of the two ways is much more than a pedagogical schema or a method of presentation. One would have believed it possible to see the description of the way of life presented as a treatise on virtues and that of death as a treatise on vices. It is, in fact, much more than that. To place the candidate for baptism before the two ways which open before him, is to place him before a decisive option: the renunciation of Satan or adherence to Jesus Christ. The whole Biblical tradition witnesses to it. The way of life is that of those who have chosen God. It is this which gives to the whole of the moral catechesis according to the schema of the two ways its character of conflict, of struggle, particularly at the time of preparation for baptism, and moreover for all the Christian life. But it then concerns every other matter in a "good education". This "moral" is indeed rather the exposure of a supernatural reality which shows that the soul must be wrested from the power of the forces of evil. It denotes the concrete path of the living faith. The theme of the two ways is then an essential catechetical topos." pteert depends himself on the Regula Magistri (cf. SC 105, 1966, p.
8* Besides the manuscript of Constantinople, which has preserved the text of the Didache itself, there are only a few medieval writings which keep the vague memory of this "apocryphal writing"; cf J. Schlecht, Doctrina XII Apostolorum
(Freiburg-im-Breisgau: Herder, 1901) pp. 62ff, and J.-P. Audet, op.cit., pp. 87ff.
85 Cf..on this subject H. Bohmer, in RE 20 (19083) p. 827.
86 Ta catéchése, pp. 130f.