rjq eyvwpLOctq pplv bid Irjoov tov ttotLboq oov who understand themselves as the table company of chil
9.1-5 custom, a mixture of wine and water), lifts it a little above the surface of the table, and speaks the following blessing or a similar text:
OTOvpev ool ("We give you thanks"), but this is only a formal difference without "theological" significance. In place of the address "Lord our God, Ruler of the uni verse," we read "our Father" (iraTep rjpuiv)9 This predi cation certainly expresses the self-concept of the group, who understand themselves as the table company of chil dren who receive the goods of time and eternity from the hand of the heavenly Father.10 An important change from the background prayers is the statement about the object for which thanks are given. The phrase 0:7(0: dp.'KeXoq ("holy vine") takes up the Jewish expression
1. EvxoipLOTOV(X6V OOL, TTOTep r)p,QV, 2. virep Trjq dyiotq dpireXov Aavlb tov -KotLboq oou, rjq eyvwpLOctq pplv bid Irjoov tov ttotLboq oov
3. ool rj bo%a elq rovq oduivaq.
Part (1) expresses the blessing addressed to God; (2) formulates, in two succinct clauses, the object over which the praise and thanksgiving are spoken; (3) concludes the brief formula with a doxology. This doxology may be the response of those gathered at the table.6 The whole formulation is connected, here and in 9.3, with Jewish meal prayers. Indeed, 9.2 is based on the most common
Jewish blessing over cup or wine: "Blessed art thou, Lord [Dun "ID ("fruit of the vine") and thus clearly shows its dependence on traditional Jewish wine blessings. The "fruit of the vine" has been replaced, however, by the expression "holy vine of David."11 The obscure phrase our God, Ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine."7 The differences between the model and this prayer should be noted; they vary in importance.8 In place of nntf "[TO ("Blessed be you") we find evxotpLlier Lietzmann, Mass, 189-90, with reference to the well-known analysis of Wilhelm Bousset on the source of the prayers in Const. 7.33-38 ("Eine jiidische Gebetssammlung im siebenten Buch der Apostolischen Konstitutionen," Nachrichtungen der
Gottinger Wissenschaftlicher Gesellschaft, PhilosophischHistorischer Klasse [1915] 435-89). Voobus
(.Liturgical Traditions, 160-62) expressed some reser vations about this. There is cautious agreement with Dibelius in Wengst, Didache, 53 n. 177, and passim.
In general, for the predication of "father" to God in contemporary Judaism, see the overviews in Str-B
Str-B 4.616. There is occasionally a reminiscence of the kiddush (on this, with corrections of false ideas:
Jeremias, Eucharistic Words, 26-29). Kiddush is "a
blessing pronounced at the beginning of each Sabbath or feast day," by the head of the household
(Jeremias, Eucharistic Words, 26). Kiddush is spoken over a cup of wine; a blessing of the wine then fol lows. Among those who proposed that the sequence in Did. 9.2 especially reflects that of the kiddush
(more precisely of the blessing of wine connected with the kiddush) were Klein, "Gebete," 134-35; 9
Middleton, "Eucharistic Prayers," 261-62; Voobus, Liturgical Traditions, 163. The attempt to create a / 1.392-96, 410; Gottlob Schrenk, "itarfip ktX.,"
TDNT 5 (1967) 978-82; H.-W. Kuhn, "d|3/3d," EDNT special connection to the kiddush is, in my opinion, unnecessary. In that case, one would have to posit that the meal celebration in the Didache liturgy orig inally took place on every Sabbath eve, and in fact
Klein did propose that ("Gebete," 144).
The Jewish blessing of wine before the meal is spo ken by each individual, and not (as is the blessing of bread) by one (namely, the head of the household) in the name of all.
This was suggested by Dibelius, "Mahl-Gebete," 119.
Cf. m. Ber. 6.1 (ed. Holtzmann, 72-73).
Dibelius attempted to show that the basis is not the older Jewish blessing of wine, but a spiritualizing form created in the Hellenistic synagogue ("MahlGebete," 119; now in A. F. Verheule, ed.,
Religionsgeschichtliche Studien: Aufsatze zur religionsgeschichte des hellenistischen Zeitalters [NovTSup 50;
1 (1990) 1-2; Otto Michel, "itaTpp," EDNT 3 (1993) 53-57; Jeremias, Abba, 19-22 (ET: Prayers, 15-18).
For the predication TDK, "our father" (combined with 13d7q, "our king"), in the Jewish literature of the early common era (1st to late 2d century), cf. esp. Jeremias, Abba, 28-33 (ET: Prayers, 24-29).
There can scarcely be a direct influence of the "Abba, Father" of the post-Easter experience of the Spirit (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6).
I am not convinced that the term dyia dpneXoq is reminiscent of the Jewish kiddush (thus Klein,
"Gebete," 134-35; Voobus, Liturgical Traditions, 163).
Leiden: Brill, 1979] 231-85). (See also his analo gous suggestions for the following prayers.) See ear