1 Select, then, for yourselves bishops and dea
1 Select, then, for yourselves bishops and dea cons worthy of the Lord, mild-tempered men who are not greedy, who are honest and v . proven, for they too perform the services of prophets and teachers for you.
2 So do not disregard them, for they are the per sons who are honored <by God> among you, together with the prophets and the teachers.
6. On the Election of Bishops and Deacons (15.1-2)
Analysis This text is another that in my opinion need not be attributed to a second redaction;1 it comes from the pen of the Didachist. The section is evoked by the contrast ing situations of itinerant or resident charismatics on the one hand and the "local clergy" on the other. The local communities have begun (probably long since) to choose officials from their own ranks, so that the itinerant charismatics, or those who are now settling down, col lide with the group of officeholders representing the local community. The Didache is concerned to achieve a resolution between these two groups.2
Comment The procedure for making the choice is not prescribed.
XeipoTovelv here means "choose" or "elect," not "appoint."4 Those who are chosen bear the titles eitLOKOitOL Kai Stanovoi) this is most probably to be understood to mean that a number of eirioKonoL and/or bianovoi are to work in each community.5 Therefore, in the region from which the tradition of the Didache comes, (1) there is not yet a monepiscopate. (2) The community officers do not include the group called
Trpea(3vTepoL.6 7 The phrase in the Didache that mentions bishops and deacons recalls Phil 1:1 (ovv ctuokottolc;
Kai biaKOVOiq),1 and given that this parallel is not acci dental we would have to recognize the retarded nature of the development of canon law in the Didache s milieu
(Philippians would have to be about a half century earli er than the redactional level of the Didache). The absence of presbyters apparently indicates that the devel opment of the "local clergy" perceptible in the Didache's milieu was not specificallyJewish-Christian in its influ ences.8 9 10 Further, (3) the eirioKOTrot. Kai 8l(xkovol are not itinerant charismatics but ecclesiastical officials "on the local scene." (4) One becomes a bishop or deacon not by being called to follow the Kyrios in the same pointed
■ la-b First of all the Didachist calls on the community to choose their own officers or representatives from among themselves (v. la). That call can scarcely be understood to mean that he is thereby introducing a new custom; rather he is expressing an opinion (also intend ed to establish a rule) regarding already existing usages.
We must in all probability understand the text to mean that the choice of officers is the business of the whole community.3 The injunction to choose officers is, at any rate, addressed to the entire (individual) congregation.
Rordorf and Tuilier, Doctrine, 49, 63, 93. There are also some propositions regarding the posterior character of chap. 15 in Kraft, Didache, 64, 174
("This is one of the most recently composed sections of the Didache")-, and Giet, L'Enigme,
240-44.
Niederwimmer, "Itinerant Radicalism," 333-38.
One should note that the observations regarding the canonical-legal developments in the region of the Didache's tradition do not permit any generaliz ing conclusions. Cf. also the restrictions in Schollgen, "Church Order," 69-70. Schollgen emphasizes as well (pp. 62, 69) that the Didachist does not introduce any new offices. But were there really no conflicts at all between the two groups (p.
70)?
Giselbert Deussen emphasizes the differences between this and 1 Clement ("Weisen der Bischofs-
wahl im 1. Clemensbrief und in der Didache," ThGl 62 [1972] 132).
4 XetpoTovelv, "elect" or "choose": 2 Cor 8:19; Ignatius Phld. 10.1; Smyrn. 11.2; Pol. 7.2; "appoint":
Acts 14:23; Titus 1:9 v.l. (cf. also the subscriptiones to 2 Timothy and Titus); BAGD, s.v.; Eduard Lohse,
"Xetp ktA.," TDNT 9 (1974) 433-34; Horst Balz, "XCLpoToueoi," EDNT 3 (1993) 464-65.
5 Kleist (Didache, 164 n. 91) suggests another possi bility: "the plural 'bishops' was perhaps meant to mean 'a bishop and his presbyters'" (?).
6 In the Apostolic Constitutions the presbyters are promptly added (7.31.1).
7 1 Clem. 42.4-5 and 1 Tim 3:1-10 must be excluded as parallels.
8 Cf. Rordorf and Tuilier, Doctrine, 77.
9 The Apostolic Constitutions has expanded these.
10 For the literary genre of the text, cf. 1 Tim 3:1-10;
15.1-2 sense that still marks Did. 11.4-12, but by being elected by a local congregation. Finally, (5) the function of bish ops and deacons is therefore not ordered to the whole church, but to the needs and tasks in the individual con gregation by whom they were elected. ently was not always without friction). The Didachist's language is carefully chosen here. AeiTOvpyelv XeirovpyLav is paronomasia;15 the meaning of the expression in context, unfortunately, is not completely clear.16 In any case, it refers to the sacred office that prophets and teachers as well as the "local clergy" perform for the community.17 The point of the statement in v. lc is clear: both groups should be able to function alongside and in cooperation with each other. It is generally conceded that the prophets and teachers exercise a sacred office in the community; the congregation must recognize that Here follow some very concise9 directions regarding the qualifications required of candidates for the office of eTrioKOTroq or biouiovoq (v. lb).10 The most general qualification is that they be "worthy of the Lord," oi tov nvpiov (sc. 'ZijctoO).11 Other, special attributes follow: avbpeq Tipotelq ("mild-tempered men"),12 6tf>iXa.pyvpoi
("not greedy," they have to handle the community's funds);13 aXpdeiq ("honest"), bebonipaopevoL
("proved," i.e., not neophytes—only tried and tested Christians may be chosen as officers of the community).14
■ 1c-2 Finally, vv. lc and 2 regulate the relationships between the prophets and teachers on the one hand and the local officials on the other (a relationship that appar
215-31; ThWNT 10/2.1162-63 (literature); Ceslas Spicq, Notes de Lexicographie Neo-Testamentaire (2 vols. and Sup; OBO 22.1-3; Fribourg: Editions
Universitaires; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; Paris: Gabalda, 1978-82) 1.475-81 (ET:
Theological Lexicon of the New Testament [trans. and ed. James D. Ernest; 3 vols.; Peabody, Mass.:
Hendrickson, 1994] 2.378-84); Horst Balz, "AcirovpyLa," EDNT 2 (1991) 347-49; Emil Joseph
Lengeling, "Liturgie," Handbuch theologischer Grundbegriffe 2 (1973) 75-97. In this passage the concept is already intended as a designation for Christian worship, and it refers especially to the activity of the prophets and teachers and that of the local officers.
This language is clearly distinct from that in the NT (apart from Acts 13:2, where a later usage is visible).
Compare from the early period 1 Clem. 44.2-6. For the development of usage in this regard (for which the example in Did. 15.1 is very important), cf.
Strathmann, "XecTovpyeu," TDNT 4 (1967) 228-29; Lengeling, "Liturgie," 76; Balz, "XeLTOvpyia,"
EDNT 2 (1991) 349.
17 Contrasted here are on the one hand the TtpoipproLL Kal dcdaoKaXoL and on the other the eidoKOTtoL Kai
5:17-25; Titus 1:5-9; 1 Pet 5:1-5; Polycarp Phil. 5.2; 6.1. Similar admonitions, much expanded, are found in the Didascalia apostolorum; cf. Didasc.
(Syriac) 3 (CSCO 401.27-30/402.27-30); 4 (401.52-58/402.43-49); 7-8 (401.75-102/ 402.67-98); 11-12 (407.127-48/408.119-34); 16
(407.172-76/408.155-60). Harnack pointed out that in the Didache the required qualifications are the same for emoKOTroc and buxKOVoi without dis tinction (Lehre', 57); cf. also Audet, Didache, 465.
11 Cf. Ignatius Eph. 2.1, 6 deov dgiog Kai vp-tiv; Rom.
10.2, allot deov Kai vpav ("worthy of God and of you"); Eph. 4.1, to yap <i|iovopaorov vpiw Tcpeopvreptov, tov Peov a|i ov ("for your justly famous presbytery, worthy of God"); compare, in a broader sense, Eph. 15.1; Magn. 12.
12 For this, cf., e.g., 1 Tim 3:3 (the bishop); the admo nition in 1 Pet 5:3 (the presbyters); Polycarp Phil.
5.2, evoTrXayxvoc (the deacons); 6.1 evcnrXayxt'oc, eig navrag eXerpioveg ("compassionate and merci ful to all," of the presbyters).
13 1 Tim 3:3 (the bishop); Polycarp Phil. 5.2 (the dea con); cf. similar statements in Titus 1:7 (the bishop);
1 Pet 5:2 (the presbyters).
14 For aXpdelg, beboKipaopevoc, cf. deboKipaopevog, <xAr\div6g in Did. 11.11 (the prophets); aApdivog in didiKOVOL. Nothing is said about the apostles in the first group because at the time of the Didachist there appear to have been no more apostles.
Differently de Halleux, "Ministers," 313; he also concludes here, from the absence of the article before dcdaoKaXoL in the phrase 7rpo<prj7ai Kai
ScSaoKaXoL, that they are one and the same group (see above at Did. 13.2).
13.1 (the prophets); aApfhvog in 13.2 (the teach ers). If 11.11 comes from the Didachist, these may be characteristic expressions from his pen.
15 On this see, BDF, §488, la; BDR, §488, la.
16 For this word group see Hermann Strathmann and Rudolf Meyer, "XeiTovpyeu," TDNT 4 (1967)
the local officials also (nai otVToi is emphatic) perform this kind of sacred service for the community.18 designation, please note, applies to both groups; it is obvious as regards the itinerant charismatics, but it is also true of the local officials, who are equally entitled to this honorable title. The last statements (vv. lc and 2) probably indicate that the local officials, together with the prophets and teachers (or, to the extent that the last two groups are absent, they alone) lead the worship ser vice that formerly was in the hands of the prophets and teachers alone.23 It remains striking, in all this, that noth ing is yet said about an obligation to support the "local clergy." For the time being that is reserved to the other group (cf. 13.1-3, 5-7).24
■ 2 The Didachist's remarks apparently serve to protect the elected local officials from disparagement: /xr) ovp imepibr)T€ avTovq ("do not disregard them," i.e., the bishops and deacons: v. 2a).19 'Tirepopotu means to over look someone, that is, to disparage or have a low opin ion of them.20 Rather they have the same rank as the prophets and teachers; both groups together (auroi . . . pera twv -npo(pr}Tutv nai 8i8aoKaAuv) make up the list of those who are TenpripePOL vptiv (v. 2b). To rert/Lir/pevoin we should probably add tov $eou,22 and the whole expression would then mean: "those among you who are honored by God, those among you to whom
God has assigned a special Tiprj, a special rank." This 18 I believe it is wrong to assume (as in Harnack's view of the history) that the episkopoi and diakonoi origi nally had purely administrative functions and only later assumed the teaching office of the charismat ics. See Niederwimmer, "Itinerant Radicalism," 337 n. 56.
19 Rordorf and Tuilier (Doctrine, 194 n. 1) refer to Apoc. Pet. (NHC 7.3), p. 79, lines 23-31 (James M.
Robinson, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library in English [3d ed.; San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1990] 376).
The bishops and deacons are rejected there (in a gnostic context), however, for entirely different rea sons.
20 As in Barn. 3.3 (a free quotation of Isa 58:7). See BAGD, s.v.
22 Tpdiv is a partitive genitive; both these suggestions are already in Harnack, Lehre, 58.
23 Did. 15.1-2 excludes the Montanism hypothesis:
Creed, "Didache," 384.
24 The relationships in chaps. 11-14 and 15 are described quite differently by Gottfried Schille
("Das Recht der Propheten und Apostel — gemeinderechtliche Beobachtungen zu Didache Kapitel
11-13," in Paul Watzel and Gottfried Schille, eds.; Theologische Versuche [Berlin: Evangelische VerlagsAnstalt, 1966] 102-3, and passim). For a critique see Niederwimmer, "Itinerant Radicalism," 338 n.
60.
21 Comparable, but somewhat distant, are Clement of Alexandria Strom. 6.13, 107.2 (GCS3 2.485); Hypotyposes in Eusebius Hist. eccl. 2.1.3 (itpoTeTipri pivot);
Hippolytus De Antichr. 2 (GCS 1.2.4).