The Didache And Its Impact On Christian Liturgy And Discipline

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The Didache and Its Impact on Christian Liturgy and Discipline

The text of the Didache was a manuscript discovered by Metropolitan Bryennios in a library in Constantinople in 1873, and was later published in 1883. The work consists of two parts, the first section, known as “Two Ways,” offering teachings on the way of life versus the way of death, and the second section dealing with issues of liturgy and different understandings of church discipline (The Study of Liturgy, page 85). The Didache is the Greek word for “teach” and this text is also called the “The Teaching of the Apostles.”
The date of the Didache remains unclear, but there are different proposed time lines. They are as follows: 1. The Didache is an actual document of Church Order dating back to a very early period around 80-100 or earlier 2. It is a combination of sources dating from the second century based on an older period so that the reader could gain a sense of earliest Christian life 3. The Didache is a document that consists of varied stages of development, but originated from the first century possibly as early as the year 60 (The Study of Liturgy, page 86.) The editor, Andrew Louth, of Early Christian Writings (page 189) argues that the work is from the early first century, and that it does not appear to be made to appear primitive, and that it is indeed authentic. However, other scholars argue that the Didachist, in “The Two Ways” section shows knowledge of the Gospel of Matthew and Luke that would date the text into the second century (Early Christian Fathers, page 163). Given these debates, it is hard to pinpoint the exact date of the text, and this leads to further debate about the authenticity of the early Christian traditions described in the writings. This seems to be a consistent struggle in doing through examination of the first century due to the lack of clarity and confirmed date of documents, and, more importantly, the lack of histo...