The Didache, an Early Church Manual

The Didache is a short manual in Greek, headed as the teaching of the Lord through the twelve apostles to the nations (Didache 1–6). It begins with the words “There are two ways, one of life and one of death”. Its first six chapters are moral instruction, with sayings close to those of the Sermon on the Mount (Didache 1–6).

The rest gives rules for a community. Those who have received this instruction are to be baptized “into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” in running water; if there is none, in other water, and failing that by pouring water three times on the head. The baptizer and the candidate fast beforehand (Didache 7). Believers are to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays and to say the Lord’s Prayer three times a day, in a form very close to Matthew’s (Didache 8) (Matthew 6:9–13).

For the eucharist the manual supplies prayers of thanksgiving, first over the cup and then over the broken bread. One of them asks that, as the bread was once scattered over the hills and was gathered into one, so the church may be gathered from the ends of the earth into the kingdom. Only the baptized may eat and drink. A further thanksgiving after the meal ends with the Aramaic cry Maran atha (Didache 9–10). On the Lord’s day the community is to meet, break bread and give thanks after confessing its sins, “that your sacrifice may be pure”, and those who have quarrelled must first be reconciled (Didache 14).

The manual knows two kinds of minister. Apostles and prophets travel from place to place and are to be received, but tested: one who stays more than two days or asks for money is a false prophet. A true prophet who settles is to receive the first-fruits (Didache 11–13). The community is also to appoint for itself bishops and deacons, who carry out for it the service of the prophets and teachers (Didache 15). The book ends with a warning to be ready for the last days (Didache 16).

Eusebius, in the early fourth century, lists “the so-called Teachings of the Apostles” among books that were known but not received as Scripture (Eusebius, Church History 3.25.4). The complete Greek text is known today from a single manuscript that came to light in the nineteenth century; see the Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles). It records what one community was told to do, at a stage when wandering prophets and resident officers stood side by side.