how to be a christian in the first century: the didache

an ancient text gives us insight to the life of the early church

Dec 17, 2024

I don’t know that I’ve mentioned it on here yet, but I’m a fan of the Bible. A big fan. I believe that Scripture is the cornerstone of the Christian life. But even today, if I could get some advice and direction from reputable and respected believers on how to live out my faith, I’d certainly take it!

Imagine, though, if you lived only a few decades after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. You might have access to a copy of the Old Testament. You may have one of the Gospels and one or two of the letters, but you certainly wouldn’t have a complete copy of the Bible as we have it today.

Now what if someone offered you a little book containing the teachings of Jesus’ Apostles, in fact, with some of Christ’s own words in it, as well as directions on how to receive Holy Communion, how to baptize new believers, and some guidelines for what Christians should and shouldn’t do. Sounds helpful, right?

What if you lived over 19 centuries later, and you wondered how the first and second generations of believers lived and worshiped? If only there were a book that could tell us.

The last page of the Didache. Source: Wikimedia.

what is the didache?

Didache (pronounced DID-ah-kay) means teaching, and it’s a shorthand version of the full title, which translates “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.” The text is mentioned and even quoted by many early church writers, but the full document was lost until 1883, when it was rediscovered in a library in Constantinople. A Latin translation was discovered in 1900 containing most of the contents of the Greek text.

Scholars date the text anywhere from A.D. 65 to 160, but most seem to believe it dates to before A.D. 100.1 This means the text was likely written during or shortly after the life of John the Apostle!

what is in the didache?

The Didache is divided into 16 chapters, but they are very short; one chapter clocks in at only 72 words in one English translation! In fact, the whole thing in English is less than 1,650 words, and it would take around eleven minutes to read aloud.

the two ways

More broadly, the document can be divided into three sections. The first section, chapters 1-6, is known as The Two Ways. The Way of Life consists of obeying God’s commandments:

The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you.2

This section also includes many of the teachings of Jesus, such as “If someone strikes your right cheek, turn to him the other also.” But it also includes a list of forbidden sins: murder, adultery, theft, magic and witchcraft, and abortion! Yes, Christians have been pro-life all the way back to the first century!3

the rites of the church

The second section, chapters 7-10, deal with the rites of the church: baptism, fasting, prayer, and Holy Communion.

baptism. Christians are to be baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, an early explicit reference to the Holy Trinity. Baptism is to be done in “living water,” (probably meaning flowing water) if available, and cold water is preferred over warm. If not enough water is available, water should be poured over the head three times. This seems to assume that immersion is the preferred method.4

fasting. The person being baptized should fast for a day or two beforehand, and the person doing the baptizing should fast as well. The text also assumes two fast days a week, but suggests that a Christian shouldn’t fast on Mondays and Thursdays, because that’s when the hypocrites fast, probably a reference to non-Messianic Jews. Instead, the Christian should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays.5

prayer. The reader is warned not to pray like the hypocrites, but rather to pray “as the Lord commanded in his Gospel. The Lord’s Prayer is then given, in a form very similar to that in the Gospel of Matthew. This prayer, the text says, should be prayed three times a day.6

Holy Communion. This section gives us less direction on the sacrament than the section on baptism does. The first thing we might note is that the elements are given in the opposite order than we are used to today: the cup comes first, then the broken bread. A prayer is given for each element, but they are quite a bit different from what we would expect today. For example, the prayer for the cup runs thusly: “We thank thee, our Father, for the holy vine of David Thy servant, which You madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever..”7 The text does warn that only baptized believers should take communion. Chapter 10 concludes the section with a post-communion prayer.

church leaders, the Lord’s day, and the second coming

The third section covers a few different topics, the largest being on visiting believers, both ordinary Christians as well as traveling ministers. Here, the Didache gives us some curious specifics which no doubt would have made more sense in the culture of the time. For instance, a visiting apostle or prophet should only stay one or two days; “But if he remains three days, he is a false prophet.”8 Of course, visiting ministers should only be welcomed if they are teaching sound doctrine.

Local prophets and local bishops should be supported by the church for the work that they do. The church should gather and break bread together every week on the Lord’s day, but only after confessing their transgressions. Anyone “who is at odds with his fellow,” should not be allowed to join, “until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned.”9

The final chapter gives warnings and signs of the last days and the second coming of Christ, encouraging believers to be ready. The text says that “the world-deceiver” will appear “as the Son of God,” but in the end “shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.”10

how can we use the didache?

The Didache is a fascinating book from early in our church’s history. A few early church leaders included it as Scripture, but most did not.

If the Didache is a church manual, though, it might seem odd that it doesn’t include at least a basic explanation of the Gospel. I expect that it was meant only to be supplemental to the Scriptures that were available. It is doubtful that any one church would have had all of the books in our New Testament by the turn of the second century, but they may have had one or more Gospels, and a collection of Paul’s letters, at the very least. The Didache was not written to replace these, but to supplement them.

Although it is not Holy Scripture, it gives us insights into what the early church believed and taught, and how it operated. It tells us what moral standards were important for the early church, many of which are being challenged today even within the church. Though salvation does not come through moral behavior, it is clear that moral behavior has been an important part of the church life from the beginning.

The sections on baptism, communion, fasting, and prayer tell us two things: first, particularly in the case of the sacraments, there is not a sense that they must be done a particular way. Churches today can learn from this to have grace with those that observe the sacraments differently from them. Second, all of these practices are indispensable parts of church life, so while they may be done differently from place to place, they should be seen as essential.

The Didache is certainly worth reading! And seeing as it is only 248 words longer than this post, why not read it next?

Read the Didache for yourself: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/didache-roberts.html.