The Didache: Doctrines That Build on the Creed

[GWH]

We have seen that in Ephesians 4 Paul began listing instructions for living a life that builds on the Gospel. They could be called commands, but cooperating with the will of God/Jesus is not onerous. Rather the love of the Lord’s Holy Spirit motivates believers to desire to do what pleases Him. In verses 2-3 Paul indicated four aspects of love: humility, gentleness, patience and unity.

In the rest of Ephesians 4 Paul cited truthfulness (v.25), controlling anger (v.26), working instead of stealing (v.28), edifying language (v.29), lacking every form of the opposite of love: bitterness, rage, brawling, slander and malice (v.31), kindness, compassion and forgiveness (v.32). In Galatians 5:22-23 he listed a few other godly or loving traits: joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness and self-control (which may refer to controlling anger).

In Ephesians 5 Paul cited ungodly behaviors, including sexual immorality, impurity and greed (v.3), obscenity, foolish talk and coarse joking (v.4). It is interesting that a quality Paul named as opposed to these sins is thanksgiving.

Why do you think that is?

 

[GWH]

We have seen that in Ephesians 4 Paul began listing instructions for living a life that builds on the Gospel. They could be called commands, but cooperating with the will of God/Jesus is not onerous. Rather the love of the Lord’s Holy Spirit motivates believers to desire to do what pleases Him. In verses 2-3 Paul indicated four aspects of love: humility, gentleness, patience and unity.

In the rest of Ephesians 4 Paul cited truthfulness (v.25), controlling anger (v.26), working instead of stealing (v.28), edifying language (v.29), lacking every form of the opposite of love: bitterness, rage, brawling, slander and malice (v.31), kindness, compassion and forgiveness (v.32). In Galatians 5:22-23 he listed a few other godly or loving traits: joy, peace, goodness, faithfulness and self-control (which may refer to controlling anger).

In Ephesians 5 Paul cited ungodly behaviors, including sexual immorality, impurity and greed (v.3), obscenity, foolish talk and coarse joking (v.4). It is interesting that a quality Paul named as opposed to these sins is thanksgiving.

Why do you think that is?

Why no answers?

Mine is psychological: Because thanksgiving prevents depreciating salvation or taking it for granted (1Thes. 5:18),
and ungratefulness opens the door to unholy desires (2Tim. 3:2) that are the opposite of spiritual growth toward moral maturity.

 

[GWH]

The spiritual fruit Paul listed in verse 9 include goodness, righteousness, and truth—and in verse 18 & 19 he added sobriety, being Spirit-filled and speaking with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

Next Paul taught about family relationships, beginning with an instruction that is often overlooked. Do you notice what that is?
Why do you think that is?

 

[GWH]

The spiritual fruit Paul listed in verse 9 include goodness, righteousness, and truth—and in verse 18 & 19 he added sobriety, being Spirit-filled and speaking with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.

Next Paul taught about family relationships, beginning with an instruction that is often overlooked. Do you notice what that is?
Why do you think that is?

Paul commanded mutual submission by all Christians to each other. Why? Because all Christians are equally in Christ, baptized into Christ through faith (Gal. 3:26), and in Christ’s kingdom the greatest is the servant of all (Matt. 23:11).

With this understanding, we can see that a wife’s submission to her husband is equivalent to her husband’s Christlike love for his wife (Eph. 5:22-25). This is the meaning of becoming one flesh spiritually (Eph. 5:28-33).

 

[GWH]

It just so happens that this study of the Didache is at the same place in Scripture as the study of Ephesians on the Systematic Bible Study thread, so the content is duplicated at this point.

EPH 5:21-24, Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”

The correct interpretation of this passage hinges upon keeping in mind the command for mutual submission, which agrees with the teaching of Jesus (in Matt. 20:26-28 & 23:11) that the greatest in the kingdom of heaven will be the servant of all, just as he did not come to be served but to give his life.

With this understanding, we can see that Paul envisions a perfect marriage in which the husband is spiritually mature or Christlike and loves his wife sacrificially as the wife does her husband. When the husband is NOT like Christ, perhaps the statement of Peter in Acts 5:29 (“We must obey God rather than men”) applies.

 

[GWH]

The overlap between the didachaic teachings and the teachings in Ephesians continues:

EPH 5:25-27, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

Continuing to keep in mind the mutual submission mentioned in v. 21, we understand that husbands should love their wives sacrificially, just as wives should love their husbands. The purpose of such love goes beyond romance to motivate spiritual and moral completion, comparable to the atonement of Christ. We note the connection of water baptism with Spirit baptism or God’s Word (cf. Col. 2:11-12). “Radiance” reminds readers of the glory of God that is signified in Scripture by light (e.g., Luke 2:9), “without blemish” refers to the OT foreshadowing of the lamb of God/Messiah (as in Lev. 22:21, cf. John 1:29), and “holy and blameless” describes the incarnate Christ (in Heb. 7:26-28).

 

[GWH]

Ditto re the overlap.

EPH 5:28-30. “In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body.” (Cf. 1Cor. 7:3-4, Matt. 19:6, 22:39)

 

[GWH]

At this point the overlap of didachaic teachings with the more systematic study of Ephesians on the other thread will merely paraphrase rather than quote the Scripture.

Eph. 5:31-33, Marriage is a profound mystery regarding spousal relations and family that reflect the relationship between Christ and the church. There should be no division either in the family or in the church body (Rom. 16:17, 1Cor. 1:10, 11:17-19, 12:25, Eph. 4:4).

Eph. 6:1-3, Children should obey their godly parents. When parents give ungodly commands, what Peter told the Sanhedrin in Acts 5:29 applies.

Eph. 6:4, Parents should bring them up in the training of the Lord indicated in 1Tim. 3:15-17. Godly parents do not exasperate loving children. This is God's "plan A" for parenting.

 

[SomeDisciple]

Pretty sure the Didache is uninspired. The scriptures don't say to make people fast before they are baptized, and there's nowhere recorded that anyone ever did this. On the contrary; when someone believed, they were baptized. Phillip told the Ethiopian he need only believe... seems pretty consistent in the book of Acts.

 

[GWH]

Pretty sure the Didache is uninspired. The scriptures don't say to make people fast before they are baptized, and there's nowhere recorded that anyone ever did this. On the contrary; when someone believed, they were baptized. Phillip told the Ethiopian he need only believe... seems pretty consistent in the book of Acts.

Sounds like you did not read the definition of didache used here: biblical teachings that build on the foundation per 1Cor. 3:10-11 & Heb. 6:1-3.

 

[GWH]

At this point the overlap of didachaic teachings with the more systematic study of Ephesians on the other thread will merely paraphrase rather than quote the Scripture.

Eph. 5:31-33, Marriage is a profound mystery regarding spousal relations and family that reflect the relationship between Christ and the church. There should be no division either in the family or in the church body (Rom. 16:17, 1Cor. 1:10, 11:17-19, 12:25, Eph. 4:4).

Eph. 6:1-3, Children should obey their godly parents. When parents give ungodly commands, what Peter told the Sanhedrin in Acts 5:29 applies.

Eph. 6:4, Parents should bring them up in the training of the Lord indicated in 1Tim. 3:15-17. Godly parents do not exasperate loving children. This is God's "plan A" for parenting.

Eph. 6:5-8, The instruction for slaves is essentially the same as that for Christians, wives and children, implying that Christ, spouses, parents and masters are godly, loving or respectable, so that cooperating with their commands is done willingly and joyfully.

 

[Follower777]

Okay, but I hope you understand that this thread is not about discussing that document but rather Scripture teaching that builds on the essential and fundamental Gospel aka the kerygma.

Kerygma ...is a Greek word used in the New Testament for 'proclamation' (see Luke 4:18-19, Romans 10:14, Gospel of Matthew 3:1). ... Amongst biblical scholars, the term has come to mean the core of the early church's teaching about Jesus.

The Catholic Church under Pope Francis strongly emphasized the importance of the kerygma as the center of all evangelization and work of renewal, formulating it as "Jesus loves us, died for us, is alive and near us", and extolling it as the wisest and truest proclamation and stating that "all Christian formation consists of entering more deeply into the kerygma."[1]

Naw ! Too many big academic words, Greek and probably Latin, is as the custom of the Catholic Church, e.g. The Roman Church kept the Bible in Latin, to keep 'we the people' ignorant of the Bible, so that they would be the interpreters of God's Word, leading people into apostasy.

I've got my KJV and the Holy Spirit, as my instructor, so don't need GWH confusing what I already know.

Studying "kerygma" is "confusion" & a waste of time, IMHO, when I should be doing the Will of the Father, as Jesus did.

1 Cor 13:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

2 Cor. 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

~~~ Sabbath Blessings ~~~ Y'all

 

[Burn1986]

The Didache, also known as “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,” is an early Christian text, likely written in the late 1st or early 2nd century AD. It’s a short manual that provides practical instructions for Christian living, worship, and church practices. The name “Didache” comes from the Greek word for “teaching.”

Key Content of the Didache

1. Moral Instruction (The Two Ways):
2. • The text begins with a moral framework, describing the “Way of Life” (virtues like love, humility, and charity) and the “Way of Death” (sins to avoid, like murder, adultery, and greed). This section resembles Jewish ethical teachings and was likely used to instruct new converts.
3. Liturgical Practices:
4. • It includes guidelines for Christian rituals, such as:
   • • Baptism: Preferably in running water, with instructions for fasting beforehand.
     • Prayer: Instructions to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.
     • Eucharist: Prayers for the Lord’s Supper, emphasizing communal worship and purity.
     • Fasting: Recommendations for fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays.
5. Church Order:
6. • Guidance on leadership roles, like bishops and deacons, and how to discern true prophets from false ones.
   • Instructions for communal life, including hospitality toward traveling teachers and prophets.
7. Eschatology:
8. • The final section discusses the end times, warning of false prophets and describing the return of Christ.

Historical Significance

• The Didache is one of the earliest non-canonical Christian writings, offering a glimpse into the practices and beliefs of early Christian communities, likely in Syria or Palestine.
• It bridges Jewish traditions and emerging Christian practices, showing how early Christians adapted Jewish teachings for Gentile converts.
• The text was highly regarded in early Christianity, with some communities treating it as scripture, though it was not included in the New Testament canon.

Discovery and Modern Relevance

• The Didache was lost for centuries until a Greek manuscript was rediscovered in 1873 by Philotheos Bryennios in Constantinople.
• It’s studied today by scholars and theologians for insights into early Christian ethics, worship, and community organization.
• Some modern Christian communities, particularly those interested in apostolic traditions, draw inspiration from its teachings.

 

[GWH]

Naw ! Too many big academic words, Greek and probably Latin, is as the custom of the Catholic Church, e.g. The Roman Church kept the Bible in Latin, to keep 'we the people' ignorant of the Bible, so that they would be the interpreters of God's Word, leading people into apostasy.

I've got my KJV and the Holy Spirit, as my instructor, so don't need GWH confusing what I already know.

Studying "kerygma" is "confusion" & a waste of time, IMHO, when I should be doing the Will of the Father, as Jesus did.

1 Cor 13:33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

2 Cor. 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

~~~ Sabbath Blessings ~~~ Y'all

Well, I started out knowing no words, then I learned Mama, then woachie (horse), then "See Jane run", then words in spelling bee lists, then words used in high school, then college, and now I am forgetting as many as I learn!

 

[GWH]

The Didache, also known as “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles,” is an early Christian text, likely written in the late 1st or early 2nd century AD. It’s a short manual that provides practical instructions for Christian living, worship, and church practices. The name “Didache” comes from the Greek word for “teaching.”

Key Content of the Didache

1. Moral Instruction (The Two Ways):
2. • The text begins with a moral framework, describing the “Way of Life” (virtues like love, humility, and charity) and the “Way of Death” (sins to avoid, like murder, adultery, and greed). This section resembles Jewish ethical teachings and was likely used to instruct new converts.
3. Liturgical Practices:
4. • It includes guidelines for Christian rituals, such as:
   • • Baptism: Preferably in running water, with instructions for fasting beforehand.
     • Prayer: Instructions to pray the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.
     • Eucharist: Prayers for the Lord’s Supper, emphasizing communal worship and purity.
     • Fasting: Recommendations for fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays.
5. Church Order:
6. • Guidance on leadership roles, like bishops and deacons, and how to discern true prophets from false ones.
   • Instructions for communal life, including hospitality toward traveling teachers and prophets.
7. Eschatology:
8. • The final section discusses the end times, warning of false prophets and describing the return of Christ.

Historical Significance

• The Didache is one of the earliest non-canonical Christian writings, offering a glimpse into the practices and beliefs of early Christian communities, likely in Syria or Palestine.
• It bridges Jewish traditions and emerging Christian practices, showing how early Christians adapted Jewish teachings for Gentile converts.
• The text was highly regarded in early Christianity, with some communities treating it as scripture, though it was not included in the New Testament canon.

Discovery and Modern Relevance

• The Didache was lost for centuries until a Greek manuscript was rediscovered in 1873 by Philotheos Bryennios in Constantinople.
• It’s studied today by scholars and theologians for insights into early Christian ethics, worship, and community organization.
• Some modern Christian communities, particularly those interested in apostolic traditions, draw inspiration from its teachings.

Yes, and thanks for the info, but again that writing is not the subject of this thread, in which "didache" refers to teachings
that build on the Gospel, although there will be some similarities insofar as both depend on the NT as their source.

 

[GWH]

Eph. 6:5-8, The instruction for slaves is essentially the same as that for Christians, wives and children, implying that Christ, spouses, parents and masters are godly, loving or respectable, so that cooperating with their commands is done willingly and joyfully.

EPH 6:9, “Masters, treat your slaves in the same way [as Christian parents should treat their children and husbands treat their wives].
Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.”

 

[GWH]

EPH 6:10-11, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God,
so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes."

 

[GWH]

EPH 6:10-11, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes."

EPH 6:10-13, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

It looks like there will be one more passage in Ephesians regarding prayer that this study of didachaic teachings will duplicate
before moving on to Philippians 1:9-11.

 

[GWH]

EPH 6:14-17, "Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God."

EPH 6:18-20, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

If there are no comments, I will see you in Philippians.

 

[GWH]

Our study of doctrines that build on the creed continues in Philippians with the prayer of Paul (in PHP 1:9-11) for believers’ love to “abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight”, which duplicates what he prayed for the Ephesians (in Eph. 3:16-19).
His desire that they would be able to learn or discern what is best was the reason Christ gave some believers the gift of teaching (per Eph. 4:11-15).

The mention of being filled with the fruit of righteousness echoes what Paul wrote to the Galatians regarding the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), which manifests worthy conduct despite suffering that is a good witness for the gospel (Phil. 1:27-30). Paul lists some of the conduct he has in mind in Phil. 2:2-4: being like-minded or one in love, spirit and purpose, not being selfish or conceited, but rather humbly considering the welfare of others.