The Didache – Series Intro

I’ve mentioned the Didache: The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations a number of times in past posts and even reflected on its rules on fasting in my series, Not the Fast I’ve Chosen. It’s one of the earliest, if not the earliest, surviving written Christian writings other than those writings which were later recognized as the Holy Scriptures. In fact, the Didache and another early work, The Shepherd of Hermas, were even on some of the early canon lists. The written document dates to around the end of the first century and appears to record in writing a long-standing oral tradition.

I’ve read the Didache many times over the course of my journey within Christianity. It’s a writing that keeps drawing me back in and I leave each time with new or renewed insight, not because the words have changed, but because I have changed. These last two months since my diagnosis, I’ve noticed that it strikes me often in ways that are different from the way I remember reading it before I knew I was a celiac.

I’ve decided I feel like writing a series walking through the whole of the Didache. It will be as many parts as it ends up being. Some days I may cover section. Other days I may reflect on a sentence. These will be my thoughts, though shaped of course by everything and everyone I’ve encountered and read over the years. I’m not an authority of any sort on ancient Christian writings. If you’re looking for scholarly analysis or insight, go elsewhere.

I’ll be writing because it’s a document that has meant a lot to me over the years and it still provokes new thoughts. I’ll be using the translation I linked above not because I think it’s the “best” translation. Frankly, I couldn’t judge that at all. I’m using it because it’s the translation with which I’m the most comfortable. I don’t really have any goal or point to this series other than to walk through the document and see what it spurs me to write. We’ll start tomorrow with my initial post in this series.