DIDACHE: Zwölf-Apostle-Lehre, and: TRADITIO APOSTOLICA: Apostolische Überlieferung (review)

This book is issued as volume 1 in the relatively new series "Fontes Christiani," though its publication already was preceded by the appearance of volumes 2,1 and 3 (which feature works by Origen and Ambrose respectively). Additional volumes have appeared since the publication of the book under review here. With respect to purpose, the series seeks to offer texts from selected Christian authors, drawn from both the early and medieval periods, whose theology and influence have become classical sources of study for ecclesiastical scholarship within the European tradition. With respect to design, the series reflects the quality workmanship of Herder publishers—bound in a handsome fashion, printed in a clear type.

The contents of this particular volume reflect the following basic structure: a brief forward by the series editor; a section by Schöllgen that is devoted to the background and text of the Didache(= D); a section by Geerlings that is devoted to the background and text of the Traditio apostolica(= TA); a collection of concluding materials for the volume. The section by Schöllgen (pp. 13-139 ) is in four parts. Initially he provides a general introduction to the genre of early Christian church orders. Thereafter he offers an introduction to D and an analysis of its contents, a discussion of the origins of the text and the history of the related manuscript tradition, and concludes with the text itself in Greek (based upon the Rordorf/Tuilier edition [SC248; Paris: 1978]) together with a translation in German. The section by Geerlings (pp. 141-313) is in two parts. The first part is an introduction to TA,which includes a review of the discovery and reconstruction of the related manuscript tradition and an analysis of the contents of the work. The second part contains the text of TAitself in Latin (based upon the Botte edition [LQF39; Münster: 1989]) together with a translation in German. The volume concludes with the following materials: a list of abbreviations; a bibliography of ancient sources; a bibliography of literature on D; a bibliography of literature on TA; indices of biblical references, proper names, significant Greek terms, general terms.

The short, opening section "On the Origination and Development of Early Christian Church Orders" (pp. 13-21) by Schöllgen gives the reader a positive impression of the volume from the outset. These few pages offer a general, though clear and useful, insight into the historical situation of the early church. Further, this section frames the context in which the texts in question should be read and interpreted. Schöllgen focuses upon the evolving and diverse environment of early Christian communities until the fourth century, as well as the texts which they spawned and adapted into continually changing situations. He alludes to the key factors which shaped this period of development—texts, hierarchy, apostolicity, synods—and correctly suggests that the central issue of the times was the question of "authority," which shifted among communities without unified agreement and served to determine the role or function both of texts and of persons. In response the presence of early church orders served as a "transitional-phenomenon" around which individual communities could structure themselves during the vacuum of authority that occurred between the apostolic era and the period of the church councils.

Schöllgen's introduction to his translation of D (pp. 23-94) is solid, concise and well written. In a relatively brief discussion he is able to explain the essential contents and movement of the text, as well as to signal those elements which have become primary issues of contention for scholars. In general his conclusions are traditional and moderate in perspective, as perhaps is represented by his observation that D 1-6 serves as a "prebaptismal catechesis" (p. 27) and that the origins of the text might best be dated to late first- or early...