The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and Its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity (review)

While this volume offers the combined efforts of the late David Flusser of Hebrew University and Huub van de Sandt of Tilburg University, the bulk of the work is actually that of Van de Sandt with Flusser responsible for the first draft of the section on the Greek text of the Didache found in Codex H (see 16-24) and the outline of chapters 4, 5, and 8 (of the book's nine chapters). Thus, the work is less a collaboration between colleagues and more the efforts of a diligent researcher and devoted student to frame and reshape the work of a specialist in late Judaism and early Christian traditions.

The book is well written, carefully argued, and beautifully published. Van de Sandt provides an impressive assimilation of Flusser's flowing literary style and insights on rabbinic literature into his own findings concerning the evolution of the Didache. The central premise focuses on the Jewish background of the so-called "two ways" tradition which lies behind the opening chapters of the Didache and of the ecclesiastical and liturgical materials of the subsequent chapters. Helpful guideposts appear throughout, primarily in the form of summaries at the beginning of chapters and before primary text divisions. There is a heavy dependence upon the traditional approaches of source, form, and redaction criticism combined with a particular concern for late Jewish texts and traditions.

Our authors argue that the Didache derives from a Jewish two ways tradition that was altered to include non-Jews (chs. 1-7), supplemented with materials of a traditional, liturgical design (ch. 8-10, 14-15; cf. 1 Tim. 2.1-3.13) to which concerns about traveling prophets were added (ch. 11-13), and was completed with an apocalypse (ch. 16) and evangelical section (1.3b-2.1). The setting for this effort was "a rural Christian congregation" in western Syria, perhaps "in the borderland between Syria and Palestine" (52) during a transitional period at the turn of the first century. A progressive explanation of the stages by which these materials were joined to form the final manuscript tradition appears throughout.

Chapter 1 explores the early use of the Didache, reviews evidence of direct and indirect witnesses to the tradition, and offers a discussion of the form and purpose of the work. Sample plates of Codex H are provided together with an English translation borrowed from the work of Fr. Aelred Cody of Saint Meinrad Archabbey (see also Kurt Niederwimmer's The Didache).

The heart of the book appears in chapters 2-5, which provide a discussion of the ancient two ways tradition including its nature and background, its role in Christian literature, a reconstruction of its earliest form, and the essence of its Jewish flavor. Van de Sandt argues that our "best idea" of the contents of the two ways is preserved in the Latin Doctrina Apostolorum (80) rather than in either the Didache or Barnabas 18-20. After its association with pre-baptismal instruction, the two ways was widely employed until the Merovingian and Carolingian periods. This section of the study is particularly instructive and impressive.

The remaining chapters are a collection of short essays devoted to other aspects of the two ways. Chapter 6 addresses the tradition's link with the Sermon on the Mount, drawing attention to how the teachings of Jesus employ Jewish materials. The tractate Derekh Erets is a measuring stick for this effort. Chapter 7 speaks to Didache 6.2-3 in light of the rise of Noachide laws within early Christian circles. Chapter 8 discusses Didache 7-10 against the customs of late Judaism; Van de Sandt holds that the food rituals seen here are an early form of the Eucharist. Chapter 9 considers Jewish factors...