The Didache: Text, Translation, Analysis, and Commentary [Paperback]

Aaron Milavec (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2003

In this study edition, Aaron Milavec provides an overview of his pioneering efforts to surface the hidden unity governing the progression of topics in the Didache, a mid-first-century pastoral program for training converts. Milavec’s commentary uses literary and sociological insights to reconstruct the faith and hope, the discipline and rituals, the anxieties and challenges facing gentiles being trained for full, active participation in the earliest Jewish-Christian communities, 50-70 C.E. His analytic, Greek-English side-by-side, gender-inclusive translation is included as well as a description of how the only surviving manuscript was discovered. Women’s voices and women’s issues surface throughout. His study questions, bibliography, and flowcharts enable even first-time users to grasp the functional and pastoral genius of the Didache.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... an indispensable addition to the literature on the Didache." -- Huub van de Sandt, Tilburg University, Netherlands

"...the ancient origins and unique purposes of the work will undoubtedly provoke scholarly discussion for many years to come!" -- Clayton N. Jefford, Professor of Scripture, Saint Meinrad School of Theology

In this new and landmark study, Aaron Milavec comprehensively examines how the first-century pastoral manual known as the Didache. -- John Dominic Crossan

It is clearly written, accessible also to non-specialists, and of special interest for students, liturgists, catechists, and Church ministers. -- Willy Rordorf, Professor Emeritus of Early Church History and Patristics, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Milavec’s newest book is the culmination of fifteen years of insightful scholarship into the mysterious text of the Didache. -- Dr. Philip Culbertson, The School of Theology, Auckland University, Auckland, New Zealand

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Michael Glazier Books (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814658318
• ISBN-13: 978-0814658314
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Bible & Other Sacred Texts > Apocrypha
  • #46 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > Education

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good intro to an overlooked early Jewish-Christian text., August 31, 2005

By 

Stephen Triesch (Shoreline/Seattle USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Didache: Text, Translation, Analysis, and Commentary (Paperback)

In recent years there has been an enormous explosion of interest in Gnostic Christian texts such as "The Gospel of Thomas" and "The Gospel of Mary Magdalene". Almost overlooked in this fascination with early, non-canonical (i.e., omitted from the Bible) Christian texts has been The Didache ("The Teaching"), a "training manual" for Gentile converts to an early Jewish-Christian community. (Most scholars date "The Didache" to about 90-120 A.D., but Milovec opts for an earlier date between 50-80 A.D.)

"The Didache" is a manual of initiation, not theology, but Milovec attempts to read between the lines to discern glimpses of the underlying theology. Although Milovec's speculations sometime stray a bit too far from the available evidence, I think he is basically correct in seeing "The Didache" as reflecting a Jewish-Christian community who viewed Jesus primarily in prophetic and messianic terms, and not as the literal God incarnate of later Christian theology. Of particular interest in this context are the eucharistic prayers found in "The Didache," prayers which do not reflect the "this is my body . . . this is my blood" phraseology of the New Testament sources. Also, "The Didache" provides perhaps the earliest specific Christian condemnation of abortion, and reiterates the Pauline critique of homosexuality (or, at least, one form of it, characterized as "the corruption of boys"). Thus "The Didache" perhaps has relevance to today's "What would Jesus say?" debates.

What gives "The Didache" credibility to me is its absence of Gnostic influence and its general similarity in language to the gospels, "The Acts of the Apostles," and the "Letter of James". In fact, it's emphasis on morality and its absence of high Christology (Jesus as God, Jesus as atoning for the sins of the world), seems to place it in the Jamesian tradition stemming from the Jewish Christian community centered in Jerusalem.

In my opinion (and that of most scholars), the Gnostic gospels are relatively late 2nd century creations that tell us little about Jesus or his earliest group of followers. "The Didache" provides a better window into that world, and I recommend it highly. Milovec loses one star for a little bit of over-speculation and for a writing style that is not particularly captivating. Still, he gets four stars for a basically solid book (supported with the original Greek text and ample-but-not-exhausting discussion of translation issues) that casts needed light on an early Christian text that has been too often neglected.

53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It has some significant limitations!, September 29, 2005

By 

lifelong learner (Princeton, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Didache: Text, Translation, Analysis, and Commentary (Paperback)

While Milavec does do well in lifting up the implications of the text for the lives of women, and it is the most inexpensive commentary on the Didache available, I found his work to be full of a number of unexamined (or undefended, anyway) sociological and theological assumptions about the life of the community that produced the Didache. To give just one example, he presumes that the "prophets" referred to in the text were economic refugees with a primarily (entirely?) class-justice agenda, all with little explicit grounds in the Didache itself. But given obvious affinities with the language of the Gospel of Matthew and its even clearer Jewish-Christian milieau, isn't it just as likely that these "prophets" were the respected Christian leaders the text indicates they are (meaning they preached social justice as one part of the overall good news of Jesus and God's kingdom), and that they were understood to (or actually did!) hear the voice of God for the benefit of the community?
For only five bucks more, the Ancient Christian Writers series volume 6 (edited by James Kleis) or "Apostolic Fathers" by Michael Holmes gives both a translation and an introduction not only to the Didache but also many other early Church documents, though their commentary is not nearly as extensive as Milavec.
Somewhat pricier but worth it for a more thorough and balanced understanding, I would strongly recommend either of Van de Sandt's works ("The Didache: Its Jewish Sources" is a detailed scholarly commentary, while "Matthew and the Didache" is a collection of essays), or the paperback edition of Marcello del Verme's "Didache and Judaism."

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Didache for ordinary people!, December 23, 2004

By 

Keith Drury (Marion, IN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Didache: Text, Translation, Analysis, and Commentary (Paperback)

Here is high quality scholarly work on a shelf reachable by an average Sunday School teacher! The book has greek text one the left (average SS teachers may skip this ;-) and his own english translation on the right, for the 16 chapters of the Didache. His delightful commentary follows and gives the reader a quick grasp of the basic use of the Didache as a first century oral means of "membership training" under a "membership mentor." After reading this short book most hungry minds will want even more. Thanks to DaVinci Code the laity are interested in works that did not make the Canon-cut... the Didache (and Clement I) are considerably more helpful reading than books by Dobson, Hybels, Rick Warren (or me). Aaron Milavec has helped the ordinary person understand the early church through study of the Didache --Keith Drury, Associate Professor of Religion, Indiana Wesleyan University