The Didache: Faith, Hope, & Life of the Earliest Christian Communities, 50-70 C.E. (Hardcover)

by Aaron Milavec (Author) "Archbishop Philotheos Bryennios was browsing in the library of the Greek Convent of the Holy Sepulchre in Istanbul in 1873 when, by chance, he discovered..." (more)
Key Phrases: origination hypothesis, ones having remained firm, five speech infractions, Lord's Prayer, Lord God, Apostolic Constitutions (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
A groundbreaking study of the use of the Didache in the earliest of Jewish-Christian communities, and for today's Church. -- Dennis D. McManus, Georgetown University, Managing Editor, Ancient Christian Writers

This work has revolutionized the understanding of the Didache. The best introduction to a new way of studying. -- John Dominic Crossan, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, DePaul University, Chicago

Product Description
A first-century pastoral manual

Aaron Milavec has written an important study of the The Didache, one of the first major texts describing the way of life lived within a set of first-century Christian communities. A "pastoral manual" of sorts, it enumerates the step-by-step training of gentile converts for full active participation in the church communities of the mid-first century.

Milavec offers here a fresh translation, side by side Greek and English, of the work, along with extensive commentary. Of considerable length, this work is noteworthy because it places the text with the context of how the earliest Christians saw themselves in relation to the surrounding Roman, pagan society.

This landmark work is a must for:
--scripture scholars.
--historians.
--graduate students.
--university and seminary libraries.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1024 pages
• Publisher: Paulist Press (December 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809105373
• ISBN-13: 978-0809105373
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #84,625 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Didache for Scholars, September 20, 2005

By	Redbird (Springfield, VA) - See all my reviews

"The Didache: Faith, Hope, & Life of the Earliest Christian Communities, 50-70 C.E." by Aaron Milavec is a lengthy academic tome of over 1,000 pages to explain the 1,000 to 1,100 words of the Didache. If you are only looking for an English translation with perhaps some interpretive or religious explanations, this book is not the book for you. An uncommented translation, with an introduction, is available at www.ewtn.com/library/SOURCES/DIDACHE.TXT. Translations with shorter, more directly related comments can be purchased here on Amazon.

The Milavec tract is principally an academic, historical analysis of the Didache to support his hypotheses regarding its construction and use. Essentially, he believes that the Didache was a training process to be delivered orally to Gentile converts, and that it was written early in he First Century A.D. ("50-70 C.E."), rather than later in the century. He also believes some of it is as much economic training as religious. This does differ from several other analyses, but he provides a lot of research to back it up. This is not a religious work per se, but for those interested in an historical analysis of the times during which the Didache was originally written, this book will be interesting.

I feel, however, it is marred in several ways. Milavec goes through excruciating detail to explain the meaning and reason for his choice of words for translation, but he personally likes to write in a gender neutral manner. He states that the Didache was 99% gender neutral; so, he uses gender neutral translations, such as "s/he" and "him/her". In the text, however, the Greek declensions are clearly masculine, and he is inserting his own social convictions into it. This is not to say that the Didache was only for men, only that the Greek probably used masculine much the way English does when the sex of the person can be male or female. While his distracting use of gender neutral pronouns in his own writings is his choice, I think it is academically dishonest to do that to the translation.

Another problem is the presence of lengthy comments that have nothing to do with the Didache. I believe the occasional polemics weaken the book as an objective academic analysis.

Finally, a minor point, I disagree with his translation of didache as "training" versus "teachings" of the Twelve Apostles. Milavec is unique in that translation, which conforms to his hypothesis, but makes no sense.

As a final note, to go with the book, he does sell oral deliveries of the Didache on tape and CD in normal text or feminist versions.

9 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Milavec's book receives award, July 16, 2004

By A Customer

Aaron Milavec's volume, THE DIDACHE, was awarded a 2004 Catholic Press Association Award in the category of theology. The winners of the 2004 Catholic Press Awards were announced on Friday, May 28, 2004 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC, at the Catholic Press Association Annual Convention.