chris@mcdonnell83.freeserve.co.uk Previous articles by Chris
January
9,
2013
Chris McDonnell, UK
The Didache
A
community gathered together has something in common that gives them a
recognisable identity. It might be the location of their home dwellings, the
place where they work together or at a more intimate level, the community that
is their family life, wife and mother, husband and father, and their children.
The
issue of community leads us to ask questions about the time of the early
Christian communities, what they were like, how they functioned, for they were
radically different from our own historical experience some 2000 years later.
That
they were initially small is beyond doubt and their realisation was within the
shared life of belief. Our early records of Christian teaching, the Epistles and
Gospels are likely preceded by the Didache, a brief statement of teaching for
the nascent church, which may well have been composed around 70AD. It is
mentioned by the Early Fathers and then appears to have been lost. It was only
re-discovered in
The
text is short. There are a number of translations available on the web which are
worth reading.
Alternatively,
and I would suggest you go here first, there is an
interesting discussion on YouTube with Professor Thomas O’Loughlin,
professor of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham (UK) on the
background to the Didache
We often talk freely about ‘the early church’ yet generally we know so little about the day to day life of the people in those communities.
Maybe
we should explore the Didache to help on that journey.