Purpose of the Christian Didache

What is the Didache?

The Didache is an ancient text that explains the Christian religion in simple terms. It was written originally in the language of Greek, and Didache means “teaching.” The book is a short treatise on the teaching of the Christian Church. It represents the teaching of Jesus as it was given to the 12 apostles, who were then tasked with spreading the teaching around the world. In its content it favors the Gospel of Matthew, as there are many references to this Gospel in the text.

The Didache is a non-canonical Christian text, which means it was not viewed as sacred, i.e., as inspired by God—otherwise it would have been included in the Bible. However, it does explain the Christian faith in the sense that it touches upon some of the important truths that Christians were expected to believe and to live by as Jesus had commanded. It consists of several short chapters that touch on various topics, from the commandments given to Moses to offering food to idols, to baptism, to thanksgiving, to how the church should be ordered, and many other issues as well. The chapters do not go into great detail about these matters, as some of them are only a few lines long, which suggests that the Didache was not really a book that people read but rather a teaching tool that people used to spread the Christian faith. It is probable that teachers would use the Didache as a starting point for a teaching lesson. It is like a simple outline or pedagogy for teachers. Just like a teacher today will have an outline to help keep the class on the correct subject, the Didache could have been a text that early Church Fathers used to guide them in their teachings.

The Didache focuses on commandments in the first part and then on teaching instruction for catechumens in the second part. In the third part it discusses how life in a Christian community should be lived and ordered. It teaches one to show hospitality to travelers, to support God’s ministers, to have and respect church leaders, and to be disciplined. Finally, in the fourth part it reminds the person that the Lord will return so that one must be ready to be judged. It concludes with hymns and prayers of the early church—so it is very much a text that is meant to be helpful to one’s spiritual life.

A rebuttal to "It's typical religious stuff: do this and don't do that” is this: the Didache does warn one how to live and what to avoid, but this is not a defect of the text. It is part of the text’s special quality. It is there to help teach, to provide wisdom, and to help one pray. It is not a text that one is merely to hang on a wall as a reminder of what one ought to do and not do. It is a text that is supposed to help with living. Since people probably did not read Greek unless they were well-educated back then, the text was likely for pedagogical purposes—for teaching the wise sayings of the Gospel—and for helping Christians order and arrange their churches and communities and lives around the Church in preparation for coming before God.