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 Godotherwise 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...

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...…a list of rules but really much more than that. It is a text that highlights what is significant about the Christian teachings and what the Christian should strive to do to be different or to be a true child of God. That is why it touches on prayer and suggests that the Christian pray as the Lord commanded by saying the words that Jesus Himself gave to us. The Didache is for this reason like a Christian manual, except that one probably would not have carried it around with one, but it probably would have been copied and saved in a church as a kind of reminder of what the community should be…