The Didache

What follows is an annotated bibliography on the Didache. I will expand the bibliography and add more annotations as time permits. Books that are highlighted in yellow are highly recommended.

Texts and Editions

• Ehrman, Bart D. The Apostolic Fathers, Volume 1. LCL 24. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 2003.

  A recent edition of the Apostolic Fathers published in the popular Loeb Classical Library (LCL) series. Ehrman’s edition replaces the old LCL by Kirsopp Lake as a fresh translation (not a revision). The textual apparatus is meant to be useful, but not exhaustive. In the preface, Ehrman write: “I have tried to make the translation both readable and closely tied to the Greek text” (viii). Overall, it is a good edition of the Apostolic Fathers in two volumes, slightly less desirable than Holmes’s one-volume edition.

• Hitchcock, Roswell D., and Francis Brown. ΔΙΔΑΧΗ ΤΩΝ ΔΩΔΕΚΑ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΝ: Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Recently Discovered and Published by Philotheos Bryennios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia. New York: Scribner, 1884.

  The first appearance of Bryennios’s text in English. It contains a very brief introduction to the, then, newly-discovered Didache, and presents Bryennios’s Greek text with an English translation on the facing page, followed by a few pages of notes. There is also a one-page appendix, which details the errors in the Greek manuscript which were corrected by Bryennios.

• Holmes, Michael W. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations. 3d Edition. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007. [Amazon]

  The best up-to-date English translation of the Apostolic Fathers with Greek and English texts on facing pages. This translation is a revision of the Lightfoot-Harmer edition. In addition to a textual apparatus on the Greek text, Holmes’s edition also contains a short introduction to the Didache and a nice bibliography.

• Lake, Kirsopp. The Apostolic Fathers, Volume 1. LCL 24. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1912.

  The old LCL edition of the Apostolic Fathers. This translation and Greek text have held a high place in the history of the Didache and more generally the entire corpus of the Apostolic Fathers. However, it has been replaced by the newer editions of Ehrman and Holmes.

• Lightfoot, J. B. and J. R. Harmer. The Apostolic Fathers: Revised Greek Texts with Introductions and English Translations. London: Macmillan, 1891.

  Another classic edition of the Apostlic Fathers. While the edition of Holmes has revised this version, some may still look at Lightfoot-Harmer for comparison sake. This volume serves as a companion to the five-volume series by Lightfoot on the Apostolic Fathers. Unlike the other editions mentioned above, the Greek and English are in separate sections and not on facing pages.

• Schaff, Philip. The Oldest Church Manual Called the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1885.

Commentaries

• Audet, Jean-Paul. La Didachè: Instructions des Apôtres. Études Bibliques. Paris: Gabalda, 1958.

  A classic French commentary on the Didache by a leading scholar. Audet gives a fresh translation and displays the Greek text with a very good critical apparatus. The introduction alone is over 200 pages and is accompanied by a major critical commentary. Despite its age, Audet’s work still remains on the short list of important Didache commentaries.

• Kleist, James A. The Didache, The Epistle to Barnabas, The Epistles and the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, The Fragments of Papias, The Epistle to Diognetus. ACW 6. Westminster, MD: Newman, 1948.

• Knopf, Rudolf. Lehre der zwölf Apostel Zwei Clemensbriefe. Vol. 1 of Handbuch zum Neuen Testament: Die apostolischen Väter. Edited by W. Bauer, M. Dibelius, R. Knopf, and H. Windisch. Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 1920.

• Kraft, Robert A. Barnabas and the Didache. Vol. 3 of The Apostolic Fathers. Edited by Robert M. Grant. New York: Nelson, 1965.

• Niederwimmer, Kurt. The Didache: A Commentary. Hermeneia. Translated by Linda M. Maloney. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998. [Amazon]

  The current leading commentary on the Didache, written in German (see below), but now available in English through the Hermeneia series.

• Niederwimmer, Kurt. Die Didache. Kommentar zu den Apostolischen Vätern 8. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993.

  Niederwimmer’s original commentary, written in German.

• Rordorf, Willy and André Tuilier. La Doctrine des Douze Apôtres (Didachè): Introduction, Texte Critique, Traduction, Notes, Appendice, Annexe et Index. Sources Chrétiennes 248. Paris, Les Éditions du Cerf, 1998.

  This is another great French commentary on the Didache, although not nearly as long as Audet’s. Rordorf/Tuilier contribute a lengthy introduction (over 100 pages), a new translation with parallel Greek text (including a very good critical apparatus), and notes on the text. The commentary proper is integrated with the translation and is not lengthy as other volumes, but are nonetheless excellent notes.

Monographs

• Del Verme, Marcello. Didache and Judaism: Jewish Roots of an Ancient Christian-Jewish Work. New York: T & T Clark, 2004.

• Garrow, Alan J. P. The Gospel of Matthew’s Dependence on the Didache. London: T & T Clark, 2004.

• Jefford, Clayton N. The Sayings of Jesus in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. VCSup 11. Leiden: Brill, 1989.

  A revised version of his 1988 PhD dissertation at the Claremont Graduate School. A detailed study on the sources and history of Jesus’ sayings in the Two Ways (chs. 1-5) section and the Little Apocalypse (ch. 16).

• Massaux, Edouard. The Influence of the Gospel of Saint Matthew on Christian Literature before Saint Irenaeus, Book 3: The Apologists and the Didache New Gospel Studies 5/3. Macon, GA: Mercer University, 1994.

• Milavec, Aaron. The Didache: Faith, Hope, and Life of the Earliest Christian Communities, 50—70 c.e. New York/Mahwah, NJ: Newman, 2003.

• Pardee, Nancy. The Genre and Development of the Didache: A Text-Linguistic Analysis. WUNT II. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009.

  Its publication has been delayed, but there are high expectations for this monograph.

• Schwiebert, Jonathan. Knowledge and the Coming Kingdom: The Didache’s Meal Ritual and its Place in Early Chrstianity. LNTS 373. London: T & T Clark, 2008.

• van de Sandt, Huub, and David Flusser. The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity. Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum Ad Novum Testamentum. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2002. [Amazon]

• Varner, William. The Way of the Didache: The First Christian Handbook. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2007.

  Intended for the non-specialist. Varner addresses a lot of the introductory issues related to the Didache and its discovery. The book contains the Greek text (no apparatus) and a translation followed by several chapters on various topics such as the Didache’s use of Scripture, the Two Ways tractate, sacraments, ministers, and theology. In the final chapter (”The Lessons of the Didache”), Varner details how he reads the Didache as a Christian. Particularly useful is the appendix which includes a concordance of the Greek text.

Articles and Essays

See also collected essays below.

• Bradshaw, Paul F. “Yet Another Explanation of Didache 9—10.” SL. 36 (2006): 124-28.

• Draper, Jonathan A. “The Holy Vine of David Made Known to the Gentiles through God’s Servant Jesus: ‘Christian Judaism’ in the Didache.” Pages 257-83 in Jewish Christianity Reconsidered: Rethinking Ancient Groups and Texts Edited by M. Jackson-McCabe. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007.

• Draper, Jonathan A. “The Jesus Tradition in the Didache.” Pages 269-87 in The Jesus Tradition outside the Gospels. Edited by D. Wenham. Gospel Perspectives 5. Sheffield: JSOT, 1985.

• Draper, Jonathan A. “Pure Sacrifice in Didache 14 as Jewish Christian Exegesis.” Neot. 42 (2008): 223-52.

• Draper, Jonathan A. “Ritual Process and Ritual Symbol in Didache 7—10.” Vigiliae christianae. 54 (2000): 121-58.

• Ekenberg, Anders. “Evidence for Jewish Believers in ‘Church Orders’ and Liturgical Texts” Pages 640-58 in Jewish Believers in Jesus: The Early Centuries Edited by O. Skarsaune and R. Hvalvik. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2007.

• Glover, R. “The Didache’s Quotations and the Synoptic Gospels.” New Testament Studies. 5 (1958): 12-29.

• Kloppenborg, John S. “Didache 16:6-8 and Special Matthean Tradition.” Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentlichen Wissenschaft 70 (1979): 54-67.

• Kohler, Kaufmann. “Didache.” Pages 585-88 in vol. 4 of The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1903.

• Layton, Bentley. “The Sources, Date, and Transmission of the Didache 1.3b-2.1.” Harvard Theological Review. 61 (1968): 343-83.

• Kraft, Robert A. “Didache.” Pages 197-98 in vol. 2 of The Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by D. N. Freedman. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

• Stewart-Sykes, Alistair. “The Birkath Ha-Mazon and the Body of the Lord: A Case-Study of Didache 9—10.” QL. 85 (2004): 197-205.

• Tidwell, Neville L. A. “Didache XVI:1 (ΚΑΤΑ ΚΥΡΙΑΚΗΝ ΔΕ ΚΥΡΙΟΥ) Revisited.” VC. 53 (1999): 197-207.

• Vokes, F. E. “The Didache and the Canon of the New Testament.” Studia evangelica. 3 (1964): 427-36.

Collected Essays with TOCs

• van de Sandt, Huub. Matthew and the Didache: Two Documents from the Same Jewish-Christian Milieu? (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005).

  1. Bas ter Haar Romeny, “Hypotheses on the Development of Judaism and Christianity in Syria in the Period after 70 C.E.”
  2. Clayton N. Jefford, “The Milieu of Matthew, the Didache, and Ignatius of Antioch: Agreements and Differences.”
  3. Wire Weren, “The History and Social Setting of the Matthean Community”
  4. Aaron Milavec, “When, Why, and for Whom Was the Didache Created? Insights into the Social and Historical Setting of the Didache Communities.”
  5. Kari Syreeni, “The Sermon on the Mount and the Two Ways Teaching of the Didache.”
  6. John S. Kloppenborg, “The Use of the Synoptics or Q in Didache 1:3b-2:1.”
  7. Peter J. Tomson, “The Halakhic Evidence of Didache 8 and Matthew 6 and the Didache Community’s Relationship to Judaism.”
  8. Gerard Rouwhorst, “Didache 9-10: A Litmus Test for the Research in Early Christian Liturgy Eucharist.”
  9. Andre Tuilier, “Les charismatiques itinerants dans la Didache et dans l’Evangile de Matthieu.”
  10. Huub van de Sandt, “Two Windows on a Developing Jewish-Christian Reproof Practice.”
  11. Joseph Verheyden, “Eschatology in the Didache and the Gospel of Matthew.”
  12. Jonathan A. Draper, “Do the Didache and Matthew Reflect an ‘Irrevocable Parting of the Ways’ with Judaism?”

• van de Sandt, Huub and Jürgen Zangenberg. Matthew, James, and Didache: Three Related Documents in their Jewish and Christian Settings (Leiden: Brill, 2008).

  1. Huub van de Sandt and Jürgen K. Zangenberg, “Introduction”
  2. David C. Sim, “Reconstructing the Social and Religious Milieu of Matthew: Methods, Sources, and Possible Results”
  3. Oda Wischmeyer, “Reconstructing the Social and Religious Milieu of James: Methods, Sources, and Possible Results”
  4. Jürgen K. Zangenberg, “Reconstructing the Social and Religious Milieu of the Didache: Observations and Possible Results”
  5. Magnus Zetterholm, “The Didache, Matthew, James—and Paul: Reconstructing Historical Developments in Antioch”
  6. Peter Tomson, “Transformations of Post-70 Judaism: Scholarly Reconstructions and Their Implications for our Perception of Matthew, Didache, and James”
  7. Joseph Verheyden, “Jewish Christianity, A State of Affairs: Affinities and Differences with Respect to Matthew, James, and the Didache”
  8. Jonathan Draper, “Apostles, Teachers, and Evangelists: Stability and Movement of Functionaries in Matthew, James, and the Didache”
  9. Wim J. C. Weren, “The Ideal Community according to Matthew, James, and the Didache”
  10. John S. Kloppenborg, “Poverty and Piety in Matthew, James, and the Didache”
  11. Jens Schröter, “Jesus Tradition in Matthew, James, and the Didache: Searching for Characteristic Emphases”
  12. J. Andrew Overman, “Problems with Pluralism in the Second Temple Judaism: Matthew, James, and the Didache in Their Jewish-Roman Milieu”
  13. Matthias Konradt, “The Love Command in Matthew, James, and the Didache”
  14. Patrick J. Hartin, “Ethics in the Letter of James, the Gospel of Matthew, and the Didache: Their Place in Early Christian Literature”
  15. Huub van de Sandt, “Law and Ethics in Matthew’s Antitheses and James’s Letter: A Reorientation of Halakah in Line with the Jewish Two Ways 3:1-6″
  16. Alistair Stewart-Sykes, “Ἀποκύησις λόγῳ ἀληθείας: Paraenesis and Baptism in Matthew, James, and the Didache”
  17. Martin Vahrenhorst, “The Presence and Absence of a Prohibition of Oath in James, Matthew, and the Didache and its Significance for Contextualization”
  18. Boris Repschinski, “Purity in Matthew, James, and the Didache”

• Jefford, Clayton N. Editor.The Didache in Context: Essays on Its Text, History and Transmission. NovTSup 77. Leiden: Brill, 1995.

  1. Aelred Cody, “The Didache: An English Translation”
  2. Kurt Niederwimmer, “Der Didachist und seine Quellen”
  3. Boudewijn Dehandschutter, “The Text of the Didache: Some Comments on the Edition of Klaus Wengst”
  4. F. Stanley Jones and Paul A. Mirecki, “Considerations on the Coptic Papyrus of the Didache (British Library Oriental Manuscript 9271)”
  5. John S. Kloppenborg, “The Transformation of Moral Exhortation in Didache 1—5″
  6. André Tuilier, “La Didachè et le problème synoptique”
  7. Aaron Milavect, “The Saving Efficacy of the Burning Process in Didache 16.5″
  8. Nancy Pardee, “The Curse that Saves (Didache 16.5)”
  9. Ian H. Henderson, “Style-Switching in the Didache: Fingerprint or Argument?”
  10. Jonathan Reed, “The Hebrew Epic and the Didache“
  11. Nathan Mitchell, “Baptism in the Didache“
  12. John W. Riggs, “The Sacred Food of Didache 9-10 and Second-Century Ecclesiologies”
  13. Jonathan Draper, “Social Ambiguity and the Production of Text: Prophets, Teachers, Bishops, and Deacons and the Development of the Jesus Tradition in the Community of the Didache“
  14. Stephen J. Patterson, “Didache 11-13: The Legacy of Radical Itinerancy in Early Christianity”
  15. Clayton N. Jefford, “Did Ignatius of Antioch Know the Didache?”
  16. Cyprian Davis, “The Didache and Early Monasticism in the East and West”
  17. Kenneth J. Harder and Clayton N. Jefford, “A Bibliography of the Literature on the Didache“

• Draper, Jonathan A. Editor. The Didache in Modern Research. AGJU. Leiden: Brill, 1996.

  1. Jonathan A. Draper, “The Didache in Modern Research: An Overview”
  2. Georg Schöllgen, “The Didache as a Church Order: An Examination of the Purpose for the Composition of the Didache and its Consequences for its Interpretation”
  3. Jonathan A. Draper, “The Jesus Tradition in the Didache“
  4. Christopher M. Tuckett, “Synoptic Tradition in the Didache“
  5. Jean-Paul Audet, “Literary and Doctrinal Relationships of the ‘Manual of Discipline’”
  6. Willy Rordorf, “An Aspect of the Judeo-Christian Ethic: the Two Ways”
  7. Gedaliah Alon, “Halakah in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Didache)”
  8. David Flusser, “Paul’s Jewish-Christian Opponents in the Didache“
  9. Willy Rordorf, “Baptism according to the Didache“
  10. Jonathan A. Draper, “Christian Self-Definition against the ‘Hypocrites’ in Didache 8″
  11. Betz, Johannes, “The Eucharist in the Didache.”
  12. Enrico Mazza, “Didache 9-10: Elements of a Eucharistic Interpretation”
  13. André de Halleux, “Ministers in the Didache“
  14. Kurt Niederwimmer, “An Examination of the Development of Itinerant Radicalism in the Environment and Tradition of the Didache“
  15. Jonathan A. Draper, “Torah and Troublesome Apostles in the Didache Community”
  16. Ernst Bammel, “Pattern and Prototype of Didache 16″
  17. Hans Reinhard Seeliger, “Considerations on the Background and Purpose of the Apocalyptic Final Chapter of the Didache“

Online Resources

• Brannan, Rick. The Didache: A Translation. Published online: http://www.supakoo.com/rick/DidacheTranslation-2009-11-05.pdf.

  Brannan offers a mostly literal translation of the Didache with notes and cross references. This new translation supplements Brannan’s previous work on the Didache, also published online.