Sitz im Leben » didache http://sitzimleben.com The Jesus Tradition—Then and Now Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:15:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.1 en hourly 1 Why the Didache Is Important http://sitzimleben.com/2009/07/22/why-is-the-didache-important/ http://sitzimleben.com/2009/07/22/why-is-the-didache-important/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 16:22:55 +0000 brandonw http://sitzimleben.com/?p=412 I’ll be starting a new blog series on the Didache soon, which basically tackles the issue of why the Didache is important. I hope to address such topics as its date, its contributions to liturgical theology, its genre, its relationship to the Matthean community, the Two Ways tractate and the epistles of Barnabas, the issue of church leadership (itinerant prophets, etc.), and its place within “Jewish Christianity.” It should be a fun series to write, and hopefully fun to read as well, but I can’t make any promises.

]]> http://sitzimleben.com/2009/07/22/why-is-the-didache-important/feed/ 6 A Bibliography of the Didache http://sitzimleben.com/2009/07/18/a-biliography-of-the-didache/ http://sitzimleben.com/2009/07/18/a-biliography-of-the-didache/#comments Sat, 18 Jul 2009 20:19:11 +0000 brandonw http://sitzimleben.com/?p=321 I have added a new feature to sitzimleben.com — a bibliography section. Since I’ve posted a few reading/book lists on the blog already, the first two bibliographies that I added were New Testament Introduction and Historical Jesus. Yet I have also added a new annotated bibliography on the Didache. The Didache has been one of my primary areas of interest and I recently wrote my MTS thesis on the Didache, so it was an obvious choice as the first new bibliography.

The bibliography is divided into five categories: (1) Texts and Editions, (2) Commentaries, (3) Monographs, (4) Articles and Essays, and (5) Collected Essays on the Didache with a list of their Contents. The bibliography is nowhere near complete at this point and I have not written annotations for all the entries yet, but I’m out of time for the day and I plan to keep all the bibliographies up-to-date as time goes on.

]]> http://sitzimleben.com/2009/07/18/a-biliography-of-the-didache/feed/ 1 Five Influential Primary Sources http://sitzimleben.com/2009/07/05/five-influential-primary-sources/ http://sitzimleben.com/2009/07/05/five-influential-primary-sources/#comments Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:23:53 +0000 brandonw http://sitzimleben.com/?p=41 Kevin of the Scull requested my participation the latest meme. Here are the rules:

  1. List the 5 primary sources that have most affected your scholarship, thoughts about antiquity, and/or understanding of the NT/OT.
  2. Books from the Bible are off limits unless you really want to list one, I certainly will not chastise you for it.
  3. Finally, choose individual works if you can. This will be more interesting than listing the entire corpus of Cicero as one of your choices.

For now I’ll simply list the texts (an impossible task in itself) and later post on why I chose each one. So here’s my list:

  1. Didache
  2. Mishnah
  3. Josephus’s Antiquities
  4. The Progymnasmata (I know, not a single work)
  5. Gospel of Thomas

Now, these are five sources that I have found particularly helpful for my own work or very interesting. I must admit, however, that compiling such a list is an awful task. Where are the sectarian writings from Judean Desert? Philo? The Hellenistic Moralists? The Epistle of Barnabas, or other apostolic fathers? The Pseudo-Clementines? As a classicist, how could I have left out the epics or the dramas? So, while I’m focusing on these five, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the most important. I trust that people’s lists will vary widely.

As part of my duty, I tag Mike Whitenton, John Anderson, Rob Kashow, Daniel Kirk, Alan Bandy, and Nick Norelli.

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