Didachè

The Didachè was written towards the end of the 1st century or at the beginning of the 2nd century. The Greek word Διδαχη (to be pronounced " didakè") mean “teaching” or “doctrines” in Greek Koinè.
the found manuscript is entitled: “Doctrines of the Lord transmitted to the nations by the twelve Apostle S”. Paradoxically, the twelve Apôtres are never mentioned in the text itself.

History

The Pères of the Church (Irenee of Lyon, Clement of Alexandria, Origène) there refer, like Eusèbe de Césarée.

After having disappeared during centuries, the text was found towards 1873 (or 1883) by the Métropolite Philothée Bryennios, in a manuscript preserved in the Library of the Patriarcat of Jerusalem. The Manuscrit was copied with Jerusalem in 1056, by “Leon, scribe and sinner”.

Practically contemporary of the Gospels, the Didachè would go back to the years 60 with 90. The formulation of the words of the Christ which it reports seems to be older still than that of the canonical texts. The disciplinary regulations testify one time when the Apôtre S lived and where existed Prophète S itinerants.

“In spite of this worthy antiquity, the Didachè was almost never confused with the Writings of the New Testament”; Athanase of Alexandria advised the reading as a noncanonical text of it. The Roman Catholic church, recognizing its orthodoxy, received it among the writings of the apostolic Pères.

Structure

It includes/understands four parts:

1. Moral teaching (CH. 1-6): “Two ways”, of the life and death; of tendency Judeo-Christian.

2. Liturgical regulations (CH. 7-10): food, Baptism, Fast S, Prayer, Eucharistie.
3. Disciplinary regulations (CH. 11-15), in particular on the reception of the itinerant preachers, the assembly of the Sunday, the election of the bishop S and the Deacon S.
4. Final Parénèse Eschatologique (CH. 16).

Topicality

Although not explicitly canonical, Didachè is frequently quoted in the texts of the the Vatican.

Examples:

  • of the decree AD gentes on the missionary activity of the Church (1965).

  • of the fundamental standards for the formation of the permanent Deacon S (1998) published by the congregation for catholic education (chapter II, profile of the candidates to the permanent Diaconate, paragraph 1 general Qualities):

“We find an echo of the recall of Saint Paul in other texts of the apostolic Pères, especially in Didachè and Saint Polycarpe. Didachè exhorts “to choose the bishop S and of the Diacre S worthy of the Lord, men full with softness, detached from the money, veracious and tested””.

etc

References

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