{"id":792,"date":"2009-12-02T11:00:46","date_gmt":"2009-12-02T17:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=792"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:03:47","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:03:47","slug":"didache-blog-tour-day-two-chapter-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/02\/didache-blog-tour-day-two-chapter-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Didache Blog Tour – Day Two, Chapter Three"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Philotheos Bryennios who discovered the Didache in 1873<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Today, Amy Moffit<\/a> and Ted Gossard<\/a> tackle chapter three of my new book, The Teaching of the Twelve: Believing and Practicing the Primitive Christianity of the Ancient Didache Community.<\/em> (The blog tour skipped chapter two of the book, because that is the complete text of the Didache, which you can also find here<\/a>.) <\/em><\/p>\n

Amy writes that at first, the Didache seemed to her like a cut-and-paste job from Matthew\u2019s Gospel, in which the authors simply took the parts of Matthew they liked and slapped them together.\u00a0 It\u2019s true that I think the Didache authors had access to Quelle<\/em><\/a>, which was also the primary source of Matthew.\u00a0 So she\u2019s right to find parallels.<\/p>\n

On a more existential level, Amy writes,<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve studied early Christian history, and I know that things have changed a lot, but reading about the Christians who would have been familiar with the Didache brings it home to me that their faith may well have been NOTHING like mine, not just in practice, but in substance<\/em> as well.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s right about this, too, of course.\u00a0 The Didache is quite shocking, especially for those of us who were fed lots of Paul and lots of John\u2019s Gospel growing up.\u00a0 And I know that for me, those were the staples of my youth group diet.\u00a0 As I wrote yesterday<\/a>, the Didache is much more Matthean and Jamesian than it is Pauline or Johanine.<\/p>\n

Ted writes,<\/p>\n

I found both the Didache <\/em>and Tony\u2019s take on it for both the past and the present fascinating. When one reads the Didache<\/em> (which might be roughly as long as the book of Ecclesiastes) one encounters a number of Jesus\u2019 sayings, and directions for the way of life as opposed to the way of death, as well as directions for Christian and church practice. It is not a dull read at all; in fact one will appreciate insights and want to ponder what is said.<\/p>\n

And they both mention that it\u2019s in chapter three that I introduce the readers to The Cymbrogi, a Christian community in rural Missouri that uses the Didache as a rule for their communal life.\u00a0 Readers of my last book<\/a> will recognize Trucker Frank<\/a> as one of the Cymbrogi.\u00a0 Their present-day embrace and application of the Didache really brings the ancient document to life for me.<\/p>\n

Online Resources:<\/p>\n