The Didache: A Window on the Earliest Christians

This book offers a very accessible, brief, and to the point introduction to the Didache (“the Training”). The Didache may be older than the first letters of Paul, making it our earliest Christian document. Even if the actual text is not quite that old, the Didache clearly reflects an oral tradition from the house churches that is itself very ancient.O’Loughlin reproduces the English text in just over ten pages; you can get the Greek with a facing-page English translation in Aaron Milovec’s short commentary. (You probably don’t want Milovec’s 1,000-page scholarly tome.) The Didache’s sixteen chapters represent a series of lessons that a mentor (in modern terms, the catechist) would impart to someone seeking full membership in the community (the catechumen). Because the Greek uses the second-person singular, not the plural (y’all), and refers to the mentor in the singular, the training clearly depended on a one-on-one relationship.Parts of the text will be familiar to readers of the Christian New Testament, either because the synoptic gospels used the Didache as a source or because both the gospels and the Didache drew on the sayings of Jesus. The community remembered those sayings in its oral tradition and then in the Gospel of Thomas (and/or Q). While the sayings appear in various lessons, the Great Commandment guides the training overall. The training also draws from the Ten Commandments, ethical guidelines to right living, and then moves to questions of baptism, the Eucharist, identifying false prophets, and other questions of church organization.O’Loughlin rightly makes much of how much modern practice has diverged from the original practice of an inclusive, shared meal. Other than that, he avoids criticisms of modern churches, recognizing that they live and work in very different times than the first Christians did. More often, O’Loughlin sees learning from the past as like visiting a foreign country. Unfamiliar things help you see your own country and time more clearly.If you want to know what the earliest Christianity looked like, this is your book. Indeed, it’s unfortunate that it did not make it into the canon standardized in about the third century. Because of O’Loughlin’s very readable style and inclusive approach to the history of Christianity, even a secular general reader may find this short book interesting for its insights into the world’s largest religion.

First, 'fundamentals' does not mean 'Fundamentalist.' O'Loughlin is a theologian with a broad perspective on Christianity that comes from many sources and from thirty-plus years of teaching theology. Here, he 'teaches' the historic text, the 'Didache', a Greek language source extant from early Christian times, that seeks to instruct the faithful and new converts as to what it means to 'follow the Jesus Way' and how to introduce fellowship in that Way to newcomers.I found the author's chapters to offer a fine set of potential sermons to encourage Christians to THINK about their faith and to be more sensitive to the 'living meaning' of what all-too-often has become 'ritual' or 'rote' observance. Examples here include 'holy meals', both 'Eucharistic' and 'agape' (Christian love feasts). The text explores what eating together meant to Jesus, in terms of how he explains things to others. It points out that Jesus often used group mealtimes as times to teach about faith but that such times were also occasions for Fellowship and enjoyment. Jesus' views on baptism are explained and contrasted with the views of the earlier John 'the Baptiser', whose followers frequently joined the followers of Jesus after John died. Another chapter deals with prayer and fasting and the importance attached to these being 'community' events even more than individual practices. Special attention is given to the earliest forms of 'The Lord's Prayer' or 'Our Father.' Through The Didache and the explanation of it given in this book, one has the sense of being 'there' in a vital period of Christian life. It makes fascinating reading and it illuminates Christian practice.

Thomas O'Loughlin's translation and introduction do an admirable job taking us into The Didache and its early Christian world. The clarity of his translation and his decision to avoid the distraction of notes (links to Scripture are readily available elsewhere)encourage us to deal directly with the text.O'Loughlin, with others, dates The Didache within the New Testament period, greatly enhancing our perspective onthe life and practice of the earliest Christians. He has done for The Didache and its time what he has done forPatrick, Adomnan, and other key figures and writings from early Christianity in the Celtic world.I appreciate his treatment of the Eucharist as the sign of Christian unity, rather than a prominent bone of contention. He rightly points out The Didache's emphasis on the Church as a uniting of amazingly diverse people, brought about through Christ - represented in the single loaf and common cup - as its source and focal point.This is an important contribution to all who are interested in early Christianity and the origins and development of Christian worship, ethics, and common life.

My one word summary of this work - Wow! I read halfway through it the first day I received it. Having completed it I will say this - it will challenge a person's biases and traditional views of the early church...and that is a good thing. I like how the author approached the early church. We really do not have a good idea today of how the early church functioned. We are looking through the fog of history at times when it comes to the church. This book is well written enough for a lay person to read and gain insight plus it is useful for the pastor, Bible scholar and seminarian as well. Further, Dr. O'Loughlin provides a solid list of references where the reader can continue to pursue the study of this ancient document as well as the early church.

How and what the Church did then is what we should be doing now. No wonder Jesus said that "the gates of hell would not prevail against it!" Here we are at the last moments before the rapture and hell has invaded and owns the church.