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1 ` Didache, Torah, and the Gentile Mission: a Mediation of Torah For ` Didache, Torah, and the Gentile Mission: A Mediation of Torah for the Church Submitted by Daniel Frank Jonathan Nessim to the University of Exeter as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology and Religion In December 2018 This dissertation is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this dissertation which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ……………………………………………………………………………… 1 ABSTRACT Long looked to for insights into the life of the early church, the Didache’s reception of the Torah has received significant passing attention but never benefitted from an extended systematic analysis. Well received in the early church, it reflects both a first century and Antiochene provenance. The Didache was written for a church enduring internal and external social and political stresses. In this environment it sought to establish norms for the individual and the community. It is specifically in the context of its Two Ways teaching that the Didache adopted an established topos rooted in both the Torah and other traditions, accessible to Jew and Greek alike, to convey its teaching on the Torah. This teaching was established on the basis of the authority of the religious teacher and that of Jesus himself. On the basis of this assumed authority, the Didache mandated the Way of Life for Christian disciples, laying the foundations of its approach with the double command to love God and neighbour, reflective of the two tables of the Torah. Tightly bound structurally and thematically to the following Two Ways, the sectio evangelica, comprising known Jesus sayings, shows an affinity to Torah affirming passages in the gospels. As a prologue that bears comparison to the Two Ways ‘yoke of the Lord’ epilogue, it places stress on the Torah as mediated by Jesus. Within the Two Ways material itself, there is not only a marked structure revolving around the second table of the Decalogue, but textual markers linking and equating it in some ways to the Torah as a whole. In the context, its 2 endorsement of the ‘yoke of the Lord’ is a striking Torah affirmative statement which reinforces the commitment to the Didache’s teaching that is required of it. It is this commitment to the Torah as applicable to all Christians that is enjoined upon the gentile disciple; the Torah presented in those respects that were deemed to apply to gentiles. Acceptance of this sine qua non formed the basis for induction into the church and participation in its eschatological hope. 3 LIST OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................. 2 LIST OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. 4 ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................ 8 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 10 PART ONE: DIDACHE AND TORAH .............................................................. 15 1. THE DIDACHE AND THE TORAH: A LITERATURE REVIEW ............. 16 1.1 Excitement and Expertise .................................................................. 17 1.2 The Lost Decades of Didache Research 1903-1958 ............................. 21 1.3 A Change of Tide ............................................................................. 23 1.4 Didache Studies Revived ................................................................... 26 1.5 The Two Ways and Torah: Paradigms and Prisms ............................. 33 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 36 2. TEXT AND TRANSMISSION ................................................................. 38 2.1 Manuscripts and Fragments .............................................................. 38 2.2 The Two Ways Source ...................................................................... 41 2.3 Date, Redaction, and Authorship ...................................................... 43 2.4 The Didache’s Early Reception .......................................................... 53 2.5 The Didache’s Gentile Recipients ...................................................... 59 4 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 63 PART TWO: A COMPREHENSIBLE AND AUTHORITATIVE TEACHING ........ 65 3. CRISIS AND COMMUNITY ................................................................... 66 3.1 Socio-Political Conflict ..................................................................... 68 3.2 Divergent Agendas and the Churches of the Didache ......................... 80 3.3 Transforming Crisis ......................................................................... 93 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 99 4. TWO WAYS AND THE ONE WAY OF TORAH ................................... 100 4.1 Pagan Traditions and the Two Ways ............................................... 101 4.2 The Hebrew Scriptures and the Two Ways ...................................... 105 4.3 Second Temple Judaism and the Two Ways .................................... 110 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 117 5. AN AUTHORITATIVE TORAH AND TEACHER ................................. 118 5.1 Torah Teachers and Their Authority ............................................... 119 5.2 The Authority of the Lord ............................................................... 136 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 145 PART THREE: TORAH FOR THE LORD’S COMMUNITY .............................. 146 6. THE TWO WAYS CHOICE .................................................................. 149 6.1 The Teaching ................................................................................. 149 6.2 The Choice ..................................................................................... 151 6.3 The Double Love Command ........................................................... 157 6.4 Deuteronomic Dissuasion ............................................................... 163 5 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 165 7. THE SECTIO, JESUS AND THE TORAH ............................................. 166 7.1 The sectio and the Jewishness of the Two Ways .............................. 166 7.2 The sectio as a Torah Mandate ........................................................ 168 7.3 The sectio as the Words of Jesus ..................................................... 176 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 179 8. THE SECTIO AND THE TWO WAYS .................................................. 181 8.1 The Placement of the Sectio ............................................................ 181 8.2 Harmonising Recueil or Structured Prologue? ................................. 186 8.3 The Sectio: Double Inclusion .......................................................... 189 8.4 The Second δεύτερον ....................................................................... 192 8.5 ἐπιθυμία and Its Connotations ......................................................... 195 8.6 The Thematic Linkage Between the Sectio and Two Ways ............... 199 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 202 9. THE TORAH AND THE TWO WAYS .................................................. 203 9.1 The Decalogue and the Structure of the Two Ways .......................... 203 9.2 The Torah Markers of the Two Ways .............................................. 219 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 225 10. THE YOKE OF THE LORD ................................................................ 226 10.1 The Two Ways Conclusion ........................................................... 226 10.2 The Yoke of the Lord .................................................................... 233 10.3 The Lord’s Yoke and Its Effects ..................................................... 238 6 10.4 Concerning Food: Postlude or Prelude? ......................................... 245 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 249 11. THE TWO WAYS DISCIPLE .............................................................. 250 11.1 The Concession and the Yoke ....................................................... 250 11.2 Omissions and Inclusions ............................................................. 255 11.3 The Gentile Disciple ..................................................................... 262 11.4 Immersion and Conversion ........................................................... 270 Conclusion .......................................................................................... 279 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 281 BIBLIOGRAPHY .....................................................................................
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