‖ Didache
(ˈdɪdəkiː)
[English form of Gr. διδαχή teaching, first word of the title of the treatise Διδαχὴ τῶν δώδεκα ἀποστόλων Teaching of the twelve apostles.] The name of a Christian treatise of the beginning of the second century. Hence ˈDidachist, Didaˈchographer, the writer or compiler of the Didache.
| 1885 Schaff in Jrnl. Soc. Bibl. Lit. June & Dec. 3 The great interest and significance of the Didache consists in filling the gap between the Apostolic age and the Church of the second century. Ibid. 6 The Didachographer seems also to have some slight acquaintance with Luke and Acts and some epistles of Paul. 1888 Dublin Rev. Jan. 141 This would give about a.d. 120, as the latest date at which the Didache could have been published. 1891 F. H. Chase Lord's Prayer in Early Church, Against this correction either of the text of the Didaché or of the Didachist's report of his original. |
2. (With small initial.) The instructional or didactic element in early Christian theology, as distinct from ‘kerygma’ or preaching.
| 1936 C. H. Dodd Apostolic Preaching i. 6 For the early Church..to preach the Gospel was by no means the same thing as to deliver moral instruction or exhortation... It was by kerygma, says Paul, not by didaché, that it pleased God to save men. 1953 Scottish Jrnl. Theol. VI. 435 Didache was an expanded version of the kerygma, embracing Christian life and conduct, but including also instruction in the ‘historical facts’ as well as the ‘saving facts’, in the sacraments and eschatology. 1960 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Apr p. xii/1, The ‘kerygma’ is not of course opposed to the ‘didache’: the messsage must imply the teaching. |