Scholar Unlocks the Shape of Christianity Before the Gospels
Author Moved to Tears When First Embracing his Elephant and his Mouse
When Aaron Milavec arrived at the Atlanta
Marriott Hotel to give his public lecture, there were tears in his eyes.
Having worked for fifteen years to decode an ancient, lost Christian
document known as "the Didache,” Milavec was able to hold in his
arms his two newly published books. Like a proud father holding his twins, Milavec
explained how, on cold nights, he would wake up dreaming of those mid-first-century
Christians who lived the Way of Life described in the Didache. "Having heard their voices, I couldn't
get back to sleep unless I first got out of my warm bed, put on my robe, and
dutifully recorded their revelations to me on the cold keys of my word processor."
Most Christians believe that everything
about Jesus and the early church can be found in their New Testament.
In recent years, however, the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas and
the reconstruction of the Q-Gospel have led scholars to recognize that some
very early materials were left out. Now,
due to the pioneering efforts of Dr. Aaron Milavec, a seminary professor for
twenty-five years, the most decisive document of them all has come to light. "At last," Milavec notes, "the day to day operations
of the earliest Christian communities can be explored and understood as they
existed outside the letters of Paul and prior to the time of the writing of
the four Gospels."
The Didache reveals a tantalizingly
detailed description of the frame of mind and the mode of living that shaped
the Jesus movement some twenty years after the death of Jesus. The focus of the movement then was not upon
proclaiming the exalted titles and deeds of Jesus‑-aspects that come
to the fore in the letters of Paul and in the Gospel narratives. In fact, the document says nothing about Jesus
dying for our sins. Nor does it detail
Jesus' vindication and exaltation through his resurrection and ascension.
In contrast to these familiar forms of Christianity, the focus of the
Didache was upon training non-Jews to embrace the faith and to live
the Way of Life exemplified by Jesus. Rather
than applauding what Jesus did for us, therefore, these early Christians thought
of themselves as living Jesus' Way of Life so as to become a servant of the
Father just as he was. It is not surprising,
therefore, that the long title attached to this document is The Training
of the Lord through the Twelve Apostles to the Gentiles.
The Didache was originally discovered
by Archbishop Bryennios in a private library in Istanbul in the year 1875.
No one at the time, however, was able to recognize it for what it was.
It was like the Rosetta Stone gathering dust in the British Museum
until the French scholar, Jean Francois Champollion, noticed that what was
written in Greek and Demotic provided the key for unlocking the meaning of
ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that no one was able to decipher. Thus, for over a hundred years, scholars of
the early church routinely dismissed the Didache because they all supposed
that it was an ancient church order written in the second century.
Milavec, however, was unsatisfied by this official point of view.
Slowly, over a period of fifteen years, the clues in the Greek manuscript
itself revealed quite another story. Once Milavec was able to unlock these clues, he was then able to
go on to reconstruct the hopes and the fears, the trials and the successes,
that characterized Christians when they were still a religious faction struggling
at the boundaries of Judaism.
So, why did Milavec publish two books,
both of which bear the main title, The Didache? By way of answering this question, the author
tells how, ten years ago, his hairdresser spend a full fifteen minutes telling
him all the fascinating things she had learned about the Gnostic Gospels after
reading the book of Elaine Pagels. "From that day forward," Milavec explained, "I knew
I had to write a short and snappy book accessible to hairdressers and brick
layers." Thus Liturgical Press
produced what the author affectionately regards as "the mouse."
Paulist Press, during the same period,
produced "the elephant"‑-a thousand-page tome designed to
satisfy the demanding criteria of scholars.
After his inaugural lecture at the Atlanta Marriott Hotel, Milavec
relates how a brassy scholar cornered him in the hall and asked, "How
does a quiet guy like you get off with publishing a thousand pages of commentary
on a document that could neatly fit on eight pages?" Milavec responded in his usual warm tones saying,
"My poor mouse was defenseless. She
needed a heavy‑weight companion to keep from being stepped on."
Milavec believes that he has a personal
responsibility to let the whole world know about the experiences of those
folks who lived the Way of Life described in the Didache. "If in ten years," he said, "I
don't find editions of the New Testament printed with the Didache in
an appendix, I will have failed." All
things considered, one would have to admit that this proud father of two new
books has much to be grateful for and, at the same time, much to keep him
busy for the next ten years.
· The “mouse” = The Didache: Text, Translation, Analysis, and Commentary (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, December 2003) 128 pp.; $9.95 soft cover
· The “elephant” = The Didache: Faith, Hope, and Life of the Earliest Christians 50-70 C.E. (New York: Paulist Press, November 2003) 1018 pp.; $64.95 hard cover
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Paper, 128 pages Hardcover, 1018 pages, index Price: $64.95 Paulist
Press
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The Didache
-- Text, Translation, Analysis, and Commentary
"Dr. Milavec has produced a
stimulating study of the Didache that gives full attention to the unity of
the text and the pastoral sensitivity of its author, In this single, brief
commentary, Milavec’s masterful presentation of the text and his intriguing
perspective upon the ancient origins and unique purposes of the work will
undoubtedly provoke scholarly discussion for many years to come!"
"Aaron Milavec, author of a
thousand-page scientific commentary of the Didache, presents a welcome and
timely synthesis of his research. It is clearly written, accessible also to
non-specialists, and of special interest for students, liturgists,
catechists, and Church ministers. Milavec makes knowledge of the earliest
Christian tradition assessable for a spiritual renewal today."
"The works by Milavec have
revolutionized my own understanding of the Didache and I recommend them as
the best introduction to a new and more profitable way of studying the
document."
The
Didache -- Faith, Hope, and Life of the
Earliest Christian Communities, 50-70 C.E. Aaron Milavec ·
The introductory material
shows how recent developments have opened the way to rediscovering the
compositional unity and the early dating of the Didache. An
origination hypothesis is developed and tested. ·
The commentary combines
literary criticism and sociological analysis in order to reconstruct the
faith and hope, the discipline and rituals, the anxieties and challenges
facing the communities presupposed by the Didache. The roles
played by women, prophets, and slaves receive their due sociological and
theological weight. ·
Over three hundred
specialized discussions in boxes enable the non-expert to become acquainted
with the social, religious, and political dimensions of the first-century
environment while the expert finds conflicting scholarly concerns addressed
without impeding the smooth flow of the commentary. ·
Flow charts give a bird's
eye view of the progression of events (a) within the Didache as a
whole, (b) during the training prior to baptism, and (c) during the End
Times. “ Professor Milavec, in dialogue with
recent international scholarship, sets great store by allowing the internal
evidence of the text to speak for itself. This volume, which looks at the
unity of the manual against the cultural background of its time, is an
indispensable addition to the literature on the Didache. It provides a
gender-inclusive translation and a clear, concise, and inspiring commentary
which is not only of essential importance to scholars, pastors, and students
but also very useful for ordinary people."
"Milavec’s newest book is the
culmination of fifteen years of insightful scholarship into the mysterious
text of the Didache. The parallel English ‘analytical’ translation from the
Greek is done with simplicity, yet with a sensitivity to gender issues and
the Jewish background of the original text. This insightful new edition
should appeal as much to erudite scholars as to the plainest of faiths. The
commentary, the website, and the flow charts are brilliant additions."
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