Syrian Reflection on Perfection: Legal Issues in Didache 6.1–3 and Their Early Christian Context

Doering, Lutz

Abstract

This essay discusses Didache 6.1–3 as an epilogue to the section on the “two ways” in the Didache, addressed to neophytes coming from a Gentile context. In doing so, the essay initially addresses Did. 6.2, “For if you are able to bear the whole yoke of the Lord, you will be perfect. But if you are not, then do what you can.” Various explanations in scholarship of “the whole yoke of the Lord” are discussed. The essay makes a new suggestion: the expression relates to the entire Torah as interpreted by Christ according to the legal tradion shared by the Didache. Perfection is thus acknowledged for those Gentile neophytes who keep the entire Torah understood in this sense; for those unable to do so, keeping as much as they could is an option. The essay then discusses Did. 6.3, “Now, concerning food, bear what you are able; but from meat sacrificed to idols keep strictly away, for it is worship of dead gods.” This position is then compared with Paul and the Apostolic Decree. It is argued that the view of the DIdache differs from both, encouraging the keeping of food laws as far as possible and mandating strict abstention only from idol meat. The DIdache thus participates in early Chrostian debate on what Gentile neophytes have t keep of the Jewish law.