The Didache Discoveries - by Alan Garrow (Paperback)

About the Book

This bold exploration of the Didache's influence on the New Testament delves into two texts that have been discovered beneath its surface--the Complete Apostolic Decree and the Missing Epistle of John--offering new answers to questions that have plagued biblical scholars for decades.

Book Synopsis

This groundbreaking study digs beneath the surface of one of early Christianity's most enigmatic documents, the Didache, and finds there two texts hidden side by side for nearly two millennia.

The first, compiled by James the brother of Jesus and the twelve apostles in 48 CE, is the Apostolic Decree. This document, partially described in Acts 15, was treated as foundational Christian Scripture by the writers of the New Testament. In that role it provides the starting point for interactions that open out across Paul's letters, the synoptic gospels, and the Johannine literature--enabling solutions to previously unanswerable questions about Paul's theology, the infamous synoptic problem, and the origins of Johannine theological creativity. Crucial to the story of the latter is the discovery of the Didache's second hidden document: the Missing Epistle of John. This text, referenced in 3 John 9, reworks the sometimes eccentric instructions of the Apostolic Decree and makes them more generally applicable--a move that provides fascinating insight into the ways the writers of the New Testament handled their own sacred text.

The Didache Discoveries promises to impact every major aspect of the study of the New Testament and early Christianity.

About the Author

Alan Garrow (DPhil, University of Oxford) is vicar at St. Peter's Church, Harrogate, United Kingdom, and is a member of the Sheffield Centre for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies. He is the author of The Gospel of Matthew's Dependence on the "Didache" and numerous scholarly articles.