Eschatology in the Didache Reconsidered from an Adventist Perspective
(Koot van Wyk 13 January 2021,
Kyungpook National University, Sangju Campus, South Korea, Conjoint lecturer of
Avondale College, Australia)
The
Eschatology of Didache is found in the last chapter, namely 16. Scholars think
the work is incomplete with an abrupt ending and that space was left to come
and finish it. Scholars also feel that the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles
ending should be added here and that maybe the author of the Greek text was
intending to add this content. Other disputed it. Then there are scholars who
argue that the work is a composite work from many sources. They argue the
Didache contains strands of Jewishness but also other strands related to
Christian aspects for example the Eucharist and Baptism. Others used Qumran fragments to argue for
prayers in the first part of Chapter 1 linked to similar sources consulted. Then
there are scholars who argue that the work is a unity. There are scholars who
argue that some parts of Didache was in the second century A.D. but that other
parts were earlier even in the same time as the composition of Matthew or Mark.
They even argue that Matthew or and Mark cited from the same source Didache was
using. Scholars argue whether the copying of Didache was from an oral
dictation, by memory or from reading a visual text. The reason is that the
correspondences of Matthew and Mark is not verbatim the same in Didache. Then
there are others who argue that the eschatology of Didache has nothing to do
with the second century AD immanent expectation but has to do with a future
End-Time scenario. Other scholars disagrees and argue for an own time
application of these verses in the eschatological part of Didache. When
heretics and false teachers are mentioned it is argue that they are not at the
End of Times but right there in the time and surroundings of the author of
Didache. Textcritically there are those who argue that the text of Georgian is
more complete than the Greek and the extras should be placed in the end of the
shorter Greek text. Others disagree and point out that the Georgian text may be
a fake.
For a
Seventh-day Adventist the situation of the Didache is clear: it is evidence of
the apostasy that crept into the church after the death of the last apostle,
John circa 97 A.D. It the historicism interpretation method of Revelation on
the seven churches with the purity of the first church replaced by the second
church, from 100 A.D. and later, maybe until 325 A.D. of apostasy entering the
church as an amalgamation of pagan and Christian practices.
As J.
Draper and others shown convincingly, and as we can also compare in the Greek
before us, the content of Matthew and Mark did play a role here. Adventists
will see the Didache as later and not equal or at the same time as Matthew and
Mark.
Considering
the false Sunday worship inreading in the Didache. There is no doubt that the
word “day” does not appear in Didache 14:1 for the text reads only: Κατὰ κυριακὴν δὲ κυρίου συναχθέντες κλάσατε ἄρτον καὶ εὐχαριστήσατε. Translated by me as: “according
to the Lordliness [referring to His style or habits doing the Lord’s Supper in
John 13] of the Lord, when you are gathered together you should break bread and
you should thank”. This is not out of tune with what Jesus required in John 13
although it mentions nothing about the footwashing ceremony that should precede
the Lord’s Supper. Didache is silent about this.
Didache Chapter 14:1 κατα κυριακην δε κυριου συναχθεντες But according to the Lordliness of the Lord
come you together κλασατε αρτον και ευχαριστισατε break bread and give thanks προεξομολοησαμενοι τα παραπτωματα υμων first confessing your transgressions, ορως καθαρα η
θυσια υμων η so that pure your offering may be. The Greek
word for day does not appear here. It does not read to gather “on” the Lord’s
Day but “according to the Lordliness”. Considering
the Baptism, the expectation is that it will be not sprinkling but immersion.
The sprinkling is reserved for a desert case of severe jeopardy or
impossibility due to geomorphological and drought situations. The experimenting
of bypasses of the immersion command is obvious here in Didache 7. There is no
proof in the Bible for any of these practices. Somehow, all the cases of
baptism in the Bible took place undisturbed without requesting a luxury escape
from the discomfort of a wet body as well as wet clothes. The motive of the
author should be kept in a yellow card category here. Some
churches wish to treat the Didache on the same level as the biblical text but
in Adventism that will not happen. Already I have outlined some problems here. In the
Didache, different than in the Synoptics or John, eschatology does not say
something about the Investigative Judgment before the Second Coming of the
saints so that His reward is brought at the Second Coming with the wicked
receiving Executive Judgment for they do not deserve according to the books of
Heaven the reward granted to the saints (see 1 Peter 4:17). The
application of the Sanctuary typology, as one can find in the Book of Hebrews
chapter 8 and 9 is glossed over by the author of the Didache. The role of the
Lamb of God in the sacrificial area of the tabernacle, His priestly role in the
Holies separated from a later expected role in the Most Holy as Hebrews 8:9 is
implying (although commonly misinterpreted against the literal reading of the
text by many scholars) is not present in the Didache. The
Perfection expectation before the Second Coming in Didache 16:2 is very
relevant in the Biblical Theology. It is not Jewish legalism that is at stake
here. It is not a clinging to Moses in Deuteronomy as opposed to a law is dead
with faith assumption from Paul as scholars are trying to say. No. Moses’ law
and faith concept is no different than that of Jesus and no different than that
of Paul, James or lissue, was his own misreading of the text as Roland Byington
indicated in his biography of Martin Luther. Didache
16:2. πυκνῶς δὲ συναχθήσεσθε ζητοῦντες τὰ ἀνήκοντα ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν· οὐ γὰρ ὠφελήσει ὑμᾶς ὁ πᾶς χρόνος τῆς πίστεως ὑμῶν, ἐὰν μὴ ἐν τῷ ἐσχάτῳ καιρῷ τελειωθῆτε. (Kirsopp
Lake) 2”But be frequently gathered together seeking the things which
are profitable for your souls, for the whole time of your faith shall not
profit you except ye be found perfect at the last time.” This
translation is very literal by Lake and it definitely illustrates the
requirement of perfection in sanctification so commonly found in the Old Testament,
the preaching of Christ and the apostles. Adventists is familiar with this
requirement in the work of Ellen White. It is not
a case that the Old Testament required legalism for salvation and the New
Testament broke with it by emphasizing that salvation is by faith alone without
the law and now Didache comes and think in Old Testament lines again. Anyone
who analyzes the New Testament and Old Testament in this way, is out of touch
with the nuances and inner core message of the Bible. It is
pointed out that Taras Khomych[1]
asked whether the “life” and “perfection” expected in Didache 16:2 and
elsewhere, should be understood individually or corporately, a question that J.
Draper pointed out in 2011: 575 by Balabanski in 1997.[2]
Draper feels that the formulation of the Didache in 7-16 are in the plural.
There is a switch from singular in Didache 1-6 to plural in Didache 7-16.
Milavec[3]
looked at this and felt that the purpose had to do with the concern with the
community. Draper thought the switch was due to the sources used.[4]
Draper cites Didache 10:5 reading about perfection but that the Lord should
remember the church. The doctrine of abled sanctification is presented: Didache
10:5: 5. μνήσθητι, κύριε, τῆς ἐκκλησίας σου, τοῦ ῥύσασθαι αὐτὴν ἀπὸ παντος πονηροῦ και τελειωσαι αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ σου, καὶ σύναξον αὐτὴν ἀπὸ τῶν τεσσάρων ἀνέμων, τὴν ἁγιασθεῖσαν, εἰς τὴν σὴν βασιλείαν, ἣν ἡτοίμασας αὐτῇ· ὅτι σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ δύναμις καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ· J. Draper
translated: “Remember, Lord, your church, to snatch it from all evil and to
perfect it in your love and gather it from the four winds having been
sanctified into your kingdom which you have prepared for it that you are the
power and the glory unto eternity”. The role
of the biblical sanctification doctrine is untouched in Didache. It is not a
case of individual versus corporately but individual as corporately. The body
has many members. One individual body but also many members. Each member needs
to participate to be part of the body. That is the biblical view of
sanctification. The perfection requirement is of all from Adam to Adam in
sanctification and the power to attain it is from God. Emphasis on the ethical
does not exlude eschatology thinking as Balabanski insisted. Draper disagreed
correctly. It is not either or but both. Of course Draper wants to argue that
it is not eschatological in future but eschatological in the C. H. Dodd sense
of realized eschatology as the church go along even in the author’s time. The
kingdom that came is a kingdom of grace not a kingdom of glory. Scholars make a
big error in New Testament scholarship on this. They ascribe to Christ more
than He Himself said. The
doctrine of a resurrection of all at the Second Coming is not in Didache 16:7.
The original starts off with that understanding that it is not all. Didache
16:7. οὐ πάντων δέ, ἀλλ’ ὡς ἐρρέθη· Ἥξει ὁ κύριος καὶ πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι μετ’ αὐτοῦ. (Kirsopp
Lake) 7”but not of all the dead, but as it was said, ‘The Lord shall
come and all his saints with him.’" The evil
are not going. They are not resurrected either. This is in keeping with the
biblical understanding of the Resurrection in two times and two classes: one to
go to heaven and one to suffer in Hell later after a 1000 years according to
Revelation. J. Draper
says correctly: “It seems likely to me, on the basis that not all the departed
will be raised for judgment but only the righteous….” A slight correction here
is that the righteous are not raised for judgment but for victorious living
with Christ after the Investigative Judgment is completed. That is in keeping
with the tenets of Jesus message and the book of Hebrews and also with Daniel 7’s
Judgment scene. All investigations in the Books take place in Court in Heaven
before the Second Coming. So one should remove the word “judgment” from Draper’s
view here. The Didache does not say the rule of the saints will be on earth
exactly at the time of the Second Coming and neither does the Bible says that.
In fact Revelation indicates that after the move to heaven, a thousand years of
desolation is on earth and only after the Second Resurrection and Hell event of
burning of this earth followed by a recreation of it, will they come and live
on earth. Source Draper, J. 2011. “Eschatology in the
Didache” In Eschatology of the New Testament and Some Related Documents
edited by J. G. van der Watt. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 567-582. Greek Text downloaded from https://ccel.org/l/lake/fathers/didache.htm. Khomych, T. 2007. The Admonition to
Assemble together in Didache 16:2 Reappraised. VC 61, 121-141. Balabanski, V. 1997. Eschatology in
the Making: Mark, Matthrew and the Didache. Cambridge. Milavec, A. 1995. The Saving Efficacy
of the Burning Process, in Didache 16.5. In The Didache in Context: Essays
on its Texts, History and Transmission, Jefford CN (ed.). Leiden, 131-155.
[1] Khomych, T. 2007. The
Admonition to Assemble together in Didache 16:2 Reappraised. VC 61, 121-141. [2] Balabanski, V. 1997.
Eschatology in the Making: Mark, Matthrew and the Didache. Cambridge. [3] Milavec, A. 1995. The Saving
Efficacy of the Burning Process, in Didache 16.5. In The Didache in Context:
Essays on its Texts, History and Transmission, Jefford CN (ed.). Leiden,
131-155. [4] Draper, 2011: 575.