What is in the Didache?
Chapters 1–6 present the ways of life and death. Chapter 7 addresses baptism; chapter 8 fasting and the Lord’s Prayer; chapters 9–10 communal thanksgiving or Eucharistic prayers; chapters 11–13 apostles, teachers and prophets; chapters 14–15 assembly, reconciliation and local officers; and chapter 16 an eschatological warning.
How old is the Didache?
The date remains debated. Many scholars place substantial portions in the late first or early second century, while also recognising that the work may combine materials with different histories. The surviving medieval manuscript is far later than the composition it preserves.
What manuscript preserves it?
The complete Greek text is preserved in Codex Hierosolymitanus 54, copied in 1056. Philotheos Bryennios discovered the manuscript in the nineteenth century and published the Didache in 1883. Additional witnesses preserve portions or related forms, but the Jerusalem manuscript is the central complete witness.
Why does it matter?
The Didache offers a compact view of Christian instruction and community practice outside the New Testament. It is especially valuable because its rules are practical: how to baptise when water is limited, when to fast, how to assess travelling teachers and how communities should appoint leaders.