Didache

Probably written between the late 1st and early 2nd century AD, in Greek. The text was known only from quotations until 1873, when Metropolitan Philotheos Bryennios found a complete copy in a codex in Constantinople. The discovery reopened everything that had been assumed about Christian practice before the councils.

It came close. Some church fathers treated it almost as Scripture, and it appears in early lists of useful books. It stayed out because it is anonymous and because it is community regulation — a text of discipline rather than revelation.

• It opens with the Two Ways, of life and of death, with a list of conduct that echoes earlier Jewish catechesis.
• It orders baptism in running cold water; if there is none, warm; if there is none at all, pour water three times on the head — the earliest practical instruction on baptism that survives.
• It fixes fasting on Wednesday and Friday, "not with the hypocrites", who fasted on Monday and Thursday.
• The test of an apostle: if he asks for money or stays more than two days, he is a false prophet.

What does Didache mean?

Teaching, in Greek. The full title is The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, though the text is anonymous and was not written by them.

Why does the Didache matter?

It is the oldest document describing how a Christian community actually worked from the inside — baptism, eucharist, fasting, hospitality and discipline — outside the New Testament.