The purifying confession of failings required by the Didache's eucharistic sacrifice

Abstract

This study begins by exploring the meaning of the DIDACHE against the backdrop of the "spiritualization" of sacrifice that was widespread as a Jewish response to the traditional piety of offering animal sacrifices. In order to insure a "pure sacrifice," the Didache community was set up two distinct safeguards: no unbaptized or unreconciled person was admitted (DIDACHE 9: 5) and the confession of failings was to be held prior to the eucharist on the Lord's Day (DIDACHE 14: 1). These practices had the effect of enforcing the standards of holiness cherished by the community members. No one could keep coming week after week and repeatedly confess the same failing. Thus, for a community out of step with the rest of society, the confession of failings served to recall both backsliders and forgetters to the perfection (the Way of Life) to which they were called at the time of their preparation for baptism.

The DIDACHE reveals more about how Christians saw themselves and how they operated on a day-to-day level than any other book This study begins by exploring the meaning of the DIDACHE against the backdrop of the "spiritualization" of sacrifice that was widespread as a Jewish response to the traditional piety of offering animal sacrifices. To insure a "pure sacrifice," the DIDACHE community was set up with two distinct safeguards: no unbaptized or unreconciled person was admitted (DIDACHE 9: 5), and the confession of failings was to be held prior to the eucharist on the Lord's Day (DIDACHE 14: 1). These practices had the effect of enforcing the standards of holiness cherished by the community members. No one could keep coming week after week and repeatedly confess the same failing. Thus, for a community out of step with the rest of society, the confession of failings served to recall both backsliders and forgetters to the perfection (the Way of Life) to which they were called at the time of their preparation for baptism in the Christian Scriptures. The DIDACHE is not a gospel and, accordingly, it does not attempt to offer guidance by narrating a life of Jesus. In fact, it is older than the canonical Gospels and was written in the generation following the death of Jesus when the message of Jesus was not yet encapsulated in stories about Jesus (Rordorf 1991; Milavec 2003: 695-738). Nor is the DIDACHE a letter like those of Paul. In fact, the DIDACHE was created at the time of Paul's mission to the gentiles but shows not the slightest awareness of this mission or of the theology that undergirded it.

The DIDACHE is an anonymous document. Like so many books in the Christian Scriptures, it didn't belong to or originate with a single individual. It belonged to a community of householders who had received a revealed Way of Life transmitted by the Father through "his servant" Jesus. The senior mentors of this community had formulated the DIDACHE over a period of years based upon their own successful pastoral practice (Milavec 2003: 70-97).

The DIDACHE represents the first concerted attempt by householders (Crossan 1998: 363-73) to live the way of Jesus adapted to the exigencies of family, of occupation, of home--the very things that Jesus and his wandering apostles had left behind (Theissen: 10-14). The senior members of the community had formulated the DIDACHE over a period of years based upon their own successful practice initiating gentiles to become full participants in their shared life. One overhears a candidate being trained from scratch by a mentor who becomes his beloved "father" or "mother." One witnesses the fasting and the solemn rite of baptism, preferably, by immersion in flowing water. One overhears the daily prayers and the weekly eucharist-both of which are sketched out in full detail. One learns how visiting prophets were a blessing and a danger at the same time (Milavec 1994b; 2003: 428-75). One comes to understand how manual work, the sharing of resources, and the cultivation of gratitude worked together to provide an economic safety net in a world wherein crushing poverty could easily overtake unprotected family businesses (Milavec 1996b; 2003: 176-82). One learns how the confession of failings, the correction of backsliders, and the shunning of recalcitrant members worked to maintain the community's standards of excellence among a diversified group of individuals. Finally, one discovers how a community poised on the threshold of the end times could fashion its daily life sharing the same passionate expectation of the Kingdom of God preached by Jesus (Milavec 1992; 1995b; 2003: 324-30, 628-72). All in all, therefore, the DIDACHE provides a comprehensive and detailed schema used to train gentiles for full and active inclusion within the DIDACHE communities of the mid-first century.

In many ways, the DIDACHE manifests a pioneering spirit. The offering of first fruits, for example, represents a unique rite of gratitude for the Lord's bounty that finds no parallel in the whole of the Christian Scriptures. In this essay, however, attention will be centered upon two other pioneering domains: