The Didache:
Teaching of the Twelve
Robinson’s Date (c. 40-60)
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID
J.P. Audet
“it was composed, almost certainly in Antioch, between 50 and 70.” (Quoted by John A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976), 323.)
Michael W. Holmes (1992)
“A remarkably wide range of dates, extending from before A.D. 50 to the third century or later, has been proposed for this document. . . . The Didache may have been put into its present form as late as 150, though a date considerably closer to the end of the first century seems more plausible. The materials from which it was composed, however, reflect the state of the church at an even earlier time. The relative simplicity of the prayers, the continuing concern to differentiate Christian practice from Jewish rituals (8.1), and in particular the form of church structure–note the twofold structure of bishops and deacons (cf. Phil. 1:1) and the continued existence of traveling apostles and prophets alongside a resident ministry–reflect a time closer to that of Paul and James (who died in the 60s) than Ignatius (who died sometime after 110).” (The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, [1992] 1999), 247–248.)
“In his very thorough commentary J.-P. Audet suggests about A.D. 70, and he is not likely to be off by more than a decade in either direction.” Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations of Their Writings, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1992), 247. Holmes references J.-P. Audet, La DidachP: Instructions des Apôtres (Paris: Gabalda, 1958), 187–206.
Stephen J. Patterson (1993)
“at least by the end of the first century or the beginning of the second, and in the case of Jean-P. Audet, as early as 50–70 C.E.” (The Gospel of Thomas and Jesus: Thomas Christianity, Social Radicalism, and the Quest of the Historical Jesus (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press, 1993), 173.)
What do YOU think ?
Date: 24 Feb 2009
Time: 14:45:16
Your Comments:
in every case you will find people defending their position on certain biblical belief. I would hope that scholarly work will always speak the truth of the findings and not make the finding fit their beliefs. I am hoping preterist scholars did that.