Last time I spent a lot of time examining modern research on the Didache in 2011, pouring over the English language seminar articles in
(1996), mainly because I found them at a university library where I had borrowing privileges at the time and was not too far away from my work office.
Here is a table I drew up in Excel.
Author |
Article |
Book or Journal |
Date |
Original |
Language |
Audet, Jean-Paul |
Literary and Doctrinal Relationships of the "Manual of Discipline" |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1952 |
French |
Alon, Gedaliah |
Halakah in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Didache) |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1958 |
Hebrew |
Bammel, Ernst |
Pattern and Prototype of Didache 16 |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1961 |
German |
Betz, Johannes |
The Eucharist in the Didache |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1969 |
German |
Rordorf, Willy |
An Aspect of the Judeo-Christian Ethic: the Two Ways |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1972 |
French |
Rordorf, Willy |
Baptism according to the Didache |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1972 |
French |
Theissen, Gerd |
Itinerant Radicalism: The Tradition of Jesus Sayings from the Perspective of the Sociology of Literature |
Radical Religion 2 |
1976 |
1973 |
German |
Theissen, Gerd |
Soteriological Symbolism in the Pauline Writings: A Structuralist Contribution |
_Social Reality and the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics, and the World of the New Testament_ |
1992 |
1974 |
German |
Theissen, Gerd |
Legitimation and Subsistance: An Essay on the Sociology of Early Christian Missionaries |
_The Social Setting of Pauline Christianity: Essays on Corinth_ |
1982 |
1974 |
German |
Niederwimmer, Kurt |
An Examination of the Development of Itinerant Radicalism in the Environment and Tradition of the Didache |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1977 |
German |
Theissen, Gerd |
|
_The First Followers of Jesus: a Sociological Analysis of Earliest Christianity_ |
1978 |
1977 |
German |
Theissen, Gerd |
|
_The Sociology of Early Palestinian Christianity_ aka _The First Followers of Jesus_ |
1978 |
1977 |
German |
Mazza, Enrico |
Didache 9-10: Elements of an Eucharistic Interpretation |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1979 |
Italian |
Theissen, Gerd |
"We Have Left Everything..." (Mark 10:28): Discipleship and Social Uprooting in the Jewish-Palestinian Society of the First Century |
_Social Reality and the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics, and the World of the New Testament_ |
1992 |
1979 |
German |
Theissen, Gerd |
Christology and Social Experience: Aspects of Pauline Christology in the Light of the Sociology of Knowledge |
_Social Reality and the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics, and the World of the New Testament_ |
1992 |
1979 |
German |
Theissen, Gerd |
Jesus' Temple Prophesy: Prophesy in the Tension between Town and Country |
_Social Reality and the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics, and the World of the New Testament_ |
1992 |
1979 |
German |
Theissen, Gerd |
Nonviolence and Love of Our Enemies (Matthew 5:38-48; Luke 6:27-38): The Social Background |
_Social Reality and the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics, and the World of the New Testament_ |
1992 |
1979 |
German |
Theissen, Gerd |
Sociological Theories of Religion and the Analysis of Early Christianity: Some Reflections |
_Social Reality and the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics, and the World of the New Testament_ |
1992 |
1979 |
German |
Theissen, Gerd |
The Wandering Radicals: Light Shed by the Sociology of Literature on the early Transmission of Jesus Sayings |
_Social Reality and the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics, and the World of the New Testament_ |
1992 |
1979 |
German |
Halleux, Andre de |
Ministers in the Dicache |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1980 |
French |
Theissen, Gerd |
|
_Psychological Aspects of Pauline Theology_ |
1987 |
1983 |
German |
Draper, Jonathan A. |
The Jesus Tradition in the Didache |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1985 |
English |
Schoellgen, Georg |
The Didache as a Church Order: An Examination of the Purpose for Composition of the Didache and its Consequences for its Interpretation |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1986 |
German |
Flusser, David |
Paul's Jewish-Christian Opponents in the Didache |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1987 |
English |
Seeliger, Hans Reinhard |
Considerations on the Background and Purpose of the Apocalyptic Final Chapter of the Didache |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1989 |
German |
Tuckett, Christopher |
Synoptic Tradition in the Didache |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1989 |
English |
Draper, Jonathan A. |
Torah and Troublesome Apostles in the Didache Community |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1991 |
English |
Draper, Jonathan A. |
Christian Self-Definition against the "Hypocrites" in Didache 8 |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1992 |
English |
Theissen, Gerd |
Judaism and Christianity in Paul: The Beginning of a Schism and its Social History |
_Social Reality and the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics, and the World of the New Testament_ |
1992 |
1992 |
English |
Theissen, Gerd |
Some Ideas about a Sociological Theory of Early Christianity |
_Social Reality and the Early Christians: Theology, Ethics, and the World of the New Testament_ |
1992 |
1992 |
English |
Cody, Aelred |
The Didache: An English Translation |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Davis, Cyprian, O.S.B. |
The Didache and Early Monasticism in the East and West |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Dehandschutter, Boudewjin |
The Text of the Didache: Some Comments on the Edition of Klaus Wengst |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Draper, Jonathan A. |
Social Ambiguity and the Production of Text: Prophets, Teachers, Bishops, and Deacons and the Development of the Jesus Tradition in the Community of the Didache |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Harder, Kenneth J., and Jefford, Clayton N. |
A Bibliography of Literature on the Didache |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Henderson, Ian H. |
Style-Switching in the Didache: Fingerprint or Argument? |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Jefford, Clayton N. |
Did Ignatius of Antioch Know the Didache? |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Jones, F. Stanley, and Mirecki, Paul A. |
Considerations on the Coptic Papyrus of the Didache (British Library Oriental Manuscript 9271) |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Kloppenborg, John S. |
The Transformation of Moral Exhortation in Didache 1-5 |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Milavec, Aaron |
The saving Efficacy of the Burning Process in Didache 16.5 |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Mitchell, Nathan |
Baptism in the Didache |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Pardee, Nancy |
The Curse that Saves (Didache 16.5) |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Patterson, Stephen J. |
Didache 11-13: The Legacy of Radical Itineracy in Early Christianity |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Reed, Jonathan |
The Hebrew Epic and the Didache |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Riggs, John W. |
The Sacred Food of Didache 9-10 and Second-Century Ecclesiologies |
_The Didache in Context_ |
1995 |
1995 |
English |
Draper, Jonathan A. |
The Didache in Modern Research: An Overview |
_The Didache in Modern Research_ |
1996 |
1996 |
English |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stephen J. Patterson
(thrust of argument was connected to the radical itinerancy hypothesis).
(2002), which included a good deal of self analysis relating to his recent divorce, and how stress like that can cause some really different ideas to arise alive out of the primordial Didache soup.
A lot of the radical itinerancy hypotheses rely on the sociological work of the German sociologist Max Weber. I have a few of his books but have not dedicated enough time as yet to properly digest them. However, most of the works and articles centered on the 1890s, I think, and like most 19th century scholars, he held many common prejudices. Are there any more "up to date" authorities on this matter? I am uninformed.
I especially liked Draper's article 'Social Ambiguity and the Production of Text: Prophets, Teachers, Bishops, and Deacons and the Development of the Jesus Tradition in the Community of the Didache', in
.
rather hippy-ish, although the ideas were popularized in the late 1970s through the 1990s. It is a mainstay of Crossan's POV about what Jesus was all about, at least in Crossan's mind. That a lot of the proposals were coming from folks who did their postgraduate work in the 1960s or early 70s, when the hippie culture was still felt fairly strong, the flower-child POV is an understandable anachronism.
Hey, I love hippies. I kind of wanted to be one myself in my youth, and was growing of age in the late 1960s, just before starting high school, when it was all happening. But when I see that same kind of thinking (some good and some not so good) in modern Didache criticism, I get more than a little uncomfortable as I realize they are anachronistic and thus not helpful for resolving what kind of community or communities might have created the Didache as we have it.