Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles)

About this text

One of the oldest surviving Christian documents outside the New Testament. A practical manual covering ethics ("Two Ways"), baptism, prayer, fasting, and the Eucharist.

Significance

May be as old as some New Testament books. Gives a window into how the earliest Christians actually practiced their faith.

How to Read This Historical Text

Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) is included here as a historical and educational resource, not as Scripture and not as a replacement for the biblical canon. Readers may find it useful for understanding the ideas, debates, devotional language, and literary settings that surrounded Jewish and Christian communities in different periods.

Read this text with context in mind. Notice its era, category, and relationship to canonical passages, then compare its themes with the Bible itself. Some library works preserve valuable historical background, while others represent viewpoints that many Christian traditions rejected. Inclusion in this library does not mean endorsement of every claim or doctrine in the text.

For more about how The Bible Companion handles public-domain writings, Bible translations, attribution, and devotional material, see the Sources & Editorial Policy.

Key excerpts

"There are two ways: one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between the two ways."

"Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in running water."

"On the Lord's Day, gather together, break bread, and give thanks, having first confessed your sins."

Scripture cross-references

• Matthew 28:19 — Trinitarian baptismal formula — same wording
• Matthew 7:13-14 — The narrow and wide gates — the "Two Ways" echoes this
• Acts 2:42 — Breaking bread and fellowship — the Didache describes this practice

Continue exploring

This text is one of 19 in the Early Christian Writings (Non-Canonical) category, and one of 62 across the entire library.