6/11/21
Friday's Focus - Didache Articles
Bigg, C. "Notes on the Didache." Journal of Theological Studies 6:23, April 1905, 411-415.
Bigg follows up on his notes published in 1904 with a brief article. Didache 16:3, which he considers to be related to Matthew 7:15, 14:10, strikes him as expressing remarkably little hesitation or fear about civil authorities. Bigg sees the concern of the author as Christian hostility toward other Christians. This could suggest the author was a Montanist. Bigg describes them as being persecuted by Christians as early as the second centiry (Bigg 1905, 411).
The statements continuing after Didache 16:3, in Bigg's opinion, are "nothing but a bald reproduction of what the author had read in the New Testament" (Bigg 1905, 412). The omission of an identity of the evil one, and the fact that the wicked do not seem to have a resurrection suggests to Bigg that the work is not of a very early date. He further calls it "studied, dull and unreal; there is no existing specimen of the kind that is so uninteresting" (Bigg 1905, 412).
The nature of the prophecies suggests to Bigg a late date. He continues by evaluating some vocabulary which he hopes to indicate a date. κλάσμα (9:13) as a fragment of bread given to a communicant, according to Harnack, is not used before about the fourth century (Bigg 1905, 413). Σιτία in 13:5 also strikes Bigg as a word more common in later usage. The reference to a χριστέμπορος in 12:5 is not used until the fourth century.
Bigg concludes that "the Didache was not compiled before the beginning of the fourth century" (Bigg 1905, 414).
Friday's Focus - Didache Articles
Bigg, C. "Notes on the Didache." Journal of Theological Studies 6:23, April 1905, 411-415.
Bigg follows up on his notes published in 1904 with a brief article. Didache 16:3, which he considers to be related to Matthew 7:15, 14:10, strikes him as expressing remarkably little hesitation or fear about civil authorities. Bigg sees the concern of the author as Christian hostility toward other Christians. This could suggest the author was a Montanist. Bigg describes them as being persecuted by Christians as early as the second centiry (Bigg 1905, 411).
The statements continuing after Didache 16:3, in Bigg's opinion, are "nothing but a bald reproduction of what the author had read in the New Testament" (Bigg 1905, 412). The omission of an identity of the evil one, and the fact that the wicked do not seem to have a resurrection suggests to Bigg that the work is not of a very early date. He further calls it "studied, dull and unreal; there is no existing specimen of the kind that is so uninteresting" (Bigg 1905, 412).
The nature of the prophecies suggests to Bigg a late date. He continues by evaluating some vocabulary which he hopes to indicate a date. κλάσμα (9:13) as a fragment of bread given to a communicant, according to Harnack, is not used before about the fourth century (Bigg 1905, 413). Σιτία in 13:5 also strikes Bigg as a word more common in later usage. The reference to a χριστέμπορος in 12:5 is not used until the fourth century.
Bigg concludes that "the Didache was not compiled before the beginning of the fourth century" (Bigg 1905, 414).
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