What is meant by θυσία, the sacrifice to be presented at the meal? It seems
tempting to understand θυσία to
refer to the sacred action of the eucharistic celebration, or more precisely to
associate it with the eucharistic elements (as, e.g., Justin does in Dial. 41.3 [Goodspeed, 138]). In that
case Did. 14.1–3 would represent the
oldest explicit instance of the understanding of the Lord’s Supper as a
sacrifice. This interpretation, however, is uncertain. The context permits
still another possibility: that θυσία
refers in a special sense to εὐχαριστήσατε.
The sacrifice that is spoken of so often here would then be the eucharistic
prayer offered by the congregation. It is stained if guilty persons speak it,
but it is pure if their guilt is removed. But is this alternative a justifiable
interpretation of the Didache text?
No matter how unsatisfying it may appear to a later, more reflective
consciousness, one cannot exclude the possibility that these alternatives are
utterly foreign to the state of mind reflected in the text (and other, similar
texts); that is, the tradition that comes to light here associates the sacred
meal with the idea of sacrifice in the most general way, without making
detailed specifications about what precisely is to be understood by “sacrifice”
in this instance. That seems to be the most appropriate understanding of the Didache text. In any case, it is true
that participation in the θυσία
demands moral purity as ritual purity—and the prior purification by exhomologesis is intended in that sense.
(Kurt Niederwimmer, The Didache: A Commentary [Hermeneia—a Critical
and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press,
1998], 196-97)
Prior to partaking the Eucharist, the community first
confesses their communal sins so that they will offer a pure sacrifice. The
purity of the sacrifice rests upon the corporate confession. This language does
raise a question as to the phrase, “your pure sacrifice” (καθαρὰ ἡ θυσία ὑμῶν
ᾖ). (1) The pure sacrifice may refer to the
general corporate gathering. In this way, the gathering itself in purity from
sin represents a cultic practice. Or (2) the pure sacrifice may refer to the
confession of the people and their reconciliation. Or, finally, (3) the
sacrifice could refer to the actual breaking of bread. The “pure sacrifice”
most likely reflects a combined idea of position 2 and 3: a reconciled
gathering of the community breaking bread. The pure sacrifice does not
exclusively refer to the communal confession of sins, because the “pure”
quality results from corporate confession (Did. 14.1, 2). Moreover, the primary
commands to break bread (κλάσατε;
Did. 14.1) and to “Eucharist” (εὐχαριστήσατε;
Did. 14.1) underscore the “pure sacrifice.” Additionally, the corporate
exclusion of a single person (Did. 14.2) coheres with the idea of a purified
community that partakes of the Eucharist. Thus, the pure sacrifice relates to a
purified community that both has no unconfessed corporate sin and partakes of
the Eucharist corporately. (Shawn J. Wilhite, The Didache: A
Commentary [Apostolic Fathers Commentary Series 1; Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade
Book, 2019], 210)
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