The following comes
from:
Daniel C.
Ullucci, The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2012), 96-97, 187-88
The Didache: Christian Sacrifice Without
Jesus
The text known as the Didache ("teaching," ca. 100) provides
a useful comparison to Hebrews. Like Hebrews, the dating of the Didache is
uncertain, but the texts are from roughly the same period (end of the first
century). [121] Unlike Hebrews, sacrifice is not a major focal point of the
Didache. Rather, this text is concerned with proper ethics and ritual practice
within an early Christian group. [122] The Didache assumes a nonsacrificial
context. Meat offered to idols is explicitly for- bidden in a passage that
echoes Paul and Acts: "And concerning food, bear what you can. But
especially abstain from food sacrificed to idols [ειδωλοθύτου]; for this is a
ministry to dead gods" (Did. 6:3). Just as in the case of Paul, this
passage does not directly reject animal sacrifice (the Christian god is
certainly not included among the dead idols), but unlike Paul the Didache is
written after the Temple destruction, meaning that for these Christians there
is now no place to sacrifice. [123] The text discusses sacrifice directly in
the context of regulations about ritual practices. The Didache discusses two
communal eating practices, the "eucharist" and the "Lord's
Day." The precise connection between these two events is not clear from
the text; it is very likely these are different terms for the same ritual
event, but this is not crucial to my argument. These practices do not involve
actual animal sacrifice; however, the text uses sacrificial terminology to
describe them.
Didache 9 and 10 outline the procedures for the practice the text
refers to as the eucharist. The practice is similar to the so-called lord's
supper in Paul and the gospels and involves eating bread and drinking from a
cup. The Didache does not present a sacrificial interpretation of this
practice. No reference is made to Jesus' death; nor are the bread and
unspecified drink referred to as body and blood. The picture is complicated,
however, by the discussion of the Lord's Day in Didache 14. Here the author
describes people coming together to break bread and give thanks. Participants
are first to confess their sins "so that your sacrifice [θυσια] may be pure" (Did. 14:1). Anyone
who has a conflict must reconcile it: "Lest your sacrifice be defiled. For
it was of this sacrifice that the lord said, 'Always and everywhere offer me a
pure sacrifice'" (Did. 14:2-3). [124] This passage refers to communal
breaking of bread and giving of thanks as a sacrifice. It is, in fact, the
first time the term θυσια is used in reference to a Christian ritual. [125] Unfortunately, the
author gives no indication of what he means by calling this practice a
sacrifice. There is a concern that participants confess their sins and
reconcile conflicts before participating, but that is all. There is no
reference to Jesus' death as a sacrifice. It is therefore impossible to say
here what the author of the Didache meant by this metaphor. [126] Whatever is
meant, it is people who are the agents in this sacrifice. They are performing
it to the lord ("Always and everywhere offer to me a pure
sacrifice"), and it is they who are responsible for keeping it pure.
For the author of the Didache, certain communal practices may be
referred to as a sacrifice, but these sacrificial metaphors are significantly
different from the positions on sacrifice in Hebrews. For the author of
Hebrews, Jesus is himself both the perfect sacrifice and the perfect
sacrificer. It is Jesus who offers sacrifice in Hebrews, not the Christian
community. The Didache, on the other hand, shows no understanding of the death
of Jesus as a sacrifice; nor does it argue that the purpose of sacrifice is to
forgive sins, the other key element of the Hebrews position. In fact, the whole
point of Didache 14:1 is that sins (whatever the author means by this) must be
dealt with before the Lord's Day ritual.
Comparing the sacrificial metaphors in the Didache with Hebrews yields
two important conclusions. First, both texts use the terminology of animal
sacrifice for things other than sacrifice, but they do so very differently.
These two texts from the late first century suggest that there is no single
position on sacrifice among Christians in this period. Rather, individual
Christian authors use sacrifice differently for their own purposes. Second,
Didache 14 suggests that early Christian groups could refer to some of their
practices as a sacrifice without connecting this explicitly to Jesus' death. [127]
Notes for
the Above:
121. The date of 100 CE is little more than a guess. The question is
complicated by the observation that the text as we have it is likely a
compilation of several texts potentially from different periods. For discussion
of the dating of the texts and its parts, see Kurt Niederwimmer, The Didache
(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998), 19-55; and Bentley Layton, "The
Sources, Date, and Transmission of Didache I.3b-2.1," Harvard
Theological Review 61 (1968), 343-83.
122. The Didache clearly imagines a group of early Christians who see
themselves as a collective, recognize an established hierarchy, and come
together frequently as a group. The actual relationship between this text and a
real group is, unfortunately, unknowable. It is impossible to say whether the
Didache served as the guidelines for a real assemblage of persons or whether it
represents an idealized vision.
123. The text makes a nod to this fact by redirecting the traditional
temple tax in the Hebrew Bible. Didache 13 discusses support for people called
prophets (προφητης). The author
argues that true prophets and teachers have the right to receive support from
the community: "Hence take all the first fruits of vintage and harvest,
and of cattle and sheep, and give these first fruits to the prophets. For they
are your High Priests. If however, you have no prophet, give them to the
poor" (Did. 13:3-4). He goes on to argue that the same things should be
done with bread, oil, money, clothing and ultimately "all of your
possessions" (Did. 13:5-7). I argue that this passage, in actuality, tells
us nothing about the author's position on sacrifice. First, the issue here is
first fruits; within a Judean context, these are offerings made to the temple.
They are not properly sacrifices, since no portion of them (including the
animals) is burned on the altar. First fruits are economic support for the
temple akin to a tax in kind, and very different from the practice of
traditional animal sacrifice. This passage is not evidence that early Christian
"prophets" replaced the role of the high priest, since receiving
first fruits was only one of the functions of the high priests. The Didache
does express the idea that support once directed to the temple should now go to
members of the Christian community. However, this is not an either-or
situation. The Didache was almost certainly written after 70 CE. Perforce,
there are no first fruits going to the Jerusalem temple. The Didache represents
the co-opting of a defunct tradition; it does not represent a critique of or
opposition to the temple cult-only recognition of its end.
124. Ferguson points out that the quote from Malachi 1:11 in this
passage occurs frequently in Christian texts referring to pure sacrifice. See his
"Spiritual Sacrifice," 1167; and Jean Paul Audet, La Didache
(Paris: Librairie Lecoffre, 1958), 462.
125. Ferguson, "Spiritual Sacrifice," 1167.
126. In commenting on this passage Ferguson makes the opaque
statement, "Since the sacrifice is not identified with the material
elements, this qualifies as rational or spiritual sacrifice, although the
action of breaking bread as well as the words are included"
("Spiritual Sacrifice," 1167-68). I believe Didache 14:1-3 very
clearly associates sacrifice with the material offerings of bread and wine. The
problem is what is meant by the association. Do the bread and wine fill in for
the animal? Do they represent the sacrifice of Jesus? The text is simply not
forthcoming.
127. The Didache's position on Greek and Roman sacrifices is clear:
they are forbidden (Did. 6:1-4).
