Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Kurt Niederwimmer on Didache 4:1

In his translation of the Didache, Kurt Niederwimmer rendered 4:1 thusly:

 

My child, you shall be mindful day and night of the one who speaks to you the word of God. You shall honor him as the Lord, for at the source of proclamation of the lordship [of the Lord], the Lord is there.

 

Commenting on this passage, Niederwimmer wrote the following:

 

How is the relationship of the pupil to the teacher determined? It is shaped by the fundamental commandment of piety, which in turn is concretized in two ways: the pupil shall continually keep the teacher in mind, and shall honor him like the Kyrios himself. The additional ὡς κύριον refers apparently to the Lord Jesus. The command τιμήσεις δὲ αὐτόν (i.e., τὸν λαλοῦντά σοι τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ) ὡς κύριον (“You shall honor him as Lord”) is given its foundation in v. 1c: ὅθεν (This ὅθεν is not to be understood as οὗ. Literally: “Whence, that is, lordship is proclaimed” or “For whence the proclamation of the lordship comes”) γὰρ κυριότης λαλεῖται, ἐκεῖ κύριός ἐστιν. This language of the phrase is unusual, but it is easily understood in context. Κυριότης (“lordship”) here probably refers to the characteristic of Jesus as κύριος. Thus the Didache text means that the place from which the proclamation about the κυριότης of Jesus goes forth is at the same time the place of his presence. There, in the mouth of the teacher and in his teaching, the Kyrios himself is present. Thus the teacher himself should be honored as if the Kyrios himself were standing before you. In the word of the teacher, the Kyrios is present. (Kurt Niederwimmer, The Didache: A Commentary [Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible; trans. Linda M. Moloney; Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1998], 105, emphasis added)