“There the Lord is”: Identifying the Kyrios in the Didache

Abstract

While observed by commentators, only two works provide sustained explorations the Didache’s ambiguous use of ho kyrios (the Lord). These studies reach opposing conclusions. Aaron Milavec contends that kyrios always refers to Israel’s God and never to Jesus. Murray Smith argues that it consistently denotes, or at least includes, Jesus as its referent. This essay argues that Milavec and Smith’s claims are complementary. The Didache interconnects the identity of Jesus and Israel’s God, establishing them as the concomitant referent(s) of kyrios. Neither God nor Jesus is labeled ho kyrios explicitly. Both are insinuated to be ho kyrios simultaneously. The Didache does not require over-determining one as the sole referent throughout the text. Where context allusively suggests God or Jesus as the primary referent, each use of kyrios contains sufficient ambiguity to include both. The cumulative effect is that the referent(s) of ho kyrios in the Didache is simultaneously theological and Christological. Jesus and God are distinguishable but inextricably linked as ho kyrios. The Didache’s bivalent use of ho kyrios, then, reflects a high Christology.

Keywords

Didache Christology Binitarianism Apostolic Fathers Aaron Milavec Murray Smith

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allison, D. C.

(1989). Who Will Come from East and West? Observations on Matt. 8.11-12—Luke 13.28-29. Irish Biblical Studies, 11, 158–170.

Bacchiocchi, S.

(1977). Sabbath to Sunday. Pontifical Gregorian University.

Bauckham, R.

(2008). Jesus and the God of Israel: God Crucified and Other Studies on the New Testament’s Christology of Divine Identity. Eerdmans.

Bousset, W.

(1913). Kyrios Christos: Geschichte des Christusglaubens von den Anfängen des Christentums bis Irenaeus. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Brox, N.

(1991). Der Hirt des Hermas. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Daly, R. J.

(2009). Trinitarian Theology in Early Christian Anaphoras. In

A. B.

McGowan ,

B. E.

Daley , &

T. J.

Gaden (Eds.), God in early Christian thought: Essays in memory of Lloyd G. Patterson (pp. 239–269). Brill.

Draper, J. A.

(2010). Didache. In

Pratscher

(Ed.), The Apostolic Fathers: An introduction (pp. 7–26). Baylor University Press.

Draper, J. A.

(2011). Eschatology in the Didache. In

J. G.

Van der Watt

(Ed.), Eschatology of the New Testament and Some Related Documents (pp. 567–582). Mohr Siebeck.

Fredriksen, P.

(2017). Paul: The Pagans’ Apostle. Yale University Press.

10.

Harnack, A. von.

(1884). Die Lehre der zwölf Apostel: Nebst Untersuchungen zur ältesten Geschichte der Kirchenverfassung und des Kirchenrechts.

J.C.

Hinrichs

11.

Hauck, R. J.

(1993). The Great Fast: Christology in the Shepherd of Hermas. Anglican Theological Review, 75, 187–198.

12.

Henrichs-Tarasenkova, N.

(2015). Luke’s Christology of Divine Identity. T&T Clark.

13.

Khomych, T.

(2016). From Maranatha to Epiclesis? An Inquiry into the Origins of Spirit Invocations in Early Christianity. In

Dragutinović ,

K.-W.

Niebuhr ,

J. B.

Wallace , &

C. K.

Karakolēs (Eds.), The Holy Spirit and the Church according to the New Testament (pp. 427–440). Mohr Siebeck.

14.

Kloppenborg, J. S.

(2007). Didache 1.1–6, James, Matthew, and the Torah. In

Gregory &

Tuckett (Eds.), Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers (pp. 193–221). Oxford University Press.

15.

Koch, D.A.

(2014). Die Debatte über den Titel der “Didache”: Eine Schrift, zwei Überschriften? Zeitschrift Für Die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft Und Die Kunde Der Älteren Kirche, 105, 264–288.

16.

Madden, J. E.

(2022). The Servant and the Vineyard: Christology and the Reception of Scripture in the Shepherd of Hermas. Journal of Theological Interpretation, 16, 255–274.

17.

Milavec, A.

(2003). The Didache: Faith, hope, & life of the earliest Christian communities, 50-70 C.E. Newman Press.

18.

Niederwimmer, K.

(1998). The Didache: A Commentary (L. M. Maloney, Trans.). Fortress.

19.

Osiek, C.

(1999). Shepherd of Hermas: A Commentary. Fortress.

20.

Pardee, N.

(2012). The Genre and Development of the Didache: A Text-Linguistic Analysis. Mohr Siebeck.

21.

Prostmeier, F. R.

(1999). Der Barnabasbrief. Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.

22.

Rowe, C. K.

(2009). Early Narrative Christology: The Lord in the Gospel of Luke. Baker Academic.

23.

Sandt, H. van de

. (2002). “Do Not Give What Is Holy to the Dogs” (Did 9:5D and Matt 7:6A): The Eucharistic Food of the Didache in Its Jewish Purity Setting. Vigiliae Christianae, 56(3), 223–246.

24.

Simkovich, M. Z.

(2016). The making of Jewish universalism: From exile to Alexandria. Lexington Books.

25.

Smith, M. J.

(2015). Lord Jesus and His Coming in the Didache. In

J. A.

Draper &

C. N.

Jefford (Eds.), The Didache: A Missing Piece of the Puzzle in Early Christianity (pp. 363–407). SBL Press.

26.

Staples, J. A.

(2018). ‘Lord, Lord’: Jesus as YHWH in Matthew and Luke. New Testament Studies, 64, 1–19.

27.

Verheyden, J.

(2015). Matthew and the Didache: Some Comments on the Comments. In

J. A.

Draper &

C. N.

Jefford (Eds.), The Didache: A Missing Piece of the Puzzle in Early Christianity (pp. 409–425). SBL Press.

28.

Vogel, M.

(2020). Jüdisch versus christlich? »Parting of the ways« als Problem der Terminologie in Quellen- und Beschreibungssprache. EvT, 80, 418–431.

29.

Wengst, K.

(1971). Tradition und Theologie des Barnabas-briefes. De Gruyter.

30.

Wilhite, S. J.

(2019a). The Didache: A commentary. Cascade.

31.

Wilhite, S. J.

(2019b). Thirty-Five Years Later: A Summary of Didache Scholarship Since 1983. Currents in Biblical Research, 17, 266–305.

32.

Young, S. E.

(2011). Jesus tradition in the Apostolic Fathers: Their explicit appeals to the words of Jesus in light of orality studies. Mohr Siebeck.