SERIES IV.1: THE LANGUAGE OF LINEAGE โ DIDACHE
The Vineyard โข Scattered โข Gathered
The Eucharistic prayer of the Didache in chapter 9 opens with a phrase that deserves to be read within its full scriptural context: โthe holy vine of David.โ This is not simply poetic language about a vine, though our forefathers spoke much in symbolism, nor does the Didache explain the expression as though its meaning were unfamiliar to its audience. The imagery already belongs to the vocabulary of Israelโs Scriptures, where Godโs people are repeatedly portrayed as His planted vine or vineyard. More importantly, the Didache does not leave the vine undefined and directly tied to the Church.
We give thanks to you, our Father, for the holy vine of David your servant, which you made known to us through Joshua your servant.
โ Didache 9.2
The significance of the vine begins with the fact that Scripture does not use vines or vineyards in a universal sense, but strictly associated with Israel. This being something that our New Testament and early church authors knew indefinitely; The vine therefore carries a defined covenantal and racial identity referent within the scriptures. When the Didache subsequently speaks of the โholy vine of David,โ it is using language whose scriptural background already concerns a particular people, and then further qualifying that vine through Davidic lineage.
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel.
โ Isaiah 5:7
In another place,
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seedโฆ
โ Jeremiah 2:21
The metaphor is therefore not merely agricultural but of race and descent. Scripture explicitly identifies Israel as Godโs vineyard and directly ties in that vineyard with the seed which the Most High planted. That Davidic qualification is significant. The Eucharistic prayer places its communityโs worship within the vocabulary of Israel, David, and the promises associated with them.
The prayer then moves immediately from the vine to the image of scattered bread being gathered:
As this broken bread was once scattered upon the mountains, and after it had been gathered together became one, so may your Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into your kingdom.
โ Didache 9.4
The imagery is strikingly consistent with the language used throughout the Scriptures concerning the scattering and evident gathering of Israel after the time of our Lord was to come. Jeremiah describes the same gathering (also see Deuteronomy 30:3-4, Isaiah 11:12, Jeremiah 31:10, Ezekiel 36:24, and Ezekiel 37:21-22):
He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
โ Jeremiah 31:10
The broken bread is scattered, then gathered, then becomes one. The prayer consequently asks that the Church likewise be gathered โfrom the ends of the earthโ into the Kingdom. The geographical extent of the gathering is expansive, but the underlying imagery is not without precedent: Scripture repeatedly describes Godโs own scattered people who are among the nations and only they are being gathered together and made one just as they were during the ancient times of our forefathers.
Ad fontes.
IV
