SERIES IV.3: THE LANGUAGE OF LINEAGE โ DIDACHE
The Name โข The Heart โข The Covenant
The prayer in Didache 10.2 gives us another phrase worth slowing down over. The writer does not simply thank God for teaching them. He says that Godโs holy name has been caused to dwell in their hearts.
We thank you, holy Father, for your holy name which you caused to dwell in our hearts, and for the knowledge and faith and immortality which you made known to us through Jesus your Child.
โ Didache 10.2
Jeremiahโs covenant promise is expressed through the law being placed within our ancestors and extending to us. Godโs law would no longer be spoken of merely as something external, but as something written in our hearts, as an instinct for us to follow.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a covenant with the house of Israelโฆ I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
โ Jeremiah 31:31-33
Paul uses similar language in Romans:
For when the gentiles [Diaspora], which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the lawโฆ Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witnessโฆ
โ Romans 2:14-15
Paul is therefore speaking of the work of the law being written in the heart and as it's written in the scripture; the only distinction we can make thereof is that Israel and Judah would be made to have the law dwell in their hearts, as the diaspora became alienated from the law of the Most High and was made to forget. This shows the discussion of those who are described as not having the law in its physical form as Judah did. Then we return to the Didache: โyour holy name which you caused to dwell in our hearts.โ
The language is undeniable when these passages are read together. Jeremiah speaks of the law being written in the hearts of Godโs people. Paul speaks of the work of the law being written in the heart. The Didache speaks of Godโs holy name dwelling in the hearts of our ancestors, us, and the covenant people. The Didache goes directly into the language of lineage, first speaking of the sons of men, and then distinguishing them from โusโ in its prayer.
You, Almighty Master, created all things for the sake of your name; you gave food and drink to the sons of men for enjoyment, so that they might give thanks to you; but to us you freely gave spiritual food and drink and eternal life through your Child.
โ Didache 10.3
The wording is undeniable when placed beside the language of 4 Ezra, where Ezra questions God concerning His choosing of Israel from among the nations descended from Adam.
And of him come we all, and the people also whom thou hast chosenโฆ the other races, which also come of Adamโฆ But we thy people, whom thou hast called thy firstbornโฆ
โ 4 Ezra 6:54โ58
What makes the Didacheโs language worthy of examination is that it does not speak of nons and the covenant people as though they are interchangeable, it does not proclaim nons within the equation or equality of them to the children of Israel. It speaks of the sons of men, and then turns to โus.โ As a separate ethnic group within the sons of Adam. When this is read beside 4 Ezraโs distinction between the peoples descended from Adam and โwe thy people,โ the language begins to carry a distinctly biblical lineage. The Didache does not spell out the genealogy in the complete sense for its reader; it speaks as though the identity of the โusโ is already understood. The apostles already revealed to them that they are the lost sheep of the tribes of Israel who are scattered abroad.
Ad fontes.
IV.2
