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The Way of Life - Didache: A New Translation and Messianic Jewish Commentary
The Didache, also known as The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, is a brief anonymous early treatise, dated by most modern scholars to the first century. It provides a window into the faith and practice of the earliest Gentiles disciples and the instructions they received from the Jewish apostles. The Didache was considered an early discipleship manual for those coming to faith. Its wisdom and simplicity are still relevant for us today.
The Way of Life is a new complete translation of the text, with an extensive Messianic Jewish verse-by-verse commentary. It exposes a historic and authentic Messianic Jewish faith expression for Gentiles that accepted the yoke of the Messiah. While there have been a plethora of commentaries on the Didache from Christian and even Jewish points of view, this is the first major work from a Messianic Jewish perspective. The Way of Life will benefit both Messianic Jews and Gentiles who desire to study the priorities and life of the earliest believers in Yeshua.
In 1880 Greek Orthodox archbishop Philotheos Bryennios rediscovered the Didache in a monastery in Istanbul. The Didache enjoyed wide circulation in the early church and some even considered it canonical. Numerous church writers mention the text but somewhere around the fifth century the work disappeared. So when Bishop Bryennios found the book in 1880, the Didache had been missing for about 1400 years.
The Didache picks up right where the Apostolic Decree leaves off, teaching and clarifying for Gentiles their relationship to the Torah and place in Messianic Judaism. It was written by the early Jewish believers in Yeshua and contains teaching that claims to have its origin with the twelve apostles. Some scholars feel its earliest version might have been written as early as 50 CE, which places it within the first generation of disciples of Yeshua. It may even contain material older than many of Paul s epistles and the Gospel of John. It also contains teachings of Yeshua that are not found in the canonical Gospels.
The Didache offers us an incredible window into the daily life of believers at a time when Christianity still functioned as a sect within Judaism and not a separate religion. It shows us practical life in early Messianic Judaism.
The Way of Life, Features
- Casebound hardcover, 600 pages
- The Didache, a new parallel Greek/English translation
- Comprehensive verse-by-verse commentary on the text of the Didache
- Extensive notes and cross-references to scriptural and Jewish sources
- Numerous practical instructions for modern believers based on the text
The Way of Life is a new complete translation of the text, with an extensive Messianic Jewish verse-by-verse commentary. It exposes a historic and authentic Messianic Jewish faith expression for Gentiles that accepted the yoke of the Messiah. While there have been a plethora of commentaries on the Didache from Christian and even Jewish points of view, this is the first major work from a Messianic Jewish perspective. The Way of Life will benefit both Messianic Jews and Gentiles who desire to study the priorities and life of the earliest believers in Yeshua.
In 1880 Greek Orthodox archbishop Philotheos Bryennios rediscovered the Didache in a monastery in Istanbul. The Didache enjoyed wide circulation in the early church and some even considered it canonical. Numerous church writers mention the text but somewhere around the fifth century the work disappeared. So when Bishop Bryennios found the book in 1880, the Didache had been missing for about 1400 years.
The Didache picks up right where the Apostolic Decree leaves off, teaching and clarifying for Gentiles their relationship to the Torah and place in Messianic Judaism. It was written by the early Jewish believers in Yeshua and contains teaching that claims to have its origin with the twelve apostles. Some scholars feel its earliest version might have been written as early as 50 CE, which places it within the first generation of disciples of Yeshua. It may even contain material older than many of Paul s epistles and the Gospel of John. It also contains teachings of Yeshua that are not found in the canonical Gospels.
The Didache offers us an incredible window into the daily life of believers at a time when Christianity still functioned as a sect within Judaism and not a separate religion. It shows us practical life in early Messianic Judaism.
The Way of Life, Features
- Casebound hardcover, 600 pages
- The Didache, a new parallel Greek/English translation
- Comprehensive verse-by-verse commentary on the text of the Didache
- Extensive notes and cross-references to scriptural and Jewish sources
- Numerous practical instructions for modern believers based on the text
- GenresChristian Living
600 pages, Hardcover
Published June 1, 2017
11 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 20, 2023
Toby Janicki has done his homework, and then decided summarily to toss it out for agenda, which is sad because there is plenty of good information here.
The Didache from a historical perspective is a fascinating document due in large part to it being lost for a century or so before being found in a Greek Orthodox Monastery. If you are reading this review you know, or shortly shall know, much more concerning that, therefore I will leave off the introduction.
My biggest recurring beef with the book is plainly bad translation. It is bad because Janicki, like the translators of the NLT Bible (New Living Translation), infuses personal agenda over and against good translation and exegesis. He does this in the name of “clarity” which is him being dishonest, whether with himself or with readers I cannot say. Anyone who can read and translate biblical Greek into modern English can quickly see where Janicki does this, heck even people with enough knowledge to look up certain terms can figure it out. One of the worst cases is translating the term ‘ekklesia’ as assembly, which is technically true, but considering the import of the word and the context of its time it is much better communicated as the church to get at the full meaning. Janicki is a fan of transliteration and literalisation from the Greek and from the Hebrew. I would not fault people for applying these while using things like the Blue Letter Bible; but people who take the time to learn and profess expertise I have no sympathy for, especially when similar agenda driven translation is done again and again.
His assumption that the Didache is Jewish in origin is not in dispute, and I don’t believe it ever has been except maybe by outliers. Nevertheless he argues as though the general origin is some hotbed of controversy. So that is another point against the book, creating a problem where there is not one.
There are good points to the book and some good insights that come through, because fortunately Janicki is only half incompetent (I do wish to think positively). He does well to point the actual links to Christian tradition from Judaism and then completely ignores half of Church history while excoriating anything remotely Roman Catholic and Protestant.
The Didache itself is an instruction booklet and it does have helpful instructions, but I would not recommend Janicki’s book as a commentary on it because it requires as much education as the author (if not more) to read well and wade through anachronistic arguments that try such things as claiming the pharisees were not the ones being called hypocrites by Christ.
The Didache from a historical perspective is a fascinating document due in large part to it being lost for a century or so before being found in a Greek Orthodox Monastery. If you are reading this review you know, or shortly shall know, much more concerning that, therefore I will leave off the introduction.
My biggest recurring beef with the book is plainly bad translation. It is bad because Janicki, like the translators of the NLT Bible (New Living Translation), infuses personal agenda over and against good translation and exegesis. He does this in the name of “clarity” which is him being dishonest, whether with himself or with readers I cannot say. Anyone who can read and translate biblical Greek into modern English can quickly see where Janicki does this, heck even people with enough knowledge to look up certain terms can figure it out. One of the worst cases is translating the term ‘ekklesia’ as assembly, which is technically true, but considering the import of the word and the context of its time it is much better communicated as the church to get at the full meaning. Janicki is a fan of transliteration and literalisation from the Greek and from the Hebrew. I would not fault people for applying these while using things like the Blue Letter Bible; but people who take the time to learn and profess expertise I have no sympathy for, especially when similar agenda driven translation is done again and again.
His assumption that the Didache is Jewish in origin is not in dispute, and I don’t believe it ever has been except maybe by outliers. Nevertheless he argues as though the general origin is some hotbed of controversy. So that is another point against the book, creating a problem where there is not one.
There are good points to the book and some good insights that come through, because fortunately Janicki is only half incompetent (I do wish to think positively). He does well to point the actual links to Christian tradition from Judaism and then completely ignores half of Church history while excoriating anything remotely Roman Catholic and Protestant.
The Didache itself is an instruction booklet and it does have helpful instructions, but I would not recommend Janicki’s book as a commentary on it because it requires as much education as the author (if not more) to read well and wade through anachronistic arguments that try such things as claiming the pharisees were not the ones being called hypocrites by Christ.
December 23, 2020
Phenomenal! Read this book with a highlighter in your hand!! This ain't your pastor's Sunday school lesson guide. This is so much deeper and chock full of references for easy research. Genuine textbook material.
July 30, 2021
That is the cause, why better the traditional church and the Rabbinical tradition's relations, and negative with the Protestantism...
July 6, 2022
Very interesting.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews