D.W. Kim, «What Shall We Do? The Community Rules of Thomas in the ‘Fifth Gospel’», Vol. 88 (2007) 393-414
This article argues for the diversity of early Christianity in terms of religiocultural communities. Each early Christian group, based on a personal revelation of leadership and the group’s socio-political milieu, maintained its own tradition (oral, written, or both) of Jesus for the continuity and prosperity of the movement. The leaders of early Christianity allowed outsiders to become insiders in the condition where the new comers committed to give up their previous religious attitude and custom and then follow the new community rules. The membership of the Thomasine group is not exceptional in this case. The Logia tradition of P. Oxy. 1, 654.655, and NHC II, 2. 32: 10-51: 28 in the context of community policy will prove the pre-gnostic peculiarity of the creative and independent movement within the Graeco-Roman world.
394 D.W. Kim
The sectarian rules that the Qumran people followed represented one
of the ways they kept the community united, through transmitting the
unique tradition to the following generations: “The Master shall teach
... to live, according to the Book of the Community Rules, that they may
seek God with a whole heart and soul, and do what is good and right
before Him (God)†(1QS 1 1-4) (3). In the same way, an early Christian
literature, called the Didache (4), that, according to Robinson, was
written between 40-60 C.E., is composed of the “church orders†of a
Jewish-Christian community (in the environment of Antioch) (5). The
Didache comprises Christian belief and ethics based on the traditional
Jewish customs, as shown in the five distinct sections: the moral
exhortations that are from the Jewish traditions and Christian sayings
(Chs. 1–6) (6); the rituals of the community that are the Eucharist with
the addition of the Jewish practices of “praying, fasting and
almsgivingâ€, and “water baptism†in the Name of the “Trinity†(Chs.
7–10) (7); guidelines for receiving apostles, prophets, teachers, church
leaders (bishops and deacons) and travelling Christians (Chs.
11–15) (8); teachings about the Christian view of the eschatological
(3) VERMES, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 98.
(4) The Didache is the reconstructed title by modern scholars. The text was
originally called The Teachings of the Apostles.
(5) While many readers agree on the origin of the text as being between 50-
150 C.E., Milavec, who claims the period of 50-70 C.E., supports the view of
Robinson in the context that the text simply presents the necessary rules of a
Christian community. J.A. ROBINSON, Reading the New Testament (London 1976)
323-358. A. MILAVEC, The Didache. Text, Translation, Analysis, and
Commentary (Minnesota 2003). T.M. FINN, From Death to Rebirth. Ritual and
Conversion in Antiquity (New York – Mahwah 1997) 146-149. J. RENDEL
HARRIS, The Teaching of the Apostles (London – Baltimore 1887).
(6) J. REED, “The Hebrew Epic and the Didacheâ€, The Didache in Context.
Essays on Its Texts, History and Transmission (ed. C.N. JEFFORD) (Leiden – New
York – Köln 1995) 215-225.
(7) C.N. JEFFORD, The Sayings of Jesus in the Teachings of the Twelve
Apostles (Leiden – New York – København – Köln 1989) 1-139. N. MITCHELL,
“Baptism in the Didacheâ€, The Didache in Context, 226-229.
(8) S.J. PATTERSON, “Didache 11–13: The Legacy of Radical Itinerancy in
Early Christianityâ€, The Didache in Context, 313-329. M. SLEE, The Church in
Antioch in the First Century CE. Community and Conflict (JSNTSS 244; London
– New York 2003) 101-116. J.A. DRAPER, “Social Ambiguity and the Production
of Text: Prophets, Teachers, Bishops, and Deacons and the Development of the
Jesus Tradition in the Community of the Didacheâ€, The Didache in Context, 284-
312.
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