3 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 42 pagesAbout this book
How does an early Christian community decide how to live, whom to trust, and how to worship together?
The Didache is a short handbook of Christian life with no named author. Its title links it to the teaching of the twelve apostles. It opens with the Two Ways: a way of life and a way of death. These moral instructions place everyday conduct at the heart of life together.
From there, the text turns to baptism, fasting, prayer, and the Eucharist, or shared meal of thanksgiving. It gives practical guidance on welcoming traveling teachers, testing prophets, and choosing local leaders. Its closing warning calls for watchfulness for the coming of the Lord, bringing communal worship and moral responsibility into the same brief handbook.
What you’ll discover
- Two ways to live Explore the sharp contrast between the conduct the text urges and the vices it rejects.
- Instructions for daily faith See how the handbook guides a community through baptism, fasting, and prayer.
- Thanks over cup and bread Read the Eucharistic prayers that give the shared meal its language of thanksgiving.
- Teachers put to the test Discover how the text addresses visiting apostles and prophets who claim spiritual authority.
- A community gathers Follow instructions for choosing leaders, confessing sins, breaking bread, and remaining watchful.
Who will love it
For readers curious about how the earliest Christians worshiped, ate, prayed and governed themselves, and anyone who enjoys primary sources on community life, shared meals and visiting prophets.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A lost manual found in a library
- Choose the way of life
- Baptism, fasting and prayer
- Give thanks over the cup and the bread
- Test visitors and choose leaders
- Meet on the Lord's day and watch
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The Didache
by Attributed to anonymous first-century authors · 100
Prayers over a cup and broken bread reveal an early Christian community learning how to live as one.
Medium levelUnder 2 hours to readfrançais
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In short
No author is named.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A lost manual found in a library
For centuries the Didache was known only by name. Eusebius placed it among books that were read but not accepted as scripture. Then the full text seemed to vanish.
In 1873 a Greek churchman named Philotheos Bryennios found it in a manuscript copied in 1056, kept in a monastery library in Constantinople. He published it in 1883, and scholars were amazed. It never entered the Bible, yet it is printed among the Apostolic Fathers.
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Prayers over a cup and broken bread reveal an early Christian community learning how to live as one.
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Details
- First published
- 100
- Language
- français
- Level
- Medium level
- Paperback
- 42 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 42 pages · 8.5 × 11 in
- Delivery and returns
- Printed when you order. Usually here in 12 to 14 days.Arrives to to États-Unis, printed for you at cost
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Cite this edition
The Didache. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-didache-apocrypha.
The Didache. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-didache-apocrypha (Original work published ca. 100)
The Didache. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-didache-apocrypha.
@book{anonymous2026didache,
title = {The Didache},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/loa-didache-apocrypha},
note = {First published ca. 100}
}
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What is the Didache about?
It is a short handbook for early Christian communities. It teaches the two ways of life and death, then gives rules on baptism, fasting, prayer, the Eucharist, visiting prophets, church leaders and readiness for the coming of the Lord.
When was the Didache written and who wrote it?
No author is named. It was probably compiled in Syria or a nearby region, but this is debated.
Why is the Didache not in the Bible?
It was valued for teaching new converts, and it never gained the same standing as the Gospels and letters.
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