Jonathan A. Draper

This collection in English of important modern articles on the "Didache (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles)," including an extensive review of scholarship over the past fifty years, provides a valuable resource for the study of this controversial first-century Christian document.

The Didache in Modern Research: 1996

Clayton N. Jefford

An intriguing dilemma for those who study ancient Christian contexts and literature This edited volume includes essays and responses from specialists in the Didache and in early church history in general. Features: Strategies for understanding liturgical constructions and ritual worship found in the text Studies that apply generally to the overall content and background of the Didache Essays on the relationship between the Didache and scripture—particularly with respect to the Gospel of Matthew

A Missing Piece of the Puzzle in Early Christianity

The Didache

John Miles Foley

Richard A. Horsley

Werner H. Kelber

Previous thinking regarding "oral tradition" imagined a one-way process of transmission, handing down the fairly intact textual chunks that would constitute what we know as the end result, the written Gospels.

Orality, Memory, and Mark

Performing the Gospel

Essays in this collection explore the complex relationship between text and orality in colonial situations of antiquity from Homer, Plato, and Mithras to the Hebrew and Christian scriptures and rabbinic tradition. Orality could be a deliberate decision by highly literate people who chose not to put certain things in writing, either to exercise control over the tradition or to preserve the secrecy of ritual performance. Exploring both theoretical issues and historical questions, the book demonstrates the role of text as a form of imperial control over against oral tradition as a means of resistance by the marginalized peasantry or marginalized elite of Israel and the early Church. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

Orality, Literacy, and Colonialism in Antiquity

Literacy is essentially about the control of information, memory, and belief, and with colonialism in Southern Africa came the Bible and text-based literacy monitored by missionaries and colonial authorities. Old and new oral traditions, however, are beyond the control of empire and often carry the resistance, hopes, and dreams of colonized people. The essays in this volume recover aspects of Southern Africa's rich oral tradition. The authors, from disciplines such as anthropology, African literature, and biblical studies, delineate some of the contours of the indigenous knowledge systems which sustained resistance to colonialism and today provide resources for postapartheid society in Southern Africa. Paperback edition is available from the Society of Biblical Literature (www.sbl-site.org)

Jonathan A. Draper

Books

Your next favorite book is out there