Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Exodus 18 and The Didache 2-4

Exodus 18 – Moses’s father-in-law, Jethro (AKA Reuel) brings Zipporah, Moses’ wife, and their two sons, Gershom/Sojourner There and Eliezer/God’s Help, to Moses at the mountain of God, and he rejoices to hear all that the Lord has done.  The Schocken Bible points out that the wilderness or “trek” narratives, Exodus and Numbers, have six stations or stops between Egypt and Sinai, and then six again from Sinai to the Promised Land.  Here they are at the midpoint of the journey. 

It is Jethro who notices that Moses really needs help in the work he is doing, judging the people’s disputes and advising them on what it is the Lord wants of them.  He suggests, “You will become worn out, yes, worn out, . . .for this matter is too heavy for you, you cannot do it alone” (18:18). He tells him “you are to have the vision (to select) from all the people men of caliber, holding God in awe, men of truth, hating gain,” and these men you should set over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens “so that they may judge the people at all times” (18:21-22). Sounds like the Roman military system. So, the introduction of law into the lives of the migrating people of God, will bring a degree of political organization as well as moral leadership.

The Didache

The Way of Life (Continued)

2 – The second commandment in the Teaching mean: Commit no murder, adultery, sodomy, fornication, or theft. Practice no magic, sorcery, abortion, or infanticide. See that you do not covet anything your neighbor possesses, and never be guilty of perjury, false witness, slander, or malice” (191).

Do not equivocate or speak falsely; do not be avaricious, hypocritical, spiteful or full of yourself. And do not “cherish” feelings of hatred you may have for others.

3 – Keep away from those who are bad. “Never give way to anger, for anger leads to homicide” (192). And “refrain from fanaticism, quarrelling, and hot-temperedness, for these too can breed homicide” (192)

Do not give in to lust or unclean talk.

“Do not be always looking for omens . . . for this leads to idolatry. Likewise have nothing to do with witchcraft, astrology, or magic” (192). These things also lead to idolatry.

“Tell no lies” and “do not be over-anxious to be rich or to be admired, for these too can breed thievishness” (192).

“Do not be a grumbler . . . for this leads to blasphemy. Likewise do not be too opinionated” (192).

Learn to be meek; “school yourself to forbearance, compassion, guilelessness, calmness, and goodness” (192).

“Accept as good whatever experience comes your way, in the knowledge that nothing can happen without God” (192).

4 – Day and night, “remember him who speaks the word of God to you. Give him the honor you would give the Lord; for wherever the Lord’s attributes are the subject of discourse, there the Lord is present” (192).

Seek the company of those who are holy. And “never encourage dissensions, but try to make peace between those who are at variance. Judge with justice, reprove without fear or favor, and never be in two minds about your decisions” (192).

Do not hesitate to give to those who are in need. Be sure to discipline your children; do not “withhold your hand from your son or daughter, but to bring them up in the fear of God from their childhood” (193).

If you are giving orders to those who work for you do not “speak sharply” especially if they share the faith. “God “has not come to call men according to their rank, but those for whom He has prepared the Spirit” (193). And if you are a servant, “obey your masters with respectfulness and fear, as the representatives of God” (193).

Do not neglect the commandments of the Lord, and do not add to them or detract.

“In church, make confession of your faults, and do not come to your prayers with a bad conscience” (193).

Daily Old Testament and Early Christian Writings: Exodus 17 and The Didache - Introduction through 1

Exodus 17 – The people in the desert are thirsty and again they complain to Moses.  Again, they belabor Moses with their complaints about the things they lack as “free” men. “Moses cried out to the Lord, “What should I do with these people? They are ready to stone me” (17:4).

God instructs Moses to take his staff, “the one [he] used when [he] struck the water of the Nile” (17:5) and to strike a rock at Horeb, near Mt. Sinai so that water will come out of it.  Moses does this, but the place is named “Massah (which means ‘test’) and Meribah (which means ‘arguing’) because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the Lord by saying, ‘Is the Lord here with us or not?” (17:7)

At a place called Rephidim, they are attacked by the Amalekites. Moses tells Joshua to take some men out to fight them while he, Moses, stands at the top of a hill, holding the staff of God in his hand (17:9). “As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage. Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up” (17:11-12). Aaron and Hur help him by holding up his arm so that the Israelites would win the battle.

The conflict and hostility with the Amalekites will go through the Old Testament as a continual theme—perhaps they are a kind of “type” of the outside, hostile forces that plague the people of God in the wilderness. The people are not sure any more that God is in their midst. If you have ever doubted the presence and power of God, if you have ever felt torn about whether you should trust in the Lord and in those sent to draw you to Him, you will relate at some level to this story.

The Didache

Introduction: This work, the Teaching of the Apostles, was written some time in the late 1^st or early 2^nd century and was thought to be “canonical” by Irenaeus and other early Church “Fathers.”  Eusebius (c.325), however, identifies it as one of the more “spurious” books and includes with The Shepherd, the Apocalypse of Peter and the Epistle of Barnabas.

The text of it disappeared very early, but Philotheos Bryennios, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan [Archbishop] of Nicomedia, found a Greek manuscript of it in 1873. It was published in English for the first time in 1883.

It has two parts. The first, chapters 1 through 6, is a version of the treatise found at the end of the Epistle of Barnabas on the “Two Ways” but editors of the Penguin Edition say “it is more thoroughly Christianized and, in particular, most of chapter 1 is additional material drawn from the (oral) tradition of Jesus’s teaching. The second [chapters 7 through 16] is concerned with the worship and discipline of an early Christian community” (188).

Where was [it] written and for whom? Egypt and Syria have both been proposed. Egypt because Clement of Alexandria knew of it and thought it “scripture.” There are versions of it in Coptic and Ethiopic. And Syria is considered a possibility because it seems similar to the brand of Christianity that was popular in Antioch and Syria and it makes reference to rural, hilly country that is more like Syria.

Part I: The Two Ways

The Way of Life

1 – The Way of Life is this: Thou shalt love first the Lord they Creator, and secondly thy neighbor as thyself; and thou shalt do nothing to any man that thou wouldst not wish to be done to thyself” (191). Bless those that curse you, “pray for your enemies” and “fast for your persecutors. For where is the merit in loving only those who return your love? Even the heathens do as much. But if you love those who hate you, you will have nobody to be your enemy” (191).

“Beware of the carnal appetites of the body” (191). Give to those who ask and do not look for repayment. “But woe to the taker; for though he cannot be blamed for taking if he was in need, yet if he was not, an account will be required of him as to why he took it, and for what purpose, and he will be taken into custody and examined about his action, and he will not get out until he has paid the last penny” (191).