Ethics in the Communities of the Didache in Comparison to Graeco-Roman Associations

The Didache focuses primarily on moral requirements for participating in the community and offers little, if any, theological reflection. K. Niederwimmer, has therefore asserted that the Didachist did not have its own „theology”. Rather than concentrating on what is not in the text, I examine the constitutive element of ethics for the self-understanding of the ideal group according to the Didache. It was important to define how ingroup members should represent themselves to the outgroup. Likewise, moral behavior and ethics were imperative factors for the stability of the group itself and for maintaining a financially-sustainable community. When scholarship examines the ethical and moral dimensions of the Didache, it typically situates the text within a Jewish background (e.g., Draper 2015). I demonstrate, however, that the Didache provides rules and ethics that should also be understood in the broader framework provided by voluntary associations of the Graeco-Roman world. Ethics and group reputation were major factors for most associations. In many of these associations one had to meet moral requirements for earning and maintaining membership (e.g., IG II2 1368; TAM V 1539). From this perspective ethics are linked to the honor of the association and are therefore important for it to be accepted by the broader society. Consequently, these ethical requirements are frequently inscribed as by-laws. My aim is not to label the group(s) addressed by the Didache as voluntary associations and neglect their Jewish heritage. The documents of associations, however, provide helpful data to understand how the emphasis on ethics and moral behavior functions in the Didache, particularly in the context of the broader society. In short, I argue that among other things the Didache reflects the central concerns of associations: to establish both the internal health of the group as well as the external reputation in the broader society.