From sometime in the first (or early second) century
A.D.:
“There are two ways, one of life and
one of death, and great is the difference between these two ways. And now this
is the way of life: First, you shall love
God, who made you…
The
second commandment of the teaching is:
You shall not murder;
you
shall not commit adultery;
you
shall not corrupt children;
you
shall not be sexually immoral;
you
shall not steal;
you
shall not practice magic;
you
shall not engage in sorcery;
you shall not murder a child in an
abortion
nor shall you kill one that is born.”
(Greek
ou phoneuseis teknon en pthora oude
gennēthen apokteneis)
--Didache 1:1, 2:1-2 (My translation)
Notice
here that the Didache uses the term
“murder” (Greek phoneuō) when
speaking about the destruction of the “child” (Greek teknon) in the womb. This word—unlike the more general word for "kill"
(Greek apokteinō)—is taken directly
from the Septuagint version of the Ten Commandments, “You shall not murder”
(Greek ou phoneuseis) (Exod 20:15). In this way, the Didache roots its teaching
against abortion directly in the second tablet of the Decalogue regarding love of
neighbor.
9 comments:
Why need we suppose that this was written in the first century?
Were these words about abortion directed at the mother or were they directed at the father?
Because the Didache was written around AD 50 during the Council of Jerusalem. That would make it first century.
There is no need to direct to either parent or toward any other potential killer because it is the act of killing the child that is deemed criminal, no matter who kills the child, including the mother.
Obviously, the Apostles saw the unborn child as an independent human person and not as a part of the woman. Their understanding of biology was better than that of most college grads of today.
For the date of composition on the Didache, see http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/didache.html
The words were directed to everyone who wanted to be a Christian.
Richard,
It was written in the first century or very early second century at the latest. It was a book in consideration by the early Christians for the canon, so it had to have been from apostolic times.
Why do you assume that the injunction not to murder is directed at one parent or another? It would seem to be directed at anyone and everyone.
Hi Richard,
Thanks for the question. My point was not to stake out a claim in the debate over the date of the Didache but rather trying to inform people about what is widely agreed upon as the earliest Christian teaching on abortion.
In referring to it as 'sometime in the first century', I was following the common scholarly opinion that the first century date for the Didache is "more probable" than the early mid-second century. See Michael Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers (Baker Academic, 2007), 337. Some reasons for this view: the concern over dietary questions and food sacrificed to idols (6:3), the forms of early Christian leadership described at length (11-15), fit better into mid-late first-century Christianity rather than early second century. See, e.g., J. P. Audet, La Didache: Instructions des apotres (Paris: Librairie Lecoffre, 1958), 187-206.
If, however, you are still inclined to doubt the first century date of the Didache (and some scholars do), then you are still left with the late first-early second century teaching on abortion from the Epistle of Barnabas, which is virtually identical:
"You shall love your neighbor more than your own life. You shall not murder a chid in an aboration nor shall you kill one that has been born." (Epistle of Barnabas 19:5)
With all that said, I've gone back and revised the original post to include 'early second century' just to keep the question of the Didache more open-ended.
Finally, with regard to your question about audience, the text does not direct itself to mothers or fathers with specificity, but is part of a long list of general proscriptions modeled on the LXX form of the Decalogue.
Most scholars date the Didache to 80-150 AD. Quasten states that the Didache "must have originated between 100 AD and 150 AD." Patrology, Quasten, Vol 1, p. 30.
Other evidence of the extremely early date of composition of the Didache would be the number and range of early Christian fathers who cite to it, and the fact that copies of the Didache have been found in a very wide geographic area, dating from a very early date. Also, the Didache conspicuously does not quote any specific New Testament scripture of any kid, while some of the very earliest Church fathers cite and/or refer copiously to it. Finally, according to scholars, there is abundant internal evidence that the Didache was most likely not composed by one author at one time, but rather was a compilation of several documents. Its antiquity was so firmly established in the minds of the fathers of the primitive Church that both Eusebius Pamphilius and St. Athanasius (c. 297-363 AD) had to inform their flocks that the Didache did not have equal authority with Scripture.
You say: "your translation" are there other ways to translate this?
Thanks for the informative answers, everyone. What were the reasons for abortions in the first and second century Greco-Roman world, and was it the father or mother who decided?
I have no expertise on the Didache. Brant, is there merit in Alan Garrow's view that we can detect multiple layers in the Didache that were written at different times?
Here is a link to an article that adds a little more perceptive to the phrase "ou phoneuseis teknon en pthora" (οὐ φονεύσεις τέκνον ἐν φθορᾷ).
It seems the word pthora, is related to the juice of a plant, that can induce a miscarriage, an seems to have been known by Hippocrates.
While not abortion per say, the meaning and result are clear. A most interesting article.
http://mikedrabiksmeanderings.blogspot.com/2013/01/did-word-abortion-appear-in-didache.html
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