Editing Didache (section)

=== Rituals ===
====Baptism====
The second part (chapters 7 to 10) begins with an instruction on [[baptism]], the sacramental rite that admits someone into the Christian Church.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=151}} Baptism is to be conferred "in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"<ref name="Trinitarian Baptismal Formula"/> with triple immersion in "living water" (that is, flowing water, probably in a stream).{{sfn | White | 2006 | p=794}} If this is not practical, baptism in cold or even warm water is acceptable. If the water is insufficient for immersion, it may be poured three times on the head (affusion). The baptized and the baptizer, and, if possible, anyone else attending the ritual should fast for one or two days beforehand.

The New Testament is rich in metaphors for baptism but offers few details about the practice itself, not even whether the candidates professed their faith in a formula.{{sfn | Johnson | 2006 | pp=36–38}} The ''Didache'' is the oldest extra-biblical source for information about baptism, but it, too lacks these details.{{sfn | Johnson | 2006 | pp=36–38}} The Two Ways section of the ''Didache'' is presumably the sort of ethical instruction that catechumens (students) received in preparation for baptism.{{sfn | Johnson | 2006 | pp=36–38}}

====Fasting====
Chapter 8 suggests that fasts are not to be on the second day and on the fifth day "with the hypocrites", but on the fourth day and on the preparation day. Fasting Wednesday and Friday plus worshiping on the Lord's day constituted the Christian week.{{sfn | Johnson | 2006 | p=62}} Nor must Christians pray with their Judaic brethren; instead they shall say the [[Lord's Prayer]] three times a day. The text of the prayer is not identical to the version in the [[Gospel of Matthew]], and it is given with the [[doxology]] "for Yours is the power and the glory forever." This doxology derives from 1 Chronicles 29:11–13; [[Bruce M. Metzger]] held that the early church added it to the Lord's Prayer, creating the current Matthew reading.<ref name = "May Metzger 1177">May, Herbert G. and Bruce M. Metzger. ''The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha''. 1977. p. 1177.</ref>

====Daily prayer====
The ''Didache'' provides one of the few clues historians have in reconstructing the daily prayer practice among Christians before the 300s.{{sfn | Johnson | 2006 | p=60}} It instructs Christians to pray the "Our Father" three times a day but does not specify times to pray.{{sfn | Johnson | 2006 | p=60}} Recalling the version of Matthew 6:9–13,<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|6:9-13}}</ref> it affirms "you must not pray like the hypocrites, but you should pray as follows."<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Leo M.|last1=Abrami|url=https://www.academia.edu/27950201|title=The Jewish Origins of the Lord's Prayer|journal=Liturgical Studies, Early Christianity|access-date=July 20, 2021|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180725010443/https://www.academia.edu/27950201/The_Jewish_Origins_of_the_Lords_Prayer|archive-date=25 July 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Other early sources speak of two-fold, three-fold, and five-fold daily prayers.{{sfn | Johnson | 2006 | p=60}}

====Eucharist====
The ''Didache'' includes two primitive and unusual prayers for the [[Eucharist]] ("thanksgiving"),{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=482}} which is the central act of Christian worship.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=570}} It is the earliest text to refer to this rite as the Eucharist.{{sfn|Cross|Livingstone|2005|p=570}}

Chapter 9 begins:
{{poemquote|Now concerning the Eucharist, give thanks this way. First, concerning the cup:
We thank thee, our Father, for the holy vine of David Thy servant, which Thou madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever...}}

And concerning the broken bread:
{{poemquote|We thank Thee, our Father, for the life and knowledge which Thou madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever. Even as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, and was gathered together and became one, so let Thy Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth into Thy kingdom; for Thine is the glory and the power through Jesus Christ for ever.
But let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, unless they have been baptized into the name of the Lord; for concerning this also the Lord has said, "Give not that which is holy to the dogs."}}

The ''Didache'' basically describes the same ritual as the one that took place in Corinth.<ref>Valeriy A. Alikin. ''The earliest history of the Christian gathering''. Brill, 2010. {{ISBN|978-90-04-18309-4}}. p. 110. "...practice of a particular community or group of communities.29 However, the ''Didache'' basically describes the same ritual as the one that took place in Corinth. This is probable for several reasons. In both cases, the meal was a community supper that took place on Sunday evening where the participants could eat their fill, rather than purely a symbolic ritual.30 Also in both cases the meal began with separate benedictions over the bread and wine (Mark 14:22–25 par.).."</ref> As with Paul's [[First Letter to the Corinthians]], the ''Didache'' confirms that the Lord's supper was literally a meal, probably taking place in a "[[house church]]".{{sfn | Johnson | 2006 | pp=44–51}} The order of cup and bread differs both from present-day Christian practice and from that in the New Testament accounts of the [[Last Supper]],<ref>{{bibleverse|1 Corinthians|11:23–25}}, {{bibleverse|Mark|14:22–25}}, {{bibleverse|Matthew|26:26–29}}, {{bibleverse|Luke|22:14–20}}</ref> of which, again unlike almost all present-day Eucharistic celebrations, the ''Didache'' makes no mention.{{sfn | Johnson | 2006 | pp=44–51}}

[[File:Joseph Martin Kronheim - The Sunday at Home 1880 - Revelation 22-17.jpg|thumb|Revelation 22:17 ([[King James Version|KJV]]), to which the prayer in ''Didache'' 10 bears some similarity]]
Chapter 10 gives a thanksgiving after a meal. The contents of the meal are not indicated: chapter 9 does not exclude other elements as well that the cup and bread, which are the only ones it mentions, and chapter 10, whether it was originally a separate document or continues immediately the account in chapter 9, mentions no particular elements, not even wine and bread. Instead it speaks of the "spiritual food and drink and life eternal through Thy Servant" that it distinguishes from the "food and drink (given) to men for enjoyment that they might give thanks to (God)". After a [[doxology]], as before, come the apocalyptic exclamations: "Let grace come, and let this world pass away. [[Hosanna]] to the God (Son) of David! If any one is holy, let him come; if any one is not so, let him repent. [[Maranatha]]. Amen".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm|title=The Didache (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7)|last=M. B. Riddle (trans.)|date=1886|website=New Advent|access-date=9 Aug 2019}}</ref> The prayer is reminiscent of Revelation 22:17–20<ref>{{bibleverse|Revelation|22:17–20}}</ref> and [[1 Corinthians 16:22]].

[[John Dominic Crossan]] endorses [[John W. Riggs]]' proposal in a 1984 ''[[The Second Century]]'' article that "there are two quite separate eucharistic celebrations given in Didache 9–10, with the earlier one now put in second place".<ref>Crossan, ''The Historical Jesus'', p 361 (1991)</ref> The section beginning at 10.1 is a reworking of the Jewish [[Birkat hamazon|birkat ha-mazon]], a three-strophe prayer at the conclusion of a meal, which includes a blessing of God for sustaining the universe, a blessing of God who gives the gifts of food, earth, and [[Covenant (biblical)|covenant]], and a [[Jerusalem in Judaism|prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem]]; the content is "Christianized", but the form remains Jewish.<ref>The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and Its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity by Hubertus Waltherus Maria van de Sandt, David Flusser pp 311–2; [http://www.bezinningscentrum.nl/teksten/girard/c/c2007_Perdew_Stephanie_paper.htm Metaphors of Sacrifice in the Liturgies of the Early Church] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219034654/http://www.bezinningscentrum.nl/teksten/girard/c/c2007_Perdew_Stephanie_paper.htm |date=19 February 2008 }} by Stephanie Perdew; [http://www.animabit.de/bibel/hubmann_liturgie_judentum_christentum.html Jüdische Wurzel] by Franz D. Hubmann</ref> It is similar to the Syrian Church eucharist rite of the [[Holy Qurbana of Addai and Mari]], belonging to "a primordial era when the euchology of the Church had not yet inserted the Institution Narrative in the text of the Eucharistic Prayer".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.kaldu.org/3_chaldean_culture/TheAnaphora_ApostlesAddai_Mari.html |title=Sarhad Yawsip Jammo, ''The Anaphora of Addai and Mari: A Study of Structure and Historical Background'' |access-date=28 November 2007 |archive-date=1 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071201041631/http://www.kaldu.org/3_chaldean_culture/TheAnaphora_ApostlesAddai_Mari.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>