Picanterías tradicionales y Picanterías Actuales

Didache 16, the so-called “eschatological ending,” depends on material from the Olivet Discourse. The witness of Did 16 is important as its iteration of material from the Olivet Discourse employs Zech 13:9 and 14:5. Didache 16:1 begins: “Watch over (γρηγορεῖτε) your lives . . . for you do not know the hour in which our Lord is coming.” The subsequent material is accordingly understood within the context of vigilance for the coming of “the Lord.” Didache 16:3–4 describes the inevitable rise of “false prophets” and “lawlessness,” reflecting the warnings present in Mark 13:5–6, 21–22, and Matt 24:12. Didache 16:4 foretells the arrival of “the world-deceiver.” After the world-deceiver commits many abominations, all humankind will enter Did 16:5’s “fiery test.”

Didache 16:5 says: “Then all humankind will come to the fiery test,” (εἰς τὴν πύρωσιν τῆς δοκιμαςίας), “and many will fall away and perish” (καὶ σκανδαλισθήσονται πολλοὶ καὶ ἀπολοῦνται). “But those who endure in their faith will be saved by the curse itself.”9 _{Because Did 16:5 emphasizes} “perseverance in the faith,” the “fiery testing” probably refers to persecution for following Jesus.10

6 _{Hays 1989, 31.}

7 _{The majority of scholars argue that Didache 16, (1) is familiar with the Gospels, especially Matthew, or (2) knows}

sources similar to what the Gospel authors had. Accordingly, common hypotheses for the date range from 50 to 100 CE. See Michael Holmes 2007, 337–38. For Option 1, see W.D. Köhler 1987, 19–56; C. Tuckett 1996, 92–128. For Option 2, see H. Köster 1957, 159–241; J.P. Audet 1958, 166–86; K. Niederwimmer 1993, 247–70; Jens Schröter 2008, 239–54.

8 _{Scholars date Cyril’s commentary on the basis of its relative dearth of polemic against “heretics,” which}

dominated later writings. It is broadly dated to somewhere between 400–428 CE. See Robert Hill 2007, 4. Alexander Kerrigan states that Cyril’s Septuagintal text of Zechariah “agrees with the Alexandrian group A–Q and kindred minisculae.” See Kerrigan 1952, 250–51.

9 _{My translation.}

190 The language of “the fiery test” likely derives from Zech 13:9. There God says that he will “lead” his people through the fire (διὰ πυρός) and “test” them as gold is tested (καὶ δοκιμῶ αὐτούς ὡς

δοκιμάζεται τὸ χρυσίον). Three reasons suggest that Zech 13:9 is the influence behind Did 16:5. First, the author clearly knows Zechariah, as Zech 14:5 is quoted a few sentences later (Did 16:7). Second, each passage describes the “fire” as that which the people “enter” or “pass through.” Third, the verses correspond lexically and thematically. Didache 16:7 says that humankind enters εἰς τὴν πύρωσιν τῆς δοκιμαςίας. Zechariah 13:9 says that the remnant will pass διὰ πυρός, and that God will test them (δοκιμῶ αὐτούς). Zechariah 13:9 is one of the few verses in Jewish scriptures to collocate the terms “fire” and “test.” The other instances are: Ps 26:2 (LXX 25:2), Prov 27:21, and Jer 9:6. Psalm 26:2 relates a plea by David that God would test his heart and judge him according to the integrity of his walk. The context is unrelated, and the only use of the πυρ root is in the imperative (πύρωσον), best translated “purify me!” Proverbs 27:21 actually eschews the language of “fiery testing,” saying that gold and silver belong in a crucible, but that a man is tested or approved by other means. Finally, Jer 9:6 declares that God will “set fire” and “refine” Jerusalem, referring to the destruction by Babylon in 586 BCE. There is no noun form of “fire,” and the context is unrelated. Zechariah 13:9, on the other hand, depicts this fiery test as that which will happen to the people of God, and will prove their positive covenantal status. The latter context fits Did 16 well, where the fiery test is that which Christians must endure before

“salvation.”11

Accordingly, Did 16 uses Zech 13:9 to depict the tribulations of the faithful as the “fiery test,” it embeds this “fiery test” in the material related to the Olivet Discourse, and it describes this threat as “falling away” (from σκανδαλίζω). In light of this coming fiery test, however, the assurance of Did 16:5 is: οἱ δὲ ὑπομείναντες ἐν τῇ πίστει αὐτῶν σωθήσονται.12 _{This use of Zech 13:7–9 corresponds exactly to} its proposed use in Mark. There Jesus teaches that the disciples must be salted “with fire” and endure tribulations, and he predicts the same threat, namely, “falling away” (from σκανδαλίζω), explicitly on the basis of Zech 13:7. In light of coming tribulation, however, Jesus promises: ὁ δὲ ὑπομείνας εἰς τέλος οὗτος σωθήσεται.

The correspondence only increases with Did 16:7, where the author cites Zech 14:5 in the description of Jesus’ parousia. Didache 16:7–8 says: οὐ πάντων δέ, ἀλλ’ ὡς ἐρρέθη ἥξει κύριος καὶ

11 _{The influence of Zech 13:9 is accepted by many; see e.g. Aaron Milavec 1995, 146; Marcello del Verme 2004,}

232–33.

πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ.13 _{τότε ὄψεται ὁ κόσμος τὸν κύριον ἐρχόμενον ἐπάνω τῶν νεφελῶν τοῦ} οὐρανοῦ. These verses, as I argued occurs in Mark 8:38,14 _{combine elements of Dan 7:13 and Zech 14:5} to depict Jesus as the returning Lord of Zech 14:5.15 _{In summary, then, Did 16, in its own iteration of} material clearly dependent upon the Olivet Discourse, describes the tribulations as “the fiery test,” characterizes the threat as “falling away,” as in Mark 14:27, and assures the community of vindication when Jesus returns, citing Zech 14:5. These correspondences strongly suggest that the author of Didache, or its sources, saw in the Olivet Discourse the very allusions to Zech 13–14 proposed in this study, and consequently made them explicit.