John J. Clabeaux and Reuven Kimelman

The basis for this paper excerpt is a joint study I carried out with Reuven Kimleman of Brandeis, a specialist on the development of the Shema and Amidah. All the main observations about those prayers are indebted to his insights.

The Shema - Kimelman - (See Chart 2)

When the chiastic structure is viewed as on the diagram provided, all the parts are seen as serving the apex which is the Shema biblical verse and its thesis of the realization of the divine sovereignty.

The internal structure consists of an opening and closing triad of blessings with twelve or thirteen middle ones.

The sequence supports the thesis of the Amidah as a prayer for redemption by virtue of divine sovereignty as do its many echoes of biblical redemptive vocabulary.

The three initial blessings affirm divine sovereignty through images of a redeeming god. The first presents God as Lord over history; the second as Lord over nature and death; and the third as Lord over heaven and earth. Together they bolster the hope of redemption, as Isaiah says: "Since...the Lord is our King, He will deliver us" (33:22).

The Amidah itself advances from personal (4-7)through national (10-14) to universal redemption (17), each stage involving the progressive realization of divine sovereignty. It appears that the second last blessing, with its climax of the universal acknowledgment of God, once concluded the Amidah. The appending of the priestly benediction (18) was intended to enhance the correlation between the synagogue and the Temple service.

So to recapitulate: in the Shema, redemption supports the claim of divine sovereignty; in the Amidah, the belief in divine sovereignty sustains the hope of redemption.

What my precis of the Didache prayers (see single sheet provided) suggests is that the themes of sovereignty of God and redemption (connected one with the other) are reflected in a significant way in the prayers of Did. 8 - 10.

After the address ("Our Father") this prayer falls into two distinct parts followed by a closing doxology. There is general agreement in the literature on the LP that the first three petitions in this version of the prayer stand together as a unit.4 All three petitions point to the proclamation of the coming of the kingdom, which dominates the teaching of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels. The most important biblical foundation of the hallowing of the name is Ezek 36:22-38. There God hallows the divine name by the act of rescue and redemption, including cleansing and forgiveness, ingathering of the people and relocation on the land with the gift of renewed life (re-population). The third petition expresses God's act to save in more universal terms: the will of God will be actualized on earth as in the place where God dwells.

The second part of the Lord's Prayer boils down to three petitions made for the church, namely that God "give bread," "forgive our debt" and "deliver us from evil.''5 The climactic petition is for salvation or redemption.6 Then comes the doxology, which connects the three prayers of Didache 8 - 10 as a group.7

The note sounded in the first group of petitions ("your kingdom come") recurs in the liturgical dialogue at the end of Didache 10: "Let grace come and let this world pass away." Thus, the coming of the kingdom is the dominant perspective of the full set of prayers.

The structuring of the Eucharist Prayers of Didache 9 - 10 also advances this comparison. Each one is tripartite with the third section being distinct from the first two. Each of the first two sections are thanksgivings in which specific reference is made to "your servant Jesus.''s The third section of each prayer is not a thanksgiving but a petition. 9.4 calls for the gathering of the church from the ends of the earth into "your Kingdom." 10.5 calls for the church being delivered from evil and sanctified. Each makes reference both to "the church" and to "the Kingdom." The reference in 10.5 to "from the four corners of the earth" brings both petitions into connection with the end-time scenario of God's angels gathering the elect from the four ends of the earth, such as is seen in Matt 24:31. Thus both prayers end with the Didache version of redemption, which involves the Kingdom. It would seem that for the Didache community the prayer for the Kingdom unites the two major themes of the Shema and Amidah.

This structural analysis of the three prayers also reveals a connection of the central themes by means of the issue of the holiness of God's name. All three prayers in Didache 8 - 10 begin with reference to "holiness." The note is first sounded at the very beginning of the Lord's Prayer: "Hallowed be your name." Holiness occurs again at the end of the second Eucharist Prayer in 10.5

"perfect her, sanctified," and then also in the liturgical dialogue which ends the entire section "If anyone is holy, let him/her come. If any is not, let him/her repent." The notion of the "holy name dwelling in our hearts" in 10.2 is a reference to that which makes the church the church.9 Thus the opening of all three prayers and the close of the prayer in Didache 10 (including the final liturgical dialogue) all bring the issue of redemption into connection with the "hallowing of the name."

Notes

1 Attributing the sovereignty theme to Rabbinic Judaism explains its presence in

the discussion of Rabban Gamaliel (M. Berakhot 2:5) and its absence from Philo's discussion of the Shema (The Special Laws 4:141; cf. Wolfson, Philo, 2:95) as well as from 'emet ve-yasiv (True and firm) which harks back to the Temple liturgy. Subsequently, 'emet ve-yasiv became rabbinized through the incorporation of the sovereignty theme; see T~ Berakhot 2:1).

2 See I. Knohl, "A Parsha Concerned with Accepting the Kingdom of Heaven,"

[Hebrew] Tarbiz, 53 (1984) 11-31, 12.

3. The following is an abridgment of R. Kimelman, "The Literary Structure of the Amidah and the Rhetoric of Redemption," in W. G. Dever and E. J. Wright (eds.) Echoes of Many Texts: Reflections on Jewish and Christian Traditions. Essays in Honor of Lou H. Silberman, Brown Judaic Studies, (Atlanta: Scholars Press,

1998) 171-230.

5. Where the first group of petitions was dominated by third pers. on, passive imperatives and the pronoun "your," these three all have second person singular

imperatives and the pronoun "us."

7 The long form of the doxology appears three times with a reversal of terms in

its second occurrence. Between each instance of the long form of the doxology are two occurrences of the short doxology. The doxologies serve a function similar to the "seal blessings" of the prayers of formative Judaism, but they are

not to be equated. They reflect a difference, at least in terms of form.

8 The only variation from this pattern is in the last occurrence in which the specific name "Jesus" is not used.

9 Niederwimmer (Die Didache 195 n. 17) sees in the clause a reference to

baptism mentioned in Didache 7.1 in which it was said that a person is to be baptized "into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (See also Matt 28:19). Yet this seems quite different from the notion of God's name dwelling in the community members' hearts. But frequently the language of God in us and us in God is alternated. One can also draw support from John 17. This is not to suggest that the community of the Didache knew that Gospel, yet John 17 derives from Eucharistic traditions similar in some details to those behind Didache 9 - 10. In John 17 the title "Holy Father" appears. In John 17:6 Jesus says "1 made known your name which you gave to me," and then in 17:7 "the words which you gave me I gave to them" (a parallel to knowledge referred to in Didache 10.2). Incidentally that section of John 17 also ends with the notion of the sanctification of the believers. It also has the reversal of "1 in you / you in me." and then "1 in you and them in me." This approaches the notion of "your name in them" but admittedly is not the same thing. Perhaps a more influential text is Jer 14:9 "Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not forsake us." The context is similar to that of Psalm 80 in which the community saw itself as the people under duress and in need of God's act of salvation/redemption. I suggest that the mechanism for the influence of such texts on these prayers would be the practice reflected in certain Christian circles to search biblical passages (especially in the Psalms and prophets) for connections with Jesus and the community of those who believe in him. It would be similar to the practice reflected at Qumran of seeing biblical passages as relating to the Teacher of Righteousness and their sectarian community.

CUP             Our Father
                    We Thank You for Holy Vine of David (Church)
                    - made known through your Servant Jesus
                    Doxology (short)

BREAD     Our Father
                    We thank You for life and knowledge
                    - made known through your Servant Jesus
                    Doxology (short)

CLOSE    (no address)
                As bread scattered/gathered - so Church be gathered
                Doxology (long with inclusio reversal)

FIRST    Holy Father
                We thank You for Holy Name caused to dwell in our hearts
                and for knowledge, faith and immortality
                - made known through your Servant Jesus
                Doxology (short)

SECOND    Master Almighty
                    You created all, gave food and drink to humanity
                    to us You gave spiritual food and drink
                    - through your Servant
                    Above all We thank You because You are Mighty
                    Doxology (short)

CLOSE        Lord
                    Remember Your Church. Deliver it from all evil.
                    Perfect it sanctified.
                    Doxology (long - like first long doxology)

Let grace come and let this world pass away.

- Hosanna to the God of David.

If anyone is holy let him come if not repent.

- Maran atha. Amen. (May God's sovereignty be manifest)

Chart 2: