Barnabas, Hermas, and the Didache

by J. Armitage Robinson

Publishers:

SPCK; Macmillan Co.

, 1920

Overview

The ultimate aim of these lectures is to reach a point of view from which the literary character and the historical value of the Didache, or teaching of the apostles, can be justly estimated. J. Armitage Robinson considers a route, which makes the theory of a Jewish manual disappear altogether, and the ground is cleared for a new consideration of the whole problem. Through the course of the four lectures contained in Barnabas, Hermas, and the Didache, Armitage aims to show that the writer of the Didache was trying to represent the moral instruction and the ecclesiastical ordinances which the apostles might reasonably be supposed to have sanctioned for their Gentile converts; and that accordingly we may not assume that the whole of the picture which he has drawn corresponded to the actual conditions of his own time, whatever that time may have been.

Key Features

• Presents lectures on Barnabas, Hermas, and the Didache
• Explores new ways of examining these texts
• Evaluates the importance of the Didache for Christian history and literature

Contents

• The Epistle of Barnabas
• The Shepherd of Hermas
• The Didache
• Epilogue

Top Highlights

“Its date has been placed by capable critics in every decade of the century from a.d. 60 to a.d. 160” (Page 43)

“first published by its discoverer, the Greek bishop Bryennius, at the end of the year 1883” (Page 43)

“The divine purpose running through the past, and leading up to themselves in the present” (Page 6)

“maintained that the Old Testament religion was false from beginning to end” (Page 2)

Product Details

• Title: Barnabas, Hermas, and the Didache
• Author: J. Armitage Robinson
• Publisher: SPCK
• Publication Date: 1920
• Pages: 119
• Resource Type: Lectures
• Topic: Apostolic Fathers

About J. Armitage Robinson

J. Armitage Robinson (1858–1933) studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and was ordained in 1882. He served as dean of Westminster Abbey from 1902 to 1911, and dean of Wells Cathedral from 1911 to 1933. His works include St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, two volumes in the Text and Studies series, and Barnabas, Hermas, and the Didache.