Author: Aaron Milavec
Located in: Shanghai, China
Submitted: December 16, 2020
Tell us a little about yourself. Aaron Milavec began his career as an innovative teacher and oral story teller. After devoting twenty-five years to the training of future priests and lay ministers, Milavec turned his attention to creating online courses in gender studies and the empowerment of women. Milavec has gained an international reputation as a scholar. He has published eighteen books, eight chapters in collected works, and seventy journal articles. His two most recent books are occupied with the graced power of love: THE RED STRING CHRONICLES (2017) and WHAT JESUS WOULD SAY TO SAME-SEX COUPLES (2019).
What was your motivation behind this project? "Aaron Milavec, author of a thousand-page scientific commentary of the Didache, presents a welcome and timely synthesis of his research . It is clearly written, accessible also to non-specialists, and of special interest for students, liturgists, catechists, and Church ministers. Milavec makes knowledge of the earliest Christian tradition assessable for a spiritual renewal today."
- Willy Rordorf, Professor Emeritus of Early Church History and Patristics, University of Neuchtel, Switzerland
"Dr. Milavec has produced a stimulating study of the Didache that gives full attention to the unity of the text and the pastoral sensitivity of its author, In this single, brief commentary, Milavecâs masterful presentation of the text and his intriguing perspective upon the ancient origins and unique purposes of the work will undoubtedly provoke scholarly discussion for many years to come!"
- Clayton N. Jefford, Professor of Scripture, Saint Meinrad School of Theology
"In this new and landmark study, Aaron Milavec comprehensively examines how the first-century pastoral manual known as the Didache enumerated the step-by-step training of converts for the full, active participation in the earliest Jewish-Christian communities. . . ."
- John Dominic Crossan, co-director of the Jesus Seminar
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? "In recent times, the Didache, a significant first-century Christian manual, has come to be seen as a compilation of several older sources which are structured into clearly separated thematic sections belonging to different literary genres. Attention therefore often focuses on issues of source and redaction criticism. Professor Milavec, in dialogue with recent international scholarship, sets great store by allowing the internal evidence of the text to speak for itself. This volume, which looks at the unity of the manual against the cultural background of its time, is an indispensable addition to the literature on the Didache. It provides a gender-inclusive translation and a clear, concise, and inspiring commentary which is not only of essential importance to scholars, pastors, and students but also very useful for ordinary people."
- Huub van de Sandt, Tilburg University, Netherlands
"Milavecâs newest book is the culmination of fifteen years of insightful scholarship into the mysterious text of the Didache. The parallel English âanalyticalâ translation from the Greek is done with simplicity, yet with a sensitivity to gender issues and the Jewish background of the original text. This insightful new edition should appeal as much to erudite scholars as to the plainest of believers. The commentary, the website, and the flow charts are brilliant additions."
- Dr. Philip Culbertson, The School of Theology, Auckland University, New Zealand
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? When Aaron Milavec arrived at the Atlanta Marriott Hotel in 2004 to give his public lecture, there were tears in his eyes. Having worked for fifteen years to decode an ancient, lost Christian document known as "the Didache", Milavec was able to hold in his arms his two newly published books. Like a proud father holding his twins, Milavec explained how, on cold nights, he would wake up dreaming of those mid-first-century Christians who lived the Way of Life described in the Didache. "Having heard their voices, I couldn't get back to sleep unless I first got out of my warm bed, put on my robe, and dutifully recorded their revelations to me on the cold keys of my word processor."
Most Christians believe that everything about Jesus and the early church can be found in their New Testament. In recent years, however, the discovery of the Gospel of Thomas and the reconstruction of the Q-Gospel have led scholars to recognize that some very early materials were left out. Now, due to the pioneering efforts of Dr. Aaron Milavec, a seminary professor for twenty-five years, the most decisive document of them all has come to light. "At last," Milavec notes, "the day to day operations of the earliest Christian communities can be explored and understood as they existed outside the letters of Paul and prior to the time of the writing of the four Gospels."
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: So, why did Milavec publish two books, both of which bear the main title, The Didache? By way of answering this question, the author tells how, in 1994, his hairdresser spend a full fifteen minutes telling him all the fascinating things she had learned about the Gnostic Gospels after reading the book of Elaine Pagels. "From that day forward," Milavec explained, "I knew I had to write a short and snappy book accessible to hairdressers and brick layers." Thus Liturgical Press produced what the author affectionately regards as "the mouse."
Paulist Press, during the same period, produced "the elephant"-a thousand-page tome designed to satisfy the demanding criteria of scholars. After his inaugural lecture at the Atlanta Marriott Hotel, Milavec relates how a brassy scholar cornered him in the hall and asked, "How does a quiet guy like you get off with publishing a thousand pages of commentary on a document that could neatly fit on eight pages?" Milavec responded in his usual warm tones saying, "My poor mouse was defenseless. She needed a heavy weight companion to keep from being stepped on."
Milavec believes that he has a personal responsibility to let the whole world know about the experiences of those folks who lived the Way of Life described in the Didache. "If before I die," he said, "I don't find editions of the New Testament printed with the Didache in an appendix, I will have failed." All things considered, one would have to admit that this proud father of two new books has much to be grateful for and, at the same time, much to keep him busy for the next twenty years.
