The Didache (Greek for "Teaching") is a brief church order document — instructions for baptism, the Eucharist, fasting, prayer, hospitality to traveling teachers, and church organization. Lost for 1,400 years, it was rediscovered by Philotheos Bryennios in 1873 in a Constantinople library, in an 11th-century manuscript copying it from much earlier sources. Most scholars date its composition to the late 1st century AD.
Why this matters
The earliest surviving extra-biblical Christian document. Shows what church practice looked like in the apostolic generation — including a liturgical Eucharist, threefold-immersion baptism, and an explicit "Two Ways" moral catechism — confirming that practices later dismissed as medieval inventions were apostolic.
Scripture references
Matthew 28:19Acts 2:421 Corinthians 11:23-26
Location
Codex Hierosolymitanus, Jerusalem