Texts in Conversation
The Didache and Sirach share a common tradition that uses the image of a yoke to describe the acceptance of instruction. In Sirach the yoke symbolizes wisdom, and in the Didache it represents teaching based on the authority of Jesus.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 51:26
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
24 Why therefore are you all lacking in these things, and your souls are very thirsty? 25 I opened my mouth and spoke, “Get her for yourselves without money.” 26 Put your neck under the yoke, and let your soul receive instruction. She is near to find. 27 See with your eyes how I labored just a little and found for myself much rest. 28 Get instruction with a great sum of silver, and gain much gold by her.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Didache 6:2
Early Christian
1 Be careful that no one leads you astray from this Way of teaching, for those who do so are teaching you without God. 2 If you can bear the whole yoke of the Lord, you will be perfect; but if you cannot, do what you can. 3 Regarding food, eat what you can tolerate, but always avoid food that has been offered to idols, as it represents the worship of lifeless gods.
Date: 90–120 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The use of ζυγόν ('yoke') twice in the famous 'Heilsanruf' in Matthew 11:29-30 has been much debated, but the parallel with Sirach 51:26 and with other Wisdom literature suggest that here too the point at issue is the Law and its interpretation. Reference to the Law as a yoke is well attested in Rabbinic Judaism, as in the saying of Nehunya b. Ha-Kanah: 'He that takes upon himself the yoke of the Law, from him shall be taken the yoke of the kingdom and the yoke of worldly care' (Pirkei Avot 3:5). The only reference to 'yoke' in the Qumran literature is to the yoke of the Kittim (1QpHab 6:6). While Ba. does not have a parallel to Didache 6:2, it is concerned with the problem of the applicability of the Jewish Law to Gentile Christian converts ... [it] sounds like a polemic against Didache 6:2 and rejects the 'yoke of necessity' in favor of the 'new law of our Lord Jesus Christ' ..."
Jonathan Alfred Draper, “A Commentary on the Didache in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Documents” (PhD diss., University of Cambridge, 1983), 135.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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