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Didache

About this book

Fasting and Prayer

Chapter 8

1 Don't fast like the hypocrites, who fast on Mondays and Thursdays.⁠ Instead, you should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays.⁠ 2 Also, don't pray like the hypocrites. Instead, pray as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, saying: 'Our Father in Heaven, may your name be honored; may your kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for yours is the power and the glory forever.'⁠ 3 Pray in this way three times a day.

Texts in conversation

Compare Didache 8:1 and Mishnah Taanit 2:9

Early Christian · Rabbinic

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Summary

In the Didache, an early church manual, Christians are taught to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, not on Mondays and Thursdays. This was likely to intentionally separate from Jewish practice, which Mishnah Taanit says was on Mondays and Thursdays.

Passages

Didache 8:1

Early Christian
1 Don't fast like the hypocrites, who fast on Mondays and Thursdays. Instead, you should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. 2 Also, don't pray like the hypocrites. Instead, pray as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, saying: 'Our Father in Heaven, may your name be honored; may your kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for yours is the power and the glory forever.' 3 Pray in this way three times a day.
90–120 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Didache

Mishnah Taanit 2:9

Rabbinic · Mishnah
The mishna continues: One may not decree a fast on the community starting on a Thursday, so as not to cause an increase in prices. If the first of a series of fasts is on a Thursday, then on Friday everyone will come to purchase their food for after the fast and for Shabbat, which will allow the storeowners to take advantage of the crowds and raise their prices. Rather, the first set of three fasts is on a Monday, Thursday, and the following Monday, and the second set of three is on a Thursday, Monday, and the following Thursday. Rabbi Yosei says: Just as the first three fasts do not begin on Thursday, so too, neither the second set nor the last set starts on a Thursday. Instead, all the series of fasts begin on a Monday.
190–230 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Mishnah Taanit

References

“... The [...] in Did 8:1 probably is a general reference to (pious) Jews. During a period of national calamity, especially in times of drought affecting the agrarian society, the religious leaders requested a public fast. There may have been one or more regular fasts in addition to Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement in the first century CE, but in time of need, such as the shortage of rain in the autumn, special fast-days were added. Mondays and Thursdays were market days, and because the villagers used to gather in town on these days, they offered a good opportunity for Scripture reading and tribunal sessions. Fasts were connected with the public assemblies and this custom was almost certainly in existence before 70 CE. [...] Besides public fasts that were obligatory for all, there were also individual private days of fasting. In Luke 18:12, a Pharisee fasts twice a week, but it is not clear whether the days referred to are Monday and Thursday. From evidence in other sources, however, one may draw the conclusion that, also for private fasts, Mondays and Thursdays were the favoured days. ...”
Huub van de Sandt and David Flusser, The Didache: Its Jewish Sources and Its Place in Early Judaism and Christianity, Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum, Section 3: Jewish Traditions in Early Christian Literature 5 (Assen: Royal Van Gorcum, 2002), 292–293.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Didache 8:1 and Mishnah Taanit 2:9

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