Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.

The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 3 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
Question 3
Bercot says someone could have “faked” the Didache to make it look early, but asks “what would have been the point” since it “doesn’t contain anything that fits a later agenda.” What does that argument reveal about how he weighs historical evidence, and how willing are you to let internal textual clues correct your assumptions about early Christianity?
Another way to ask: Bercot says someone could have faked the Didache, but asks why they would since it doesn’t push a later agenda. What does that show about how he judges historical evidence, and are you willing to let clues inside a text change your assumptions about early Christianity?

Direct Answer Bercot weighs internal evidence heavily and treats motive/agenda as a key test for forgery: if a document doesn’t serve a later program, faking it would be pointless. He is urging readers to let concrete details inside the text—ministry structure, baptism practice, worship form—correct modern assumptions rather than assuming later church patterns existed from the start.

Support from Transcript:

  • He admits the possibility of deception: “someone could have faked all of these things… to make it look earlier.”
  • Then he presses motive: “but what would have been the point of doing that?” and says forgeries usually have “some agenda they were trying to push.”
  • He argues the Didache “doesn’t contain anything that fits a later agenda,” implying authenticity.
  • He notes typical forgeries are “very easy to catch” because they claim apostolic authorship while “internal evidence almost always points to a later date.”
  • His dating method is built on internal clues: prophets/teachers still active, only bishops/deacons, “living water,” brief communion prayers, and prophets presiding.
Discussion Follow-ups What “agenda” do we assume early documents should support (for example, our preferred church structure)? Are we more skeptical of internal evidence when it challenges our denominational story?