Over the years I have incurred numerous debts for help in understanding and appreciating the Didache, not just among my academic colleagues, but, more significantly, among students with whom I have read this text.
I would like to single out two students for special mention, Valerie Warren and Joy Powell, because they were the first to force me to search out how looking at the earliest churches could be a valuable part of the theological enterprise today. Over the years I can also recall very many conversations with colleagues on either the text as a whole or specific aspects of it. I hope they have as pleasant a recollection of the meal or the meeting in the pub when they suggested something, now incorporated here, as I have. I would also like to single out a few of my colleagues whose conversation over many years has helped me to clarify my views, especially Professors Robert Jewett, Seán Freyne, Justin Taylor and D. P. Davies, and Drs Kieran O’Mahony and the late Michael Maher, requiescat in pace Domini. I would also like to express my gratitude to Drs Frances Knight and Francisca Rumsey for acting as sounding boards for the book as it stands, and particularly to the latter for proofreading the text and saving me from more than one blunder! The positions taken, and the remaining imperfections, are, however, my own.
Working with SPCK has been a most pleasant experience: its staff were enthusiastic from the start, and have been the very model of generosity in their patience for the completed text. As ever, I have built up debts among many librarians, but Kathy Miles and Neil Smyth have been unfailing in their ready help.