Who's using whom?

The Didache and Matthew have quite a lot of material uniquely in common, which suggests a particularly close relationship between them. The Didache was discovered, however, at time when it was generally assumed that the Gospels must contain the most ancient record of the teaching of Jesus - so the idea that Matthew might have used the Didache wasn't contemplated until the publication of The Gospel of Matthew's Dependence on the Didache (JSNTSupp 254; London: T&T Clark International, 2004)

In a nutshell, this book argues three points - the first two of which are not at all controversial, while the third is definitely controversial.
  • The Didache is a composite text.
  • The Didache has many points of unique similarity with Matthew.
  • This situation is best explained if Matthew used the Didache after most its component parts had already been assembled. (This seems preferable to supposing that each of the (direct and indirect) contributors to the Didache each happened to use Matthew, or Matthew's sources, in a very similar way.)


'What I did not dare to do fifty years ago, Garrow accomplishes in this book, namely to ask the question: Why could Matthew not be dependent upon the Didache - in whatever form it existed at the time? This is a great and fruitful question.'
Helmut Koester
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Matthew knew most of the Didache
'This project is both provocatively original and meticulously argued. Garrow questions issues assumed to be long settled, and does so by means of exacting scholarship which demands to be taken seriously.'  
RT France


'Garrow's work deserves attention, not only because he has offered an innovative analysis of the composition of the Didache but also because he has argued his own thesis of Matthew's use of Didache with careful attention to detail ... fine analytic work.' John Kloppenborg

'The most thorough-going and persuasive defence of the independence of the Didache from the gospels to date.'
Jonathan Draper

'The enduring value of Garrow's study is that he has supplied Didache scholars with a pioneering and much-needed investigation. Garrow effectively calls into question all the present literature calculated to demonstrate the dependence of the Didache upon Matthew's Gospel.'
Aaron Milavec

'Garrow's thesis is of the greatest interest for those studying Christian origins. The effect of his argument is to reverse the flow of recent assumptions; instead of arguing that the Didache belongs in the tradition dependent upon Mathew's Gospel. Garrow would suggest that Matthew used the Didache.' 
John Court

'Alan Garrow's thesis is a bold and highly original one, coming at problems which other scholars have puzzled over from new angles. He writes vigorously and lucidly. If his main argument about the very early date of the Didache is correct, then it is massively important and could change the face of New Testament studies.' 
David Wenham