Didascalia Apostolorum
c. c. 230 – c. 400
Place: syria · coming soon
No coordinates. This node is on the timeline only.
The text survives complete in Syriac (Connolly's 1929 English translation is linked). The Qur'an link is a scholarly hypothesis.
A 3rd-century Syrian church order that keeps some biblical purity and food rules for Gentile believers while rejecting others as a later 'second legislation'. Zellentin argues the Qur'an's law on food, purity and women follows this kind of Jewish-Christian legal culture, which reached Arabia in revised forms.
Where scholars disagree
For
- Holger Zellentin — The Qur'an's Legal Culture (2013)
Against
No names on this side.
Links
Text and wording
Out
Qur'an, Sura 5 (al-Ma'ida): the Table and 'me and my mother as two gods'
Zellentin compares Qur'anic food laws (e.g., 5:3) with the Didascalia's rules.
text_parallel
scholarly hypothesis
Report and reading
Out
Did Jewish-Christian groups survive to shape the Qur'an?
Zellentin's legal-culture argument is a softer form of the survival hypothesis.
evidence_for
scholarly hypothesis
Sources
- Didascalia Apostolorum (Connolly 1929 trans.)
Early Christian Writings. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Holger M. Zellentin, The Qur'an's Legal Culture: The Didascalia Apostolorum as a Point of Departure (2013)
Mohr Siebeck. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Wikipedia: Didascalia Apostolorum
Wikipedia contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0). Accessed 2026-11-11.