A. Historical Review

The noun “catechesis” (ϰατήχησις) does not occur in the NT; only the verbal form (ϰατηχεΐν) is to be found there, though not in the technical sense it was later to acquire, being taken rather by the NT authors in the current sense of “recount” or “give viva voce instruction”. (This is a transferred sense, derived from the physical which was to “echo” or “resound”.) It is so used in Acts 21:21-24: “they [the Jews] have been told [concerning Paul]”.

In other contexts the wo…