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For more on the parallels between the Didache and the Jewish Birkat ha-Mazon, see Enrico Mazza, The Celebration of the Eucharist: The Origin of the Rite and the Development of Its Interpretation (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999), esp. pp. 19–26 (where he discusses these parallels) and pp. 307–309 (where he provides translations of the texts).
For an excellent summary of Judaism in Jesus’ time—one which makes judicious use of rabbinic evidence—see E.P. Sanders, Judaism: Practice and Belief 63 B.C.E.–66 C.E. (London: SCM Press, 1992). For more on the use of rabbinic sources, see Sanders’s Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1977), esp. pp. 59–84.
However, the phrase might instead be a variant of te ‘uphot and thus refer to demons that fly by night. It would thus be a counterpart to the demons that fly by day in Psalm 91:5–6 and recalls the Arslan Tash relief that exhorts, “To the female demon that flies in the dark chamber, say, ‘Pass by, time and again, Lilith.’” See Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p. 658.
