The Apostolic Fathers in English Page 4

Mullen, Roderic L. The Expansion of Christianity: A Gazetteer of Its First Three Centuries. Leiden: Brill, 2004.

  Schnabel, Eckhard J. Early Christian Mission. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2004.

  Stark, Rodney. The Rise of Christianity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.

  Wagner, Walter H. After the Apostles: Christianity in the Second Century. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994.

  Walsh, Michael. The Triumph of the Meek: Why Early Christianity Succeeded. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986.

  Wedderburn, Alexander J. M. A History of the First Christians. London: T&T Clark, 2004.

  Early Christian Art and Archaeology

  Finney, Paul Corby. The Invisible God: The Earliest Christians on Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

  ———, ed. Art, Archaeology, and Architecture of Early Christianity. New York: Garland, 1993.

  Frend, W. H. C. The Archaeology of Early Christianity: A History. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996.

  Jensen, Robin Margaret. Face to Face: Portraits of the Divine in Early Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005.

  ———. Understanding Early Christian Art. London: Routledge, 2000.

  Mathews, Thomas F. The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art. Rev. ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999.

  Snyder, Graydon F. Ante Pacem: Archaeological Evidence of Church Life before Constantine. Rev. ed. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2003.

  Early Christian Doctrine and Practice

  Daniélou, J. A History of Early Christian Doctrine before the Council of Nicaea. Translated by J. A. Baker and D. Smith. 3 vols. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964, 1973, 1977.

  González, J. L. A History of Christian Thought. Vol. 1, From the Beginnings to the Council of Chalcedon. Nashville: Abingdon, 1970.

  Hall, Stuart G. Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992.

  Kelly, J. N. D. Early Christian Creeds. 3rd ed. London: Longman, 1972.

  ———. Early Christian Doctrines. 5th ed. London: A. & C. Black, 1977.

  McKinion, Steven A. Life and Practice in the Early Church: A Documentary Reader. New York: New York University Press, 2001.

  Olson, Roger E. The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1999.

  Pelikan, Jaroslav, and Valerie Hotchkiss, eds. Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.

  General Works

  Barnard, L. W. Studies in the Apostolic Fathers and Their Background. New York: Schocken, 1966.

  Bauer, W. Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity. Edited by R. A. Kraft and G. Krodel. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971.

  Benko, Stephen. Pagan Rome and the Early Christians. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.

  Boyarin, Daniel. Border Lines: The Partition of Judaeo-Christianity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

  ———. Dying for God: Martyrdom and the Making of Christianity and Judaism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.

  Brown, R. E. The Churches the Apostles Left Behind. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1984.

  Brown, R. E., and J. P. Meier. Antioch and Rome. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1983.

  Campenhausen, H. von. Ecclesiastical Authority and Spiritual Power in the Church of the First Three Centuries. Translated by J. A. Baker. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1969. Repr. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1997.

  ———. The Formation of the Christian Bible. Translated by J. A. Baker. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972. Repr. Mifflintown, PA: Sigler, 1997.

  Dunn, James D. G., ed. Jews and Christians: The Parting of the Ways, A.D. 70 to 135: The Second Durham-Tübingen Research Symposium on Earliest Christianity and Judaism, September, 1989. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1992. Repr. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.

  Ferguson, Everett. Backgrounds of Early Christianity. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.

  Fox, Robin Lane. Pagans and Christians. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.

  Frend, W. H. C. Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church: A Study of a Conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967.

  Gamble, Harry Y. Books and Readers in the Early Church. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.

  Grant, R. M. The Apostolic Fathers: A New Translation and Commentary. Vol. 1, An Introduction. New York: Nelson, 1964.

  ———. Early Christianity and Society. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.

  ———. Second-Century Christianity: A Collection of Fragments. 2nd ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003.

  Gregory, Andrew, and Christopher Tuckett, eds. The New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers. Vol. 1, The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers. Vol. 2, Trajectories through the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

  Harding, Mark, ed. Early Christian Life and Thought in Social Context: A Reader. New York: T&T Clark International, 2003.

  Hargis, Jeffrey W. Against the Christians: The Rise of Early Anti-Christian Polemic. New York: Peter Lang, 1999.

  Jefford, Clayton N. The Apostolic Fathers: An Essential Guide. Nashville: Abingdon, 2005.

  ———. Reading the Apostolic Fathers: An Introduction. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996.

  Kelly, Joseph F. The World of the Early Christians. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1997.

  Koester, Helmut. “The Apostolic Fathers and the Struggle for Christian Identity.” Expository Times 117, no. 4 (2006): 133–39.

  ———. Introduction to the New Testament. Vol. 1, History, Culture, and Religion of the Hellenistic Age. 2nd ed. New York: W. de Gruyter, 1995. Vol. 2, History and Literature of Early Christianity. 2nd ed. New York: W. de Gruyter, 2000.

  Lieu, Judith M. Image and Reality: The Jews in the World of the Christians in the Second Century. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1996.

  MacDonald, Lee M. The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon. Rev. ed. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995.

  MacDonald, Margaret Y. Early Christian Women and Pagan Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

  MacMullen, R. Christianizing the Roman Empire. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984.

  Markschies, Christoph. Between Two Worlds: Structures of Earliest Christianity. London: SCM, 1999.

  Massaux, E. The Influence of the Gospel of Saint Matthew on Christian Literature before Saint Irenaeus. Book 1, The First Ecclesiastical Writers. Book 2, The Later Christian Writings. New Gospel Studies 5. Translated by N. J. Belval and S. Hecht. Edited by A. J. Bellinzoni. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1990.

  Nock, A. D. Conversion: The Old and New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo. London: Oxford University Press, 1933.

  Norris, F. W. “Ignatius, Polycarp and 1 Clement: Walter Bauer Reconsidered.” Vigiliae Christianae 30 (1976): 23–44.

  Perkins, P. The Gnostic Dialogue: The Early Church and the Crisis of Gnosticism. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1980.

  Roberts, C. H. Manuscript, Society, and Belief in Early Christian Egypt. London: Oxford University Press, 1979.

  Stanton, Graham N., and Guy G. Stroumsa, eds. Tolerance and Intolerance in Early Judaism and Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

  Tugwell, Simon. The Apostolic Fathers. Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse, 1990.

  Turner, H. E. W. The Pattern of Christian Truth: A Study in the Relations between Orthodoxy and Heresy in the Early Church. London: Mowbray, 1954.

  Wilken, Robert L. The Christians as the Romans Saw Them. 2nd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.

  Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

  Di Berardino, Angelo, ed. Encyclopedia of the Early Church. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

  Ferguson, Everett F., et al., eds. Encyclopedia of Early Christianity. 2nd ed. 2 vols. New York: Garland, 1997.

  Freedman, David Noel, ed. Anchor Bible Dictionary
. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

  Martin, Ralph P., and Peter H. Davids, eds. Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1997.

  Bibliographic Guides

  Collins, J. J., et al., eds. New Testament Abstracts. Vols. 1–. Cambridge, MA: Weston School of Theology, 1956–.

  Geerard, M., ed. Clavis Patrum Graecorum. Vol. 1, Patres Antenicaeni. Turnhout: Brepols, 1983.

  Halton, T. P., and R. D. Sider. “A Decade of Patristic Scholarship, 1970–1979.” Classical World 76 (Nov.–Dec., 1982): 65–93.

  Nober, P., and R. North, eds. Elenchus Bibliographicus Biblicus. Vols. 49–. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1968–.

  Robinson, Thomas A. The Early Church: An Annotated Bibliography of Literature in English. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1993.

  Schneemelcher, W., et al., eds. Bibliographia Patristica: Internationale patristische Bibliographie. Vols. 1–. Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1959–.

  Schoedel, William R. “The Apostolic Fathers.” In The New Testament and Its Modern Interpreters, edited by E. J. Epp and G. W. MacRae, 457–98. Atlanta: Scholars, 1989.

  First Clement

  Introduction

  The letter from the Christians in Rome to their fellow believers in Corinth known as 1 Clement is one of the earliest extant Christian documents outside the New Testament. Written in Rome around the time when John was composing the book of Revelation on the island of Patmos, it reveals something of both the circumstances and the attitudes of the Roman Christians, circumstances and attitudes that differ dramatically from those of their Christian sisters and brothers in Asia Minor to whom Revelation was addressed. Whereas in Revelation Rome is presented as the great harlot whose attacks upon the church must be resisted (to the point of death, if necessary), in 1 Clement one finds a much more positive view of the Roman government (as in the prayer in 60.4–61), and the elements of peace, harmony, and order that are so important to the author (or authors) of this letter reflect some of the fundamental values of Roman society. Thus it provides important evidence of the diverse and creative ways in which Christians sought to come to terms with the Greco-Roman culture and society within which the church was so rapidly expanding.

  Occasion

  The same kind of factiousness that Paul had earlier encountered in Corinth apparently flared up once again in that congregation near the end of the first century. It appears that some of the younger men in the congregation had provoked a revolt (this is the Roman point of view; the younger Corinthians no doubt defended their action in more positive terms) and succeeded in deposing the established leadership of the church (3.3; 44.6; 47.6). When news of this turn of events reached Rome (47.7), leaders of the Roman congregation were sufficiently distressed by this breach of proper conduct and order and the consequent damage to the reputation of the Corinthian congregation (1.1; cf. 39.1) that they wrote this long letter and even dispatched mediators (63.3; 65.1) in an effort to restore peace and order to the Corinthian congregation. Due to restrictions imposed by the genre (see below, under “Literary and Rhetorical Aspects”), details regarding the exact cause or motivation are not clear. For this reason, all suggestions about the “real point” of the dispute—for example, that it was a struggle between “spirit and order,” or between orthodoxy and heresy, or was about financial issues, or involved a conflict between house churches—must remain hypotheses.

  Authorship

  The unity of style suggests that the letter is the work of a single author. While the letter, which was sent on behalf of the whole church (see the subscription), does not name its writer, well-attested ancient tradition[1] and most manuscripts identify it as the work of Clement—whose precise identity, however, is not clear. Tradition identifies him as the third bishop of Rome after Peter, but this is unlikely because the office of monarchical bishop, in the sense intended by this later tradition, does not appear to have existed in Rome at this time. Leadership seems to have been entrusted to a group of presbyters or bishops (the two appear to be synonymous in 1 Clement; see 44.1–6), among whom Clement almost certainly was a (if not the) leading figure. It is possible that The Shepherd of Hermas (Herm. 8.3 = Vis. 2.4.3) speaks of this same person, in which case Clement would have served as the corresponding secretary for the Roman church. Lightfoot hypothesizes that Clement was a freedman of the household of the emperor’s cousin, the consul Titus Flavius Clemens, who according to one ancient historian was executed on the charge of atheism—a frequent accusation against Christians.[2] There is, however, no more basis for this hypothesis than there is for Origen’s attempt to identify him with the Clement mentioned in Philippians 4:3.[3] In each case, the proposed connection rests on nothing more than the similarity of the name.

  Date

  Clues in the letter itself suggest that the document probably was penned sometime during the last two decades of the first century. (1) In chapters 5 and 6 the Neronian persecution (AD 64–68), which according to tradition included Peter and Paul among its victims, is an event of the past. (2) In 63.3, there is a reference to those “who from youth to old age have lived blameless lives among us.” (3) Statements in 44.3–5 indicate that some of the leaders appointed by the apostles are still living. Taken together, the first two points would seem to require a date subsequent to the late 60s or early 70s,[4] while the third point would rule out any date much beyond the turn of the century.[5] What little external evidence exists (chiefly references in Hegesippus and Irenaeus, and its possible use by Polycarp) is consistent with these internal indicators.

  There is, however, a long-standing tradition of dating the document a bit more narrowly, to ca. AD 95–97. At the time of writing, the church in Rome appears to be facing some sort of persecution; in fact, the letter to Corinth has been delayed because of it (1.1; cf. 7.1). This apparent mention of “persecution” is often interpreted as a reference to an episode attributed to the last years of Domitian (AD 81–96) or the beginning of Nerva’s reign (AD 96–98). Welborn, however, has correctly pointed out the conventional and stereotypical character of the language in those two passages, which suggests (but does not require) that the terms may not refer to a specific event or set of circumstances at all.[6] In short, the traditional date is possible; if the reference in 1.1 is not to a specific event, then the document could have been written anytime during the last two decades or so of the first century.

  Literary and Rhetorical Aspects

  In 58.2 the readers are asked to “accept our advice” (Greek symboulē), indicating that the document was intended as a “symbouleutic” (or “deliberative”) letter, a category widely discussed by ancient rhetoricians and to which 1 Clement closely conforms. The “appeal for peace and concord” (63.2) indicates the theme of the letter, one very much in keeping with contemporary examples, which often sought to resolve stasis, “revolt” or “dissension,” (1.1, 63.1; the term is used a total of nine times in the letter) by an appeal to homonoia, “concord” (used fourteen times). Since the purpose of such a work was to persuade or advise about a future course of action, narrative was intentionally kept to a minimum (this accounts for the scarcity of details about the specific problems in Corinth). As in secular examples, the writer assigns blame (jealousy is a key problem, 3.4–6.4), warns about the consequences of wrong behavior (e.g., 46.7–9), and extols the benefits of the recommended course of action (e.g., 48.1–4).

  To support his arguments and appeals the author makes extensive use of scripture (in the form of the Septuagint), particularly Genesis and Psalms, as well as some pseudepigraphical or unidentified sources (8.3; 17.6; 23.3–4; 46.2; 29.3?). He also draws upon traditions about and words of Jesus (but not, apparently, in the form preserved in the Synoptic Gospels). It is virtually certain that he used 1 Corinthians, and very likely Romans and Hebrews as well (beyond these, however, no firm conclusions may be drawn regarding the other writings that came to be included in the New Testament).[7]

  Furthermore, in addition to using Jewi
sh and early Christian writings and traditions as sources of authority, the author of 1 Clement also makes extensive use of secular examples, some of which are the standard stuff of secular rhetoric. The portrait of cosmic harmony (20.1–12) is largely of Stoic origins, and his use of the metaphor of the body (37.5) is shaped by Stoic cosmology; the familiar legend of the phoenix (25.1–5) is presented as a source of divine revelation (26.1); and in 37.1–3 the Roman army (a favorite topic of the Stoics) offers, no less than Old Testament heroes or an earlier generation of believers, a model of proper Christian behavior.

  Reception of the Letter

  Although it is not known how the Corinthians reacted to this letter,[8] later Christian writers held it in high regard. It was quoted frequently, and Clement of Alexandria cites it as scripture. It was even made part of some copies of the New Testament. In the important biblical manuscript known as Codex Alexandrinus (copied in the fifth century) 1 Clement (together with 2 Clement) stands immediately after Revelation, and in a Syrian manuscript of the New Testament dating from the twelfth century the two letters are found right after the Catholic Epistles (which is how 1 Clement is explicitly described) and before the Pauline Epistles.[9] The late-fourth-century Syrian work known as The Apostolic Canons lists both 1 and 2 Clement as part of the New Testament,[10] and at about the same time in Alexandria, Didymus the Blind appears to have counted 1 Clement as part of his canon.[11]

  Text

  Despite the popularity of this document in antiquity, relatively few manuscripts of the letter have survived. Indeed, the complete Greek text of 1 Clement has survived in only a single manuscript, Codex Hierosolymitanus (AD 1056), the famous codex discovered by Bryennios in 1873 that also includes 2 Clement, The Didache, Barnabas, and the long form of the Ignatian letters. The primary sources for the text are: Codex Alexandrinus (fifth century; lacks 57.7—63.4); Codex Hierosolymitanus (AD 1056); the Latin translation of the letter (probably made in the second or third century; now preserved in a single eleventh-century manuscript); the Syriac translation (preserved in a New Testament manuscript dated AD 1169–1170); the Coptic translation (incompletely preserved in two manuscripts from the fourth and seventh centuries). In addition, Clement of Alexandria and Jerome occasionally preserve quotations from 1 Clement.