A member of the Dominican Order guides readers carefully and intelligently through the major figures and debates of this key age in the emergence and spread of Christianity.

The Apostolic Fathers is an important collection of writings revered by early Christians but not included in the final canon of the New Testament. Here a leading expert on these texts offers an authoritative contemporary translation, in the tradition of the magisterial Lightfoot version but thoroughly up-to-date. The third edition features numerous changes, including carefully revised translations and a new, more user-friendly design. The introduction, notes, and bibliographies have been freshly revised as well.

Now with a new foreword by Mark Galli. A collection of the earliest known writings of the church, The Apostolic Fathers includes a sermon and six brief documents: the First and Second Epistles of Clement, the Didache, the Epistles of Ignatius, the Epistle of Polycarp, the Epistle about Polycarp's Martyrdom, and the Shepherd of Hermas. "There are two ways, one of life and one of death," begins the Didache, "and between the two ways there is a great difference." Followers of the way of life today will find much encouragement of those who first embarked on the path two millennia ago. The John Lightfoot (1602-1675) translation was the source used for this edition of Apostolic Fathers.

Who were the Apostolic Fathers? What did they care about? Why did they write what they wrote? The Apostolic Fathers: A Narrative Introduction is the most engaging introduction to Apostolic Fathers you will ever read. Imagine what it would be like to ask Polycarp about the documents that were composed during his lifetime. You don't have to imagine any longer. Situated during the final week of Polycarp's life, these fictional dialogues will introduce you to the earliest Christian documents after the time of the apostles. You will come to know Clement, Ignatius, Hermas, Papias, and others. Freshly translated excerpts from the writings themselves are included after each chapter.

The apostolic fathers were authors of nonbiblical church writings of the first and early second centuries. These works are important because their authors, Clement I, Hermas, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, and the author of the Epistle of Barnabas, were contemporaries of the biblical writers. Expressing pastoral concern, their writings are similar in style to the New Testament. Some of their writings, in fact, were venerated as Scripture before the official canon was decided. The Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament provides a comparison of the apostolic fathers and the New Testament that is at once comprehensive and accessible. What genres (letters, miracle stories, etc.) appear in what ways? What apostolic fathers seem to reflect which passages in the New Testament? What themes appear in both bodies of literature? How did the apostolic fathers adopt and adapt images from the New Testament? How do the New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers contribute to our understanding of how early Christians understood themselves in relation to the mother faith of Judaism? Any attempt to compare the Apostolic Fathers and the New Testament faces the difficulty that each set of writings represents diverse authors and historical contexts within the early church. As a result, scholars who work in the field have typically restricted their research to individual authors and writings. Thus, it has been difficult to come to any general observations about the larger corpus. After carefully examining images, themes, and concepts found in the New Testament and the apostolic fathers, Jefford posits some general observations and insights about the beliefs of the early church.

A contemporary version of important early Christian texts that are not included in the New Testament. The translation, Greek texts, introduction, notes, and bibliographies are freshly revised.