Apostolic Fathers

The term Apostolic Fathers refers both to a group of early Christian writers (the first among the Church Fathers) and to a particular collection of their writings. These writings comprise the first known Christian writings after the composition of the New Testament, and some were even considered for inclusion in the canon (i.e., the epistles of St. Clement of Rome).

The most common lists—across both Orthodox and heretical sources—of these writings usually include most or all of the following:

• The Epistle to Diognetus
• The First Epistle of Clement
• The Second Epistle of Clement
• The Didache
• The Epistle of Barnabas
• Seven short Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch (the longer forms of these Epistles, and those beyond the seven, are widely considered later emendations and forgeries)
• The Epistle of Polycarp
• The Martyrdom of Polycarp
• The Shepherd of Hermas

Orthodox sources notably also include the Dionysian Corpus. Entirely Orthodox and authentic, the writings of St. Dionysius provide early attestation of true doctrines (e.g. the Essence-Energy distinction). Because of this, Western heretics have sought various arguments to discredit it and attribute it to an unnamed, later author.

Published works

The following are published collections of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, listed by the faith of the editor(s):

Orthodox

• Sparks, Fr. Jack N. The Apostolic Fathers. (ISBN 0840756615)

Catholic

• Jefford, Clayton N.; Harder, Kenneth J.; Amezaga Jr., Louis D. Reading the Apostolic Fathers: An Introduction. (ISBN 1565631544)

Protestant

• Lightfoot, J.B. The Apostolic Fathers. (ISBN 0943575273)
• Lightfoot, J.B.; Harmer, J. R., ed. The Apostolic Fathers. (ISBN 0766164985)
• Lightfoot, J.B. (translator); Harmer, J. R. (translator); Holmes, Michael W., ed. The Apostolic Fathers. (ISBN 0801021995, ISBN 9780801021992)
• Richardson, Cyril C. Early Christian Fathers. (ISBN 0684829517)

References

• The initial version of this article was derived from material in the corresponding article on Orthodox Wiki.