The Apostolic Fathers, Volume I: I Clement. II Clement. Ignatius. Polycarp. Didache

457 Pages·2003·4.1 MB·English

by  Bart D. Ehrman

THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY
FOUNDED BY JAMES LOEB 1911
EDITED BY
JEFFREY HENDERSON
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS
I
LCL 24

THE APOSTOLIC
FATHERS
I CLEMENT · II CLEMENT
IGNATIUS · POLYCARP
DIDACHE
EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY
BART D. EHRMAN
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
LONDON, ENGLAND
2003
Copyright © 2003 by the President and Fellows
of Harvard College
All rights reserved
LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY® is a registered trademark of
the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2002032744
CIP data available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 0-674-99607-0
CONTENTS
PREFACE vii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1
FIRST LETTER OF CLEMENT 17
SECOND LETTER OF CLEMENT 153
LETTERS OF IGNATIUS 201
LETTER OF POLYCARP 323
MARTYRDOM OF POLYCARP 355
DIDACHE 403

PREFACE
This new Greek-English edition of the Apostolic Fathers is
to replace the original Loeb volumes produced by Kirsopp
Lake. Lake was a superb scholar, and his two-volume Ap­
ostolic Fathers has been a vade mecum for scholars of
Christian antiquity for over ninety years. Much of impor­
tance has happened during this period, however: advances
in scholarship, manuscript discoveries, and changes in the
English language. For this edition I have chosen not to re­
vise Lake but to start afresh.
Because of the relatively sparse manuscript support for
the texts of the Apostolic Fathers, modern Greek editions
do not differ widely among themselves. For each of these
works I have used a base text, modifying it to a greater or
lesser extent, based on my evaluation of the textual evi­
dence. For all of the books except the Shepherd of Hermas
my base text has been Karl Bihlmeyer, Die apostolischen
Voter: Neubearbeitung der Funkschen Ausgabe, 3rd ed.,
ed. W. Schneemelcher (Tubingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1956);
for the Shepherd I used Molly Whittaker, Die apostoli­
schen Voter: vol. 1, Der Hirt des Hermas (GCS 48. 2nd ed.
Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1967). Both Bihlymeyer and
Whittaker are now readily available in Andreas Linde-
mann and Henning Paulsen, Die apostolischen Voter
(Tubingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1992).
vii
PREFACE
In keeping with the tenor of the Loeb series, I have re­
stricted the Greek apparatus to textual variants that have a
significant bearing on either the translation or our under­
standing of the transmission of the text. Because of the
special problems they pose, I have not, in most instances,
cited Patristic sources extensively. Thus, while the appara­
tus is more substantial than that found in the earlier Loeb
volumes, it is not as full as serious scholars of Christian an­
tiquity might like. More comprehensive apparatus may be
found in the editions mentioned above.
The Apostolic Fathers are an unusual corpus, repre­
senting not the works of a single author (as in most Loeb
volumes) but of eleven different authors, writing different
kinds of works to different audiences in different times
and places. In view of the nature of the material, the Gen­
eral Introduction will provide a basic overview of the cor­
pus and the history of its collection, to be followed in the
separate Introductions by fuller discussions of each of the
texts and authors.
I have tried to make the translation both readable and
closely tied to the Greek text. I have chosen not to remove
the strong patriarchal biases of the texts, which form part
of their historical interest and significance. And I have
tried to reflect the occasional awkwardness of the texts, in­
cluding, perhaps most noticeably, the striking anacolutha
in the letters of Ignatius, which were evidently written in
some haste.
Abbreviations for journals and biblical books are drawn
from The SBL Handbook of Style for Ancient Near East­
ern, Biblical, and Early Chnstian Studies, ed. Patrick H.
Alexander et al. (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1999).
viii
PREFACE
I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to Margaretta
Fulton, General Editor for the Humanities at Harvard
University Press, for her encouragement and savvy guid­
ance, and to Jeffrey Henderson, Professor of Classics and
Dean of Arts and Sciences at Boston University and Gen­
eral Editor for the Loeb Classical Library, for his extraor­
dinary willingness—eagerness even—to deal with issues,
answer questions, and provide help at every stage.
I am indebted to a number of scholars who have as­
sisted me in various aspects of the project. My colleagues
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, William
Race and Zlatko Plese, and my brother Radd K. Ehrman,
in the Department of Classics at Kent State University,
have generously provided advice on particularly thorny
passages. Several colleagues in the field of early Christian
studies have read parts of the translation and made useful
suggestions, especially Ellen Aitken, Mark House, Phillip
Long, Jeffrey MacDonald, Carolyn Osiek, Larry Swain,
and Francis Weismann. Four scholars have been espe­
cially generous in reading my Introductions and making
helpful comments: Andrew Jacobs of the University of
California at Riverside; Clayton Jefford of the Meinard
School of Theology; Carolyn Osiek of the Catholic Theo­
logical Union in Chicago; and, in a particular labor of love,
my wife, Sarah Beckwith, in the English Department at
Duke University. Finally, I am grateful to my graduate stu­
dents in the Department of Religious Studies at the Uni­
versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Stephanie Cobb
(now on the faculty at Hofstra University), Carl Cosaert,
and Pamela Mullins, for their assistance in my research.
Above all I am indebted to my student Diane Wudel, now
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