Friday is for Ad Fontes

My favourite letter among the Apostolic Fathers, the Epistel to Diognetus, note these two verses:

"In a word, what the soul is to be the body, Christians are to the world." (6.1).

"If this faith is what you too long for, then first of all you must acquire full knowledge of the Father. God God loved humanity, for whose sake he made the world, to whom he subjected everything on earth, to whom he gave reason, to whom he gave mind; them alone he permitted to look up to heaven, them he created in his own image, to them he sent his one and only Son, to them he promised the kingdom in heaven, which he will give to those who have loved him." (10.1-2).

Michael Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and Engish Translations (3rd ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007).

The Great Exchange

I'm reading through Michael Holmes' excellent translation of the Apostolic Fathers (3rd edition, Baker, 2007 - do buy this book) and read this amazing quote from the Diognetus:

"He did not hate us, or reject us, or bear a grduge against us; instead he was paitent and forbearing; in his mercy he took upon himself our sins; he himself gave up his own Son as a ransom for us, the holy one for the lawless, the guitless for the guilty, the unjust for the just, the incorruptible for the corruptible, the immortal for the mortal. For what else but his righteousness could have covered our sins? In whom was it possible for us, the lawless and ungodly, to be justified except in the Son of God alone? O the sweet exchange, O the incomprehensible work of God, O the unexpected blessings, that the sinfulness of many should be hidden in one righteous person, while the righteousness of one should justify many sinners? (Ep. Diogn. 9.2-5).

If I didn't know better I would have sworn that I was reading either Calvin, Luther, Owen, or Piper.

New Book on the Apostolic Fathers

Paul Foster has just edited a collection of essays from ExpTim entitled The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers selling at $29.95 from continuum.

Description
The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers refer to a group of miscellaneous Christian writings produced in the first and second centuries. The authors of these writings were considered by seventeenth century scholars to be the next generation of Apostles and as a result were named The Apostolic Fathers. Perceived by many scholars to be the most important collection of post-New Testament writings, a number of these texts were in fact considered for the Canon of the New Testament but later rejected. Their obvious significance stems from the fact that they are the first Christian writings produced outside the New Testament Canon and as such contain an essential insight into the development of the early Christian Church and Christian thinking. Much Christian Doctrine came, not from the New Testament, but from the writings produced by the early church and in particular the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. Therefore, these texts are crucial to an understanding of the shaping of Christian thought and Christian doctrine. This volume will provide readers with an overview of each of the eleven texts, together with a general introduction. Communicating the best recent scholarship to a broad audience, each chapter offers a treatment of the most controversial aspects of each text and discusses the theology of each of the writings in order to orient readers to the development of Christian thinking in the second century. Each article ends with a carefully chosen select bibliography to enable further reading

TOC
Apostolic Fathers and the Struggle for Christian Identity (Helmut Koester)
The Didache (Jonathon Draper)
1 Clement (Andrew Gregory)
2 Clement (Paul Parvis)
Fragments of Papias (Charles Hill)
The Apology of Quadratus (Paul Foster)
The Shepherd of Hermas (Joseph Verheyden)
The Epistle of Barnabas (James Carleton Paget)
The Epistles of Ignatius (Paul Foster)
The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians (Michael Holmes)
The Martyrdom of Polycarp (Sara Parvis)
The Epistle to Diognetus (Paul Foster)

HT: April Deconick