A Greek Reader’s Apostolic Fathers

by Alan S. Bandy

The writings from the postapostolic period of the early church (ca. 70-150 CE), known as the Apostolic Fathers, comprise the earliest extant Christian writings outside of the New Testament. The Apostolic Fathers furnish us with an invaluable repository of insights related to the issues, theology, and exegetical practices during this period in church history. Due to the frequent allusions to and quotations of the Gospels and Epistles, the Apostolic Fathers are also an important witness to the text of the New Testament. While several Greek-English diglot editions exist offering excellent English translations, this is the first annotated version of the Greek text that provides a contextual English gloss for all vocabulary occurring less than thirty times in the Greek New Testament. A Greek Reader's Apostolic Fathers will help one develop the necessary skills for an advanced familiarity and fluency in the Greek texts of early Christianity. This reader is designed primarily as a textbook for an advanced Greek readings course, but is intended for general reading or scholarly research as well. "This edition of the Apostolic Fathers provides what is needed to read these valuable texts in their original introductions to familiarize, glosses for infrequent words, and concise grammatical notes. Bandy's work fills a long-standing void, helping to expand reading ability outside of the corpus of the New Testament and into the world of the second century." --Rick Brannan, Faithlife (makers of Logos Bible Software), Team Manager, Content Innovation "Readers of the Greek New Testament have long enjoyed the benefits of Greek readers, which provide rare vocabulary at the bottom of each page of Greek text. Now we may enjoy the same benefits while reading the Apostolic Fathers. This is a real gift! Not only will I recommend this Apostolic Fathers Greek reader to students and colleagues, but I look forward to using it regularly myself. Highly recommended." --Constantine R. Campbell, Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Alan S. Bandy is the Rowena R. Strickland Associate Professor of New Testament and Greek at Oklahoma Baptist University. He is the author of The Prophetic Lawsuit in the Book of Revelation (2010) and he co-authored Understanding A Biblical-Theological Approach with Benjamin L. Merkle (2015). He has also published a variety of articles and essays.

Genres: Theology, Ancient History

Kindle Edition

Published October 22, 2018

Reviews

[David S Harvey]

Fantastic book for the intermediate reader who wants something more immersive than a Loeb but finds the post-NT texts a little tough. You’re not alone.

A brief intro to each text also helpfully ranks the reader level of Greek for each piece.

Lots of fun.

[Bfleegs]

A helpful first reader for venturing outside the corpus of Biblical Greek. This being the first edition, there were some parsing and footnote errors, but nothing insurmountable. I found this a good first introduction to the Apostolic Fathers, though I paired it with Holmes' volume for more historical and textual notes. Regarding the Greek, it was good to cut my teeth on something less familiar.

[Tim Hazelbaker]

Only read about 2/3rds. The rest is beyond my Greek. But I was very blessed by reading the Apostolic Fathers and read many priceless quotes.