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Apostolic Fathers in Greek and English (Holmes Edition) DOWNLOADABLE

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Apostolic Fathers in Greek and English (Holmes Edition)  DOWNLOADABLE

These resources are available as part of the The Apostolic Fathers in Greek and English (3 Editions, with Morphology).


The Apostolic Fathers, the earliest extant Christian writings outside the New Testament, are a primary resource for the study of early Christianity. These writings provide significant and unparalleled insight into the Christian movement during a critical transitional stage in its history. This updated edition of Holmes's 1992 Greek-English diglot edition of The Apostolic Fathers is arguably the best collection of these writings available.

These early Christian writings shed light not only on theological developments, but on issues of canonicity, lexicography, and ecclesiology. They are cited extensively both in lexicons (e.g., BDAG and TDNT) and commentaries (e.g., NAC and WBC). BDAG, for example, contains nearly 2,500 references to the letters of Ignatius alone! Read more about the value of the Apostolic Fathers for biblical studies.

Apostolic Fathers and Early Church Fathers

How are the "Apostolic Fathers" different from the "Early Church Fathers"? In brief, the writings known as the Apostolic Fathers include only the texts thought to have been written by people who knew the Apostles or were one degree separated from them. English translations (Edinburgh Edition) of the Apostolic Fathers texts have been available for Libronix DLS as part of the Early Church Fathers collection, but the original Greek texts have not yet been published electronically for the system.

The Encyclopedia of Christianity Open Libronix DLS to this article! explains the origins of the term thus, "The phrase 'Apostolic Fathers' goes back to a 1672 Paris edition prepared by J.-B. Cotelier entitled Ss. Patrum qui temporibus apostolicis floruerunt … opera. This work contained Barnabas, 1 and 2 Clement, the epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp, Martyrdom of Polycarp, and Hermas. Although the historicity is debatable, the phrase has secured a place in historical study. It now applies also to Didache, the Epistle to Diognetus, the Quadratus Fragment, and the fragments of Papias."

The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations

  • Edited and revised by Michael W. Holmes
  • Updated edition
  • Published 1999 by Baker, Grand Rapids

This edition includes an in-depth introduction and a bibliography for each text and an introduction to the collection as a whole. Holmes also includes an "apparatus" of sorts, with notes on textual matters such as variations between manuscripts. The introductions to each ancient document, the bibliographies, and the textual notes make this volume essential for the serious study of early Christianity.

In 1992, Michael Holmes systematically reviewed the Greek (and in a few instances the Latin) texts originally edited by J. B. Lightfoot and J. R. Harmer in 1891. While Lightfoot and Harmer produced a magnificent work for their time, advances in the past century, including new manuscript discoveries, dictate that their work be updated. Holmes provided that updated edition complete with a critical apparatus to substantiate his textual decisions. He also revised Lightfoot's English translation to conform to current style and usage. 

The 1999 edition also features updated introductions to the various writings, enhanced bibliographies with additional entries for the specialist, and in some cases additional textual witnesses.

Praise for the Print Editions


The text, translation, and notes which Holmes has provided manage to transform the work of a previous generation of scholarship into a useful resource for the modern study of the Apostolic Fathers. I gladly welcome this second edition and believe it represents a worthy and contemporary revision of the old Lightfoot-Harmer volume. This text undoubtedly should be recognized as a superior collection of materials when placed in comparison with the commonly used edition of the Apostolic Fathers that was published by Kirsopp Lake.  —Clayton N. Jefford, Journal of Early Christian Studies
Baker Book House and Michael Holmes are to be congratulated. This new edition is a worthy successor to Lightfoot with new introductions that bring the discussions up to date and enough revision of the translations to make it readable for a large audience.  —Gordon Fee
Michael Holmes has put a new generation of students in his debt. The value of The Apostolic Fathers is enhanced by new introductions, bibliographies, and notes. I welcome it warmly.  —James D. G. Dunn

Benefits of the Logos Bible Software Edition

The Logos edition contains one resource for the Greek (with morphology) and one resource for the English that you can link together to scroll syncronously. The margin notes and footnotes are in their respective language editions and the introductions are attached to the English version.

The Greek resource is displayed in an interlinear format: one line for the manuscript (the main text line), one line for the lexical/dictionary form of the word (the "lemma"), and one line for the morphology code(s). This feature uses the interlinear functionality of Libronix DLS, so you can arrange the order of these lines and display or hide each line individually. Please note that English glosses will not be included in the interlinear display; as noted above, the English is a separate resource.

You can perform simple word or phrase searches on the Greek or English text, complex proximity searches, and all other advanced searches that Libronix DLS makes possible. You can also perform morphological searches on the Greek text, looking for particular forms, grammatical constructions, or combinations of terms and morph codes.

If you own the Biblical Languages Addin, the morphological visual filter can be used to highlight words in the Greek text based on morphology. This is very helpful for identifying recurrent patterns or discourse features of the text.

As with all morph-coded texts in Libronix, you can hover the mouse over a word in the Greek text for an instant parsing tip. The texts are also lemmatized for KeyLinking so you can right-click on a word to look it up in whatever lexicon you may own. 

Bible jumps (which are supplied in footnotes, since the original authors did not use citations) will preview the cited passage when you hover the mouse or open your preferred Bible directly to the passage when you click. References to the ancient writings from the introductions will be hyperlinks that jump you directly to the cited material.

As the leading digital publisher of biblical resources, Logos Bible Software is the best choice for building a digital library that is comprehensive yet affordable, powerful yet easy to use. Whether you are a new Christian, seasoned pastor, or advanced scholar, Logos has thousands of high quality digital resources perfectly suited to meet your needs. All of our products can be used by themselves, but are greatly enhanced when added to one of our base packages. The Libronix Digital Library System dramatically enhances the value of any resource by enabling you to find what you are looking for with lightning speed and incredible precision. Your investment is safe when you choose Libronix. Your books and licenses are backed up on our server and are easily restorable, and your resources are updateable to be compatible with future versions of Libronix.

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