The Apostolic Fathers were a small collection of Christian authors who lived and wrote in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries who are acknowledged as leaders in the early church, but whose writings were not included in the collection of Chirstian scripture, the New Testament Biblical canon. The Roman Catholic label Apostolic Fathers has been used since the 17th century (see below) to emphasize that these authors were thought of as being of the generation that had personal contact with the Apostles. Thus they provide a link between the Apostles who knew Jesus of Nazareth and the later generation of Christian apologists and defenders of orthodox authority and developers of doctrine: the Church Fathers. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life, teachings, death by crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. ... The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Scriptures, is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ... A Biblical canon is an exclusive list of books written during the formative period of the Jewish or Christian faiths; the leaders of these communities believed these books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people (although there may... Alternate meaning: See Apostle (Mormonism) The Christian Apostles were Jewish men chosen from among the disciples, who were sent forth (as indicated by the Greek word απόστολος apostolos= messenger), by Jesus to preach the Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles, across the world. ... This article is about the figure known by both Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus Christ. For other usages, see Jesus (disambiguation). ... The Church Fathers or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. ...

The "Apostolic Fathers" are distinguished from other Christian authors of this same period in that their practices and theology that largely fell within those developing traditions of Pauline Christianity that became the mainstream. By the 4th century, mainstream Christianity, dominated by the interpretation of Paul of Tarsus, was in a position to declare signifigantly different interpretations as heretical. Other early, but not "apostolic" writings have been actively denounced and suppressed in the following centuries and are many are now "lost" works. The writings of the Apostolic Fathers are in a number of genres, some, e.g. the writings of Clement of Rome are letters (called epistles), others relate historical events, e.g. the Martyrdom of Polycarp, and one (the Didache) is a guide for ethical and liturgical practice. In the history of Christianity ( for detailed discussion), Pauline Christianity is a term employed by non-Christian scholars to specifically identify the eventually dominant form taken by official Christianity, the Gentile church as it was organized by Paul and amended by the tradition of Johannine theology in the 2nd century... Paul of Tarsus (originally Saul of Tarsus) or Saint Paul the Apostle (d. ... Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the ‘catholic’ or orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ... ... The word epistle is from the Greek word epistolos which means a written letter addressed to a recipient or recipients, perhaps part of exchanged correspondence. ... Intro The Didache (διδαχή in Greek) or Doctrine or Teachings of the Twelve Apostles is a short treatise, considered by some of the Church Fathers as part of the New Testament but rejected as spurious by others. ...

Not all Christians employ the term "Apostolic Fathers". The authority resonant in the phrase suggests that these writers provide the authentic historical connections to the apostolic generation. For those Christians for whom Church tradition is of comparable weight with Scripture, this is a valuable tool in manipulating discourse, and thus a possible motivation for its use. Christians who believe that a Great Apostasy took place early in the church's history are particularly unlikely to employ this term. In Protestant theology the term is also less used and the writings are less frequently studied. The Great Apostasy is a term of opprobrium used by some religious groups to allege a general fallen state of traditional Christianity, or especially of Catholicism, reformist Protestantism and (often merely by implication) Eastern Orthodoxy: that it is not representative of the faith founded by Jesus and promulgated through his... Protestantism is a general grouping of denominations within Christianity. ...

Only some writings by these church leaders are extant, meaning that copies survive today. Other writings did not survive and exist only as references, in quotations and excerpts, or as literal fragments of parchment or papyrus. These other writings, judged by the early and contemporary church to be of lesser value, are sometimes in different styles and contain different themes than the canonical scriptures and the writings of the apostolic fathers. Themes of of early Christianity absent from the official Apostolic fathers include those of continuing revelation, of "secret" writings, of arcane initiations, and of the public role of women. This article outlines the history of Christianity and provides links to relevant topics. ...

The writings from early Christianity during the time of the Roman Empire that are not considered "Apostolic Fathers" include the writings of the desposyni, the apocryphal gospels, the pseudoepigrapha, and the writings of unorthodox leaders, or heretics. The writings of the desposyni, the surviving members of the family of Jesus of Nazareth, including James the Just, have almost completely disappeared. The apocryphal gospels and pseudoepigrapha are, for the most part, later writings that seem to have less historical accuracy than the cannonical scriptures. For the part of the heretics, much of what is known about them comes from the Church Fathers' arguments against them. Roman Empire between AD 60 and 400 with major cities. ... The Desposyni (from Greek, belonging to the Master) was a sacred name reserved only for Jesus blood relatives including his mother Mary, his father Joseph (according to Ebionite belief and practice only), his unnamed sisters, and his brothers James the Just, Joses, Simon and Jude. ... In the process of determining the Biblical canon, a large number of works were excluded from the New Testament. ... Heresy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is a theological or religious opinion or doctrine maintained in opposition, or held to be contrary, to the ‘catholic’ or orthodox doctrine of the Christian Church, or, by extension, to that of any church, creed, or religious system, considered as orthodox. ... Saint James the Just also called James Adelphos (יעקב Holder of the heel; supplanter; Standard Hebrew Yaʿaqov, Tiberian Hebrew Yaʿăqōḇ) (died AD 62) was the first bishop or patriarch of Jerusalem, to give him the title assigned to him by Pauline Christianity. ... The Church Fathers or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. ...

Within the Pauline tradition that eventually triumphed, but after the time of the Apostolic Fathers proper, some authors addressed their works to people beyond the Christian community and defended the Christian religion against paganism, including Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian. These are considered Apologists. A small number of other authors, now only known in fragments, such as Papias and Hegesippus, were more concerned with the apostolic continuity of the individual churches and their histories. Although some of the minor opinions expounded by the Apostolic Fathers are no longer considered entirely orthodox, their writings provide important evidence for one strain of early Christianity, as well as its intellectual history. Within a European Christian context, paganism is a catch-all term which has come to connote a broad set of not necessarily compatible religious beliefs and practices (see Cult (religion)) of a natural religion (as opposed to a revealed religion of a text), which are usually, but not necessarily, characterized... Saint Justin Martyr (Justin the Martyr) (c. ... St. ... Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullian (b. ... Apologetics is the field of study concerned with the systematic defense of a position. ... Papias (working in the 1st half of the 2nd century) was one of the early leaders of the Christian church, canonized as a saint. ... Hegesippus (ca 110 A.D. - ca 180), was a Christian chronicler of the early Christian church and writer countering heresies. ...

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the use of the term "Apostolic Fathers" can be traced to a 1672 title of Jean Baptiste Cotelier, his SS. Patrum qui temporibus apostolicis floruerunt opera ("Works of the holy fathers who flourished in the apostolic times"), which title was abbreviated to Bibliotheca Patrum Apostolicorum by L. J. Ittig in his edition (Leipzig, 1699) of the same writings. Since then the term has been universally used, especially by Roman Catholic writers. (Other traditions make little distinction between these Apostolic Fathers and Church Fathers in general.)

The list of Fathers included under this title has varied. Inclusion is strictly based on church tradition, but literary criticism removed some writings formerly considered as 2nd-century, while of all the modern rediscovered writings, only the Didache, discovered in the 1880s, has added one orthodox writing to the list. Intro The Didache (διδαχή in Greek) or Doctrine or Teachings of the Twelve Apostles is a short treatise, considered by some of the Church Fathers as part of the New Testament but rejected as spurious by others. ...

Chief in importance, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, are three 1st-century Bishops: St Clement of Rome, St Ignatius of Antioch, and St Polycarp of Smyrna, of whose intimate personal relations with the Apostles there is the strongest Church tradition. Clement, third successor to St. Peter as Bishop of Rome, "had seen the blessed Apostles [Peter and Paul] and had been conversant with them" (Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, III, iii, 3). Ignatius was the second successor of St. Peter in the See of Antioch (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., III, 36) and during his life in that centre of Christian activity may have met with others of the Apostolic band. An accepted tradition, substantiated by the similarity of Ignatius's thought with the ideas of the Johannine writings, declares him a disciple of St. John. Polycarp was "instructed by Apostles" (Irenaeus, op. cit., III, iii, 4) and had been a disciple of St. John (Eusebius, op. cit., III, 36; V, 20) whose contemporary he was for nearly twenty years. Papias would certainly have been one of this group, if his work had not been inexplicably lost. ... Ignatius of Antioch (probably died somewhere around AD 107) was the third patriarch of Antioch, after Saint Peter and Euodius, who died around AD 68. ... Polycarp of Smyrna (69?-155?, 80?-166?, 81?-167?, 79?-165?, or 70?-156?) was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now in Asiatic Turkey) in the second century. ... According to tradition, Peter was crucified upside-down, as shown in this painting by Caravaggio. ... Categories: Saints | Ancient Roman Christianity | Christianity-related stubs ... Papias (working in the 1st half of the 2nd century) was one of the early leaders of the Christian church, canonized as a saint. ...

The works of the Apostolic Fathers include:

• The Epistle to Diognetus (this one is hard to date and might also be of a later date)
• The First Epistle of Clement
• The Second Epistle of Clement (not actually written by Clement, but still a very early writing)
• The Didache
• The Epistle of Barnabas
• Seven short Epistles of Ignatius (the longer forms of these Epistles, and those beyond the seven, are widely considered later emendations and forgeries)
• The Epistle of Polycarp
• The Epistle about Polycarp's Martyrdom
• The Shepherd of Hermas
• The fragments from the writings of Papias, which have survived as quotations by later writers
• One short fragment from a writing by Quadratus of Athens

Most or all of these works were originally written in Greek. English translations of these works can be found online in the Ante-Nicene Fathers series on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library website (http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/). Published English translations have also been done by various translators, such as J.B. Lightfoot and Michael Holmes. The Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus is probably the earliest example of Christian apologetics, writings defending Christianity from its accusers. ... The Epistles of Clement often referred to as 1 Clement and 2 Clement were not accepted in the canonic New Testament. ... The Epistles of Clement often referred to as 1 Clement and 2 Clement were not accepted in the canonic New Testament. ... Intro The Didache (διδαχή in Greek) or Doctrine or Teachings of the Twelve Apostles is a short treatise, considered by some of the Church Fathers as part of the New Testament but rejected as spurious by others. ... The Epistle of Barnabas is an epistle with twenty-one chapters, contained complete in the Codex Sinaiticus where it appears at the end of the New Testament. ... Ignatius of Antioch (probably died somewhere around AD 107) was the third patriarch of Antioch, after Saint Peter and Euodius, who died around AD 68. ... Polycarp of Smyrna (69?-155?, 80?-166?, 81?-167?, 79?-165?, or 70?-156?) was a Christian bishop of Smyrna (now in Asiatic Turkey) in the second century. ... The Shepherd of Hermas is a Christian work of the first or second century which had great authority in ancient times and was considered by some as one of the books of the Bible. ... Papias (working in the 1st half of the 2nd century) was one of the early leaders of the Christian church, canonized as a saint. ... Quadratus of Athens was a Christian apologist who presented his defense of Christianity to Hadrian (ruled 117 - 138 CE) while the emperor was in Athens being initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries. ... The Ante-Nicene Fathers, subtitled The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, is a selected set of books containing English translations of the major early Christian writings. ...

External link

• Catholic Encyclopedia: (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01637a.htm) Apostolic Fathers