Apostolic Fathers

As Apostolic Fathers Christian writers referred to by significant ecclesiastical writings of the late first and the first half of the second century, who probably had personal relations with the Apostles or were strongly influenced by the apostles, so the second and third generation Church Fathers. Also as the Apostolic Fathers, a canon of traditional scriptures of the church fathers is called.

Pope Benedict XVI. referred to them as " second generation of the church after the apostles ."

Some apostolic fathers are also known from historical documents, from the other, there is no reliable biographical information. Overall, the sources for the time of the Apostolic Fathers is worse than for any other period of church history, many developments of that time can not be reconstructed in detail.

The Apostolic Fathers

Usually are today counted among the apostolic fathers

  • Clement of Rome
  • The unknown author of the so-called Second Clemens Briefs
  • Ignatius of Antioch
  • Polycarp of Smyrna
  • Papias of Hierapolis (only quotations from his writings are preserved)
  • Quadratus of Athens (just a short quotation is received )
  • Hermas, author of the Shepherd of Hermas
  • The unknown author of the Didache
  • The unknown author of Barnabas Briefs
  • The unknown author of the letter of the " mathetes " to Diognetus ( mathetes means " disciple" and is not a proper name )

Some of these writings ( Letter of Barnabas, the first Epistle of Clement, Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache ) were sometimes counted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries the New Testament canon, but definitely not included.

Regardless of their historical and present reputation give all these writings an important insight into the history of early Christianity.

Other major authors of the early church that are no longer counted among the apostolic fathers, when they belong to a later generation, but are referred to as the Church Fathers, are Irenaeus of Lyons, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Cyprian.

Canon of the Apostolic Fathers

The canon of the Apostolic Fathers includes:

Epistle of Barnabas Loeb Classical Library
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