Customer Reviews

The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations

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Kudos to Holmes and Baker House for giving us a hard cover of texts New Testament Greek learners need! Nothing else in koine Greek, besides maybe the LXX, is as helpful to NT Greek students because the vocabulary and the syntax of most the Apostolic Fathers is extremely similar to the NT. This means if you know the NT vocab, you can read large blocks of this text without having to look up words. Of course, having the English on facing sides is essential since we want to be able to check our translation and not have to refer to other books. Hermes and Didache in this book are probably EASIER than say the Gospel of John, so this book is helpful even to beginners, while other texts like Ignatius and 2 Clement provide some challenges for advanced students.
And the format of this book is near perfect. I panned the second edition simply because my paperback fell apart and was hard to hold open. This edition lays flat and feels great in your hand. It uses thin paper so the book is small and portable and yet the font size is still fairly large. The only thing I don't like about the third edition is that the font is a little smaller than the second edition, whose font was perfect, and this font is a little different, not quite as pleasing on the eye Also, the second edition had pure white paper whereas this edition is somewhat yellow. Still, you can't have everything. The font on this text is probably bigger and nice than say the Loeb Classical Library, and here you get all the texts in one volume which is only a little bit bigger than Loeb. This is a must have for NT Greekers!

I'll let other people comment on the texts themselves -- suffice it to say that these are worthy versions of the basic patristic library. Everyone should have some version of these texts lying around somewhere. My comments are specific to this book as a book.

Holmes' third edition (0-8010-3468-X) is a fantastic update to the Greek patristic texts, especially from the standpoint of readability. It appears -- though there doesn't seem to be a printer's note -- to be entirely set in SIL Gentium for the Greek, Latin and English texts. This is a very clean, readable serif print font, and gives a unified feel across the languages. By comparison to my well-worn 6th ed Patrum Apostolicorum Opera, entirely italic and tightly spaced, the Greek text of Holmes' edition is roman, perhaps a point larger, and its line spacing feels slightly larger than proportional. Each section of the documents is set off by significant whitespace, which is likely due to the parallel translation alignment, but also serves to add comment room for students with less-than-classical handwriting training. All in all, very easy on the eyes!

The only complaint I have with this volume is its binding, and that's a matter of personal taste. The pages are nice, well-bound, with a good bookmark (heavier than some). While its size makes it a great match for the portability of any of my other "pocket" scriptures (NA27, UBS4, BHS, LXX), this volume is a hardback. The boards are comparable to those on the new GBS Rahlfs-Hanhart LXX, but what is a comfortable necessity for a volume of that size feels excessive on one less than half its page count. Sturdy is a good word for it, and it certainly holds up better under my commute and book bag than the paper covers of the PAO, but it's just not quite as "at home" in the hand as the soft leather covers. But you can't have everything, and for the benefits of this edition, that's a small issue -- I think others may even find it to be a feature.

Michael Holmes has made available a very clean and lucid translation of the Apostolic Fathers. I am thankful for his contribution to patristic reading. The textual apparatus is particularly useful. The typical Greek on one page and English on the other is a basic feature, but an important one nonetheless. A group of graduate students and I regularly get together to do Greek readings with the Apostolic Fathers and we have found Holmes book to be of great benefit for this process. We also use the Loeb Classical Library edition once translated by Lightfoot, but revised by Ehrman. The translation that Holmes has is a good one, however, there are some instances where it would "make sense" to go with the reckoning that Ehrman has taken with the text. It should be known that I am a Biblical scholar and not strictly a patristic scholar. Holmes edition has a beautiful cover and the organization is very clear with distinct headings and spacing. I do recommend that anyone who is serious about reading Greek patristics use Ehrman along with Holmes to compare the translations. Any serious student of the Greek might see the translation as a bit of a hindrance in that they would be attempting to produce their own translation when it is provided. Regardless, it is a pleasant addition to my library and I highly recommend it to others' libraries as well.

As others have mentioned, this latest print of the Apostolic Fathers is accessible, readable, and great as a tool for keeping up your koine. All of the standard works are included (1&2 Clement, the Shepherd, Barnabas, Martyrdom of Polycarp, the Didache, etc).

Reading the Fathers in the koine offers the reader extraordinary opportunities not only to gain an appreciation of the language, but also of the literary and vocabulary diversity of the various authors. The Greek print in this book is very clear and easy to follow. It's an outstanding reference work for patristic research, and is an affordable starting point in building a quality patristics library.

Holmes does a good job of addressing current patristic scholarship, though one wishes his engagement with it was more substantive than alternating between 'intriguing' and dismissively 'speculative'. In particular, Hill's recent work on Polycarp is commendably referred to by Holmes, but not as substantively as one might have hoped.

However, such wishes do not really detract from what this book gives us. This book keeps the focus on the actual patristic writings, rather than getting into the kind of scholarly back and forth that can take the focus off the writings themselves. The corpus given to us here is great stuff, and waters the mouth of the reader to delve further into the patristic history and engage the kind of scholarly works that Holmes cites. Highly recommended.

Not to repeat at length the mostly laudatory comments, I will tell briefly my impressions:

1) It's a very well-produced volume (Baker at its finest),
more user friendly than the TWO little volumes in
Loeb's (not to mention the fact that many readers will
feel ill-at-ease with Ehrman's interpretations).
The Greek typeface is not my favorite (who minds?!) but
is a very clear and perfectly printed upright type.
India paper is sometimes tricky to handle, but of
course you already know that.

2) English translation is good, fluent and readable.
As far as I can tell, the paratexts (apparatuses,
introductions, bibliographies and indexes are also
well got.

3) The "canon" (so to speak) of books included is the
most common "wide" one, and we find -among others-
SEVEN letters of Ignatius, the two writings by/on
Polycarp, the Didache, the lovely Epistle to Diognetus,
The Shepherd of Hermas, and even the fragment of
Quadratus (remember him?) and the fragments of Papias.
You name it!

A wonderful and most useful edition of these all-too-important but not so well known texts concerning the beginnings of Christianity, antedating all of them any
attempted closing of New Testament canon (which, of course was not closed nor even debated at the Nicaea
Council of A.D.325, as many will have it; but it was
SUBSTANTIALLY closed by A.D.160 -give or take fifteen years- and was NEVER officially closed in the
centuries of the undivided Church, but accepted slowly as the
de facto standard by all and every Christians, united or
-disgracefully- separated).

Have a nice reading (or studying)!

I will decline to comment on the text itself which is an invaluable resource for the Christian student. This specific volume is remarkable for its completeness and quality. A must buy for those interested in theology and students of koine Greek.

This book is simply beautifully presented, in both dimensions and layout. The content is laid so as to read in a straight forward manner.
A little more back ground to each piece would really have lifted an already good text to even greater heights.Attractive price.
Strongly recommend this to anyone in this field.

I purchased this book some time ago. All I can say is that it is great resource for the study of early Christian History. It is very well organized, the fonts on both the greek and english are clear and easy to read. The introductions are informative and precise in dealing with the history and textual sources of each work. I like the way the textual reconstruction looks, how it changes from the greek to latin, so it's a good opportunity to practice your latin also.

The physical appearance of the book is really neat, its portable size makes it really easy to be carried around when one is traveling by bus or airplane, and being a hard cover, it helps to protect the pages from damage.

Although I had one problem, the green paint and the Gold-colored letters on the covers have faded away. Now the cover has a dark-gray color, but no big deal I actually like it. Another little problem is that my copy did not come with the advertised ribbon marker :-(

In conclusion, this is the most convenient edition of the Apostolic Church Fathers. The textual quality, the informative introductions, its portable size, and last but certainly not least, its price(under $30) make this edition the best one available.

Reading the Apostolic Fathers is important for anyone who wants to better understand the history of the Christian church and its growth and development. Must have in your library.

I have been very happy with this collection of texts. Holmes has done an excellent job with the concise introductions , and eloquent translations of the greek, (etc.) works. The indices in the back are also very helpful for research. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants an english translation of the great patristic texts. I would also recommend it to Greek students who are looking for a little more exercise and learned Greek readers who would like a more wieldy collection of patristics. The book is compact, the font is very legible, the binding is solid and I couldn't be happier with my purchase.