First Christian Voices: Practices of the Apostolic Fathers

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First Christian Voices

translation with the original Greek (and Latin in the case of parts of Polycarp’s letter To the Philippians ). Where there were obvious divergences in the three translations, I consulted the Greek and made interpretive decisions when necessary in light of the background of the text and what I perceived to be the intent of the author. The Roberts-Donaldson translation, which became a part of the Ante-Nicene Christian Library (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1867), was prepared by two well-qualified scholars and I do not presume to improve upon their work, but rather modernize it to some degree. Alexander Roberts (1826–1901) was a Scottish biblical scholar and pastor in the Free Church of Scotland. He later become Professor of Humanity at the University of St. Andrews. James Donaldson (1831–1915), also from Scotland, was an educator his entire life with his career culminating as Professor of Humanity at the University of Aberdeen. Both Roberts and Donaldson were Greek scholars having each written Greek grammars. Their translation utilizes an old mechanism for capitalizing the proper name and pronouns for God (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), which I have preserved. In passages where paragraphs ran long, I broke them up for ease of reading. Roberts-Donaldson did not divide their translation into chapters and verses, but only chapters. This is inconvenient when wanting to cite a particular passage so I recommend simply citing the chapter of the Apostolic Father and page number of this volume. More importantly than being a scholarly volume, I trust that you will read this work as a devotional and as a testimony of God’s faithfulness to those early Christians. Their writings continue to give me hope that God will remain faithful to us as well.