Greco-Christian stream·Patrologia (Church Fathers)·Remains of the Second and Third Centuries (various dates) — Apocrypha (Patristic-era)
Remains of the 2nd-3rd centuries (miscellaneous fragments)
Editorial gathering of fragmentary 2nd-3rd century Christian writings — quotations preserved in later authors, papyrus fragments, scattered short pieces — that did not fit the main author-collections.
Source context
- Theme
- Patristic-era apocryphal remains of the second and third centuries as witnesses to early Christian doctrinal formation
Steiner
- GA 87, 1902-04-19Steiner notes that the teachings attributed to ecclesiastical writers condemned as false teachers by the Church Fathers can no longer be reliably reconstructed, pointing to the fragmentary and contested character of second- and third-century Christian literary remains.
- GA 87, 1902-02-15Steiner draws on his study of the Church Fathers and Gnostics to indicate that the boundary between orthodox and heterodox was fluid in this early period, a judgment directly relevant to apocryphal remains from the same era.
- GA 87, 1902-04-05Steiner identifies writings from this period as reflecting the views of early Greek Church Fathers who presented their teachings as a development of the old mystery tradition.
- GA 91, 1904-08-19Steiner observes that earlier Church Fathers such as Origen and Clement of Alexandria regarded their written output as far less important than the living oral transmission, a context essential for understanding the fragmentary written remains of that period.
- GA 204, 1921-06-03Steiner states that the first Christian Church Fathers referred to doctrines about the Father God working through the blood-element, doctrines that were later thoroughly eradicated by their critics — indicating deliberate suppression of earlier textual witness.
Cross-tradition
- Jewish Pseudepigrapha and ApocryphaCross-tradition congruence exists between Patristic-era Christian apocrypha and the Jewish pseudepigraphical literature of the same centuries, both circulating in overlapping communities and sharing formal strategies of ascribing texts to authoritative figures to secure transmission.
- Gnostic textual tradition (Nag Hammadi)Many second- and third-century apocryphal remains overlap structurally with Gnostic literature in their cosmological and pneumatological preoccupations, representing a cross-tradition congruence within the same historical moment rather than borrowing from a separate stream.
Remains of the Second and Third Centuries (various dates)
Apocrypha (Patristic-era)
[Chapter 1 (¶1)] Quadratus, Bishop of Athens.
[Chapter 1 (¶2)] [a.d. 126.] Quadratus is spoken of by Eusebius as a man of understanding and of Apostolic faith. And he celebrates Aristides as a man of similar character. These were the earliest apologists; both addressed their writings to Hadrian, and they were extant and valued in the churches in the time of Eusebius.
[Chapter 1 (¶3)] From the Apology for the Christian Religion.
[Chapter 1 (¶4)] Our Saviour's works, moreover, were always present: for they were real, consisting of those who had been healed of their diseases, those who had been raised from the dead; who were not only seen while they were being healed and raised up, but were afterwards constantly present. Nor did they remain only during the sojourn of the Saviour on earth, but also a considerable time after His departure; and, indeed, some of them have survived even down to our own times.
[Chapter 1 (¶5)] Source. Translated by B.P. Pratten. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 8. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0850.htm.