The Apostolic Fathers: An Essential Guide.

The Apostolic Fathers: An Essential. Guide. By Clayton N. Jefford. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2005. Pp. 133. Paper, $15.00.

In 1672, a scholar named Jean B. Cotelier published a collection of early Christian texts of the "holy fathers who were active in apostolic times." Though the collection has been variously added to and subtracted from over the centuries, it forms what today are known as the Apostolic Fathers. Most of these writings have always been known to scholars (though the Didache was only rediscovered in 1873) but are little known to the general reader today, in spite of a number of good translations and editions. This book is part of a series that aims to provide user-friendly introductions to various types of religious literature. To attempt to write with one voice about this collection is quite a challenge because its variety defies such attempts.

Chapter One gives short standard introductions to each of the works in the collection. Chapter Two, People and Places, sets the historical and social background of the personalities in their respective contexts. Chapter Three, Connections to Scripture, discusses the authors' use of Scripture in their writings. Thus the three most welcoming of motifs and traditions from the First Testament are the Didache and 1-2 Clement. Ignatius and Polycarp in their letters do the most extensive job of reinterpreting their hero Paul. Certain literary genres are common to both the New Testament and some of the Apostolic Fathers, most obviously the epistle, but also such genres as apocalypse and paraenetic moral teaching. Jefford examines the specific biblical texts reflected in the Apostolic Fathers and concludes that the most-used are the Psalms, prophets, Paul's letters, and the Gospel of Matthew.

Chapter Four is a helpful examination of theological ideas in the writings, especially in the areas of God/Trinity (surprisingly, Christology is not considered separately, and coverage of it is vague and oversimplified), ecclesiology, eschatology, orthodoxy/unity, and finally, soteriology. Combining orthodoxy and unity is somewhat problematic, as writers like Ignatius and Polycarp have theological criteria for unity, while others like Clement and Hermas do not.

Chapter Five on Structures of the Ancient Church overlaps somewhat with the ecclesiology discussion of the previous chapter, and moves into discussion of ethics, which is not directly to the point of the chapter title. The final chapter, Roots of the Patristic Tradition, is a good introduction to how the ideas put forth in these early writings continued to inform and be developed in later years.

This is a good thematic introduction to the Apostolic Fathers for university or seminary level or for the general reader. It is not a "how to read" guide; the purpose of the series is otherwise. There are a number of small yet troubling errors, omissions, and oversimplifications, however, of which the reader should be aware. For example, the blanket statement (p. 17) that early Christian editors "often combined writings from the same author ... to save space" footnotes 1-2 Corinthians and Philippians as examples that "possibly" do this; in fact, this is modern redactional theory with no ancient evidence of the practice. Hermas is said (p. 22) to have been the slave "of the Roman noblewoman Rhoda," but a first-century Roman woman with a Greek name is highly unlikely to have been more than a freedwoman herself. No archaeological remains of a Christian church at Philippi date to the second century (p. 36). Ignatius' views can hardly be described as "extremely liberal" just because he advocated severance from Judaism (p. 43). When discussing the contribution of 1 Clement to later theological development, no mention is made of the way in which the later understanding of apostolic succession was based so heavily on an interpretation of 1 Clem. 44. The word episkopos is translated throughout as "bishop" with never an explanation that in some of these early texts, the word means nothing like what "bishop" means today. "The book of Acts mentions the ordination of deacons" (reference to Acts 6:1-6, p. 92) when in fact the seven chosen in the story are never called by that title. "(I)n the Pastoral Epistles ... we find the ranks of bishops, deacons, and presbyters addressed together" (p. 92), yet only a single episkopos with multiple deacons are addressed together in 1 Tim 3:1-13; the mention of presbyters or elders in 5:17 could refer to all of the above and does not indicate the triple office that is first found in Ignatius. Finally, the statement that Diognetus contains little that is new (p. 120) is rather startling in view of its introduction of the analogy: as the soul is to the body, so Christians are to the woad (Diog. 6), a transformative image of the church.

In spite of a few such infelicitous statements, Jefford has done a solid service to the cause of making the Apostolic Fathers better known and appreciated. A bibliography of further reading would have enhanced the usefulness of the volume.

Carolyn Oslek

Brite Divinity School,

Texas Christian University 

Fort Worth, TX