List of New Testament Church Fathers

The following list of New Testament Church Fathers provides an overview of an important part of the secondary source evidence for the text of the New Testament (NT). The NT was quoted by early Christian authors, like Ignatius of Antioch, called the Church Fathers, and also in anonymous works like the Didache. Some anonymous works have traditionally been misattributed to better-known authors, and are now known by the name of that author, but with the prefix "pseudo" (meaning "false" in Greek), for example Pseudo-Dionysius. The other most substantial component of secondary sources for the text of the NT is its early translations into other languages, like Latin. Translations of the NT are known as "versions".

History

Johann Jakob Griesbach stressed the importance of patristic data for New Testament citicism and laid the foundation for their usage. [J.J. Griesbach, "Curae in historiam textus Graeci epistolarum Paulinarum", Fickelscherr, Jena 1777, pp. 25-28.]
* Patristic quotations should be cited individually.
* Patristic writings should be read in their entirety, using good editions.
* Quotations should be derived only from genuine works.
* Quotations should be included only from authentic Greek works.
* Quotations should be distinguished from allusions.
* Everything should be included as recited biblical text.
* Alterations to the biblical text should be noted.
* Differences between Patristic various quotations should be observed.
* All additions, omisions or alterations must be noted.

Gordon Fee suggests that the presentation of a Patristic quotation must be complete, including all known citations and adaptations, but not all allusions. [Gordon D. Fee, "Text of John in Origen and Cyril of Alexandria: A Contribution to Methodology in the Recovery and Analysis of Patristic Citations", Bib 52 (1971), 362.]

Fathers

* Criterion for inclusion: quoted or alluded to text of NT in writing, in copies of own work, or cited so by others. [Currently sourced on UBS4.]
* Name: historically most common form in English.
* Location: anglicised name of the city with which they are associated, sometimes a monastery, other times a province if location is imprecise. Name at time of writing, hence Byzantium and Constantinople, but never Istanbul. Some Fathers moved around, noted as: (Latin) or (Greek).
* Date of Death (DOD): standard point of reference, differing levels of precision, different scholastic opinions. Where a Father is only known to within a century, the midpoint is given first, to allow sorting on the column, the century follows in roman numerals within parentheses.
* Language: Greek, Latin or Syriac. Typically Western Europe, Italy and North Africa were home to Latin Fathers; Greece, Asia Minor, Palestine and Egypt were home to Greek Fathers. Some Fathers worked with both Greek and Latin.

See also

* List of Church Fathers
* List of early Christian texts of disputed authorship
* List of early Christian writers
* List of New Testament papyri
* List of New Testament uncials
* List of New Testament minuscules
* List of New Testament lectionaries

Notes and references

Bibliography

* Altaner, Berthold.
* Quasten, Johannes.

Further readings

* Black M., Aland K., "Die alten Übersetzungen des Neuen Testaments, die Kirchenväterzitate und Lektionare: der gegenwärtige Stand ihrer Erforschung und ihre Bedeutung für die griechische Textgeschichte", Wissenschaftliche Beirat des Instituts für neutestamentliche Textforschung, Berlin 1972.
* Norman Geisler, William Nix, "A General Introduction to the Bible", Chicago: Moody Press, 1969.
* Osburn C.D., "Methodology in identifying patristic citations in NT Textual Criticism", Novum Testamentum XLVII, 4, pp. 313-343.

External links

* [http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/2006-March/038051.html Citation of Church Fathers in UBS] — archived thread from B-Greek (Biblical Greek public email list).