Notes about this on line edition of "Early Church Fathers"

Ante-Nicene Fathers
The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325

Volume I.   The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus

Clement of Rome, Mathetes, Polycarp, Ignatius, Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Volume II.   Fathers of the Second Century

Hermas, Tatian, Theophilus, Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria

Volume III.   Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian

Three Parts: I. Apologetic; II. Anti-Marcion; III. Ethical

Volume IV.   The Fathers of the Third Century

Tertullian Part IV; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen

Volume V.   The Fathers of the Third Century

Hippolytus; Cyprian; Caius; Novatian; Appendix

Volume VI.   The Fathers of the Third Century

Gregory Thaumaturgus; Dinysius the Great; Julius Africanus; Anatolius and Minor Writers; Methodius; Arnobius

Volume VII.   Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, Homily, Liturgies

Volume VIII.   Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries

The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementia, Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac Documents, Remains of the First Ages

Volume X.   Recently Discovered Additions to Early Christian Literature; Commentaries of Origen

The Gospel of Peter, The Diatessaron of Tatian, The Apocalypse of Peter, The Visio Pauli, The Apocalypses of the Virgin and Sedrach, The Testament of Abraham, The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena, The Narrative of Zosimus, The Apology of Aristides, The Epistles of Clement (Complete Text), Origen's Commentary on John, Books I-X, Origen's Commentary on Mathew, Books I, II, and X-XIV

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
St. Augustine Volumes

Volume I.   Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

Volume II.   The City of God, Christian Doctrine

Volume III.   On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Volume IV.   The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Volume V.   Anti-Pelagian Writings

Volume VI.   Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Volume VII.   Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Volume VIII.   Expositions on the Psalms

St. Chrysostom Volumes

Volume IX.   On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes

Volume X.   Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew

Volume XI.   Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans

Volume XII.   Homilies on First and Second Corinthians

Volume XIII.   Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon

Volume XIV.   Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
Series II

Volume I.   Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine

Volume II.   Socrates: Church History from A.D. 305-438; Sozomenus: Church History from A.D. 323-425

Volume III.   Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

Volume IV.   Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Volume V.   Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters

Volume VI.   Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Volume VII.   Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Volume VIII.   Basil: Letters and Select Works

Volume IX.   Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Volume X.   Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Volume XI.   Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

Volume XII.   Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

Volume XIII.   Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat

Volume XIV.   The Seven Ecumenical Councils

The Early Church Fathers is a 38-volume collection of writings from the first 800 years of the Church. This collection is divided into three series, Ante-Nicene (ANF), Nicene and Post-Nicene Series I (NPNF1), and Nicene and Post-Nicene Series II (NPNF2). These files have the majority of the text printed in the actual books, but the indexes are not included. In fact, Volume IX of the Ante-Nicene Series, which consists entirely of index information, is not available.

This collection of early Christians who wrote are not inspired. They are not part of the Bible. They are absolutely not authoritative in determining doctrine. ONLY THE BIBLE, (sola scriptura) is authoritative and inspired. The Bible is our sole guide. However, these quotes do contain an interesting snapshot of the doctrine early Christians believed after the apostolic age. All quotes are sorted by date. But one final warning. Like the Muslim Hadith, there are forgeries within what Christians commonly call the, "Early Church Fathers". Some of the forgeries are obvious, but for others, we really cannot be sure what is forgery and what is genuine. We host the entire collection of Early Church Fathers Notice this quote:

"It is now the universal opinion of critics, that the first eight of these professedly Ignatian letters are spurious. They bear in themselves indubitable proofs of being the production of a later age than that in which Ignatius lived. Neither Eusebius nor Jerome makes the least reference to them; and they are now by common consent set aside as forgeries, which were at various dates, and to serve special purposes, put forth under the name of the celebrated Bishop of Antioch." (Introductory Note To The Epistle Of Ignatius To The Ephesians) But the small number of forgeries provide historical context, for although they falsely purport to be written at an earlier age, they do reflect thought of the real age when they were written several centuries later.

Having said all this, we hope you enjoy reading the materials here, for at the very least, they do represent real history.

1. The Original authors who wrote about their faith 2000 years ago.
2. The translators and editors of these ancient writings: Philip Schaff, Alexander Roberts, and James Donaldson, Henry Wace, Allan Menzies, J. Armitage Robinson, Andrew Rutherford, Hope W. Hogg, W.A. Craigie, John Keith, D.M. Kay, John Patrick,
3. The Electronic Bible Society (EBS), for converting the paper book into electronic text.
4. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, for the core of original HTML formatting.
5. The Interactive Bible and Steve Rudd, for this on-line edition with power search capabilities.

In these files you will see Greek and Hebrew text transliterated into the Roman alphabet. To see them Greek and Hebrew in their own alphabets, you should install two public-domain fonts: SPTiberian and SPIonic. (In Windows 9x, install with the fonts control panel.) You can download these fonts for Mac or Windows from this server.

Footnote Bug Apparently some of the footnote references are off by a couple in some of the volumes. That is, the actual footnote is a couple of references above the one linked.

WWW.Bible.ca