The mid to late 19th century saw the release of the much celebrated Ante-Nicene Fathers series, which, by its conclusion, comprised nine densely packed volumes as well as a volume of indices, bibliography, etc. In retrospect it has its pros and cons, the former of which have merited its withstanding the test of time, and the latter of which have made necessary various other series of primary patristic source material. I’ll briefly review these points before moving on to what the more recent series have to offer.
Pros: The ANF translations are fairly literal and reliable. These translations are readily available to all both in print under various different publishers over the years and online with full transcripts on multiple separate websites (viz., Christian Classics Ethereal Library, Early Christian Writings, and New Advent). No other series to date has even come close to being as comprehensive as the ANF; indeed, even all of the combined volumes of the series catalogued below still do not include a considerable amount of what we find here.
Cons: The ANF translations, aside from being in 19th century English as noted above, were furthermore directed to an academic audience and consequently its language isn’t as accessible to many 21st century laity as what we find in the later series. Some of the scholarly commentary in the footnotes and elucidations is now quite dated, the most notable of which being writings presented as genuine but subsequently being determined by patristic scholars as in fact being spurious. An example of this last point would be the Oration on Simeon and Anna, falsely attributed to Methodius, and thusly rejected: “Certainly Spurious works: (a) De Simeone et Anna (P[atrologia]G[raeca] 18.347-82), a sermon which may be as late as the ninth century.”1 Likewise the Declaration of Faith falsely attributed to Gregory Thaumaturgus: “the Exposition of Faith is certainly inauthentic in its last part, which belongs to the trinitarian debate in the 2nd half of the 4th c[entury], and perhaps the whole work should be considered spurious.”2 Etc. Finally, many writings previously lost have been rediscovered since the close of the ANF series, which brings us to the offerings of the more recent series.
The following series include many post-Nicene writings, but for the purposes of my own studies I have predominately limited my personal library to translations of the pre-Nicene Christian writings. Volume numbers listed in bold contain writings not to be found in the ANF.
Popular Patristics
Volume 17: Irenaeus’ Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching.
Volume 20: Melito’s On Pascha.
Volume 22: Hippolytus’ On the Apostolic Tradition.
Volume 29: Tertullian’s On Prayer, Cyprian’s On the Lord’s Prayer, and Origen’s On Prayer (the writing of Origen being absent from the ANF).
Volume 32: Cyprian's To Donatus, To Demetrian, The Fallen, and The Unity of the Catholic Church.
Volume 33: Selected letters of Cyprian (viz., 8, 13, 15-16, 21-24, 27, 33, 38-39, 43, 55, 59, 63, 72-73, 75, 80-81).*
Volume 49: Ignatius' letters to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrneans, and Polycarp. (Also contains the writings pseudonymously attributed to Ignatius.)
Volume 54: Hippolytus’ On the Apostolic Tradition. (Second edition.)
Volume 55: Melito’s On Pascha. (Second edition.)
Ancient Christian Writers
Volume 1: Clement of Rome’s First Clement and Ignatius' letters to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrneans, and Polycarp.
Volume 6: The Didache, Epistle of Barnabas, the Martyrdom of Polycarp and his epistle to the Philippians, the fragments of Papias’ lost writings, and Epistle to Diognetus.
Volume 7: Arnobius’ Case Against the Pagans, books 1-3.
Volume 8: Arnobius’ Case Against the Pagans, books 4-7.
Volume 13: Tertullian’s To His Wife, An Exhortation to Chastity, and On Monogamy.
Volume 16: Irenaeus’ Proof of the Apostolic Preaching.
Volume 19: Origen’s On Prayer and Exhortation to Martyrdom.
Volume 23: Athenagoras’ Embassy for the Christians and The Resurrection of the Dead.
Volume 24: Tertullian’s Treatise Against Hermogenes.
Volume 25: Cyprian’s The Lapsed and The Unity of the Catholic Church.
Volume 26: Origen’s Commentary on The Song of Songs and Homilies on The Song of Songs.
Volume 27: Methodius’ Symposium.
Volume 28: Tertullian’s On Penitence and On Purity.
Volume 39: Marcus Minucius Felix’s Octavius.
Volume 43: Letters of Cyprian, 1-27.*
Volume 44: Letters of Cyprian, 28-54.*
Volume 46: Letters of Cyprian, 55-66.*
Volume 47: Letters of Cyprian, 67-82.*
Volume 54: Origen’s Treatise on the Passover and Dialogue with Heraclides.
Volume 55: Irenaeus’ Against the Heresies, book 1.
Volume 56: Justin Martyr’s First Apology and Second Apology.
Volume 62: Origen’s Homilies on Ezekiel, books 1-14.
Volume 64: Irenaeus’ Against the Heresies, book 3.
Volume 65: Irenaeus’ Against the Heresies, book 2.
Volume 68: Origen's Homilies on Isaiah, books 1-9.
Volume 72: Irenaeus' Against the Heresies, books 4-5.
Fathers of the Church
Volume 1: Clement of Rome’s First Clement, the anonymously composed Second Clement, The Didache, Mathetes to Diognetus, Ignatius' letters to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadelphians, Smyrneans, and Polycarp, the Martyrdom of Polycarp and his epistle to the Philippians, the fragments of Papias’ lost books, The Shepherd of Hermas, and The Letter of Barnabas.
Volume 6: Justin Martyr’s First Apology, Second Apology, Dialogue with Trypho, and the Pseudo-Justinian Discourse to the Greeks, Exhortation to the Greeks, and Monarchy of God.
Volume 10: Minucius Felix’s Octavius, and Tertullian’s Apology, To Scapula, On the Soul, and Testimony of the Soul.
Volume 19: Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, books 1-5.
Volume 23: Clement of Alexandria’s Christ the Educator.
Volume 29: Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, books 6-10.
Volume 36: Cyprian’s To Demetrian, To Donatus, The Dress of Virgins, Exhortation to Martyrdom to Fortunatus, The Good of Patience, That Idols Are Not Gods, Jealousy and Envy, The Lapsed, The Lord’s Prayer, Mortality, Unity of the Church, and Works and Almsgiving.
Volume 40: Tertullian’s Apparel of Women, The Chaplet, Flight in Time of Persecution, To the Martyrs, On Patience, On Prayer, and Spectacles.
Volume 49: Lactantius’ Divine Institutes.
Volume 51: Letters of Cyprian, 1-81.*
Volume 54: Lactantius’ Deaths of the Persecutors, The Phoenix, The Workmanship of God, and The Wrath of God.
Volume 67: Novatian’s Jewish Foods, letters, In Praise of Purity, The Spectacles, and The Trinity.
Volume 71: Origen’s Homilies on Exodus and Homilies on Genesis.
Volume 80: Origen’s Commentary on the Gospel of John, books 1-10.
Volume 83: Origen’s Homilies on Leviticus.
Volume 85: Clement of Alexandria’s Stromatas, books 1-3 (book 3 being left untranslated in the ANF).
Volume 89: Origen’s Commentary on the Gospel of John, books 13-32.
Volume 94: Origen’s Homilies on Luke.
Volume 97: Origen’s Homilies on Jeremiah and Homily on 1 Kings 28.
Volume 98: Gregory Thaumaturgus’ Address of Thanksgiving to Origen, Metaphrase on the Ecclesiastes of Solomon, Canonical Epistle, To Theopompus on the Impassibility and Passibility of God, and To Philagrius on Consubstantiality.
Volume 103: Origen’s Commentary on Romans, books 1-5.
Volume 104: Origen’s Commentary on Romans, books 6-10.
Volume 105: Origen’s Homilies on Joshua.
Volume 119: Origen’s Homilies on Judges.
Volume 120: Pamphilus’ Apology for Origen.
Volume 141: Origen’s Homilies on Psalms [15,36,67,73-77,80-81].
Volume 142: Origen’s Homilies on Isaiah.
Volume 146: Origen's Homilies on Psalms [36-38].
Oxford Early Christian Texts
Volume 1: Tatian’s Address to the Greeks.
Volume 11: Justin Martyr’s First Apology and Second Apology.
Volume 27: Origen’s On First Principles, books 1-2a.
Volume 28: Origen’s On First Principles, books 2b-4.
Volume 30: Origen’s Commentary on Matthew, books 10-17 (from the Greek; books 15-17 being lacking in the ANF).
Volume 31: Origen’s Commentary on Matthew, books 12-17 (from the Latin; books 15-17 being lacking in the ANF).
Volume 33: Origen’s On First Principles (Reader’s Edition).
Volume 36: Papias’ Exposition of Dominical Oracles (fragments).
Volume 40: The Philocalia of Origen.
Oxford Early Christian Studies
Volume 11: Origen’s Commentary on Ephesians.
Ancient Christian Texts
Volume 3: Origen’s Homilies on Numbers.
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