New Essays on the Apostolic Fathers

This volume comprises fifteen new essays on the Apostolic Fathers with a focus on the letters of Clement. An introductory essay investigates the role of seventeenth-century librarians in the origination of the collection's title. Five essays concern 1 Clement, exploring its relationship to 1 Corinthians, its generic classification, the discussion of 'Christian education' (1 Clem. 21:8), the golden calf tradition, and the well-known legend of the regeneration of the phoenix. Three essays treat aspects of 2 Clement, including problems with recent translations of chapter 1, the motif of the barren woman in chapter 2, and the analogy of faith as a race in chapter 7. One study probes the Quintus incident in Martyrdom of Polycarp 4 as emblematic of the literary and cultural conventions of second-century sophism. Another study considers protection against exploitation of Christian generosity by visitors in Didache 12. Another contribution investigates the precise nature of allegory in the Epistle of Barnabas. A short piece on the Epistle of Diognetus argues that the ancient moral-philosophical topos of the invisible God is at work in this text; and, a final essay explores the popular second-century medical theory behind Hermas's presentation of ???????? ('irascibility') in Mand. 5.1.3 (33.3). The volume ranges widely within and beyond early Christian literature - from the streets of ancient Achaean and Asian ?????? to the early modern libraries of Europe.

Born 1964; 1986 BA University of California, Berkeley; 1992 MTS Harvard University; 2003 PhD University of Chicago; 2006 postdoctoral fellow Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; currently Professor of Scripture, Department of Theology, Lewis University (USA) and Professor Extraordinary, Department Ancient Studies at Stellenbosch University (South Africa).