THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY FOUNDED BY JAMES LOEB 1911 EDITED BY JEFFREY HENDERSON THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS I LCL 24 THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS I CLEMENT · II CLEMENT IGNATIUS · POLYCARP DIDACHE EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY BART D. EHRMAN HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS LONDON, ENGLAND 2003 Copyright © 2003 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY® is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2002032744 CIP data available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0-674-99607-0 CONTENTS PREFACE vii GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 FIRST LETTER OF CLEMENT 17 SECOND LETTER OF CLEMENT 153 LETTERS OF IGNATIUS 201 LETTER OF POLYCARP 323 MARTYRDOM OF POLYCARP 355 DIDACHE 403 PREFACE This new Greek-English edition of the Apostolic Fathers is to replace the original Loeb volumes produced by Kirsopp Lake. Lake was a superb scholar, and his two-volume Ap­ ostolic Fathers has been a vade mecum for scholars of Christian antiquity for over ninety years. Much of impor­ tance has happened during this period, however: advances in scholarship, manuscript discoveries, and changes in the English language. For this edition I have chosen not to re­ vise Lake but to start afresh. Because of the relatively sparse manuscript support for the texts of the Apostolic Fathers, modern Greek editions do not differ widely among themselves. For each of these works I have used a base text, modifying it to a greater or lesser extent, based on my evaluation of the textual evi­ dence. For all of the books except the Shepherd of Hermas my base text has been Karl Bihlmeyer, Die apostolischen Voter: Neubearbeitung der Funkschen Ausgabe, 3rd ed., ed. W. Schneemelcher (Tubingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1956); for the Shepherd I used Molly Whittaker, Die apostoli­ schen Voter: vol. 1, Der Hirt des Hermas (GCS 48. 2nd ed. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1967). Both Bihlymeyer and Whittaker are now readily available in Andreas Linde- mann and Henning Paulsen, Die apostolischen Voter (Tubingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1992). vii PREFACE In keeping with the tenor of the Loeb series, I have re­ stricted the Greek apparatus to textual variants that have a significant bearing on either the translation or our under­ standing of the transmission of the text. Because of the special problems they pose, I have not, in most instances, cited Patristic sources extensively. Thus, while the appara­ tus is more substantial than that found in the earlier Loeb volumes, it is not as full as serious scholars of Christian an­ tiquity might like. More comprehensive apparatus may be found in the editions mentioned above. The Apostolic Fathers are an unusual corpus, repre­ senting not the works of a single author (as in most Loeb volumes) but of eleven different authors, writing different kinds of works to different audiences in different times and places. In view of the nature of the material, the Gen­ eral Introduction will provide a basic overview of the cor­ pus and the history of its collection, to be followed in the separate Introductions by fuller discussions of each of the texts and authors. I have tried to make the translation both readable and closely tied to the Greek text. I have chosen not to remove the strong patriarchal biases of the texts, which form part of their historical interest and significance. And I have tried to reflect the occasional awkwardness of the texts, in­ cluding, perhaps most noticeably, the striking anacolutha in the letters of Ignatius, which were evidently written in some haste. Abbreviations for journals and biblical books are drawn from The SBL Handbook of Style for Ancient Near East­ ern, Biblical, and Early Chnstian Studies, ed. Patrick H. Alexander et al. (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1999). viii PREFACE I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to Margaretta Fulton, General Editor for the Humanities at Harvard University Press, for her encouragement and savvy guid­ ance, and to Jeffrey Henderson, Professor of Classics and Dean of Arts and Sciences at Boston University and Gen­ eral Editor for the Loeb Classical Library, for his extraor­ dinary willingness—eagerness even—to deal with issues, answer questions, and provide help at every stage. I am indebted to a number of scholars who have as­ sisted me in various aspects of the project. My colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, William Race and Zlatko Plese, and my brother Radd K. Ehrman, in the Department of Classics at Kent State University, have generously provided advice on particularly thorny passages. Several colleagues in the field of early Christian studies have read parts of the translation and made useful suggestions, especially Ellen Aitken, Mark House, Phillip Long, Jeffrey MacDonald, Carolyn Osiek, Larry Swain, and Francis Weismann. Four scholars have been espe­ cially generous in reading my Introductions and making helpful comments: Andrew Jacobs of the University of California at Riverside; Clayton Jefford of the Meinard School of Theology; Carolyn Osiek of the Catholic Theo­ logical Union in Chicago; and, in a particular labor of love, my wife, Sarah Beckwith, in the English Department at Duke University. Finally, I am grateful to my graduate stu­ dents in the Department of Religious Studies at the Uni­ versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Stephanie Cobb (now on the faculty at Hofstra University), Carl Cosaert, and Pamela Mullins, for their assistance in my research. Above all I am indebted to my student Diane Wudel, now ix