The

Apostolic Fathers
Greek-English
Interlinear

Rick Brannan

General Editor

APOSTOLIC FATHERS GREEK-ENGLISH INTERLINEAR.

Copyright 2011 Logos Bible Software.

All rights reserved.

Dedication

To my sweetie, Amy, thanks for always encouraging me to pursue what interests me; and to Ella, my “little squeeze,” thanks for letting Daddy “work” all those early mornings when you would’ve rather been playing with me. I love you both more than you’ll ever know.

Preface

It was a bit of a crazy thought, now almost two years ago, to do an interlinear edition of the Apostolic Fathers. But the pieces fell into place, so the crazy thought became reality. Using the Greek text of Kirsopp Lake’s edition, tools provided by Logos Bible Software, and a whole lot of coffee, I spent my early mornings with the Apostolic Fathers working through each verse at least three times. One pass to consider the appropriate article to assign from the Louw-Nida lexicon, one pass to determine a proper lexical form gloss—somewhat like the gloss you would see in a Greek-English lexicon or dictionary, and one pass to align a context-sensitive English translation with each Greek word in the text. From here, sequence numbers were added to facilitate reassembly of the translation into something resembling a stilted English translation. Further, there are points where the stilted English is not sufficient, so an idiomatic translation of the phrase was further annotated.

This is not work that is done in isolation. I referenced editions and translations of the Apostolic Fathers (Lake, Holmes, and Ehrman primary among them) as well as more technical studies. Commentary from Lightfoot, Kraft, and Meecham proved to be invaluable.

In the midst of my morning dialogues with these editions and studies it was clear there were several places we agreed and some places we disagreed. As a result, several notes were included along the way. Some notes based on comments from my dialogue partners who traversed these texts before me. Other notes having to do with text-critical issues. Still other notes having to do with why I translated something the way I did, perhaps referencing the work of others. Even more notes from existing editions or studies that were illuminating or simply interesting. And now, eighteen months later, the work is complete.

There are several people that helped me immensely in this project. My friend and colleague Steve Runge not only encouraged me, he also listened to and put up with my blather when I would run across an interesting use of a conjunction or some other discourse feature. My friend and pastor Dax Swanson was also an encouragement throughout the translation process. Eli Evans, Johnny Cisneros and Vincent Setterholm all reviewed early drafts and have sharpened the outcome. William Varner has been unflagging in his enthusiasm and support of this project. Michael F. Bird helpfully provided access to his research on echoes and allusions of Paul's letters in the Epistle to Diognetus. ...