Subject: Re: tc-list Patristic Citations

From: "Steve Carson-Rowland" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 07:37:56 +1000

STEVEN CARR wrote:
2nd-century patristic citations are very important.
In 'The New Testament Documents - Are They Reliable?' F.F.Bruce writes
'In 3 works whose date is probably around AD 100 - The Epistle of Barnabas,
The Didache and 1 Clement - we find fairly certain quotations from the
common tradition of the Synoptic Gospels, from Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians,
Ephesians, Titus, Hebrews , 1 Peter and possible quotations from other
books of the New Testament.

STEVE CR
What does he mean by quotations? Clement cites the words of Jesus in two
places (and these are generally thought to be from the oral tradition
behind the synoptics.), he 'recalls' the words of Paul and how he wrote to
the Corinthians (he is familiar with it and cites the content but not an
exact quotation). However, although there may be many allusions to other NT
writings, he does not quote from them using any quotation formula. 

Clearly at some point allusions can be identified if enough words
(especially unusual words) or sentences are similar, and Clement appears to
be familiar with Hebrews, but I am unsure how reliable allusion
identification is.

For 'Letter of Barnabas' - 'many are called but few are chosen' is cited as
scripture, but that's about it for NT quotations.

It's a similar story for Ignatius and Polycarp. 

Over to the experts for demonstration of allusions.

Regards,

Steve Carson-Rowland
Brisbane, Australia

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From: "Steve Carson-Rowland" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 12:26:54 +1000

Jeff Cate wrote:
You may want to consult:

*The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers.* Compiled by a Committee of
the Oxford Society of Historical Theology. Oxford:  Clarendon Press,
1905.

I haven't had a chance to consult it in response to your questions, but
Prof. Bruce may have used it in making his statements. It provides the
passages (citations, adaptations, and allusions) from the NT in the
Apostolic Fathers with a letter ranking the probability that it is
consulting the NT source.

STEVE CR
In fact, from memory Bruce mentions this work in his book. It is not in my
library (University of Queensland), although I want to read it. Have any
modern editions been done of it? Or failing that, are there any comparable
works which have been published more recently?

Regards,
Steve Carson-Rowland
Brisbane, Australia