Protestants, how many of you have taken the time to read early christian writing?

Question

Besides the Bible, have you read any Christian writing from a 1st, 2nd or 3rd century Christian.

Writings which are from people who were either deciples of Christ or the deciples or deciples of deciples of Christ and the Apostles.

You know it might be helpful to know what these individuals believed about scripture, how they actually worshiped or believed about what they were being taught.

You read Pagan writers Plato, Socrates, Aristotle. Why not read people who were 40 year deciples of the Apostle's such as St. Ignatius of Antioch.

If only to enlighten yourself on what people 2,000 years ago believed so that you may come to compare it to what your 21st cetury church teaches or hopefully come to value how faithful your churches teachings and practices have been to these first deciples

If you have not, check it out, here is a good start...

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/

I am just tired of fellow Christian repeating things which can be easily refuted.

Answer 1

Excellent question--I starred it for my contacts.

The Fathers of the early centuries of the Church represent an invaluable source of interpretive wisdom. You just can't get past the ambiguities in the New Testament without the commentary of their near contemporaries in the the early Church.

Unfortunately, your link included anti-Christian gnostic writings.

Here is a better primer in the early Christian writings:
http://www.catholic.com/library/fathers_know_best.asp

Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 2

If you are talking about the New Testament, it was written between 50 CE and 200 CE and edited much afterwards. Paul was the earliest writer in the New Testament. He wrote somewhere between the 50 and 70 CE, decades after Jesus supposedly died, if he existed at all. The Gospels were written decades after that, between 70 and 150 CE. The earliest Gospel writer was Mark, followed by Matthew, Luke then John. The latter three borrowed heavily from Mark and other texts. After that, there were many copies made and edited. That's all we have now. There are no original manuscripts. The oldest of the manuscripts we have show how the Bible has changed as it was copied. For example, there are various endings to Mark. There is evidence of tampering all the way through to the 1500's. It wasn't until mid 300 CE that they officially put the books together into an official canon. There were many other books floating around at the time that the bishops of the day rejected. They became known as apocrypha. This all happened under Constantine after he converted. Without Constantine, Christianity might have remained a niche cult. Religion is poorly copied superstition.

Answer 3

I am just beginning to get an interest in early Christian writing. I started, some will say unfortunately, with some Christian era apocrypha. I have read St. Ignatius of Antioch and St. Clement, but need to review, because I could not tell you what they taught.

I want to read St. Augustine's Confessions and City of God.

I want to read some of the Jewish writers of similar time period: Philo, Josephus.

Answer 4

A star for you. Any question (or answer) that includes St. Ignatius of Antioch, gets a thumb's up or a star from me!

"Wheresoever the bishop appears, there let the people be, even as wheresoever Christ is, there is the Catholic Church."

Answer 5

there is nothing in the apocrypha that is not already covered
in the bible we have today...and if you actually have read the
bible we have today and compare it to many of the writings
you've listed...you'll find the listed writings don't sound right on
many levels(not all)....anything after the 1st century is by someone whom did NOT actaully see Christ or hear him in
PERSON...thats the major qualifier for the NT bible we have
today...and i agree with that limitation...anything after the 1st century is dubious...

Answer 6

I am not a Protestant but I recommend "The Mass of The Early Christians." I just read it last Thursday and it is an amazing book.
Pax Et Bonum,
Debra

Answer 7

I have been expanding my readings to include those. I recently read the Didache for the first time. I have also been reading a bit of De Trinitate by Augustine. There is some interesting stuff to be read.

Answer 8

I'm reading Josephus, does that count?

Answer 9

hmm you must be catholic lumping anyone who is not catholic into protestant. The problem with this is that some of those writings can be corrupt. The KJV was put together with all scriptures that agreed with each other, those that could not were discarded. So some of these writings might be on that website not sure, but true enough some good writings may be found in there. But what I am saying is that the bible is the final authority, KJV that is.

Answer 10

There are many writings, especially from the bible. that I would have loved to read, but unfortunately they have been destroyed by the early Christian censorship. They were considered inappropriate. What they have left for us to read is to my opinion not worth reading: half the truth is worthless.