The Apostolic Fathers Vol. 1: Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Didache

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discoveries of new MSS. An abbreviation for manuscripts; these are the hand-written copies of the original texts that survived from antiquity before the invention of the printing press. and versions Ancient translations of the original Greek texts into other languages, such as Latin, Coptic, or Syriac, which help scholars double-check the accuracy of the Greek manuscripts. enable the text to be improved in detail from time to time. This is especially the case with I. Clement The First Epistle of Clement, a letter sent by the church at Rome to the church at Corinth late in the 1st century. and Hermas Referring to "The Shepherd of Hermas," a popular early Christian work consisting of visions, mandates, and similitudes..

For the purposes of the present publication the text has been revised, but it has not been possible to give critical notes Scholarly explanations provided at the bottom of a page that compare different manuscript versions to justify why a specific word or phrase was chosen. unless the evidence was so balanced that more than one reading A specific variation of the text found in a particular manuscript or group of manuscripts. was capable of defence.