New Book Series: The Apostolic Fathers Greek Reader

I vividly remember sitting in my friend’s and, at the time, my pastor’s house three years ago. He has this grungy wing-back chair that I would find myself in each time I spent time at his house. Next to this is a small table, always piled with books. One of my visits led me to seclude myself from all conversation and slowly thumb through Michael Holmes’s Apostolic Fathers. After putting it down, I told him that my goal will be to read all this in Greek. Shortly thereafter, I pitched a vision to Jason Fowler, former Associate Librarian at SBTS, to teach a Greek class. He kindly and graciously gave the green light. Didache was the approved project due to its simplicity of grammar and unique place in the Apostolic Fathers. I soon found William Varner doing something likewise on Faithlife and discovered Brian Renshaw had provided vocabulary to the Didache—this quickly turned into a flourishing relationship. So, we produced a Greek reader for the class. See my reflections on the group here.

The next winter I was making plans to teach Martyrdom of Polycarp at the SBTS Library—producing a similar Greek reader. Jason Fowler, in nonchalant-Jason-fashion, said, “You should publish this.” A little reluctant, at first, I immediately called Brian—who agreed to publish. We talked extensively with Rick Brannan, Jonathan Pennington, Brian Davidson, and others about how to make this project better. I talked with Michael Haykin soon after to see if he would contribute the introductions to each letter.

After soliciting fellow contributors, we were able to secure a relationship with Michael Halcomb and Fredrick Long from GlossaHouse. They expressed great enthusiasm to see this produced. GlossaHouse already has a number of helpful Greek and Language resources and we were excited to join their publishing house.

From the time in a grungy chair to teaching classes to having the technical mastery of Renshaw, today is finally here! The first volume of Ignatius’s letters is now available! You can purchase it here on Amazon. Brian and I serve as the series editors and contributors to the volumes.

The remaining series will be released in the following order:

• The Letters of Ignatius (Vol. 1)
• The Didache and Epistle of Barnabas (Vol. 2)
• Polycarp, Papias, and Mathetes to Diognetus (Vol. 3)
• 1–2 Clement (Vol. 4)
• The Shepherd of Hermas (Vol. 5)

A special thanks is offered to Fredrick Long and Michael Halcomb for the opportunity to publish, to Michael Haykin and Paul Smythe, and to all our contributors — Matt Albanese, Jason Andersen, Jacob Cerone, Brian Davidson, Michael Graham, Wyatt Graham, Griffin Gulledge, Matt McMains, Trey Moss, Madison Pierce, Aaron Rothermel, Adam Smith, Nathan Sundt, Roberto A. van Dalen.