The Early Christians.pdf

E BER H A R D A R NOLD

T HE E ARLY

C HRISTIANS

A S OURCE B OOK OF O RIGINAL W RITINGS I NCLUD -

ING T EXTS BY  T ERTULLIAN  H ERMAS  I GNATIUS

 J USTIN  P OLYCARP  I RENAEUS  O RIGEN  C LEMENT OF

A LEXANDRIA  E XTRA - BIBLICAL S AYINGS OF J ESUS

In their Own words

T HE E ARLY C HRISTIANS

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

S ELECTED AND E DITED BY

E BERHARD A RNOLD

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A translation of

Die ersten Christen nach dem Tode der Apostel

Eberhard Arnold Verlag/Sannerz and Hochweg Verlag/Berlin, 1926

This e-book was published by

The Bruderhof Foundation, Inc., Farmington, PA 15437 USA and

th e Bruderhof Communities in the UK , Robert sbridge, East Sussex, TN32

5DR, UK

USA.

U SING T HIS B OOK

ASIDE FROM CHAPTER I, which is an overview of the early Christian era

by Eberhard Arnold, each chapter consists of passages by the early be-

lievers themselves, and by non-Christian contemporaries.

MARGINAL NUMBERS in blue indicate the presence of an extended

note, explanation, or additional bibliographic reference (correspond-

ingly numbered) at the end of the chapter. Passages marked by a grey

number have no note.

THE SYMBOLS USED to illustrate chapter titles throughout the book are

based on paintings and engravings found in Roman catacombs, as re-

produced in L. Perret, Les Catacombes de Rome (Paris, 1851). See also

Oskar Beyer, Frühchristliche Sinnbilder und Inschriften: Lebenszeugnisse

der Katakombenzeit (Kassel, Bärenreiter Verlag, n.d.), and Edward L.

Cutts, A History of Early Christian Art (London, Society for Promoting

Christian Knowledge, 1893).