50+ Second Century (100s) Pre-Nicene Quotes on the Deity of Christ/Proto-Trinity
50+ Second Century (100s) Pre-Nicene Quotes on the Deity of Christ/Proto-Trinity
Clement of Rome (AD 35-99)
1 Clement
“Have we not [all] one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us?”1
Ignatius of Antioch (AD 35-108)
Epistle to the Ephesians (AD 110 and 117)
“Heartiest greetings of pure joy in Jesus Christ from Ignatius, the ‘God-inspired,’ to the church at Ephesus in Asia. Out of the fullness of God the Father you have been blessed with large numbers and are predestined from eternity to enjoy forever continual and unfading glory. The source of your unity and election is genuine suffering which you undergo by the will of the Father and of Jesus Christ, our God. Hence you deserve to be considered happy.”2 (emphasis added)
“There is only one Physician—of flesh yet spiritual, born yet unbegotten, God incarnate, genuine life in the midst of death, sprung from Mary as well as God, first subject to suffering then beyond it—Jesus Christ our Lord.”3 (emphasis added)
“I have heard that some strangers came your way with a wicked teaching. But you did not let them sow it among you. You stopped up your ears to prevent admitting what they disseminated. Like stones of God's Temple, ready for a building of God the Father, you are being hoisted up by Jesus Christ, as with a crane..., while the rope you use is the Holy Spirit. Your faith is what lifts you up, while love is the way you ascend to God.”4 (emphasis added)
“For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary, in God’s plan being sprung both from the seed of David and from the Holy Spirit. He was born and baptized that by his Passion he might hallow water.”5 (emphasis added)
“As a result all magic lost its power and all witchcraft ceased. Ignorance was done away with, and the ancient kingdom [of evil] was utterly destroyed, for God was revealing Himself as a man, to bring newness of eternal life. What God had prepared was now beginning. Hence everything was in confusion as the destruction of death was being taken in hand.”6 (emphasis added)
“Greetings in Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, from Ignatius, the ‘God-inspired,’ to the church that is in charge of affairs in Roman quarters and that the Most High Father and Jesus Christ, his only Son, have magnificently embraced in mercy and love. You have been granted light both by the will of Him who willed all that is, and by virtue of your believing in Jesus Christ, our God, and of loving him. You are a credit to God: you deserve your renown and are to be congratulated. You deserve praise and success and are privileged to be without blemish. Yes, you rank first in love, being true to Christ’s law and stamped with the Father’s name. To you, then, sincerest greetings in Jesus Christ, our God, for you cleave to his every commandment—observing not only their letter but their spirit—being permanently filled with God's grace and purged of every stain alien to it.”7 (emphasis added)
“Nothing you can see has real value. Our God Jesus Christ, indeed, has revealed himself more clearly by returning to the Father. The greatness of Christianity lies in its being hated by the world, not in its being convincing to it.”8 (emphasis added)
“Let me imitate the Passion of my God. If anyone has Him in him, let him appreciate what I am longing for, and sympathize with me, realizing what I am going through.”9 (emphasis added)
“I extol Jesus Christ, the God who has granted you such wisdom. For I detected that you were fitted out with an unshakable faith, being nailed, as it were, body and soul to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and being rooted in love by the blood of Christ. Regarding our Lord, you are absolutely convinced that on the human side He was actually sprung from David’s line, Son of God according to God’s will and power, actually born of a virgin, baptized by John, that ‘all righteousness might be fulfilled by Him,’ 2and actually crucified for us in the flesh, under Pontius Pilate and Herod the Tetrarch. (We are part of His fruit which grew out of His most blessed Passion.) And thus, by His resurrection, He raised a standard to rally His saints and faithful forever—whether Jews or Gentiles—in one body of His Church.”10 (emphasis added)
“It was good of you to welcome Philo and Rheus Agathopus as deacons of the Christ God. They accompanied me in God’s cause, and they thank the Lord on your behalf that you provided them every comfort. I can assure you you will lose nothing by it.”11 (emphasis added)
“...Jesus Christ. He, being begotten by the Father before the beginning of time, was God the Word, the only-begotten Son, and remains the same for ever; for ‘of His kingdom there shall be no end,’ says Daniel the prophet.”12 (emphasis added)
“If any one says there is one God, and also confesses Christ Jesus, but thinks the Lord to be a mere man, and not the only-begotten God, and Wisdom, and the Word of God, and deems Him to consist merely of a soul and body, such an one is a serpent, that preaches deceit and error for the destruction of men. And such a man is poor in understanding, even as by name he is an Ebionite.”13 (emphasis added)
“If any one confesses the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and praises the creation, but calls the incarnation merely an appearance, and is ashamed of the passion, such an one has denied the faith, not less than the Jews who killed Christ.”14 (emphasis added)
“Be on your guard, then, against such people. This you will do by not being puffed up and by keeping very close to [our] God, Jesus Christ, and the bishop and the apostles’ precepts.”15 (emphasis added)
“I bid you farewell as always in our God, Jesus Christ. May you abide in Him and so share in the divine unity and be under God’s care. Greetings to Alce, who means a great deal to me. Farewell in the Lord.”16 (emphasis added)
Justin Martyr (AD 100-165)
“For Christ is King, and Priest [Psalm 110:4; cf. Hebrews], and God, and Lord, and angel, and man, and captain, and stone, and a Son born [Isaiah 9:6], and first made subject to suffering, then returning to heaven, and again coming with glory, and He is preached as having the everlasting kingdom: so I prove from all the Scriptures.”17 (emphasis added)
“It is not on this ground solely...that it must be admitted absolutely that some other one is called Lord by the Holy Spirit besides Him who is considered Maker of all things; not solely [for what is said] by Moses, but also [for what is said] by David. For there is written by him: ‘The Lord says to my Lord, Sit on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool [Psalm 110:1],’ as I have already quoted. And again, in other words: ‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. A sceptre of equity is the sceptre of Thy kingdom: Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity: therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows [Psalm 45:6-7].’ If, therefore, you assert that the Holy Spirit calls some other one God and Lord, besides the Father of all things and His Christ, answer me; for I undertake to prove to you from Scriptures themselves, that He whom the Scripture calls Lord is not one of the two angels that went to Sodom, but He who was with them, and is called God, that appeared to Abraham.”18 (emphasis added)
“...Permit me, further, to show you from the book of Exodus how this same One, who is both Angel, and God, and Lord, and man, and who appeared in human form to Abraham and Isaac [Genesis 22:15-16], appeared in a flame of fire from the bush, and conversed with Moses [Exodus 3:2, 4].”19 (emphasis added)
“Therefore these words testify explicitly that He is witnessed to by Him who established these things, as deserving to be worshipped, as God and as Christ.”20 (emphasis added)
“And you remember from other words also spoken by David, and which I have mentioned before, how it is declared that He would come forth from the highest heavens, and again return to the same places, in order that you may recognise Him as God coming forth from above, and man living among men; and [how it is declared] that He will again appear, and they who pierced Him shall see Him, and shall bewail Him [Zechariah 12:10].”21 (emphasis added)
“And since they are compelled, they agree that some Scriptures which we mention to them, and which expressly prove that Christ was to suffer, to be worshipped, and [to be called] God, and which I have already recited to you, do refer indeed to Christ, but they venture to assert that this man is not Christ. But they admit that He will come to suffer, and to reign, and to be worshipped, and to be God; and this opinion I shall in like manner show to be ridiculous and silly.”22 (emphasis added)
“And I wish you to observe, that they [Septuagint LXX translators] have altogether taken away many Scriptures from the translations effected by those seventy elders who were with Ptolemy, and by which this very man who was crucified is proved to have been set forth expressly as God, and man, and as being crucified, and as dying;...”23 (emphasis added)
“...according to the Father’s will, and made Him known, being Christ, as God strong and to be worshipped.”24 (emphasis added)
“But if you knew, Trypho,...who He is that is called at one time the Angel of great counsel [Isaiah 9:6], and a Man by Ezekiel [Ezekiel 1], and like the Son of man by Daniel [Daniel 7:13], and a Child by Isaiah [Isaiah 9:6], and Christ and God to be worshipped by David, and Christ and a Stone by many [Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 28:16; Daniel 2], and Wisdom by Solomon [Proverbs 8], and Joseph and Judah and a Star by Moses, and the East by Zechariah, and the Suffering One [Isaiah 53] and Jacob and Israel by Isaiah again, and a Rod, and Flower, and Corner-Stone [Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 28:16], and Son of God, you would not have blasphemed Him who has now come, and been born, and suffered, and ascended to heaven; who shall also come again, and then your twelve tribes shall mourn [Zechariah 12:10]. For if you had understood what has been written by the prophets, you would not have denied that He was God, Son of the only, unbegotten, unutterable God. For Moses says somewhere in Exodus the following: ‘The Lord spoke to Moses, and said to him, I am the Lord, and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, being their God; and my name I revealed not to them, and I established my covenant with them [Exodus 6:2].’ And thus again he says, ‘A man wrestled with Jacob [Genesis 32:24, 30],’ and asserts it was God; narrating that Jacob said, ‘I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.’ And it is recorded that he called the place where He wrestled with him, appeared to and blessed him, the Face of God (Peniel).”25 (emphasis added)
“And that Christ being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the judgment executed on Sodom,…”26 (emphasis added)
“Hence are we called atheists. And we confess that we are atheists, so far as gods of this sort are concerned, but not with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other virtues, who is free from all impurity. But both Him, and the Son (who came forth from Him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels who follow and are made like to Him), and the prophetic Spirit, we worship and adore, knowing them in reason and truth, and declaring without grudging to every one who wishes to learn, as we have been taught.”27 (emphasis added)
“Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judæa, in the times of Tiberius Cæsar; and that we reasonably worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove. For they proclaim our madness to consist in this, that we give to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God,…”28 (emphasis added)
“I shall give you another testimony, my friends...from the Scriptures, that God begat before all creatures a Beginning, [who was] a certain rational power [proceeding] from Himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit, now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again an Angel, then God, and then Lord and Logos; and on another occasion He calls Himself Captain, when He appeared in human form to Joshua the son of Nave (Nun).”29 (emphasis added)
“The Word of Wisdom, who is Himself this God begotten of the Father of all things, and Word, and Wisdom, and Power, and the Glory of the Begetter...”30 (emphasis added)
“The Jews, accordingly, being throughout of opinion that it was the Father of the universe who spake to Moses, though He who spake to him was indeed the Son of God, who is called both Angel and Apostle, are justly charged, both by the Spirit of prophecy and by Christ Himself, with knowing neither the Father nor the Son. For they who affirm that the Son is the Father, are proved neither to have become acquainted with the Father, nor to know that the Father of the universe has a Son; who also, being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God. And of old He appeared in the shape of fire and in the likeness of an angel to Moses and to the other prophets; but now in the times of your reign, having, as we before said, become Man by a virgin, according to the counsel of the Father, for the salvation of those who believe on Him, He endured both to be set at nought and to suffer, that by dying and rising again He might conquer death. And that which was said out of the bush to Moses, 'I am that I am, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and the God of your fathers [Exodus 3:6],' this signified that they, even though dead, are yet in existence, and are men belonging to Christ Himself.”31 (emphasis added)
Melito of Sardis (died AD 180)
“He that bore up the earth was borne up on a tree. The Lord was subjected to ignominy with naked body—God put to death, the King of Israel slain!”32 (emphasis added)
“We are not those who pay homage to stones, that are without sensation; but of the only God, who is before all and over all, and, moreover, we are worshippers of His Christ, who is veritably God the Word existing before all time.”33 (emphasis added)
“On the Nature of Christ.
For there is no need, to persons of intelligence, to attempt to prove, from the deeds of Christ subsequent to His baptism, that His soul and His body, His human nature like ours, were real, and no phantom of the imagination. For the deeds done by Christ after His baptism, and especially His miracles, gave indication and assurance to the world of the Deity hidden in His flesh. For, being at once both God and perfect man likewise, He gave us sure indications of His two natures: of His Deity, by His miracles during the three years that elapsed after His baptism; of His humanity, during the thirty similar periods which preceded His baptism, in which, by reason of His low estate as regards the flesh, He concealed the signs of His Deity, although He was the true God existing before all ages.”34 (emphasis added)
“8. For the one who was born as Son, and led to slaughter as a lamb, and sacrificed as a sheep, and buried as a man, rose up from the dead as God, since he is by nature both God and man.
9. He is everything: in that He judges He is law, in that He teaches He is gospel, in that He saves He is grace, in that He begets He is father, in that He is begotten He is Son, in that He suffers He is sheep, in that He is buried He is man, in that He comes to life again He is God.
10. Such is Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.”35 (emphasis added)
“The Jerusalem here below once had value, but now it is without value because of the Jerusalem from above. The meager inheritance once had value; now it is without value because of the abundant grace. For not in one place alone, nor yet in narrow confines, has the glory of God been established, but His grace has been poured out upon the uttermost parts of the inhabited world, and there the almighty God has taken up His dwelling place through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever. Amen.”36 (emphasis added)
Athenagoras of Athens (ca. AD 130-190)
“That we are not atheists, therefore, seeing that we acknowledge one God, uncreated, eternal, invisible, impassible, incomprehensible, illimitable, who is apprehended by the understanding only and the reason, who is encompassed by light, and beauty, and spirit, and power ineffable, by whom the universe has been created through His Logos, and set in order, and is kept in being — I have sufficiently demonstrated. [I say His Logos], for we acknowledge also a Son of God. Nor let any one think it ridiculous that God should have a Son. For though the poets, in their fictions, represent the gods as no better than men, our mode of thinking is not the same as theirs, concerning either God the Father or the Son. But the Son of God is the Logos of the Father, in idea and in operation; for after the pattern of Him and by Him were all things made, the Father and the Son being one. And, the Son being in the Father and the Father in the Son, in oneness and power of spirit, the understanding and reason (νοῦς καὶ λόγος) of the Father is the Son of God. But if, in your surpassing intelligence, it occurs to you to inquire what is meant by the Son, I will state briefly that He is the first product of the Father, not as having been brought into existence (for from the beginning, God, who is the eternal mind [νοῦς], had the Logos in Himself, being from eternity instinct with Logos [λογικός]); but inasmuch as He came forth to be the idea and energizing power of all material things, which lay like a nature without attributes, and an inactive earth, the grosser particles being mixed up with the lighter. The prophetic Spirit also agrees with our statements. The Lord, it says, made me, the beginning of His ways to His works. Proverbs 8:22 The Holy Spirit Himself also, which operates in the prophets, we assert to be an effluence of God, flowing from Him, and returning back again like a beam of the sun. Who, then, would not be astonished to hear men who speak of God the Father, and of God the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and who declare both their power in union and their distinction in order, called atheists? Nor is our teaching in what relates to the divine nature confined to these points; but we recognise also a multitude of angels and ministers, whom God the Maker and Framer of the world distributed and appointed to their several posts by His Logos, to occupy themselves about the elements, and the heavens, and the world, and the things in it, and the goodly ordering of them all.”37 (emphasis added)
“Are, then, those who consider life to be comprised in this, Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die, and who regard death as a deep sleep and forgetfulness (sleep and death, twin brothers), to be accounted pious; while men who reckon the present life of very small worth indeed, and who are conducted to the future life by this one thing alone, that they know God and His Logos [John 17:3], what is the oneness of the Son with the Father, what the communion of the Father with the Son, what is the Spirit, what is the unity of these three, the Spirit, the Son, the Father, and their distinction in unity;…”38 (emphasis added)
“For, as we acknowledge a God, and a Son His Logos, and a Holy Spirit, united in essence — the Father, the Son, the Spirit, because the Son is the Intelligence, Reason, Wisdom of the Father, and the Spirit an effluence, as light from fire;…”39
Irenaeus (ca. 130-202 AD)
“The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father ‘to gather all things in one,’ and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, ‘every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess’ to Him,...”40 (emphasis added)
“He [Jesus], therefore, who was known, was not a different being from Him who declared 'No man knoweth the Father,' [Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22] but one and the same, the Father making all things subject to Him; while He received testimony from all that He was very man, and that He was very God, from the Father, from the Spirit, from angels, from the creation itself, from men, from apostate spirits and demons, from the enemy, and last of all, from death itself.”41 (emphasis added)
“Chapter XVI.—Proofs from the apostolic writings, that Jesus Christ was one and the same, the only begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect man.”42 (emphasis added)
“...He is Emmanuel [Matthew 1:23], lest perchance we might consider Him as a mere man:…”43
“...He [Jesus] caused man (human nature) to cleave to and to become, one with God. For unless man had overcome the enemy of man, the enemy would not have been legitimately vanquished. And again: unless it had been God who had freely given salvation, we could never have possessed it securely. And unless man had been joined to God, he could never have become a partaker of incorruptibility. For it was incumbent upon the Mediator between God and men, by His relationship to both, to bring both to friendship and concord, and present man to God, while He revealed God to man.”44 (emphasis added)
“God, then, was made man, and the Lord did Himself save us, giving us the token of the Virgin [Matthew 1:23].”45
“For the one and the same Spirit of God, who proclaimed by the prophets what and of what sort the advent of the Lord should be, did by these elders give a just interpretation of what had been truly prophesied; and He did Himself, by the apostles, announce that the fulness of the times of the adoption had arrived, that the kingdom of heaven had drawn nigh, and that He was dwelling within those that believe on Him who was born Emmanuel of the Virgin.... Carefully, then, has the Holy Ghost pointed out, by what has been said, His birth from a virgin, and His essence, that He is God (for the name Emmanuel indicates this). And He shows that He is a man,...”46 (emphasis added)
“Chapter XIX.—Jesus Christ was not a mere man, begotten from Joseph in the ordinary course of nature, but was very God, begotten of the Father most high, and very man, born of the Virgin.”47
“For I have shown from the Scriptures, that no one of the sons of Adam is as to everything, and absolutely, called God, or named Lord. But that He [Jesus] is Himself in His own right, beyond all men who ever lived, God, and Lord, and King Eternal, and the Incarnate Word, proclaimed by all the prophets, the apostles, and by the Spirit Himself, may be seen by all who have attained to even a small portion of the truth. Now, the Scriptures would not have testified these things of Him, if, like others, He had been a mere man.”48 (emphasis added)
“And that it is from that region which is towards the south of the inheritance of Judah that the Son of God shall come, who is God, and who was from Bethlehem, where the Lord was born [and] will send out His praise through all the earth, thus says the prophet Habakkuk [3:3]: 'God shall come from the south, and the Holy One from Mount Effrem. His power covered the heavens over, and the earth is full of His praise. Before His face shall go forth the Word, and His feet shall advance in the plains.' Thus he indicates in clear terms that He is God, and that His advent was [to take place] in Bethlehem,…”49 (emphasis added)
The Demonstration/Proof of Apostolic Preaching
“So then the Father is Lord and the Son is Lord, and the Father is God and the Son is God; for that which is begotten of God is God. And so in the substance and power of His being there is shown forth one God; but there is also according to the economy of our redemption both Son and Father.”50 (emphasis added)
Polycarp of Smyrna (AD 69-156)
Epistle to the Philippians
“Our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, first did and then taught, as Luke testifies [Acts 1:1], 'whose praise is in the Gospel through all the Churches [2 Corinthians 8:18].' There is nothing which is hid from the Lord, but our very secrets are near to Him. Let us therefore do all things as those who have Him dwelling in us, that we may be His temples [1 Corinthians 6:19], and He may be in us as God.”51 (emphasis added)
“...I praise you [God], I bless you, I glorify you, through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom to you with him and the Holy Spirit be glory both now and for the ages to come. Amen.’”52
“...‘they might abandon the crucified one [Jesus] and begin to worship this man [Polycarp]’—all this being done at the instigation of the Jews, who even watched when we were about to take it from the fire; they did not know that we will never be able to either abandon the Christ who suffered for the salvation of the whole world of those who are saved, the blameless on behalf of sinners, or to worship anyone else. For this one, who is the Son of God, we worship, but the martyrs we love as disciples and imitators of the Lord,…”53 (emphasis added)
Tatian (AD 120-180)
Address to the Greeks
“We do not act as fools, O Greeks, nor utter idle tales, when we announce that God was born in the form of a man.”54
Epistle to Diognetus (ca. AD 130)
“….He sent him out of kindness and gentleness, like a king sending his son who is himself a king. He sent him as God; he sent him as man to men....”55
(Non-Christian) Pliny the Younger (AD 61-ca. 113)
“...on a fixed day they used to meet before dawn and recite a hymn among themselves to Christ, as though he were a god.”56
Theophilus of Antioch (died ca. 183-185 AD)
“In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity, of God, and His Word, and His wisdom.”57
3rd Century (200s)
Gregory of Thaumaturgus (213-270 AD)
“There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is His subsistent Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image: perfect Begetter of the perfect Begotten, Father of the only-begotten Son.
There is one Lord, Only of the Only, God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity, Efficient Word, Wisdom comprehensive of the constitution of all things, and Power formative of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible of Incorruptible, and Immortal of Immortal and Eternal of Eternal.
And there is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence from God, and being made manifest by the Son, to wit to men: Image of the Son, Perfect Image of the Perfect; Life, the Cause of the living; Holy Fount; Sanctity, the Supplier, or Leader, of Sanctification; in whom is manifested God the Father, who is above all and in all, and God the Son, who is through all.
There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abideth ever.”58 (emphasis added)
Endnotes:
[1] Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 46, in ANF01. The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Philip Schaff, 1 Clement 46
[2] Ignatius of Antioch, Ephesians Inscription
[3] Ibid. Ephesians 7.2
[4] Ibid. Ephesians 9
[5] Ibid. Ephesians 18.2
[6] Ibid. Ephesians 19.3
[7] Ignatius of Antioch, Romans Inscription
[8] Ibid. Romans 3.3
[9] Ibid. Romans 6.3
[10] Ignatius of Antioch, Smyrnaeans 1.1-2
[11] Ibid. Smyrnaeans 7.2
[12] Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Magnesians (chapter 6), in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1 (ANF01): The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Grand Rapids, MI.: Christian Classics Ethereal Library), Online version, p. 90
[13] Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Philadelphians (chapter 6), in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1 (ANF01): The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Grand Rapids, MI.: Christian Classics Ethereal Library), Online version, p. 117
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ignatius of Antioch, Trallians 7.1
[16] Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp 8.3
[17] Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho (34), in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1 (ANF01): The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Grand Rapids, MI.: Christian Classics Ethereal Library), Online version, p. 290
[18] Ibid. Dialogue with Trypho (56), in Philip Schaff, p. 311
[19] Ibid. Dialogue with Trypho (59), in Philip Schaff, p. 315
[20] Ibid. Dialogue with Trypho (63), in Philip Schaff, p. 319
[21] Ibid. Dialogue with Trypho (64), in Philip Schaff, p. 320
[22] Ibid. Dialogue with Trypho (68), in Philip Schaff, p. 325
[23] Ibid. Dialogue with Trypho (71), in Philip Schaff, p. 327
[24] Ibid. Dialogue with Trypho (76), in Philip Schaff, p. 331
[25] Ibid. Dialogue with Trypho (126), in Philip Schaff, pp. 372-373
[26] Ibid. Dialogue with Trypho (128), in Philip Schaff, p. 374
[27] Ibid. First Apology (6), in Philip Schaff, p. 215
[28] Ibid. First Apology (13), in Philip Schaff, p. 219
[29] Ibid. First Apology (61), in Philip Schaff, p. 316
[30] Ibid. First Apology (61), in Philip Schaff, p. 317
[31] Ibid. First Apology (63), in Philip Schaff, p. 249
[32] Melito of Sardis, "Part VI," in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 8 (ANF08), p. 2,010
[33] Melito of Sardis, "From the Same Apology," in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 8 (ANF08), p. 2,014
[34] Melito of Sardis, "VII—On the Nature of Christ," in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 8, p. 2,018
[35] Melito of Sardis, On the Passover (8-10), K:NWTS 4/1 (May 1989) 5-35, Online version
[36] Ibid.
[37] Athenagoras, A Plea for Christians, Chapter 10—The Christians Worship the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Online version
[38] Ibid. Chapter 12—Consequent Absurdity of the Charge of Atheism, Online version
[39] Ibid. Chapter 24—Concerning Angels and Giants, Online version
[40] Irenaeus, Against Heresies (1.10.1) in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1 (ANF01): The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Grand Rapids, MI.: Christian Classics Ethereal Library), Online version, pp. 471-472
[41] Ibid. Against Heresies (4.6.7) in Philip Schaff, p. 677
[42] Ibid. Against Heresies (3.16.2) in Philip Schaff, p. 634
[43] Ibid. Against Heresies (3.16.2) in Philip Schaff, p. 635
[44] Ibid. Against Heresies (3.18.7) in Philip Schaff, p. 646
[45] Ibid. Against Heresies (3.21.1) in Philip Schaff, p. 651
[46] Ibid. Against Heresies (3.21.4) in Philip Schaff, p. 653
[47] Ibid. Against Heresies (3.19) in Philip Schaff, p. 646
[48] Ibid. Against Heresies (3.19.2) in Philip Schaff, p. 646
[49] Ibid. Against Heresies (3.20.4) in Philip Schaff, p. 651
[50] Irenaeus, Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching (47) in Philip Schaff, The Demonstration of Apostolic Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI.: Christian Classics Ethereal Library), Online version, p. 69
[51] Polycarp, Epistle to the Philippians (Chapter 15) in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1 (ANF01): The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Grand Rapids, MI.: Christian Classics Ethereal Library), Online version, p. 82
[52] “The Martyrdom of Polycarp” (Chapter 15) The Apostolic Fathers, ed. Michael W. Holmes (Grand Rapids, MI.: Baker Books, 1992, 1999), p. 239; see also Martyrdom of Polycarp in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 1 (ANF01): The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Grand Rapids, MI.: Christian Classics Ethereal Library), Online version, p. 63
[53] Ibid. p. 64
[54] Tatian, Address to the Greeks (21), in Philip Schaff, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 2 (ANF02): Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria, Online version
[55] Epistle to Diognetus (7.4), Online version
[56] Pliny the Younger, "Pliny the Younger’s Letter to Emperor Trajan Regarding the Christians, and Trajan’s Response," (Letter 10.96), from the Internet History Sourcebooks Project and W. S. David, ed., Readings in Ancient History, Online version
[57] Theophilus, Apologia ad Autolycum, Book II, Chapter 15, as quoted in Philip Schaff, Fathers of the Second Century, p. 157
[58] Gregory of Thaumaturgus, Creed of Gregory of Thaumaturgus, Online version