JAMES DONALDSON, LL.D.,
Author of 'A Critical History of Christian Literature and Doctrine
from the Death of the Apostles to the Nicene Council.'
THE writings of the early Christians are allowed on all hands to be of
great importance, and to be invested with a peculiar interest; and
regrets have often been expressed that it should be so difficult to
know their contents. Many of them are mere fragments; and where
complete works exist, the text is often so corrupt, and the style is so
involved, that even a good classical scholar is repelled from their
perusal. If the student of Latin and Greek meets with obstacles, the
merely English reader is absolutely without the means of information.
The greater part of the most important writings have never been
translated; and those translations which have been made are, with the
exception of the few executed in recent times, for the most part loose,
inaccurate, and difficult to procure. To supply this great want is the
object of the Ante-Nicene Christian Library. All the Christian writings
antecedent to the Nicene Council have been put into the hands of
competent translators. These will make it their first and principal aim
to produce translations as faithful as possible, uncoloured by any
bias, dogmatic or ecclesiastical. They will also endeavour, in brief
notes, to place the English reader in the position of those acquainted
with the original languages. They will indicate important variations in
the text; they will give different translations of the same passage
where more than one have been proposed; they will note the various
meanings attributed to the words in ecclesiastical controversies; and
when the ancient documents appear in widely different forms, the
various forms will be presented. At the same time, they will strive to
combine with this strict accuracy and faithfulness as much elegance as
may be consistent with the main aim. Short biographical [Pg 526] and
explanatory notices will be prefixed to each translation; and in every
case where there is variety of opinion, the writer will abstain from
expressing his own sentiments, and confine himself simply to an
impartial statement of the opinions of the most noteworthy critics on
the point.