Introduction to This Volume

How this book is arranged

This is the twenty-third volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This volume holds Athanasius of Alexandria, Letters and the Life of Antony, from the period about AD 329 – 373.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section numbers.

The translations

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation. In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. All the works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.

In this volume

Athanasius was bishop of Alexandria from AD 328 until his death in AD 373, and he was sent into exile five times for his defence of the faith of Nicaea. His writings include his early work On the Incarnation, his long answers to the Arians, his letters, and the Life of Antony.

The Festal Letters survive largely in an ancient Syriac translation. Letter 39, of AD 367, gives the earliest list of the books of the New Testament that matches our twenty-seven. The Life of Antony is printed twice, first in the Greek and then in a Syriac version that was translated separately.

Dates and authorship

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is uncertain.