The Apostolic Fathers were basically the next generation of church leaders following the death of the apostles. Perhaps not surprisingly, a few of their writings even exhibit the same sort of literary symmetry found in the books of both the OT and NT. Below are two examples.
The Letters of Ignatius
The presence of small chiastic (mirror image) elements in Ignatius' letters proposed by various scholars raises the expectation that some of his individual works might be completely composed in a symmetrical manner. The small Epistle to the Romans was analyzed as a test of this hypothesis. The results utilizing either themes or specific verbal clues showed a good agreement with one another and resulted in the following symmetrical organization for the letter as a whole.
1. Opening greetings (0:0-1:1) “prayer,” “salute (2x),” “worthy (7x)”
2.
Please God by not helping me (1:2- 2:2) “desire,”
“world,” “love,” “unto God that I may rise unto Him”
3. Trials (3:1-5:3) “hinder”
a. future (3:2-4:2) “disciple,” “wild beasts”
b. present (4:3-5:1) “disciple,” “wild beasts”
a'. future (5:2-3) “disciple,” “wild beasts”
3'. Desire to imitate Christ's Passion (ch. 6) “hinder”
2'. Stand on my side and God's side (chs. 7-8) “desire (7x),” “world,” “love,” “come to the Father”
1'. Final greetings (chs. 9-10) “prayers,” “salute,” “worthy (3x)”
Confirming this structure are the observations that (a) “desire” appears exactly seven times between sections 3 and 3 and (b) references to Rome and Romans appear only in the opening, center, and closing sections.
There is also an elaborate symmetrical pattern in the order of divine names which unites Section 1:
a. Father
b. Jesus Christ his Son
c. Jesus Christ our God
d. God
e. Christ
a'. Father
b'. Jesus Christ the Son of the Father
c. Jesus Christ our God
d. God
In addition, there is a set of mirror-image bookends for Section 3a:
I am no longer visible
to the world (3:2b)
------------------------------------
The world
shall not...see my body (4:2b)
Didache
This early writing purports to come directly from the Twelve Apostles, which is probably not true. But it does exhibit the same sort of literary order that we see in genuine biblical writings. Starting with Walter Ray's demonstration of the close structural ties between Didache 9 and 10, the following attempt was made to reconstruct a symmetrical pattern for the entire work. The results were highly persuasive.
I. Two Ways (vv.1-5)
A. The Way of Life (vv. 1-4)
B. The Way of Death (v. 5)
II. Beware of False Teachings (v. 6a)
III. Teachings about body life (vv. 6b-10)
A. But concerning eating (v. 6b)
B. But concerning baptism (v. 7)
C. Fasting (v. 8a)
C'. Praying (v. 8b)
B'. as touching the eucharistic thanksgiving (v. 9)
A'. Thanksgiving after dinner (v. 10)
II. Testing teachers (vv. 11-13)
A. Receive teachers (v. 11a)
B. Test them (v. 11b)
A'. Receive teachers(v. 12a)
B'. Test them (v. 12b)
A'''. True prophet is worthy (v. 13)
III. Teachings about body life (vv. 14-15)
I'. Fate of the Two Ways (v. 16)
A. Coming of the Lord
B. The Faithful
C. The Lawless
C'. Fate of the Lawless
B. Salvation of the faithful
A'. Coming the Lord
Both I and I' contain numerous NT quotations, and IA and B begin in the same manner: “first of all.”
Section
IA is bounded by “The
way of life is this" at the beginning and “This
is the way of life” at its conclusion.
Section I' begins with “life”and ends with “dead.”
Some of these writings make interesting and even inspiring reading, but should certainly not be placed on the same level of authority as the NT itself. The complete texts of these writings and others are probably available on-line. Alternatively, J.B. Lightfoot has translated them into English and collected them in a book appropriately called The Apostolic Fathers.
Once one moves into the later Christian writings, all semblance of order disappears.
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