Where are the original documents of the Apostolic Fathers located?

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MichelleTherese

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Of course I don’t mean ALL of the documents, that would take 100 years to list.

But my Mormon friend has read the list of the various successors of the original 12 Apostles and now she’s going to go ask her Mormon friend who is an ex-nun. And we all know how that is going to turn out!

I know I am not going to convince my friends (barring any surprise miracles) but it would be nice to end this debate by comparing an ex-nun’s hearsay opinion to, “Here are the locations of several of the most ancient of the Apostolic Fathers’ writings. Has your ex-nun friend gone and verified that they are all false and fake?”

I had no idea my friends would be so pushy about this! I was supposed to be engaged in a sewing lesson but the husband sat down and then began to just shove it down my throat, making statements in a way that they sounded like absolute fact. “Did you know that when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He went to South America and witnessed to the people there? Did you know that … etc etc etc.”

I will say something though: I was able to bring every single one of their accusations against the Church to a screeching halt. I was able to calmly and logically explain everything in a way that they could not get out of, from "but the Catholic Church hid the Bible in Latin (er… the Bible was in Greek and how many in the ancient world could read and write Greek??) to Pope Joan (seriously! Pope Joan! I couldn’t believe it) to, “why isn’t your Pope a prophet that received revelations from God ~ how can he possibly lead the Church without this?” (There are no new revelations since the Deposit of Faith given by Christ…) to “What is Apostolic Succession?” to the List o’ Popes to… “How come there are bad bishops still serving?” (because there are 1.6 Billion members of our Church, many of whom are being slaughtered, made into harem slaves, and even more of them are starving to death so the Church has a zillion very urgent priorities and zero police powers to use against bad Shepherds?? They get to the bad Bishops eventually.) But I could not offer instant proof of the Apostolic Fathers, or that their writings are authentic.

Hopefully I can get to that. I’m looking for a good book that really documents the writings of the Apostolic Fathers hard core… they gave me a Book o’ Mormon so I will give them a gift too! And they’ll give up trying to convert me and I’ll have some peace.
 
I would think that the oldest texts would be at trhe Vatican library or in some other museums.

A good book that I found helpful is the 3 volume set “The Faith of the Early Fathers” by William A. Jurgens.👍
 
MichelleTherese said:
I had no idea my friends would be so pushy about this! I was supposed to be engaged in a sewing lesson but the husband sat down and then began to just shove it down my throat, making statements in a way that they sounded like absolute fact. “Did you know that when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He went to South America and witnessed to the people there? Did you know that … etc etc etc.”

I will say something though: I was able to bring every single one of their accusations against the Church to a screeching halt. I was able to calmly and logically explain everything in a way that they could not get out of, from "but the Catholic Church hid the Bible in Latin (er… the Bible was in Greek and how many in the ancient world could read and write Greek??) to Pope Joan (seriously! Pope Joan! I couldn’t believe it) to, “why isn’t your Pope a prophet that received revelations from God ~ how can he possibly lead the Church without this?” (There are no new revelations since the Deposit of Faith given by Christ…) to “What is Apostolic Succession?” to the List o’ Popes to… “How come there are bad bishops still serving?” (because there are 1.6 Billion members of our Church, many of whom are being slaughtered, made into harem slaves, and even more of them are starving to death so the Church has a zillion very urgent priorities and zero police powers to use against bad Shepherds?? They get to the bad Bishops eventually.) But I could not offer instant proof of the Apostolic Fathers, or that their writings are authentic.
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Mormons do not generally respond well to facts or history, they’re taught to ignore anything that goes against Mormon teachings. Their leaders told them these things are true, so they must be true, no matter how many facts and rational arguments you present to them.

I applaud your efforts, juts be aware that nothing you say will convince them, only them opening the Holy Spirit can accomplish that.

To answer your question, I believe that most of them are kept in the Vatican Archives. Due to their extreme age they run the risk of crumbling to dust if handled improperly, and given their deep significance to the Church we must do our best to preserve them for the future. Unfortunately, this means that only highly trained individuals can be allowed access to them. This is how the archives have gotten their derogatory nickname of “The Vatican’s Secret Archives.”
 
Unfortunately, there are no original documents (autographs) of the Apostolic Fathers. All that we have are copies.
 
DaveBj said:
Unfortunately, there are no original documents (autographs) of the Apostolic Fathers. All that we have are copies.
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Are you sure? That traveling salesman assured me they were genuine!😦
 
DCNBILL said:
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A good book that I found helpful is the 3 volume set “The Faith of the Early Fathers” by William A. Jurgens.👍
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I bought that!! And then became a bit overwhelmed. I’ll go back to it and see what I can find of the Apostolic Fathers. 🙂
 
ProdglArchitect said:
Mormons do not generally respond well to facts or history, they’re taught to ignore anything that goes against Mormon teachings. Their leaders told them these things are true, so they must be true, no matter how many facts and rational arguments you present to them.

I applaud your efforts, juts be aware that nothing you say will convince them, only them opening the Holy Spirit can accomplish that.

To answer your question, I believe that most of them are kept in the Vatican Archives. Due to their extreme age they run the risk of crumbling to dust if handled improperly, and given their deep significance to the Church we must do our best to preserve them for the future. Unfortunately, this means that only highly trained individuals can be allowed access to them. This is how the archives have gotten their derogatory nickname of “The Vatican’s Secret Archives.”
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I can already see by their instant rebuttals against the info I have already given to them that Mormons are indeed programmed to ignore vital information. Ok, fine then. I knew I wouldn’t convert them, I’m not that awesome. But I do find it helpful to shoot down their arguments because they really are stubborn and worry a topic like a hungry dog with a bone. When I answer their charges with logical answers they give up on those topics… and peace returns! I did not ask for any info about their church.
 
DaveBj said:
Unfortunately, there are no original documents (autographs) of the Apostolic Fathers. All that we have are copies.
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I figured as much, that’s to be expected after 2,000 years of time and 1400 years of Jihad and endless raids and the destruction of the Reformation!

But the documents we do have will still be ancient. And from the Holy Land and surrounding nations. Not America in the 1800’s…

When I was searching for Christ’s Church I needed ancient documents that went past Europe in the 1400s and written by Europeans!
 
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