Glossary

Short explanations of the terms you will meet on passage, work, and search pages.

Allusion: A deliberate reference to a Bible passage without quoting it word for word. The site tags every Scripture reference as a quotation, an allusion, or an echo.
ANF and NPNF: The Ante-Nicene Fathers (10 volumes) and the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (two series, 28 volumes), English translations published 1885–1900 and now in the public domain. Each Claude translation is made from the original first and only afterwards compared with them where they exist.
Ante-Nicene, Nicene, post-Nicene: Before, around, and after the Council of Nicaea (AD 325). The site covers writings from the first century to about AD 451 (the Council of Chalcedon).
Apostolic Fathers: The earliest Christian writings after the New Testament, from about AD 70 to 150: the Didache, 1 and 2 Clement, the letters of Ignatius and Polycarp, the Martyrdom of Polycarp, Barnabas, Hermas, and Diognetus.
Apologist: A writer who defended Christianity to outsiders, usually pagan rulers or intellectuals, in the second and third centuries (e.g. Justin, Athenagoras, Tatian).
Apparatus: The notes at the foot of a critical edition that record the manuscripts’ different readings. The site gives the text as printed and does not reproduce the apparatus; real textual problems are flagged in the notes.
Attribution: disputed, pseudonymous, spurious: Disputed: scholars disagree whether the named author wrote it. Pseudonymous: written under another’s name. Spurious (shown as “traditional ascription rejected”): the traditional author is now generally rejected. Works without a label are generally accepted as authentic.
Beta Code: A way of typing Greek with plain keyboard letters and symbols (e.g. lo/gos for λόγος). The search box accepts it.
CPG and CPL: The Clavis Patrum Graecorum and Clavis Patrum Latinorum, standard catalogues that give every Greek and Latin patristic work a number. Work pages show the number where one is recorded.
Column and letter (e.g. PG 5:724a): Migne’s volumes are cited by column, not page, and each column is divided into quarters marked a–d. “PG 5:724a” means volume 5, column 724, first quarter.
Critical edition: An edition whose editor compared the manuscripts to reconstruct the original text. The site publishes only editions that are in the public domain or openly licensed; modern editions are cited but not reproduced.
CSEL, GCS, CCSL, SC: Series of critical editions: the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (Vienna, Latin), Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller (Berlin, Greek), Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, and Sources Chrétiennes.
Dagger (†) and crux: An editor’s mark for a word or passage the manuscripts have corrupted beyond sure repair. Such places are translated as “…” or by sense, with a note.
Deuterocanonical books: Books in the Greek Old Testament but not the Hebrew Bible (e.g. Sirach, Wisdom, Tobit, 1–2 Maccabees). On this site they are listed with the other extrabiblical texts, with a note of the canons that include them.
Echo: A faint verbal resemblance to a Bible passage that may or may not be intended. Weaker than an allusion.
Editor’s brackets: Square brackets in most editions used here mark words the editor thinks should be deleted; the translation leaves them out and says so. Angle brackets mark words the editor adds; they are translated.
Extrabiblical text: Anything outside the 66 books of the Protestant Bible that an early writer quotes or alludes to: deuterocanonical books, other Jewish and Christian writings, pagan authors, and earlier Fathers.
Lacuna (gap): A place where text is lost, in the manuscripts or in the scan an edition was taken from. Gaps are marked “…” and noted, never filled in.
Lemma: The dictionary form of a word (e.g. λόγος for λόγου, λόγοις). Greek searches match by lemma, so one search finds every form.
LXX (Septuagint): The ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Bible most Greek Fathers used. Its numbering of some books differs (most Psalms are one lower); the site shows the English Bible’s number first and the LXX number in brackets.
Patristic, Fathers: From Latin pater, “father”: the writers of the early church and their writings.
PG and PL (Migne): The Patrologia Graeca (161 volumes) and Patrologia Latina (221 volumes), published by J.-P. Migne in 1844–1866, the largest printed collection of the Fathers and now in the public domain.
Quotation: A passage reproduced from the Bible closely enough to be recognised as a citation. The wording follows the writer’s own Bible, which may be the Septuagint or an old Latin version.
Recension: A distinct edited form of a text. The letters of Ignatius, for example, survive in short, middle, and long recensions; the site uses the middle one, generally accepted as authentic.
Reference (e.g. 5.2): Works are cited by their standard divisions: book, chapter, and section as the edition prints them. “Ign. Pol. 5.2” is Ignatius, To Polycarp, chapter 5, section 2.
SBL style: The citation style of The SBL Handbook of Style (2nd ed.), used for every reference and ready-made footnote on the site.
Transliteration: Greek written in Latin letters (e.g. porneia for πορνεία). The search accepts transliteration with or without accents and macrons.
Vulgate: The Latin Bible associated with Jerome, used in the Latin West. Its numbering and book names sometimes differ from the English Bible (e.g. 1–2 Kings = 3–4 Kings); these are shown in brackets.