Primary source · Koine Greek
The Apology of Quadratus (fragment)
Quadratus of Athens · c. AD 124–125, presented to Hadrian
What this text is
The earliest Christian apology — one paragraph survives, preserved by Eusebius: some of those healed and raised by the Saviour, Quadratus writes, lived into his own times.
Profile of Quadratus of Athens →
Interlinear passages
Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.
The surviving fragment (Eusebius, EH IV.3)
ΤοῦOf theδὲbutσωτῆροςSaviourἡμῶνourτὰtheἔργαworksἀεὶalwaysπαρῆν·were presentἀληθῆtrueγὰρforἦν.they were
Public-domain translations
A. C. McGiffert (NPNF, 1890)
But the works of our Saviour were always present, for they were genuine: those that were healed, and those that were raised from the dead, who were seen not only when they were healed and when they were raised, but were also always present… so that some of them lived even to our day.
Manuscript witnesses
Eusebius, Church History IV.3
c. 325 (11th-c. copies)One paragraph quoted by Eusebius is all that survives of the earliest apology addressed to Hadrian.
Provenance
Athens (or Asia Minor), c. AD 124–125 — the first apology
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- The Apostolic FathersMichael W. Holmes, 3rd ed. 2007The fragment with translation and introduction.
- The Apologists (in: The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature)Frances Young et al. (eds.), 2004Orientation to the apologetic tradition Quadratus opened.