Primary source · Koine Greek
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Apophthegmata Patrum)
The elders of Nitria, Kellia & Scetis (compiled later) · sayings 4th century; collected 5th
What this text is
The desert's living voice, one saying at a time — Antony on love beyond fear, Arsenius on flight, silence, and stillness — the most copied monastic book of the East.
Profile of Anthony the Great →
Interlinear passages
Word-for-word glosses of the original; the complete public-domain translation is linked below.
Antony 32 — beyond fear
ἘγὼIοὐκέτιno longerφοβοῦμαιfearτὸν—Θεόν,Godἀλλ᾽butἀγαπῶI loveαὐτόνhim
Arsenius 2 — the threefold word
Φεῦγε,Fleeσιώπα,be silentἡσύχαζεbe still
Public-domain translations
E. A. W. Budge, Paradise of the Fathers (1907)
Abba Antony said: I no longer fear God, but I love Him; for love casteth out fear… A voice came to Arsenius: Flee, keep silence, be still, for these are the roots of not sinning.
Manuscript witnesses
Alphabetical & systematic collections
9th c. onward (Greek); early versions in Latin, Syriac, Coptic, ArmenianThe Sayings crystallized in two great arrangements, translated into every monastic tongue.
Provenance
Scetis and Palestine; oral 4th c., compiled c. AD 500
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Les Apophtegmes des Pères: collection systématique (SC 387, 474, 498)Jean-Claude Guy, 1993–2005The critical edition of the systematic collection.
- The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical CollectionBenedicta Ward, rev. 1984The standard English translation.