Patristiblogger Project: Augustine on 1 John – Intention

I have been wondering what to do with the blog and I have decided will soon to return to my Patristic roots, my Patristiblogger roots, for a time.  I will tackle St. Augustine’s Homilies on the First Epistle of John.  There are ten homilies.  We could do one per week.

I thought about the English version to use and decided on the free, online version available at New Advent, by H. Browne, in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 7.  The translation has the advantage is sticking closely to the Latin.  You can find the Latin text for free online here.

There will be a combination of PODCAzTs and blog posts for discussion.  The work on the blog can be both in English and in Latin.

Before anything else, however, we will have to have some preparation.

The first step in a preparation would be to read in your handy New Testament, 1 John.  Obvious, no?  You can find the older Vulgate with the Douay English side by side here.  There are various sites which present the Greek New Testament.  There is an interesting inter-linear site here.  Another, in pdf, here.  Some other resources, including audio in Latin and Greek here.  If you want a study version, I rather like the Navarre Bible series.  Here is a link for the appropriate volume from amazon.

Reading an older English version of 1 John, such as Douay or the KJV might be a way of getting in English something closer to what Augustine had in Latin for his version.  What I’m saying is that Douay or KJV might be more helpful for getting into your ear the feel of the text of 1 John than, say, the Jerusalem Bible.

Augustine will cite the version of the Latin that he had.  He obviously didn’t have the Vulgate.

I will add more propaedeutic comments as we rev up the project.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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22 Comments

  1. Patti Day says:

    Father, I am very much looking forward to this opportunity. My geographical location offers few opportunities to learn our faith in either a one-to-one or group setting. May I say this is sounds exciting.

  2. benedetta says:

    Thanks Fr. Z for this opportunity. It’s very helpful, New Advent’s collection of writings of Church Fathers. I have looked back to it for awhile now. There is a lot that can be read on your own but then some context does require the help of a guide. I look forward to reading these reflections and the comments others bring to them as well.

  3. Joseph says:

    There is nothing more thrilling then to learn more about our faith. I shall gratefully follow your posts and hope will find time for this endeavour.

  4. Dear Father Z,

    This opportunity for study and growth is a very generous gift! May God bless you abundantly and may many be inspired to take advantage of it!

  5. FrCharles says:

    Looking forward to it!

  6. wanda says:

    Ditto. Thank you, Fr. Z.

  7. David Homoney says:

    Father, this is a great idea. I absolutely love it. Thank you for taking the time and God Bless.

  8. a catechist says:

    You just made my summer! Thank you so much!!

  9. fieldsparrow says:

    This is totally wonderful and I’m in. now tweet it so I can retweet!

  10. Paul M says:

    Thank you, Father! Really looking forward to this.

    Oh, and this reminds me to thank you again for your Patristic Rosary Project. It also reminds me to get back on track studying the Glorious Mysteries in that project before Pentecost. What a great resource.

  11. cblanch says:

    Thank you, Father!

  12. MikeM says:

    I’m actually super excited for this.

  13. APX says:

    @Patti Day
    Father, I am very much looking forward to this opportunity. My geographical location offers few opportunities to learn our faith in either a one-to-one or group setting. May I say this is sounds exciting.

    Ditto. Doing some research in my diocese, and there’s really nothing on this facet of Catholic faith outside of taking random university classes on top of my degree at another school. That’s just not practical. I’ve tried reading what works I could find in my college’s library, but without guidance from someone who already understands it, it’s hard to get anything really out of it. (That could have something to do with being spoon fed pablum in college classes rather than being in university left with some ingredients with instructions to feed myself.)

    That said, I’m looking forward to it.

  14. Excellent! Looking forward to them.

  15. Archromanist says:

    This sounds like a splendid project, Father. I’m very much looking forward to it. Here’s a question for discussion. Why does the title (which I presume reflects Augustine’s own usage) of 1 John on augustinus.it include the phrase “ad Parthos”? Was it a tradition of those times that the letter had been written to the Parthians? Or does the “ad Parthos” go with “Tractatus,” and thus Augustine was writing to some Parthian friends?

  16. ckdexterhaven says:

    Father, thank you for taking the time to do this. I was poorly catechised, and I am trying to learn learn learn about the Faith. I will probably listen to this with my older kids.

  17. Schiavona says:

    Returning to patristic roots, for a time – hopefully, a long time. As a convert who found the faith via classical philology and cried into my copy of Confessions, I join the approving chorus.

  18. Mike Morrow says:

    Fr. Z wrote: “Reading an older English version of 1 John, such as Douay or the KJV might be a way of getting in English something closer to what Augustine had in Latin for his version. What I’m saying is that Douay or KJV might be more helpful for getting into your ear the feel of the text of 1 John than, say, the Jerusalem Bible.”

    Thank you for reference to the King James Bible, with its 400th anniversary here. I was raised from the beginning as Roman Catholic, and at parochial school in the 1950s and 1960s the KJV was still termed a forbidden book.

    There is no work that has influenced the culture of English-speaking people more than the KJV. The original work includes the so-called apocryphal books that most Protestant Bibles omit today. Anyone needing an “academic” version to look up references such as Fr. Z’s should consider “The Bible, Authorized King James Version With Apocrypha” that is part of the Oxford World Classics series.

    I’m not sophisticated or educated enough in this area to have ever been able to detect all those doctrinal heresies that others have always assured me are lurking in the KJV (nor could they cite any specifics). It’s my favorite English Bible. As one example why, compare the language of Psalm 23 in the KJV with that of the equivalent (Psalm 22) in the Challoner-Douai version. The latter is artless in comparison.

    It’s great that a Roman Catholic priest may today refer to the KJV without scandal.

  19. oldCatholigirl says:

    Great idea, Father! I’ve been wanting to dig into the Fathers, particularly St. Augustine, for some time now, but couldn’t get started on my own. I’ve also got about a year’s worth of Latin into my poor old brain and have been doing the LOH Psalms and readings with Latin texts side-by-side, as well as reading the Latin side of my Missal for the EF. This will give me even more opportunity to flounder around, I mean, to learn.

  20. EWTN Rocks says:

    Thank you Fr. Z!

  21. MRoot says:

    New City Press, in their works of Augustine series, has a new paperback translation of the 1 John homilies. Amazon has it as a Kindle book also.

  22. albinus1 says:

    This sounds like a great idea and a great opportunity for many of us. I’m not familiar with this work by Augustine. I’m curious as to how his homilies might be affected by the textual problems in the “three witnesses” passage in 1 John 5.

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