When it comes to determining when an early church father lived, how do we know the range of years when they lived? As far as I know, even for popular church fathers like Irenaeus or Papias, we don't have many copies of their manuscripts and ones that we do have are relatively recent.
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3This is more or less the same as how we know about any more ancient writer. It's a mix of what they wrote, what others wrote about them, etc– equesCommented Mar 14 at 21:41
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@eques Could we also use the consistent chains of bishops for a city like say Antioch or Rome?– User2280Commented Mar 14 at 22:59
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A chain of bishops would show more order or continuity than specific years, which I thought you were asking about– equesCommented Mar 14 at 23:25
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2 Answers
In fact, we have no manuscripts at all written directly by the early church fathers. Their writings were preserved through copying and paraphrasing by later authors, the most important source being Eusebius of Caesarea. Their dates are determined by historical and literary criticism. For example, if a writer refers to a known historical event, historical critics deduce that he lived after that event. If he refers to a specific writing, we know that he could not have lived prior to the writing's existence. Occasionally, a writer will live a definite clue such as "in the third year of Emperor so-and-so." For example, Justin Martyr's First Apology mentions Felix being the procurator of Egypt. Felix served in this capacity between 151 and 154, so the Apology is usually dated to c. 155.
Meanwhile literary critics examine the text for grammatical and stylistic clues, comparing the writer's texts to other examples whose date is better known. As an analogy, if a modern writer uses gender-neutral language, we presume they did not write prior to this language coming into general use.
As with the dating of the gospels, scholars often disagree about the exact dates when the early church fathers wrote, not to mention whether certain writings are authentic or not. To take one example, Eusebius dates the death of Polycarp to the reign of Marcus Aurelius, c. 166–167. However, the Martyrdom of Polycarp dates his death to the reign of Lucius Statius Quadratus, c. 155 or 156.
Conclusion: dating the church fathers is not an exact science. However, literary and historical criticism, as well as what the fathers themselves say about when they lived, gives us a good sense of their dates in most cases.
Beginning to Read the Fathers is a book written by a renowned Catholic scholar, and a couple of quotes from him should help answer the question.
"I have concentrated on patristic literature written before the Council of Chalcedon (451), since it was then that the Fathers were most characteristically themselves and that nearly all of the greatest of them lived, without, I hope, having utterly neglected the succeeding period...
The era of the Fathers begins sometime in the first century - at the latest by around the year 96... but perhaps as early as 50 or 60 or 70... It concludes in the East with the death of John Damascene around the year 750, although for the West different cut-off points are given: the death of Gregory the Great in 604, that of Isidore of Seville in 636 and that of the Venerable Bede in 735. In fact, however, much of the spirit of the Fathers, their understanding of God and of life, continues well into the Middle Ages in the West. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, for example, an important figure of the twelfth century, has been called 'the last of the Fathers,' and others even later than he could perhaps qualify for that title. In the East, one could claim, the patristic spirit has never disappeared. This criterion, then, like the others, is thus somewhat arbitrary, as anyone knows who has tried to asses where one age of history ends and another begins." Beginning to Read the Fathers, Boniface Ramsey, O.P., pp.1 & 4, Darton Longman & Todd, 1986
Dating individual Fathers, then, is set within the loose framework of when the era of the Fathers began and ended. At the end of his book, Ramsey tabulates names of many Fathers, what (only some) of their patristic writings were (if known), and approximate dates of when they were written. Obviously, the authors lived before they began to write, but firm dates for birth are few and far between. Dates for death can often be clearer. For a few he puts a question-mark as to date, and for many others he puts the abbreviation for an estimated date, the 'c' for circa. Nor does he detail all of their known writings.
The Didache, c.70?
Clement of Rome, First Letter, c. 96
Ignatius of Antioch, Letters, c. 112
Letters of Barnabas, Letter to Diognetus, c. 125?
Hermas, The Shepherd, c. 120 - c. 154
The Martyrdom of Polycarp, c. 157. Justin Martyr, d. c. 163 - 167
Tatian, Athenagoras, Melito, fl. c. 160 - 18
Clement of Alexandria, fl. c. 190 - 202
Irenaeus, Against Heresies, c. 190 [b. c. 130, d. c. 200]
Tertullian, fl. c. 197 - 220
Hippolytus, Apostolic Tradition, c. 215. Didascalia Aposyolotum, before 250
Methodius of Olymppus, fl. c. 300
Arnobius of Sicca, Against the Pagans, c. 305
Lactantius, fl. c. 300 - c. 320
Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, c. 325
Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, 328 - 373
Cyril of Jerusalem, fl. c. 350
Augustine, b. 354, converted 386, bishop of Hippo, 395 - 430
Anthony of Egypt, d. 356
Basil, bishop of Caesarea, 370 - 379
Gregory Nazianzen, bishop of Constantinople, 379 - 381
Ambrose, bishop of Milan, c. 374 - 397
Gregory of Nyssa, d. c. 394
Martin of Tours, d. 397
Theodore, bishop of Mopsuestia, 392 - 428
John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, 398 - 404, d. 407
Jerome, d. c. 420
Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, 412 - 444
Paulinus of Nola, d. c. 431
Cassian, d. c. 432
Leo, bishop of Rome, 440 - 461
Caesarius, bishop of Arles, 503 - 542
Benedict, d. c. 546
Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, 590 - 604
Isidore, bishop of Seville, c. 600 - c. 636
Maximus, the Confessor, d. 662
Bede, d. 735
John Damascene, d. c. 750
