The Library
1780 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
101–200
2 works
c. 110–130; survives in fragments
Greek
Papias of Hierapolis · c. 60–c. 130
Five lost books gathering what Papias could learn from those who had heard the apostles, surviving only where Irenaeus and Eusebius quote him — including his notes on how Mark and Matthew came to be written.
c. 170
Syriac
Tatian · c. 120–c. 180
The four gospels woven into a single continuous narrative, with the overlaps removed.
201–300
3 works
c. 200–215; survives in fragments
Greek
Hypotyposeis
Clement of Alexandria · c. 150 – c. 215
Eight books of brief notes on the whole of scripture, condemned by Photius for saying strange things and lost apart from quotations. It preserved the tradition that Mark wrote at Rome from Peter's preaching, and that John, seeing the bodily facts already set down, composed a spiritual gospel.
c. 230; survives in fragments
Greek
Julius Africanus · c. 160 – c. 240
An attempt to reconcile the two genealogies of Jesus through levirate marriage: Joseph's father had two fathers, one by nature and one by law, so both lists are true. Africanus says the desposyni, the Lord's own surviving relatives, preserved the record.
c. 244; survives in Latin
Greek, surviving in Latin
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185 – c. 253
Thirty-nine short sermons on the infancy narrative and the opening of the ministry, opening with the observation that many had tried to write gospels and only four were approved — and naming some of the others.
301–400
2 works
c. 329–330
Latin
Evangeliorum Libri Quattuor
Juvencus
The gospel story, mostly Matthew, recast in some thirty-two hundred lines of Virgilian hexameter by a Spanish priest of noble birth. The preface says plainly what it is for: Homer and Virgil will burn with the world, but a poem carrying the deeds of Christ will not.
c. 360–373
Syriac
Ephrem the Syrian · c. 306–373
An exposition of Tatian's gospel harmony, reading each scene for its layers of meaning in the associative Syriac manner rather than the Greek analytic one.
401–500
1 work
c. 425–450
Latin
Carmen Paschale
Sedulius
The gospel story retold in five books of Virgilian hexameters, with the miracles of Christ set against the wonders of the Old Testament.
801–900
1 work
c. 863–871
Old High German
Evangelienbuch
Otfrid of Weissenburg · c. 800–c. 870
A harmony of the gospels in rhymed German verse, prefaced by a defence of writing sacred poetry in a language the author admits is unpolished.
1201–1300
1 work
1262–1268
Latin
Catena Aurea
Thomas Aquinas · 1225–1274
A continuous commentary on the four gospels assembled entirely from patristic quotations, chained together so the fathers appear to comment in sequence.
1301–1400
1 work
c. 1348–1374
Latin
Vita Christi
Ludolph of Saxony · c. 1295–1378
An enormous meditative life of Christ, gathering patristic comment and asking the reader at every scene to be present in it, to look and to listen.
1401–1500
2 works
c. 1409–1420
Latin
Jean Gerson · 1363–1429
The four gospels harmonised into a single continuous narrative in a hundred and fifty chapters, with the sources marked throughout.
c. 1480–1490
Catalan
Vita Christi
Isabel de Villena · 1430–1490
A life of Christ written by an abbess for her nuns, giving unusual prominence to the women of the gospels and to Mary's own perspective throughout.
13 of 1780 works