Awhile back, I posted some quotations from J.B. Lightfoot. The book is J.B. Lightfoot's The Apostolic Fathers Part I: S. Clement of Rome. A Revised Text with Introductions, Notes, Dissertations and Translations (Volume I). Macmillan: London 1890. I'm still reading the book, and there is a lot of quotable stuff in here. I stop almost nightly to tell Amy, "oh, you gotta hear this!" I'm sure she's sick of me doing that, but she always manages a laugh and a smile. So it's worth trying. :)

Anyway, here are some more quotations.

On responding to a Volkmar's (whoever he is) theory that the book of Judith is an allegory:

I shall not attempt to dissect this theory in detail, for it would be mere waste of time to do so. Those who wish to see it torn into shreds have only to consult the criticisms of Hilgenfeld and Lipsius, who have shown that neither the dates nor the localities nor the incidents will admit it. (p. 356)

On the genuineness of First Clement:

There is lastly the circumstance that its genuiness was never questioned by any individual critic of repute or by any Church for more than seventeen centuries, from the reign of Domitian or Nerva to the reign of Victoria. I pass by one or two writers of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th, whose method deprives them of any weight as authorities, and whose opinions it would be a waste of time to discuss or even record. [NB: he then gives a footnote with two citations, to Lipsius and Harnack, so one could follow up and find the worthless opinions]. (p. 362).

... As a matter of fact, [the passage concerning the phoenix] is one of the best authenticated passages in Clement; and indeeed we may well excuse a simple Christian for a credulity of which not a few among his higly educated heathen contemporaries were guilty (see the note on sect. 25). Again soon after, an Englishman, E. Bernard, suggested that some later impostor had foisted into the text of the Roman Clement some fragments of the Alexandrian who quoted him. This was hardly worth refutation, but it was refuted by Wotton. (p. 363).

That's it for now. More later if/when I come across it.

Update (2007-04-04): ricoblog reader Mike Aubrey (who has his own blog εν εφέσω, check it out) comments:

Rick, I'm trying to make a decision here...Is it worth it to pick up Lightfoot's five volume work on Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp? I know that most of his writings are still quite valuable, but I'm a little nervous about dropping that cash for these volumes.

So, yes its worth it or do you think there are other more recent works that should be invested instead?

Yeesh, I dunno. First off, it's not worth it if you're going into debt. If you're floating a book purchase on a credit card, you're spending money you shouldn't be. If you pay off your card at the end of each month, then go ahead. But don't borrow money to buy books.

Mike, if you're near a decent seminary library or university library with a seminary, then head to the library and check out the volumes and see if they're something you really want to drop the cash on. Alternately, you could try searching Google Books to find 'em. I just did that; here's Ignatius & Polycarp Part II Vol I ; Part II Vol II. I think; I can't guarantee the links will work. But I searched http://books.google.com for "Joseph Barber Lightfoot" clement volume. 

I'd say if you're deep into the Apostolic Fathers, or Clement/Ignatius/Polycarp in particular, then sure. Lightfoot discusses relevant sources and at times even provides them in the original language and translation. The only place I've really learned about the three primary sources of Clement (Alexandrinus, Constinopolitanus, and the Syriac) is via Lightfoot. Sure, other editions (e.g. Ehrman, Holmes, Lake) talk about them in introductions; but Lightfoot actually gives MSS history and does comparison of MS trends in his discussion of textual history of the Clementine epistles. But Lightfoot goes both ways -- I've skipped a massive essay (a book in itself) on Roman succession; in one of the Polycarp volumes there is a massive tome on calendars and dating that is beyond me. Stuff like that I skip over; maybe it'll come in handy some day. But in the five vols. Lightfoot does do a ton of work with citations of the writings in later literature and also with canonical citations in the writings that might be hard to find elsewhere. And he's got commentary on the Greek editions of each writing and then some.