This is a standard source book for students of the early patristic period. In the new edition, Professor Frend has incorporated vital documents which were not available when the original collection was compiled.

The Gnostic documents of Nag Hammadi  and extracts from anti-Christian writings of Porphyry of Tyre are now included. Other documents have been slightly abridged or retranslated. Notes and references have been updated and documents are grouped under helpful subject headings which follow a broadly chronological sequence.