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By contrast, the writings of the desposyni, the surviving members of the family of Jesus of Nazareth, of whom James the Just is allowed to be one of the three "pillars of the church" in earliest days, have almost completely disappeared. These were not later considered "Apostolic Fathers" in the Gentile church as it was first envisaged and shepherded by Paul.

The "Apostolic Fathers" are distinguished from other Christian authors of this same period by their interest in setting forth those Christian practices and theology that largely fell within those developing traditions of Pauline Christianity that became the mainstream and was eventually in a position to label divergent views as heresy. Thus there are second century and even earlier writings that do not fall in the category of "Apostolic Fathers." Such writings have been actively denounced and suppressed in the following centuries and are now considered "lost" works or fragmentary or even marginal heresies.

Within the Pauline tradition that eventually triumphed, on one hand Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian -- all of them after the time of the Apostolic Fathers proper --, primarily addressed their works to people beyond the Christian community and defended the Christian religion against pagan criticism, and are considered Apologists. On the other hand, a small number of authors, primarily known in fragments, such as Papias and Hegesippus, were more concerned with the apostolic continuity of the individual churches and their histories. Although some of the minor opinions expounded by the Apostolic Fathers are no longer considered entirely orthodox, their writings provide important evidence for one strain of early Christianity, as well as its intellectual history.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the use of the term "Apostolic Fathers" can be traced to a 1672 title of Jean Baptiste Cotelier, his SS. Patrum qui temporibus apostolicis floruerunt opera ("Works of the holy fathers who flourished in the apostolic times"), which title was abbreviated to Bibliotheca Patrum Apostolicorum by L. J. Ittig in his edition (Leipzig, 1699) of the same writings. Since then the term has been universally used.

The list of Fathers included under this title has varied. Inclusion is strictly based on church tradition, but literary criticism removed some writings formerly considered as 2nd-century, while the discovery of the DidacheIntro The Didache or Doctrine" or "Teachings of the Twelve Apostles is a short treatise considered by some of the Church Fathers as part of the Bible. Considered lost, it was rediscovered in 1883 by P. Bryennios, Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Nicomedia, in the 1880s added one orthodox writing to the list.

Chief in importance, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, are three 1st-century Bishops: St Clement of Rome, St Ignatius of AntiochIgnatius of Antioch (probably died AD 107) was the third bishop of Antioch, after Saint Peter and Euodius, whom Ignatius succeeded around AD 68. Ignatius, who also called himself Theophorus was most likely a disciple of both Apostles Peter and John. Sever, and St Polycarp of Smyrna, of whose intimate personal relations with the Apostles there is the strongest Church tradition. Clement, third successor to Peter as Bishop of Rome, "had seen the blessed Apostles [Peter and Paul] and had been conversant with them" (Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, III, iii, 3). Ignatius was the second successor of St. Peter in the See of Antioch (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., III, 36) and during his life in that centre of Christian activity may have met with others of the Apostolic band. An accepted tradition, substantiated by the similarity of Ignatius's thought with the ideas of the Johannine writings, declares him a disciple of St. JohnJacopo Pontormo, ca 1525 (Santa Felicita, Florence) John the Evangelist (? c. 110; " The LORD is merciful", Standard Hebrew Yoanan Tiberian Hebrew Yonn is presumed to be the author of the Gospel according to John. Tradition has identified him with John th. Polycarp was "instructed by Apostles" (Irenaeus, op. cit., III, iii, 4) and had been a disciple of St. John (Eusebius, op. cit., III, 36; V, 20) whose contemporary he was for nearly twenty years.

The works of the Apostolic Fathers include:

• The Epistle to DiognetusThe Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus is probably the earliest example of Christian apologetics, writings defending Christianity from its accusers. The Greek writer and recipient are not otherwise known, but the language and other textual evidence dates th (this one is hard to date and might also be of a later date)
• The First Epistle of Clement
• The Second Epistle of Clement (not actually written by Clement, but still a very early writing)
• The DidacheIntro The Didache or Doctrine" or "Teachings of the Twelve Apostles is a short treatise considered by some of the Church Fathers as part of the Bible. Considered lost, it was rediscovered in 1883 by P. Bryennios, Greek Orthodox metropolitan of Nicomedia,
• The Epistle of BarnabasThe Epistle of Barnabas is an epistle with twenty-one chapters, contained complete in the Codex Sinaiticus at the end of the New Testament. It is traditionally ascribed to the Barnabas mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. A complete Greek manuscript was
• Seven short Epistles of Ignatius (the longer forms of these Epistles, and those beyond the seven, are later emendations and forgeries)
• The Epistle of Polycarp
• The Epistle about Polycarp's Martyrdom
• The Shepherd of Hermas
• The fragments from the writings of Papias, which have survived as quotations by later writers
• One short fragment from a writing by Quadratus of Athens

Most or all of these works were originally written in Greek. English translations of these works can be found online in the Ante-Nicene Fathers series on the Christian Classics Ethereal Library website. Published English translations have also been done by various translators, such as J.B. Lightfoot and Michael Holmes.