Library

Public-domain early Christian and classical writings for reading and citation, with selected later Protestant works as well (for example Spurgeon and Hislop).

Aristotle

On the Heavens c. 350 BC De Caelo Aristotle’s cosmological treatise. Book I, Part 9 discusses αἰών (“duration”) as the fulfilment of a life and of all time, “a name based upon the fact that it is always.”
Metaphysics, Book XII c. 350 BC Book XII (Λ) of the Metaphysics: the unmoved mover—the theology that On the Heavens’s cosmology depends on. English by W. D. Ross.

Arius

Thalia c. 322–323 Θάλεια Surviving fragments of Arius’s Thalia (“Banquet”), preserved chiefly in quotations by Athanasius of Alexandria. The original poem is lost.

Athanasius

Athenagoras

A Plea for the Christians c. 177 Athenagoras’s plea to Marcus Aurelius on Christian monotheism and the Father, Son, and Spirit. English by B.P. Pratten in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

Augustine of Hippo

City of God, Books IV–VII c. 413–426 De Civitate Dei Books IV–VII of the City of God: Roman religion and Varro’s account of the gods. English by Marcus Dods. Included as primary material for pagan cults and as an opposing voice on the Trinity.

Chronography of 354

Philocalian Calendar (Selections) AD 354 Chronographus anni CCCLIIII Selections from the Chronography of 354: December with Saturnalia and Natalis Invicti (25 Dec); the Depositio Martyrum opening with Christ’s nativity on the same day; and Isis-cycle festival days from the official Roman calendar.

Clement of Alexandria

The Stromata c. 198–203 Stromateis Clement’s Miscellanies: philosophy as a handmaid to faith, and Greek chronology beside Scripture. English in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

Isaac Preston Cory

Ancient Fragments 1828–1832 Public-domain collection of Greek and Latin fragments of Phoenician, Chaldean, Egyptian, Tyrian, Carthaginian, and related writers—Sanchoniatho, Berossus, Manetho, the Tyrian Annals, Hanno, and the Chaldean Oracles—gathered by Isaac Preston Cory.

Cotton Mather

Grace Defended December 25, 1712 Sermon preached on Christmas Day 1712 censuring ungodliness and Christmas revelry in New England; often called an anti-Christmas sermon.

Ctesias

Persica (Fragments) c. 400–390 BC Surviving fragments and epitomes of Ctesias’s Persica. The Assyrian story of Ninus and Semiramis is preserved mainly through Diodorus; Photius summarizes the later books.

Diodorus Siculus

Edmund Calamy

An Indictment against England (Christmas Fast, 1644) December 25, 1644 Sermon before the House of Lords on the solemn fast of 25 December 1644: Christmas superstition and profanation, and God burying the feast in a fast.

Epiphanius

Eusebius of Caesarea

Eusebius of Nicomedia

Letters and Fragments c. 318–328 The surviving letters and fragments of Eusebius of Nicomedia (d. 342), Arius’s leading episcopal ally and later bishop of Constantinople: the letter to Paulinus of Tyre on the Son’s creation and begetting; a fragment to Arius on beginning; the homoousios line preserved by Ambrose; and the joint petition with Theognis after exile.

Herodotus

Histories, Books I–II c. 440 BC Herodotus’s Histories Books I–II: Lydia, Persia, and Egypt—the earlier Greek picture of Babylon and Egypt.

Hesiod

Theogony c. 700 BC Hesiod’s Theogony: the succession of the gods—the mythic pattern behind treating Saturn, Nimrod, and deified kings as one story.

Hilary of Poitiers

On the Councils c. 359 De Synodis Hilary’s survey of creeds and councils between Nicaea and the later settlements, including “like in substance” language. English in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II.

Hippolytus

Alexander Hislop

The Two Babylons 1853; expanded 1858 Alexander Hislop’s The Two Babylons: or, The Papal Worship Proved to Be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife. With sixty-one woodcut illustrations from Nineveh, Babylon, Egypt, Pompeii, &c.

Ignatius of Antioch

Epistles (Middle Recension) c. 107 The seven letters of Ignatius in the shorter Greek form (middle recension) as printed in the Ante-Nicene Fathers—the early form of the Theophilus–Ignatius–John chain, not the later long recension.

Increase Mather

A Testimony against Several Prophane and Superstitious Customs (Christ-mass) 1687 New England Puritan tract against heathenish customs; this library copy presents the chapter against profane Christmas-keeping—Saturnalia compliance, Dec 25, and apostolic practice.

Irenaeus

Against Heresies c. 180 Adversus Haereses Irenaeus against Gnostic systems and for the apostolic rule of faith. English in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

John Winthrop

A Model of Christian Charity 1630 Winthrop’s 1630 discourse on Christian charity and covenant community for Massachusetts Bay—“we shall be as a city upon a hill.”

Flavius Josephus

Antiquities of the Jews, Book I c. 93–94 Book I of the Antiquities: from creation through the patriarchs, including Nimrod and the tower. English by William Whiston.

Justin Martyr

Lactantius

The Divine Institutes c. 304–313 Divinae Institutiones Lactantius against pagan gods as deified men, and for true wisdom and religion, including the generation of the Son. English by William Fletcher in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

Lucian of Samosata

Saturnalia c. 150–180 Lucian’s Saturnalia (and related Cronosolon / Saturnalian Letters): the midwinter festival of Saturn as drinking, games, and role-reversal.

Macrobius

Saturnalia, Book I c. 430 Saturnalia, Liber I Book I of Macrobius’s Saturnalia: the gathering at Praetextatus’s house, the origins and customs of the Saturnalia, Janus and Saturn, the Roman calendar, and the identification of many gods with the sun—including the Egyptian rite of bringing forth an infant sun at the winter solstice.

Mesopotamian Texts

Novatian

On the Trinity c. 250 De Trinitate Novatian on the Father, Son, and Spirit, and the rule of faith. English in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

Origen

Ovid

Fasti, Book I (Excerpts) c. AD 8 Fasti I Excerpts from Ovid’s calendar poem: why the Roman year begins in midwinter, Janus, and the Kalends of January. Study English from the Latin.

Philo of Alexandria

Philostorgius

Ecclesiastical History (Photius’s Epitome) c. 425–433 (epitome 9th century) Philostorgius’s Ecclesiastical History survives in Photius’s epitome: a fourth-century narrative from the Homoian / “Arian” side of the controversy.

Plato

Timaeus c. 360–350 BC Plato’s cosmological dialogue, including the craftsman’s making of time as a moving image of αἰών (translated “eternity” / abiding life of the model) at 37c–38a.

Plotinus

Ennead III.7: Time and Eternity c. 250–270 Plotinus on αἰών as the life of true Being, whole at once, set against time—the sense cited in the aion lexicon beside the Timaeus.

Plutarch

Of Isis and Osiris c. 100–120 Plutarch’s essay on Egyptian religion: Isis, Osiris, Typhon, and the winter rites Holydaze retells.

Pseudo-Clement

Charles Spurgeon

Christmas Sermons 1854–1876 Selected public-domain sermons of C. H. Spurgeon on the nativity and the observance of Christmas, including Joy Born at Bethlehem.

Tacitus

Tertullian

Theophilus of Antioch

To Autolycus c. 180–185 Ad Autolycum Theophilus’s apology to Autolycus on God, creation, and the Word. English by Marcus Dods in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.