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PREFACE

HAVING been honoured with an invitation to contribute a translation of a portion of some Father's works, with the suggestion that Tertullian would be acceptable, I chose the sister treatises on Prayer and Baptism, in the belief that these would prove of as much interest as any to the constituency the S.P.C.K. seeks to reach. I cannot claim any special familiarity with these treatises, though I hope this volume may contain something of interest even to the professional scholar.

The introduction provides such matter as a Latin scholar who is not a theologian might be expected to contribute, with references to literature where the subject can be further studied. The translation has been made without the slightest reference to any preceding version, and must commend itself, or the reverse, by its own qualities. I have submitted it to the rigorous taste of my friend Mr. James Taylor, of the Aberdeen Centre for the Training of Teachers, and am conscious that it has profited exceedingly by his criticisms, for which I offer him my heartiest thanks. The Biblical references are given with a greater fullness than has been hitherto attempted. The notes, such as they are, depend hardly at all on any edition: no attempt has been made to repeat what will be found in the editions. The text |viii used as the basis of the translation is for the most part that of Reifferscheid and Wissowa in the Vienna Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vgl. XX. (1890). In it the scanty critical material at the disposal of the editors has been used with judgment.

It is intended to publish other treatises of Tertullian in this series.

The University, Aberdeen. 
August 10, 1918.

Alexander Souter (tr), Tertullian's Treatises Concerning Prayer and Baptism. S.P.C.K. 1919. 

Translated by Alexander Souter, 1919.  Transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2002.   Greek text is rendered using the Scholars Press SPIonic font, free from here.

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