Is this cool or what? Click here for a free searchable database of “Biblical Quotations and Allusions in Early Christian Literature.” The project is now in financial limbo, but as it is, you can still search the corpus for its database of 400,000 biblical references.
How Did the Early Church Fathers Cite Scripture?
It is very cool for its references, the project relies on the seven-volume Biblia Patristica.
“This site already allows simple interrogation in a corpus of about 400,000 biblical references, from the volumes of Biblia Patristica, CNRS Editions, 1975-2000, and unpublished archives of the Center for Patristics Analysis and Documentation (CADP).” (from the site)
This is great information, but I’ve found that Biblia Patristica tends to be … er … generous in its association of texts. The primary criteria is hookwords (similar vocab), as far as I can deduce. I believe much of their data is generated. In other words, I’d say the data would be a great first cut, but realize that it will return items that happen to have similar vocabulary without necessarily being a quotation or allusion; and also realize that several possible quotations/allusions won’t be located by the hookword strategy.
All the same, it is a tremendous resource. The books themselves are well laid out and easy to use; if you can find them in a library make sure to consult them!