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What are primary sources?

Primary sources are original voices that speak out of their experience. They can include eyewitness accounts, original documents, and so on. Here are some illustrations:

• The Bible is a primary source. A commentary on a biblical book is a secondary source because it comments on the primary biblical text.
• A piece of art is a primary source. A study that analyses that piece of art is a secondary source.
• An eyewitness to an event is a primary source. Someone who evaluates the experience of that eyewitness is a secondary source.

Primary sources are not always reliable, but they are our best evidence of what actually happened or what was originally said. 

Ancient Near East

• Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
  Transliterated and translated texts, fully searchable
• Electronic Tools and Ancient Near East Archives
• Leuven Database of Ancient Books (Trismegistos)

Old Testament

• Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, with Supplement (1969, you may prefer downloading it as a PDF), or more readable TWU copy:
• Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, with Supplement (1969, TWU login required).
• Old Testament Apcrypha and Pseudepigrapha (PDF download; large file)

Judaism

• Babylonian Talmud (English)
• Samaritan Pentateuch (Burnt Codex or Codex Zurbil, University of Cambridge)
• Sefaria - A large collection of texts (Hebrew with some English translation. You may need to sign up for a free account [upper right] before using).  It is possible to download the entire database for offline use. Includes:
  • Tanakh (Hebrew & English
  • Mishnah (Hebrew & English)
  • Scripture index of the Mishnah
  • Babylonian Talmud (Hebrew & English; under development)
  • Jerusalem Talmud (Hebrew & English)
  • Midrash (mostly Hebrew only; includes English translation in some parts, and Legends of the Jews in English)
  • Halakhah (Hebrew only, except for English translation in a few parts)
• Targums

New Testament

• Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts ("More than 350,000 images of New Testament manuscripts.")
• Josephus, Works, v.1, v.2, v.3. You can also log into the Loeb Classical Library for a more recent translation (multi-volume) with facing Greek and English pages. Jewish First-Century author useful for events and commentary on biblical topics.
• New Testament Apocrypha

Primary sources in church history/theology include writings of theologians, from the church fathers to the present, and other documents providing first-hand accounts of historical events and movements related to the history of the church. There is overlap here between church history and theology, since history and the writings of historical theologians intersect.

Early Christian Era

• Byzantine Studies on the Internet (Fordham University)​ 
• Christian Classics Ethereal Library - Church Fathers in English translation
• Church Fathers Scripture Search Engine
• e-Catena: Compiled Allusions to the NT in the Ante-Nicene Fathers
• Early Christian Writings contains some sources from the 1st & 2nd centuries. Use the tabs at the top of the page: NT, Apocrypha, Gnostics, Fathers, Other. Or search by date here. 
• Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts - Church Fathers' texts not included in the Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene volumes
• Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Christian Origins (Fordham University)
• Wesley Center Online (Early Christian Church Documents) - WCO is interested in religious writing from the Wesleyan tradition. But it contains documents of possible use to the historian on this "noncanonical literature" (i.e. non-Biblical literature)  page. Find works from the church fathers (e.g. Ignatius, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Eusebius) under the "Fathers of the Christian Church" link, and the historian Josephus under the "Works of Josephus" link. You might find that the content of the "Links to Related Sites" is wanting in substance.

Medieval Period

• Internet Medieval Sourcebook (Forham University)
• Medieval Worlds: A Sourcebook [TWU login required]

Reformation Era

• Internet Archive of Texts and Documents: The Reformation Period
• Internet Modern History Sourcebook: Reformation Europe

Modern Era

Use Library OneSearch, Books  Authors to look up works by specific theologians.