Epistles of Clement
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The Epistles of Clement (1 Clement and 2 Clement) are two letters sometimes ascribed to Saint Clement, an Apostolic Father, and the fourth Pope and Bishop of Rome. First Clement (c 96)[1] is one of the oldest Christian documents outside the New Testament canon. The epistle was written for the church in Corinth, where it was read for centuries. Indeed, historians generally hold First Clement to be an authentic document dating from the first century. From the fifth century to the eighth century, many of the eastern churches accepted the First Epistle of Clement as canonical scripture as it is clearly listed among the canonical books of the New Testament in "Canon 85" of the Canons of the Apostles. However, by the end of the eighth century, none of the ancient churches, eastern or western, included First Clement in any official listing of the canonical New Testament. Second Clement, a homily, was probably written later, c 140-160. It may be the oldest surviving sermon outside the New Testament. While Second Clement was traditionally ascribed to Saint Clement, if it was indeed written in the second century, Clement could not have been its author, as he likely died in the year 99. Like almost all early Christian texts, both letters were written in Greek, the common language of the Hellenized Mediterranean area.
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The First Epistle of Clement, (literally, Clement to Corinth; Greek, Κλήμεντος πρὸς Κορινθίους, Klēmentos pros Korinthious) dates from the late first or early second century, and ranks with the Didache, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Seven Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch as one of the earliest — if not the earliest — of extant Christian documents outside the canonical New Testament. No where in the epistle itself is Clement named as its author. Rather the epistle is written with its opening line in the name of "the Church of God which sojourns in Rome" to "the Church of God which sojourns in Corinth." However, scholarly consensus is overwhelmingly in favour of its authenticity,[2] however there are a number of questions raised by the Dutch Radical Critics that have been largely ignored but remain as yet unanswered[3]. Many scholars believe 1 Clement was written circa 95-97 AD. The traditional date for Clement's epistle is at the end of the reign of Domitian, or circa 96 AD, by taking the phrase "sudden and repeated misfortunes and hindrances which have befallen us" (1:1) for a reference to persecutions under Domitian. Confirmation of the date comes from the fact that the church at Rome is called "ancient" and that the presbyters installed by the apostles have died (44:2), and a second ecclesiastical generation has also passed on (44:3). The letter was occasioned by a dispute in Corinth, which had led to the removal from office of several presbyters. Since none of the presbyters was charged with moral offences, the Church of Roman charges that their removal is high-handed and unjustifiable. The letter is extremely lengthy — twice as long as the Epistle to the Hebrews — and includes several references to the Old Testament, including the Book of Judith. The Epistle demonstrates a familiarity with many books of both the Old and New Testaments. First Clement repeatedly refers to the Old Testament as Scripture [4] and quotes both Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul as sources of the same spiritual authority inspired by the Holy Spirit with which First Clement itself claims to be inspired. The survival of First Clement within the living tradition of the persecuted, pre-Constantine union of churches and the high esteem in which the book was held among these ancient churches reveals how First Clement stands squarely within the translinguistic and transcultural tradition of the apostolic Catholic and Orthodox churches. In fact, the epistle was publicly read from time to time in the apostolic Church at Corinth, and by the fourth century this usage had spread to other churches. We even find it included in the famous fifth century Codex Alexandrinus containing the Old and New Testaments. This implies that the book did share canonical rank at one time with other books of the Bible, but that this canonical rank was lost when more stringent qualifications for scriptural canonicity were enforced by later generations of the various churches mutually recognized as having claim to apostolic succession. Though known from antiquity, the first complete copy of 1 Clement was rediscovered in 1873, some four hundred years after the Fall of Constantinople, when Philotheos Bryennios found it in the Greek Codex Hierosolymitanus, written in 1056. This work, written in Greek, was translated into at least three languages in ancient times: a translation from the second or third century was found in an eleventh century manuscript in the seminary library of Namur, Belgium, and published by Germain Morin in 1894; a Syriac manuscript, now at Cambridge University, was found by Robert Lubbock Bensly in 1876, which he translated in 1899; and a Coptic translation has survived in two papyrus copies, one published by C. Schmidt in 1908 and the other by F. Rösch in 1910. The Namur Latin translation reveals its early date in several ways and embodies what J.H. Breasted tactfully called "a modification of the text to suit the later spirit of the Roman church".[5] Its early date is attested by not being combined with the pseudepigraphic later Second Epistle of Clement, as all the other translations are found, and by showing no knowledge of the church terminology that became current later, translating presbyteroi as seniores rather than episcopi. In the modification of the text, the Pauline prayer of Clement, that believers should submit themselves in all humility to the civil authority, has been reversed to state precisely the opposite: a prayer that all princes and rulers may now subject themselves to the Church, the Gelasian doctrine that was being revived and put into effect during the eleventh-century Gregorian reform. The Second Epistle of ClementThe Second Epistle of Clement, (literally, Clement to Corinth; Greek, Κλήμεντος πρὸς Κορινθίους, Klēmentos pros Korinthious) was believed during the Dark Ages and Medieval Era to have been an epistle to the Christian Church in Corinth written by Clement of Rome sometime in the late first century. However, the fourth century bishop Eusebius, in his historical work, says Clement "has left us one recognized epistle" (Ecclesiastical History 3.16), so doubts about this work belonging to Clement of Rome are not new. Though the first external references to this work date to the fourth century, most modern scholars believe that Second Clement is actually a sermon written around 140 - 160 CE by an anonymous author-- one who was neither the author of 1 Clement nor Clement of Rome. Nonetheless, scholars still generally refer to the work by its traditional name "Second Clement". Second Clement appears to be a transcript of a homily or sermon that was originally delivered orally at a Christian worship service, possibly at Corinth. For example, in chapter 19 the speaker announces that he will read aloud from scripture -- something we would only expect to find in an a transcript of an oral sermon. Similarly, whereas an epistle would typically begin by introducing the sender and recipient, 2 Clement starts with by addressing "Brethren", and then proceeding directly to the sermon. If it is a sermon, 2 Clement would be the earliest surviving Christian sermon (aside from those found in the New Testament). Rather than trying to convert others to Christianity, 2 Clement appears to be directed at an audience of Christians who had converted from Paganism. It seems to reference a past history of idolatry: "[Previously] we were maimed in our understanding-- we were worshipping stones and pieces of wood, and gold and silver and copper -- all of them made by humans". Despite their Pagan background, the speaker and audience in 2 Clement appear to consider the Jewish texts to be Scripture -- the speaker quotes repeatedly from the Book of Isaiah and interprets the text. The speaker also regards the words of Jesus as scripture -- for example, 2:4 quotes a saying of Jesus (one which has parallels, for example, in Mark 2:17, and Matthew 9:13). In addition to the canonical literature, the author appears to have had access to Christian writings or oral tradition aside from those found in the New Testament. Some quotes attributed to Jesus are found only here -- e.g. 4:5. In 5:2-4, the author quotes a saying of Jesus that is partially found in the New Testament, but the version quoted in 2 Clement is substantially longer than the version found in the New Testament. In the 20th century, a manuscript fragment was discovered that suggests this saying is a quote from the Gospel of Peter, much of which has been lost. Similarly, in 2 Clement 12, the author quotes from the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, which was lost until the mid-20th century. Second Clement also appears to cite the Greek Gospel of the Egyptians. The earliest external reference to 2 Clement is found in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History written in the early fourth century: "It must not be overlooked that there is a second epistle said to be from Clement's pen, but I have no reason to suppose that it was well known like the first one, since I am not aware that the early fathers made any use of it. A year or two ago other long and wordy treatises were put forward as Clement's work. They contain alleged dialogues with Peter and Apion, but there is no mention whatever of them by early writers, nor do they preserve in its purity the stamp of apostolic orthodoxy." (Historia Ecclesiastica III 38) [1] Other Clementine literatureThe Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church includes in their wider Biblical canon an epistle traditionally attributed as written by St. Paul to Clement. See AlsoNotes
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