20260804 Study Guide

T&MP 2026-8-1 Clement of Rome: The First Apostolic Father - Centre Place

Clement of Rome: The First Apostolic Father

Transcript:

(00:13) Good evening. Welcome to our history, theology, philosophy Tuesday night series. Happy to be back after last Tuesday break. I was at the Sunstone Symposium in Utah. Big conference where all sorts of um papers and presentations are given and I was on a few panels and I also um on the Sunstone Sunday at the Salt Lake Community of Christ, I taught the class on um problems of literal interpretation of scripture and why it makes more sense to interpret scripture meaningfully.

(00:53) And so we would hope last week to uh do a movie review. Uh but it ends up uh we I didn't end up having time to do it. So we pushed that off till uh September and meanwhile we're getting back to our lectures. And so after um this, Mike is here and he will be um watching all of your comments and collecting your questions so that when the formal lecture ends, we will be able to have our regular Q&A.

(01:21) So this lecture will reference many, many other lectures that we have done in the past and if you want to find those, the easiest way is at our website centerplace.ca/lectures. We also every month now are trying to send out a newsletter that includes the different charts that we have uh including charts that are in this lecture and if you want to get that for free, you can also sign up at the website centerplace.ca/signup.

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Clement of Rome: The First Apostolic Father

(02:24) Our topic this evening is Clement of Rome, the first Apostolic Father. >> [snorts] >> And so, this figure may be a little obscure to many of you, but actually, I think you'll find that this is a very interesting character, and especially uh the writing that he has uh the the the thing that he wrote that has survived, what we call the First Epistle of Clement, is actually very interesting and important for a number of reasons.

The New Testament Canon

(02:54) So, um I think you'll enjoy this one. So, if we look at the New Testament canon, uh the list of books that were collected together and uh uh included in the New Testament by um leaders of the Imperial Church as of the you know, 4th and 5th century when the canon was finalized, we can divide these into a couple of categories.

(03:21) A whole bunch of them are Pauline epistles, that is to say, letters that Paul wrote to churches and in one case an individual, along with a bunch of letters uh that are written in Paul's name that modern scholars um either dispute or in some cases really don't think were written by Paul. In addition to the next category, we have the Gospels, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John.

(03:52) And the same author who wrote Luke wrote the only book of Acts or let's say the narrative of the story that it occurs after the Gospel account. Then there are other epistles, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the three letters, First, Second, and Third John, a letter of James, a letter of Jude, and two letters of Peter, and then finally there's a single apocalypse that made it in the book of Revelation.

(04:21) Um there were other apocalypses that didn't make it in, there were other books of Acts that didn't make it in, there were other epistles that didn't make it in, and then many other Gospels that didn't make it in. So, if we look at this canon and we just go to, for example, the Pauline epistles, obviously that gives us Paul of Tarsus, the first Christian whose writings survive and really um a good deal earlier than most anybody else that we have writing.

(04:50) Um the other ones though are pseudepigrapha and though we don't know when they're writing in Paul's name, we don't know who the actual author would be in those cases. With the Gospels, although by the 2nd century um Christians had attached names, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John to them, they are in fact anonymous texts and so we don't again know who the authors there are.

Anonymous and Pseudonymous Authors

(05:17) For the other epistles, um Hebrews is specifically an anonymous text. It made it into the canon because um some early Christian fathers argued that it was written by Paul and many people thought it was a um an epis- another epistle of Paul, but it's not. It's actually an anonymous text written by a different author, so again we don't know the name.

(05:42) So, as you can kind of see all the way through here, we still only have, you know, the name of one um one early Christian uh whose writing survived, whose name we know. Well, maybe it'll get better with with John, but actually um first John is anonymous. And second and third John um while it is written by somebody named John, it doesn't claim to be written by John the apostle or John the beloved apostle.

(06:09) It instead says John the presbyter or John the elder is, you know, presbyter and elder elder's a translation of that. And so there's a character um John the elder who um we'll talk about sometimes gets conflated with the apostle, but many early Christians saw as a different figure, identified as a different figure.

(06:29) If we say take the epistles of James, the brother of Jesus, and of Jude, the brother of James, the brother of Jesus, first and second Peter um the the chief of uh of Jesus's apostles. Well, first and second Peter, it turns out, are actually written by two different people, neither of whom is Peter.

(06:48) And so again, in all these cases, these seem to be written in the name of the person, so we don't know who the actual author is. And then finally, the book of Revelations is written by again someone named John, but again, it's not John the apostle. It's uh John the Revelator, John of Patmos. So we have therefore three here distinct authors in the New Testament whose name we know, and aside from that pseudepigraphical authors and anonymous authors.

(07:20) And so much of the New Testament canon is the work of anonymous authors to which names were later attached, like the Gospels, the Book of Acts or pseudonymous writing in the name of a figure like Paul, Peter, or James. As we see, there are two different Johns who write in their own names, neither of whom claim to be the apostle John who is an actual historical figure that Paul says that he met.

(07:48) But again, their works are included in the New Testament because at a certain point early Christians who were deciding on the canon um mistake mistook them for the apostles. So even if John the Elder is a very distinct person um because he was um conflated with the apostle, his those letters got in.

(08:09) Same thing because John the Revelator uh is conflated with the apostle, his letters his apocalypse is included. So who are these guys? So the author of second and third John um the second John begins, "The elder to the lady chosen by God." And third John begins, "The elder to my dear friend Gaius." So John the elder emerged as I'm sorry, elder itself was emerged as a leadership role in the early church by the end of the first century.

(08:39) And one of our earliest Christian writers, Papias of Hierapolis mentions a certain presbyter John or John the Elder. And Eusebius identifies him as a person who is very distinct from the apostle. But other early writers like Irenaeus and then later most of the tradition conflate him with the apostle. And so like I say that caused those letters to be included.

(09:05) John the Revelator again does not claim to be one of the apostles in the various visions he shares, they have imagery of the 12. And even their names, but he doesn't place himself on those names. And again, his Greek is so different from the style used by the authors of the Gospel of John or the authors of the Epistles of John that even many ancient Christians concluded they could not be the same person.

(09:32) His um his writing is a very slangy kind of Greek. So this is a distinct genre. So, therefore, if we just take the canon or within the canon of uh early Christian writers writing in their own names, we have Paul of Tarsus and his authentic letters, John the Elder in two letters that are very brief, John of Patmos and the Book of Revelation.

First-Century Writings Outside the Canon

(09:57) So, what else is there outside the canon that survives? There isn't actually a lot that we can date to the 1st century. So, when uh in terms of books that are surviving from the 1st century, the Didache, which we've had a whole uh lecture on, The Teachings of the Twelve Apostles it's called. Uh that is reflecting such an early um understanding of how Christianity works as um as in the time of the Didache, um apostles are still um very central to the movement and the understanding, although um the Didache warns about how um when mendicant

(10:37) preachers are coming and asking you for food and and and hospitality and things, that uh excesses are possible. They might be trying to, you know, stay too long or cheat you and so forth. So, there is already uh a a weariness that's expressed, but the age of apostles seems to still be alive and well, so reflecting a kind of a 1st century.

(10:58) We have this First Epistle of Clement uh that we're going to talk about today. And in addition to that, there are some that may date that early. So, the Epistle of Barnabas, an Apocalypse of Adam, the Gospel of Thomas. There might be a source anyway within it. The Gospel of Thomas as we have it in Coptic um um probably includes a bunch of later additions, and it certainly has been translated into Coptic instead of the original Greek, which hasn't survived.

(11:27) And there's another Gnostic text, the Epistle of Eugnostos, that some people would like to date to the first century, although has a very wide range of dates. So, we don't know in these last four cases if they're first century texts or not. So, in other words, not a lot. And so, looking at those, the Didache again is anonymous.

(11:45) The Epistle of Barnabas is not written by Paul's companion Barnabas. It's written in Barnabas' name. I think we can guess that the Apocalypse of Adam was not written by Adam. So, Adam is a mythic figure and that was not writing in the first century uh Christian writing the first century. Um the Gospel of Thomas is not written by Thomas. It's pseudepigraphical.

(12:10) And uh Eugnostos um is a pen name. It means well known. So, we don't really know who the um author's actual name is. And so, really all we've added here is a fourth name in terms of Christians from the first century uh whose writings are known and survived to us. Um anonymous texts were very, very common. So, the First Epistle of Clement is also technically anonymous.

(12:39) So, the author only identifies himself in the letter's preface as the Church of God sojourning in sojourning at Rome to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth. Those called and made holy through the will of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, it doesn't say Clement, Bishop of Rome, but it is authored by the Church at Rome.

(13:02) So, the Church of Rome to the Church of Corinth. Um however, we have a pretty um strong early dates of this. So, there is a uh leader in Corinth, Dionysius, writing towards the end of the second century, who mentions that the Corinthian Church still reads the letter sent to them by Clement of Rome, this First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, uh as scripture within the Corinthian Church.

(13:29) And Irenaeus of Lyon, writing around that same time, explicitly identifies Clement as the author of this First Clement. So, we pretty strong grounds to see Clement as the author, anyway. So, it's called the First Epistle of Clement, and so the expectation in naming and that kind of a name given to something by scholars or by tradition is that there are maybe a second and third or more letters of Clement.

(13:55) And so, yes, tradition did assign a second early text to Clement's authorship, and that text is generally called the Second Epistle of Clement. It's an anonymous text, and it's now seen to be not really a letter, but rather a homily or a sermon. It's likely written in the 2nd century because it it has it's anachronistic to what Clement's time.

(14:23) It has a later developments of how the church is working. And so, few scholars today um agree with the early tradition that assigns it to Clement. So, it's a different it's a different 2nd century writer. So, only First First Clement is uh the surviving text. So, Clement of Rome is part of a pretty small group of the earliest known Christian whose author um Christian authors whose works survive, you know, more than in fragments, more than in quotations.

(14:54) And like I say, his sole surviving authentic text, the First Epistle of Clement, was written at the same time or earlier, in fact, than many of the texts that were included in the New Testament, including the Gospels. Uh so, the Gospels, starting with Mark, written in the early '70s, uh Matthew maybe in the '80s, uh Luke and John maybe in the '90s or so.

Exclusion from the Canon

(15:22) So, why um was this first Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians excluded from the New Testament canon? And so, the answer is we have to go look to kind of the criteria for inclusion and exclusion that the later um bishops um in the Imperial Church had. So, the canon took its final form quite late, actually.

(15:53) A lot of people think that um it's one of the decisions that was made at the Council of Nicaea after Constantine, um uh the first emperor to be be a Christian, called together all of the bishops in order to uh kind of hammer out what do Christians believe and so forth. But, in fact, actually, um that is not one of the decisions that made and people were still uh debating it for many decades thereafter.

(16:22) So, as though they were, you know, circulating lists of which books should be read as canonical and which books should be excluded, one of the criteria uh one criterion was antiquity. So, is it a really old book? So, under that criterion, um the Didache and the first Epistle of Clement probably should have made it in because of they are actually very old.

(16:47) But, another criterion was apostolic authority. And so, anonymous texts like the Epistle to the Hebrews ended up getting into the Bible through attribution to an apostle like Paul, even though it wasn't written by Paul, or in the case of anonymous gospels um that got attributed to Luke and Mark. Luke and Mark aren't apostles themselves, but they are associates of the apostles.

(17:18) So, Luke is a companion of Paul, Mark is a companion of Peter in traditional understanding. And so, under these um circumstances, anonymous texts made it in, and of course, pseudonymous texts made it in by claiming to be written by Peter. And so, um really, if Clement writing at the time he was writing, if instead of attaching um you know, to his letter, you know, the church in Rome and um and making it about a very specific time that is later than the apostles, since he's refer- he's actually writing to the um the um the Corinthian church about um

(17:55) a problem that's happening after Peter's death, um if you had instead had simply been writing a general text and either left it anonymous or pretended to be Peter, it almost certainly would have made it into the canon. But, as it is, letters like um uh Clement did not make it in, The Shepherd of Hermas, another important early text, um read in Rome, written in Roman, read in Rome in the 2nd century, um didn't make it in because it doesn't claim any apostolic connections.

The Apostolic Fathers

(18:24) The Epistle of Barnabas didn't make it in because even though there's an apostolic connection, early Christians were not convinced that it was written by Barnabas. So, because Clement first Clement was excluded from the New Testament canon, Clement by default becomes the earliest Christian author writing in his known own name uh whose writings survive outside of the Bible, or rather, write whose writing whose authorship is known, whose writing survived.

(18:55) So, as um all of these uh first uh authors, the first authors uh Christian authors whose writing survived outside of the Bible are male, they came to be known as the fathers of the church. And the earliest group of the fathers of the church are called the Apostolic Fathers because later tradition presumed that these guys would have known the actual apostles.

(19:22) And so uh Clement therefore is numbered among the fathers of the church and among the Apostolic Fathers and indeed he's uh recognized as the first Apostolic Father. Besides Clement, the Apostolic Fathers are Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Quadratus of Athens, and Papias of Hierapolis. As for Quadratus and Papias, um their writings are lost beyond quotations that are made by people like Irenaeus and Eusebius.

(19:54) In the case of Ignatius of Antioch, we have seven surviving letters including one that he writes to Polycarp, who is a contemporary of his. But for Polycarp of Smyrna, there's only a single letter that survives and like we've said with Clement of Rome, only a single authentic letter survives. And so if we look at kind of a rough timeline of the earliest Christian thinkers, you know, starting um you know, this is starting at in the BC time but from one going on until 325 when we get to the Council of Nicaea, you know, in the

(20:32) um between 20 and 50, we have John the Baptist and Jesus active and executed. We um have James, the brother of Jesus as a active leader of the church in Jerusalem after his brother's death until he himself is executed. Paul is a contemporary of James who met James and again he is beheaded according to tradition.

(21:01) Then Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed and immediately after that um is the authorship probably of the Gospel of Mark and we see the other Gospels being written. So, Clement of Rome is active We don't have We'll We'll get to his exact dates, but he is active sometime around this era then when the Gospels are being written.

(21:26) And then we can see the other Apostolic Fathers, Ignatius of Antioch, Papias of Hierapolis Polycarp of Smyrna who lives on in order to have other disciples including Irenaeus who is a disciple of Polycarp or claim claims that I don't think he he has a too much overlap, but anyway is a student of his at the end. And then some of the other later fathers of the church, Justin Martyr Tatian, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Eusebius, and so on.

(22:08) And then we can also see not too long after Clement was in Rome, couple generations there Marcion and Valentinus are in Rome. Marcion of Sinope being a um um person who is later condemned by the proto-orthodox leaders including the leaders in Rome after having made a bid to be one of the leaders or be a bishop of Rome. And and Marcion then goes on to organize a separate um hierarchy of the church with his own bishops and his own canon that involved de-canonizing and throwing away the entire Old Testament um maintaining just a corpus of a select corpus of Paul's

(22:54) letters and his own version of the Gospel of Luke. Valentinus um, also had a lecture on um, is one of the most important Gnostic Christian thinkers who reinterpreted the earlier Gnostic myth in line with, um, the emerging canon of Christian, um, writings including the Gospels to make, um, the Gnostic myth more in line with how Christianity had become.

Historical Context and Heresies

(23:26) Uh, Valentinus again is rejected by the proto-orthodox. So, as are uh, Gnostics and so people like Irenaeus are very strongly reacting against, uh, the Valentinians and other Gnostics. So, you can kind of see where Clement fits in, obviously at a very kind of key moment in these windows. So, like I said, Clement stands out as the earliest of the Apostolic Fathers.

Importance of the Roman Church

(23:53) And he's also really important because he's writing from Rome. So, Paul's letter to the Romans gives us our earliest glimpse into a church that has such an important future in Christianity. So, um, you know, by the time of late antiquity in the Middle Ages, um, the Bishop of Rome, once he's established as one of the leaders within the Imperial Church, um, uh, is able to, uh, first, you know, is under understood to be by the other bishops, um, to be first among the equals and maybe having precedence.

(24:33) And then by, uh, the Middle Ages, um, precedence has become, uh, a precedent for primacy. Um, and obviously to this day, uh, the heirs of the medieval papacy are, um, the leaders of the Catholic Church. But even though we have that letter that Paul talks about including naming all kinds of early Christians and explaining that um that he's never been to Rome, that there is a large and thriving church there that others had planted, that he did not found.

(25:09) Um Paul's letter is therefore the perspective and of an outsider. He's never been there. He didn't found that church. So, First Clement is the first text known to be written from the church at Rome. So, many other texts where we don't know where they were written from, people can make the argument that maybe this text was written at Rome, but we don't know for sure where the text was written.

Dating the First Epistle of Clement

(25:35) So, Clement is um very specifically saying the church at Rome to the church at Corinth. So, it's written from Rome and expressing a perspective of the Roman church in the 1st century. So, when is um Clement to be dated? So, um Clement makes extensive use of scripture and also uses all kinds of historical examples, um but he fails to mention the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, which is quite an important event.

(26:07) And so, this has led several scholars to argue, although this is a minority position, several scholars argue that the letter then was written before the destruction of the temple in 70 um as a kind of negative evidence. So, if if it had been destroyed, why wouldn't, you know, Clement would almost certainly would have made use of this example.

(26:27) You know, that's an argument we can't that is not uh definitive proof. Um the language of it is Greek, not Latin. So, just as Paul's earlier Epistle to the Romans, Clement's First Epistle is a composed in Greek rather than Latin, and this is because educated Romans in Rome were widely bilingual in the 1st century, but more importantly, Greek was the language of the early church and especially the Christian community in Rome spoke Greek many of them which as their their original language they probably knew Latin as a second language.

(27:06) And of course the original language of the church in Jesus day was Aramaic but it had rapidly within 10 20 years made the jump to Greek as the church expanded by because of missionaries like Paul who are writing in Greek to the extent that we actually don't have any of Jesus original teachings or any original text from this time period in Aramaic.

(27:32) And so it just in terms of the church eventually embracing Latin it's only at the very end of the second century with Tertullian that we have a major Christian writing in Latin first. So with Tertullian. So First Clement in addition to being early is also very substantial. So if we add up like how many words approximately it has is a little about little over 13,000 words.

(28:01) And that makes it nearly twice the length of Paul's longest letter the Epistle to the Romans which has about 7,000 words. And it makes it even a little bit longer than the very shortest gospel the Gospel of Mark which has around 11,000 words. And if you just take another fairly lengthy text out of the Epistles in the in the New Testament Hebrews which makes a very kind of long sustained argument and so on is still only about 5,000 words long.

(28:31) So Clement is a lot of words. And as we look at the text Clement has a very masterful knowledge of the Hebrew Bible translated into Greek so the Septuagint. And the letter includes very long quotations from Old Testament books including the Pentateuch, the five books attributed to Moses, books like the Psalms, Proverbs, Joseph, Job I'm sorry, Isaiah and others.

(28:58) So, there's two um different time frames, you know, that are possible. So, as I said, some uh scholars are saying, "Well, maybe because he doesn't talk about the destruction of the temple, it takes place before 70, but the more likely date is between 96 and 100." So, like I say, if it's written up prior to 70, there's a lot of implications to this and it also means that Clement is among our very earliest uh Christian texts.

(29:26) The text references a quote sudden and repeated misfortunes that hint and hindrances which has befallen us here in the church in Rome. And so, you know, the misfortunes and hindrances could refer to the Neronian persecutions, the persecution of Christians under Nero when Christians are scapegoated for the great fire of Rome in 64.

(29:51) And that's why this first date after the fire but before the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, that gives us that first date range. But, many scholars argue that Clement is actually referring to the next round of persecutions that take place under the emperor Domitian who reigns from 81 to 96 and whose persecutions are the very kind of tail end of that reign.

(30:14) Uh and so, therefore, is written sometime between 96 and say 100. And so, that gives us our two different potential ranges for when this letter was. Um and the more likely range is the later one, but the earlier one is interesting and there are a lot of implications for that as I say. So, we'll continue to look at it.

(30:34) So, if we look at those two potential dates within a timeline or context of the Pauline corpus that made it into the New Testament. So, the authentic letters of Paul, beginning with 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, Philippians, Philemon, 2 Corinthians, and then Romans, those are being written in the '50s. So, very early, you know, compared to all of our other Christian writings, but um if 1 Clement is written, let's say, between 67 and 70, um or 64 and 70, then that um then that puts it, you know, about a decade after, just a little more than a decade after

(31:17) the end of Paul's writings. So, it's very, you know, in spitting distance of Paul, almost, and before any of the writings that any of the books that are written in Paul's name, um you know, who are Paul's continuers, some of which um like Titus and 1 and 2 Timothy, may be 1 century, but some scholars argue all the way up dates all the way into the middle of the 2 century because of um they reflect, again, ideas about church formation, um the understanding of a church led by bishops and so forth that um is anachronistic to Paul's day.

Clement and the Apostle Paul

(31:54) So, um so, like I say, if you if it Either way, it's very early, the early date is especially early. Um so, if so, would he be a contemporary of Paul? Well, there is a certain Clement that is known to Paul, and although he does not um identify himself as Rome's bishop, from a text from the text, we can easily see that Clement of Rome is a sophisticated, learned writer, a leader who confidently speaks on behalf of Rome, on behalf of the church of Rome.

(32:29) So, if he is writing within a decade of Paul's death, which tradition places immediately outside of Rome's walls, now at the place uh where the um St. Paul's Outside the Walls is uh is existing, one of the Constantinian Roman basilicas. Um we might expect Clement to have connected with Paul. So So there is there they're close enough in time that Clement is not a young man when he's writing, it doesn't seem like.

(32:57) He seems like a person in a position of authority who's incredibly learned and so forth. It He only has to get back 10 years or so if the if the early dating is correct to have encountered Paul, and Paul, according to tradition, is supposed to have made it to Rome. So Paul does mention a certain Clement in his letter to the Philippians, one of the authentic letters.

(33:22) So Paul writes in Philippians 4, "I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I also, I'm sorry, ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women. For they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my coworkers whose names are in the book of life.

(33:47) " So nothing more is known about this Clement that's present in the city of Philippi in Roman Macedonia in the 50s CE according to Paul. And you know, again, everybody is always tempted to make all of the Johns into the one character. We have a whole lecture on who was uh uh John the Apostle, and I think there was like 12 different Johns that get conflated into him.

(34:13) Clement or Clemens is an extremely common Roman name. It's a cognomen uh in the 1st century, so one of the two consuls even for the year 95 uh when the emperor Domitian was having the persecution of the Christians, one of the consuls himself was I named Titus Flavius Clemens. So, one of the consuls is named Clement.

(34:39) Um and that Clement, who's a obviously very important person, was the cousin of the emperor. Because again of the possibility of conflating, it was even argued um by, you know, at the beginning in the biblical scholar period in the 19th century, I think, that maybe uh Clement of Rome was the same as this Titus Flavius Clemens.

(35:02) Um an idea that's pretty pretty preposterous and nobody um holds it to now. So, what i- in what is likely the last and certainly the longest of his authentic letters, Paul wrote to the Christian community in Rome announcing his plans to visit. So, unlike the other um uh other letters to which he wrote, so when Paul wrote to all the other churches he wrote, Paul did not found that church in Rome. It was founded by other apostles.

(35:33) So, he had founded the church in Corinth, in Galatia, and so forth, and Philippi. And um at writing again as an outsider, Paul, though, knows many of the leaders in Rome and mentions at least 26 different individuals that he that are present in Rome as of, let's say, the year 57. So, in his greetings, Paul talks about two apostles, Andronicus and Junia, a deacon or maybe a patron of the Roman church, Phoebe, so possibly a wealthy woman in whose house uh the church is meeting.

(36:09) He talks about other co-workers in Christ, women and men, Priscilla, Aquila, Urbanus, other house church leaders, Priscilla, Aquila, Aristobulus, Narcissus, and then other hard workers in the Lord that he calls out, Mary, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, and Persis. And then there's 16 others that he mentions by name. He does not mention Clement or for example Peter, so Peter is not there.

(36:36) Um but given that in a much earlier letter to the church of Philippi, um if this Clement who was the same guy, a co-worker, if he'd made his way to Rome uh in the meantime Paul certainly would have known him and called him out as a as a fellow co-worker in Christ and he doesn't. So Clement's not there. Um there either Paul's Clement or Clement of Rome as a leader that Paul's heard about anyway in 57.

(37:07) Um so if though Clement of Rome is that co-worker of Paul from Philippi, it's certainly possible that between when the Epistle to the Romans was written and [clears throat] the Epistle of First Clement is written that you know and if Paul came to Rome um like he does according to tradition, it's possible that Clement would have been one of Paul's disciples who came with or followed Paul to Rome.

(37:32) In his own letter, so in um uh the First Epistle of Clement, Clement of Rome recognizes Paul alongside Peter as a pillar of the church. And we've heard that term used by Paul himself in his letter to the Galatians where he acknowledged that James the brother of Jesus, Peter or Cephas, and John the Apostle are um the acknowledged pillars of the church.

(38:00) And Clement of Rome also has a copy of the First Epistle of the Corinthians, one of Paul's authentic letters, which is very very interesting and he quotes from it. So we read in um uh First Clement section 47, it says, "Take up the Epistle of the blessed Paul the Apostle. What did he write to you? So, he's writing Clement is also writing to the Corinthians and so he's saying, "What did he first write to you, you Corinthian churches, in the beginning of the good news? In truth, he spiritually instructed you

(38:37) by letter about himself, about Cephas, about Apollos, uh because he then even that because even then preferences had been established among you. So, um so essentially Clement has a copy of 1 Corinthians and he's quoting from or he's read anyway the beginning of it. So, in 1 Corinthians 1 verses 11 through 13, we read that Paul says, "It has been made clear to me by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you in the church of Corinth here, the Corinthian uh saints, my brothers and sisters.

(39:18) What I mean is that each of you says, 'I belong to Paul' or 'I belong to Apollos' or 'I belong to Cephas' or 'I belong to Christ.' Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?" So, Paul also um is writing to this Corinthian church which has lots of factionalism, um different um Corinthians are claiming different apostolic authority as their leaders.

(39:50) So, some of them are saying Cephas, that is to say Peter, is the is the true authority. Some of them are saying Paul is the authoritative apostle and some of them are saying that Apollos is the authoritative apostle. Um and so Clement um has this letter and he is saying in his own letter to the Corinthians, "Hey, you guys have been at this kind of faction fighting this whole time, you know, or you were back you're at least back then, too.

(40:14) " So, elsewhere, Clement refers to the Apostle Peter using his Greek name, Petros, you know, Peter, which comes from the Greek word for rock, Petra. But here in this section where he has 1 Corinthians in front of him, he follows Paul's use of Cephas, which derives from the Aramaic word for rock, Kepha. So, Clement is the earliest author who quotes from Paul, and he actually is the first person to illustrate that Paul's letters had begun to circulate.

(40:52) Uh and so this is very interesting that that um you know, that he's got hold of 1 Corinthians. And yet, if Paul, I'm sorry, if Clement of Rome had been this co-worker of Paul's all the way back since when Paul wrote the Epistle to the Philippians, and if he'd been present in Rome with him at the time of Paul's execution, or if he'd arrived just a few years after it, it is really surprising that Clement fails to mention that or fails to mention the connection.

(41:26) So, Clement does put forward Paul's martyrdom as a recent example in this list that he is generates of how envy yields disastrous results. It's part of a argument that he's making to the um factional fighters in the Corinthian church. Um and so he uses some recent examples. He uses first scriptural examples, which he calls ancient examples, and then he goes on to have more recent examples, um including the martyrdom of Paul, um but we'll see how it doesn't he doesn't talk about any personal connection to it. So,

(42:04) in section 5 of Clement's letter, he says, "But so that we might leave the ancient examples of scripture, let us rather come to those more recently living spiritual contenders. Let us take up the noble examples of our own generation. So, because of envy and jealousy, the greatest and most righteous pillars were persecuted and competed until death.

(42:34) So, let us put before our eyes the good apostles. Peter, who, because of righteous envy, endured afflictions neither once nor twice, but many times. And having thus been martyred, Peter proceeded then to the promised place of glory in heaven. But, because of envy and strife, Paul directed attention to the prize of endurance.

(43:02) So, seven times Paul was wearing bonds. He was in bondage. He was banished. You know, seven times wearing bonds, being banished, being stoned, being a herald in the East and in the West, he received illustrious fame for his faith. Having taught righteousness to the whole world and having come to the extreme limits of the West, and having been martyred by the rulers, he was thus released from the world and taken up into the holy place, being a magnificent example of patience.

(43:37) To these great men who conducted their lives in holiness are added a great multitude of the chosen, whoever, because of envy, and suffered many tortures and torments, being the most beautiful examples among us. And so, then he goes on to list some women and men who are martyred in addition to the uh apostles.

(43:56) So, if Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome during the Neronean persecution, as tradition usually asserts, so that would have been around 64. And if Clement is writing before 70, you know, this that event would be very recent and in his immediate memory. Um you know, and if Peter's martyrdom did happen in that city though, we might expect a few more details.

(44:27) Instead of something very boilerplate saying um Peter endured afflictions many times and was martyred. You know, he doesn't even go on to mention anything like he was martyred here in the city or he was and we could he was martyred in the city and and we you know, still go to his shrine, you know, in the um you know, within the uh or next to the the uh circus of of Nero which where the Vatican is.

(44:55) He doesn't say anything like that or anything similar making it kind of unclear whether Clement is going to be aware of that later tradition that associates Peter and Rome even though he's writing from Rome. And so so again, if he's writing at the end of the first century and he's still not particularly aware of that, he might just be saying in general, you know, but if it was his immediate memory, I think anyway that he would be writing less a less vague um way.

(45:24) Likewise concerning Paul's death, Clement only says that he was martyred by the rulers. It doesn't um say uh all of the traditions that we later have of Paul being beheaded um outside the walls of Rome and so forth. So, if that event occurred as later tradition tells it in 64 and if Clement again is writing just a few years of the event, we might expect him to spend much more time recounting the event especially if he had been one of Paul's companions or something or as tradition says if he had been personally ordained by Peter. We might

(46:03) expect him to say more, add more details about this very recent, very critically important events. Clement does relate details of Paul's earlier ministry. So, we read that, you know, he had multiple imprisonments, you know, seven times wearing bonds. He was banished. He was stoned, although obviously not stoned to death as a execution form of execution in among Judeans.

(46:29) So, one thing that one detail that he does give though is that he calls Paul a herald in the East and in the West. And Clement says that Paul visited the extreme limits of the West. And so, the extreme limits of the West in the Greco-Roman worldview are the Pillars of Hercules. So, Hercules, according to Greco-Roman myth, visited the West and set up two pillars to mark the extreme limits.

(47:04) And these are on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar. So, the southern pillar is now called Monte Hacho. It's in Ceuta, North Africa, what had been Roman Mauretania. And the northern pillar is in Gibraltar, which is on the Iberian Peninsula, Roman Hispania. And so, it sounds like anyway that um Clement is saying that Paul went to either Mauretania or Hispania.

(47:34) Um In his letter to the Romans, Paul explained that he planned a future mission to Spain to plant new churches. So, in Romans 15 of Paul's letter to the Romans, he says, "This is the reason that I have so often been hindered from coming to visit you, the Christians in Rome. But now, with no further place for me in these regions, that is Anatolia, Achaia, Macedonia, so he has had too many conflicts with um with what are later going to be called Judaizing apostles, but essentially apostles who are telling his converts that they need

(48:15) to obey the law of Moses and and apostles whose authority his own churches have started to recognize. Um so he doesn't have any place for them in for me in these regions anymore. He says, "I desire, as I have for many years, to come to you, to Rome, when I go to Spain. For I do hope to see you on my journey and to be sent on by you once I have enjoyed your company for a little while.

(48:46) So to be sent on by you, in other words, hopefully you will financially contribute to my mission to Spain. At present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem in ministry to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to share their resources with the poor among the saints of Jerusalem. So he's taken up a collection and he's going to bring it from the churches in Macedonia Macedonia Achaia, that is Greece and the Balkans and he's going to deliver that to the poor among the saints of Jerusalem.

(49:24) So the poor are include um people who have donated everything to follow Jesus and are now living as mendicant disciples. So the churches that I planted were pleased to do this and indeed they owe it to the folks in Jerusalem, to them, for if the Gentiles have come to share in their blessings, the Judean Christians' blessings, the Gentiles ought to Christians ought to also be of service to them in material things.

(49:56) So, when I've completed this and I've been and I've delivered to them, that is the the mendicant poor of Jerusalem, James' church. I've delivered to them what's been collected. I will set out by way of you the Roman church to Spain. And I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

(50:19) So, as of the time that Paul is writing this letter to the Romans, his plan is to deliver a significant amount of money that he's collected from all of the Gentile churches that he's planted in Greece and Macedonia so that um that can be given to the poor among the saints of Jerusalem. Um specifically therefore the group of mendicant disciples of Christ who are led by James, the brother of Jesus.

(50:49) We've had a bunch of different lectures on the Pauline church and the church of James and the conflict there. There was a lecture for example why um why Paul won or something like that. And so part of the idea here is is that there is um Paul is hoping to have maybe a final peace offering so that they won't have that kind of war.

(51:11) He's also fled the scene so that he won't cause a schism um and so and there and and a schism doesn't really happen because of future events that Paul isn't aware of before at this point in his history. So, so Paul has a plan to evangelize Spain. And it's only after successfully delivering those funds to James' church that Paul plans to do it though.

(51:35) And like he says to the Romans, he plans to visit them along the way reconnecting with all those leaders that he mentions including the apostles Andronicus and Junia, that great patron who probably has money that might be able to contribute feed Phoebe and part of his hope is that the Christians in Rome will fund this mission to Spain or at least get it started.

(51:59) So, Clement of Rome therefore seems to believe that Paul has ultimately completed this plan and gone on a mission to Spain. So, he's a herald of the East and the West. He's traveled to the extreme limits. And that's the pillars, so in other words to Spain. But that's at odds with the tradition of Paul's fate known to the author of Acts or told by the author of Acts.

(52:29) So, Acts tells us that Paul did go to Jerusalem, was denounced at the temple, and then handed over to Roman authorities for trial in Caesarea, the capital of Roman Judea. At with that trial he appeals to the emperor as a Roman citizen. And then after appealing he's taken by ship in custody to have a hearing before the emperor.

(52:57) He's shipwrecked, so he spends a little bit of time in Malta, but then makes his way to Rome for a final trial according to Acts. So, then Acts doesn't get to the very end of Paul's life. It leaves off with Paul still under house arrest in a villa just outside of Rome awaiting for that final trial before the emperor and presumably his execution without him ever having reached Spain.

(53:21) So, it's pretty impossible or nearly impossible to reconcile the tradition found in Acts with Clement of Rome's belief that Paul fulfilled the plan that he outlined in his letter to the Romans. So, again there are implications depending on what date we have. So, if Clement actually is written in this earlier time frame, we would almost have to conclude that Paul went to Spain and is martyred probably by the authorities in Spain.

(53:51) And then the tradition that we have in Acts then isn't historical at all, but is a later tradition that uh where the people aren't aware of Paul making it to Spain. Whereas if Clement is writing at the end of the first century, um it again is a little surprising that he has little firsthand knowledge of Paul's fate.

(54:12) And instead what he is doing is reconstructing Paul's fate from having, you know, read his copy of Paul's letter to the Romans. And so he just assumes that Paul made it to Spain and then maybe later came back to Rome and was killed there, depending on how early the tradition of that is. We've had a whole lecture on the um you know, what happened to the 12 apostles What happened to the apostles? Paul's not one of the 12 apostles, but um Paul's fate is you know, well, we don't have an immediate early tradition that backs it

(54:42) up. It's It's about as early as it gets that he is makes it to Rome, is executed outside the walls. I mean, it's almost the best um example of any anyone that we know what happened to him other than other than uh Jesus' brother James, who again is not one of the 12, but is almost certainly executed in uh Jerusalem.

Transmission of Jesus' Sayings

(55:01) We have Josephus on that as an authority at least. So, it's interesting. So, um another interesting thing about Clement um is his use of Jesus' sayings. So, Clement attributes multiple quotations or sayings to the Lord Jesus. And like I say, this also has implication for the letter's dating. So, if Clement was actually written before 70, that would predate any of the Gospels.

(55:29) Um and so if um it wouldn't it wouldn't work if Clement were quoting like one of the Gospels that's written after that, like Matthew or Luke, verbatim, we would know something was up. Um unless um unless it was in case the case of Matthew and Luke, unless um Clement were specifically quoting only things that are found in the Q source, um which which doesn't seem to be the case.

(56:00) So, anyway, so Jesus sayings in Clement are similar to those found in Matthew and Luke, but they are not verbatim quotations. And in fact, um they rework Jesus material in a different way, so it may be a completely different uh oral tradition that's gotten to them or different uh saying source. So, there's a whole section of uh quotations attributed to Jesus that begins uh in section 13 of Clement's letter.

(56:28) So, Clement says, "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, which he spoke, teaching us gentleness and patience. For he spoke to us, 'Be merciful that you might obtain mercy.' And so, you know, this is we have a similar um saying of Jesus in Matthew 5 from the Sermon on the Mount, but it's not the same. It's "Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.

(56:53) " Um the Clement goes on in the very next frag- the very next phrase says, "Forgive that you might be forgiven." And you know, again, the quotation from Matthew 6 is, "If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." So, the idea is there, but this is not any kind of a direct quotation from the Gospel.

(57:15) Um the next one is, "As you do, so it will be done to you." So, we have parallels in Matthew and Luke. Um Matthew 7, "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the law and the prophets." Do unto others, So, that's the golden rule. Um it's a little different though than as you do, so it will be done to you.

(57:39) Um uh and Luke has a version of the golden rule, do to others as you would have them do to you. It's not quite the same as what we have here in Clement. The next one is, as you give, so shall you receive. There are There are similar passages. So, Luke has one, give and it will be given to you. So, you give, you'll receive.

(58:00) There's a lot of give receive um sayings in different forms in the Gospels. There's also a version of that in um the Epistle of James, which also has an interesting way of using Jesus sayings. As you judge, so shall you be judged. So, we have in Matthew, for the judgment will get you give will be the judgment you get. As you are merciful, so shall you receive mercy.

(58:27) Um you know, there again in the Beatitudes in Matthew, blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy. Um it doesn't It's not quite as you are merciful, you will shall receive mercy, you know, you know, then it's a little bit different. Um Luke has a variant on being merciful in Luke 7, be merciful just as your father is merciful, but it's not saying um if that that's more exhortation, following an example.

(58:53) So, again, these are all the same sentiments, but they're not um quoting the Gospels. The measure you measure with uh with it shall you shall be measured to you. Um the measure you give will be the measure you get. The measure you give will be the measure you get back. So, these examples show Clement is a very important text for understanding the transmission and use of the teachings of Jesus because Paul um has so few of these and uses so few quotations from Jesus or and very rarely attributes any quotations to Jesus even even more

(59:29) rarely. Um and so having these actually um we did before a uh um a lecture on which uh sayings of Jesus were authoritative and I really hadn't examined Clement this closely and seen how interesting this is, but it does show again how interesting and important this letter is because here we have Jesus sayings in a different form than what we have them in the gospel either before the gospels were composed or very soon after they are circulating.

The Dispute at Corinth

(1:00:04) First Clement is written with the authority of the Church of Rome as a um means of mediating and resolving a dispute that has risen in the Church of Corinth. And so it also has therefore been cited as the absolute earliest example of the Church of it's it's the first time the Church of Rome says anything and they are intervening in another church's dispute.

(1:00:31) So it is um um the first example of um the Roman Church exercising essentially preeminence or is first among equals probably. Um and is therefore a huge precedence uh for later claims of primacy. Because the Corinthian Church was of course a very venerable congregation founded by Paul himself. And again because Clement is writing to the Church in Corinth and Paul had founded uh the Church in Corinth and Paul had written to the Corinthians, if Clement really had been a co-worker or a disciple of Paul or with Paul at in Rome at least at

(1:01:08) the time Paul was martyred there if Paul was martyred there, it's really surprising that Clem Clement doesn't say so. But let's look at the contents of First Clement. So as we saw, First Clement begins at the beginning. The Church of God sojourning at Rome to the Church of God sojourning in Corinth. Those called and made holy through the will of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you from almighty God through Jesus Christ.

(1:01:37) And then he says, "Dearest brethren, because of the recent and many disastrous events which have happened to us here in Rome." So, either that Neroian persecution or maybe a persecution, more likely a persecution under Domitian. We feel we have been somewhat tardy in shifting our attention to the points which you consulted us.

(1:02:01) So, the Corinthian Church has written a letter to the Roman Church and um they want either some advice or some mediation. This is especially the case regarding that shameless and despicable rebellion, utterly abhorrent to the chosen of God, which some few impetuous and arrogant persons have stirred up into such a frenzy that your venerable and illustrious name, the Church of Corinth, worthy of love of all, is now instead a cursed name.

(1:02:39) So, people no longer think highly of the Corinthian Church because of this rebellion and Clement therefore is um writing in response to a letter from the Corinthians asking for help to resolve this factional dispute. So, already at the outset, Clement is betraying his hand. He is not going to side with um rebels, you know, which who he calls shameless and despicable and he dismisses as a few impetuous and arrogant persons.

(1:03:08) Rather, Clement is firmly on the side of the hierarchy that is emerging to govern churches at the end of the first century. Elders, presbyters [snorts] that is, bishops and deacons. And and these have not necessarily merged all the way, at least in places like Rome or in Egypt where an individual congregation has a single um bishop as it's kind of sole leader who is then uh supported by elders and deacons.

(1:03:43) And Clement in fact in his letter uses elders and bishops somewhat interchangeably as kind of the top tier of this hierarchy. And so this is still all developing which is one of the reasons why um uh you know, Clement is definitely early, whether or not it's super early, it's even at the end of the first century, it's very very early. So Clement declares that in the past this church of Corinth has been uh very illustrious.

(1:04:12) Um you know, certainly as one of the earliest churches um and it has uh uh letters from Paul written to it. Um but the reason why it was illustrious he says is because you did all things impartially and proceeded the laws of God obedient uh proceeded in the laws of God obedient to your rulers and showing proper respect for the elders or presbyters that is among you.

(1:04:40) So you encouraged your young men towards self-restraint and dignity. That's that's why everybody looked so high at you guys before. But in Clement's view the Corinthian church's illustrious reputation is in fact the original is the cause of the problem. So every honor and growth was granted to you, the Corinthian church, and thus because of that it was fulfilled what is written in the book of Deuteronomy.

(1:05:09) My beloved ate and drank and grew and became fat and kicked off. So, um you know, essentially pride leads to van- vanity. So, from this uh place of pride came jealousy and envy and discord and rebellion, persecution and disorder, battle and captivity. Thus were aroused the dishonorable against the honorable, the inglorious against the glorious, the imprudent against the prudent, the young against the old.

(1:05:46) It's another um give tell tell I think that Clement isn't that young when he's writing this, [laughter] you know. So, the people who are dishonorable, inglorious, and imprudent are also young, right? So, we see from the outset that Clement grounds his writing in the authority of scripture, so he paraphrases Deuteronomy in order to um to do this and and having established his thesis that the rebellion in the church of Corinth was caused by jealousy and envy, Clement goes on to draw on scripture for examples of failure caused by envy.

(1:06:23) And so, he starts at the very beginning by retelling quoting the Cain and Abel story from Genesis 4. And, you know, if you're going to get compared to Cain, you know, as a as a rebel, that's not a good sign for the Corinthian rebels if suddenly they all come together to hear what uh Clement has to say about their dispute and you get to this part of the letter.

(1:06:45) So, as it is written, Clement says, "And it happened after some days that Cain brought a sacrifice to God from the fruits of the earth, and Abel also brought a sacrifice from the firstborn of the flocks and from their fat. And God looked with favor on Abel and his gifts, and he did not look with favor on Cain and his sacrifices.

(1:07:08) And Cain was greatly grieved, and his face fell. And God said to Cain, "Why are you sad? And why has your face fallen? If you offered rightly, but did not divide rightly, have you not sinned? Be quiet. To you is its return, and you will rule it." And Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go to the field.

(1:07:32) " And it happened that when they were in the field, Cain rose against Abel and um Abel his brother and killed him. And so that's where at the end of quoting Genesis or kind of paraphrasing it a little. And then Clement says, "You see, brethren, you in Corinth, envy and jealousy bring about fratricide." So, all of this kind of rebelling against authority is uh caused by envy, and that leads to all sorts of horrible sins like killing your brother.

(1:08:01) So, that's just getting started. So, now from that first um Old Testament precedent, um more follow. So, Clement says, "Because of envy, our father Jacob fled fled from the face of Esau, his brother." So, that story is told in Genesis 27 and 28. Envy made Joseph uh Joseph of Egypt, Joseph of the coat of many colors uh persecuted nearly to death up to entering slavery.

(1:08:29) Uh that's the story of how Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery in Egypt in Genesis 37. Envy forced Moses to flee from the face of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, at his heart at at his hearing from his tribesmen, "Who made you a judge to or ruler over us? Will you murder me the way you murdered the Egyptian yesterday?" So, before um you know, Egypt is I'm sorry, Moses is raised in the household of Pharaoh, um but he murders an Egyptian and uh flees into Sinai.

(1:09:04) And so, this is from Exodus 2. Because of envy, Aaron and Miriam, the brother and sister of Moses, were forced to stay outside the camp as the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness. It's a story from Numbers 12. Envy brought down Dathan and Abiram alive into Hades through their rebellion against the servant of God, Moses.

(1:09:28) So, again from Numbers, this is the story of Dathan and the rebels. And if you remember the movie The Ten Commandments, the the there's an earthquake and the the um the earth opens up and swallows them. Who is on the Lord's side? It swallows all the rebels. So, because of envy, David, King David, earned not only the hatred of foreigners, but was even persecuted by Saul, King of Israel.

(1:09:51) So, before he was king, he was persecuted by Saul, who is envious of David. And so, that's the story from 1 Samuel. So, following up with this extensive string of precedents from the Old Testament, Clement gives that contemporary precedent that we've already read. So, that was the envy was the cause of those martyrdoms of Peter and Paul.

(1:10:12) And this is just the opening salvo, but it also illustrates Clement's use of Old the Old Testament. So, this includes short and long citations, retelling, summarizing, paraphrasing stories that he assumes are known to his readers. Many of you who are listening to this lecture are highly biblically literate, and so you probably I tried to explain a little bit of shorthand for those um uh you know, explain a little bit of context for those little shorthand uh things that he says.

(1:10:44) Many uh for those of you who are not. So, not everybody maybe knew the um uh the Moses killing the Egyptian story or or um or Aaron and Miriam outside of the camp story and so forth. So, Clement um quotes lots and lots of books of the Hebrew Bible. He has extensive knowledge of the Old Testament. So, the whole all the books of the um Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, um Book of Joshua, 1 and 2 Samuel.

(1:11:17) He quotes from the prophetic tradition, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Malachi, Jonah, Daniel. Uh the wisdom books, including Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Wisdom of Solomon. Some of the um later Second Temple books, um traditions like Judith and Esther. And then even some of the books that don't make it into um the uh Christian New Testament like the or Old Testament like the Book of Jubilees, which we've had a lecture on.

(1:11:46) So, very um very focused on scripture. And And given this early commitment to reading the Old Testament as authoritative in the Church of Rome as demonstrated by Clement here in the 1st century, um it probably isn't that surprising to us um just as an aside here that when Marcion of Sinope comes to Rome and tries to become its leader, the leader of the church, he becomes either bishop or a bishop of Rome.

(1:12:21) So, this is right in the early middle of the 2nd century. One of Marcion's ideas is actually we should um delete the uh Old Testament because the God of the Old Testament um is not the same God as that Christ is the the son of because it's clear he clearly does all kinds of evil things. And indeed, we should also remove from the canon, you know, most of what made it into the New Testament and instead he proposed just a small subset of the Pauline Epistles and just a um uh his own version anyway of the uh Gospel of Luke.

(1:13:02) And like I say, you can see already how important all of these other books are to at least Clement who's our very first voice in the Roman church. Um and so you can see why maybe um Marcion's idea met with a cool reception in um Rome. Um and he was excommunicated then by the Roman church and he um continued to go back maybe to Anatolia where he um organized a different uh his own sort of hierarchy and a Marcionite church continued to exist for another couple centuries.

(1:13:37) So it was a popular idea among many Gentile Christians. How do we deal with the um Israelite inheritance? We can maybe just jettison it if possible, but it's too fully integrated into um the leadership and understanding of the proto proto-orthodox leaders like Clement at Rome to do that. And the same will be true for um Valentinus who also in the middle of the 2nd century comes to Rome and makes sort of a bid, in this case um uh the Gnostic case that again the God of the Old Testament is not uh the true God, but is in fact a a flawed God uh as

(1:14:17) part of the Gnostic understanding. We've had um uh lectures on that, too. So Clement's thorough knowledge and use of the Hebrew Bible in Greek has led some scholars to argue he might be a Christian with Jewish background, a Jewish Christian, despite his Roman or Latin name Clemens, Clement, which means merciful uh or gentle in Latin.

(1:14:43) But on the other side of that ledger is Clement's use of examples from the classical tradition, such as his retelling of the story of the Phoenix. So, in section 25 of his letter, Clement says, "Let us see that strange sign happening in the eastern regions of the world, that is around Arabia. For there is a bird called Phoenix.

(1:15:11) And this is the only one I'm only existing one, and it lives 500 years. So, according to the understanding of the Phoenix, there's just one bird and it lives 500 years long. Now, when it has come to the dissolution of its dying, it makes itself a nest of frankincense and myrrh and the rest of the spices, into which it enters in the fullness of time and dies.

(1:15:37) And then, the decaying of the flesh produces a worm, which nourished by the juices of the dead animal grows wings. Then, when it has grown strong, it takes over the nest where the bones of its predecessor are, and picking these up, continues from the Arabian region as far as Egypt uh to the so-called Heliopolis, the city of the sun, as it's so-called according to Clement.

(1:16:03) It's one of the name one of the uh cities in uh Roman Egypt. And in daytime, in the seeing of all, it lands on the altar of the sun, placing those bones of its predecessor there, and then it starts back. Then, the priests uh the pagan Egyptian priests examine the records of time and find that it fulfilled 500 years in coming.

(1:16:29) So, do we consider it to be a great or wonderful if the creator of everything causes a resurrection of those who were slaved to him in a holy manner? So, in other words, if if Christians get resurrected, is that a is that such a crazy thing to believe when we know, you know, in confidence of good faith, when even a bird, just this phoenix, God shows us the magnificence of his promise.

(1:16:56) So, you know, even even pagans understand and believe in the natural world and um in the existence of resurrection because that happens, that's the natural life cycle of the phoenix. And so, you might think, "Well, wait a second, there's no such thing as a phoenix, you know." But But Clement's classical education here is in evi- is in evidence here because he is using um this argument that he will have learned from reading um and studying regular classical um natural philosophy, including, for example, the incredibly well, what will become the uh not now,

(1:17:31) but it will will will eventually be recorded in the um the book of Pliny the Elder. And so, um um So, it's possible, like I say, that he's uh you know, it's possible that he has a Jewish Christian background, but it's equally possible or more likely that he has a gentle back Gentile background who is a simply committed student of the Hebrew Bible.

(1:17:54) And that may be like the other God-fearing Gentiles described in Acts who regularly study biblical texts. And indeed, um the author of Luke-Acts is probably a Gentile Christian who nevertheless has made an extensive study of biblical texts. So, just going back to this uh story of the phoenix.

(1:18:18) So, Greco-Roman natural philosophy regarded the phoenix and other animals that we now know are myths, like dragons, basilisks, and unicorns, um people thought those were real. And so, Christians like Clement didn't dispute their existence the way um um many are would argue that other myths are myths or didn't happen, myths about the gods that is.

(1:18:43) And but instead of then saying no, there's no such thing as a phoenix, Clement um reinterprets the myth so that it's not uh like it originally would have been some kind of a proof that of the that Ra is the true sun god of uh uh of Egypt. It's not doesn't mean that, but it's reinterpreted now to teach Christian principles.

(1:19:04) And so he emphasized that, you know, that among the spices and the nard and frankincense and myrrh, so you can see the phoenix as a um as a symbol of Christ. And then that practice continues. Um and so medieval bestiaries are one of the more popular uh books that monks copied in the Middle Ages, and they're just filled with information from classical writers like Pliny reinterpreted to um teach Christian messages.

(1:19:34) And they really are obviously about more about morals than they are about nature since um there aren't people running out in in the um in the field and observing the phoenix and so forth, but it's um it's a legend that has continued and is believed to be real. Kind of see the phoenix there on fire as it's um uh the getting to 500 years old before the new new phoenix emerges from from the ashes.

The Defense of Church Hierarchy

(1:19:59) So, um in his mediation with the church of Corinth Clement has been insisting that the rebels um are in the wrong and he wants them to restore leaders of the church, presbyters and bishops and deacons who have been deposed during the dispute. And as he wants to bolster his case, he ends up making a very important defense of hierarchy.

(1:20:24) This new hierarchy that's emerging in Christianity in the later 1st century as the apostolic age is ending. And in the lecture we did on the Didache, we saw that same transition happening so that the Didache talks about both both groups. So, you're talking about apostles, this much larger group than 12, but that are also synonymous with prophets and teachers in the Didache, people who have taken a vow of voluntary spiritual poverty, who travel around um begging for their daily bread and who then preach in the under the influence

(1:21:05) of the Holy Spirit the good news and cast out demons and all of those kind of good things. So, those had been the apostolic age and in the Didache, we talk about also how the importance the Didache emphasizes the importance that we now also have bishops and um elders and and deacons. And you aren't you are not to hate them or despise them.

(1:21:30) You are actually to honor them as much as you honor the apostles and and prophets. So, it's sort of showing that this new group is emerging but is at least according to the author of the Didache not as popular as as they had been. So, so we read a similar maybe time frame here or actually as the apostolic age is ending so maybe a little bit later here in Clement.

(1:21:57) The apostles were proclaiming the good news to us from the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was sent out by God. So, Christ was from God and the apostles were from Christ. Therefore, both were in good order by the will of God. So, having received orders and having been fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and having believed in the word of God with the full assurance of the Holy Spirit, they the apostles went out proclaiming the good news that the kingdom of God was about to appear.

(1:22:33) Preaching through countries and cities, they, the apostles, appointed their firstfruits, having proved them in the spirit, so they appointed them as bishops and deacons of future believers. And, if you were weren't wonder worried about it, this was not new for indeed over a period of many years it was written about bishops and deacons for scripture, and now he gets an Isaiah quote from Isaiah uh says, "I will appoint their bishops in righteousness and their deacons in faith.

(1:23:06) " Although again, um as you can imagine, the author of uh our the author of Isaiah here, I think Isaiah 60, it's one of the later continuers of of Isaiah, is not talking about um you know, a church office that is emerging in um a technical church office that is starting to emerge at the end of the first century, he's using the the meaning uh the other, you know, the word here in Greek that means overseers and uh and helpers.

(1:23:34) And so, but it's the same word in Greek and so that is able to be used as a precedent by Clement to say, "Hey, there's already always been bishops and deacons, says so right here in Isaiah." And he continues then how wonderful that those in Christ, having been entrusted with such a work by God, appointed the aforementioned.

(1:23:55) So, how wonderful it is that all the apostles have appointed people to be bishops and deacons. So, since bishops and deacons have a direct line back to Christ and from from Christ to God the Father in Clement's view, it's a big sin to depose them. So, he goes on and says, "Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would in the future be strife about the name of the office of bishop.

(1:24:19) So, for this reason, having a perfect foreknowledge, having received a perfect foreknowledge, they appointed the aforementioned bishops, and afterwards set a rule that whenever they may have fallen asleep, other approved men would receive their ministry. Therefore, those having been appointed by them or afterwards by other reputable reputable reputable men are approved by the whole church.

(1:24:49) And having ministered blamelessly to the flock of Christ with humble-mindedness, quietly and unselfishly having been born witness of many times by everyone, we think these men cannot be righteously thrown out of their ministry. For our sin will not be small if those who have been blamelessly and in a holy manner presented the gifts of the office of bishop are thrown out.

(1:25:15) So, the apostles are appointing bishops, and then later bishops are appointing more bishops, or if there's a lapse, um bishops from around, you know, the fellow bishops will help appoint a new bishop or ordain a new bishop for um the uh the church in a different place. And so, because there is this apostolic succession, as far as Clement is concerned, it's a big sin if you throw out ones that are blameless as the Corinthians seem to have done in Clement's eyes.

(1:25:47) Um nevertheless, despite making this this earliest case for apostolic succession, and despite traditions from the end of the 2nd century that Clement himself was either the uh the immediate successor of Peter, so Peter ordained him to be uh bishop, or maybe Peter ordained a couple people, and Clement was the third or the fourth bishop of Rome after um people we know very little about, Linus and Ant- Anacletus.

(1:26:20) Um Clement doesn't claim in his letter to be a bishop of Rome at all. And as we saw, his mention of Peter was pretty vague and lacked details. Certainly in that whole um description of apostolic succession, um a really good case would have been right there. By the way, I know this is true because Peter or appointed, you know, ordained me, you know.

(1:26:45) Um and so it makes it seem this is an argument again for um it being later or for Peter never having made it to Rome. Um or both. So So there's also a lot of indications that um that the Roman Church in the first century doesn't have a single bishop and it's only in the middle of the second century that there is a single bishop with primacy.

(1:27:11) There may have been a bunch of different people serving as bishops or and that term is like I say in Clement, sort of synonymous with elder or presbyter. And so that's simply maybe a ranking person of an overseer of the church. And so it isn't clear that in Clement's time, um the Roman Church has settled on rule by a single bishop.

(1:27:31) And we talked about for example, um uh the epistle, the Poly- or sorry, not Poly- Ignatius of Antioch, um being one of the other apostolic fathers. He's living a little later than than Clement, so at the beginning of the second century, um who um has written seven letters that survive. And all of them are addressed to a bishop.

(1:27:57) So for example, when he's writing to the Church of Smyrna, it's addressed to Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna. But the one letter that he writes that isn't like that is he writes to Rome, where it does he doesn't list a single bishop. And so this is um Bart Ehrman has argued that that's one of the many examples that we have that perhaps that it was in Egypt, I'm sorry, in Rome and in other places, maybe in Egypt, um, the tradition of having a single bishop over, um, such an important seat developed maybe a little later.

(1:28:27) And, um, and so we can't say, um, whether Clement was actually a bishop of Rome, although he is today known as Clement the first, um, the, uh, one of the earliest in by by now the tradition tradition anyway, the fourth, uh, fourth bishop of Rome, the fourth pope. And so that is my take on Clement of Rome as the first apostolic father, that is looking at, um, some of the important things that are in his text, uh, his epistle to the church in Corinth.

(1:29:01) There's actually a whole bunch of other really interesting things that he has to say there that we could have dug into, um, about his theology, his take on, uh, on on being justified by faith or by works and so on, but, um, that's what we were able to do within the time frame today. So, I'm going to get, uh, some water while Mike is gathering your questions.

Table 1: Previous Lectures or Episode

Table 2: Religious Studies Terms

Table 4: Bible Passages

Table 3: Individuals Named

Table 5: Non English Words

Table 6: Books mentioned