First Clement
Home > Church Fathers > First Clement First Clement At a Glance Letter Genre: (2/5) ** Reliability of Dating: (3/5) *** Length of Text: Greek Original Language: Ancient Translations: Modern Translations: English Estimated Range of Dating: 80-140 A.D. Chronological List of Early Christian Writings Discuss this text on the Early Writings forum. Text English Translation of 1 Clement by J. B. Lightfoot English Translation of 1 Clement by Charles Hoole English Translation of 1 Clement by Roberts-Donaldson Resources The Apostolic Fathers by J. B. Lighfoot Kirsopp Lake's Introduction to 1 Clement Roberts-Donaldson Introduction to 1 Clement Handbook of Patrology: St. Clement The Ecole Glossary: Clement of Rome Catholic Encyclopedia: Clement I, Saint and Pope A Study in 1 Clement Offsite Links Greek of Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians from J.
B. Lightfoot Glenn Davis: I Clement 1 Clement and the Ignatiana in Dutch Radical Criticism Alban Butler Hagiography Clement of Rome, Bishop Fact Sheet on Clement EarlyChurchFathers.com Introduction First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians Books Johannes Quasten, Epistles of St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch (Paulist Press 1946). Recommended Books for the Study of Early Christian Writings Information on First Clement On the internal evidence for the dating of 1 Clement, Welborn writes (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, v. 1, p. 1060): The epistle is customarily dated to the end of the reign of Domitian (95 or 96 C.E.). In the first sentence of the letter, the author explains that the Roman church has been delayed in turning its attention to the dispute at Corinth by "sudden and repeated misfortunes and hindrances which have befallen us" (1:1).
This statement is usually interpreted as an allusion to a persecution through which the church at Rome has just been passing. Since chap. 5 speaks of the Neronian persecution as something long past, the sporadic assaults of Domitian must be meant. But the langauge of 1:1 is so vague that one may doubt whether it refers to persecution at all (Merrill 1924: 160); and the evidence for a persecution under Domitian is tenuous (Merrill 1924: 148-73). In letters and speeches on concord, one often finds an apologetic formula like that which introduces 1 Clement; it was customary for one who gave advice on concord to excuse his delay by reference to personal or domestic hindrances (e.g., Dio Chrys. Or.
40.2; Aelius Aristides Or. 24.1; Socratic Ep. 31). Laurence Welborn writes about the dating of 1 Clement (op. cit., p. 1060): Thus one must rely upon more general statements in the epistle and in tradition. The account of the deaths of Peter and Paul in chap. 5 is not that of an eye-witness. The presbyters installed by the apostles have died (44:2), and a second ecclesiastical generation has passed (44:3). The church at Rome is called "ancient" (47:6); and the emissaries from Rome are said to have lived "blamelessly" as Christians "from youth to old age" (63:3). Thus the epistle cannot have been written before the last decades of the 1st century. There are references to the letter by the middle of the next century in the works of Hegesippus and Dionysius of Corinth (apud Euseb.
Hist. Eccl. 3.16; 4.22; 4.23). Thus one may place the composition of 1 Clement between A.D. 80 and 140. Loisy maintains that the author of 1 Clement was a distinguished Roman elder who flourished 130-140 and that this Clement was named in the Shepherd of Hermas (Vision, 8:3), which is also to be dated to the mid second century. Notably, a writing is mentioned in 1 Clement 23:3 in which the challenge is quoted, "These things we did hear in the days of our fathers also, and behold we have grown old, and none of these things hath befallen us." Because this source document for 1 Clement must have been written when the hope of the imminent parousia was waning, and because 1 Clement itself must have dealt with the same issue, the document can scarcely be dated to the time of the first Christian generation.