First letter to Clement

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Beginning of the 1st Epistle of Clement, in Greek and Latin, Oxford 1633 edition

The First Letter to Clement (also: Letter to Clement , abbreviated to 1 Clem ) is an early Christian letter from the church in Rome to the church in Corinth . It is attributed to Clement of Rome and was written shortly before 100 AD. The letter is not part of the New Testament but was valued in the early church . It is an important source for the history of early Christianity .

Text transmission

The best known and oldest Greek text witness is the Codex Alexandrinus , a Bible manuscript from the 5th century, which, however, has some gaps in 1 Clem. Another Greek manuscript is the Codex Hierosolymitanus (Jerusalem Codex) from the year 1056, which was rediscovered in Constantinople in 1873. It has been kept in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Library in Jerusalem since 1887 . A Syrian manuscript from 1170 is in the Cambridge University Library . A Latin copy from the 11th century is in the Namur Seminary . The translation it contains is probably from the 2nd century. There are also two Coptic (Achmimic) papyri from the 4th – 5th centuries. Century, which offer different translations but are not complete. Of the church fathers, Clemens von Alexandrien frequently quotes the first letter of Clement and is therefore significant in terms of textual criticism. According to Adolf von Harnack , the tradition is secured with very few exceptions, so that no conjectures are necessary.

Author and dating of the letter

The first letter of Clement is a real letter, not a literary art letter. The reason was massive disputes in the Corinthian community.

The community in Rome claims for itself a special legal or authority title. The letter does not name Clement as the sender, but rather "the Church of God that is in Rome". The letter would therefore be a church letter, not a letter from an individual. According to tradition, he is attributed by name to a Clemens, for the first time by Dionysius of Corinth in 170. Clemens was probably the "highest presbyter " of the Roman community, as he is also mentioned in chapter 40 of the letter when describing the structure of the community: “The highest priest is assigned his own duties, the priests also have their own place and the Levites are responsible for their own services; the layman is bound by lay regulations. ” Irenaeus of Lyon named a Clement as the third successor of Peter after Linus and Anacletus in the oldest list of bishops in Rome . According to Irenaeus, Clement was still in contact with the apostles ; Irenaeus also mentions the problems of the Corinthian community and the letter of Clement. It is obvious to equate this Clement with the author of Clement's letter.

The letter was written in Greek , heavily influenced by the Septuagint ; other stylistic influences come from popular philosophy and the official style. The special stylistic coloring is also created by the many scriptural quotations from the Septuagint: More than a quarter of the text consists of such quotations, namely about 2,750 words from a total of over 9800 words which includes the letter. The length of this letter is thus comparable to that of the Revelation of John , i.e. longer than the Letter to the Romans , the longest letter in the New Testament, and a little shorter than the Gospel of Mark .

The letter itself has no date . The time of origin is assumed to be "around or shortly before 100 AD". With reference to the tribulations described in the letter, which happened one after the other, could the - now past? - Wave of persecution at the end of the reign of Emperor Domitian to be commemorated; therefore the letter would have been written around 96 .

Content of the letter

The extensive letter is divided into 65 chapters. It consists of an introduction in chapters 1–2, the main part consists of two parts from 3–36 and 37–58. “In the first larger Christianity as it is and should be, as a gift and a task in continuous admonitions to the Corinthian congregation, in the second, the decision regarding the disputes is most carefully prepared, justified, formulated and executed in its consequences ”. Chapters 59–65 conclude.

Clemens calls the letter a fraternal rebuke (admonition, Greek nouthesie). According to Mt 18.15ff EU , pious Christians are obliged to point out sins to fellow Christians - in the name of Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit . The reason for this rebuke are the revolutionary events in Corinth: those responsible in the Corinthian Church were deposed. This led to civil war-like conditions (gr. Stasis ) and church division ( schism ) in the parish of Corinth. The remarks on this topic are followed by a long exposition of Christian life, of right Christian faith. The stasis is just the occasion.

Impact history

The first letter of Clement was read at times in some parishes in church services up until the 5th century , for example regularly in Sunday worship in Corinth around 170 AD, but also elsewhere. The Syrian Church counted him among the Holy Scriptures. In the other regions, however, he did not achieve canonical standing.

Probably because of the high reputation of this letter in the old church, other writings were ascribed to Clement:

  • the second letter of Clement , an originally anonymous and secondary pseudepigraphic writing from the 2nd century, which depicts a sermon and quoted from 1 Clem, among other things.
  • De virginitate , 3rd Century Instructions for Abstinence.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermut Löhr: Studies on early Christian and early Jewish prayer , p. 4.
  2. ^ Adolf von Harnack: Introduction , pp. 9-10.
  3. ↑ This letter from Dionysius to Soter of Rome is handed down from Eusebius of Caesarea in his Church History , Book IV, 23:11. After Susanne Hausammann: Old Church. On history and theology in the first four centuries , Vol. 1: Early Christian writers. Neukirchen-Vluyn 2001, p. 5.
  4. ↑ Library of the Church Fathers, Chapter 40 of Clement's 1st Letter
  5. ^ Irenaeus in his work Adversus Haeresis , Book III, 3.3. According to Hausammann: Early Christian Writers , p. 5.
  6. ↑ According to the commentary on the first letter to Clement by Horacio E. Lona, Göttingen 1998, pp. 42–48; after Hengel: The Four Gospels , p. 216.
  7. ↑ Extent information from Franz Stuhlhofer : The use of the Bible from Jesus to Euseb. A statistical study of the canon history . Wuppertal 1988, p. 38f.
  8. ↑ So Martin Hengel : The four Gospels and the one Gospel of Jesus Christ. Studies on their collection and creation. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2008, p. 220.
  9. ↑ This is not generally recognized; for them "there is only very dubious evidence", according to Douglas Powell: First Clement's letter. In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. VIII, 1981, pp. 113-118, there 117.
  10. ^ So Berthold Altaner , Alfred Stuiber : Patrologie. Life, Writings, and Teaching of the Church Fathers . Herder, Freiburg / Breisgau 1978, p. 45.
  11. ^ Similar to Hausammann: Early Christian Writers , p. 5 (in the time after the persecution, "96-98").
  12. ^ Adolf von Harnack, Introduction, p. 53.
  13. ↑ Eusebius : Hist. Ecclesiastica , 4,23,11.
  14. ^ Berthold Altaner , Alfred Stuiber : Patrology. Life, Writings, and Teaching of the Church Fathers . Herder, Freiburg / Breisgau 1978, p. 45.
  15. ↑ Hermut Löhr: Studies on early Christian and early Jewish prayer , Mohr: Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-16-147933-5 , p. 117.