The same remarks will apply to the case of Clement of Rome. In his Epistle to the Corinthians there are about twenty allusions to the Epistle to the Hebrews or quotations from it. Two of these relate to the majesty of God; one to Christ as high priest; in two or three there is a mere imita- tion of the phraseology of Hebrews, and the most of the pas- sages are practical exhortations to the cultivation of moral virtues, enforced by allusions to the Old Testament worthies. Any of these passages might have occurred in an address to either Jews or Gentiles. They prove nothing as to the point in question. If we did not know from other sources that Clement’s epistle was addressed to a Gentile church, we could not infer that fact from these quotations and allusions. Moreover, Clement’s fondness for the Old Testament and the Epistle to the Hebrews is easily explained, if, as there is very good reason for believing, Clement himself was of Jewish origin, a Hellenist.*
The whole argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews is tech- nically Jewish, and not of a character to appeal to Gentile readers. The argument, for example, for the superiority of Christ to the angels, would have much force addressed to Jews, since the doctrine of the communication of the Mosaic revelation through the ministration of angels was a familiar tradition. Between the writer and Jewish readers there would be no question as to the angelic mediation of the Sinaitic legislation; but the point would have no interest and no pertinency for the average Gentile. The Jew would readily apprehend that no theophany is a direct manifestation of God to the physical sense. The Gentile mode of thought would be the other way. The Jew would understand that angels were the administrators of the old covenant, and would instinctively catch the turn of the whole argument to the effect that with the exaltation of Christ the angelic sway of the old dispensation ceased.
The same thing might be said of the doctrine of the high- priesthood of Christ. If this was a point to make with Gen-
* See Lightfoot’s Clement of Rome, Vol. I., p. 59 ff. VOL. Iv. —24