Very beautifully also he draws from the harmony of the universe an incitement to concord, and incidentally expresses here the remarkable sentiment, perhaps suggested by the old legends of the Atlantis, the orbis alter, the ultima Thule, etc., that there are other worlds beyond the impenetrable ocean, which are ruled by the same laws of the Lord. [1210] 210
But notwithstanding its prevailing Pauline character, this epistle lowers somewhat the free evangelical tone of the Gentile apostle's theology, softens its anti-Judaistic sternness, and blends it with the Jewish-Christian counterpart of St. James, showing that the conflict between the Pauline and Petrine views was substantially settled at the end of the first century in the Roman church, and also in that of Corinth.
Clement knows nothing of an episcopate above the presbyterate; and his epistle itself is written, not in his own name, but in that of the church at Rome. But he represents the Levitical priesthood as a type of the Christian teaching office, and insists with the greatest decision on outward unity, fixed order, and obedience to church rulers. He speaks in a tone of authority to a sister church of apostolic foundation, and thus reveals the easy and as yet innocent beginning of the papacy. [1211] 211 A hundred years after his death his successors ventured, in their own name, not only to exhort, but to excommunicate whole churches for trifling differences.
The interval between Clement and Paul, and the transition from the apostolic to the apocryphal, from faith to superstition, appears in the indiscriminate use of the Jewish Apocrypha, and in the difference between Paul's treatment of scepticism in regard to the resurrection, and his disciple's treatment of the same subject. [1212] 212 Clement points not only to the types in nature, the changes of the seasons and of day and night, but also in full earnest to the heathen myth of the miraculous bird, the phoenix in Arabia, which regenerates itself every five hundred years. When the phoenix--so runs the fable--approaches death, it makes itself a nest of frankincense, myrrh, and other spices; from its decaying flesh a winged worm arises, which, when it becomes strong, carries the reproductive nest from Arabia to Heliopolis in Egypt, and there flying down by day, in the sight of all, it lays it, with the bones of its predecessors, upon the altar of the sun. And this takes place, according to the reckoning of the priests, every five hundred years. After Clement other fathers also used the phoenix as a symbol of the resurrection. [1213] 213
IV. As to the time of its composition, this epistle falls certainly after the death of Peter and Paul, for it celebrates their martyrdom; and probably after the death of John (about 98); for one would suppose, that if he had been living, Clement would have alluded to him, in deference to superior authority, and that the Corinthian Christians would have applied to an apostle for counsel, rather than to a disciple of the apostles in distant Rome. The persecution alluded to in the beginning of the epistle refers to the Domitian as well as the Neronian; for he speaks of "sudden and repeated calamities and reverses which have befallen us." [1214] 214 He prudently abstains from naming the imperial persecutors, and intercedes at the close for the civil rulers. Moreover, he calls the church at Corinth at that time "firmly established and ancient." [1215] 215 With this date the report of Eusebius agrees, that Clement did not take the bishop's chair in Rome till 92 or 93. [1216] 216
[1190] See above p. 184 sq., and my monograph, third revised edition, 1889.
[1191] There are six different conjectures. 1) Clement was the Philippian Clement mentioned by Paul. So Origen, Eusebius, Jerome. He may have been a Greek or a Roman laboring for a time in Philippi and afterwards in Rome. 2) A distant relative of the emperor Tiberius. So the pseudoClementine romances which are historically confused and worthless. 3) The Consul Flavius Clemens, Domitian's cousin, who was put to death by him for "atheism" i.e. the Christian faith, a.d. 95, while his wife Domitilla (who founded the oldest Christian cemetery in Rome) was banished to an island. So Hilgenfeld, and, less confidently, Harnack. But our Clement died a natural death, and if he had been so closely related to the emperor, the fact would have been widely, spread in the church. 4) A nephew of Flavius Clemens. So the martyr acts of Nereus and Achilles, and Cav. de Rossi. 5) A son of Flavius Clemens. So Ewald. But the sons of the Consul, whom Domitian appointed his successors on the throne, were mere boys when Clement was bishop of Rome. 6) A Jewish freedman or son of a freedman belonging to the household of Flavius Clemens. Plausibly advocated by Lightfoot (p. 265). The imperial household seems to have been the centre of the Roman church from the time of Paul's imprisonment (Phil. 4:22). Slaves and freedmen were often very intelligent and cultivated. Hermas )Vis. I. 1) and Pope Callistus )Philos. IX. 12) were formerly slaves. Funk concludes: res non liquet. So also Uhlhorn in Herzog.
[1192] Renan (p. 313) thinks that he was a Roman Jew. So also Lightfoot. But Justin Martyr had the same familiarity with the Old Testament, though he was a Gentile by birth and education.
[1193] § 52, p. 166. Bryennios discusses this question at length in his Prolegomena, and comes to the conclusion that Clement was the third bishop of Rome, and the author of both Epistles to the Corinthians. He identifies him with the Clement in Phil. 4:3.
[1194] "Clément Romain." says the sceptical Renan, once a student of Roman Catholic theology in St. Sulpice."ne fut pas seulement un personnage réel, ce fut un personnage de premier ordre, un vrai chef d'Église, un évêque, avant que l'épiscopat fût nettement constitué j' oserais presque dire un pape, si ce mot ne faisait ici un trop fort anachronisme. Son autorité passa pour la plus grande de toutes en Italie, en Grèce, en Macédonie, durant les dix dernières années du Iersiècle. A la limite de l' âge apostolique, il fut comme unapôtre, un épigone de la grande génération des disciples de Jésus, une des colonnes de cette Eglise de Rome, qui, depuis la destruction de Jérusalem, devenait de plus en plus le centre du christianisme."
[1195] The Alexandrian Bible codex dates from the fifth century, and was presented by Cyril Lucar, of Constantinople, to King Charles 1. in 1628. Since 1633 the Ep. of Cl. has been edited about thirty times from this single MS. It lacks the concluding chapters (57-66) in whole or in part, and is greatly blurred and defaced. It was carefully reexamined and best edited by Tischendorf (1867 and 1873), Lightfoot (1869 and 1877), Laurent (1870), and Gebhardt (in his first ed. 1875). Their conjectures have been sustained in great part by the discovery of the Constantinopolitan MS. See the critical Addenda in the Append. of Lightfoot, p. 396 sqq.
[1196] At that time metropolitan of Serrae (metropolites Serron)-an ancient see Heraclea), in Macedonia--afterwards of Nicomedia. This Eastern prelate was most cordially welcomed by the scholars of the West, Catholic and Protestant, to an honored place in the republic of Christian learning. His discovery is of inestimable value. In his prolegomena and notes--all in Greek--he shows considerable knowledge of the previous editions of Clement (except that of Lightfoot, 1869) and of modern German literature. It is amusing to find familiar names turned into Greek, as Neander (ho Neandros), Gieseler (ho Giselerios), Hefele (ho Hephelos), Dressel (ho Dresselios), Hilgenfeld (ho Hilgempheldos), Jacobson (ho Iakobsonios), Tischendorf (Konstan'tinos ho Tisendorphios), Thiersch (ho theirsios), Schroeckh (ho Sroikchios), Schwegler, (ho Souegleros), Schliemann (ho Slimannos), Reithmayr (ho Reithmauros), Uhlhorn (ho Oulchornios en te Real Encykl. von Herzog en lex. Clemens von ROM tom. B '. sel 721; p. xz '), etc. He complains, however, of " the higher" or " lofty criticism" (hupsele kritike) and the " episcophobia" (episkophobia) of certain Germans, and his own criticism is checked by his reverence for tradition, which leads him to accept the Second Epistle of Clement as genuine, contrary to the judgment of the best scholars.
[1197] The Constantinopolitan codex belongs to the library of the Convent of the Holy Sepulchre (tou Panagiou Taphou)in the Fanar or Phanar, the Greek district of Constantinople, whose inhabitants, the Fanariotes, were originally employed as secretaries and transcribers of documents. It is a small 8vo parchment of 120 leaves, dates from a.d. 1056, is clearly and carefully written in cursive characters, with accents, spiritus, punctuation (but without jota subscriptum), and contains in addition the second Epistle of Clement in full, the Greek Ep. of Barnabas, the larger Greek recension of the 12 Ignatian Epistles, the "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" (didache ton dodeka apostolon), and a work of Chrysostom (a Synopsis of the Old and New Testments). The value of this text consists chiefly in the new matter of the first Ep. (about one-tenth of the whole, from the close of ch. 57 to the end), and the remainder of the second. It presents nearly four hundred variations. The Constantinopolitan codex is preferred by Hilgenfeld, the Alexandrian by Lightfoot, Gebhardt and Harnack. The Didache is far more important, but was not published till 1883.
[1198] This MS. which escaped the attention of French scholars, is now in Cambridge. It was written in the year 1170, in the Convent of Mar Saliba, at Edessa. It contains, with the exception of the Apocalypse, the entire New Testament in the Harclean recension (616) of the Philoxenian version (508), and the two Epistles of Clement between the Catholic and Pauline Epistles (instead of at the close, as in the Alexandrian Cod.), as if they were equal in authority to the canonical books. Bishop Lightfoot (Appendix to S. Clemens p. 238) says, that this Syriac version is conscientious and faithful, but with a tendency to run into paraphrase, and that it follows the Alex. rather than the Constantinopolitan text, but presents also some independent readings.
[1199] See § 50, p. 157, and § 66, p. 226, 228.
[1200] Mentioned at the close in ch. 65 (which in the Alex. text is ch. 59). Claudius and Valerius may have been connected with the imperial household as freedmen (Comp. Phil. 4:22). Fortunatus has been identified by some with the one mentioned 1 Cor. 16:17, as a younger member of the household of Stephanas in Corinth.
[1201] By the author of the Catalogue of contents prefixed to the Alexandrian codex, generally called Cod. A: by Dionysius of Corinth, in his letter to Soter of Rome (Euseb. IV, 23); Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. I. 3, § 3); Clement of Alexandria, who often quotes from it; Origen (Comm. in Joan. VI. § 36 and other places); Eusebius )H. E. III. 16; IV. 23; V. 6); Jerome )De Virisillustr. c. 15). Polycarp already used it, as appears from the similarity of several passages. All modern critics (with the exception of Baur, Schwegler, Volkmar, and Cotterill) admit the Clementine origin, which is supported by the internal evidence of style and doctrine. Cotterill's Peregrinus Proteus (1879), which puts the Clementine Epistles in their present shape among the Stephanic fabrications, is an ingenious literary curiosity, but no serious argument. Renan says (p. 319): "Peu d' écrits sontaussi authentiques."
[1202] Dionysius of Corinth (A. D. 170) first mentions the liturgical use of the Epistle in his church. Eusebius (III. 16) testifies from his own knowledge that it was read in very many churches (en pleistais ekklesiais) both in former times and in his own day. Comp. Jerome, De Vir. ill. c. 15.
[1203] 1 Ch. 5. The terma tes duseos must be Spain, whither Paul intended to go, Rom. 15:24, 28. To a Roman writing in Rome, Spain or Britain was the Western terminus of the earth. Comp. Strabo II.c. 1, 4; III. 2. The hegoumenoi are the Roman magistrates; others refer the word specifically to Tigellinus and Nymphidius, the prefects of the praetorium in 67, or to Helium and Polycletus, who ruled in Rome during the absence of Nero in Greece in 67.