early traditions which fixed upon him as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews[1], and of the Acts of the Apostles[2]. His traditional office.Subsequently he is charged with a twofold office: he appears as the mediator between the followers of St Paul and St Peter, and as the lawgiver of the Church. Thus his testimony becomes of singular value, as that of a man to whom the first Christian society assigned its organization and its catholicity.
The relation of the first Epistle to the Canonical Books,The first Greek Epistle alone can be confidently pronounced genuine[3]. The relation of this to our Canonical Books is full of interest. In its style, in its doctrine, and in its theory of Church government, it confirms the genuineness of disputed books of the New Testament[4].
(α) in style,The language of the Epistle of St Peter has been supposed to be inconsistent with the distinctive characteristics of the Apostle. Now, according to the most probable accounts, Clement was a follower of St Peter; and the tone of his Epistle agrees with that of his master in exhibiting the influence of St Paul. This influence extends to
- ↑ On the authority of Origen, ap. Euseb. H.E. vi. 25.
- ↑ Photius (quoted by Credner, Einleit. 271) mentions this tradition.
- ↑ Schwegler following some earlier writers has called in question
the genuineness of the letter without
any good ground (Nachap. Zeit. II.
125 sqq.). He has been answered
by Bunsen, Ritschl, and others. Cf.
Lechler, Apost. Zeit. 309 n.
Its integrity appears to be as unquestionable as its genuineness. Few critics of any school would endorse the statement: 'there can be no doubt that the Epistle is much interpolated.' (Supernat. Rel. i. 227.) At the close of c. 57 a lacuna occurs in the MS. 'One leaf, and one leaf only of the MS. has disappeared.' (Lightfoot, The Epistles of Clement, pp. 166, 23.)
The second Epistle is probably part of a homily, but this writing will be examined afterwards.
[The discovery of a second MS. of the complete text of the 'Epistles' at Constantinople, and of a Syriac version of them, now in the University Library at Cambridge, confirms the above statements. See Lightfoot, l. c., 1880; and his Apostolic Fathers, Pt. i. vol. i. pp. 116ff. (1890). An early Latin Version of the first, the genuine, Epistle of Clement, has also recently been found by Dom Germanus Morin, and published by him in Anecdota Maredsolana, vol. II. 1894.]
- ↑ The date of Clement's letter is disputed, for it depends on the order of his Episcopate. Hefele (p. xxxv.) places it at the close of the persecution of Nero (A.D. 68—70). The later date (circ. 95) seems more probable.
