Works Clement of Rome (35-99) Epistula altera ad Corinthios

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Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Loeb)

XIV.

1. Ὥστε, ἀδελφοί, ποιοῦντες τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν θεοῦ ἐσόμεθα ἐκ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς πρώτης, τῆς πνευματικῆς, τῆς πρὸ ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης ἐκτισμένης. ἐὰν δὲ μὴ ποιήσωμεν τὸ θέλημα κυρίου, ἐσόμεθα ἐκ τῆς γραφῆς τῆς λεγούσης· Ἐγενήθη ὁ οἶκός μου σπήλαιον λῃστῶν. ὥστε οὖν αἱρετισώμεθα ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ζωῆς εἶναι, ἵνα σωθῶμεν. 2. οὖκ οἴομαι δὲ ὑμᾶς ἀγνοεῖν, ὅτι ἐκκλησία ζῶσα σῶμά ἐστιν Χριστοῦ· λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφή· Ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ· τὸ ἄρσεν ἐστὶν ὁ Χριστός, τὸ θῆλυ ἡ ἐκκλησία· καὶ ἔτι τὰ βιβλία καὶ οἱ ἀπόστολοι τὴν ἐκκλησίαν οὐ νῦν εἶνι λέγουσιν ἀλλὰ ἄνωθεν. ἦν γὰρ πνευματική, ὡς καὶ ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἡμῶν, ἐφανερώθη δὲ ἐπ’ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμέρῶν, ἵνα ἡμᾶς σώσῃ. 3. ἡ ἐκκλησία δὲ πνευματικὴ οὖσα ἐφανερώθη ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ Χριστοῦ, δηλοῦσα ἡμῖν φθείρῃ, ἀπολήψεται αὐτὴν ἐν τῷ πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ· ἡ γὰρ σὰρξ αὕτη ἀντίτυπός ἐστιν τοῦ πνεύματος· οὐδεὶς οὖν τὸ ἀντίτυπον φθείρας τὸ αὐθεντικὸν μεταλήψεται. ἄρα οὖν τοῦτο λέγει, ἀδελφοί· τηρήσατε τὴν σάρκα, ἵνα τοῦ πνεύματος μεταλάβητε. 4. εἰ δὲ λέγομεν εἶναι τὴν σάρκα τὴν ἐκκλησίαν καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα Χριστόν, ἄρα οὖν ὁ ὑβρίσας τὴν σάρκα ὕβρισεν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν. ὁ τοιοῦτος οὖν οὐ μεταλήψεται τοῦ πνεύματος, ὁ ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός. 5. τοσαύτην δύναται ἡ σὰρξ αὕτη μεταλαβεῖν ζωὴν καὶ ἀφθαρίαν κολληθέντος αὐτῇ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου, οὐτε, ἐξειπεῖν τις δύναται οὔτε λαλῆσαι ἃ ἡτοίμασεν ὁ κύριος τοῖς ἐκλεκτοῖς αὐτοῦ.

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An ancient Homily, commonly styled the second epistle of Clement

Chap. xiv.--the living church is the body of christ.

Wherefore, 1 brethren, if we do the will of God our father, we shall be of the first Church, that is, spiritual, that hath been created before the sun and moon; 2 but if we do not the will of the Lord, we shall be of the scripture that saith, "My house was made a den of robbers." 3 So then let us choose to be of the Church of life, 4 that we may be saved. I do not, however, suppose ye are ignorant that the living Church is the body of Christ; 5 for the scripture saith, "God made man, male and female." 6 the male is Christ, the female is the Church. And the Books 7 and the Apostles plainly declare 8 that the Church is not of the present, but from the beginning. 9 For she was spiritual, as our Jesus also was, but was manifested in the last days that He 10 might save us. Now the Church, being spiritual, was manifested in the flesh of Christ, thus signifying to us that, if any of us keep 11 her in the flesh and do not corrupt her, he shall receive her again 12 in the Holy Spirit: for this flesh is the copy of the spirit. No one then who corrupts the copy, shall partake of the original. 13 This then is what He meaneth, "Keep the flesh, 14 that ye may partake of the spirit." But if we say that the flesh is the church and the spirit Christ, 15 then he that hath shamefully used the flesh hath shamefully used the Church. Such a one then shall not partake of the spirit, which is Christ. Such life and incorruption this flesh 16 can partake of, when the Holy Spirit is joined to it. No one can utter or speak "what the lord hath prepared" for his elect. 17

  1. oste, as at the beginning of chs. vii., x. ↩

  2. Comp. Ps. lxxii. (LXX. lxxi.) 5, 17. ↩

  3. Jer. vii. 11. Comp. Matt. xii. 13; Mark xi. 17; Luke xix. 46. ↩

  4. Harnack says, "The Jewish synagogue is the church of death." Lightfoot, more correctly, accepts a contrast "between mere external membership in the visible body and spiritual communion in the celestial counterpart." ↩

  5. Comp. Eph. i. 23 and many similar passages. ↩

  6. Gen. i. 27; comp. Eph. v. 31-33. ↩

  7. The reference is here is probably to the Old-Testament "books," while the term "Apostles" may mean the New Testament in whole or part. The more direct reference probably is to Genesis and Ephesians. ↩

  8. Lightfoot inserts in brackets legousin, delon, rendering as above. Hilgenfield suggests phasin oidate, "Ye know that the books, etc., say that." Byrennios joins this sentence to the preceding, taking the whole as dependent on agnoein. Ropes renders accordingly, making a parenthesis from "for the Scripture" to "the Church." In any case a verb of saying must be supplied, as in the Syriac. ↩

  9. anothen has a local and a temporal sense; the latter is obviously preferable here. ↩

  10. "Jesus" is the subject of the latter part of the sentence. ↩

  11. "Keep her pure;" comp. chap. viii. Lightfoot renders terein, "guard," here and elsewhere. ↩

  12. The verb corresponds with that rendered "partake" in what follows. ↩

  13. "Copy," antitupos, antitupon. Comp. Heb. ix. 24; 1 Pet. iii. 21. Our use of "antitype" is different. The antithesis here is authentikon, the original, or archetype. This mystical interpretation has a Platonic basis. ↩

  14. Comp. the close of chap. viii. ↩

  15. Lightfoot calls attention to the confusion of metaphors; but there is also evidence of that false exegesis which made "flesh" and "spirit" equivalent to "body" and "soul,"--an error which always leads to further mistakes. ↩

  16. Here the word "flesh" is used in an ambiguous sense. ↩

  17. 1 Cor. ii. 9. ↩

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Editions of this Work
Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Loeb)
Translations of this Work
An ancient Homily, commonly styled the second epistle of Clement
The Second Epistle of Clement Compare
Zweiter Brief des Klemens an die Korinther (BKV) Compare
Commentaries for this Work
Einleitung zum sogenannten zweite Brief des Klemens an die Korinther
Introductory Notice - The Epistles of Clement
Introductory Notice to the Homily Known as the Second Epistle of Clement

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