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

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Zweiter Brief des Klemens an die Korinther (BKV)

14. Kap. Die Kirche bestand als geistige Kirche längst bevor sie im Fleische Christi sichtbar erschienen ist.

1. Wenn wir also, Brüder, den Willen Gottes, unseres Vaters, tun, werden wir angehören der ersten, der geistigen Kirche, die vor Sonne und Mond gestiftet ist; wenn wir aber den Willen des Herrn nicht tun, werden wir zu der gehören, von der die Schrift sagt: „Mein S. 303 Haus ist geworden zu einer Räuberhöhle“1. Deshalb wollen wir es vorziehen, der Kirche des Lebens anzugehören, auf dass wir gerettet werden. 2. Ich glaube, es ist euch wohlbekannt, dass die lebende Kirche der Leib Christi ist2; denn die Schrift sagt: „Gott schuf den Menschen als Männliches und Weibliches“3; das Männliche ist Christus, das Weibliche die Kirche. Auch die Bücher der Propheten und die Apostel (lehren), dass die Kirche nicht aus der jetzigen Zeit stamme, sondern aus früheren Zeiten; sie war nämlich geistig, wie auch unser Jesus; aber in den letzten Tagen ist er sichtbar erschienen, damit er uns erlöse. 3. Die Kirche aber, die geistig ist, ist in dem Fleische Christi erschienen, um uns kund zu tun, dass, wer sie von uns behütet im Fleische und sie nicht entehrt, sie bekommen wird im Heiligen Geiste; denn dieses Fleisch ist das Abbild des Geistes; keiner also wird das Urbild bekommen, der das Abbild entehrt hat. Demnach also, Brüder, hat dies den Sinn: behütet das Fleisch, damit ihr teilbekommet am Geiste. 4. Wenn wir aber sagen, das Fleisch sei die Kirche und der Geist Christus, so hat also die Kirche geschändet, wer das Fleisch geschändet hat. Ein solcher wird also nicht teilhaben am Geiste, der Christus ist. 5. Ein solch unsterbliches Leben kann dieses Fleisch bekommen, wenn der Heilige Geist mit ihm sich verbindet, und niemand kann es aussprechen und kundtun, was Gott seinen Auserwählten bereitet hat4.

  1. Jer 7:11; Mt 21:13. ↩

  2. Eph 1:22, 23. ↩

  3. Gen 1:27. ↩

  4. 1 Kor 2:9. ↩

Translation Hide
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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Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Loeb) Compare
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)
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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