Byblos

Chapter 14

About this work

An early Christian sermon urging repentance, moral endurance, care for the weak, and faithful response to Christ, often described as the earliest surviving Christian homily outside the New Testament.

Author: Anonymous
Traditional attribution: Clement of Rome
Date: c. AD 120–140
Origin: Corinth (often proposed)
Genre: Homily

Traditionally associated with Clement of Rome, but generally not regarded as his work.

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

Wherefore, brethren, if we do the will of

Opening the library…

Notes

ὤστε, as at the beginning of chs. vii., x.

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

100

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

101

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.”

102

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

103

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

104

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.

105

Lightfoot inserts in brackets λέγουσιν, δῆλον, rendering as above. Hilgenfield suggests φασὶν οἴδατε, “Ye know that the books, etc., say that.” Byrennios joins this sentence to the preceding, taking the whole as dependent on ἀγνοεῖν. 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.

106

ἄνωθεν has a local and a temporal sense; the latter is obviously preferable here.

107

“Jesus” is the subject of the latter part of the sentence.

108

“Keep her pure;” comp. chap. viii. Lightfoot renders τηρεῖν, “guard,” here and elsewhere.

109

The verb corresponds with that rendered “partake” in what follows.

110

“Copy,” ἀντίτυπος, ἀντίτυπον. Comp. Heb. ix. 24; 1 Pet. iii. 21. Our use of “antitype” is different. The antithesis here is αὐθεντικόν, the original, or archetype. This mystical interpretation has a Platonic basis.

111

Comp. the close of chap. viii.

112

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.

113

Here the word “flesh” is used in an ambiguous sense.

114

1 Cor. ii. 9.