Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Second Clement, one of the Apostolic Fathers in a nutshell, Written by Bart Ehrman, read by Ken Teutsch what does our earliest Christian sermon outside the New Testament look like?
[00:00:18] It is found in one of the Apostolic Fathers in a book called Second Clement, allegedly but not really, written by the early bishop of Rome, Clement, and historically associated with another book of the Apostolic Fathers, First Clement.
[00:00:33] The following is an edited version of the introduction to my translation of the text in the Apostolic Fathers, Volume 1.
[00:00:43] Second Clement is probably the most overlooked and least appreciated of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. This is somewhat to be regretted, as it is in some ways a historically significant work.
[00:00:56] As with First Clement, the book is misnamed even more so, as in addition to being written by a different author who cannot be identified as Clement of Rome, it is not even a letter.
[00:01:07] Readers have long recognized that the book appears in fact to be an early Christian homily, a written exposition of Scripture with an accompanying set of exhortations delivered to a congregation gathered for worship.
[00:01:21] The service of worship, whether a weekly meeting or a special baptismal service, evidently included the reading of scripture, an expositional homily based on the biblical text, and injunctions to moral behavior by the church presbyters. If this widely shared understanding of the work's genre is correct, then in two Clement we have the earliest instance of a Christian homily from outside the canon of the New Testament.
[00:01:49] Several are preserved in the book of Acts, for example 31226 and 2018 35. Some scholars think that the Book of Hebrews may have originated as a homily as well.
[00:02:02] Overview After a rather abrupt beginning, which may embody a high Christology, we must think about Jesus Christ as we think about God.
[00:02:14] The homily immediately sets the themes of its exposition. Members of the congregation are to react with awe, wonder, and gratitude for the act of salvation that God has mercifully wrought for them, former worshipers of pagan gods.
[00:02:30] The author then launches into an expository explanation of the scripture text, Isaiah 54:1, which he interprets not in reference to its own historical context but but as a word from God that speaks directly to the situation of the members of his congregation, mutatis mutandis. This explicitly Christian exegesis of the biblical text is comparable to modes of interpretation practiced by such Jewish interpreters as those who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls, in which ancient texts are taken to speak directly to the situation at hand and, of course, by earlier Christian authors such as Paul.
[00:03:10] The scriptural exegesis then sets the stage for the overarching points of the sermon. Followers of Christ should recognize the enormous debt they owe to God for the salvation he has wrought.
[00:03:23] In response, they should repent of their sins, recognize that their new lives cannot be closely tied to this sinful world in which they temporarily reside as aliens, and commit themselves to good works and self control in light of the judgment of God that is sure to come.
[00:03:40] In the course of making his sundry moral exhortations, the author has occasion to cite numerous sacred authorities, principally passages from the Old Testament in Greek and traditions of the sayings of Jesus.
[00:03:54] Some of these latter will be familiar to readers of the New Testament. You will be like sheep in the midst of wolves. 5 Two others are somewhat startling.
[00:04:05] Peter replied to him, and what if the wolves rip apart the sheep? Jesus said to Peter, after they are dead, the sheep should fear the wolves no longer.
[00:04:14] 53 and 4 in one place the author cites and then provides a careful interpretation of a saying of Jesus closely connected with words now known from the Gospel of Thomas.
[00:04:28] For when the Lord himself was asked by someone when his kingdom would come, he said, when the two are one, and the outside like the inside, and the male with the female is neither male nor female.
[00:04:41] 122 on the basis of a quotation of Clement of Alexandria, some have thought that the saying could also be found in the now lost Gospel of the Egyptians.
[00:04:56] Even though the author appears to be working in part from oral traditions about Jesus available to him rather than from a clearly delineated set of written gospels, it is evident that he also has some notion of collections of sacred authorities, as he at one point appeals to the authority of the Bible or the books and the apostles.
[00:05:19] The author also appears to allude to the writings of Paul, for example, in the image of the athlete in chapter seven and of the potter and clay in chapter eight, but does not cite any of his books explicitly. It appears, then, that the author is an early witness to the idea, vigorously stressed by later Proto Orthodox Christians, that the Old Testament and the words writings of the apostles, eventually the New Testament, represent the Bipartite sacred authority for Christian faith and practice.
[00:05:53] Author it is much to be regretted that the identity of this author is almost completely obscured by the ancient record. Eusebius mentions a belief held by some that Clement of Rome had written the book as a second letter. He almost certainly means our second Clement, but he rejects it as improbable, noting that this other book did not receive wide acceptance in the Christian churches in earlier times or in his own day.
[00:06:21] The book is never mentioned by any earlier author, including Hegesippus and Dionysius of Corinth, who do mention First Clement and is quoted later only by a few later Christians, sometimes to affirm its scriptural standing, sometimes to reject it. Our principal record of its existence, then, are the three surviving manuscripts that preserve it. All of them witnesses to First Clement as well two Greek and one Syriac.
[00:06:49] All three manuscripts connect the book to Clement of Rome in two of them. Evidently it is regarded as part of the Christian Scriptures on stylistic grounds, though it is quite clear that the same person did not pen both first and Second Clement. Moreover, Second Clement makes no concrete references to any persons or events that could establish its date or location.
[00:07:12] For various reasons, some scholars have suggested it was written in Alexandria, others in Corinth. Every theory about the author and his location is speculative. There simply is not enough evidence for a firm determination.
[00:07:29] The situation is unfortunately not much better when it comes to establishing the date of the book. Eusebius knows of its existence in the early 4th century, even though, in his judgment it was not written by Clement or widely used in the early Christian churches. Eusebius comments do at least show that the book was in some limited circulation by the end of the third.
[00:07:51] Scholars are virtually unanimous, though, in thinking that it must have been written much earlier, sometime during the second century, a judgment necessarily made on general considerations involving its theological outlook and presupposed historical situation.
[00:08:07] There is a clear movement toward the establishment of a set of Christian textual authorities here, for example, but no indication of a recognized canon. The words of Jesus are actually called Scripture, but are nonetheless drawn from oral traditions rather than written gospels. Some of the perspectives preserved in these traditions were later condemned as heretical, e.g. the Gnostic. Like quotations of chapter 12, moreover, there is reference to a group of presbyters, but not to a single bishop over them. Nor does the author himself assume this role, as he seems to differentiate himself from the presbyters.
[00:08:49] Finally, the author is concerned about theological issues, for example the relationship of Jesus and God and the proper understanding of the flesh and Spirit, both of Christ and of the Church, but does not address them in the nuanced terms more familiar from later theological discussions.
[00:09:06] While none of these data is compelling on its own, together they suggest that the homily was written sometime in the middle of the second century, say 120 to 70 CE, possibly somewhere toward the middle of that period.
[00:09:21] Historical Significance Second Clement would obviously be more historically significant if we could pinpoint its date and location, but a few general comments are possible given its probable mid 2nd century date the book is significant as the first surviving homily outside the New Testament canon. From it one can reconstruct at least one homilist's approach to the task, including his assumptions about the authority of the Greek Old Testament. Its very words are significant and speak to the present day and the traditions in circulation about Jesus.
[00:09:57] These, too, are authoritative, even when passed along in oral traditions from a range of sources, some of which would later have been branded heretical.
[00:10:07] There is, in other words, a kind of movement towards a Christian canon evidenced in this author, but nothing like a narrowly defined list of sacred and authoritative writings.
[00:10:18] The letter is significant as well for giving some hints about the nature of the worship services in its time and place.
[00:10:25] Scripture was read a written sermon was based on the text exhortations were delivered by the elders, presbyters of the church, to the congregation. The admonitions and ultimate concerns of this particular sermon are almost entirely ethical in nature. That is to say, while there is some theological reflection, especially about the nature of Christ and his church, it is ethically right behavior rather than closely nuanced theology that concerns the author and presumably his congregation, or at least its leaders.
[00:10:57] This author was principally concerned that, in light of God's gracious act of salvation, his community repent of their sins, live in ways that differentiated them from their pagan neighbors, with whom therefore they were presumably still in contact engage in good deeds such as prayer, fasting, and especially giving to charity and prepare for the judgment that was coming.
