1 Clement part two

Continuing on from chapter 37- 55. The chapters in 1 Clement are very short, sometimes just a paragraph. They also seem rather arbitrary in their divisions.

*In this part there are references to Paul's former letter to the Corinthians. The author calls the church there "the ancient church of Corinth." He says the former letter was written at the beginning of the era of gospel preaching and concerned warring parties and factions, just as those happening at the writing of 1 Clement. It appears the church was not unified, even from the beginning. Phrases from 1 Corinthians are quoted in spots.

*The author gets more specific about the issues in Corinth, saying that long time respected leaders of that church had been removed from office. The author says this is not right and only the wicked would do such a thing. The perpetrators of the current strife are urged to confess they are wrong and even volunteer to leave, for the good of the church.

* The letter continues to tell snippets of paraphrased Old Testament stories and again makes multiple quotes, also mostly from the Old Testament. Again,  there are a couple of quotes claimed to be from scripture and not found in any existing copies of the scriptures. There is a reference to a quote from Jesus, found in Matthew and Luke, about those who are stumbling blocks needing to have millstones tied around thier necks. This is a not too subtle hint to troublemakers.

*Oddly, chapters 40 and 41 advocate following the law, appropriate times for temple offerings, and a place for priests/Levites in worship. If this is not metaphorical, it would mean the letter was written before the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70 CE. It would also show that Christianity was still tied to Judaism at that time. The footnotes in the text try to convince us this passage was just referring to an "ideal Jerusalem," but give no justification for that notion. If this letter is that early, Matthew and/or Luke may also have been written that early... Or specific Jesus quotes were going around by word of mouth and used regularly

*One thing that I have noticed, while reading this and looking up quoted scriptures, is how much of the New Testament is cribbed from the Old. Seriously, It's  as if someone took scissors and snipped out a variety of passages from the Old Testament, mixed them up, then made a story out of them.

To be continued.