I finally finished reading chapter 55-to the end of the letter. There is not much more to tell. More Old Testament scriptures are quoted from Psalms, Proverbs, and Job. More Old Testament characters are invoked.
The Corinthians are told that as an example, throughout history many heathens have sacrificed themselves for others, kings and princes in battle, people who became slaves to pay other's debts, people who left their cities so that strife would be ended. Even godly women have performed "manly" dangerous heroic acts! Esther and Judth are given as examples. Judith's feat is found in the book of Judith. The book of Judith is now considered to be historical fiction, but apparently the author of this letter believed it to be actual history.
Lastly, the Corinthians are told that their sinners are being prayed for that they might submit to the will of god, which happens to coincide with the will of the author. Namely, that those causing the sedition should submit to the discipline and correction of the church authorities because god is good, therefore he corrects us. Who is god here?
The letter ends with an admonishment to send back the messengers with the good news that harmony has been restored.
What have I learned from this letter? Not much. There is very little original content, most of it is scriptural quotes or references to famous bible characters. It was very tedious and repetitive to read.
The message could be boiled down to: There are people there causing trouble and disregarding established authorities. It is bad for the church's image. Deal with it by expelling the trouble makers if you have to." Also, the author appears to believe extrabiblical legendary accounts of oracles, the phoenix, and the story of Judith.
There isn't much detail about the actual practices and beliefs of the early church, other than presbyters as authorities and a belief in resurrection because of Jesus. The Old Testament appears to have been revered to a degree that would be extraordinary in protestant churches today. There is no mention of Jesus's special birth or miracles he performed during his lifetime. We get glimpses of teachings attributed to him in the sermon on the mount. Peter, Paul, John, and (I think) James, are the only New Testament characters mentioned. I don't remember seeing any doctrine of hell or eternal punishment.
Showing posts with label Clement of Rome. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clement of Rome. Show all posts
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
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.
*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.
Saturday, July 1, 2017
1 Clement part one
I am about halfway through the letter to the Corinthians attributed to Clement and will share a few observations.
*Like many books of the bible, the letter does not mention Clement or say that he is the author. It says that it is from the church in Rome. I'm not sure how it has been established that Clement actually wrote this letter. It does not give a clear indication of the date of the writing but would have to have happened after the deaths of Peter and Paul, whom he mentions. Like the books of the bible, the original of the letter no longer exists.
*The letter is a rambling treatise that seems to have a general theme of "get right church." It does not go into detail about the nature of the issues the Corinthians are experiencing except to repeatedly use words like strife, sedition, and emulation. The word emulation has me puzzled. Is he talking about oneupmanship?
*Between the exhortations to shape up, the letter is a jumbled mash-up of paraphrased old testament stories and scriptural quotes, with no particular order or literary structure. There has been mention of Abraham, Moses, Cain and Abel, Noah, Lot, Joshua, Rahab, and David. Old Testament scriptural quotes have come from Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Job, and Jeremiah. These quotes are often worded slightly differently than how they occur in my NIV, which is not surprising. Also, a few quotes are pieced together from mutiple books, or don't actually exist in modern bibles.
*So far, very few quoted scriptures appear to come from the New Testament writings. Some that could also have parallels in the Old Testament. Others seem more clearly to have come from the books of 2 Peter, Hebrews, and James. (Unless those authors borrowed from this letter, which seems unlikely.) There is one passage quoting Jesus that appears to have come from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. There is also a quote from the apocryphal book of Wisdom of Solomon.
*There are repeated mentions of the resurrection of the christ and the hope of future resurrection for believers. Jesus is called the first fruit of resurrection. Of great interest to me was the legendary story of the phoenix (chapter xxv), told as if true and given as proof of God's power and ability to perform resurrections. Yes, really. The author assures us that nothing is impossible with god but to lie.
*We are given very few details of Jesus's life, or the lives of Paul and Peter, who are said to have worked hard for the church and were martyred. Jesus is said to have descended from Abraham, which is basically another way to say he was a Jew. So far, I've seen very little mention of the actual practices of the church in Rome or Corinth, other than the mention of "presbyters."
To be continued.
*Like many books of the bible, the letter does not mention Clement or say that he is the author. It says that it is from the church in Rome. I'm not sure how it has been established that Clement actually wrote this letter. It does not give a clear indication of the date of the writing but would have to have happened after the deaths of Peter and Paul, whom he mentions. Like the books of the bible, the original of the letter no longer exists.
*The letter is a rambling treatise that seems to have a general theme of "get right church." It does not go into detail about the nature of the issues the Corinthians are experiencing except to repeatedly use words like strife, sedition, and emulation. The word emulation has me puzzled. Is he talking about oneupmanship?
*Between the exhortations to shape up, the letter is a jumbled mash-up of paraphrased old testament stories and scriptural quotes, with no particular order or literary structure. There has been mention of Abraham, Moses, Cain and Abel, Noah, Lot, Joshua, Rahab, and David. Old Testament scriptural quotes have come from Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Job, and Jeremiah. These quotes are often worded slightly differently than how they occur in my NIV, which is not surprising. Also, a few quotes are pieced together from mutiple books, or don't actually exist in modern bibles.
*So far, very few quoted scriptures appear to come from the New Testament writings. Some that could also have parallels in the Old Testament. Others seem more clearly to have come from the books of 2 Peter, Hebrews, and James. (Unless those authors borrowed from this letter, which seems unlikely.) There is one passage quoting Jesus that appears to have come from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. There is also a quote from the apocryphal book of Wisdom of Solomon.
*There are repeated mentions of the resurrection of the christ and the hope of future resurrection for believers. Jesus is called the first fruit of resurrection. Of great interest to me was the legendary story of the phoenix (chapter xxv), told as if true and given as proof of God's power and ability to perform resurrections. Yes, really. The author assures us that nothing is impossible with god but to lie.
*We are given very few details of Jesus's life, or the lives of Paul and Peter, who are said to have worked hard for the church and were martyred. Jesus is said to have descended from Abraham, which is basically another way to say he was a Jew. So far, I've seen very little mention of the actual practices of the church in Rome or Corinth, other than the mention of "presbyters."
To be continued.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Clement of Rome
Today I started looking at the "apostolic father" called Clement of Rome. You can read about him here and here.
Clement is thought to have lived between 35 CE and 99 or 101 CE. He is recorded by ancient historians to have been the 1st, 2nd, Or 3rd Bishop of Rome, after Peter. In other words, nobody is sure which number bishop he was. He is assumed to have known the apostle Paul and maybe John. The Clement mentioned in Philippians 4:3 is thought by some to be this Clement, but there is no surety.
One epistle to Corinth, called 1 Clement, is attributed to him as the true author. Other writings deemed falsely ascribed to him are 2Clement or 2 epistles on virginity. (?)
Legend/tradition has Clement imprisoned under Emperor Trajan and executed by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the Black Sea. This was supposedly done because he had miraculously produced water for thirsty prisoners, causing them to convert to christianity.
Clement's letter to the Corinthians begins here.
Clement is thought to have lived between 35 CE and 99 or 101 CE. He is recorded by ancient historians to have been the 1st, 2nd, Or 3rd Bishop of Rome, after Peter. In other words, nobody is sure which number bishop he was. He is assumed to have known the apostle Paul and maybe John. The Clement mentioned in Philippians 4:3 is thought by some to be this Clement, but there is no surety.
One epistle to Corinth, called 1 Clement, is attributed to him as the true author. Other writings deemed falsely ascribed to him are 2Clement or 2 epistles on virginity. (?)
Legend/tradition has Clement imprisoned under Emperor Trajan and executed by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the Black Sea. This was supposedly done because he had miraculously produced water for thirsty prisoners, causing them to convert to christianity.
Clement's letter to the Corinthians begins here.
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