{"id":17555,"date":"2026-07-12T06:18:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/?page_id=17555"},"modified":"2026-07-18T03:04:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T09:04:53","slug":"2-clement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/the-bible\/apocrypha\/2-clement\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Clement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">7\/12\/2026 &#8211; Below is a summary of a post by Bart Ehrman on his blog site <a href=\"https:\/\/ehrmanblog.org\/2-clement-one-of-the-apostolic-fathers-in-a-nutshell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. A PDF titled <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">2 Clement.pdf<\/span> of the article is in his Directory in Dropbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Ehrman on 2 Clement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bart Ehrman&#8217;s piece (adapted from his Loeb <em>Apostolic Fathers<\/em> introduction) surveys <strong>2 Clement<\/strong>, which he argues is the earliest surviving Christian sermon outside the New Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What it is (and isn&#8217;t)<\/strong> \u2013 Despite the traditional attribution to Clement of Rome, the text is neither by Clement nor actually a letter \u2014 scholars widely recognize<strong> it as an early Christian homily: scripture reading, expository preaching, and moral exhortation delivered in a worship setting<\/strong> (drawing support from internal references at 2.1, 17.3, and 19.1). Ehrman notes parallel homiletic material embedded in Acts (3:12\u201326; 20:18\u201335) and possibly Hebrews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Content and structure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Opens with a possible high-Christology statement (Jesus and God should be regarded equivalently, 1.1)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Expounds Isaiah 54:1 not historically but as addressed directly to the author&#8217;s congregation \u2014 a technique Ehrman compares to Qumran-style <em>pesher<\/em> exegesis and to Paul&#8217;s own use of scripture<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Moves into exhortation: gratitude for salvation, repentance, detachment from worldly life, good works, and readiness for judgment<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cites Jesus-sayings both familiar (the &#8220;sheep among wolves&#8221; saying) and unusual <\/strong>(an extended Peter-Jesus exchange in 5.3\u20134), plus a saying paralleling <em>Gospel of Thomas<\/em> 22 on transcending male\/female duality (12.2)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alludes to Pauline material (the athlete image in ch. 7 cf. 1 Cor 9:24\u201327; potter\/clay in ch. 8 cf. Rom 9:19\u201324) without naming Paul directly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Appeals to &#8220;the Bible and the apostles&#8221; (14:2) as dual authorities \u2014 an early witness to the emerging OT\/apostolic-writings framework that would eventually become the two-testament canon<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Authorship<\/strong> \u2013  Unknown and essentially unrecoverable. Eusebius (<em>Eccl. Hist.<\/em> 3.37) already doubted Clementine authorship and noted the work&#8217;s limited circulation. Stylistic differences from 1 Clement rule out common authorship. Proposed locations (Alexandria, Corinth) remain speculative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Date<\/strong> \u2013 No firm external anchors exist. Ehrman&#8217;s case for a mid-second-century date (roughly 120\u2013170 CE) rests on cumulative internal evidence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Movement toward a canon of authorities, but no fixed one<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Jesus&#8217;s words called &#8220;Scripture&#8221; while still transmitted orally rather than from written Gospels<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A saying later branded gnostic\/heretical (ch. 12) still cited approvingly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Governance by a college of presbyters rather than a monarchical bishop, with the author distinguishing himself from that presbyteral group (17.3)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Christological reflection present but pre-dating the more technical, nuanced formulations of later controversies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Significance<\/strong> \u2013 Ehrman frames 2 Clement&#8217;s value less in its theology (which is fairly undeveloped) than in what it reveals about: (1) an early, pre-canonical stage of authority-formation combining LXX and Jesus-tradition; (2) the shape of a mid-second-century worship service (reading, homily, presbyteral exhortation); and <strong>(3) a community whose overriding concern is ethical \u2014 repentance, charitable giving, fasting, and moral separation from pagan neighbors \u2014 rather than doctrinal precision.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>7\/12\/2026 &#8211; Below is a summary of a post by Bart Ehrman on his blog site here. A PDF titled 2 Clement.pdf of the article is in his Directory in Dropbox. Ehrman on 2 Clement Bart Ehrman&#8217;s piece (adapted from his Loeb Apostolic Fathers introduction) surveys 2 Clement, which he argues is the earliest surviving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":4880,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[131,106,187],"tags":[138,94],"class_list":["post-17555","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-biblescholarship","category-biblerelated","category-historical","tag-apocrypha","tag-bible-devl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17555"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17559,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/17555\/revisions\/17559"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theway.davisinterests.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}