02 — The First Epistle
The documentary heart of the collection: the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians (1 Clement, c. 96), the earliest Christian writing of certain date outside the New Testament. These files set out the letter’s occasion — a faction at Corinth had risen up and deposed its lawfully appointed presbyters, and the Roman church wrote to call the congregation back to order and concord — and then examine its teaching on church order and the apostolic succession of the ministry (chs. 40–44), together with the both-sides debate over what that teaching implies.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostolic Father)
1 Clement is the one securely authentic work of Clement, and it is a document of the first rank: a long, carefully composed letter sent from the Roman church to the Corinthian, occasioned by a fresh outbreak of the same quarrelsomeness Paul had rebuked forty years earlier. Younger men had risen against the presbyters and deposed them; the Roman church, hearing of it, wrote to urge repentance, humility, and the restoration of those unjustly removed. In the course of the argument the letter offers the earliest extended post-apostolic statement of how the Christian ministry is ordered and why its tenure may not be lightly overturned — material that has stood at the center of debates over apostolic succession ever since. This section presents the letter and its occasion, then the teaching on order and the ministry and the genuinely contested question of what it does and does not establish.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Letter to the Corinthians | 1 Clement c. 96 — the occasion (the Corinthian stasis, the deposed presbyters), the structure and rhetoric of the letter, its authorship and date, and its standing as the earliest post-NT Christian document of certain date. |
| Order and the Ministry | The teaching of 1 Clement 40–44 on church order, the appointed ministry, and the succession from the apostles; and the both-sides debate (§4) over whether it teaches a developed apostolic succession and a Roman right to intervene, or a fraternal appeal grounded in a presbyteral order. |
See Also
- The Third Bishop of Rome — the episcopate question on which the order-and-ministry reading turns
- Concord and Humility — the theological themes the letter deploys to heal the schism
- The Primacy Debate — the wider scholarly debate over what the letter implies about Rome
- Church Governance — the episcopate and presbyterate in Orthodox order
- Holy Orders — the apostolic succession of the ministry
References
- Clement of Rome. First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Clement). In Holmes, Michael W., The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.
- Ehrman, Bart D. The Apostolic Fathers, Vol. 1. Loeb Classical Library 24. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003.
- Lindemann, Andreas. Die Clemensbriefe. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1992.
- Lona, Horacio E. Der erste Clemensbrief. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998.
- Welborn, L. L. “On the Date of First Clement.” Biblical Research 29 (1984): 35–54.