1 Clement 21.5

Clement of Rome · 1 Clement · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Rome · Read in context

Summary: Better to offend the proud than to offend God.

BothGreekEnglish

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:46

μᾶλλον ἀνθρώποις ἄφροσι καὶ ἀνοήτοις καὶ ἐπαιρομένοις καὶ ἐγκαυχωμένοις ἐν ἀλαζονείᾳ τοῦ λόγου αὐτῶν προσκόψωμεν ἢ τῷ θεῷ.

Let us rather give offense to foolish and senseless people who exalt themselves and boast in the arrogance of their speech, than to God.

Source: Lake, LCL 24:46 · Kirsopp Lake, ed. and trans., The Apostolic Fathers, vol. 1, LCL 24 (London: Heinemann; New York: Macmillan, 1912), 8–121 · Greek text: K. Lake, The Apostolic Fathers (LCL, 1912-1913), digitized by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text: As printed in Lake, LCL 24. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation: Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Lake (LCL 24, 1912); made independently of existing English translations.
Compare: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · That translation lacks 57.7–63.4 (a missing leaf in its manuscript); vol. 9 (1896) translates the complete text.
Topics: Church office

1 Clem. 21.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/1-clement/21/5/).

Plain text

1 Clem. 21.5 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/1-clement/21/5/).