1 Clement 43.2 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Moses settled the priesthood dispute with the twelve rods.

Greek text · Lake, LCL 24:80–82

ἐκεῖνος γάρ, ζήλου ἐμπεσόντος περὶ τῆς ἱερωσύνης καὶ στασιαζουσῶν τῶν φυλῶν, ὁποία αὐτῶν εἴη τῷ ἐνδόξῳ ὀνόματι κεκοσμημένη, ἐκέλευσεν τοὺς δώδεκα φυλάρχους προσενεγκεῖν αὐτῷ ῥάβδους ἐπιγεγραμμένας ἑκάστης φυλῆς κατʼ ὄνομα· καὶ λαβὼν αὐτὰς ἔδησεν καὶ ἐσφράγισεν τοῖς δακτυλίοις τῶν φυλάρχων, καὶ ἀπέθετο αὐτὰς εἰς τὴν σκηνὴν τοῦ μαρτυρίου ἐπὶ τὴν τράπεζαν τοῦ θεοῦ.

English · Claude translation

For when jealousy arose concerning the priesthood and the tribes were quarreling over which of them should be adorned with that glorious name, he commanded the twelve tribal chiefs to bring him rods inscribed with the name of each tribe. And taking them he bound them and sealed them with the rings of the tribal chiefs, and laid them up in the tent of witness on the table of God.

About this passage

Source

Lake, LCL 24:80–82 · 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.

Scripture

Num 17:2 · allusion, high confidence
Num 17:4 · allusion, medium confidence

Topics

Church office

Cite this passage

1 Clem. 43.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/1-clement/43/2/).

Plain text

1 Clem. 43.2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/1-clement/43/2/).